we're good at camping

Well, we try at least. Four nights in the campervan down, eight to go! Our wheels have taken us from Christchurch past Mt Cook through Queenstown to Te Anau and Milford Sound, and now back to Queenstown again. Campervan rules--as far as we know--are that you can park and sleep anywhere out of town so long as there's no sign telling you that you can't. The results, after a stormy first night, look like the view above, and we awoke to clear views of Mt Cook from the south shore of Lake Pukaki.

Queenstown is charming. It's also very touristy. We like it, though, so we're back. When it comes to experiencing the place, you have two options: You can spend hundreds of dollars to eat, sleep, drink, boat down a river, ride a gondola, bungy jump, and use the internet, or you can do what we try to do by living on spaghetti out of the back of a van, skipping the speed boats, hiking an hour up to where the gondola would take you in three minutes, being bungy jumping enthusiasts (by jealously watching), and finding the only free wi-fi in town at the local ice cream joint. We're still suckers, though, and New Zealand is fairly expensive, so we've spent some cash. Should we just go for it? Are we missing out?

Te Anau and Milford Sound were beautiful and wet. We did fork over $30 in Te Anau for a spot at what's called a "holiday park". We were lured in by the guaranteed place to sleep, the showers, etc. They got us at Milford Sound too when we paid probably too much for a two hour cruise around the fiord. Wanida got sprayed and soaked by a waterfall!

New pics are up, so enjoy!