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After a night of rain, storms and wind so strong I thought it was going to knock us over, I finally got up at the crack of dawn to get started on my new project, entirely changing the next three weeks of our vacation. Once we had breakfast and headed out, and managed to get past the roadblock of a herd of sheep being moved to a new pasture (those dogs are SO IMPRESSIVE!), we stopped in a cute little town and found a cafe with free wifi. We got a couple of cups of coffee (they call it Americano here, but it's just espresso with extra water to put it in a bigger cup) and a nosh, we sat down to start tackling our new logistics. Four hours, two cups of coffee and lunch later, we had made pretty good progress. We finally headed out, arriving at the Holiday Park in Glentunnel around 4:00, where I bought another 10 gigs of wifi for NZ$5, and used it to start uploading pictures and doing more research on things to do in Australia! That went on far longer than I should have done, with Hubby falling asleep by about 8:30, and me carrying on til after 11. Finally got to bed, though, much quieter here after last night!

Woke up to sound of real roosters crowing just outside our window a good 45 minutes before the alarm went off, which was fine because I had already been awake for nearly two hours, listening to the pounding rain. As we were winding down our New Zealand leg of the journey, my mind was starting to turn to the next leg, the botched cruise. The more I started thinking about it, the more I came to the conclusion that sitting on a ship for 5 days to get to a place that we could be in less than 4 hours was a monumental waste of time. For us, vacation is about how much we can see and do in a short period of time, and with the change of itinerary of the cruise ship, we were getting on on Saturday and not getting off again until at least Thursday (at a port that had no excursions) and not in Sydney until Friday! Six days of doing nothing but sit around reading, eating, drinking, and NOT seeing anything of any country. So I concocted that idea that maybe we could try to get our money back from the cruise line (which turned out to be wishful thinking, as they had NO incentive to do that - it's a rigged system, I soon learned), but did learn that our credit card benefits included trip insurance, so with the proper paperwork we should be able to recover any losses we take by canceling the cruise. Instead, we would fly out early to Sydney, rent another campervan (they're even MORE affordable over there!) and drive around the countryside for two weeks there, fly over to Kuala Lumpur and rent a car there (it's cheaper to do so in Malaysia than Singapore, saving us even more money), and giving us an extra week there before we resume our regular schedule for Hong Kong. By the time Hubby woke up to the sound of the feral roosters, I shared by idea with him. It was such an about-face after all the planning I had done, he couldn't get his head around it, but as the day wore on, he became more and more convinced that it was a better way to go. He liked the idea of spending more time in Malaysia, his desired destination to begin with, but that was cut short by the late arrival of the cruise ship and an impending deadline to get home, so he was game to try it. It will mean a lot of logistics for me to figure out, but I was game, too. We managed to get going pretty early, and headed out for another day of sight-seeing and landscape viewing. In Middlemarch, we stopped for a quick coffee and nosh, then stopped again in Omarama at a nice little shop with a cafe in back and free wifi for customers, so we ordered a cup of tea and another nosh and proceeded to start my research, spending several hours learning about campervans in Australia and flight information and so on. There's one important phone call I need to make first thing in the morning that will set this whole thing in motion, then off I'll go, turning the next two weeks of our schedule upside down! (Tee-hee!!) We left the cafe at 5:00 when they closed, and drove through Twizel (where part of the Wargs chase from Lord of the Rings was filmed here; and the largest battle scene ever - the Battle of the Pelennor Fields - was set in a remote Twizel field, until we reached Lake Pukaki, which has the most unusal light blue color for a freshwater lake, strictly glacier blue, so different you can even see it from the satellite views on Google Earth! Closest thing I've seen to it has been around some of the islands in the Bahamas, absolutely gorgeous. We found a bit of a dune area on the far side of a causeway where many other campers had already bedded down for the night (even though it was only about 5:30), and settled down for the first hot-cooked meal in days! Though the weather had cleared up for most of the drive, it was still cloudy and occasionally spitting with rain and wind, obscuring what is no doubt an incredible view of Mt. Cook at the end of the lake, but which I am hoping will become clear later, or at least in the morning. Still haven't seen the Southern Cross, and now we're running out of time, at least in New Zealand. Settled in for the most relaxing evening we've had in a while, though we've had to put the heater on, as the mountains around the lake are still covered with snow, and I'm guessing the blue water is pretty darn cold, too! Tomorrow, we only have a few hours drive to the Holiday Park I've reserved, and I'm going to have to buy some wifi time to start getting all this stuff done for the major shift in our vacation plans!

