The hills are alive with the sound of bears and avalanches

Howdy all

Basically our time in the west has come to an end and now we are preparing to head to Toronto. Over the last week we have travelled down from Jasper to Banff along the icefield parkway and nothing could have prepared us for the mountains that we drove through.

driving along a section of the icefield parkway

Along this drive we have been treated to the sights of Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, Emerald lake and many more that we will have to tell you about when we get home (that is if anyone will listen!) as sadly time and space on this does not permit.


The view from the top of the rockpile at Moraine Lake (As you can see we were well prepared for the walk!)

We are both so glad to have experienced the rockies at this time of year as it is both before the big tourist rush but also it is amazing to see the mountains covered in snow. Yoho is considered to be the coniseur's choice of resorts in the rockies, and as we are very cultured people we decided to spend a few days here walking and exploring the area. When we arrived at the campsite we saw all these posters warning us not to walk along the path beside our tent site as there was a female Grizzly with cubs who wouldn't take to kindly to stupid tourists. We gathered that we fitted this bill quite well and didn't move too far from our tent! The other campsite that we stayed in was surrounded by an electric fence to keep the bears out! The Mckinley's only stay at the classiest of places........it's ok though we can bear it......
From this campsite we did probably one of the worst and probably one of the best walks we have ever done in our lives. Before arriving at the rockies we had all these grand plans of doing lots of alpine walks, of course neither of us had really fully understood how big these lumps of rocks are! There is also the other little detail that most of these are closed as they are deemed unwalkable due to the snow. However, on this day we set off on this walk that was described as a steady steep climb with good views (we were walking to two old fire look outs ontop of this mountain). We had no doubt in our minds that we would make the upper lookout so we set out with high hopes and full of energy. Very soon this was gone and both of us were puffing like anything, i can't remember the last walk that i found so difficult. I like to think that my suffering was a result of carrying the backpack and the alpine conditions rather than my advancing years. Well that's my excuse and i am sticking to it! To make things worse every step we walked we encountered piles of bear droppings and scrapings in the ground. Thankfully between a mixture of stubbornness and mutual encouragment we reached the upper look out and whilst doing an impression of a hyperventilating pig we were rewarded with the most magnificent views. Basically we were looking down this corridor of huge mountains and just sitting there with this view infront of us everything seemed right in the world!


At the top, it was worth it!

We also did this other walk which took us a bit off road and led us into this natural amphitheatre (produced by a ring of mountains) and the foot of a glacier.


Arrivial at the amphitheatre

Once again the national park wardens had given us good news about this walk and filled us full of confidence with more talk of bears and the added spice of avalanches! It was during this walk that i became the most worried about the threat of our furry friends and i decided to grab two rocks and bang them together to make noise. I was always told at school that my musical talent was severly lacking so for once in my life i was confident that i could make a worthwhile noise. Jess on the other hand picked up a stick. It was only on our way back that i decided to ask her why she had decided to pick up probably one of the smallest sticks available. She said that it was her intention to find another one but she couldn't (admittedly they are hard to come by in forests) and therefore decided that she would hold onto it in case she had to defend us against a bear. My wife is talented in many many ways but i have to admit i had no faith in her successfully fending off a bear with what was essentially a glorified toothpick and therefore continued to bang my rocks together.
As you can probably guess from us writing this that we have managed to stay clear of bear attacks (we have now seen 13!!).


Jess and her toothpick

The other thing that we have done since our last post is the horse riding. I managed to last 3 hours and it was actually quite a pleasurable experience. We were able to see the rockies in a different way and Jess was in her element. So much so that Jess decided to have another go in Banff, i thought i best quit whilst ahead and had a wee potter about town on just the two legs.


Jess and her trusty steed

In a couple of days time we are flying to Toronto and we are not sure how much internet access we will have so our blogs may start to become less frequent. This has seemingly come at a bad time as we have gathered a bit of a cult following (of one, my brother who actually has started making demands regarding the content! So at the end of this blog we will put a few wee additional pictures of wildlife to make him happy, after all he is a Chelsea fan and needs a good cheering up!).

Oh and a wee side note, a couple of weeks ago we went to see the new Narnia film (Prince Caspian). Look out for the bit that the kids step back into Narnia for the first time, we were there on that exact beach and walked under the stone arch (Cathedral cove, New Zealand). I also swam where the kids swam, infact this is where i went swimming and realised after i got out i had the hire car keys in my pocket!

