"Babe, I didn't invent these roads, I only mastered them."

Last night after we posted our blog, we went to the MOST AMAZING PARK EVER! The city of Invercargill is not much to speak about, but my-oh-my their Queen's Park totally redeems it. It puts Point Defianceto shame. The park was established in the 1800's and it is beautiful. Plus, the slides/swing area was awesome! AND Josiah was able to chase lots of fat ducks who weren't very fast, so he could get pretty close. It was a great time and we are so glad we ventured out to explore the park.



Thursday, we continued our trip south and entered the Catlins region. In New Zealand they call the "middle of nowhere" the "whop-whops" and let me tell you we are in the whop-whops of the whop-whops. It is a mix of rolling seaside hills filled with grazing sheep and cows and dense rainforest roads.

You may be wondering about this post's title. The roads here were getting very curvy and as the passenger in the Olsen car your primary responsibility is to entertain and feed the cute little man in the back seat... Josiah. And he doesn't have much of an attention span so he is ready for a new activity every 15 minutes. He also has the metabolism of a knat so he is hungry every other 15 minutes. Needless to say, I spend much of my time facing the back, digging through our things to find his choo-choo book or little person that he dropped or handing him crackers with hummus (his new fav snack). Don't get me wrong, most of the time I would be totally fine with this, but when you have Mario Andretti behind the wheel, on the opposite side of the road, your tummy can get a bit unsettled. Today when I kindly asked Peter to try to not hug the corners so much, he told me, (in the most loving way) "Babe, I did not invent these roads, I just mastered them."


Anyway, we enjoyed the fresh air and let my stomach settle down by walking out to the most southern point in NZ, Slope Point. We had to walk though a sheep pasture to get there. It was a mine field of sheep poop, but I'm happy to report I am NOT afraid of sheep like I am cows. Josiah yelled hi to them the whole time and even tried to run after one to feed it some grass. The view was splendid and if we never go to Antarctica, we have officially been as far south in the world as we ever will be. A very cool fact to think about.


We also stopped at the Cathedral Caves. We had timed it just right when the tide was at it's lowest, so we not only got to walk through the two caves known as the cathedral, we also walked around one point and into another and had the privilege to see blue penguins in the wild with their fairly young chicks! It was incredible! However, we did not stay long to look at them because the floor and walls of the cave was crawling with these jumping bugs, millions of them. Peter described it best that it felt like the scene from Indiana Jones when he has to crawl through rats. It makes my skin crawl again just thinking about it.

Tonight we are staying in a tiny holiday park in McLean Falls (not on a map), and after Fox Glacier we weren't sure our room could get any smaller, but this one is tiny. The gal who checked us in called the cabin like Mary Poppins bag... Much more fits in it than you think. But, it is cozy and clean, so we are happy.

Tomorrow we will finish exploring the Catlins area and then head north (for the first time in 2.5 weeks) toward Dunedin.




























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Tantrums, Tunnels and Fjords

We have been away from home for two weeks and after chatting with our parents and some great emails and notes on Facebook, I will admit I am a little homesick. It is such a juxtaposition, here we are in one of the most beautiful places in the world, seeing amazing and breath taking sites, and we are missing our friends and family at home. But I guess this is why vacations have to end and why home really is where your heart is. It sounds cheesy, but it really is true. We are so thankful for our friends and families and treasure them being so close to us.

Anyway, we have been enjoying southland of the south island over the last couple days. We have been staying in Te Anau the last few days and have really enjoyed being in the same place for a few days.

We did attempt to explore Queenstown before we headed down to Te Anau. However, Josiah had different plans. He was not in the best of moods and was exercising a new found independence which included our very first feet-stomping, head-back, screaming-at-the-top-of-your-lungs temper tantrum. Well, at least we made a memory. It was a fun city with a very mountain feeling, like Vail or Tahoe.






Te Anau is a much smaller town placed on the side of a lake with the same name. Across from the city and all around us are huge mountains. There is of course a great swing set and slide here.... Josiah did a great face plant on one of the slides... But with out blood or any bruises, just a face full of dirt.

We also drove to the Fjordlands National Park to the famous Milford Sound. The drive itself was beautiful. Through golden fields surrounded by incredibly tall snow capped mountains. Then through winding roads that followed crystal blue rivers. Near the end we went through a Homer Tunnel. This tunnel is famous for the hundreds of people who died building it in the 1930's as well as the feat of engineering it was for its day. It is a one way tunnel and it goes straight though a mountain. It was a very funny sensation because the tunnel goes downhill! Weird.






As we arrived to Milford Sound, our greeting committee was 1,000 sand flies. The Fjordland NP is known for the number of sandflies and they were out with abundance. After we donated blood, took a walk toward the point in the harbor. The beauty was amazing and I'm sure the pictures do not do it justice.

Today we continued our drive south with a little more flexibility in our schedule. We were able to enjoy the best playground yet in NZ and enjoy a little beach time in Riverton. We will enjoy the Catlin's coast for the next couple days.






















































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Fox Glacier, Mt Aspiring, Queenstown

Friday- We woke up to grey skies and drizzles as expected. We ate a great breakfast from the hostel kitchen of eggs and pancakes. I should tell you the pancake mix was from a plastic milk like bottle. It came from the baking aisle and all you had to do was add water to the powder, shake it really well and then pour the batter into the pan, so yummy and easy. Plus, they do not refrigerate their eggs, they are also found in the baking aisle- good to know for when we go camping next time.



