The south of the South Island of New Zealand is cold. Really cold. I am so thankful for my Raven -7 sleeping bag from MEC. Even though it is losing down quite fast, it still keeps my nice and warm. Marit is not so lucky. I think her temperature rating on her sleeping bag is +14. That's unfortunate considering it comes close to freezing over night and we sleep in tents. Last night Marit thought that she would be warmer if she snuggled up right next to me. And she was right. She was warmer. But I could literally feel her sucking the warmth out of the areas of my sleeping bag that she was touching. But on the bright side, we won't be heading any farther south. We are on our way back towards the North, and the warmth.
I think that it was on Tuesday that we left Queenstown. We picked up my shoes from the bungy jumping place and set off on the next leg of our adventure. We drove Southward-ish to Te Anau, stopped in for some information on camping, and headed West toward the Milford Sound. The Milford Sound is a Fiord. There are a bunch of Fiords on the south western coast of the south Island in NZ. I think that Milford is the only one that you can get to via roads with cars. I think there are hikes and canoe trips and such that you can do to see other Fiords, though. Anyways, we headed for the closest campsite to Milford, which was about 1 hour away from Milford. It was a pretty nice camp ground, considering it was one of the DOC sites.
The Department of Conservation (DOC) sets up little camp sites all over the place, and it costs only $6 per person, but it is not much of a campsite. Some of them have outhouses, but that is all. So this camp site was much like the others. It was on a beautiful clear mountain lake with rocky shores. We pitched our tent in the trees, and as the sun went down, it got COLD. We ate some supper and were sitting on the beach chilling (literally), when a guy walked by and said "Hey, come 'Yoin' us" and gestured towards a place where some other guys were sitting. I was intrigued by his accent, so I went over and asked where they were from. They were from Sweden. Cool! I haven't met anyone from Sweden here yet, mostly just Germans, so this was a nice change.
I sat in one of their lawn chairs (which was awesome since we always sit on the ground), and some of the Swedish guys lit a somewhat pitiful fire. But it was better than nothing. It even gave off a bit of heat once in a while, along with all of the smoke. I literally cried from all of the smoke. They had Swedish names. One guy was named Linus, when he introduced himself, though, I thought he said Lioness. Awkward. Then there was and Eric and and Isaac and Eimel or something like that. I couldn't really understand.
But the most embarrassing thing ever happened. Elisa and I had the bright idea to go star tipping. The stars were so beautiful that night, so it seemed like a fun idea. The only problem was that we were on a beach beside a freezing cold body of water. I volunteered to go first. Star tipping involves choosing a star to focus on, and spinning until you are dizzy, and then someone holds a flashlight and you try to run towards it. Generally this results in something hilarious. So I started to spin a good distance from the lake, just to be sure. Marit was the flashlight holder and insisted that I keep spinning for a ridiculously long time, until suddenly I see one of the Swedish guys jump in front of me and try to grab me. And then my feet were in the water and I was too dizzy to stop spinning so I pulled/pushed him into the water. We did an awkward little dance in the shallow water and then I landed on my but on the shore. It was SO EMBARRASSING. He was trying to save me like a gentleman and I got him all wet. Oh My. I wanted to stick my head in the sand. But instead I just laughed at myself.
Then Marit went and after she spun for a bit, I flashed the light at her and she just froze and tipped over to the side and landed on a rock. Bahahaha. And she was too embarrassed to come back to the Swedish guys, so I had to awkwardly make conversation. I was still mortaphied about getting that guy wet (he was the cutest one too). But I managed to get them to teach me a sentence in Swedish. I learned: Hej mitt namn as Steph. That is my name is steph. Swedish is pretty sweet. Anyways, eventually Marit and I made it back to the tent, and I just laughed and laughed for probably 30 minutes at the ridiculous star spinning fiasco. Oh man. So funny.
In the morning we got up nice and early and drove to Milford sound. It was a really pretty drive, through lots of mountains covered in rainforest. Then I took a ferry ride around the sound, no one else would go with me because they were too cheap. Their loss. I saw baby seals. It was so beautiful too.
Then we headed back down the road towards Te Anau, and on further towards Invercargill. And we found a really cheap (free) campsite. But the downside was that it was about 20 minutes drive off of the highway on a gravel road. But Marit had fun drifting around the corners. I think she really misses snow. The campground had minimal amenities. There was an outhouse, but no toilet paper. That is literally all that was there. It was basically a random field in the middle of nowhere. But the grass was nice and cushy so we had a good sleep.
Then we continued on our journey through Invercargill and on to Porpoise cove. Porpoise cove was so beautiful. The campground was literally right on the beach. And it was only $6.50 per person. A steal of a deal. And in the water, dolphins come and swim with you. So we got to see dolphins! But I didn't go in the water. It was SO COLD there, and SO WINDY.
And after a night there, we continued on our road trip. And we went to see the petrified forest that was just down the road from the camp site. It is basically just a bunch of rocks, but some of them have imprints from logs and such. Apparently, millions of years ago there was a big forest there and then a mudslide came and buried the forest, and now it is fossilized. Pretty neat. But the neatest part was that penguins live on the rocks there. And we got to see one! Awe yeah! But I actually felt really bad for the poor penguin. Because people go there every day and get their big cameras out and take pictures of the penguins. And that is the penguins' home. I would be so annoyed if people came to my house every day and started pointing and taking pictures.
And then we also stopped at Nugget point along our journey. It is a beautiful little peninsula (maybe?) with a light house and a bunch of nuggety rocks out in the water. So beautiful. And there were seals basking on the rocks way down below where we were standing. So much wildlife. New Zealand is perfect for animals like seals, dolphins and penguins to nest and have babies because there are no predators on NZ at all, so the babies can be safe!
And finally after Nugget point we made it to Dunedin, which is one of the bigger cities in New Zealand. It is so beautiful here. So many old buildings from the 1800's. I thought that Queenstown was my favorite place so far, but I think that Dunedin wins now. I would totally live here, except its kinda cold... says the Canadian... hahaha.
This morning we went to the Tunnel beach which is just outside of Dunedin. There is a steady downhill walk towards this beach, and near the bottom you have to walk through a tunnel to get onto the beach. It is so beautiful! We hung out there and took lotsa pictures! The beauty in New Zealand continues to blow me away every place we go! And this afternoon we are going to take Ol' Sunny for a drive on the steepest street in the world! Hopefully the poor little crap-mobile will make it...
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