New Zealand

We had a great time in New Zealand! The only downside to the experience was the weather. We were surprised when we returned home to hear of all the severe weather warnings and power outages that were in place during our trip last week. It was bad, but we didn't think it was that bad - we saw blue skies at least for a bit every day. Here is a brief rundown of our trip:

Friday - we left for the airport on a shuttle right after I finished up with work. The flight was fine, except for a bumpy landing at the end. We arrived early Saturday....

Saturday - on our arrival early that morning we took a shuttle to our hotel, slept for a few hours, then returned to the airport to catch a shuttle to pick up our campervan. Our campervan was great: low miles and well maintained. It had a toilet, refrigerator, stove, sink and microwave in addition to the standard fare. We left the airport for a brief visit to Aukland, then started our journey south through some farming/sheep country. We picked up all of our groceries for the trip that night and arrived after dark to a vacant RV/campsite a few hours away from Auckland.

Sunday - we visited Hobbiton. This is the movie set for the shire in the Lord of the Rings movie. The tour also included a sheep shearing demonstration and lamb feeding. We then drove down further south, hoping to see a view of Mt. Taranaki. We stayed at another vacant camping site on a neat beach. I wish we could have spent more time exploring it, but we had to leave for a full day of driving to catch the ferry to the South Island early the next morning.

Monday - we drove down to Wellington and visited the Weta Cave/Museum. Then we caught our ferry down to the South Island. It was supposed to be a rough ride, but it turned out to be just fine. Once back on land we planned on staying at a non-powered campsite with a remote feel, but changed our plans to stay at a 'powered' campsite in order to take advantage of our van's electric heater in the cooler weather.

Tuesday - we drove through the town of Nelson on our way down the west coast of the South Island. We thought it would be a bit more quaint, but it was pretty developed and touristy. There are supposed to be some great artisans there, but we didn't know they only show up during the weekend markets. The town was almost a bust, but I found a jacket (New Zealand bush shirt) that I have been looking for - so it was OK in the end. We journied on to our stay near the pancake rocks on the coast.

Wednesday - we woke up and broke fast to see the pancake rocks (a neat geological feature of limestone and blow holes at the ocean), then continued down the west coast road through glacier country. We had a little excitement as we entered the mountain pass and it started snowing while our fuel tank was nearing empty. We made it to a gas station and then our campsite on a pretty lake though.

Thursday - we went through another small pass, and had a short morning snack at a neat café, then we drove down the hills into Arrowtown that had some cool older buildings and souvenier shops. We drove on to Queenstown and had lunch on lake Wakatipu while watching some kite surfers try to make the most of the wild wind. Then we drove on to Mt. Cook, hoping to catch a glimpse of it's peak. Unfortunately, it was clouded in. I went out at night to try to capture some photos under a beautiful full moon.

Friday - we drove on to Christchurch and returned our van, then checked into our hotel. Once checked in, we caught the bus and headed into the city where we did a walk and celebrated our anniversary with a dinner at a fun European-feeling restaurant, then we headed back to get to bed for our early flight the next morning.

Saturday - woke up at 4:00am to catch our morning flight back to Melbourne.

We took hundreds of photos, but I've uploaded a few of them here if you would like to check them out. New Zealand is a beautiful country, but some areas were strangely familiar to sights I have seen in the US - except the rolling green hills from the North Island and the snowy mountains with green pastures of the South Island. There are a lot of fun activities to do as well. People told us we were crazy to try and see it all in a week because we were missing out on so much. But, now we have some things to do if we ever go back. RV'ing was a fun experience, but our bed back in Australia in a quiet room was great to return to.

We welcomed our first vistors yesterday. We picked up Brett and Angela at the airport and took them out to St. Kilda. I think we over-exhausted them for one day:)