Hola!
We took a boat tour with a group excursion to see around the largest lake on which Bariloche sits.   Note to self: don’t go on any large group excursions, especially on a boat!  The whole trip wound up taking about 8 hours counting the disembarking and walking around the two different  islands.  They could have done the whole thing in half that time. Waaaay too long but…

On the plus side, the lake and scenery from the boat was beautiful and the air was fresh and clean. The name of the Lake is Nahuel Huapi and has a large island, called Victoria Island, in the middle and another small island both of which we explored.
You really get a feel for the way the glaciers carved out the whole series of lakes as they came down from the Andes. The lake itself is very large (four times as large in area as the city of Buenos Aires) and over 1500 feet deep.  All fresh water, right from the mountains. 

One of the islands has been seeded with non indigenous species and there was a stand of coastal sequoia redwood trees at one point.  

The boat we were on carried about 250 people and was built in 1937 in Amsterdam.  Apparently they hauled it partly by river and partly overland to get it so far inland from the sea.  Presidents Eisenhower, Clinton, and Obama all went on rides on this boat during the last many years on official visits, as did Che Guevara and other famous people I can’t remember.  I’m sure they all felt it was too long also. 

We get a late start to avoid the crowds on New Zealand’s most famous great walk, the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. It is a gorgeous landscape of solid volcanic lava flows with new life growing all over the red brown molten landscape. A gorgeous arrangement of red tussock, inaka, curled leaved neinei, wire rush and bog rush, as well as heather and grasses like hard tussock,and bluegrass blanket the lower fields leading up to Mt Tongariro and Mt Ngauruhoe ( pronounced Na ra ho).

The day is warm and partly cloudy and the trail follows a cheerful little stream up towards the base of the mountains. After 2 hours of hiking, we take a right at the saddle between Mt Tongariro and the ominous looking Ngauruhoe, aka MT Doom, which we plan to climb.

Mt Ngauruhoe is the youngest volcano and the most active vent in the Tongariro area. It last blew its stack in 1975 sending pyrochlastic flows consisting of a mixture of super heated mud, cinders, and gases traveling 100 miles per hour down the mountain side.
We can easily identify the most recent flows from Ngauruhoe as we walk to South Crater, a fan of darker brown rock with little or no plant life growing in it.
The remarkable symmetry of Ngāuruhoe’s steep cone is the result of regular eruptions. Over 70 ash eruptions have occurred between 1839 and 1975, on average about six years apart. Eruptions of lava are less common – they have been witnessed only in 1870, 1949 and 1954.

As we look up to the summit, we know why Peter Jackson chose this sight to film the Lord of the Rings final ascent to dispose of the one ring. The incredibly steep mountain has no defined path up to the top and the ground is made of a sand and cinder mixture that is so loose that our feet sink in several inches every step. Trying to climb the steep slope feels like Sisyphus, the greek legend, trying to roll a boulder up a hill, only to have it roll down again every time. Each time we pull our body up, the ground around us slides down, almost to where we started from. Very quickly we are reduced to climbing on all fours. This goes on for most of three thousand feet, and we spend a good bit of time bent over gasping for breath. Finally we near the summit, but the ground turns exceptionally loose and we start to doubt that we can finish, even though the rim of the crater is only 50 feet above us. Luckily a couple of folks have already made it to the top and yell encouragement to us, giving us the will to consume what feels like the last reserves of our energy and finally pull ourselves over the rim.
We are look down into the very throat of the volcano. It’s otherworldly, especially since wisps of cloud stream by here and there, obscuring and then clearing the views into the crater and the surrounding landscape. If we had a ring to throw in, now would be the time to do it.

The Marlborough Sounds are an extensive network of sea-drowned valleys created by a combination of land loss and rising sea levels at the north of the South Island of New Zealand.
We came to hike the Queen Charlotte Track and so early in the morning we hop on the water taxi and speed out to Ship’s cove where Captain Cook, the famous British explorer, anchored his ship, Endeavor, during his circumnavigation of the North and South Islands in 1770.
Our walk back to Furneaux lodge along the endeavor inlet takes us from shoreline to ridge-line, exploring the beautiful hidden bays and coves of the Marlborough Sounds and the Queen Charlotte Track.

The spectacular landscape of Nelson Lakes National Park was sculpted by massive glaciers during the most recent ice ages, and many glacial landforms remain – lakes Rotoiti and Rotoroa are the two most obvious examples.

The first night we went to sit by the lake and we were curious to see what everyone was looking at off the dock. As we looked into the shallow water there was a swarm of long black scary looking eels that locals said bite humans (probably just gullible tourists). Needless to say, we did not swim in the lakes. The longfin eels of Nelson Lakes are believed to be the oldest living eels in the world with the average migratory adult eel being 93 years old.
On our way up to the top of Robert’s peak, where see glorious views of mountains all around, we hike through the thick beech forest that cloaks the lower regions of the park and shimmers with a coat of honeydew, filling the air with a delicious sweetness. another beautiful day in New Zealand.

