Milford sound

The fiordland region is truly one of the most amazing places I have ever been to. Words can not do it justice.  The presence of the ominous mountains carved out by fiord's from the tasman sea is just incredible.  I felt very insignificant..

Rob roy track, mt. Aspiring national park

Queenstown. Crown range

Christchurch region/lincoln University..

G'day all,

Here I am just outside christchurch.  Having a nice time, staying with a friend at Lincoln University.  It has been interesting seeing what New Zealand "uni" life is like.  Not all that different from what I experienced in the states.  Some of the accomodations seem to be a bit nicer, potentially because there are less students to house..
For instance each student has there own room (nice wood work) and a space heater.  Every student flat has a kitchen that comes with pans and other cookware, washer and clothes line.  And the best part is the community orchard where you can graze! I got to collect apples, hazelnuts, and walnuts for free.. How wonderful! And they offer lots in their community organic garden so that students can grow personal veggies.

I also attended some classes.  The three classes I attended were agricultural subjects covering soil degredation, dairy farming yeilds and the current [world] market, and also organic gardening (a nice lecture on green manure being an alternative for your garden over synthesized fertilizers).

On saturday a few friends and I drove down to arthur's pass for a day of bouldering at Castle Hill.  Spectatular scenery, even found a cave about 10km from where we were.   

Walk out from waikoropupu springs

Waikoropupu springs.

Australasia's largest fresh water cold spring.. i've never seen fresh water that blue or clear.  Located in the golden bay region (takaka).

allergic to the south island!

Oh dear.. It seems as though NZ has very strong pollen.  At the stonefly lodge I woke up after my second day feeling very ill.  I ended up leaving early because I was feeling so sick.  But it was also a good excuse because I wasn't having a very good time at this particular wwoof experience.  The lodge was very nice and the view was breathtaking, however the hosts were not of the "wwoof standard" that I have boasted about previously..  They were very caught up in there business and would host wwoofers for exploitation of cheap labor.  I am writing my own rule book as I learn lessons about where look for hosts.   The cool part about my timing was that a discovery channel crew was at the lodge filming for a tourism show to be aired sometime in 2012.  I captured some footage of their helicopter landing on site in at the lodge.

After three days I caught a ride with this guy I was working with at the lodge (building a stone wall) and headed back to nelson.  This is when I realized I had the hay fever.. which actually is not as bad as a flu or virus.  But regardless it felt good to leave that slave yard.  Ah to be free again..

Back on the road heading to Takaka which is located on the west coast in the Golden Bay region.  The West coast is known for its scenery.  

cheers,
N