Muffy Toe

Hi everyone.

I hate the idea of showing pictures of New Zealand, because it's kind of like the Grand Canyon- pictures just don't cut it. But I'll put a few here to give you an idea. I haven't gotten to week 1 pictures yet, so all of these are from week 2, in no good order.



Day's Bay. I took a ferry from Wellington to this little town on the other side of the cove. This is the Day's Bay dock and beach.






This house in Day's Bay looks onto the beach and reminds me of the movie "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang." I love it! Oh, and by the way, it's for sale ;)






Wellington harbour. Wellington is built on a hill/mountain in a little cove. The harbour stretches along the bottom of the town; the west is very industrial, but this is the east side where all the sailboats live, I guess. Wellingotn is an artsy city with lots of good shopping. I went to way too may coffee shops, went to the theater, rode a train to the top of Wellington and walked all the way down through the Botanical Gardens.




I visisted New Zealand's national museum, Te Papa. It is probably the largest museum I've ever been in. I think you could literally spend a week in there and still not see everything. I visited the Lord of the Rings exhibit which was awesome. As cheesy as it sounds, the movies have really become such a source of NZ pride and culture- you can really sense that. Everywhere I went in the South Island and Wellington, I heard about locals who participated in the film. Cameras weren't allowed in the exhibit, so I took my notebook so I'd remember all the fascinating things.





We drove through snow on the way from Queenstown to Christchurch! New Zealand has so many extremes.






Milford Sound really is beautiful. It was rainy and freezing all the way there, but when we got there the sun came out and the sky was so blue. The cruise was gorgeous, calm and peaceful. We saw some seals sunbathing on a rock. Can you see the rainbow in the waterfall's mist?










A quick hike on the way to Milford Sound- it was rainy and freezing! The mountains in the National Park were huge. The road through the park to Milford Sound is one of the top 10 most dangerous roads in the world because of all the avelanches. The park has a full time crew who identifies potential avelanches, drops dynamite on them from helicopters, and clears the road.



These don't look familiar to me, but maybe they do to some of you nerds. Apparently this is the mountain range that was shot in the opening scene of the second Lord of the Rings film.






Me and Lake Tekapo (where the Church of the Good Shepherd and Mt Cook are located). While we were eating lunch here, we ran into Kristen (my flatmate) and her big sister, who were randomly treking through the South island. Neither of us knew the other would be here...it was completely random!








Wiew from the tiny Church of the Good Shepherd.






We stopped on the way to Queenstown to watch some bungy jumping. It was really neat and the longer I watched, the more I wanted to do it. This is the first bridge where bungy jumping was commercialized. If you don't like the looks of the bungy jumping, just look at the beautiful river and cliffs instead.








Wow, there's so much more; this seems so pathetic and incomplete. Honestly, y'all will just have to go to New Zealand. More photos of week one to come, perhaps.

Amy, I promise I'll get your story up soon! =)

Bailey- Thank you for the cap and the notebook! I showed them to my flatmates as soon as they came. These care packages are so fun to get in the mail! Have you convinced your parents to let you come visit me yet? ;)

Hi Gran-O and Granddaddy. Can't wait to sit on your couch and show you all my photos. I know you would just love the scenery in New Zealand.

Faith- Good to hear from you! It is getting cooler here, but I am LOVING autumn- perfect weather and brilliant colored leaves. I didn't realize how much I miss autumn; I need more than the 3 weeks we get in H-town.

I've got to run. I've been up since 4am. Today was "Star Day", Starlight's biggest national annual fundraiser. I worked in Martin Place (in downtown Sydney) from 5am to 3:30pm, with the media and then just volunteering with all my co-workers. I actually ended up running a booth with Starlight's CEO. haha. It was a good day, but I'm super tired. Now I'm off to have dinner at the Hannas -Yay for being in a home and having a lovely meal.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

Cheers,
Mich