Category: New Zealand

Yesterday, we were shopping in Auckland and noticed that Friday is December 1st, not Thursday. Oops. Our flight is Friday. This meant we dropped our car off and booked into an airport hotel a day early. Oops. Fortunately, Auckland is a fun city to hang out in, and the airport B&B is nice. Unfortunately, we…

Crossed around Mt Doom yesterday. At the “high” point, we huddled on top of a volcanic crater with zero visibility, shards of ice strewn about, and biting winds of at least 80 km/h, as we waited for the clouds to abate enough to see the track markers 5 meters in front of us. After an…

We aren’t very good geeks. We haven’t stopped in hobbitton, most lord of the rings sites, and we didn’t even know what that tree at Rivendell was that all the true geeks were fussing about. We did however see the tree, and take a picture. Maybe someday we’ll figure it out. The nice thing about…

YEPs – 3 Blue Penguins – 2 Fiordland Crested Penguins – 5 Seals – A lot Sea Lions – 12, including 2 very playful kids Cost: Long walks on the coast, running from Hitchcockian birds, lots of camera battery power

Just checking in from the Southland of NZ. Still lots of sheep. Starting to lose track of the days. Hiked to an old lumber town which was shut down 70 years ago and it’s sinking in how brief European’s history is in NZ. We drove through the oldest European settled town the other day –…

(so named by the silly british who’d never seen a fiord before) It’s still shoulder season in NZ, but we’ve hit the peak tourist spot, Milford Sound in the heart of Fiordland. The Milford Sound Lodge (read: only lodging in town) was packed with campervans and backpackers, and there was actually someone else in a…

We’ve now been tenting 15 out of the past 16 nights. Camping is a major New Zealand pasttime, and the sites are almost always in spectacular locations. We’ve camped on sandy beaches, calm lakes, and flowing rivers, with singing birds and usually sheep to wake us up in the crisp cool mornings. What has impressed…

We’ve taken the ferry over to the south island, where the mountains are taller, the water is bluer, and the wineries are more plentiful. The latter is exceptionally nice, but the vineyards aren’t nearly as photogenic as the water. Tomorrow we’re off on a 4 day hike which we will hopefully survive. If not, tell…

We’ve stumbled into unusual weather in springtime New Zealand with flooding and wind at 120 KM/H, so we’re exploring some of the interiors of the area (otherwise known as stuck). No tenting for us! Instead, last night we spent the night in a virtually empty old nurses’ quarters of an old hospital – yes, it’s…