.....that is the sweet life we have been living here on the south island of New Zealand. The stunning beauty of this place has captured us both and we have now spent two weeks enjoying these marvelous surroundings. We started off with a two day kayaking trip in the Abale Tasman National Park. It's one os New Zealands most visited national parks and it's not hard to see why when you have been there.  The senic beaches, isolated coves and rock formations all makes it a perfect spot for sea kayaking though a lot of people also hike the costal track to see these places. We had set our mind on kayaking though and for the first time I ventured out on a proper kayaking tour. It was two great days on the water and we enjoyed every minute of it. We then headed off to the Franz Josef and Fox clacier which we explored on some day walks before moving on to Wanaka and Queenstown where we did some more great day hikes.  I spent quite some time (and money) last time I was in Queenstown so we decided to continue south to Manapouri and Te Anau where I haven't been before. For the same reason we also went on a two day boat cruise on Doubtful Sound instead of doing the overly popular and most visited of the sounds: The milford Sound which I also did last time. So we booked an overnight cruise onboard the 'Seafinn', a great boat with a great crew and only 8 other people beside us. It was a small personalized tour with lovely food and great activities like fishing, looking for whales, catching crayfish and watching dolphins play around the boat and of course it was all in the beautiful surroundings of the magnificient and majestic Doubtful Sound. On top of it all we had beautiful weather with no rain and everyone said that that is really unsual for Fiordland (the nationalpark Doubtful Sound is a part of) as it rains most of the time so we were really happy :)

After the relaxing time at the boat it was time for some work out so after a short visit to the glow worm caves at Te Anau (looks like million of star shining from the ceiling of a deep dark grotto) we drowe to the Divide from where the famous three day Routeburn treck begins. We had tried booking the huts/campsites (you spend the nights in small huts or campsites) days before but unfortunately everything was booked untill the end of January so we decided to do a one day hike instead. As we had set our mind on going all the way to lake Mckenzie  (between one third and half the way of the track) we had a long day! It was 12 km to the lake and 12 km back plus it winded up and down and was quite steep at some places so in total we had a little over 9 hours hiking that day (including lunch) but what a hike! Along the way we saw Earland Falls, snow capped Darran Mountain and Hollyford Valley before reaching beautiful lake Mckenzie. We rested a bit and took in the scenery before heading back to the divide. What a day!

The next morning we left Fiordland and headed for mount Cook (also called Aoraki) - New Zealands highest mountain (3754 m) and once again we were lucky with the weather. Though the meteorologists had predicted rain we were lucky enough to see mount Cook in the early sunlight before the the clouds came in but still no rain so we could enjoy both mount Cook (and Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre & Museum), lake pukaki and lake Tekapo in resaonbly weather. We finished off our round trip of the south island  by going to Akaroa to swimm with one of the world smallest and rarest dolphins: The Hector's dolphins. As we hadn't seen any dolphins in Bay of Island I tried not to set my hopes up (it is wild animals so there are never any guarentees!) but within one hour we had found dolphins which we could swim with! It was a great experience which I absolutely loved!

Now we are in Christchurch which is our last stop here in New Zealand before we leave for Dubai on Monday. Going to visit some friends there for a few days before we head home on the 30th of January. As always it's a bit sad finishing a great travel but I'm also looking forward to go back home. It will be great seeing all of you guys back home soon!