We spent two days at Okiwi Bay on the north end of the south island of New Zealand. This gift was the result of an invitation from Jeanette who sat in front of us on our flight from LA to Auckland. After David lifted her bag from the luggage bin as we deplaned, she invited us to visit. Upon arriving in New Zealand from Antarctica, we realized we had not overburdened ourselves with planning this portion of our adventure. Following our noses led us to Milford Sound on a very wet day, which allowed us to view sheets of waterfalls streaming down rocky bluffs. Getting up early the following morning, we sailed out into Milford Sound, a beautiful, long fiord with waterfalls coming down cliff faces. Then, as the sun emerged, we enjoyed some kayaking in the sound and viewing the sea life at the Deep Underwater Observatory (at a depth of 3o feet underwater). We followed this in the evening with a cave walk to view Glow Worms that glow in the dark like fire flies. They have a very interesting cycle indeed.

We followed this up with visiting Lake Tekapo and our amazing night of astronomy. We figured we had lost our opportunity to see Aurora of the south when we left Antarctica. But, oh no, there it was in all its colorful glory.

We spent a quiet evening with Trevor, a Servas host, in the small town of Cheviot. He took us for a lovely walk and shared the history of the area.

Traveling the roads here has been easy. Most roads are quiet two lane roads built along the contours of the land so it is continuous beautiful scenery, very much a feast for the eyes.

New Zealanders are warm, friendly, welcoming, helpful people. They seem always ready to extend a helpful hand as evidenced by our latest hostess, Jeanette who welcomed us as though we were family. Upon leaving her home yesterday, we spotted an Australian couple from our Antarctica trip walking along the street of Kaikoura. We spent a couple hours together at the local flight museum and may likely see them while we are in Australia.

Today’s delight was swimming with dusky dolphins. They are the acrobats of the sea and love to show off.  Up at 5 am, we got fitted with wet suits, flippers and masks and motored out into the ocean. After about half an hour, we found a group of about 100 dusky dolphins just waiting to play with us. Into the ocean we slipped making goofy sounds which brought them right up to us. It was an unbelievably sweet experience. Since dolphins are nocturnal, we caught up with them just after feeding and they had very high energy as you can see in David’s photos.

So for us, the lack of plans has brought many gifts and possibilities.

Cynthia