Today was our last tour, and it was fantastic. We arrived to greet Andy at Hinterland Tours in his new 19 seater Mercedes tour van. For the six of us, it worked great. We started with a brief of Tauranga (pronounced Toeranga) city and then proceeded to a tour of a Honey farm (Convita) that sold a variety of honey based products including the Manuka tree bloom where the the bees produce only 1/2 teaspoon of honey total in their lifetime. The Queen bee was marked w...

It's Tuesday, November 29th just before 7:30 a.m. and we’re getting set to pull into Napier. This little town is located in Hawke’s Bay on the eastern coast of the North Island. The total population of the Napier-Hastings ("The Bay Cities) is about 130,000, which makes it the fifth-largest urban area in New Zealand, closely followed by Tauranga (132,000) and Dunedin (120,000). It’s the nexus of the largest wool centre in the Southern Hemisphere,...

Weather just can't be controlled it seems. It’s Saturday, November 26th and we’ve run into a rocky ride, particularly during last night. We’re evidently in a low- pressure area that has caused 4.5 meter (15 foot) swells but funny enough sunny skies. As a result, we had to bypass our tendered port Akoroa (Christchurch) because of a potential safety hazards with the tenders. The Captain has just announced that because of worsening weather we’...

I've traveled all around the world, I've seen some amazing sights. I can't possibly tell you how beautiful it is here in Dunedin and the surrounding area. We landed Port Chalmers today at around 09:00 and immediately secured a 6-passenger van with Big Nev (Neville). In hindsight, the van was probable just a little too small for the six of us. The five-hour tour was just a little too much to take for some of our passengers. It's difficult to secure a Maxi-Van whe...

It's 5:05 a.m. and I'm up, cooler weather today and it's raining. Wouldn't you know it, we're set to arrive at the one of the most beautiful places on this earth and it's low hanging fog. I was elected to be the one (Jean followed later apparently) to brave the covered 6th floor and get some pictures. There's not too much that I can add except I wish what could have been. I've attached some of my shots just to give you a taste. Tonight is Thanksgiving Day so w...