Routeburn Track

The Routeburn Track is one of the great hikes of New Zealand. It is part of Fiordland National Park and is in the vicinity of the Milford Track and Kepler Track. We took 3 days to complete the track. It was great!

Meet "Reo" our 87' Mits. Pajero that we got back in December.

Our little home for the month next to "Reo"

The start of the Routeburn Track

Natalie and Maegen after a good up hill climb

Awesome waterfall on the Trail

We ran out of fuel for our campstove along the way. We decided our only chance of survival was to build an "illegal" camp fire. Mind you this is an area that rains 186 days a year. Johnny's face really shows the frustration of the situation. We did manage to get a fire going! We were very safe about it, and even somehow seemed to impress the Ranger when he came to "evict" us. It was actually no big drama. He ended up inviting us for tea. Well, sort of....

View from our campsite

Doubtful Sound and Lake Manapouri

As we headed west from the Catlins we stopped in Manapouri. It was from here that we set off on our two day kayaking adventure through Doubtful Sound and then back through Manapouri Lake. Doubtful Sound was beautiful and wild. On the way back the boat dropped us and our kayaks off on a remote island and we camped there for the night. The next morning we packed our gear and kayaked 15 miles back to the dock. All in all we had kayaked 35+ miles over the two days. Needless to say we were sick of kayaking.

Doubtful Sound

Doubtful Sound

Our campfire on an Island in Lake Manapouri

Cooking for 4 people is always fun on this little wolly

Heading back to mainland the next morning on Lake Manapouri

Goodbye Dunedin, hello SUNSHINE!

Nugget Point

Rocks off of Nugget Point

Bobby trying to find a good rock to fish off, turned out this spot was to be to wet for him!
We hiked all around these incredible rock formations on Purakanui Beach. Bobby and Johnny collected some mussels for Bobby to use as bait. Glen loaned him a fishing rod, which is what he did a lot of...fishing not catching. It was too bad, really. We had fun, though.

We had a little visitor

Well, Dunedin was fun. But it is time to say goodbye. We will really miss our friends we made there, and our great jobs, but we are excited to continue our exploration of the rest of the South Island. The four of us planned a 2 week excursion starting in the Catlins heading southwest towards Doubtful Sound and then north to Arrowtown where we will say goodbye. Johnny and Maegan will continue north, and we will...well we are not yet sure. But we planned all kinds of adventures until then.

Looking Back...Moraki Boulders

Over the last few months, we have taken a few side trips from our home in Dunedin. One of which was to the Moraki Boulders. It was a spontaneous little day excursion, and was well worth the drive. The spherical boulders are just randomly scattered in a small area on a beach. Some even have fossils. They are so quirky! We loved it.

6 Parachutes and a partridge in a pear tree

Admit it, ever since you were a kid you have wanted to fly, well kiwi's decided to take this childhood dream and make it possible. Imagine running as fast as you can and all the sudden your weightless and flying high above the mountains...well thats paragliding. All of us were gung ho except for my mom, but with my boyish charm and being here favorite;) she soon changed her mind. So all six of us jumped off a cliff and paraglided around Queenstown for about 30 min. it was so incredible. Thanks mom for being so brave and making this event even more rememorable. Cheers

Last few encouraging words before take off

Our take off platform

Jenny was really excited!!!

Natalie concentrating hard on what here pilot was saying to her... his english wasn't to good.

All smiles at the bottom...Thankfully

more videos are coming soon!

Christmas in NZ

Finally....Family
All of us on top of Lanarch Castle

We just had and amazing Christmas here in NZ. Mom, Dad, Jenny and Troy came to visit us for ten days. It was so special to finally see family and get show them how amazing this country is. We spent the first couple days here in Dunedin and then went to Queenstown for two days, then moved on to Te Anau and spent three days there, and finally we drove through the Catlins and made are way back to Dunedin. In Dunedin we went to Lanarch Castle (the Only Castle in NZ) and went to Tunnel beach. We got to go Paragliding in Queenstown, It was awesome!! The best part was that we all did it together. It was so cool to see 6 parachutes all in the air at the same time. We then did the Mountain luge later that day. It was a special day packed full of extreme sports. Then we made are way to Te Anau which is just outside of Milford Sound. Milford Sound is kinda the "Face" of New Zealand, when you see pictures of NZ they were probably taken at Milford Sound. We took a boat through Milford Sound and it was incredible...Breathtaking really!!! Pictures do not capture how beautiful and huge this place was. On our way back we stopped in the Catlins at the petrified forest and were blessed to see 4 yellow-eyed penguins come out of the water and walk to their nest. Awesome little dudes! We then rented another surf board and borrowed some body boards from my mate Glen and spent the next day at the beach. We all had so much fun and were exhausted....but not enough to keep us from playin a few card games before we went to bed. We played cards every night and that was definently a highlight. It was very hard to see them leave, but we are so thankful they were able to come see us and see New Zealand. Thanks Mom, Dad, Jenny, and yes you to Troy, for making the trip, we love y'all very much! Cheers

Lanarch Castle (NZ's Only castle)

My sweet mom and I are standing in front of Tunnel Beach

Natalie and Jenny tried to out run this wave and Natalie tripped....need I say more

32 years of marriage and going strong.

