heading south towards the poles

so i have met up with brian (yes brian. yes i know. this is where an instruction manual would be nice and useful. any comments/questions should be emailed to me not posted.) and we have gotten in the blue station wagon and started heading south. incidentally the blue wagon needs a name if anyone is inclined to give one. it's no lava luge - it is just bigger. and I have offically driven on the wrong side of the road, negotiated some roundabouts and tried parking. it's weird bc it is so similar but at the same time so completely different.

so new zealand is absolutely beautiful. large green rolling hills with lots of sheep and some cows too. the roads are curvy and in some places frighteningly so, but otherwise enjoyable country roads masquerading as highways. we drove from auckland to palmerston north and spent the evening with toby and then headed down to catch the ferry across the cook strait. as we were driving towards the cook strait the wind was blowing the car around the road and it was quite stormy and rainy looking. i took another dramamine... just in case. the ferry was delayed an hour and a half and while our car was parked on the wharf waiting for the ferry it got a good spraying of salt. so much so that looking out my window was looking into a blizzard.

i am not sure how rough the seas in the cook strait were... i slept through most of it (in the rear of the ferry). brian woke me up when we left the more protected areas and headed into the open strait. the waves were four to five meters and i was glad to be in the back of the boat and not upset about falling back asleep. i dont know why i was so tired - i blame the non-drowsy dramamine. regardless i did not get sick. i think brian spent his time in the front of the ferry bouncing over the swells. i woke up for the end and went on deck for the marlbourough sounds - green mountains plunging into the bay. really beautiful. there was also a lot of aquaculture fish farms for me to ponder about.

back in the car to drive and drive. the road ot kaikoura was beautiful - crashing waves on one side and seals! (they even had a seal road sign i wish i had snapped a picture of. i wonder if the seals ever cross the road?) and mountains with really huge snow covered ones behind it on the other - which took me a while to realize bc i was so busy looking for the fur seals. oops. and there was this whole area of yellow mountains - all yellow bc of some flower related to the yellow nushes (forsythia?) we get at home. i loved them and did take a photo to post later. we eventually arrived in christchurch and visited with sam and his family. they are lovely folks and sam has loaned me some warm jackets and bush shirts since i am so obviously not adapted to this cold weather. hopefully i will become acclimated soon. my weekend of warmness was apparently a fluke and only on the north island.

today we are heading down towards queenstown and te anau (for those of you looking at maps look near the southern end of the south island on the west side - the fjiordland area). on the 17th we begin the milford track one of new zealand's most spectacular great walks. i dont know if i am up for it - and not sure this is the best choice for my first backpacking experience. however as i am told there is no time like the present and i am going to give it a go. so here goes all i've got...