Hello from Christchurch NZ! We just got back to Christchurch yesterday after a great second week of exploring the south island of NZ. Once again, we were spoiled with spectacular scenery of gorgeous mountains, lakes, and coastline.

After leaving Queenstown, we headed up the west coast (also known as the rainy west coast). As we approached it, we found a campsite for the night but the rain had already set in. With no tree cover and decent winds, we decided to spend a night in the car so not to get soaked. Surprisingly, we slept quite well. From there, we headed further north, passing Fox Glacier and arriving at Franz Joseph Glacer, one of the only glaciers in the world that is in a rainforest-type climate zone. As you can see, we got to explore the glacier on a 6 hour guided tour which took us through caves, crevasses, and through the icefall on top of the glacier! What an amazing day and such a cool opportunity to climb up on one.

Afterwards, we headed up north and, before making our way back east over Lewis Pass, we spent a night in the little town of Charleston. It was really small (not a town at all), but the nice older fisherman running the campground told us which beach we could go to after sunset to hopefully see blue penguins emerge from the sea and head to their nests to sleep. Well, after 1 hour of sitting out in the cold (and no penguins) we were heading back to the campsite, but drove a bit further down the road and sure enough... we had a cute little penguin crossing the road from the sea into tall grasses where the nest was! It was really cool!!

From there, we headed over Lewis Pass and hopped on the St. James Walkway with the intention of hiking 10 km in, camping at a hut, and heading out the next day. Instead, after only 7 km, we arrived at this spectacular hut with views to-die-for, so we decided to spend the sunny afternoon outside and enjoy the area. The coal stove inside was a nice treat for the chilly night. The next day (yesterday) we hiked back to the car and (after visiting a really awesome natural hotspring on the side of a river) headed to Christchurch.

We surprised our friends Caroline & Richard (we had originally told them we would be in today instead) at their house in the late afternoon. We spent the evening catching up and today spent the day together exploring Christchurch, walking along the coast, then a BBQ at their cool house. Oh yes... forgot to mention that Richard and Caroline are new friends that we met (and subsequently trekked with) for nearly 1 week of the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal.

Well, we're having a blast, maybe drinking a few too many Speight's Beers, but looking forward to enjoy the morning together before we head to the airport to catch our afternoon flight to Auckland! You'll hear from us again in South America!!!!