Thar she blows!
Kaikoura had some of the most beautiful scenery yet! The snowy mountain-peaked background and an almost impossibly aquamarine sea sparkling in the foreground was truly magnificent. We had some lovely walks around town and down to a sea colony to watch them play before heading uphill to the lookout from which you can see both […]
Fox Glacier
A full day and night of non-stop, bone-chilling rain was compensated for by a bright sunny morning for our visit to Fox Glacier. Fox Glacier Guiding’s guide was professional and friendly, and seemed genuinely interested in the glacier and its future. Our half-day walk didn’t have us out on the ice for very long, but […]
Diamond Lake, Beer and Puzzling
The Diamond Lake Track near Wanaka leads past it’s namesake body of water, then up to the summit of Rocky Hill. The views from the top were fantastic and gave us a great idea of how the glaciers had carved out this amazing landscape. We were a bit parched when we got back down the […]
Queenstown’s Sister
After a last stop at Miles Better Pies (the best yet!), we were on to Queenstown, a center for adreniline activities like bungy, rafting, rope swinging, zorbing, skydiving, ETC. For financial and time reasons, we passed on all of these and just took a look around. Queenstown is a pretty, energetic city in a beautiful, […]
Fiordland
The late-afternoon Milford Sound cruise was a good choice for avoiding any crowds: there were only a dozen or so people on board. We had chosen a smaller boat, as well, so we had plenty of space to roam around as we motored out past stunning granite cliffs plunging vertically into the clear water of […]
The Road to Milford
Te Anau is a lovely destination on its own, and we took advantage of the lakeside setting for a morning walk. After checking out road conditions (there has been snow and sleet), we rented snow chains from the service station and head north 119k to Milford Sound. It was still quite cold, so we bundled […]
Petrified Forest
No sign of dolphins in Porpoise Bay this morning, but there were flurries! It was a cold, rainy night with howling winds, but we stayed fairly warm in our sleeping bags. The sun came out briefly, and we took advantage of low tide to take a look at a petrified forest….logs and stumps […]
Curio Bay
Before leaving town for Curio Bay, we decided to check out an “est,” (bigg-est, tall-est, deep-est, etc.) In a suburb of Dunedin is the Guinness record holder for world’s steepest street, Baldwin Street. We left the van at the bottom and walked up. It was a good workout and challenging coming back down as well. […]
On down the Coast
Between Timaru and Oamaru we entertained each other with observations like “That sheep had a lot of grass in it’s wool.” and “Did you see how high that lamb jumped?” and “Do lamb tails fall off, or do they clip them?” We passed paddock upon paddock of sheep, with occasional cows, horses or alpacas and […]
Akaroa
The Banks Peninsula was created by violent volcanic eruptions long, long ago. The result today is rolling green hills with vistas of the sea and picturesque bays from their summits. We stayed just outside Akaroa, originally a French Settlement (though the British jumped in just before the settlers arrived and officially claimed the area under […]