Visitors from PNG

The day after we got back from NZ, our friends Eddie and Lisa were scheduled to arrive from Papua New Guinea. They were stopping in for a few days on their way to California. Unfortunately, their flight was delayed and they didn't arrive until Tuesday afternoon.

I only took two pictures while they were here:

Roxy took pretty quickly to Eddie and Lisa. Eddie tickled her during car rides, gave her an endless supply of grapes and loaded up her toast with more hummus than she's ever had in her whole life! And Rox scooted right onto Lisa's lap about 10 minutes after we got home from the airport...which was adorable.

Our friends let us borrow their big house for the visit so we wouldn't have to tiptoe all around after the baby's 7 pm bedtime. Nate and Eddie went golfing while Lisa, Roxy and I took a trip down to the Daisy Hill Koala Center.

Their visit was too short, but it means so much to us that they would use some of their precious vacation time to stay with us. We miss you guys!! Next time we see you, it will be in PNG!

Eddie and Lisa aren't the only visitors we've had from Papua New Guinea. The day that Eddie and Lisa flew out, I noticed that we had a new bird or two in the neighborhood. Listen, I'm no John Audobon, I only noticed because the bird call was so loud and obnoxious. It wasn't until that evening that I was able to nab a photo of our noisy friend.

Yes, I'm the snooping neighbor with a telephoto lens.

It's a Channel-billed Cuckoo, the world's largest cuckoo. They spend their winters in PNG and breed in Australia. The guidebook describes the call as "Harsh, unmusical ork or frantic ork-ork-ork-ork."

These birds are brood parasites, meaning they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds and let those other birds raise the baby cuckoos in addition to their own babies. Some brood parasites actually throw out the eggs of the host bird. These cuckoos just add theirs to the pile.

The trees in our backyard are filled with crows nests, and crows happen to be a common target of the cuckoo. This is how wikipedia describes their behavior:

Pairs also work together in order to aid the laying of eggs in host nests; the male will fly over the nest in order to provoke the nest occupants into a mobbing response, whereupon the female will slip into the nest and lay an egg. Alternatively the pair may work together by attacking an incubating bird, driving it off the nest and allowing the female to lay.

For the past two weeks, I've seen and heard cuckoos orking all over the neighborhood and it's REALLY pissing off the crows. Can't wait to see the cuckoo babies in a few months!

Day 10: Banks Peninsula and home!

Our flight out of Christchurch didn't leave until 4 in the afternoon, so we drove out to the town of Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula for the morning.

Banks Peninsula (Captain Cook thought it was an island when he sailed by)

I shopped unsuccessfully for souvenirs while Nate and Roxy played in the park.

Daddy's Inversion Therapy. It gets the tears out more efficiently than just crying.

Our flight was about 4 hours and every seat was taken. We played Pass the Rox and she did pretty well on the flight. She entertained herself for a while by putting Reimsen the Giraffe on her head over and over again.

Not everyone thought this was as cute as I did.

All in all, it was a great trip! New Zealand is beautiful and not as crowded as we expected. I would say it's probably the least crowded country I've ever visited. If anyone out there is planning a trip to New Zealand's south island, we can tell you some good places to see and places to skip.

Day 9: Tasman Glacier, Lake Tekapo, Peel Forest and Christchurch

The weather was calmer by morning, so we took a hike out to the Tasman Glacier. It's New Zealand's largest glacier and it's receding pretty quickly. Thirty five years ago there was no lake and today the glacier has melted and formed the lake you can see in this photo. They predict the glacier will melt completely within the 20 years. We will just have to come back in 2030 and take another photo.

Where's the glacier?

Icebergs in the lake.

Leaving Mt. Cook National Park. View of Mt. Cook from across Lake Pukaki (I just had to get the name in there one more time).

We had one more night in New Zealand, so we drove north towards Christchurch. We planned to stay the night in Lake Tekapo, but thought better of it once we got into town. It was kind of a dive and the most appealing attraction was the hot springs. It was quite hot that day and neither of us felt like soaking in a hot bath, so we decided to mush on.

Actual color of Lake Tekapo! The color is the result of 'glacial flour,' which is sediment that flows in from the glacial run-off.

Lake Tekapo's tribute to the sheepdogs that helped develop the region.

Mackenzie Country was hot and dry. As soon as we drove over the mountain pass just northeast of Lake Tekapo, it was cold and rainy again. We were trying to make it to Christchurch in time for dinner and to find a room for the night. The country we were driving through was so pretty that we decided to take a detour to Peel Forest to see the big podocarps (trees).

