the south island is amazing..

Sorry for the long time no blog..
We just finished two fantastic hikes in the south. One of which we would have missed completly if it hadn't been foor a wonderful Canadian lady we met @ a hostel.

Queen Charlotte Trail:
This hike is amazing. We spent a lot of time taking in the views and saying things like:
"wow"
"oh my"
"golly"
This particular hike is the ultimate in backpacker decadence (or wimpy-ness depending on your view). The thing is, there are really posh hostels right on the trail. You literally hike right into your hostel, so you don't have to stay in a tent if you don't want to. We're not talking about dorm-type hostels either folks, these are really nice and really personal hostels. But here's the real kicker: you dont have to carry any of your bags, they're picked up and dropped off for you at every hostel you stay via a water taxi. It's amazing, our bags were right there waiting for us when we got to the hostel. We got some great pictures of the place which I'll upload when I'm on a better computer.

Abel Tasman Trail:
This is one of New Zealand's Great Walks and in true NZ style, it was beautiful. We were only 2 days on this trail, we kayaked part of the trail and hiked another part of it. Unfortunatly the day we kayaked was pretty cold and cloudy but we still had a great time and got some great shots.

Right now we're in a small town called Greymouth and we're planning on going around the west coast of the south island before ending up in Christchurch.
Hopefully I'll be able to get those pics up soon..
-Jon