After David's mom left Christchurch to go back to Canada, we started our camping trip again. We found a very beautiful place, Lake Tekapo with a milky aqua color that reminded us of Lake Louise in Alberta.

Lake Tekapo, South Island

It is with a heavy heart that we write this update. While at Lake Tekapo, we checked our email and received a message to call home immediately. We knew it would be bad news! David called his sister and was told that their father had passed away from a heart attack. We sat outside the phone booth on the lake shore and cried. David made arrangements to fly back to Canada and we turned around and rode back to Christchurch.

Deb spent the next 10 days at a campground while David was gone. In the tv room, she watched the Indianapolis Colts win the Super Bowl one Monday afternoon. She met a couple from Switzerland, Ivo and Jaqueline, that had spent the last 23 months riding here from Switzerland and are on their way to America. When David returned, we spent time swapping stories and information about our favorite places and roads.

After leaving Christchurch again, we bypassed Lake Tekapo this time and rode to Mt. Cook. The scenery was unbelievably beautiful with some great day hikes. This is when the weather finally changed for the better. We had several sunny days in a row with clear, starry nights.

Road on the way to Mt Cook

Mt Cook glaciers

Last summer while in Indianapolis, we met a couple whose son is a doctor in a small town in the middle of the south island. On our way through Roxburgh, we stopped and met Eric. He gave us some salmon that he had recently caught and smoked the night before. It was delicious.

We rode to the southern part of the island, called the Catlins. It was a fascinating place where we saw penguins, sea lions, seals, dolphins, sea caves, waterfall and the remains of a petrified forest that is only accessible at low tide. The trees fell 160 million years ago and became petrified. The trunks and stumps still look like wood, it's only when you touch them that you realize it is rock.

Catlins coast, South Island

Deb at Cathedral Caves

Sea lion in the Catlins

Remains of petrified tree where you can even see the knot in the wood

Leaving the Catlins, we rode to the town of Invercargill made famous in the movie "The World's Fastest Indian", a story about a man named Burt Munro. He rebuilt a 1922 Indian motorcycle and took it to Bonneville Salt Flats in the US in the 1960s where he set land speed records. The original motorcycle is kept in a hardware store in town. There is also replica from the movie in the museum. While at the hardware store, we met a man that we had met before at a Horizons Unlimited travelers meeting in Nelson, British Columbia in 2005.

Burt Munro's motorcycle

From Invercargill, we started north again through the tourist center, Queenstown along a lake 50 miles long with mountains on both side. In a campground at the village of Glenorchy, we met a couple from Zionsville, Indiana - very close to where we used to live. When we told them where we lived, it turned out they were good friends of our neighbors, Jay and Ginny. There is a chance we've met this couple before but we weren't quite sure. We never cease to be amazed at what a small world it is.

Rode near Glenorchy

We are now staying at a campground on Lake Wanaka. We finally have summer camping weather. Deb no longer has to have an extra blanket in her sleeping bag or wear a woolen hat all night.