Cruisin' with the Chaplain

I’ve seen so many sheep I’m sprouting horns! Plus, I’ve pick up a Kiwi man! Our final stay in NZ is on a farm B & B – with sheep grazing right up to our door! I Love it!
This is Lake Pukaki – the bright turquoise color is from glacial melt. The highest mountain in NZ, Mt. Cook, is in clouds and can’t be seen today. Too bad, because we were told our room has a great view of it! Maybe in the morning.
We fly to Sydney tomorrow (Thursday). It may be a few days before we can post again.

It’s Tuesday, our plans changed for the day – weather too bad for the Jet Boats. We drove up Coronet Peak for the view. The Ski Resort is closed for the season.
New Zealand had a “Gold Rush”, too – it resulted in Arrowtown – the buildings are restored and it is now a holiday destination for “retail therapy”.

Oh, the beauty. So calm, so pristine. NZ is for nature lovers – yup, that’s me in the kayak!
Just over 2 ½ hours' drive brought us to Queenstown, the "Adventure Capital of the World". It is nestled along Lake Wakatapu.
We heard the news from other American travelers! The Boston Red Sox are World Champions, once again! We toasted them in Queenstown at an Irish Pub with Irish stew and pints of NZ Speights beer! (Those other two light beers aren’t ours – two girls from Scotland were sharing our table.)
In the evening we took a really steep cable car up a mountain overlooking the town and the “Remarkables” (a mountain range used in the filming of the “Lord of the Rings”).

We’re on our way with 5 other travelers and 2 crew to spend the night in a boat on the NZ Fiord (that's the way they spell it), Doubtful Sound! This is remote – two hours just to get to the boat!
NZ doesn’t have bears and other large mammals, but they do have seals! …and they 17 varieties of penguins! This is a Fiordland Penguin that we snuck up on – see his yellow eyebrows?
We were so excited we could hardly stay in the boat! This dolphin swam just in front of us for at least ten minutes, turning his head to look at us, too!
We tied up the boat in this beautiful cove but the sandflies kept us all inside the cabin sharing our stories.

We left our farmstay on Saturday morning. Like the sheep? They are everywhere. We reached Te Anu, the start of the world famous Milford track – snow on the peaks, cherry blossoms by the lake – priceless!
On the Te Anu Glowworm Cave tour we walked above the roaring waters in the limestone caves and then we were ferried in a punt in total quiet and darkness (pictures were not permitted) and saw the glowworms clustered on the cave ceilings and sides. Amazing!