Back To Queenstown, Auckland, Then Back Home :(

April 23-25, 2015

I didn't take much pics the last few days of our trip.  It was a lot of driving, shopping, and figuring out how to fit all of it in my luggage.

Just a few from our commute back to Queenstown

The next morning we woke to an incredible sunrise...

We bought a meat pie from Ferg Bakery (Same owners as Fergburger) for the plane ride back to Auckland.  Randy wishes he bought two!

I'm bummed that I didn't get the pics on the flight in.  The scene was much more impressive.  Not that I'm complaining...

That night my cousin Susie and her husband Evam flew us back to Honolulu...isn't that cool??  Thanks for everything guys!!

I forgot to take pictures of my stash when I got home, I was exhausted.  I did snap one shot of my butter!  We researched online and supposedly New Zealand is supposed to have good butter.  I bought 13 blocks!

Mt Cook, Day 2

Aww man, our trip is coming to an end.  We drive out tomorrow back to Queensland and then we fly out on Sunday at midnight.  Gotta make the most out of our days left!  We had to check out of our motel to move about 400 yards down the street to another one.  We needed to make last minute accomodations for last night and the place we're staying tonight didn't have any vacancies.  Since check in wasn't until 3:00 we drove to Lake Tekapo which is about hour away (I'm getting sick of driving by the way...)

This isn't the lake, I just thought it was pretty

Here's Lake Tekapo.  Looks kinda neat, there was a ton of clouds and fog this morning and it just lifted as we got to the lake

Mt. Cook on the drive back

Mt Cook from our room.  Pretty cool, yah?

We went to try our own stargazing tonight.  I wasn't too sure if it was a good idea cause it was still a bit cloudy out there (oops.  forgot to fix the landscape...too lazy to go back and fix it!)

I'm so glad we went.  It was pretty awesome.  The moon was only a small crescent but it brightened up the sky.  I was hoping it would go away but it didn't.  Anyways, you see that streak in the middle?  It was a slow moving falling star!!  It fell for a really long time.  We must've watched it for about 20 seconds!

I was able to get amazing shots of the Milky Way (yah, I actually learned something last night!)

We woulda stayed longer till it got darker but it was freakin cold and my lens was fogging up!  I was happy with what I got.  I could still use the practice but.  Oh, in case you're wondering, 5000 ISO, f/2.8 @ 20-30 sec.  I used 30 sec in the beginning but the moon was giving off so much light I didn't need to expose for that long.

Bye bye my friends...hello Mt. Cook!

My little adventure in Oamaru had come to an end and we headed 2 1/2 hours north to Aoraki/Mt. Cook.  But before we left we still had to head to the Moeraki Boulders for the sunrise and a sheep shearing demonstration to go to!  Oamaru ain't gonna get rid of me that quickly!

These didn't come out as good as I had hoped, but I guess they're good enough.  Plus the sunrise wasn't as vibrant as I hoped.

When we got back to the house these little guys were waiting for us.  Poor thing, they look so scared.  But I don't blame them, they're gonna be naked!

He was fast!  He could finish one in about a minute!

Randy took a shot at it too

A few last pics before I leave

They have peacocks too!

After a long drive we made it to Mt. Cook.  Since our stargazing tour didn't start till 8:30 we took a short hike to Kea Point.  

Lets just say I wasn't too impressed.  I hiked a half an hour for this?!?  I was expecting something spectacular!

I was bummed about our stargazing tour, it was crystal clear skies for most of the night and when they finally let us take pictures a whole bunch of clouds came around.  I got about  5 minutes of clear skies, and two of them were interrupted with people flashing their cameras while I was shooting a 30 second exposure.  I was not happy.  I purposely moved away from everyone so they wouldn't get in my way and they freakin followed me. 

I gotta get more practice with this. I have no idea how people do it.  You have to manually focus but you can barely see anything.  How do you know if you're in focus?!?!?

gnite!

Oamaru!

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

This post is one day late, the internet was sketchy in Oamaru and it wasn't letting me connect to the website.  Oamaru (Oh-wah-mah-roo)...what can I say?  We weren't expecting much, this was more of a stop over day to break up the long drive to Mt Cook.  I found a B&B called The Sheepout and it's on a sheep shearing farm!!!  This ended up being one of the best parts of my trip.  Phil and Sally were extremely nice and we got to tour the whole farm, including a sheep shearing demonstration.  All for just $140 NZ!  I had a smile on my face the whole time I was there...

Right outside our door, we see this

You can see why I was so happy!  Right away Phil took us to the weighing of the sheep.  Here he figures out which sheep to sell and which he needs to fatten up

Randy in his Gum Boots

Lots of animals here...

This is Kai.  He's the boss.

The waiting pen

The weigh-in

My favorite pic of the day!

We rode on a little trailer on the back of his quad to take the sheep back to the herding grounds

He owns 80 acres of land!

and he owns cows too!!!

one happy camper!!

g'nite!  Tomorrow will be the shearing demonstration!!  I can't wait!