Mom and dad taken a break at Tunnel Beach

Natalie and Mom in Queenstown

These mountains are called "The Remarkables"....not really sure why ;)

That huge boat gives you and idea of how big they are.

Spearfishing off Sandlfy Beach

Unfortunately I do not have any photos of my most recent outing with my mate Glen, but i think the story is well worth reading. On Saturday the 29th of November, I went for a surf at Boulder Beach with Glen. We caught a few waves and had fun, but the waves weren't that good. On our hike back the car Glen asked me if I wanted to go spearfishing and collect some some Paua (awesome NZ Shellfish). I agreed of course. So we hiked to Sandfly Beach and on our way we noticed that there were heaps of seals and sea lions (Sea Lions are much bigger). As we cautiously approach our destination which was off this rocky point we notice that there are nearly a hundred seals around us...oh and a couple of Penguins, can't forget those little dudes. It was cool to see so much wildlife, but at the same time it got me a little nervous about going into the water. When we get to our destination these baby seals started to jump into the water and were zooming out of there. I later realized that they were swimming for there lives, because out of nowhere this huge sea lion is chasing one of the baby seals and eventually catches and eats it. I know sad...but its nature. As I'm watching these two Giant Sea lions devour this baby seal I'm thinking "I don't think I'll be getting into the water, not only are there sea lions and seals all over the place, but now there are bits and pieces of a seal attracting the "S" word." Glen and I never say the "S" word, i don't know why, but we just don't. Glen then say's "Don't worry mate "THEY" don't come in this shallow." After witnessing all this Glen says, "All right mate I'll go first and make sure the coast if clear." Glen gets all his gear on and climbs down this kelp and jumps in like a champ. He is in the water for a few minutes when a Giant Sea lion comes over to check him out. As Glen uses the butt of his spear gun to push the sea lion away the sea lion eventually loses interest and goes away. After another five minutes Glen says, "Coast is clear mate." I'm thinking, that's great have fun then, cause I'm not moving." Before I know it I'm climbing down this slimy kelp and in the frigid water. The water was clear and it was only 10ft deep so made me feel better, and I didn't have any visitors come and check me out. So i strap on the knife and glen motions me to start looking for Paua. As I dive down I catch a glimpse of this huge black thing out the corner of my eye, and before i know it this huge seal stops and looks me straight in the face. I FREAKED OUT, I made an underwater gargled scream and hit the surface. Glen heard me and came to my aid. This huge seal was kept nugging my fins and kept wanting to play with me, It sounds cool but it was very intense. Glen used the butt of the spear gun to push it away and the seal started rubbing up against it, kinda like a backscracher. The seal then moves to Glen legs and blew bubbles against them(it looked like a kiss). Then the seal left. After it left Glen said, "Ahh she was a sweet girl" i agreed but still prefered her gone. We explored some more area and Glen spotted a Butterfish and with amazing accuracy spear it from about 15 ft away. He handed me the spear gun and dove down 20ft to retrieve it as he was ascending our "friend" came back to see what glen was doing. This time I was using the butt of the spear gun and keeping her away from Glen. She eventually left as the knots in my stomach didn't. Glen ties the dead fish to this long rope which has a buoy attached to it. We then preceded to deeper water to explore more area. After about 30 min Glen and I agreed to go back. Glen gets back to the Kelp and started climbing out when all the sudden this Giant Sea lion explodes out of the water a few feet from me and lands on glen leg with its huge jaws opened wide and Growling at Glen about a foot away from his face. Glen yells "Bobby" (I had the spear gun at that moment) but that was all I heard, I was tangled in the kelp trying to do get nearer to help. When out of nowhere this big black Seal swoops inches from my face and I see it bite the back fin of the giant sea lion. Immediately the Sea lion leaps off of Glen and onto the big seal, I throw myself onto the jagged rocks trying to get all the gear and myself out of the battle zone. Glen and I get to our feet and look at each other wide-eyed and speechless. The Giant Sea Lion and the Seal continued their bloody battle in the water until finally the huge Seal gets away with what looked like a few wounds. As we later started replaying all the events we realize that the seal that was playing with us earlier was the exact same size and had the same marks as the one that saved Glen. This an unforgettable experience and I am thankful that Glen takes me with him to do all these crazy adventures. Cheers Glen