Peggy & Pat's Sailing Adventures
March 28 – A 240 km drive to Punakaki, on the west coast, took about 4 hours. The road first took us through some very green agricultural land with many ranches, farms and vast forests of timber to be harvested. At about the half way mark, we went into a mountainous area with the road winding back and forth with
One of the fun things about NZ is the interesting mail boxes. We quickly noticed that they were more colorful than what we see in the US and we started collecting photos. While still fulfilling their utilitarian function, they are often humorous pieces of art. NZ’ers do have a sense of humor and like to personalize their front yard. We
March 27 – While Peggy decided to take the day off (still recovering from pneumonia), she insisted that I keep the schedule and go on the planned day trip to Abel Tasman Park. While it is the smallest of NZ’s national parks, it is one of the most visited. The day started with a kayak trip from Kaiteriteri, a small
On March 20 we drove 40 minutes from Blenheim to Picton. Picton is in the Marlborough Sounds area, which is a never ending maze of small inlets, islands, and randomly shaped waterways, containing 10% of all the coastline of NZ! This beautiful area is sparsely populated, with many settlements being accessible only by boat. Picton itself, has fewer than 5,000
On March 12, after seeing Ray & Mary off at the Christchurch airport, we picked up a rental car and drove to Hanmer Springs, about 2 hours northwest. Hanmer Springs is a cute little town built around a set of great thermal springs. With about a thousand permanent residents, the town receives over 500,000 tourists each year! The hot springs
March 8, on the road again! This is one of our longest drives at 355 km and over 5 hours, from Queenstown to Franz Josef, a small town on the west coast. It is known for the Franz Josef Glacier. The glaciers in NZ have generally been retreating due to global warming, but this one is a bit special because
On March 2, we said goodbye to my son Bryan and hello to our good friends Ray & Mary. I have known Ray since we were both on the same dorm floor at UC Berkeley in 1976. They flew down from Auckland, having been vacationing there for a bit with Ray’s son Mike and his wife and child. Our first
Feb26 we drove from Queenstown to Te Anau, a little over two hours. Lake Te Anau is at the edge of Fjordland, a huge, pristine national park covering the southwest corner of the South Island. We checked into a VRBO property for the first time on this trip. It was an older home, but we had lots of space and
Feb23 started with an early ferry ride from Stewart Island to Bluff and a long drive to Queenstown to pickup my son, Bryan, at the airport! 🙂 He had just flown in from California and we were looking forward to sharing NZ with him. We spent some time walking around in downtown QT on a very nice warm summer day.
Feb20, a 3.5 hr drive through beautiful farmland from Dunedin to Bluff to get the ferry to Stewart Island. By lunchtime we were in Bluff and drove up to the top of the promontory where there is a nice park with great views. After lunch at the park we went to Oyster Cove Cafe, a really nice place with huge