From a base in Ohakune (carrot capital of NZ, and a huge ski and snoboarding center in winter), we did an amazing 19.4k walk called the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, in…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

    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…

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…

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?”…