See you all soon

Gav and Jess


BONUS BLOG FEATURES (Especially for those feeling a little blue and needing cheered up!)

Animal Gallery


Elk


Mountain Goat


Golden crested ground squirrel


Bald Eagle


Mule Deer


Elk Stag


Bighorn Sheep

P.S we have finally saw a Moose, Jess was thrilled but unfortunately the picture we got didn't make the McKinley blog grade as it was too far away. But with our trusty binoculars we could see it perfectly and identified it as a female.

The Gypsy Life

Hi there all!

Writing to you from the top of the rockies, we are now in Jasper and i can tell you that the scenery is absolutely awesome! For the last three weeks we have been driving past mountains and wondering can they get any better than this, simply the answer is yes! We have been camping in this campsite for the last three nights which is in the middle of the forest and it is such a blessing to wake up/go to sleep in such beautiful surroundings. Today we are going for a trail ride up into the mountains (after i promised my bruised backside that i would never put it through such a terrifying ordeal again, but love makes you do strange/stupid things) and as it is a cracking day hopefully we should get perfect views of the surrounding mountains and down into the lakes.
It struck us the other day that we have been living in a tent for the guts of 5 months, i never thought it would be so easy to turn into a gypsie! But the life of a gyppo isn't so bad and for any of you wanting to make the change here is a little insight of what you can expect. The main bonus of life on the road is that you can decide to live where ever you want and for how long. Normally at night times we decide where we will go the next day, here is a picture of my lovely wife out with the maps looking for the next site.



Unfortunately with this style of living you have to sacrifice the comforts in life, however you learn to make do. Most place we stay at are ensuite but you have to use a little imagination. Here is my Bathroom. The only problem is that there is no door and sometimes you get the feeling that others are watching, which makes bath times a little awkward (plus my rubber duck keeps on swimming away).



Jess now has the lovely big kitchen that she has always wanted.........



Now and again we have guests round for dinner, but to be honest it their table manners can be disgraceful!



After dinner we like to go for a walk in our back garden, we have some lovely views but to be honest it is a nightmare to keep on top of the lawns!



We also have lots of pets, we like to call this one yogi (or sir, depends what mood he is in!).



So that gives you all a little taster of what the day to day life for the McKinley's is like these days. Anyone tempted to give the gypsie life a go?



Oh aye i almost forgot to tell you that our last couple of days on Vancouver island were very eventful! On Wednesday 21st May Jess and i went to see the champions league final between Man Utd and Chelsea. What a day! Brilliant match and brilliant atmosphere! There were about 50 Man Utd fans and 4 Chelsea fans in the pub we went to watch it. I got a little bit carried away with the shouting and singing and i think Jess got a little bit of an insight into a side of her husband that she had never seen before. To cut a long story short we won the game after extra time and penalties and it took me until Sunday before i could speak again. I shouted a little bit too much.........
The game had robbed both of us of a lot of energy and we were looking forward to a good nights sleep. After dinner we read a little of our books and played cards then decided to go and get ready for bed. On our way back to the tent we were remarking at how cold it was and infact this might have been the coldest night since arriving in Canada. When we got back to the car we both asked each other if we had the keys. You know that sickening feeling you get when you know something has gone really wrong (probably the feeling the Chelsea fans still have). We shone the torch through the car window and surely enough there were the car keys. All nice and safe behind the locked door! What makes it all worse is that the previous night we had torrential rain and therefore decided to keep all our sleeping bags ect in the car incase they got wet. We had nothing and even no money in our pockets! We were totally helpless!
I started thinking about this documentary i had seen on TV a few years ago when they got ex car thieves to break into cars to show how easy it was and i had a brief glimmer of hope that i could remember how they did it. Jess sadly hadn't saw this programme as when i turned round there she was trying to pick the lock with nail clippers and then a TRAVEL ADAPTER! Seeing that we weren't going to pick the lock, i had decided that this was the chance to fulfill the desire in life to break a car window (it's a bloke thing) however after two laps of the car deciding which window to break Jess talked me out of it.
Thankfully the owner of the campsite was still up when we banged on his door at 10.30pm and he was so helpful and called a tow truck guy that said it would be no problem to break into our car. What made it so much better is that when the tow truck guy arrived the couple camping near us turned up and said that they had a breakdown card that allowed us to have the service for free! What started off as a nightmare turned into a miracle! What a good God we have! If anyone knows me well they will know that i have an obsessive compulsive disorder about locking doors/fridges ect! I fear this has put me back years in my recovery. Now Jess and i are constantly asking each other if we have keys.
Well time has escaped me, i have to go and get punished by that horse. I am sure Jess will write soon to tell you how great it was!
Oh a brief note to say that our bear sighting tally is now up to 9!

