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…

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…

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…

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…

On the way out in the morning we did the last boarwalk: Dubuji, which looked different than the others had on previous days, due to the heavy rain the night…

On Sunday, we drove up to Emmagen Creek and followed the path back from a huge strangler fig to the swimming hole.  We had read at the Bat House that…

In the morning, our hosts had laid out a gorgeous fruit plate: papaya, grapes, kiwi, apples, oranges, mandarin and the sweetest pineapple ever.  A lot of fruit is grown in…

Next in our series of weekend wanders was a trip up the coast to Cape Tribulation.  After a few days on foot it was nice to have our own wheels…

A drive up to the Mt. Lofty summit provided a panoramic view of Adelaide all the way to the sea.  We tried unsuccessfully to find two geocaches on the nature trail below…

Our drive took us along the coast, past small towns, fishing villages and vast open spaces.  We checked into the Cervantes Lodge in the crayfishing town of Cervantes.  The town…