Hello Summer!

Trying once again to post from my phone via email think I got the settings right so we'll see...

I wrote most of the following yesterday so it's a bit jumbled but you'll get the idea.

I absolutely loved Oamaru!  It's a small and unique little place full of ornate white stone Victorian buildings.  Some small shops, some warehouses straight out of the 1800s.  It had a huge steam punk museum that I couldn't bring myself to spend the $20 to go into but it seemed to set the tone for the town.  Very artistic and cool.  There was one art gallery in particular that I could've spent all day in.  It wasn't huge but it was fascinating and full of detail.  One of my favorite pieces was a head of the queen nearly as tall as me and twice my girth.  The town playground was the best ever with a zip line and a super tall structure supporting a very fast slide complete with warning signs about how fast it is!

Inland from the coast is hot and brown.  I had expected it to get greener and cooler as mount cook neared and it did somewhat but only right up next to it and even then,  not much. 

Hiked the Hooker valley track yesterday afternoon (4/2/15) after arriving. Very windy (like carry away a small child wind) but beautiful.  Today was a series of shorter treks to a view of the Tasman glacier,  Tasman lake and down to the lake outlet.  There were several huge chunks of ice that had calved off the glacier and drifted to the outlet end of the lake.  Also took a hike to Blue Lakes - after coming out on a 4 wheel drive road,  I realized I'd been hiking by the "lakes" - they really were just small ponds and not blue at all but rather an icky brownish green. Joke's on me!

4/4/15
Woke to hard driving rain and stayed cozy and warm in my little vehicle listening to it and dozing for a couple hours a least. The campground is pretty close to the mountains so simply getting up and driving out of the campground meant the rain lessened to a mere drizzle,  showing just how localized the weather is here and why the valley to the east is so dry.

All for now.  I will try to add some pics to this post at some point when I have some real Internet.  At least one more night here then back out to the coast and on to Christchurch.  Love you all.  Welcome Babette!