Catch you all soon

Gav and Jess (the gyppos)

Cold Canada and Calving Cows

Howdy cowboys and cowgirls

Since we last emailed we have left the sunny shores of Australia and landed in West Canada. Before we left we decided to check the weather forecast for Canada just to see what we were in for and alarmingly the screen told us it was -2 at night. Hmmmm the sleeping bags were scared and so were the people going to be sleeping in them. This didn't seem too bad though as we were doing another farmstay for the first week.

We flew in to Calgary where we picked up a rather sporty hire car and drove her down to our cattle ranch that we were going to be working on for a week. It really was in the middle of nowhere and absolutely beautiful.
Silvertip RanchOn our way down we called in to a tourist stop which was charmingly named "Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump" it was where the native Indians used to chase huge herds of buffalo off the mountains, lovely!!!

Anyway back to the Ranch. The Ranch was surrounded by huge snowy mountains and was breathtaking. This was at the south tip of the rockies so apparently isn't as spectacular as the main section, so we can't imagine what it will be like when we come to them. Our first job was to pull up a bridge by hand and then the next day we were to start building a new bridge for tractors and cows to go over. Since we are not bridge builders the farmer brought in her Dad to be the brains behind the operation and we provided the muscle... well Gav did, I realised how little muscle I have. Thankfully to say it all went well and we have now left a bridge in Canada built by the McKinleys. We even tested it by riding over it with our horses that we acquired for the week. I learned to drive the tractor and actually got on quite well. So well that Patricia left us for the day to go into town and we were to feed the cows and calves with hay from the barn. We loaded up the 39 haybales and set off. All was going well until we came to the first gate. I went to stop the tractor and as I put in my clutch the darn thing didn't stop. (For those who aren't tractor drivers apparently you can stop a tractor without using the brakes if you are in a low gear, this had worked previously). So the tractor kept going and Gav was yelling for me to stop but by this point the thing had already smashed through the gate. I finally found the brake and managed to bring the thing to a stop. Meanwhile Gav was surveying the damage, thankfully the gate had stayed up and only the gate clasp had broken. Easily fixed! I realised I had been in a high gear and thankfully was able to continue the feeding without any further mishaps.

Our other jobs on the farm were to watch the cows who were still to calve. 5 wee calves were born while we were there and they were so precious.
Eric the Red as Gav named him (he was the first person to see him after he was born therefore he decided he needed a special name)
As the farm was in the middle of nowhere we also got the chance to see loads of wildlife including elk, coyotes, mule dear and whitetail deer. Unfortunately we didn't see any bears which are common to the area (the ranch was called Silvertip Ranch due to the silvertip grizzly bears that live in the area... hee hee parents we didn't want to tell you until after) The closest we got to the bears was when we were fixing fences and we came across lots of bear fur clinging to the barb wire. Patricia also let us ride her horses at night and so Gav had his first western experience with no riding hat and a western saddle. During the second ride I couldn't resist coaxing my horse into a slow canter obviously Gav's horse followed and I heard him shouting in very basic terms how he was being hurt so I quickly stopped. The outcome: when we get to the rockies he will go fishing for a day and I will go horse riding.
This is me with Mandy

We are now on Vancouver Island and it is so beautiful. We spent the first day in Victoria (the capital of BC) which is a lovely city and treated ourselves to fish and chips. I then poured sugar all over mine as I thought it was salt... yummy.. not! Tip: Don't pour sugar on your fish and chips, it tastes vile. On to the west coast and Pacific Rim National Park. Where we have been bear watching and have also seen 15 humpback whales!!! It was incredible, there were so many swimming around our boat and it was glorious. They put on quite a show with raising their heads above the water and waving at us with their fins. We also saw a black bear which was really good, Gav was so happy. Due to the weather we have had to buy new sleeping bags that go to -10 at night. The first night camping in Canada was miserable and we couldn't sleep because of the cold. The second night we slept with all our clothes on and were still cold. So new sleeping bags it was and they are worth every penny. They are so comfy that we don't want to leave the tent in the morning.

