Queenstown

Takaka is in the far north of the South Island, Queenstown is in the far south. Alex and I spent the last four days on the road traveling from Takaka to Queenstown (13 hours driving time). We met a commercial fishing boat chef on his way to a 6-day shift on the boat, a man on his way to 4 days of coal mining, a young American girl who is trying to immigrate to New Zealand, a Indian couple from the UK that travels the world working in the oil industry, a local farmer who was proud his kids don't get bored on the farm on weekends, an accountant on his way to meet with some important money people and probably a few more I'm not recalling. All of the New Zealanders shared a common love for the 'native bush', from coal miner to accountant all could point out the native trees, the native birds and tell us the history of the land.

We spent one night on a beach in the middle of nowhere and enjoyed the first campfire of this trip. We had lunch at a salmon farm. We had this sandwich the call 'white bait', which is sort of like a bunch of minnows fried in egg. We past oceans, mountains, beaches, native bush and waterfalls. We spent hours on the side of the road, attempting to entertain each other while waiting for a ride.

We've been eating a lot of cheese, tomato and avocado sandwiches and Alex has had a nice cup of coffee every morning.