Having left Glenorchy early and getting a head start, we delayed our departure from the Holiday Park in Kingston long enough to do a load of laundry before leaving. Nevertheless, we were still out before the checkout time of 10:00, and we headed south to the town of Bluff, which lies at the southernmost tip of New Zealand. The drive was straightforward, becoming flatter as we went, until we reached the end of the line, where this is an old lighthouse structure, and a park dedicated to those hardy souls that survived the rough weather to create a settlement there. There were two restaurants on the ride, but one of them had experienced a fire and had been closed a few months, the other was open and crowded, so Hubby and I decided to try to find someplace else in town where we could get oysters, the local specialty. We had no luck with that, and ended up driving out of town without eating, which was probably better anyway. We followed my planned route, but bypassed the Papatowai campground where I had planned to stay because it was too early in the day. We ended up making the drive all the way to Dunedin and beyond, out the Otago peninsula to a place called the Penguin Place, where there is a sanctuary for the rare yellow-eyed penguin, of which there are apparently only about 250 breeding pairs left on the mainland of New Zealand, though there are two islands further south that are apparently doing better because there are no humans around, but no one know for sure because no one lives there to count them. Anyway, after discussing the tour with the office folks, we were thoroughly discouraged that Hubby wouldn't be able to make the trek because it required some walking up and down steep steps, but he insisted I go and take pictures. After paying the requisite $54 entry fee, our tour started out about 10 minutes later, just enough time to grab a sandwich, as we still hadn't eaten all day, commiserating the Hubby was going to miss seeing the penguins. I was then treated to a 15 minute lecture on the life cycle of the penguin, then we were taken to the penguin hospital which was only steps away from the lecture room! There we saw a dozen or more juveniles being rehabilitated for a number of reasons, and we all took pictures and dutifully "ooh-ed" and "aw-ed," but I was a bit upset by this time, as they had made it sound like Hubby wouldn't be able to see any penguins at all without going to the sanctuary, and here they were just feet away! Then we were herded onto two buses and shuttled about five minutes out to the beach where there was one sole penguin on the beach, along with a handful of seals and a flock of seagulls. We were then led into trenches so that we could sneak up on a couple of other juveniles to take pictures, though all the while I was quietly seething that Hubby had been excluded from the early trip to the penguin hospital. After another half an hour of walking trenches and making the requisite noises, we finally trundled back to the buses, already 15 minutes late, to get back to the office. At that point, the woman who took the tour group on the other bus, and who had originally made a fuss about Hubby not being able to come with us, had already arrived back and disappeared, so I asked the nice young man who had toured our group (and had done a damn sight better job making it all more interesting) if it were possible for my husband to at least peak into the hospital so he could see the penguins before we leave (and it was a very long drive out to the end of the peninsula) and he kindly agreed. I gathered up Hubby and we walked over to view the penguins for about 5 minutes, for which we were very grateful, but I have to admit I was still seething over our earlier treatment. At least Hubby got to see them. But this time we were well on our way to dusk, and we headed back west along the bay, and fortunately we had noticed a couple of good spots to stop for the night not too far down the road, and selected one that was rather hidden back into the trees just a short way from the Penguin Place. We quickly settled in for the night, and frankly, wondering if it was worth all the time and effort to save just a handful of intransigent penguins who refused to adapt to the new reality. I know that sounds a bit cruel, but this group is trying to shut down all commercial fishing in the area in order to save 15 penguins. I get that commercial fishing practices should be more targeted, that a lot of waste occurs, and that can certainly be improved on, but banning all commercial fishing around the entire southeast coast of New Zealand seems like a bit of an extreme position. To casually say that the entire fishing industry could be replaced by eco-tourism is a bit too pat for those who have relied on that industry for generations. Oh well, that's a battle for another day! Off to bed!