Cuddles at the base of the giant totara. It was 9 m in diameter.

Can you find Roxy in the totara roots?

We made it to Christchurch that night, but had to stop for dinner (pub grub) in a small town on the way. Day 9 was definitely a very long day.

Day 8: Mt. Cook/Aoraki, Kea Point

After a breakfast and awkward conversation with our hosts (the worst part of the B&B experience), we set our sights on Mt. Cook, the tallest mountain in Australasia. We were able to see Mt. Cook an hour before we made it to Mt. Cook village. We drove around Lake Pukaki (my favorite lake name), which is a brilliant turquoise color.

We made it to the village by lunchtime and ate in the cafe at The Hermitage, "arguably New Zealand's most famous hotel." (When we told our B&B hosts we were going to Mt. Cook, they asked if we were staying at The Hermitage. Um, no. It's $300/nigh and they don't take credit card points.)

After lunch, we took a quick hike out to Kea Point. The weather was kind of bad (gale force winds with gusts up to 120 km/hour) so the keas must have stayed home because we didn't see a single one.

The beginning of the hike.

Kea-free Kea Point

The wind really made hiking sort of unbearable. It whipped up dust and gravel and was so strong that it stopped us in our tracks a few times. It wasn't showing any signs of letting up, so we called it a day in the park and retired to our caravan park just down the road. We stayed in a dorm room and had the most magnificent view of the mountain.

The view from our room at Glentanner Park. You can't get see that at The Hermitage!

We had some down time before dinner, so Roxy gave Nate a few computer programming lessons:

No Daddy... let me show you how to do it.

We stayed in a simple cabin in Glentanner Park, a caravan park. Caravan parks don't really have an equivalent in the U.S. (correct me if I'm wrong). They're a combination campgroup, RV park, motel and hostel. They have shared cooking facilities, shared bathrooms and sometimes a restaurant. I love caravan parks.

Glentanner sure had a nice spot. It was right on the edge of Lake Pukaki and was pretty spread out.

Campers trampoline-ing with the clouds rolling over Mt. Cook.

The bad weather continued all night. It started raining after dark and I couldn't sleep all night, thinking that a BBQ was going to fly through our glass wall.

New Zealand Day 7: New Year's Eve at Lake Wanaka

We left Queenstown for the hamlet of Wanaka. We used some of our credit card bonus points to book a room at a swanky B&B. The guidebook said, "Wanaka wakes up in a big way for New Year's Eve," so we expected things to be a little crowded.

We were not disappointed! The streets were filled with teenagers - lots of lads and ladettes with bad haircuts and bottles of blue Powerade. Do I sound like an old lady? Just wait until you hear what we did to ring in 2010!

The banks of Lake Wanaka.

Our B&B was pretty nice. Nate swiped the biodegradable bottle of organic peppermint hand soap and I took a nap under the possum fur blanket on top of possum fur pillows. We figured that set probably cost at least $1,000! ooh la la!

We had an early dinner because every restaurant in town was booked up for seatings after 6:00. We took a leisurely stroll back to our B&B, put the baby down for the night, shared a tray of New Zealand cherries (DELICIOUS!) and were snoozing before it was fully dark outside. We didn't hear any midnight revelers and slept through the fireworks over the lake. Unlike most of them, our alarm clock doesn't have an off switch and she was chirping bright and early on New Year's Day.

These two pictures are the only ones I took in Wanaka. We would recommend you skip it.

New Zealand Day 6: Queenstown

We woke up to a rainbow in Manapouri, a small town near Te Anau. I asked the lady at the front desk of our hotel if they get a rainbow like this every morning. "Well, not every morning. But we get them a lot."

We hightailed it to Queenstown, which is situated on Lake Wakatipu near The Remarkables mountain range. The Remarkables is featured in Lord of the Rings and is a pretty popular place to ski in the winter. We admired it from the car and it really is quite remarkable.

Lake Wakatipu had gorgeous blue water. Sorry - no photo of The Remarkables.

We decided to embrace our touristness and do what most people do when they go to Queenstown in the summer: eat a Fergburger and Bungy Jump. We checked Fergburger off the list; Roxy and I shared a Bun Laden (veggie burger) and Nate had a Little Lamby (lamb with mint jelly).

Outside of Fergburger before the line was out the door.

