Middle Earth is calling to us!

New Zealand's South Island is just incredible! So that's that and basically, that is all there is to tell you!

No, of course, I am not going to leave you at this, you know me much too well to believe something like it, but seriously, the thing I could tell you over and over again is that this country is just incredibly beautiful. But let's start with first things first: here comes the proof that I am actually here: the Team Germany shirt amongst mountains, lakes, and... sheep! Isn't that a nice place here? We actually put up our tent there for a night, amongst sheep and cows! Awesome!

After our nice stay in luxurious homes in Christchurch and in the Marlborough Sounds, it was high time for us to get used to our dear tent and camping comfort again. In order to try us, the weather decided to continue with the rain (one night we even had to sleep in a backpacker because there was no way we could have set up the tent, we would have floated away!) and my stomach decided that it was about time to go on strike against our food and fell sick with gastritis (which changed my diet from tasty pasta with tomato sauce to tasty bread and rice without anything - nice change!). As you may imagine we did not spent a very wonderful time while driving down the West Coast but at least we managed to visit Shantytown, a rebuilt of an old gold-mining town which we found really well done, cute, and informative. David mostly enjoyed the steam train and the crafts while I was more interested in home-made ice-cream and bonbons. :):):) (Don't worry my stomach paid me back for it)

Next on our route was Punakaiki and the famous Pancake Rocks where we managed not to get too wet and to go for a short walk. It was a particular experience because halfway through the hike, after about 2 hours, we suddenly found ourselves facing a closure of the track. Somebody had had the wonderful idea of not indicating at the beginning of the track that half of it was closed due to reparations. We decided that we did not feel at all like walking back the way we came, so we just climbed over the warning "Danger, stay out" and continued our walk. It ended up to be a really, really nice hike with wonderful views of a Middle Earth like river (you can almost see them paddling through there!!)and not too many very dangerous passages (Mama, du ueberliest das jetzt mal mit den gefaehrlichen Passagen ok?). We did not get in trouble either but people looked kinda funny at us when we finally reached the other end of the track, which was clearly marked as off-territory. :)

Even though it was raining badly when getting further South, we decided the we couldn't just go past Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers. We had to cancel our idea of doing a day-hike in the region (it was here that we couldn't put up the tent because of the weather) but we nevertheless walked up to Franz Josef Glacier and had the chance to witness an almost surreal landscape with thick clouds playing around the mountain tops, small waterfalls pouring down everywhere and the moist rain-forest steaming... As you may see, we also had the chance of trying out our most stylish ponchos. Don't I look nice in that?!? Well, at least we won't let the weather dominate our good mood. ;)

Despite our bad luck with the weather we then managed to have one day with blue sky and some sun and we used it wisely to travel on from Haast on the West Coast to Wanaka in the Southern Alps. The route is know to be very, very scenic and beautiful and I can tell you, we didn't get on very fast because we had to stop every 10 m or so in order to take some pictures! It is really fascinating to be driving through dense green rain-forest and have the mountains with snow on top of them in the background. I have never seen anything like it, neither in Canada nor in the Alps. Amazing! Of course we couldn't just drive through such a landscape and so we stopped once in a while to walk to some close-by waterfalls or lakes or just take a stroll through the rain-forst because we managed to choose the wrong path! Unfortunately, I was still quite ill, so David went on some of the walks alone while I slept in the car...

However, I soon found myself in the best environment possible to get well again because we were once more saved from our hard backpacker life by Mitch and Dianne, who offered us a three night stay in their appartement in a resort in Wanaka. Of course we thought it would be a nice place, but when we got there, it was just ... magical. Tine, I don't know if you remember us getting into Las Vegas after the desert but David and I were about as happy to be in civilization again as we were when jumping on those beds and taking showers for hours and hours. ;) Seriously, it was paradise for us to be in a dry place where we could wash and dry our cloths, to have a nice and warm bed and not to worry about the freezing temperatures outside, to be able to cook some hot soup for my poor stomach, and to be able to switch on the light by means of a light-switch and not a lighter!

We spent most of our time in Wanaka enjoying the luxury of our hotel room (with the most wonderful view over the lake and the mountains), the sauna and spa, the nice bar with a roaring fire in the chimney, the cute little town with its small shops and cafes, and just resting, resting, resting. We would like to say "THANK YOU" one more time to Mitch and Dianne, this definitely was the most luxurious hotel of our travels and it definitely came at the right time.

However, before we get too used to luxury (very dangerous in this country for us so far), we'll move on through the Southern Alps direction Queenstown and Fiordland National Park and we'll tell you more about our mountain adventures soon!