We both slept like logs now that we're used to the hard bed, and were up and going shortly after 8:00 again. Took yet another road through the mountains, with more gorgeous, eye-popping views. The road took us past the Franz Josef glacier and it's accompanying town, sort of like a little Vail before it was famous, very cute, though pretty crowded. We crossed the "Southern Alps" past Fox glacier as well, until we finally stopped just before Queenstown to do some shopping. Turns out Queenstown is a major tourist trap, very crowded and busy, reminded us of Aspen during the high season. After shopping and fuel, we headed along the narrow road up to Glenorchy, where many iconic scenes from the LOTR was filmed. One thing we've seen hundreds of are backpackers, and Glenorchy was full of them. We decided to camp at a DOC camp called Lake Sylvan, the trailhead of the Routeburn trail. It literally passed the horse farm where we would be riding tomorrow, and we in fact turned in to get acquainted, and to see if they had a wifi signal. I've been astonished at how difficult it has been to find wifi, the New Zealanders are extremely dear with it. Our first campground gave me a free 100 mb allowance (the same as my monthly allotment from Verizon on my international package!), but it didn't last 10 minutes! Apparently checking email and loading up two pictures is enough to clear that out, would you believe. I learned that I probably should have bought a wifi sim card from a company called Sparkz, apparently for $5 you get 5 (or maybe 20, can't remember which) gigs of data and a rechargeable sim card, and they have little kiosks all over the place, like at gas stations and restaurants. But I didn't want to be a slave to finding a Sparkz site, so I'll just have to save everything up for when I get more wifi freedom (maybe Australia?) Or get home, whichever comes first. Anyway, we headed out to Sylvan Lake, with the last bit being a washboard gravel road somewhat like the way brother Jeff's road used to be before they made a deal with someone to grade it regularly, past more pastures full of sheep (which we've seen millions of since we've been here), until we reached the open area that was the campground. Nicely laid out, each site was a semicircle of grass around a loop. We quickly found a spot near the water spigot and got settled in. After dinner, I took a walk on the Routeburn Trail, which started with a suspended walking bridge over a stream, then spilled out into a dark and creepy forest, though the trail was very manicured, upraised with packed down gravel, bridges over every little stream. More like a walk in the woods rather than a hike. Came back and settled down for the evening, looking forward to our ride tomorrow!

Up with the alarm just before 7:00, as we had a fairly long day of driving today (had I only known!) After breakfast and some cleanup, we were out before 8:30. The weather had cleared and the sun was out, though it was a bit cold in the morning, it seemed promising to warm up through the day. We headed out, having seen signs and heard stories about how one of the main roads to Christchurch had been destroyed by an earthquake and traffic was still being detoured, but it didn't matter because we weren't going anywhere near there. Anyway, we drove until lunchtime, when we stopped for fuel and fish and chips in a town called Reefton, then we headed out again on what we knew was Highway 7. What we didn't realize until 3 hours later, was that we headed in the wrong direction. Both go south, but one goes southeast, the other southwest. We ended up practically in Christchurch before we realized it! After considerable self-chastisement, we looked for a way to correct the error, and the only practical route was Hwy. 72 through Arthur's Pass, which would essentially zag the zig we had just made across the country, without going all the way back to Reefton. It was another 5 hours of driving (it was now 4:00,) but we figured we could find a different campground on the way if it got too late. So we headed back west again, or actually, northwest. As stupid as the mistake was, it turned out to be an INCREDIBLE GIFT. This is a must-see drive for anyone on the South Island of New Zealand! It's actually called the Inland Scenic Route, for good reason. Very boring along the plains when you first start out, but once you reach the mountains, incredible! We would have missed this if we hadn't made the mistake, and that would have been a terrible shame! Gorgeous view, fabulous windy roads, a snow-capped mountain, just a stunning experience! When we finally reach the coast, we started looking for a place to spend the night, and as the sun started to go down, I finally pulled out my Google Earth map of all the DOC camps, and discovered one just a few miles down the coast, and we arrived just as the sun was setting. Perfect timing! The ¾ moon was up, the campground, though very busy, still had plenty of room for us, and we settled in quickly, foregoing a cooked dinner since we had fish and chips for lunch. Hubby started getting a sore throat today, so he headed off to bed after a cup of tea and was asleep moments later. I'll be joining him shortly, time to brush teeth and go to bed!

