Deeper and Deeper South

We've thrown much of our excess luggage into the house, repacked, and headed out for more adventure on the South Island.  After motoring over Mount Rimutaka to Wellington, we boarded the Interislander ferry bound for Picton, South Island.  It's about a three-hour journey through breathtaking sounds.  The mountains pop right up out of the water and are covered in green foliage.

We stayed at a bed and breakfast a couple of hours south of Picton.  It was adjacent to a vineyard and the entire back side of the house was made up of picture windows that looked out at the mountains.  I awoke Saturday morning just before dawn and slipped outside to take photographs of the mountains as they awoke; they didn't disappoint me.  Their pink and purple hues gradually filled the horizon, and I snapped away until I noticed a little gurgling sound coming from the swimming pool.  It turns out that a hedgehog and fallen into the pool sometime overnight and was paddling away for its life.  After pondering several ways to rescue the creature, I settled on the most logical one: wake up Glenn.  He immediately scooped the hedgehog out of the water and softly tossed him onto the deck.  Our little quilled friend stayed on the deck quite a while, likely exhausted from its ordeal, so Katy and Beth saw it when they awoke.

Our next stop was Christchurch, and Beth chose the B&B partly for its grand piano.  We stayed there Saturday night and will stay one more night before renting a motorhome and going "RVing."

Last night Glenn took the girls to the swimming beach to try out their new wetsuits.  Even though it's late spring here, the water temperatures stay fairly cold, so regular swimsuits just don't cut it.  They had a ball at the beach and came home covered in fine grey sand.

Today (Sunday) we went to the Antarctic Experience Museum.  It's an international exhibit with cooperation from New Zealand, the US, and Italy.  Quite a place!  We watched a penguin feeding, saw a 4D movie about travelling to Antarctica, and rode in a Hagglund all-terrain vehicle.  We also experienced a simulated Antarctic storm with winds over 26 mph and wind chills of -2 F.  Brr!  At least they gave us parkas before we entered the exhibit!

I'm looking for the best way to post up photos of our travels.  If anyone has suggestions for an online album, please email me.  I look forward to sharing pictures of some of the beautiful things we are seeing.