After breakfast at our hotel, we were given a “Bee” pass. You swipe this as you get on public transportation and again when you get off. It allowed us to use a bus to get down from our hotel (which is on a hill to the side of town) and – perhaps more importantly – […]
Author: Sandy
Day 12 – Milford Sound – Ti Anau – to Queenstown (26 Sept 2023)
We woke up on the boat and headed up to breakfast – then the boat took us from our mooring out on the Tasman Sea. Whew, the boat was really thrown around! You could see, however, how Captain Cook just saw what was actually the opening to the sound as a “shallow cove” – the […]
Day 11 – to Milford Sound (25 September 2023)
I’m filling in Day 11 and Day 12 on the evening of Day 12, because our boat in Milford Sound did not have Wi-Fi. So, these two posts are going to be more “impressions and pictures” than a lot of words. The first thing that we had to do was figure out what to bring […]
Day 10 – Dunedin (24 Sept 2023)
Our hotel in Dunedin is the former Main Post Office. They had some fun with it. Their restaurant is accessed through the “Parcels” doorway – hence, it is “Parcels Restaurant.” They also made small private dining areas out of the former vaults! (That was my favorite). And below is an old picture of the queue […]
Day 9 – Steampunk! (23 September 2023)
Today was a travel day. We headed out from Christchurch early, enjoying some lovely scenery along the way. I didn’t get any photos of the “venison on the hoof” that is farmed in New Zealand – maybe tomorrow. One scourge has been (like back home!) the Scotch Broom. Unfortunately, as the sheep/venison/cattle are basically just […]
Day 8 – Cardboard Cathedral, Sheep Shearing, Happy Birthday to Me (22 Sept 2023)
Our breakfast today at the hotel definitely highlighted the fact we are in the “breadbasket” of New Zealand. It included an actual full honeycomb just pulled out of the hive, plus gorgeous yellow new cream. This reminded me of when I lived in England – the milkman would bring you your bottles of milk in […]
Day 7 – Christchurch (21 Sept 2023)
Today was mainly a travel day – and also mainly will be photos. We stopped by on our way to Rotorua Airport (about the size of Santa Rosa airport) and visited a redwood forest that had been planted about 100 years ago. It was odd to see coast redwoods in and amongst huge tree ferns! […]
Day 6 – Waimangu Thermal Valley & Home-Hosted Dinner (20 Sept 2023)
Waimangu (Wai = water, Mangu = black) is the world’s youngest thermal valley. The Waimangu Geothermal system was created by the eruption of Mt. Tarawera on 10 June 1886, the only one created as a direct result of a volcanic (basalt) eruption. In the earliest hours of that day, persistent and increasingly large earthquakes were […]
Day 5 – A Day In The Māori Life (19 Sept 2023)
Today was a day in the life of the Ngāti Manawa people. We got out from the hotel early and headed by bus to learn about all aspects of life of the Ngāti Manawa Māori. We had a very energetic young gal as our guide. She started out by giving us her “pepeha.” A “pepeha” […]
Day 4 – Hamilton Gardens & The Kiwi Encounter Conservation Project (18 Sept 2023)
We put our bags outside our door at 7:00 a.m. to be taken to the bus, and after another delicious breakfast at the VOCO, we were off on the road again. We had a few stops along the way – the visitor’s center below in the town of Tirau was pretty classic. Everyone (but me […]