New Zealand - lots of lakes and a birthday celebration!

Hi again everyone!

We're writing this from a cold but amazing Tokyo, having arrived just a day or so ago. We're going to be in Japan for about 5 weeks and as the end of this trip is sadly approaching, this will be one of our final posts :( But we intend to make the very most of every day here, and there will be plenty of photos to show and stories to bore you with on our return!! But before that, here's what we were up to the last few weeks of our time in New Zealand. There's a lot of outdoorsy stuff to do over there and we reckon we crammed in a fair amount, But after 2 months back in the English-speaking world, we were ready for a new Japanese challenge!! Sayonara!!!

(Fox glacier)

So, the last time we spoke we were waiting for the cloud to clear in the town of Fox to allow us to get up close and personal with the glacier there. In the end, it did and we did! To see something that was formed so long ago was pretty spectacular. The sheer colour of the ice - changing from turquoise to green to white and grey - is breathtaking, and the zoomy ride up there in a helicopter was well worth the money! We spent a couple of hours walking on the ice guided by friendly Kiwis, Paul and Pete. Susie even got to have a go at swinging their ice pick, which was actually mighty heavy! All in all, seeing Fox and Franz Joseph glaciers was a real highlight of our time in NZ and was perhaps something we may not be lucky enough to experience again. Nearby Lake Matheson provided the ultimate photo opportunity - check out the reflection of Aoraki/Mount Cook on the lake's clear waters.

(Marty in front of Lake Matheson)

From the glaciers we sped off in our wee camper van towards Wanaka and Queenstown. The scenery on this part of the trip was fantastic, the turquoise blue lakes really have to be seen to be believed. Our next destination was Milford Sound in Fiordland, an area of native forest and bush, clear waterways and lakes, glaciers and high peaks. In Maori legend, the fiords were created not by rivers of ice, but by Tu Te Raki Whanoa, a godly figure who came wielding a magical adze and uttering incantations. Maoris believe that Milford Sound is without doubt his finest sculpture.

Time was creeping up on us by now, so we headed further down south right to the tip of the country and the boring town of Bluff!! Even Kiwis we met on the road agreed that there was NOTHING to do here, which is a real shame as the views over to Stuart Island and the surrounding countryside are amazing. Ah well, maybe one day we'll move there and open the coffee shop/bar that Bluff so desperately needs!! (Likelihood=zero!!)

(Marty at the most southern tip of NZ, Bluff)

Of our remaining time spent in NZ, visiting Aoraki/Mount Cook was fun. But once again the weather conspired against us and we never even got to see the peak that Edmund Hillary scaled in 1947. Shame really, as the mountain is quite something. Instead, we made do with a short walk along one of the well-tramped tracks below Aoraki and had a good laugh at some Americans in the Hermitage Hotel cafe as they ordered a bottle of wine, exclaiming to anyone within a 100-metre earshot, "Which wine is your most paaaaap-ular? They all sure taste the same to me"!

And so it was that the NZ leg of this trip came to an end for us. But not before a certain young lady from the Mountains of Mourne celebrated "a landmark birthday" in style in Christchurch! We stayted in the coolest hotel ever - HotelSo - drank NZ sparkly wine bought directly from the Twin Islands vineyard in Marlborough, and thought we were really quite fabulous.

(The birthday girl)

And now Japan. First things we have noted are that the underground is sooo quiet, people can manage to sleep on the trains and miraculously wake up when they reach their stop, Japanese ladies are extremely stylish, they all bow an awful lot, sushi tastes even better over here and they certainly do like their gadgets. We can also confirm that public toilets will, at the touch of a button, spray your posterior with water then dry it with a sort of hand dryer-for-bums, all while you sit very comfortably on the electrically heated seat!!! This country is great!!! More soon, take good care now!! xxx