This is another travel day. We travelled inland and south, along the World Heriatge Highway, with our destination Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world. We had a few stops on the way.First stop was for breakfast at Lake Matheson. It was named after Murdoch Matheson, a cattleman who ran cattle on the Cook River in the 1870's. We had breakfast at a cafe looking out at Aoraki/ Mount Cook (highest peak in NZ at 3,724 m) and Horokaou/ Mount Tasman (at 3,...

Another free day! Yeah! There is so much to do in this tiny township. We had the choices of heli hiking, scenic helicopter flights, horse trekking, quad biking, skydiving, glacier valley walk, lake kayaking or a hot pools visit. We opted to just have a relaxing day and did some hiking and exploring of the area. There are 110 kms of walking tracks which pass through the forest and are dominated by the lofty peaks of Cook, Tasman, and La Perouse.  The glacier...

We travelled across the Southern Alps via the stunningly scenic Arthur's Pass to Franz Josef, in the rainforest. Three main roads provide access to passes to the mountains. One is Lewis Pass at the northernmost part; southernmost is Burke's Pass and central is Arthur's Pass, which marks the eastern portal of the Otira Tunnel, the only rail link through the mountains. It is an 8 km long tunnel completed in 1923. It took 15 years to construct and is...

Today's the day!! I woke up and went to the beach to see the sunrise. The start of a gorgeous day. I was thinking of all of you while enjoying the view. Miss you guys lots!! It was so peaceful. No-one else was around. I had the entire beach all to myself.  At 7:45 we met Auto and went to brekkie. After eating, we boarded a bus to take us to the wharf and boarded the boat (the Delphinium) to take us to the dolphin meeting area. Some of the gals on the Au...

We took the ferry from Wellington to the South Island and then took the coastal railway from Picton to the seaside town of Kaikoura (population 3,500), known for its volcanic black-sand beaches.The Cook Straight was fairly smooth going. I could feel the rocking of the ferry but it wasn't bad and we all made it across without any sea sickness. I was talking to the coffee guy (very good looking) on the ferry who told me that there were 2 pods of dolphins follo...