The Southern Alps, New Zealand

Feeling accomplished after the Routeburn track, we had exactly five days to see the South Island before beginning our next tramp at the north end of the island.

At first we struggled with getting anywhere on time. There are just too many beautiful walks to do just off the highway. It makes getting anywhere in a reasonable amount of time nearly impossible.

Example of one of the irresistible lookout points we had to stop at while trying to leave Queenstown. 

But we did eventually find our way to the second DOC campsite of our journey. 

The lake we camped by on Thursday night. 

We've made the decision to live on a slender budget while here, which means mostly camping and cooking our own food. To this end, we purchased a cute little gas cooker. Unfortunately, after owning it for only 10 minutes we abandoned it in the grocery store in Queenstown. Our plans of delicious soup for dinner were scuppered when we realized we were once again stove-less

Improvised uncooked dinner late at night in our tent.

On Friday, we continued moving North up the island to Fox Glacier. Our first stop was past the blue lagoon, aptly named for its clear blue waters. 

The blue lagoon. The shadows meant that my camera could not properly capture the colour of the water in most of the shots. Imagine the blue of the bottom-left picture to be the blue of all the water. It was quite lovely.

What was supposed to be a half hour stop quickly turned into a three hour walk as we wandered through the valleys passing scary-looking cows (whose faces looked like they were hockey masks in a very Jason-like fashion) who stared us down. 

Jason cows.

But the sun and the windflowers were out so we had a grand time in the valley.

We continued driving north until the highway met the sea.  Jasmine demanded the car be stopped as she madly rushed towards the water.

She stopped short of leaping in when she realized just how cold it is.

We finally made it to Fox Glacier township. On our helpful little map book we bought, it indicated that there was a seal colony near the township. Both our cellphones were dead (it's hard to keep them charged when you sleep outside every night) and our car for some reason does not display the time. We gleefully headed off in search of seals skipping along the beach in our flip flops. 

Sheep lined the pathway to get to the ocean. Mostly they were adorable. Further along the track we played chicken with one sheep who charged at us down the track.

Sheep running at us!

We bravely stood our ground and he backed off, but it was a fierce battle.

What was a lovely beach side walk turned into a serious tramp through the forest. Both jaz and I were forced to trudge barefoot along the rocky and muddy path. 

One of the many unexpected obstacles we had to climb through to get to the seal colony. 

Jaz's dainty lady feet slowed us down (an unusual shift as I am almost always the dawdler). Two hours later we made it to the seal colony to find not only were there no seals, but also it was rapidly getting dark. 

We started the long trek back to the car. We faired okay for the first bit, but by the end it was mighty hard to see where to place your feet. We finally emerged out of the woods in total blackness (bringing new meaning to the phrase we are out of the woods now). We felt like explorers trying to find our way back to our car navigating by the stars. All was fine until we got back to the sheep strewn alley. Sheep may be very cute in the daylight, but they are terrifying when they stare out at you from the bushes late at night. I'm ashamed to say in our second sheep encounter the sheep definitely came out victorious as we scurried terrified back to the car. 

Unfortunately we still hadn't managed to get ourselves a replacement cooker or a camping site for the night. Lesson learnt. Always pick your campsite before it gets pitch dark as driving down the windy lanes (chasing stupid hares that won't get off the road) in the darkness is no fun. One upside is we were forced to book a slightly nicer campsite, so we actually got to shower! Such a perk.