New Zealand is great, although our adventures have had some major snags--mainly the theft of Partha's passport, etc. Sorry, no pictures yet. (I had a CD burned with the first 250 or so pictures, but I can't find an internet place that has cdrom drives so I can send them.)
Our trip in New Zealand so far:
Day 1:
Checked into hotel and wandered around Auckland.
Day 2:
Took a ferry to Rangitoto Island--a volcanic mountain in the harbor--and hiked to the top of the dormant volcano, crawling through volcanic caves on the way. We hiked to the connecting island and had lunch in a wooded patch of a sheep/cow pasture.
Day 3:
Rented a car, drove to Waitomo, took a tour of a limestone cave there. Got back to the car to find it robbed. They smashed the small back window and took Partha's day pack which he had left in the front of the car. (I did not realize it was there.) The pack had almost nothing of mine but had Partha's passport, greencard, and wallet. Checked into the hostel (our first hostel stay) and spent the rest of the day cancelling credit cards, trying to reach consolates, contacting people at home, etc.
Day 4:
Took a caving tour that we had already booked the day before. We abseiled down a 100+ foot shaft, jumped about 6 feet into the water with our inner tubes, floated and watched the glowworms, slid down a rope slide into a dark cave with no lights on, climbed up waterfalls and through tunnels. Very fun and pretty good at taking our minds off the nightmare of trying to get Partha back home. Drove to Wellington, capital of NZ, so Partha could go to the Indian High Council in the morning.
Day 5:
Went to the Indian High Council--things do not look good. We took the car to the rental agency and filled out an accident report. It will cost US$100 to fix the window. We went to the South Island earlier than planned.
Day 6:
Drove to Christchurch, decided, what the hell, we'll go back to Wellington to get the passport (if possible) on Monday rather than Friday. Continued on to a hostel further down the coast.
Day 7:
Went to a penguin lookout point (didn't see any) and then to these freaky round boulders on the coast. Drove a scenic drive and saw a few waterfalls. Cool coastline. We drove inward, surrounded by mountains to Te Anau in the Fiordlands. Made a reservation to spend the next night on a boat on Milford sound. Looks like Partha's passport will be ready tomorrow. But the US piece may take forever. His employer is making arrangements for him to work here if necessary.
Day 8:
Found out that the road to Milford Sound was closed due to avalanche risk. Changed our booking to cruise the night on Doubtful sound. Went down there, took a boat over lake Manipouri to the power station, caught a bus to the sound and boarded another boat there
. Sailed out to the Tasman sea, went back into the sound, parked the boat and went kayaking. Had dinner and went to bed in our bunks on the boat.Day 9:
Woke up before sunrise and sailed back down the sound.
Recrossed the lake and drove north to Franz Josef, home of the Franz Josef Glacier. When we got off the boat, we got a call telling us that the police had found Partha's backpack. Everything was there except cash and credit cards, but passport, greencard, etc. was there. Woo hoo!
Day 10:
Took a peek at the glacier and then drove back to Picton so we can take the ferry back to the North Island.
Sid
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