10 Days!

So here I sit, ten days from my departure from the islands of New Zealand... and i've yet to see a whale, find cheap gasoline, drive on a straight section of road, or learn more than "diarrhea" and "hello my name is" in German.But that's ok, i will return, poor, an expert at driving on the left hand side of the road, and really ready for a shower. (its been 4 days... God bless wet wipes, and the distinctive baby smell they leave on your skin for the next few hours.)
In the last few days Markus and I have been spelunking in limestone caves (one flashlight, no guide, and 300 meters in the dark crawling on our stomachs and dodging hot tub sized pools that we had no idea of their depths).
We also figured we should enjoy a few moments being the closest to the south pole that either of us will be for quite some time. (there were about 50 mph gusts of wind... and it wasn't warm) Though not all of our days have been spent looking like idiot tourists, we find some beautiful parts of nature to enjoy, take naps and work on our daily dose of skin cancer... when its not raining. All in all the last few weeks have been rather uneventful, well minus having to have our brakes replaced, and trying to talk some crazy vegetarian German girls out of stealing a boat. (Don't worry mom, we didn't steal a boat, only showers at a hostel)

Since i posted last we have traveled south along the west coast of the southern island to Te Anau a small tourist trap before the Milford Sound. The sound was nice, the scenery was better. We did a few small hikes (you have to do a 4 day hike on the big tourist treks and pay $40 per person at each hut you stay at... not really worth it, plus it rains a total of some ridiculous amount like 3 meters in a year) and tried to take advantage of some of the good weather. Many of our days have been confined to cafe's playing the same 4 card games over and over and over and... yah you get the idea.

We hung out in Queenstown, which is beautiful, and i saw some sweet bike trails , Markus bungee jumped, and we hiked to a peak at 1700 meters , half in snow, the other half in mud (we slept well that night). We are now in Dunedin a city on the southern point of the island, the last big city before we arrive in Christchurch for our departure from this cold little island. I have taken a lot of pictures, 2 DVD's full, but i didn't bring them to the cafe tonight, so these are from the last few days of what i have on the camera. Ok, i'm sure you all are tired of reading... i love you all, and look forward to hanging out and sharing this little chunklet of my life over a beer that costs less than 7 dollars, unless you're buying. I'm excited to be home, search for a job, start some sort of career, have friends to hang out with, and have a bed that isn't on wheels. Thank you for your thoughts, prayers, and emails/messages. In Him... Nate.