This is with mom a couple weeks later on that same beach!

Abel Tasman

This is where the northern part of the park starts. It was amazingly beautiful and you can't see it in the pic, but water was bright greenish, blue!

Waterfall in Golden Bay

We hiked about 45 min. to reach this roaring waterfall. It was one of the places we took my mom after she arrived.

Golden Bay

This is at the Abel Tasman Memorial. He discovered the Abel Tasman National Park and the surrounding area.

Nelson - South Island

It was a rainy day in Nelson, so we decided to go to a brewery and do some beer tasting!

Wellington

Go Obama!!

The Sevens - Wellington!

This is a pic from our night out in Wellington. Little did we know that they had a world famous rugby competion going on while were there. It is called "The sevens". For some reason it has become tradition that everyone dresses up for this event and we saw some of the funniest costumes. It felt like it was Halloween in Madison! These are some interesting blokes that we met while out on of the nights.

Lake Taupo

This is a pic of the geothermal activity in Taupo. It's nothing like the
bursting geysers in Rotorua, but it is still pretty cool. Tim is obsessed
with geothermal experiences! In fact we were driving through the
south island yesterday and we say something like this in the distance and he thought it was geothermal. It turns out it was just some dust in the air from a dump truck! He was very disappointed to say the least (-:

Waitomo Caves - Glow Worms

This is at the Waitomo Caves which are famous for the stalagtites, stalagmites and glow worms! We took a tour through the caves and then a boat ride in the dark to view the glow worms - it was unreal! It takes hundreds of thousands of years to create these stalagtites and stalagmites. They are created by the dripping of water from the ceiling of these caves. It takes something like a hundred years just to create a centimeter (or an inch, I can't remember) of these structures.

Huka Falls - Taupo

This was a very adventurous day for us. We rented mountain bikes for a half day and thought it would be a nice leisurely day riding around....WRONG! We thought we had mountian biked before in flat IL and WI, but we had no idea. These moutain bike trails are crazy! Tons of huge hills and twists and turns. I fell within the first 5 min. of our trip! We biked for about 4 hours. I always wondered why they had gear "1" where there is no resistance, but now I know why! When you are going up a straight incline it comes in very useful! We biked to the famous Huka Falls in Lake Taupo and it was beautiful! Crystal clear, blue waters.

Elephant Hill - Hawkes Bay

So, we are a little behind on our blog, but the weather has been so nice that I hate being inside on the computer! Today it is raining in Franz Josef.

This was taken about a month ago in Hawkes Bay. We were at Elephant Hill (Winery) in this pic. It was right on the ocean. It was 38 degrees Celcius that day, which is close to the upper 90's and of course Milly has no air! Thank god we got the window fixed on my side so at least it goes up and down now! It was stuck in the up position until we got it fixed the day before this photo.