Brisbane

Today has been all around a great day. I checked in for my flight to Brisbane this morning and the person helping me made sure i had a window seat and reserved the other two seats next to me so I would have a whole row to myself. The flight ended up being full except for my row and i think that confused a few people who were fighting for my isle seat....I arrive in Brisbane a bit late today, but that was made up for by the hotel i am staying in, the Carlton Crest. I have to say it is one of the nicest hotels i've ever been in. With in minutes of settling in to my room a free bottle of champagne was delivered to my room!! After relaxing for a bit and taking a shower i was picked up by Andrew Smith, who i know through a cigar store here. We proceeded to meet up with Lisa, who also works at the store and had a few drinks and a very nice dinner (the name escapes me but I will come up with it before i leave). I appologize but no pictures from tonight but i will do my best to catch up tomorrow. Sounds like they have a great couple of days in store for me here and I will keep you all up todate...

Last night in Palmerston

Relaxing with Amy's flatmates after a nice trout meal!! (Amy has a picture of the feast, will post when i get it)
The selection of wines we had with dinner!!! (no they are not all mine!!)

Lake Topo

View driving around Lake Tapo
View of the lake near the boat ramp.
First Catch of the day.
View from the boat.
After about an hour of fishing (there are two more in a bucket under my feet!!)
A snow covered Mt. Doom (from lord of the rings)
More snow covered mountains on the drive from Tapo to Palmerston.

Wine tasting in Hawke's Bay

Wine tasting at Hatton Estate Vineyard. Guy in the grey sweater is the winemaker and we are in the temp. controlled wine storage room enjoying some of the good stuff. (he only sells to top notch restaurants like Boulevard!!)
The really good stuff you have to label yourself.
I'm putting the finishing touches on a bottle of "The Doctor" Syrah.

Random pictures from Palmerston North

One of the fine places to visit while in Palmerston (It was closed when i stopped by)
Part of the windfarm located just outside of Palmerston.

Off to Brisbane

Yesterday turned out to be a great day. On the advice of several locals in Napier I headed up to Lake Topo and had a great day of Trout Fishing. I caught 6 very nice sized fish and brought 3 home and cooked for Amy and her flat mates. Now i am getting ready to head off to Brisbane. I will work on pictures from the past few couple of days and try to post them tonight.

Napier

I headed up to Napier today on my own since Amy had a bit of biochem studying to do. I arrived around 1pm and was able to jump on a wine tour through Hawks Bay with a british family. After visiting some fantastic vineyards we went out to dinner at a place called Soak located within the Ocean spas and then played a few games of pool at a local bar. I have some great pictures from our day that I will post when i get back to Palmerston North tomorrow night.

Video Test

Jason sent me some HTML code to post videos but I have not been able to connect with my FTP server to upload the videos so I am trying out a free video service to see how it works. I know I know, you are all saying you are in NZ and should be out doing things, but today is cold, cloudy and very windy so i'm taking my time heading out. The quality is not that great so i will work on it more when i get home. Until then here is a video of the baby seals playing in a waterfall:

Palmerston North

Well our vacation on the south island has come to an end and we are back at Amy's flat in Palmerston North. Yesterday was beautiful day we spent touring the vineyards. We started off at Lawson's dry hills, then went to witherhills, and then had lunch at whitehaven. In the afternoon we visited Ta Whare Ra (by far the best), mud hills, seresin, and cloudy bay. We ended the day at the local chocolate factory. We were accompanied by a copule from Melbourne who turned out to be a lot of fun. We ended up having dinner at a place called Bacchus that was very tasty. I have posted a few more pictures from our trip to Kaikoura and a few from Blenheim (we did not take many due to the large amount of wine consumed).

Now that Amy has to get back to her studies I plan on making a trip to another part of the north island but i'm not sure exactly where yet. Perhaps Hawks bay for more wine tasting or up to one of the lakes for some trout fishing. I will keep you all informed!! More pictures to come!!

Blenheim

Drive to Blenheim
Jim at the Seresin Vineyard
Veiw from the Witherhills estate

Day in Kaikoura

Amy and the seals (sleeping on the left behind the rocks)
View from the tasting room of the Kiakoura Vineyard
Amy outside the Kaikoura Vineyard
View from the warf on south bay Kaikoura
Another view from the warf
Seal that came up to check out the boat
View from the boat back toward Kaikoura
Juvinile Albatross
Amy fishing
Jim with some Sea Pearch (they sure look like huge goldfish, yummy!!)
Baby Seals playing in a freshwater waterfall (I have video I will post once Jason tells me how to do it)

Blenheim

After a full day of fun in Kaikoura including some off shore fishing for sea pearch and blue cod, dolphin watching, feeding albatross, checking out the seal colony, wine tasting, and watching baby seals play in a fresh water waterfall; we packed up our fish, bought a crayfish and headed to Blenheim were we stayed in a backpackers called Koanui. We enjoyed a huge dinner of fish, crayfish, potatoes and of course local wine while meeting two girls from Germany and a couple from Arizona. Today we are going on a full day wine tour and moving to the Ch Marlborough for one last night stay on the south island. Sorry no pics right now as the computer i'm using does not have a way to upload them from my memory card or camera. Will try later on tonight hopefully with some great vineyard shots as well!!

Kaikoura

After a nice day of caving in Greymouth we decided to head over to the east coast and visit the town of Kaikoura. We have plans to go deep sea fishing in the afternoon and then head up to Blenhiem in the evening. Here are some pictures from the drive over and the sunrise this morning.

Views driving over Lewis pass.

Amost a full moon, we are getting our howling shoes on!!
View from our room at the seaview motel.
Sunrise at 6:45am!!

Caving in Greymouth

Todays caving group, a little bigger than yesterday!!

The hike in.

The group getting ready to head into the cave..

Cave entrance, looks a little better today!!

Getting ready to go through some neat side caves!!

I think something just swam by my leg!!

Underground waterfalls are cool!!

Amy in a tight spot!!

Jim about to be sliding backwards!!

Amy riding down the waterslide

Amy falling in a deep puddle on the hike out..

caving the first try

Our small group, including the guide, Mitch
We are all excited to go caving!!
A view along the hike to the cave
The inside of the cave, as seen by only Mitch. Guess we will have to try again tomorrow.

Caving the first try

Since caving was a bust we decided to hit the local pub, but since we were not wearing the proper attire we had to stay outside..

Steve Irwin

As i'm sure many know the Croc. Hunter Steve Irwin was killed a couple of days ago..Not sure how much press it is getting back home but here it is a big deal and many seem to be directly effected by it....Just thought i would share that little bit...

Greymouth

Amy and I just finished eating dinner in the Hotel, turns out there is a good place right in the hotel to eat dinner. This was a good thing since most the places around town had closed up by around 8pm...The hotel bar is situated right next to the wireless network so i am enjoying some local brew next to the fire while typing. Hope to have lots of good pictures from caving tomorrow!! Cheers...

Greymouth

This is the view along the river located accross the street from our hotel, the Kingsgate. We got stuck in the rooms with no view which for the price we paid is a crime!! All in all it is a nice hotel, but i'm sure one can find better!!

View from our hotel in Fox Glacier

These three pictures make up the panoramic view from our back porch...I think this is the best part of our hotel as I would not recommend in the future.