After lunch, we walked down the street and paid a lot of money to get tied to a rubberband and pushed off of a bridge. Queenstown is the home to modern bungy jumping, so we figured, why not? We're not too cool.

The bungy site was so incredible gorgeous. The bridge is over the Karawau River, which is a brilliant turquoise color, and is pretty cold (which I found out when I dipped my fingers in the water while hanging upside-down).

Wide shot of the bridge and river.

There goes Nate!

There goes Cory!

The equipment they used was surprisingly low-tech. They used bath towels to pad the space around our legs, and they paddled out in an inflatable raft with a PVC pole to get the swinging jumpers after the jump.

The staff working on the boat had enormous biceps!

They're making money hand over fist. They probably have 20 people jump every hour, and if the tickets price wasn't enough, they charge $70 each for photos and DVDs (we passed). We did get shirts that say "Jumper" on them and had an adrenaline rush for the rest of the day. Lots of fun!

We headed out of bustling Queenstown and on to the small hamlet of Glenorchy. We stayed in a room above a bar, right across the street from the Possum Fur store. The Australian possums are destroying the native trees, so it's good for the environment to buy a sweater made of possum fur or a possum fur coat.

One of the few buildings in downtown Glenorchy.

We were the only occupants that night and we got to sleep with the heater on! Our bedroom was in one room with a sink. The toilet was across the hall and the shower was next door. It was kind of like a college dorm and was ideal for us because the baby went to sleep at 7, so we locked her in the bedroom and stayed up to watch Superman in the lounge room next to our bedroom.

New Zealand Day 5: Milford Sound

Milford Sound is one of the most popular tourist destinations in New Zealand. From Te Anau, it is about a 120 km drive on a winding road. The drive is stunning, though, with lots of places to stop and hike around. We drove straight there and moseyed our way back.

Mountains peeking through the clouds on the road to Milford.

Waiting in line to drive through the Homer Tunnel. Look at that sky!

Driving through the Homer Tunnel. Kind of scary.

The thing to do at Milford Sound is to take a boat tour. We didn't make any plans ahead of time, and we were advised that most of the tour buses arrive for boats departing around midday, so we hightailed it out of Te Anau to arrive before all of the other tourists. We walked up to the nearest tour company window, bought our tickets for a "nature cruise" of the sound and got on the boat just as it was departing. We couldn't have planned it better if we tried!

A cloudy day on the Sound. The area gets 7 m of rain annually. 

She wasn't too interested in the scenery, so Rox made a friend on the boat.

Cold, rainy weather on the boat! Perfect!

Getting drenched at Stirling Falls

We didn't see much wildlife on the tour, only a few fur seals. We heard about a new genus of lizards that was discovered in a nearby canyon and learned that they were thinking of reintroducing the endangered flightless Takahe in this area. Milford Sound is pretty cool, but I don't know if I agree with Rudyard Kipling in calling it "The Eighth Wonder of the World."

On the drive home, we first stopped to take a short walk to The Chasm. I was changing Roxy's diaper in the carpark where we had our first interaction with a kea! These naughty parrots hang out in carparks, waiting for people to feed them and generally acting mischievous. They are known to pull the rubber off of car windows. A kea landed on top of our car and kept poking his head through the door while I was doing the changing. Nate had a good laugh when I tried to scare the bird off with a swift elbow jab (I missed).  Look at the beak on that bird! Now imagine that beak breathing down your neck!

The kea is quite drab until he shows his bright red underwings.

Giving the kea the evil eye right before I tried to elbow him.

By the time I finished changing the baby, a crowd of people had surrounded us and were taking photos of that cheeky kea.

Bridge over The Chasm.

Waiting in line on the other side of the Homer Tunnel.

We stopped at the Divide, which is the lowest east-west pass in the Southern Alps. There was a trailhead to Key Summit, which promised great views of the Fjords and valleys around us.

Trail signs in New Zealand don't give distances - they give the time it should take you to complete the hike (I found this very annoying and condescending. I know, lighten up, Cory). The roundtrip hike to Key Summit was supposed to take us about two hours. We had a cranky baby on our hands so we did our hike double quick. We made it to 15 minutes from the top (according to the sign on the trail) in half an hour before the baby bomb exploded:

Um. Roxy's ready to go, thankyouverymuch.

Parts of the trail were lined with greenstone.

Despite not reaching the summit, we still had some pretty good views:

The road to Milford Sound and all around the island are lined with lupine. These hardy plants were gorgeous and are my new favorite flower. 

Beautiful flowers at the end of a beautiful day.