We then drove from Hokitika to Hokitika Gorge and swinging bridge. It was a quick hike along a forest trail and Josiah was excited to hear all the birds and touch all the ferns. The landscape looks very much like the Washington coast, including the vegetation. As we arrived to the swinging bridge, we quickly realized that Josiah did not inherit Molly's fear of heights as he was jumping on the bridge. It was very safe, but still made me so nervous. It makes me realize that the older your kids get, the more you need to pray for their safety as they begin to explore the world more and more independently. Yikes! Anyway, below the bridge, there was an amazingly beautiful grey-blue glacial river. It was a bit of a bummer the sun wasn't out because the color would have been even more vibrant.

After the bridge we drove to Franz Joseph Glacier. The most amazing part of this glacier is that it moves one meter a day and it is one of the only places in the world where a glacier flows down into tropical rainforest. The size was amazing and to realize how much it moves each day was mind boggling. For Josiah this was just another rock throwing and stick collecting adventure.



We were planning on driving to the next glacier, Fox Glacier and camping on the beach, but the weather did not cooperate and by late afternoon, dark rain clouds were looming. We found a place to stay, and we will admit the deciding factor was the great play area they had there, including swings and a slide. Peter did get a chance to venture out to lake Matheson which is famous for its amazing reflections, however, the clouds were too thick. He also enjoyed the sunset with all his closest sand flea friends on the west coast. Peter and I are seriously feeling the itchiness of the sand flies on the west coast of the southern island... our ankles look like they have a bad case of the chicken pox. We had been warned they were bad down here, but they are eating us alive!

Saturday-Again we woke to pouring down rain, but with the weather man's promise of sun in the later afternoon, we drove onto Wanaka. On our way there we encountered the most amazing landscapes of Haast Pass. The colors and grandiose height of the mountains was awesome! Pictures do not do it justice and we wish we could have stopped at every viewpoint and waterfall, but we were hoping to make it to Wanaka in time to hike up to a mountain hut for the night. Thankfully, we did make it to get a place in the hut. The gal who gave us the permit told us the drive would take an hour and the hike only two. We figured she was under estimating our drive time because it was only 52K... Well, she was right, after 6 fording of rivers and a dirt road for over half of the ride, we arrived in just about and hour. The drive itself was amazing up the Mount Aspiring National Park valley through sheep, cow and deer fields (yes, they do farm deer here- odd too see). After quickly packing our things, we were off. What was only supposed to be 2 hours up a flat valley, took us 2.5 hours and felt much longer than expected. But, half of all experiences in life is the actually getting-there-part right? We had many river crossings and walked through multiple herds of cattle, which come to find out is not my favorite. I do like cows when they are behind a fence, but when in the middle of a group of 8, I am a bit unnerved. Josiah loved the hike and he sang the entire way, either ABC's or Drummer Boy (which he calls PUM). He also greeted every living thing we passed (human or cow) with a sweet "Hi!" We were so proud of his great little attitude.



After arriving to the hut, which was supposed to only have 16 other people in it, but had probably 30, we settled in. Josiah proceeded to blowout his PJ's that we had planned on him sleeping in. It was disgusting to say the least and I ended up getting some on my fleece and so smelled it the rest of the night as well. With all of the people there, bunk space was hard to come by so we ended up sleeping on some beds out in the main room. It was different sleeping all together and we realized how much Josiah moves in his sleep. We were woken up about 6:30 by hikers getting an early start.



One advantage to waking up so early was that we were able to hike out early and enjoy watching the sun rise over the mountains and the clouds burn off of the newly snow dusted hills. Peter was also able to capture the early morning light and fog with some photos which was a treat. Josiah was able to catch up on some missed sleep on the hike out as well. It was very brisk and cool in the morning and with one less layer due to the blow-out Josiah was pretty chilly. Still, he impressed us with his happy-go-lucky nature embracing all around him and encouraging us as we hiked. We are so blessed!



For the afternoon we drove to Queenstown and laid low. Peter and Josiah are both feeling a bit under the weather and we are all wiped out from our little sleep over in the woods. It was a great adventure and we are glad we had the opportunity to see the amazing beauty of Mount Aspiring, what some call the Eiger of New Zealand. We look forward to exploring more of Queenstown tomorrow and then heading south to Te Anu for a few nights.


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Sticks and stones

We woke up to another sunny day. Our plan was to head west to the coast and then take our time driving south for the next few days to explore the west side. With such amazing weather we didn't make it far before josiah was asking for a swing. We stopped in a town that we can't quite remember the name, much less spell it.... But it started with an M with quite a few A's and U's in it. It is funny to be in a place where they speak English but we still can't pronounce most cities. Anyway, we did find a playground and met a great family from outside Christchurch. After having lunch with them, they were kind enough to offer us a place to stay when we fly out of Chch in a couple weeks. What a blessing!



Our next stop was the Pancake Rocks and blowhole park (once again I can not remember or spell the name of the town- started with a P though). There was a 20 minute walk to see all the sights and even without a nap Josiah ran the entire way... He did do a good job of resting when he needed it.


Tonight, we are staying in the town of Hokitika (the only reason I can remember this is because i have been trying to say it all day... And still can't). We enjoyed walking through town and collecting rocks from the beach, Josiah filled up all of his pockets and gave each one a kiss. He chased all the birds off the beach umpteen times, screaming at them to pet them. He even tried to feed them some of his hamburger... Funny kid.




Today was another great day filled with lots of fun and family memories. But all good things must come to an end and you can seen this happen in our last picture as Josiah is done with the day (a day without a nap).

Tomorrow we have a short drive to Franz Joseph and Fox glaciers. The weather is not expected to be good, so we will see what the day brings.



























The Olsen's <><