New Zealand South Island Nov 30 to Jan 11 -Part 3

Friday, December 18, 2009. Time crunch is on to get the the Cadbury Factory in Dunedin in time for the last tour of the week! (They do shortened tours on the weekend but we wanted the whole tour!)
Down the east coast from Christchurch we stopped briefly to admire some more of New Zealand's interesting rock formations. This time spherical boulders on the beach at Moeraki. We had lunch at the cafe in the car park there (that is NZ for parking lot) and don't recommend it to anyone. We've had a lot of great food in NZ but it wasn't there.

We weren't allowed pictures on the tour of the Dunedin Cadbury Factory tour but we did get SAMPLES! Yum. We were pretty interested in the chocolate making process....we've been following (a bit) the guy from the UK who bought a cocao farm in Venezuela and is trying to make the best chocolate in the world. His name is Willy - Willy's Wonky Chocolate Factory?

Cadbury does really well here and have different names for products...like Buttons (like Smarties) and Sarah's favorite bar is the Moro - just like a Mars bar. She now proudly wears her men's XL t-shirt to bed!












Sarah's new favorite hobby. Knitting. She has bought some New Zealand wool for a couple of projects. One is already started!

This is definitely the place to buy wool. I've gotten so used to seeing the sheep out in the rainy, green country-side that I feel like hugging them all!

Dunedin was a nice town to visit. A touristy, university, young people town. Lot's of Scottish heritage visible. The statue is Robbie Burns.

Otago Museum was great (we are now in Otago region which by the way is a big wine region). The museum favorite was Discovery World with lots and lots of butterflies! I missed this due to quick last minute Christmas shopping.....some things don't change!

Then, off to Stewart Island for Christmas. We had a nice time on Stewart Island and relaxed quite a bit since we got tired of hiking in the rain. We opted not to pay someone to take us walking at night to try and see kiwi birds but we know they were out there!

I'm going to apologize for less writing as we go...still catching up and there's so much to say! We will have lots to share when we get home.

This is Matthew half way to Stewart Island on the ferryboat....it was a rough sea day! I've decided to go easy on Rob and not show the picture of him. I thought he looked green but looking back at the picture notice he just has no color!

The kids did lot's of schoolwork since we had a nice table to work on!

And played of course!






And we did some Christmassy type things too!

Matthew's favorite bird to bug...the Oystercatcher.

We had four Kaka birds (parrots that look like the Kea) visit our back door almost everyday for peanuts until we ran out....then they knocked but we stopped answering. Then, they just went after shoes.

Matthew and Rob went fishing! We ate the fish for supper. Yum. Blue cod.

We went on hikes on roads and trails, through forests and beachs. Very remote place full of birds and trees.

After Stewart Island we drove as far southwest on the south island we could. We wish we'd spent more time looking for gemstones on Gemstone Beach where the sea brings in all types of stones.

Then, into Fiordland National Park and to Milford Sound. Beautiful place and big mountains!







Milford Sound.

We drove through Homer Tunnel. This was very cool. Straight through the mountain! Lot's of Kea's (parrots) looking for food but you are not allowed to feed them.

We panned for gold in Arrowtown. We didn't know we'd find some so weren't equipped with a little bottle of water where you are supposed to keep your findings so they reside on the end of my chapstick....hope I don't forget or I'll have glittery lips!

This is Arrow River...exciting place where people drive in the water, mountain bike, or horseback it to another ghost town upstream. Lot's of serious gold panners as well! The gold rush here in 1862 was one of the biggest. Cool place but so touristy everything cost at least twice as the other places we've been!

http://www.arrowtown.org.nz/history/

Matthew was very interested in bungy jumping.

We ended up going back a second time to Kawarau Bridge - the original bungy jumping bridge by the inventors of bungy! Yup, he jumped!

Off to Mount Cooke/Aoraki. We hike to Hooker Glacier and - wow - nice Alpine area. We visited the Sir Edmund Hilary Center and learned about his expedition up Mount Everest. Super cool. He was one of the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest. He also travelled to the south pole! Quite an adventurer.

Mount Cooke was stunning!

Here is the glacier we hiked to...a minute later an iceberg floated past the point on the rocks where the two people are standing.

Well...sorry for lack of more stories but we leave New Zealand soon. We feel like we have seen a lot of the country and may even be using a little local lingo. No worries, we'll be even more confused after the next couple of stops!

Next chapter is Sydney and Brisbane, Australia.

Cheers for now!