It was a good choice

Kayaking the Avon River through downtown Christchurch with Carl's parents and Daisy. What a beautiful and peaceful way to see the city! Thanks to my parents- they had been thinking of attempting this adventure for years.

Carl had some navigational issues:

Amazing earthquake damage- the famous twisted bridge:

We bravely took on our first Great Walk - the Kepler Track.

Day 1 - relaxing at the hut after 5 hours of walking uphill. Beautiful weather, scenery, and company:

Day 2 - Luxmore Hut, before the storm set in...

Day 2 - Luxmore Cave. In the morning we only explored the first hundred feet as we still had a lot of walking to do this day. If we had more time the cave can be explored for hours.

Day 2 - to Iris Burn Hut. The track was closed due to a Severe Gale. Of the twenty people staying at the hut the previous night, half went back the way they'd come, and half ventured forth despite the 110 kilometer/hour winds and rain. We decided to go for it! We knew we could turn around at any time if the wind became too strong.

It was a good choice

...but really hard work. At times we had to lock arms for stability against the wind. Because this days' six hour walk was all on exposed alpine ridges, there were two emergency shelters along the way. Thank goodness for the breaks!

Toilet with a view! Camille could barely get the door open due to the wind.

Day 3 - Eight hours walk through mossy forest in the rain. My face pretty much sums up our condition, but our spirits stayed high. After catching the bus back into town we could barely walk - ordering pizza has never been more luxurious!

The following day we were picked up at 5:40 AM for our Milford Sound kayaking adventure. Milford Sound is actually a fjord and is New Zealand's most popular tourist destination. Most everyone takes a boat tour with booming announcers and lots of people. We decided the best way to see the fjord was by kayak. It was just brilliant!

The scale of the landscape was hard to comprehend even while being there, but to get a sense, the waterfall in the centre of this photo is 8 kilometers away and three times as high as Niagara Falls. These steep mountains are over 5,000 feet high and descend just as steeply underwater.

The view towards Milford: