to make you jealous!

a few more photos from yesterday!  it was so amazing.  i wasn't sure of the weather at first, because it was cloudy in te anau, but once we got through homer tunnel it was just BEAUTIFUL!  clear skies and everything!  (thanks easterly!  you can go back to westerlies now!)  we did a few stops along the way, a couple of times to deliver mail (i got to through a newspaper from a car window, through an automatic door and on top of a reception desk.  i made it and received an ovation!) and just to get out and look around.  one place, called the chasm, is where the first photo was taken.  the only thing is that there were so many tourist buses wherever we were.  i don't really like them much, but in some places they are just unavoidable.  (like uluru.)  the company i went with was small, just six of us in a van, which was fantastic.  we got into milford and onto a boat, and ate some lunch and just had a great cruise.  on the way out, the wind was behind us, so it was just so warm and sunny with some fantastic views of mitre peak, and out to anita bay and the end to turn around.  anita bay is the location of a form pounamu (greenstone) called taniwai.  at hollyford camp on the way in, i had purchased a taniwai pendant that is really pretty.  it's translucent and has the white markings that look like the tear tracks the name means.  i want to keep it, but you aren't supposed to buy greenstone for yourself.  it's supposedly bad luck, you're supposed to give it away.  it's a bit of a dilemma!  anyway, we came back by stirling falls, which is three times high as niagra falls.  that is in the photo from my previous post.  it's so fantastic!  when i was in te anau, i saw a film made by a local pilot called ata whenua (remember that "wh" makes an "f" sound) which means "shadow land", the maori name for the fiordlands.  it's so amazingly beautiful that i bought the dvd, but it has a scene with stirling falls in it.  so everyone can ooh and ahh with me when i get home!  after we finished on the boat, we went on a helicopter!  it was a bit of a splurge, but i was so excited, i had never been on a helicopter before!  we went up on a mountain, i can't remember which one, and stopped and were able to walk around on it!  and we went all over, to homer tunnel where we got off!  money well spent! milford area is very sharp mountains, it's so dramatic, so it was so cool to see it from the air.  and then we drove back, and i was so tired!  i didn't even do much actual moving around, but it was so exhausting anyway!  and it was so amazing.  and now i am back in dunedin, and kind of sad about it.  can't wait to get back on the road!