Backing up a few weeks...we borrowed a car from one of our host family's friends the last weekend in February and drove up to the Fiordlands with a few other people from our group. We did a lot of driving and cool hikes with beautiful hikes but the primary reason for the trip was to see Milford Sound. We took a cruise through the sound that lasted about 2 1/2 hours and really got to see the fiord and the waterfalls pouring into it. We also lucked out because a pod of dolphins came up to our cruise ship and started jumping out of the water. The weather was beautiful and our cruise guide told us that they were experiencing a drought because it hadn't rained in 6 hours. The average annual rainfall of Milford Sound is 276 inches a year.

Kepler Track

March 11 to 13 was the Kepler track. Sixteen of the thirty five students signed up for the 60 kilometer hike. We hiked up hill the first day of the hike and stayed at a hut at an elevation of about 1200 meters. Near the hut was the summit of mount Luxmore and the Luxmore caves. After arriving at the hut we headed off to the caves to explore...they were so cool. You could never go caves like this in the States without a guide, but they were just open for exploration. There were beautiful stalactites and stalagmites, and we were able to explore any of the side shoots and caverns of the caves. Some of the passages were in the cave were so small that we had to crawl and some members of our group couldn't fit. Darren and I continued pretty deep into the cave for over an hour until we saw the sign in the picture below which reads "To prevent degradation of this fragile passage please remove overalls and wash boots before entering."After our caving adventure we returned to the hut for the evening and saw the most beautiful night sky we've ever seen. The stars were so bright and there were so many of them. We could have stayed out there all night if it wasn't for the freezing temperatures. In fact the next morning it snowed for the first couple hours of our hike. We hiked to mountain summits and along the saddle with the views looking down in the South Fiord. The views were spectacular.
After descending again to non-freezing elevations we camped in our tents near this waterfall. The third day of the hike was the longest - about 24 kilometers, but it was mostly flat land through forests.

Tramping in Fangorn Forest

Tramping is the New Zealand term for hiking and we've done a lot of tramping on this trip. This beautiful panoramic shot was taken after bush wacking our way for three hours up the side of a mountain. Looking down from above the tree line we could see North and South Mavora Lakes and the river that connects the two. We camped down along the river and practiced more of our white water kayaking skills. I was able to master some of the skills I'd been working on, including S turns, and I only flipped once during the two days of kayaking. Darren flipped several times, but he was attempting harder skills such as backwards S turns. It rained a lot over the three days we were there, but it was green and beautiful and we were very grateful for our rain pants and gortex hiking boots that kept us nice and dry. If you don't recognize the scenery, Darren could point out to you the place where Gandolf calls the white stallion and where Merry and Pippin escaped from the Orks into Fangorn Forest in Lord of the Rings (You can see it more clearly in the photo below - it's in those fields to the left of the lake.)

Surf Class

Last week and this week we've had surfing class (tough life right?) Darren had served quite a bit before so he couldn't wait to get in the waves and just play all day. My one previous surfing experience wasn't too successful, but the beach we surf at here has some good learning waves so I was able to get the hang of it pretty quickly and had some good rides my first day. Sadly I never had the camera out when Darren was out in the bigger waves and he was with me whenever I was out there, but we did film a little bit on the smaller waves closer to shore. We're sad that our surfing classes are over, but we look forward to surfing back home in California or Oregon...gotta live by the coast.

Bungy Videos

So you'll notice in the videos that Darren and I both chose to be dipped in the water. Before I jumped the guy strapping me into my bungy made a big deal about using proper dive technique and tucking my chin so that my face would get bruised from the impact of the water. Not being a natural or frequent diver, the dive was all I was concentrating on during my entire jump so please ignore the inital jump and the ridiculous dive position that I hold in the entire video even after I'm out of the water. At least I jumped - next time I'll worry about how I look on film :)

Queenstown

We had the most amazing day in Queenstown on Saturday. We started the morning off with a hike to a look out above the city and the lakes. While we were at the top, we asked a couple from Australia to take our picture. We talked to them for a bit and they asked if we planned to go up the gondola to another look out point. We said we'd like to and they gave us two extra tickets they had for the gondola. We thanked them and later realized that the gondola tickets also included a buffet dinner at the restaurant at the top of the gondola. Talk about generosity. After our hike we headed out to the bridge shown in the picture above to go bungy jumping. This is the place where bungy jumping began.





















Darren and I both chose to be dipped in the water from our heads up to our waists. It was so awesome! Darren jumped first so that I could film him and then I jumped. I wasn't nervous until I stepped up the edge of the bridge with my feet tied together. I didn't think much about jumping - I was too focused on keep my chin tucked and arms extended for the dive into the water but it was such a rush.




















After our jumps we ran down to the pier in town to meet up with some of our friends for jet boating. Through a connection with our host family we were able to jet boat for the price of a child's ticket (half the price of an adult ticket). The wind was pretty strong so the lake had white caps and about 4 foot swells. Our jet boat caught some wicked air and since my feet didn't touch the floor of the boat, I caught some air too. Our driver was awesome and threw a bunch of 360s with the boat and whipped us around all over the lake and the rivers. It was pretty much like being on an hour long roller coaster on water. Darren was on the edge and got soaked from his head to his knees so we sat out on the beach to let him dry off a bit afterwards. We hit up a couple souvenir shops before heading up the gondola and having dinner. The buffet was pretty good but the view was amazing. Darren took this panoramic shot with his camera.

Kayaking Adventures

Our first skill that we have learned for our New Zealand Adventure course is kayaking. Like any water sport, Darren took to it immediately. Water is his element and he always excels at anything in the water. Kayaking was no different and after only four days of kayaking he not only looked like a natural pro but he was teaching and rescue the other students on our trip. I've posted a couple of videos of him playing in some rapids. He flips on purpose in the video to show off his eskimo roll (being able to flip his kayak by himself). I enjoyed the kayaking trip and only flipped my kayak three times on the river (the same as Darren), but I had to be flipped by someone else or wet exit because I can't hold my breath under water for long enough to practice the eskimo roll, but I want to try on our next kayaking trip.