In perfect accord with my plan, we headed out even earlier than scheduled, battling some pretty serious wind which indicated the ferry crossing may be a bit rough today, so on the way we stopped in a very cute little cow town called Bull, of course! Everything in town was full of Bull, as the picture of a sign there indicates! We stopped at a pharmacy to get some Tylenol (which they had to look up to get an equivalent), and some joint tablets, and I was thinking about getting some dramamine for the crossing, but the pharmacist was pretty adamant that it would make me drowsy, and I didn't want that since I had more driving to do, so I decided to take my chances. We took a leisurely drive, and even with the stops along the way, we arrived at the ferry nearly an hour before check in. I considered walking to the terminal to do some computer work, since they advertised free wifi, but we were parked quite a ways away, and the wind was howling and cold, so I decided to wait until we were on the ship. We had bought a local newspaper at the grocery store where we had stopped to get a loaf of bread and some crackers which I hoped would settle my stomach on the rough seas, so we sat around and read that most of the wait the hour, which turned into two hours because of some loading trouble they were having. Eventually we were herded into the ferry, which was huge, and carrying dozens of semi tractor trailers, most with a double trailer. Unlike most ferries we've seen, where you drive in one end and out the other, this one you had to drive in, then turn around inside the ship, so that you're pointing out when disembarkation came. Crazy! Once we got the campervan parked inside, we went up into the enclosed area, and I found an electrical plug where I hooked up my computer, then tried to get wi-fi, which was no easy task. It was very intermittent and frustrating. In the end, I just waited until my computer was fully charged, then joined Hubby in watching an old movie they were showing in one of the lounge areas. Toward the end of the trip we decided that the 1 ½ hour ride in Glenorchy was too short, so I contacted them about a longer ride, so now we're set up with a 5 hour ride, which Hubby feels strong enough to do, having proven that with the ride yesterday. Looking, SO forward to that! We finally docked at a very late 5:30, and it was 6:00 by the time we were driving down the ramp into Picton. The original plan had been to drive to a DOC camp about and an hour and fifteen minutes away, but there was no water there except from a stream, so we decided on a Holiday Park in Blenheim only 20 minutes away, where we could do laundry and refill with water, as we had used up all of it with showers and dishwashing, and dump everything as well. We arrived and were settled in in a site by the river, with a gaggle of ducks wandering around, and that was just across from one of the laundry rooms, which also had a kitchen. Unfortunately, the laundry had two washers and only one dryer, so I had to wait for both. Eventually got that done, dinner made, and was getting ready for bed when I got a notice from Verizon that I had already used up my entire monthly allotment of data! In only THREE DAYS! I had been so careful about turning off my mobile data, but there were a couple of times when I just had to go online, but I had no idea what could have used up that much data in so short a time. Anyway, I ended up in a chat room with "Charlie" who assured me he could solve everything, but in the end my only recourse was to up my plan and stop using it, essentially. He connected me with someone who was supposed to walk me through exactly what used up the data, but that didn't turn out to be true. Anyway, make a long story short, I was on the phone arguing with them until well past 11:00, was sound wound up I had to read for awhile, then finally turned out the light and hit the hay. Or should I say Hard Hay, for this bed is not exactly soft!

