A lot of digging, more hiking and SKYDIVING!

Ok, we know that it's been long since you heard from us but we are happy to say that we are alive! The past  few weeks have been amazing and so much has been going on that there simply hasn't been enough time for our poor blog. Hope this makes up for it!

Since you last heard from us, we spent 10 days on the West Coast, wwoofing for an amazing family in Greymouth. We did some weeding and a lot of digging in their garden and had such a good time spending time with them and their three beautiful little girls. They even took us up to their parent's place a few hours north along the West Coast for the weekend, where we got to go mountain biking, kayaking and enjoy the fantastic views. We are so happy we met them!

We then made our way down along the coast to the glaciers. These two glaciers are famous because they are some of the only glaciers in the world that border on a rain forest and we did some walking to see them up close and from afar. It took us two attempts, one in the evening when it was too cloudy and then one early  in the morning, to see the mountains being reflected in Lake Matheson, or Mirror Lake as it is also called. We were lucky to get a clear and calm morning, a little while after we got there the water was rippled and you couldn't see the reflections anymore! We met up with our English friend Danny, who we met on the North Island, and together with an Israeli guy we met we packed our bags and hiked the Copland Track. After 6 hours of walking along a river through a valley we reached Welcome Flat hut. Just your average New Zealand tramping hut, except for the natural hot pools right outside overlooking the mountains! They were different temperatures and we spent the whole evening in the coldest one, the others were too hot!
The hike back down the next day can be summarized in one word: wet. We spent the last two hours walking in rain and didn't even bother taking our shoes off when we crossed the last creek, even though the water almost came up to our knees... Followed by a cloud of sandflies (little flies that are kind of like day-mosquitoes but their bites itch like crazy and last for several days and NIGHTS) we jumped in the car and drove all the way down to Wanaka to spend the night there. Wanaka is a beautiful little town overlooking Lake Wanaka and before we drove to Queenstown the next day, we attempted to do a hike there in Mt. Aspiring National Park. Unfortunately the long gravel road that led to the start of the track went through several creeks and our  little Ford had a hard time making it through them... After fording 4 of them, we reached a deep one and didn't want to risk having our travel mate float away...Our Ford couldn't ford more fords, so instead we took a short and beautiful hike up Mount Iron.

We then reached the adventure capital of the world, Queenstown. We took a stroll around the town in the evening and climbed Queenstown Hill before driving down to Fiordland and Te Anau. It was time to start "the finest walk in the world", Milford Track! We packed our bags with not much more than food, a change of clothes and our sleeping bags and spent 4 days hiking the AMAZING track! WOW! The pictures speak for themselves. We slept in three huts along the way and where extremely fortunate to have SUN SUN SUN every day! They usually get a lot of rain there, 200-300 mm in a day is not uncommon so we were prepared for 4 days of hiking in pouring rain...

Now we are back in Queenstown again. We met a Swedish girl who works in a sweet shop here and she offered us to stay with her and her boyfriend in their apartment. Their flat mate happens to be in Fiji this week so we are staying in his room. We havn't been doing much: we've just hiked up to a 1700 m peak, been for an evening swim in Lake Wakatipu, had a luxurious dinner in town and oh, a few days ago WE WENT SKYDIVING!!! We could never have imagined that jumping out of a plane from 15 000 ft would be so amazing, we both loved it! From above we saw Queenstown and the never-ending snow caped mountains and the 60 second free fall was too short.

After these relaxing days in Queenstown we're tomorrow driving back to Wanaka to do two day hikes there that we didn't have time to do last time. After that we're making our way down to the very South for another week of wwoofing. Life is good! Very good!

Pancake Rocks in Punakaiki on the West Coast

Franz Josef Glacier - do not pass!

View of Fox Glacier

Mt Cook and Mt Tasman reflected in Lake Matheson. Can you tell if the picture is upside down..?

Lake Matheson

Walking around Lake Matheson, Mt Cook and Mt Tasman in the background

Driving to Wanaka

Finished the Copland Track! Wet but happy!

Ford fording a creek in Mt Aspiring National Park. We barely made it over this one!

Lunch on top of Mt Iron overlooking the town of Wanaka and Lake Wanaka.

At the top of Queenstown Hill with Lake Wakatipu before us and The Remarkables in the distance.

 MILFORD TRACK

On the boat from Te Anau Downs to the start of the track. Excited for 4 days of hiking!

Day 1 - on our way to Clinton Hut

Entering the danger zone... There was a high risk of avalanches  and we were told that we might need to take a helicopter over part of the track one day because of the risk. (Un)fortunately we didn't need to. Would have been cool but our wallets were happy that we didn't!

Clinton Valley

On our way up

Ready to leave Clinton Hut

What we saw when we looked out the window from hut number 2, Mintaro Hut.

Climbing up to Mackinnon Pass. It was getting colder!

Next stop: Mackinnon Pass

Mackinnon Pass

Mackinnon Pass

Highest point on the track, 1154 m, we made it!

How many toilets have this view?

Swing bridge!

We made it! Our American hiking buddies Mike and Tyler

Milford Track - 33.5 miles or 54 km

On the boat crossing the fiord from the end of the track to Milford Sound.

Milford Sound

Driving from Te Anau back to Queenstown

Hiking up to Ben Lomond summit in Queenstown. Our legs our still tired from the 1300 m climb!

Ben Lomond

At the top, 1748 m above the sea.

At the top! 

Ben Lomond is the peak behind us!

Amanda is ready to throw herself out of a plane from 15000 feet...

.... and so is Caroline!

WE DID IT AND IT WAS AMAZING!!

An evening swim in Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown.

Eating famous Fergburgers in Queenstown.