Due to “operational reasons” the Bluebridge Ferry Connemara was 2 hours late leaving Wellington and, surprise surprise, we were 2 hours late leaving Picton. The official reason was due to southerlies on the Cook Strait all week, but there was no issue on Saturday, lovely calm crossing. Oh well… We
If you’re stopping in Blenheim for a few days, it’s a pretty safe bet that you’re going to visit a winery or 2. Cathy and I like good wine and the Marlborough Region of New Zealand is noted for some spectacular wines, mostly white but also Pinot
It was a beautiful day when we left Dunedin for Timaru, the last sunny day until we left Christchurch as it turned out. Got to love NZ weather! Canada gets arctic outflows, NZ gets Antarctic blasts, still no snow where we’ve been and the weather is getting warmer. Our
We had 2 full days during our second stop in Dunedin and we tried to see as much as possible. Of course, day 1 overcast but the rain was light and intermittent so it wasn’t going to stop us. We headed out to Port Chalmers, the main container port
Armed with information from Kate and Jono on places to stop, and where to find a good bakery, we headed up the east coast. First stop was Evansdale Cheese. We pulled in at the same time as another couple, who turned out to be from Winnipeg and are travelling in
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