We arrived into Dunedin on a beautiful sunny day, and a day before the remnants of cyclone Gita (no worries mum...all good). Dunedin is a city with Maori and Scottish heritage. They say the Scottish took to it due to the rocky shore line and similar climate. The city has a large student population and a draw for those who enjoy the city centre and being close to nature’s wonders...you can experience both in a day as they are really only 10-20 minutes away fr...

Our travels from the west coast back to the east took us through Arthur’s Pass with beautiful landscapes and winding roads. We arrived in Christchurch to explore the surrounding areas and use the city as our home base. For those of you that remember the news in 2011 Christchurch experienced a series of earthquakes that devastated the downtown area. The city continues to rebuild and is slowly getting back on its feet. We walked the suggested route downtown t...

As we left the Nelson region we decided to stay one night in St. Arnaud, and complete a walking track on Mt. Robert. The track was a variety of switchbacks up the mountain and through some beech trees, across the top and then more switchbacks to complete the loop...all total 9.4km. It was a perfect day as the sun was high and the breeze cool. We checked out a couple of the huts along the route for overnight campers and met a DOC (department of conservation) vo...

A super moon, a king tide and the tail end of a cyclone...(no worries mum...all good)! We arrived in Nelson and headed to the information site, our routine stop as we travel through NZ. There we found weather warnings for Abel Tasman for the following day and we took the suggestion of starting our exploration with Nelson’s Historic Walk which took us through the city and familiarized us with the local sites/history. On Thursday the area did indeed get rain,...

Our first day in Picton was an adventure with an early departure into the Sounds to Ship Cove. The cove is named after Captain James Cook who started exploring the area in 1770. Our water taxi dropped us off to start our day hike of a portion of the Queen Charlotte Track. The total distance of the track is 71km and takes 3-5 days, there is a mountain biking option as well. There are many options for accommodations along the way, with water taxis delivering yo...