Kaikoura and Lake Tekapo, south island, New Zealand

Caitlyn and Julia on ferry to the south island

Hello there!

We are on the south island and got to Lake Tekapo last night. We are staying at a nice hostel for 2 nights and enjoying some down time.  We have some good use of internet now so I thought I'd take the time to catch up and post some pics.

When we stayed at the large YHA hostel in Wellington, we asked one of the front desk guys, James, for his opinion on how to best see the south island in 6 days. We acknowledged that we are crazy Americans and are trying to shove as much as we can in a little amount of time. He agreed and perused the map for a while then thought some more and finally suggested we travel down the east coast of the south island. There are more tourist things to see and do on the west coast, but the east coast is faster and more straight (which we like since we both struggle a bit with carsickness!). He suggested we stay in Kaikoura the first night and then travel on down to Lake Tekapo. His suggestions proved perfect and we are thoroughly enjoying this route!

We found an adorable hostel in Kaikoura called the Albatross. It was by far our favorite overnight stop so far. The owners were very welcoming and friendly and even had free food nights once in a while! We were very tempted to stay an extra night for free spud night, but decided to keep on going. Kaikoura is a coastal town and is very beautiful. We got to walk out toward a seal colony and see some seals.

Here are some pics from Wednesday:

Caitlyn knitting on the ferry over to the south island

Beautiful Kaikoura coastline

Julia on Kaikoura coast - I had a bad cold so didn't feel great!

Two seals we saw near the beach

We did a hike today up to Mt. John, which overlooks Lake Tekapo. This is a really beautiful area and we're so glad we get to have a couple of days here!

 Overlooking Lake Tekapo from Mt. John summit

 Us in front of old church on Lake Tekapo

 Pretty old church

 Julia in front of Mt. John - we hiked to the top!

Julia at the summit of Mt. John

I'm gonna sign off now so that Caitlyn can watch the Portland Timbers soccer game home opener online! She's a die-hard fan, I tell ya! 

We drive to Dunedin tomorrow to visit my friend Elizabeth and family. It will be nice to spend the weekend with them before driving up to Christchurch on Monday. We fly out early Tues morning! It's been a wonderful trip and we're so grateful we got to come here!

P.S. I really wanted a milkshake today and ordered a "thick shake"...it was disgusting. I'm not even sure the girl put real ice cream in it, I think she may have just blended some milk and flavor stuff with some powdered "shake thickener" powder - gross. Oh well, I doctored it up with some peanut butter and hot choc mix and stuck it in the freezer, we'll see how it turns out!