Out for dessert, I asked the group if anyone knew what Pavlova was.  The French girl told me it was a Russian dessert, a pastry that wouldn’t be made well here.  Then again, no dessert is made well except in France.  A couple days later I tried Pavlova and it’s not Russian.  It’s from either Australia or New Zealand. It’s like a pie made of meringue and berries.  And it’s fabulous!

After we left Franz Joseph, we did a small hike around Matheson Lake with views of Fox Glacier and Mount Cook.  Mount Cook is New Zealand’s highest mountain.  I didn’t see the glacier and I have no idea which mountain was Mount Cook.  But it was beautiful.  We also stopped at a lot of cool places for photo opportunities.  One was Bruce Bay which is a very isolated beach.  We went over Haast Pass which is one of New Zealand’s newest roads.  So most of the wilderness in that area is untouched by humans.  I bought new earrings and then lost one on a small hike to a waterfall.  Wow – that was expensive.  We also went to Blue Pools which was a pretty area where a very blue river runs into another river.  When we got to our accommodation, we went jet boating on the Makaroa River.  That was a lot of fun.  Later that evening I lost $10 that fell out of my pocket and no one seemed to ask if anyone lost $10.  Then later I discovered that I lost my new wool/possum hat.  Merry Christmas Eve – Instead of getting gifts, I’m losing things.

Christmas day started off early with a 6:30am leaving time.  We drove to a big lake with a few photo stops on the way.  At the lake we got on a boat and headed across the lake.  Then on the other side of the lake we got on busses.  The busses took us through more untouched wilderness.  The road had been built for the construction of a hydroelectric plant. Otherwise, Doubtful Sound would be even more difficult to get to.  The busses took us to our overnight boat.  Doubtful Sound is part of the Fiordlands.  It is far far less visited than Milford Sound.  We never saw another boat the whole time we were there.  This is another area where there are no introduced species of plants and no animals.  We cruised through the fiord to the Sea to look at Fur Seals.  We took tours in smaller boats or kayaks.  There was swim time too which for me was jump off the boat and promptly swim back to the boat.  The water was so cold.  The dinner was the best we’ve had so far on this trip.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore