mwuahahaha

Now I get to post! (heehee) Kia ora from Caiti! :) (btw, "kia ora" means "hello" in Maori - the native people of New Zealand)

Picking up from where Chris left off yesterday...

Bronwyn spoiled us by fixing pancakes, bacon, and a fruit salad for breakfast. Then, we took a three hour ferry ride: across the harbor, through the Cook strait (where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific meet briefly), and then on to the South Island. We drove through some lovely countryside as we made our way down the west coast. The scenery is a lot more rugged here. You can look out one side of the car and see the ocean, and the out the other side and see cliffs and mountains densely covered with bush. Pretty cool. Anyway, I digress.

We spent last night in Punakaiki, which is known for the Pancake Rocks in Paparoa National Park. These rocks are actually layer upon layer of limestone, but they look like huge towers of pancakes. After seeing the Pancake Rocks, we drove down to Franz Josef, a little town whose main reason for existence is the tourists coming to see one of the two coastal glaciers here, Franz Josef Glacier and the Fox Glacier. We left some of our stuff in FJ village and proceeded to Fox Glacier. We had a great hike up to the glacier; we even spent about an hour actually out on the ice. It was pretty cool! Chris, Mom, and I sampled the water on the glacier - it was really really cold. But, it tasted really good. :)

So here I sit, stiff and sore from climbing and falling. I'm going to try and post some pictures, but if they don't work, well...I'll get Chris to try and figure it out tomorrow.

Over and out -

the gimp