Wha? You're in New Zealand?

I know, we fell off the planet, and ironically, we've had really good internet access. Don't judge, we had important things to do, like figure out where we are going in Japan (and New Zealand for that matter), and Mike just HAD to watch Lost :)  Anyway, I'll write a longer post today on the ferry and post it the next time we're online, but our week in NZ so far has been great.  We spent a couple of nights in Christchurch just getting oriented, went punting on the Avon (they fancy themselves an English city), went to an amazing craft market with silverware candelabras (Bailey, new business? They were awesome), climbed a church tower and hung out.

Then we picked up a rental car and droooooove to Queenstown, center of adventure on the south island.  It is also adorable, and incredibly scenic (mountain town on a lake... you know).  We spent our first day just checking everything out, went for a nice long walk, ate lunch by the lake, etc.  We wanted to go paragliding, but the weather was wrong (wind direction/strength is important). That night we went to a New Zealand Quiz Night (you know how we love trivia!) and as a two person team, we managed to come in 8th out of 12! Which is amazing, considering our teams usually come in around there and here there was a round on New Zealand geography....

The following day we actutally got to go paragliding! It was lovely, that will have to be described later though.

That afternoon we drove back to Christchurch up the west coast, which was GORGEOUS.  Really changing and beautiful scenery.  Really enjoyed it.  That brings us to yesterday! Whirlwind, I know.  Anyway, yesterday we took the Tranzscenic railway to Kaikoura on the East Coast.  The journey was a little funny, we were fogged in for a lot of it, I started calling it the Trans-sorta-scenic railway, but then it got beautiful on the coast. We got in in the morning, and weren't sure if we would be able to go whale watching (which is what this town is famous for, and it is only done by one locally owned Maori company), because Mike had a bunch of work to do all day... but yesterday there was a 3:30 tour, and by that time the weather cleared and it was really pretty.... And we saw a whale! A sperm whale named Taiaki, who looked at us (twice, apparently rare) and hung out on the surface for like 10 minutes and did an awesome dive.  Then we found a pod of Dusky Dolphins (look them up, adorable), they said there were around 100, we were surrounded, it was magical.  We also saw a number of Wandering Albatross (they are huge, and I think endangered), amazing birds.

Today we get back on the train, then head to the ferry across to Wellington, then on to our week of North Island adventure!  Phew... That was some fast typing.  Happy Passover/Easter to you all!