Milford Sound (It is really a fiord....misnamed!)

Milford Sound pictures

New Zealand fern in hike to the Chasm

Shot off the front of the Milford Wanderer

One of many waterfalls we saw on our cruise

New Zealand fur seal

New Zealand Fur Seals basking in the sun

Beautiful scenery today!

Mirror Lakes

A little Japanese dude took our pic at Mirror Lakes!

Sheep Jam in New Zealand

Sheep Jam on the way to Te Anau

Farmer Grant and Blackie get the sheep under control! You can barely see the dog at the front of the car there--just his hiney!!!

Look at all those sheep butts!!!

Clickety click on the pavement go the hooves!

The most photogenic of the herd

More from New Zealand--just photos--too tired to blog!

Me and my new friend--the possum!

Mt. Cook in the background---credit goes to Chris for this one!

1 of 14 million sheep in New Zealand....I have a few more to go!

More Mt. Cook snappies

Lake Tekapo

More Lake Tekapo

Lupine

New Zealand is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just a few pictures to show you how beautiful New Zealand is---or at least the little that we have seen of it so far!!! We flew into Auckland on Friday and stayed at a B & B close to the airport---had a lovely dinner at a local Greek restaurant where a couple chatted us up--of course!! I found out their life history as usual!!! We are finding the New Zealand folks to be even friendlier than the Aussies!


Got up early and got a taxi to the airport on Saturday---got through the easiest check in and security that I have ever experienced and got on the plane headed to Christchurch. Got the rental car, navigation unit and headed out!!! Spent our first night in Lake Tekapo---a BEAUTIFUL little town of 200 in a delightful B & B named
THe Creel House with the owners Grant and Rosemary Brown. Lovely couple and lovely home--we have a third floor room with a balcony overlooking the town and mountains. The lake is a beautiful blue color from the "Rock Flour" as the glaciers in the headwaters of Tekapo grind the rock into dust and when it gets to the lake it is suspended in the water and with the sunlight it shows this beautiful blue color. (Taken straight from the Lake Tekapo fact sheet). Had a lovely meal in town last night and today Chris is fly fishing with Grant for about 5 hours---his dream come true. Only wish Dad could be here too but he will make memories to share!

I am going to take it easy, walk into town and maybe find a few small gifts to buy---had my eye on a couple yesterday. Nothing big as my suitcases are pretty maxed out as it is and I don't want to add any more!!! 2 and a backpack is plenty! I feel like I have my life in 2 suitcases at this point! But that is fine!

Will post more pictures and stories later!!!

On the Way!

Bye Bye!!! See you in 3 months!!!!

Some Characters!

Our awesome "wrapping" crew (wrap all the furniture for international moves) and some guy I picked up on the Strand on a Sea Turtle......no wait---it is my awesome husband!!!!

Getting Ready for the Big Trip!

Butterfly day at Saunders Beach

More Rainforest Pictures

More beach pictures!

We are getting ready for our big trip to New Zealand. Chris has it all planned out and since this is the trip that he has always wanted to make (his entire life, I think!) it will be filled with a lot of great sights and activities no doubt! I am excited and have let him do all the details. We are staying at Bed and Breakfast places which will allow us to get some of the local flavor hopefully and a more intimate feel. One of the places we had booked at was called Cat Whiskers but they had to cancel out on us because of health issues, I guess, which made me sad because it looked and sounded like just my kind of place!!! Hopefully the health issues will work themselves out.

So our life goes on---exciting and adventurous and full!!! We are so blessed. I thank God everyday for all that we have been able to do and see here and am so grateful. God is good all the time! And all the time God is good!!!

Mossman Gorge, Red Bellied Black Snakes and More....

Peppers Resort in Port Douglas --our home for 3 nights

Mossman Gorge

Red Bellied Black Snake

Jungle Perch

Today our adventure was to go to Mossman Gorge and the Daintree Rainforest! After a leisurely morning we headed out to go to this wonderful area to explore a bit. The gorge is beautiful and it was a great place to spend a few hours hiking around enjoying the sights! We saw some great things including some jungle perch that looked as if they were used to being fed because they were just hanging around where the path led----waiting.....

