No worries!

Back to the computer. Sorry that we are not writing so often in our blog anymore as we did in Nepal. There are so many things to do! Let me think what we have done the last two weeks. We drove from Christchurch to Arthurs Pass, did the Avalanche Peak Trail (WONDERFUL weather and view) drove through Methven to Oamaru met the Blue Pinguins at 22h in the evening and the Yellow Eyed in the morning at 6h. From Oamaru we had quite a bit of rain on the way to Dunedin (by the way please try to pronounce it...in german...DANIEDEN). In Dunedin we went to the Chocolate Factory (Cadbury). Sorry for the Swiss I never had the chance to visit Spruengli, but I will definetly do that when I am back....you get a lot of chocolate at least here... We actually stayed not in Dunedin but on the Otago Penninsula at the Mc Farmers Backpackers. Really nice place and you can right go to see the Albatross Colony. Heading south we saw millions of sheeps more than cows and dead possums on the street. The Catlins (right in the south) are wonderful too and there are not so many tourist.....but rain. We did not stay long in the Catlins and went as well through Invercargill and Dipton (sorry Thomas, we missed to visit your friends unfortunately), passed through Queenstown (there your start to feel old with all the young people looking for adventures: skydiving, paracliding etc....by the way just take a bus from Kathmandu to Pokhara, that is more than an adventure and your adrenalin level stays high for quite a while) stayed in Wanaka for a night and went to Lake Manapouri. Now imagine sunshine in Milford Sound, having breakfast on the cruise in the morning and then in the afternoon a 5hour tramp (for free) through rainforest, between mountains, climb next to a waterfall, then to a lake and reach (walking through snow) the Gertrud Saddle from which you can see the Milford Sound. AWESOME! Okay back in Manapouri we drove north to Haast and did the Welcome Flat Tramp (7hours to the Welcome Hut through rainforest). After the hike you can put yourself into the hot springs (really hot, not only nepalese hot) which is quite muddy of course. Really cool especially if you have the springs for your own. Nice Hut by the way, but guess what: RAIN again! So we hiked back took the car visited the Fox and the Franz Josef Glaciers and headed north to Charleston. Beautiful route if you have fair weather (what we did ;-)). The backpacker where we stayed was great as well. Solar powered, toilet working like a compost and everything so quiet and clean. Okay forget about the bushrat (not a jungle chicken as in Nepal) which was trying to get inside the wood on the roof. No really, if you are ever in Charleston go to the Beaconstone Backpackers. Ah, I almost forgot that we went to the Christmas Parade in Westport. Just imagine carneval in Oberdiebach ;-). It was just very small and a real Kiwi thing. Right now we are in Nelson and prepare our Abel Tasman Walk which will start overtomorrow. That is all for today. Hey we wish you all a wonderful 3. Advent.