Part 2 New Zealand

So I know its been awhile but here it goes... I'll do my best to catch up on all that I missed writing about.

After the West coast of New Zealand we headed to inland to Wanaka. We got a day of rock climbing in where Garret and I met a young couple Kyle and Karen from the States. Garret and Kyle decided to team up and attempt Mnt Aspiring from the Valley, over a 3000ft climb. In New Zealand one of the biggest challenges in accomplishing climbs is the weather... so people usually use a chopper to get them to the base hut and climb from there.... but these guys decided they had a three day weather window so they wanted to do it the proper way and climb it from the valley... Apparently they had an amazing time, got really close to summiting but high winds turned them around. While Garret was off climbing I went hiking with my friend Dan and a friend of his... we stayed at a couple of huts in the area they were climbing and we got beautiful views of Mnt. Aspiring.

Soon after our Mnt. Aspiring trip the weather turned and it started to rain. So we decided to go on a little road trip south... we headed towards the Caitlands. The Caitlands are in the southern part of the South Island and the beaches are incredible.. We travelled south to Currio Bay where we saw huge sea Lions, Hecter dolphins swimming and a 70 Million year old petrified forest... a volcano came through this area 70 million years ago, took out a forest and basically fossilized it... It was an absolutely amazing place to walk around. Oh we also found Penguins and we able to get real close, check out the pictures.

We then carried on to Dunedin, up along the eastern part of the south coast on the south Island. Dunedin was cool, went to the Royal Albatrous Center were we saw hug albatrous flying around... With a wing span of 3 meters it was really impressive seeing these birds fly.

Oh we went to the Speights Brewery, saw how they make beer through gravity... and we visited the Cadbury factory.... hmmm chocolate... we gorged ourselves with chocolate... as exciting as that sounds we both just ended up crashing from our sugar high and didn't feel too good afterwards.

We then drove across to the other side of the south Island to a Farm. We thought seeing how New Zealand is full of sheep and farm land, in order to experience New Zealand fully we needed to visit a farm and sheer a sheep. So thats what we did, not only did we get to sheer a sheep but we got to feed a baby lamb from a bottle... it was too cute.... We both loved the farm visit.

We then drove a bit north to Milford Sound, had a beautiful few days. We got a day hike in to Lake Mariom then we randomly met up with our friends Kyle and Karen again... So Kyle and Garret went up mountain and rock climbing for a couple of days while Karen and I did some kyacking and day hiking.... Exceptionally beautiful area...

By now it was about time to head back to Queenstown and Wanaka in hopes to sell the car. So together the four of us headed to Queenstown... While we wanting patiently for the phone calls to come in from people who wanted to buy our lovely van, Garret and Kyle did a traverse from Double Cone to Single Cone in the Remarkables... I tried to follow them but it was a little to hard for me to do without a rope, so I turned around and went up the otherside, up Single Cone to meet them... I was quite impressed with my self for getting only 20 meters below the summit of single cone on my own... By this time Garret was at the top of Single cone so he tried to come down to guide me up the rest of the way but with a recent snowfall and the slick rock it made the rest of the climb very challenging so we decided to just continue down the climb together.

We didn't have too much luck selling the car in queenstown so we went to Wanaka and had better luck there. We sold our van to a local couple, moved out of the van and scored a rental car for three days. We paid $30 for 3 days which was perfect timing for us... We did the company a favour by bringing the vehicle back to Christchurch airport so they gave us a smokin' deal...

Along the way we continued our journey... stopped in Lake Tekapo for a midnight observatory tour... and we also went into Mnt Cook area to the Sir Edmund Hilary Museum... Sir Edmund Hilary was one of the first men up Mnt. Everest and there is a huge exhibit on him, so I learned alot that day. While we were up in the Mnt. Cook area we found a bit of rock climbing to do. We found a route that was well within my climbing ability, it was bolted, so well protected, it was 5 pitches, so about 100meters high and best of all it was rated as a 3 star climb. Garret wasn't going to let me get away without doing some leading on this route... so with double elvis legs and alot of encouragement from Garret I lead 3 0f the 5 pitches. I was very proud of myself that day...

Garret and I then flew back over to Sydney to meet up with my friend Georgia. She was very kind to house us while we searched for a car and a surf board for Garret. We were lucky to find a good deal on both and then we headed north along the East Coast of Australia for what has turned out to be a super cool surfing trip. We were able to hit areas I couldn't access earlier because I didn't have a car.

Our first night we stopped in Anna Bay, surfed One Mile and Stockten Beach... had a beautiful sunset surf at Stockten Beach... (Pictures to come) We then hit Seal Rocks.. amazing spot... we pulled up to a beauitful point break that was going off... a bit too big for me and Garret but we did our best out there.... There was a huge Easterly Swell and off shore winds so this point was working, apparently it only works 4 times a year. We then made it to Creasant Head... Ahhh Creasant Head... another beautiful point break... with the possiblity of a 200 meter long board ride on a right hand break... Really I can't explain how much fun we have had up here... I have had sooo many amazing rides, sometimes I feel like a rock star. We have now spent a week here and we can't seem to leave. Georgia came up to visit us for the Easter weekend, we have been surfing every day for 4 hours a day and love every minute we are in the water... The surf is getting really busy due to school holidays so we'll probably be leaving tomorrow but not without an "early" surf in the morning...

Who knows from there... I am not sure if anything can beat Creasant head's surf....
Hope you had a beautiful Easter and lots of Chocolate.... Big Hugs Jamie