Gav here now. This morning as we were driving we came across a black bear and her cub. It was fantastic to see them so close up. We have been given bear warning information sheets which outline what to do when you come in contact with a bear. You should stay around 100 feet away if possible. Being the McKinley's we forgot/ignored the rules and turned the car around and set off after the bear and her cub up the forest track. Once again for all you fact fans out there a bear is potentially at it's angriest when with her cub. We happily sailed up to around 20 feet below the bears and watched them forage further up the slope. For any kids reading this blog, we are trained idiots and do not encourage chasing after any sharks or bears. It's dangerous. If you do so make sure you have a wife or something that you can use as a decoy so you can make your escape safely.

Hope you are all doing well.

The deep blue sea!

Hey folks

What an adventure we have been having this week. We finally arrived in Cairns and trusty Thundercat got us there in one piece apart from one burst tyre, so she has done us well. We checked the spare tyre which was bald and Gav managed to break the small wrench!! Thankfully we had another wrench which handled the pressure. The other one was called a certain name by Gav which I don't think I will repeat. I don't think I helped the situation as I was sniggering behind him. We are very sad that we have to sell our trusty steed but we have met a nice Italian man who seems as thrilled with her as we are so hopefully that will work out. If not the scrapers are awaiting her beautiful parts. We think Thundercat knows it is her last weekend with us as everything that is slightly not working is miraculously working again, eg, central locking and automatic windows!!

This week has involved loads of swimming and snorkelling in the beautiful blue seas of the Whitsundays and the great barrier reef off Cairns. On the Whitsundays cruise boat we did some sailing around the islands and visited the famous whitehaven beach.
Whitehaven Beach

Us mucking around!


We also had our first snorkelling experience which proved delightful. I took to the waters much better than I ever thought I would. The snorkelling allowed us practice for our big trip to the outer reef in Cairns.
All ready to go


The trip to the outer reef was out of this world. We would recommend this to anyone and you can't come to Australia and not do this. It was like a different world under the ocean, so peaceful and filled with the most beautiful fish. It was like swimming through an aquarium with crystal clear water. We are going to pick up our photos today so hopefully they will have turned out good. Since they are not digital we won't be able to post them but we will include them in our 9 hour slideshow on our return. (Tickets being sold now, money in advance please!!!). We saw so many fish and the coral was so brightly coloured, shades of pink, blue, orange, yellow and green all silently waiting to be admired. We saw huge giant clams, cuttle fish, a ray and loads of other fish which I have no idea of what they are called. The real bonus (for Gav) involved seeing a Black Tip Reef Shark! Crikey! I saw it first and alerted Gav by squealing, which in water is pretty difficult to do. We were so impressed we both actually started to swim after it but it disappeared in to the deep blue ocean which is probably quite good as I am not sure what I would have done had it turned round. hee hee. Well at least all I would have had to do was swim faster than Gav! It was like a ghost just silently moving through the water and was pretty impressive at 2m long. The dive crew told us we were very lucky to see it as they are being killed faster than they can reproduce.

We have also had a trip to explore the Atherton Tablelands which are the mountains behind Cairns. We heard a rumour that Australia had animals that couldn't kill you and so we went off in search of them. We found them at the butterfly sanctuary. What a delight it was to walk through a natural habitat where butterflies roamed free. As you can see some are quite tame and one came and landed on my hand. I was very pleased to say the least!



We also went to visit the Curtain Fig Tree which is a huge mass of vines that have overtaken one tree and strangled it.

The last few days will be spent in the deep jungle looking for crocs!! Hope you are all well and enjoying the spring weather.

Crikey Crocs!

