March 11, 2023 And so begins the longest Saturday of my life. We checked the NZ traffic and travel website and there weren't any new road closures! We got out the door around 7:45am with our first mission to get off the peninsula.  As we drove south on 25, we passed the slip that caused the road closure a few days ago. The only shocking part was that the road was now open. The entire cliffside lane was gone as if Pacman came and took a big bite out of the mountain. The hole was probably 2 car lengths in diameter. Notice the guardrail still in place Photo credit: NZ…

March 10, 2023 This is the last full day of our trip. Theresa and I took a walk before the rain fell. We walked about town, eventually sitting down at the Little Blue Kitchen for breakfast. We split a breakfast sandwich, and each enjoyed chai and cacao lattes. Perfect little morning out here in Hahei. We walked back to our unit where we started a load of laundry and lounged around while the sprinkles fell. With most of the things we had planned to do either closed or inaccessible, Theresa and I drove up to the The Lost Spring, a spa in Whitianga while Josh explored more of Hahei. The…

March 9, 2023 We took off early this morning for our last stop, the Coromandel peninsula. It has been ravaged by storms in the last several weeks, but it looked like our area was largely undamaged and accessible, so off we went.  About 45 minutes into the drive my GPS suddenly told us to turn around. it took a bit to figure out why. Turned out there was another landslide on the Coromandel which now made us take another route, one that added an hour to our drive. We teased Josh because it was his leg to drive and though he drove for 2.5 hours, we were only one hour…

March 8, 2023 Walked to Te Puia, Maori cultural center. Took the 10:30 tour to see a few geysers, boiling mud pools and finally, kiwi. Our Maori guide explained that there were about 12 million kiwi in New Zealand, but now only about 70,000. Kiwi are ground birds, so they don't fly and are easily hunted by dogs. There's a lot of effort to preserve and grow their numbers. https://youtu.be/rXS3FDZ4ojY Our guide also said that many New Zealanders move to Australia to work for about 10 years before moving back to NZ. The cost of living is high and NZ wages are not. They find they can earn better wages…

March 7, 2023 Today is Hobbiton! We drove two hours north to Matamata, home of Hobbiton. I'm not a huge fan of Lord of the Rings, but the place is truly a sight to see. It's built on a sheep and cow farm, but feels like a fairytale village. 39 round doors dot the vibrant green hills, the doors varying in size to perceive certain characters (Gandalf) as much taller than others. The homes themselves are just the facade, nothing behind the doors, windows and chimneys. Above Frodo's home at the top of Bag Hill is a large artificial tree. You'd never know it's artificial, the bark and 250,000 leaves…

March 6, 2023 We started the day at Belen Bakery, a 100% vegan bakery. Delicious butter chicken pie and cinnamon swirls. From there we took the funicular up mountain to see Wellington from above. Much nicer day than yesterday. We explored the gardens, winding about until we were back at the funicular to make our way back down. After our short morning sightseeing Wellington, we drove four hours north to Turangi. This stop wasn't useful, as we scratched our original plans to leave Wellington early in the morning so we could hike the Tongariro Crossing. The Tongariro Crossing is a difficult 13 mile hike across the mountains, and it just…

March 5, 2023 We packed up again this morning (we are getting good at it) and drove up to Picton to take the ferry to the north island. It's a little sad to be leaving the south island, but we agree we have no regrets. We loved the south island. We drove onto the Interislander ferry and picked out some nice seats. This ferry is more like a cruise ship than a ferry. Lots of comfy seats positioned in groups, a cafe and eatery. The four hour journey to Wellington passed pretty smoothly. Sailing through the Queen Charlotte Sound With a metro population of less than half a million, it's…

March 4, 2023 We packed up and left Nelson en route for the Marlborough wine region. Seems everywhere we go we need to cross the mountains. Driving into the Marlborough region there are droves and droves of grape vines. We've seen vineyards almost daily, but nothing to this magnitude. It seems there's nothing but grapes. We arrived in Blenheim and went out to the Wither Hills Winery. They were fully booked, so we bought two glasses of wine and sat outside. Not quite feeling the vibe here, we went across town to Framingham Winery. That place was perfect. A beautiful, relaxing courtyard with rocking chairs, picnic tables and bean bags…

March 3, 2023 Since we've been in the car a fair amount, today we aimed for something active. We found a bike rental nearby, Gentle Cycling Co., and the woman gave us a map with lots of options. We opted for a ride that began with a stop at Pic's Peanut Butter factory. Pic's peanut butter is made of only peanuts and salt, and it's all made in this single plant, we learned on the free tour. Josh picked up a jar, and we rode onward to Eddyline Pizzaria and Brewpub for a pint and pizza. Then we took one of the many bike trails along the bay, and rode…

