We’re splitting our time in Dunedin into 2 parts, but more on that later. We had a great drive from Invercargill along the scenic route. Our first stop was in Fortrose for a coffee and a walk on the beach to the entrance the shallow harbour. Lots of shells
We chose the scenic route from Te Anau to Invercargill and it was definitely the right choice! We stopped for great walk on the Rakatu Wetland trail and saw the what has been accomplished by a dedicated group of volunteers to rejuvinate these wetlands that were significantly impacted by the
After a quiet, somewhat rainy day, we took a drive out to Milford Sound, about 2 hours from Te Anau. The drive winds up into the coastal mountains until you get to the 1.2 km Homer Tunnel that goes through the Darren Mountains. Started in 1935, it was finally
We got to Te Anau on Friday and spent the weekend walking around town and doing a short section of the Kepler Track, a 60km circular track running through Fiordland. We walked about 6km in total! Monday was the day of the big spend tourist excursion we picked for our
After a relaxing down day on Monday, we headed out for another hike, this time along the shore of Lake Wanaka. We had a great 8km walk along the lakeside before heading back into town to finally take a look at the Wanaka Tree. This is lone tree growing in
Sun, sun, sun, that describes the weather we’ve had so far in Albert Town. Well OK, today is overcast and it’s sort of raining, but not a full on gale. We‘ve managed to fill the past 4 days exploring the local trails and enjoying the beautiful weather.
Said goodbye to our host Rosie and headed out bound for Fairlie, our midway stop for the night before Albert Town. The weather forecast was for cloud, but no rain, yeah, right! We stopped for a hike at the Rakaia River Gorge. It was about 5K return, the first half
Christchurch is noted as one of the driest areas of New Zealand, nestled on the east coast at the edge of the Canterbury plain. Apparently there is on average 5 days of rain January, we were there for 6 of them! The last time we visited Christchurch was 1999, and
Leaving Greymouth, our next stop was Diamond Harbour, about 45 minutes from Christchurch on the other side of Lyttelton Harbour. Our route took us through Arthurs Pass, that according to our friend Sarah, is one of the must see places in New Zealand. Sarah was right! To get across the
Our AirBnB just outside of Greymouth was perfect for exploring up and down the west coast. We headed up towards Westport on Saturday with a planned stop at the Pancake Rocks in Punakaiki. The rock formations are the result of uplifted limestone and water erosion. At high tide and with
We’re about halfway through our stay in Rapahoe, about 10 minutes north of Greymouth. The weather has been typical west coast summer, cool, some rain, but not much wind and there’s a lot to see and do. Wednesday, after getting the grocery shopping out of the way, we
We left Castlepoint early to make sure we had plenty of time to get to Wellington to catch our ferry to the South Island. We did find out what at least one of the emergency sirens we heard was for. Along the road from Castlepoint to Masterton, a power line