G'Day ya little rippers

Gav and Jess here reporting back safe and sound from Steve Irwin's Zoo. We had a great time at the zoo, but it was just a shame that as we walked around we knew that Steve was no longer there. However we were really impressed at the zoo and we kicked the day off by hand feeding elephants. The keepers brought out three elephants and introduced them to the kids (as it was school holidays when we were there) and invited the kids to line up to feed them. Jess and i managed to go up 5 times each (It's amazing how you can fool Australians just by walking up on your knees!).
Jess feeding an elephant
Then we went to the famous croc show that we have all seen on TV where the zoo people get in right beside the crocs and get them to jump out of the water for food. This was done in crystal clear water and it just showed you how silently and easily the crocs can creep up on you without you knowing they are even there.
Croc show!
It seems foolish now and its probably something you would only do when young and stupid, but we left the show and made our way to the other croc enclosure full of courage. Jess and I decided to throw all caution to the wind and ran straight up to the fence at where a croc was lying only a matter of feet away......I really can't believe we did this and got away with it...........we smiled at a crocodile! All we have ever been taught and warned against was ignored! Actually we could see what the whole fuss is about as just as we started our smiling the croc opened its mouth at us. At this we decided to call it quits and look at the other animals. We would recommend anyone to go to the zoo but we don't encourage any showing of affection in anyway to the crocs.
Highly risky wildlife encounter
Also during our stay in Brisbane we had a couple of day trips to the glass house mountains and Noosa. After leaving Brisbane we drove inland 10 hours to Carnarvan National Park (yes we did it in one day, and Mr McKinley decided it was good preparations to stay up to 3.30am the night before to watch the football. For all you fact fans out there Man Utd beat Arsenal 2-1). Here in the National park is a beautiful gorge that you can walk up and see Aboriginal hand paintings on cave walls and lots of wildlife.
Aboriginal cave paintings
Just beside were we were camping there was a resident Platypus. These little creatures can only be found in Oz and any chance to see one is worth a shot. Unfortunately during our time there we didn’t get the chance to see the wee man, however in a National Park further north we read that there was a better chance to see these elusive little critters! So team McKinley set off on the hunt for a Platypus and now we can happily report that we have seen three! In order to do this we took Thundercat off road and through some water passes! Ok they were a little tame but it was still quite exciting and it makes us sad that in a couple of weeks we are going to have to say goodbye to the old girl.
Thunder cat offroad (well sort of!)
We both say that if she could pass as hand luggage we would bring her home! Normally Platypus spend the day in their burrows sleeping and come out at night to play and hunt, but at this place they appear around 3pm so it makes it easier to see them. To get the best pictures i could i had to scramble along the bank in my flip flops and sit on a tree over the water. As I was doing this I looked up to see Jess on the other bank mouthing "Be careful!" I pretended i couldn't see her, which forced her to try and give me her "Mum eyes" along with another be careful warning. As i was out of lethal range i carried on and managed to get these pictures. They arent really the best and i have done my best with them but hopefully you can see it's beak, flippers and rubbery tail!
A Platypus!
Being in the State of Queensland, which is the tropical area, the wildlife has got a little more interesting! So much so you can't really go near water without seeing a sign warning you not to swim or go near the edge as there are crocodiles living in the area! The campsite that we stayed at the other night was beside a river and there was a sign right beside where we camped warning us of the dangers! How cool is this! But don't worry I showed common sense and took all necessary precautions to gaurd against danger (I made sure Jess was sleeping on the side of the tent closest to the river).
A delightful little place to set up camp
Well over the next couple of weeks we are going to go for a trip around the Whitsunday Islands; go for a trip out to the Great Barrier reef and up to the Daintree National Park, So hopefully we should gets lots more great pictures. We really feel blessed to see such amazing scenery and experience some awesome wildlife close up. Time feels that it is going so fast but we are trying our best to make it all count. Unfortunately over the past week Jess has been down with a bad cold, but before you send get well messages she is on the mend, i imagine i have had something to do with this as i kindly pointed out that what she was going through was nothing compared to Man Flu. It's good to put everything into perspective.

We will try and post a blog soon and let you know what other adventures we have got up to. Hope you are all well and are enjoying the current football season (it's turning out to be a cracker!).

Gav and Jess

Stars and Snakes

G'day mates

Our Australian adventure is well under way again and we are making our way up to Cairns in our trusty steed. Our journey began in the Warrenbungle National Park (yet another place that a two year old seems to have named). It was a long drive to get there and yet again the McKinleys somehow found themselves putting up a tent in pitch dark. After 3 months of camping you would think we would work out when the sun goes down. However, it wasn't a total disaster arriving in the dark as there were hundreds of kangaroos who came out to witness our arrival. In Australia the warrenbungles is the best place for observation of stars due to the number of clear nights they have a year. The perfect place to do some bush walking and star gazing. The bush walking was spectacular as there were all these old volcanic rock formations that we could walk to the top of, slightly tiring but worth every bit of effort. It is harder to walk in Australia as it can be pretty hot! We went out with an astronomer one night and he had these huge telescopes that enabled us to look at Mars, Saturn (with her rings!!!) and the craters of the moon. Cool or what?!