We are catching up with some of our journal entries and here we write about the Catlins, the south east part of the South Island. After checking into the Nugget View Kaka Point motel, a small place in a small town (1 pub, no gas, no stores) and throwing together a quick dinner, we head out to catch the yellow eyed penguins (hoiho), some of the rarest penguins on earth, as they come in from the sea to feed their young. We drive to Nugget Point and sit quietly next to a bird watching blind since it is packed with people and there is no more room in the small structure to watch the birds. Everyone is extremely still and quiet since we don’t want to frighten the penguins and risk having the chicks go hungry. The penguins waddle in to the beach preening themselves, looking around as they cautiously head up the beach toward the nests and soon go out of sight. After a while we lose interest and head to the nearby lighthouse built in 1869 to watch Fur seals and sea lions, sooty shearwaters, shags and a breeding colony of gannets. The roar of the sea fills our ears, and the visual drama of the vast skies, endless ocean and plummeting cliffs is incredible. We take off driving South on highway 1 toward the bottom of the world and a town called Invercargill. Our first stop was to see the Moeraki Boulders, unusually large and spherical boulders lying along a stretch of Koekohe Beach on the wave cut Otago Coast. The boulders look like dinosaur eggs but more spherical and are grey-colored rounded masses of mineral matter that have been dug out from the mudstone enclosing them and gathered into one place on the beach by coastal erosion. Very fun to jump around on and attempt to roll.

We moved from the hotel of the previous night to get closer to the Picton Harbor so we can watch the big cruise ships and passenger ferries come and go. It is pouring rain and we can’t get into our hotel room until later in the day so we decide to go see The King’s Speech at a movie theatre in Blenheim, the next town over. The movie was wonderful but as we were walking back to our car, we caught the news through a store front window about the 6.2 magnitude earthquake that happened in Christchurch at about 12:59 pm.
It is more devastating than the earthquake in September 2010
because the epicenter is closer to the center of the city and much
closer to the surface of the earth. To give you a sense of the
difference in magnitude, 65 people are dead so far with an estimate of 200 plus dead and no-one died in the last quake.
A pall has descended on the country with a sadness and sense of
shock touching all of us. Maybe it is because Christchurch is only
200 miles away from where we are now, but this disaster is
hitting close to home. We can’t imagine what the people in
Christchurch are experiencing but from our little experience when we
visited the city, we feel a more intimate connection than we have
felt in the past viewing earthquakes from afar.
We have friends in Christchurch now and even celebrated the New
Year together with about 12,000 of its citizens in the square where
most of the rescue work is now being organized. The Christchurch cathedral, which has been partially destroyed and you will see it shown on television, was right across the street from our hotel, the Millenium Hotel. We walked all over the town sightseeing and getting to know some of the spots you are now seeing on your
television screens.
In honor of Christchurch, we are posting some of our photos taken
on New Year’s eve 2010. It is a stout city with a good hearted, solid group of people and a very competent government coming to their
aid; they will recover and rebuild their small city more quickly than
most would in similar circumstances. Please keep them in your prayers.

Abel Tasman National Park (established in 1942) is New Zealand’s smallest national park and is located at the top of the South Island and is home to the world-famous Abel Tasman Coast track which runs for miles along the Golden and Tasman Bays.

Our first day we rented a kayak and took off at high tide paddling about 5 miles along the coast in Caribbean blue waters. The coast is lined with golden sandy beaches, sculptured granite cliffs and rocky outcrops (mainly granite but with a scattering of limestone and marble) and rich, unmodified estuaries. It was warm, sunny, and breathtakingly beautiful. Life couldn’t be better.

Next day we took a water taxi about 7 miles up the coast and walked back along the most beautiful trail that seemed cut out of the mountainside like a cement sidewalk. We would stop at the beaches along the trail to swim in the perfectly calm, cool salt water and then wash off in the fresh water streams that flowed from underground springs higher up in the mountains and made their way to the beach and into then into the ocean.

All activities revolve around the twice daily flow of the tides both high and low with high tide waters rising a phenomenal 12 feet. In response to this sea change, an ingenious system has been set up where water taxis are pulled by tractors on boat trailers to wherever the water happens to be. At high tide the boats leave and return at the docks like any normal boat would but at low tide the tractors pull the boats about a quarter mile on the open sand flats to where enough water can float the boats and allow them to take off. It is really cool.

hey everyone,
we are in the Abel Tasman National Park and there is 0 cell reception or Internet so we will update the blog when we get back!
sending a few photos of the Catlins (bottom of the South Island)

We drive out of the park early after having a sleepless night in a heavy down pour where winds got up to about 80 mph. People in the campgrounds were abuzz sharing about their sleepless night and comparing stories.
While we drive along highway 80, there was sunshine to the east and rain to the west.  A huge double rainbow travelled with us for miles.
We are driving on the western edge of lake Pukaki with milky blue water and winds so fierce that the lake had good sized waves crashing on its shores.  The glacier carved lake had tall cliffs on one section of its shores which is an unusual geological formation, one we have never seen before.
Later that day, we hear that they closed this section of the road due to the high winds.  Unlike other mountain ranges we have visited in New Zealand, Mount Cook is intimidating and fierce.