It's been a little while since we signed in. We've been a bit in the boonies. We made our way down the east coast (cleverly keeping the car on the proper side for all the coastal roadside pullouts). Some hits and misses along the way. Both of our butts and backs are getting a little tired of the driving but we knew this was coming and we know there's an end to it so don't feel too sorry for us. The southern sea was really beautiful. We made extremely slow progress north from Invercargill as it was so wonderfully unpopulated and the beaches were just beautiful. We dipped our toes but without a wetsuit it seemed a little daunting, even for Canucks. We arrived in Te Anou the day before a severe weather watch, but a wily guy at the Department of Conservation(DOC) office told us we should forge ahead with our plans to go out and see one of the sounds and, sure enough, the universe conspired and we ended up with an absolutely beautiful day. To boot, all of the waterfalls were absolutely filled to exploding with water from all of the rain, but it was sunny and warm on our trip of the Fjordlands. One of the biggest thrills and the most beautiful thing that I've seen in years was a pod? (herd?, swarm?) of dolphins at the mouth of the Fjord. There were 60 - 80 of them swimming through the water and breaking the surface rhythmically in unison. God did a beautiful thing when he made those creatures. My public service announcement of the day - buy dolphin safe tuna! We have a short video of that that I'm going to try to upload to give you an idea. 'til the next time...Jason & Baebs - out