The view over some of the Warrenbungles from the top!

Us at the top

Skippy


We then had a good few days at various beaches and took on the waves. We celebrated our anniversary in style at a 4 star bed and breakfast. (Jess refused to camp!) It was good though as we were treated like royalty and had these huge cooked breakfasts.

We then went to Mount Warning National Park which is the first place the sun hits in Australia as it rises. A gruelling climb takes you to the top where you are met with sheer rock face and a chain at the side to pull yourself up the last 500 metres. A bit different to hill walking at home... The view from the top shows you the contrast of where you are and where we were going to be in the next couple of days. Far in the distance we could see the high rises of the Gold Coast, which for anyone who hasn't heard of this before is the Miami of Australia. The high rises are built right on the beach edge and in the late afternoon they actually block the sun out! Anyway, before we left for the city we thought we would have one last encounter with the wildlife and went to a snake show that was being held in our campsite. They guy who ran the show turned out to be a real life Steve Irwin who looked like Billy Connolly (strange or what!) For just over 1 british pound each we had the potential to be killed by the 5 most deadliest snakes in the world. We thought this was money well spent. Gav held a python which isn't deadly but is still big! The scary thing was the guy told us that all these snakes are common to the bush area... crikey, we were walking in it the day before without a care. After leaving the snake show we were very careful where we took each step.

Top of Mount Warning with high rises in the distance (if you look closely)

Billy Connolly look-a-like and Gav


We are now staying just above Brisbane and this week a trip to the Glasshouse Mountains and Steve Irwin's Zoo are on the cards. I am sure the next blog will be full of Steve Irwin phrases and pictures of crocodiles.

Back in Australia

As the title says we are now back in Australia and have left wonderful New Zealand. Sydney greeted us with clear blue skies and warm sunshine! Funnily enough Mick and Lin said it has been a cold summer in Oz terms and the sun only came out a week and a half ago. We are leaving Sydney tomorrow to head up the East Coast until we arrive in Cairns but we thought we would let you know how we spent our last days in New Zealand. Thankfully we didn't get attacked by any Orcs on the Tongariro Crossing.

The Tongariro Crossing was fantastic, you actually walk through craters that were made from volcanic activity and the crossing itself is situated in the most active volcanic areas with Mount Ruapehu being the highest and most active. Probably a good thing not to mention that until after we had finished the walk!
A little hobbit

Craters

More craters

The next stop was Rotorua which is nicknamed 'sulphur city' as it has the most energetic thermal areas in New Zealand with bubbling mud pools, gurgling hot springs, gushing geysers and horrible smells! We couldn't get used to the smell and I don't know how people live in the city as the smell is really overpowering.
a colourful steam pool

After all the smells we headed up to the Coromandel Pennisula which is known for beautiful beaches and clear blue waters. It really was beautiful and we saw the famous Cathedral Cove which is a gigantic arched cavern that is only accessible at low tide. This is where Gav flung himself into the sea for a swim and when he got out discovered he had the car keys in his pocket!!! That would have been interesting had they fallen out into the sea....
Beautiful sea

Cathedral Cove


With our last days in site we decided to head for the Bay of Islands and took in the North West coast famous for the huge Kauri forests. The Kauri trees are just massive, our jaws dropped when we saw them. The second largest tree had a girth of 16.41metres and a total height of 29.9metres. The largest tree had a girth of 13.8metres which is a bit smaller but his height is 51.5metres. Massive or what?!
Twin Kauri's, these ones are quite small though with a girth of 6metres each

The Bay of Islands were lovely and we saw the oldest stone house in New Zealand which was built in 1835, so not that old by Scottish standards. The Bay of Islands is named this as it is dotted with around 150 islands. We climbed a hill called St Paul's Rock and had the most magnificant view of some of these islands. The beauty of the place was amazing and you felt like you were alone in the world taking in the beautiful scenary. It was the perfect end to our New Zealand trip.

We hope you are all doing well.