Bags are packed, and we're off to the Denver Airport to begin our journey. We are very excited to be returning to New Zealand for three weeks! We will meet up with Carol and Roger Read in San Francisco before we board Air New Zealand for the long flight across the dateline. We'll arrive at Auckland International Airport on Saturday, losing Friday as we cross the dateline. After picking up our rental car, we will drive to our condo in Mount Maunganui. I hope ...

We are at the Christchurch Airport. We have had a wonderful trip!!Today was mostly spent packing and cleaning up the van. We had a nice lunch at the Red Beri. Fish 'n Chips one last time.Then we met Rachel to turn in the van and checked in our luggage. For the next 24+ hours, we will be either sitting on a plane or sitting at an airport, not counting on when we negotiate customs in LA.  While doing laundry and getting ready to leave the campground, we go...

We took the Metro bus from the Amber Park campground to the Christchurch city center. Christchurch is NZ's second largest city.   We visited the city center three years ago and we expected to see changes today, but we didn’t anticipate the devastation we saw.First we walked through the "City Mall." This is where temporary stores, banks and restaurants have been constructed where damaged buildings once were.On Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 12:51 PM a...

Yesterday was census day in NZ. Even visitors had to fill out a form so they could count us. The census was postponed a couple of years ago because of the earthquake.Not much to write home about today, as we were on the road again, and there aren't many attractions between Timaru and Christchurch.We stopped in Ashburton for lunch. Bob was in the mood for a hamburger as he hasn't had one for five weeks, so we stopped at Burger King.  We tried to visit ...

Today in Timaru was fine, which is how they describe beautiful weather. Timaru comes from the Maori word meaning "place of shelter." It is a thriving port city.We started our day by visiting the South Canterbury Museum in the Pioneer Hall on Perth Street. It is a great, if small, museum which includes exhibits on early settlers, whalers, natural history. One particularly interesting exhibit is about Richard Pearse, pioneer aviator and inventor. According to rec...