Whirlwind

1-Doubtful Sound
2-John and Te Anau Takahe
3-John and Lake Hauroko
4-House at Gemstone Beach
5-Rural tow truck

I'd hoped to have more time to spend updating the old blog today but alas, the last few weeks have been extremely busy. I'm subbing full time at the community college plus facilitating my online polytechnic course and my leadership courses at the Y started this past week, too. I'm really looking forward to leaving for Hawaii on Friday...

We did manage to get away for a very fun weekend, though. We took advantage of the local 2 for 1 special to Doubtful Sound. We thought we'd have the boat to ourselves, but the Milford Road was closed due to avalanche work so everyone hoping to see Milford Sound was rerouted to our trip. People were complaining because of how rainy the weather was but we were elated as it made for more impressive waterfalls!

On Sunday we chose to drive home via the scenic route. Along the way we stopped at Lake Hauroko, the deepest lake in New Zealand and a very special Maori place. Then we stopped at a few beaches on the way home--Gemstone Beach where I collected some rocks and took a picture of my favorite hobbit-like cliff crib and Cosy Nook, an artist colony my writing group recommended.

That's when our trip really became scenic. Driving out to Cosy Nook we were flagged down by a very wet young German tourist named Hans who had uncomprehensibly gotten his car stuck at a steep pitch in really deep mud heading towards the ocean. It took two hours and a lot of failed attempts, but we finally managed to free his car from plunging down onto the rocky beach through the help of a jovial Kiwi farmer with a huge tractor.

Our visions of lunch and a leisurely afternoon relaxing in front of the fireplace were dashed, but we were glad to be able and willing to help out. Several people we asked to help us help him actually said no! All we asked was for Hans to pay it forward...