After waking up fairly refreshed, we had our breakfast and headed out on the 45 minute drive to Hobbiton. It was easy to find, and the landscape was really in describable, but you could almost tell when you were in "The Shire." Though we saw very little traffic on the road there, when we arrived, the parking lot was crowded and there were plenty of folks milling about between the ticket booth, gift shop, the cafe upstairs, and the lines gathering to hop on the tour buses that were leaving every 15 minutes or so. We met our tour guide, an American who was working throughout New Zealand for the summer named Nathaniel, which was a little disappointing because we were kind of hoping the hear a Kiwi accent for the tour, but Nate was a pretty good guide, a real Hobbit aficionado with some great stories about some of the scenes, and props and secenery and actors and director interaction. Hobbiton itself was adorable, with many more Hobbit doors than are ever seen the in the movie, many in different perspectives to make it look just right depending on who the actor was standing next to them. One of the more interesting stories dealt with a huge tree just above Bag End, which in the book is supposed to be an oak, but what was there in reality was a huge pine. Director Peter Jackson evidently wanted to hire a crew to pick off every pine needle and replace them with fake oak leaves, but was talked out of it due to its sheer impossibility. Instead, they moved the entrance to Bad End off to one side and installed an entire fake oak tree, the only fake foliage in the entire place. When I first saw it, I thought the color was a bit off, but apparently it was exactly the color Jackson wanted. We didn't hear the story about it being fake until after we left the area, and along the path I looked down and saw an oak leaf of the strange color and picked it up. I had already told Hubby I thought the leaves had been painted or something, because it didn't look real, and sure enough, the leaf was plastic! So I knew the truth before the whole story. So now I'm the proud owner of a plastic Hobbit oak leaf! It was an excellent tour, though we were a bit disappointed we weren't allowed to wander on our own, we had to stay with the group, but Nate was pretty good about not rushing anyone. After the 90 minute walking tour, we ended up at the Green Dragon Inn and had our choice of alcohol free ginger beer, 1% Hobbit beer (which apparently they served at Bilbo's 111th birthday party during the filming), and 5% stout. Of course, we had the stout! Then we discovered there was a small counter serving a couple of classic British items, including pork pie by the slice and beef and ale pie in a tart shell, and since Hubby hadn't had a real pork pie in 40 years, he simply had to have some, and it was exactly as he remembered it (something you can't get in the states, at least not that we'd ever found). I had the beef tart, and we washed it all down with the stout in the 15 minutes between the tour's end and the ride back to the parking lot. The weather was perfect, Nate was great, and the entire experience was delightful, all that we had hoped it would be! We had talked about having lunch at the cafe, but they didn't have anything like at the Green Dragon, so we were glad we ate when we did. We hopped back into the campervan (I'm now getting used to shifting and driving on the left), and headed south on some beautiful back roads to the Tongariro National Park. We had no trouble finding the DOC Campground we were looking for, but then we headed into "town" to see where we would be meeting the leader of our next adventure in the morning, and discovered the gas station they were referring to. Not really much there, a Youth Hostel with lots of backpackers, a bar, a cafe, and a very few adventure outfitters. We headed back to camp, which was only about 5-10 minutes away, found ourselves a nice spot, opened up the door, got out our cheap plastic table and chairs, and was soon enjoying our beverage in the great outdoors. It wasn't long before I made dinner, and not much longer after that that we got into bed, after rearranging it to stay warm for the night, quilt on top, dressed in long underwear. I downloaded my pictures of the day (157!) before crawling into bed. We both started to read, and didn't get very far before we both fell asleep, What a great day! Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!