March 2, 2023 Our alarms woke us for the first time this trip at 6:45am. Such a cruel way to wake up. We packed up and set out for Abel Tasman. 50 minute drive. We made it to Kaiteriteri where we checked in and got our sea shuttle tickets. Shortly after we boarded our vessel. I have taken a lot of boats in the last two months. Abel Tasman National Park The boat took us north past split apple rock and a small colony of seals on Adel Island. We were dropped at Anchorage and immediately started the closest trail. It led to the top of one of the mountains…

March 1, 2023 Before leaving Franz Josef we stopped for gas at the only station in town. It took a long time because it doubles as the post office, and a man ahead of us mailed a few packages. There are 12 helicopters in this town but only one gas station. We drove three hours north to Punakaiki, home of the famous pancake rocks. Scientists are not quite sure exactly how the rock originally became stacked in layers, but it does look like pancakes. About every 4-5 inches there's a line and another rock sediment placed right on top of the previous. This occurred over and over again as the…

February 28, 2023 Today's plans involved Lake Matheson and two glaciers. Josh was very excited to go to Lake Matheson since it is his namesake. Thankfully for all of us, the lake was worthy of a stop. Signs indicated Kiwi birds live in the area, but we didn't see any. We did see lots of ferns, moss and Kea birds. It's pretty wild seeing ferns that are part of the surrounding temperate rainforest and glaciers within a couple kilometers. We finished the track around the lake before grabbing a couple things from the cafe and heading to Fox Glacier. We walked the Fox Glacier Southside trail, carrying on all the…

February 27, 2023 Packed up the house and started rolling down the driveway before we realized we left a pair of underwear on the clothesline. Not sure how I missed a single pair of underwear… Today we had a 6 hour drive over to Franz Josef with many stops along the way. It started with a few windshield wiper waves before getting back in the groove of everything on the opposite side.  Even with the overcast morning skies the yellow grass shone as brilliantly bright as ever. It feels like a crime to do anything but take in the picturesque scenery as we drive. We drove to the Central Otago…

February 26, 2023 We agreed to take it slow today. None of us felt the need to go back to Mount Cook, so we checked out the town we're staying in, Twizel. We walked into town and checked out the shops. I was looking for a power converter for my laptop, and we all were looking for L&P, a famous New Zealand soda. We picked up each, and played a little chess in the main square. We also picked up a frisbee, which worked out perfectly because there was a frisbee golf course on our path around town. After frisbee golf we came to another glacial river and followed it.…

February 25, 2023 Theresa and Josh went to the grocery store while I slept in a little bit. We're all struggling from jet lag but ours are on different schedules since we came 6 hours from opposite directions. They made some sandwiches and away we went to Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park. This was Josh's first turn in the driver's seat. He did pretty good, but also did the wiper wave instead of a turn signal a few times. We made many scenic stops on our drive-in because the bright blue lake, the yellow fields of grass, and the white mountains in the distance were too much for us to wait.…

February 24, 2023 Walked to the Fjordland visitor center in Te Anau this morning. Realizing we saw everything we wanted to see in the area, we got gas ($100 NZD) and drove back to Queenstown. We parked the car and walked up to the Queenstown gondola, the steepest gondola in the southern hemisphere. We decided at the last minute to get the gondola ticket and two luge tickets per person. It's an impressive view from the top. We spent several minutes just taking it in. After that we headed over to the second chair lift to get to the starting point for the luge track. We all grabbed helmets and…

February 23, 2023 Packed up our Queenstown Hotel and headed out to the Milford sound around 8:00 a.m. We had spotty rain most of the drive to Te Anau. We stopped in Te Anau to check into our hotel, pick up water and use the bathroom then continued to the Milford Sound. Looking forward to staying there tonight. Cute little town. We stopped in a few pull-outs along the way to capture the increasingly pretty scenery. Lucky for us, the clouds lifted in the sun came out. We got to the Milford Sound just on time for our 1:30 p.m. boat cruise of the Milford Sound. We boarded the Mitre…

February 22, 2023 My flight from Singapore landed in Auckland at 9:46 a.m. I had a tight window to collect my bag, go through customs, recheck my bag, and get to my gate for my 11:30 a.m. flight to Queenstown. Everything went smoothly except for customs which required me to declare my hiking boots. The customs officer decided they needed to be sanitized before I could bring them into the country.  By the time I was through customs it was already after 11:30. Minutes later I found out that I did miss my flight. They rebooked me on a flight at 2:30 p.m. and I got to Queenstown around 4:30…