More Fiordland and Mt Aspiring NP Photos, onto West Coast

Fiordland...


Mt Aspiring National Park...


Here are a few more pictures to enjoy from our time in Fiordland. We've now been working our way north and after a day of ridculously amazing weather in Aspiring NP where we hiked up to Cascade Saddle, we've had to pay the piper and it has been raining for four days straight. This means we've skipped up the west coast, missing all the glaciers (but really, we can climb on these at home right?) and experiencing first hand, just a little bit of the 7 meters of rain that falls on Westland annualy - it has to fall some time right?

We're past the halfway point of our trip and thoughts have been turning towards home lately. We just purchased our final plane tickets. We will be in Nepal in April and May to hike the Annapurna Circuit and trek up to Everest Base Camp. Then Chris heads back to Seattle, while I will head back to Korea for three weeks to do a little research for a Korean trekking tour I'm trying to put together, and to make what will surely be an epic road trip with my mom! Then it's off to Omaha for a while and a western US road trip for about a month, putting me back in Seattle around August. So far and yet so close!

We've both been talking about what it will be like to be back at home. A lot of historic changes and turbulent events have taken place since we left. When we left Barack Obama had just recieved the Democratic Party nomination. Now he is President of the United States, unemployement is at 7% and we are in what all the newspapers have dubbed a global recession. And yet here we are jobless (and really homeless) traipsing around the world in an old van. It's hard to stay in touch with that every day reality. I'm sure there will be a lot of reverse culture shock when we return! For now we'll just keep up with the hard task of seeing as many amazing sights as we can see and enjoying as much good food and wine as we can!