Hello everyone. It has been a few days and a lot has been going on. We are currently in Hamner Springs in the heart of the Southern Alps on the South Island of New Zealand. We have been on the South Island for a few days after having crossed over on the Cook Strait ferry with our Mazda wagon. We spent a couple of days in Kaikora and met some awesome people, learned more about Maori culture and heritage and saw a giant sperm whale off the coast from the window of a small plane.
We still do not have codecs for the Panasonic or the Sony so it will still be a little while before any of our video can be edited and uploaded. We do however, have some great news on the auto front… our carnets arrived at the shipping company finally and we were informed that we can probably export the cars tomorrow with the carnet even though we still have not received the title from the DMV yet… those people have now exceeded even my expectations about how stupid and ineffective people can be.
We are now on our way over to the west coast and the Hokitika Wild food Festival this Saturday. We were informed that is is a great event and quite the atmosphere. We are also going to probably meet up with the first member of our expedition crew Brian, so that will also be sweet. All in all New Zealand, even though it is more expensive and a little more crowded than last time I was here, is still amazing. the country is truly beautiful and the people never cease to amaze you with their kindness and hospitality. time is flying by however, and Australia is just a week or so away with a lot more excitement and maybe even a few Toyotas waiting for us there.
The photo above was taken in a plane on a flight with a company called Wings Over Whales out of Kaikoura. Click here to find out more info about doing this yourself. It is an amazing way to see some really amazing creatures.
This evening we will be going through our pictures from our time in New Zealand so far and get them up in the web for you by tomorrow. Right now we are off to drive over Lewis pass to Franz Joseph.
