mike & rhonda's latest adventure: What a Party!

You won't believe what they did over here for my 60^th birthday. People were out on the streets last night, there were fireworks, and everyone was in a party mood. I never knew that I had so many Asian friends but I must have impressed them during our trip over there last winter. The only thing that bothered me a little was that I overheard several people talking about the year of the snake....I thought I had treated people fairly over the years but I suppose that is something I need to work on. Anyway, I tried to thank people for coming out to my party but most of them looked bewildered.....I suspect they might have had one drink too many. It was a night I will always remember.

Back when I was in my 50's, we had a stopover in Queenstown. The downtown and lakefront were easy to walk around, and we had lunch by the waterfront watching all the action. Adrenaline junkies were heading out in jetboats and parasailors filled the skies. When we stopped in a park later, paragliders were landing in the open spaces following their descent from Bob's Peak where the cable car provided easy access to a downtown jump. Others headed out of the city for canyon swings and bungy jumps.

The following day we drove over to Te Anau for a couple of cruises. We had heard so many positive remarks on the remote Doubtful Sound that we booked an overnight cruise and were glad we did. It was an adventure to get out there....a 45 minute catamaran trip across Lake Manapouri, then a 45 minute bus ride over the rugged Wilmot Pass to arrive in Deep Cove where we boarded our 70 person cruise ship for our journey through Doubtful Sound. It was a magical trip in Fiordland....less than a handful of other boats and breathtaking views all along the narrow 30 km “sound” (incorrectly named by the Brits of the 1800's who were not familiar with fiords), which went out to the Tasman Sea. Along the way we saw bottlenose dolphins, albatross and a fur seal colony, all surrounded by steep mountains and waterfalls. In the late afternoon Rhonda went kayaking while I continued taking pictures. The next morning we stopped into a secluded cove (Hall Arm) and experienced 5 minutes of perfect silence with outstanding views, birds chirping and no other noise. It was special.

We spent two nights in Te Anau, the anchor spot for many great hikes and the Sound cruises. Unable to reserve a spot on the Milford Track (which I initially tried to do 6 months ago on this popular 4 day trail) we settled for a 2 hour cruise of Milford Sound (another fiord), several short hikes along the scenic route between Te Anau and Milford, including a 3 hour hike (the start of the Routeburn Track) that provided great views of 3 large valleys once we reached the top of Key Summit. The cruise itself was wonderful. The cloudy start provided a mystical view that soon gave way to blue skies uncovering the tops of the steep fiord walls. Our small boat took us metres away from the shore walls to view another fur seal colony and get sprayed by a 150 metre waterfall. The Fiordland area receives between 5-7 METRES of rain every year over 200 very wet days so were fortunate to experience only several hours of mist over our 3 days in the area and blue skies most of the time.....good fortune continues to favour us.

Today we drove to the south end of the island where we will spend two nights in The Catlins, known for it's rainforests and sealife. We went to Slope Point (the closest NZ shore to Antartica) and nearby Curio Bay which has a 160 million year old petrified forests and yellow-eyed penguins which we watched for an hour on the shore. Hector's dolphins are busy playing in Porpoise Bay which we have been watching from our balcony.