New Zealand South Island– mountains, glaciers, fjords, lakes– and rain

The South Island has incredible landscape – mountains, glaciers, fjords, and lakes. I never ventured into the water, but it is crystal clear and icy blue – apparently matching the icy temperature. Because of recent rain and cool temperatures we had a dusting of snow on the mountain tops. - very pretty.

We never made it to Milford Sound or the Milford track - the road was closed due to a land slide caused by the rain. Instead we went to Doubtful Sound, just south of its more famous cousin. The fjords were lush and very green – rainfall 2 out of 3 days year round tend to do that. The forests are full of moss, that have tons of useful purposes – packing materials, in potted plants and absorbency in diapers to name a few.... just a piece of useful or useless information that you can pull out of your hat some day.

The fjords are also home to an incredible engineering feat – an underground hydro electric plant! It harnesses nature's renewable resources (read as: rain) by using a dam to take water from the high level lake to sea level at the Tasman Sea. For more technical details please consult John – he's the technical brains in the family (which makes him good for more than just carrying the luggage and opening jars.)

Three Highlights:

#1: Mountain biking about 25 km (@ 15 miles) down a mountain.

The weather was not great and we were on Plan D (Plans A through C had all been abandoned due to ominous looking clouds that we seemed to have a knack for driving into.) We had bikes and decided we would still use them. As we drove up the mountain to the saddle the rain turned to snow. I will admit, I was thinking we were nuts to get out of the bus in the cold and snow to start a bike ride. BUT, it was a lot of fun as we went down the road through snow, that turned to rain that then turned to sun. Lesson learned: It is TONS easier to sit on the bike going down hill and just cross our cold and frozen fingers hoping that the brakes don't give out, than it is hiking up a mountain ridge.

#2: Boat ride into the fjords of Doubtful Sound and the underground hydro electric dam

When you see the title “rain forests” remember that there is a reason they are called this – experts have determined that the area gets TONS of rain. Upside is that the forests are lush with an array of amazing vegetation in tons of shades of green. Very pretty – and I am sure gorgeous when the sun shines, not that I would know through personal experience

Fjords are steep cliffs that have been carved by retreating glaciers – another technical detail that you can get tons more information about from sources other than myself. But very peaceful on the boat and home to dolphins, which we saw. Also two types of penguins – which we did not see.

Despite the fact the technical details of the dam are not retained by me, it was very interesting. And the best part was a photograph of the official plunge by dignitaries to detonate the final dynamite blast to complete the mine tunnel (huh? Just read it again slowly and it will make sense...) - anyway, too much dynamite was loaded – and the picture captures the moment when all the dignitaries' hardhats flew off their heads and their hair stands straight up! Hilarious. I can hear it now “She be right mate!”.... “No worries”.... Crickey!!!

#3. Amazing skies with cool cloud formations and brilliant rainbows

The skies are so open and I have seen some pretty cloud formations and beautiful rainbows in so many locations. The only problem with rainbows, is that generally they come with rain. But they do bring the promise of sunshine.

New Zealand is a very beautiful country with such a variety of topography and vegetation, ranging from volcanoes to mountains, to plains, to farm lands, to vineyards, to pretty beaches to tropical rain forests. There is also a huge variety of weather. Bring your camera, sunglasses, umbrella, sunscreen, fleece, bathing suit and skis – it should cover it all - “You'll be right mate!”