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 Tongariro National Park. The full trek is multi-day, but this…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…