I think my favorite thing in Australia is the rainforest. We have been to several while we have been here and each one has its own unique characteristics and charm. This rainforest is the oldest one --estimated at 135 million years old---and is a great place to see butterflies and birds. We took a path and as I was "frolicking" along the path leading the way I happened upon this lovely red bellied black snake sunning himself on the path! I quickly turned around, looked at Chris, said "SNAKE" and went the opposite direction!!! He did too....snakes here are nothing to fool around with and even tho everything I have read on this little beauty says that his bite is "usually not" fatal I was not going to be the one who proved that notation incorrrect!!! YIKES! Another couple met us as we were coming back and they asked us if it was worth going on and I told them we had turned around because there was a snake. They immdiately asked what color and the girl said---"okay--black is bad--we aren't going on that path". But she also said if you see brown you run!!! So we went back to the carpark and ended our adventure for the day!

The traditional indigenous owners of land at the Daintree Rainforest are the Kuku Yalariji tribe.The Kuku Yalariji culture is very distinct and uniquely adapted to the Daintree Rainforest environment. The natural world around the people was understood to be linked closely to themselves – for example if an unseasonable weather pattern emerged this could be seen as a consequence for a human action. The rainforest was often described in human terms. Changes to the environment were interpreted as changes occurring to themselves. The rainforest was the source of all food, shelter, resources and other social structures. (Wikipedia)

After our exciting hiking we came back to the resort, napped, went for a dip in the beautiful pool and laid outside till we had sweated ourselves to death and came in and cooled off. We had a lovely dinner at a place called Zinc where Chris had some Morton Bay Bugs and Snapper and I had some crab linguini chilli thing that left my mouth burning but satisfied!!! YUM! It is all about the food! All in all a fantastic day with my man!!!

A Busy Few Days!

1. Rose Bay in Bowen
2. Old Ingham Cemetery
3. Poolside
4. On 4 Mile Beach
5. Christopher the Crocodile






We have had a busy couple of days and I think I hit the wall today with overload!!! But I am recovered and hopefully on the way to being more "with it" again!!! I think we have just been on overload for awhile and coupled with not sleeping too well these days (don't ask!) life has become complicated!!!

Chris went to the Victoria Mill in Ingham on Thursday so I occupied myself by tooling around town and doing some stuff. I had wanted to go to the old cemetery --I had been to the newer one in December but had not gotten to the older one so I went there to spend some time walking around. Well, I wanted to spend some time! But there were 2 crazed birds who felt like it was their personal cemetery and they ended up chasing me out!!! Seriously---all I could imagine was headlines of "American woman found pecked to death in cemetary" because these 2 were relentless!!! If it had just been "chattering" I could have handled it but it was actual divebombing to the point where they were coming within a foot of my head so I gave in and left! As soon as I got in the SUV they just landed and walked around like nothing was going on. I suspect there was a nest someplace but good grief!!!

We came on to Port Douglas=--much easier driving the road in the daylight this time as it is VERY curvy and windy! We are staying at a lovely resort---even has a jacuzzi tub on the balcony which we enjoyed tonight (wink wink!) and a lovely pool which we lounged by today. The town is very quiet---it is pretty slow during the wet season which we are still in but the restaurant folks and shopkeepers said that it is really a lot quieter than usual for this time of year due to the economy I would imagine. We were to go out to the reef today but it was really rough and when we got up we both were kind of ambivalent about it for some reason so we decided to not do it and do some other things instead. It just seems like it is not something we are meant to do for some reason!!!

We walked around a lot---walked on the beach here (4 mile beach) and just enjoyed some much needed relaxation time. I think our running around has caught up with us today and we just enjoyed some down time.

Good friends!

Some of my best Aussie friends---Ann, (Me), Lorrae, and Janette!!! Good times even if we can't take a decent picture!!!

Because I know you love seeing food pictures!

A famous meat pie from Jochheim’s Pies
in Bowen!! YUMMY! Great place to visit and see all the memorabilia from the filming of the movie "Australia". Home of the Jackman pie among others!!!














Another yummy dish --room service at Ocean's International in Mackay! King Prawns (notice they are still in their bodies!!!) and cuttlefish with black ink squid linguini! Chris couldn't believe I ordered it!!!