Kaikoura

Another quick picture post! Kaikoura (made of up the Maori "kai" meaning "food," and "koura," meaning something like "of the sea") is famous for it's wildlife and, oddly enough, it's seafood. There's a HUGE ocean trench right off shore which they call the Whale Highway, along with a coral reef sort of thing, that all comes together to create a GREAT place for whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions, fish, turtles, and all kinds of stuff!

And I went on a whale watch! It was AWESOME, and we saw FOUR sperm whales! For those of you that don't know, that's effing rare.



Whale tail!

Mt. Cook

I made it up to Mt. Cook after Queenstown, and it was pretty amazing. I had a cold (and honestly I was still a bit sore from my scaling of Ben Lomond) so I didn't try any of the walks, but I DID get to see the Sir Edmund Hillary museum, which was super cool! Mt. Cook is the tallest mountain in NZ, and it's what Sir Ed practiced on for Everest.

"It is an act of worship just to sit and look at a high mountain"
-Sir Edmund Hillary

Part of the memorial to all the climbers who have died in the attempt.


Me and the man himself, life size. I ALMOST measure up.

The sun hitting the mountain range the morning we left.

Milford Sound

Alright, here are a couple of picture posts of the last few things I did before I got back up to Auckland! First, Milford Sound. Which is actually a misnomer, as a sound is a riverbed that the sea has eventually flooded. It's ACTUALLY a fjord, which is a part of the sea that's had land raised up through it. *pushes nose bridge of dorky glasses*

HERE WE GO

There's no way to show the scale of this place. Just imagine craning your neck up and STILL not being able to see the top very well.


There are so many waterfalls!

Here's the bottom of one...


Here's the famous Miter Peak, which is apparently the most photographed mountain in New Zealand!
Just. Beautiful.