Onto the bus at 7 for a bus ride to a boat then hike and another boat ride. It looks like a gorgeous sunny day….yeah! But then within a very short time, we were back to driving in fog. But then….one of our fellow travellers from Calgary checked the weather there. Egad, -24 but feels like -37 so I guess it isn’t too bad here.

We board a boat at Manapouri. Pointy mountain on the first lake was used in Lord of the Rings. This national park is huge… the size of Wales. One island all threats have been removed and the kiwis have been reintroduced.

We get off the first lake and get on another bus to go 21 kms to

Manapouri hydropower station… 1964-1972 completed and the 2002 2nd tail race tunnel completed…provides 4500 gigawatts of power… enough to power the South Island of New Zealand. Fiordland National Park is 1.2 hectares in size is a National Heritage site.

If you don’t have rain for 3 days here it is considered a drought. 400 types of mosses…. Spagnum mass can hold 25x it’s weight in water from when it’s dry. 25 litres of water in 1 kg of dry moss???

1 in 6 meter increase in elevation on this road. 671 meters high western side of southern alp can change 0-13 degree temperature from one side to other.

1 in 5 metres is steepest declining in southern hemisphere on downhill. 1 of 9 endangered bird species in world is in NZ. They’re hoping to have all pest killed by 2050 so you can help the government by running over over any rats or mice…,.. It rains 200 days year…. 7-10 metres rain per year. There are 2000 earthquakes a year in Fiordland. At Deep Cove we transfer from our bus to another boat.

Doubtful Sound is 40 kilometres long. It is absolutely spectacular!!!

No commercial fishing allowed.

Back on land on the bus at 5 pm and driving back to Queenstown for 7:30. It’s been a long day….. only 3500 steps.

Weather is not bad but not good enough for the skydivers to go out.

So many other activities cancelled but Brianna, Jess and I went up on the gondola but couldn’t see a thing up top….. it was socked in. Then the three of us went on Ziptrek, the steepest zip line in the world. It descend 30 storeys at speeds of up to 70kmh …. comprised of six lines.

8700 steps…24 flights of stairs

On the road at 7:30 and wouldn’t you guess it, the sun is coming out! Such luck we have had weather-wise.

We wind our way through more of the magnificent Alps. I noticed the name identifying one of a creek’s name….”Hairpin Creek”…. That could apply to every corner every 100-150 feet.

We stopped to stretch our legs and view the Fox Glacier(it is bigger than Franz Josef) that is visible…. A rare thing apparently. It is gorgeous and sunny so we can see it. Stopping for another bit of a hike at Lake Matheson.

Ship Creek …. They found a portion of a ship in 1871 but could never find the other half til year later in…. In 1973. The other half was on the coast of Australia 2000kms away… it had drifted that far.

Haast Pass/ Otago National Park… world heritage….same status as Grand Canyon and Great Barrier Reef. It is believed to be what the earth was like when the dinosaurs roamed the earth. Great 2 lane highways but all bridges are one lane. You don’t see many bicycles in this country but we have seen a good number peddling up these mountain highways.

Stopped for photos at Lake Wanaka after we are all craning trying to take pictures as we are careening down the road. It certainly would not be good if you got car sick!

Wanaka …. Really very nice touristy town on the lake….. great in summer with water activities & great in winter for skiing.

Arrived at Queenstown. Deforested area is the gondola where the Ziplines and paragliding amongst other activities start. I think this is known as the adrenaline capital of New Zealand. It too is on a huge lake in the middle of the mountains.

10,500 steps

As expected, today is a bust with nothing happening….. not interested in hiking in the rain, nor kayaking in the rain. Some did go kayaking, some took a shuttle to a viewpoint to see the glacier…. It was quite a distance away.

I walked over the “Franz Josef West Coast Wildlife Centre”. I saw a couple of 10 month old baby kiwis. We’re not allowed to take photos so sorry folks. Learned about the rarest of them, the rowi…. How so few of them in the wild survive attacks by dogs, rat, but mostly stoats that look like mink. Apparently a concerted effort is being made to capture and eradicate the stoats and other predators. I also read about glaciers and other animals some, like the Himalayan Tahr that have been introduced from other countries and are now becoming a problem.

Two nights in a row we went to a restaurant called Alice May’s …. Quite the story! The food was the best we’ve had. The decor was pretty interesting too.

As I am sure I mentioned, this is a rainforest…. Did I mention rain!

3742 steps…. Who wants to hike in the rain!!! ….6000 the day before and 6500 the day before that. It looks like we are running out of steam… yup!!!

As we head south, we drive up into the Southern Alps-beautiful…. Not unlike driving up the Malahat or other mountain areas in BC with windy 2 lane highways. Stopped for a short walk at Lewis Pass. Clouds hanging low…moss on the trees. Victoria Falls Park

Reefton… town of light. First electricity before NY and San Francisco. Hydro power plant.. old town…quaint.

Quite a number of trucks hauling ores of some sort. Cattle farms as we come into flatter areas. Saw aerial sprinklers for first time here.

Later we stopped at Hokitika….on the “wild west coast”, shopped for jade and abalone jewellery, food and sit by the beach… watched the crashing waves come in.

We arrive at Franz Josef in the rainforest, in the rain, in the low clouds with no promise that tomorrow will be any better. So probably no hell-hiking for some, helicopter ride to the glacier, etc. that J and I planned on and probably no skydiving for others.

Up at 4:30 this morning to be to the “Dolphin Encounter” by 5:10am. We had to don wet suits, wet jacket, wet helmet, flippers and goggles. What a procedure to get it all on. You would think that that beautiful turquoise ocean was warm… tropical…. NOT!!! Even with all that on it was cold. Anyway, we swam with the dusty dolphins….. hundreds and hundreds. So cool! They are about my height in length. They were close…. not quite touching but about 3’ away from me. The ocean had quite a swell on it…. some didn’t do so well especially since we weren’t able to have coffee and breaky before.

After another drive we arrive in Hanmer Springs where there are a large number of wonderful geothermal pools that we soaked in. Sorry but I didn’t take any pictures. It would be a great place to go for a “mini”vacation.

Looks like another gorgeous day…. Yeah! We are at the lobby by 6:45, meet our new CEO Hayden (AKA… Chilli) transferred to airport, leaving the ground at 8:45 without a hitch. That’s a good sign.

Overcast in Christchurch, got our bus and on the road by 10:35.

We stopped at a winery along the way

The way. “Kiss of the devil”… cassis, tequila ice, ginger beer, lime juice

Stopped for lunch in a 2nd town…. Like so many places at home, the first one didn’t survive COVID so we had to move onto another town.

After that we drove through quite a tree covered mountainous region….. like home. And then to the coastline. Beautiful! Then some people saw dolphins in the water. There’s still road work being done on the highway ….the repair after damage caused by 7.8 earthquake a few years ago.

Arrived at Kaikoura … the water… a brilliant turquoise blue with white crashing waves….. really quite windy. After taking our stuff to the room, a number of us went to find the fur seals. And that we did….. along with some nesting hills that quite ticked off that we were near their young. The group of seals had a baby and ten a couple of the adults had a fight…..or maybe it was foreplay.

8679 steps

The Haast eagle … bigger than a Moa which was 12 feet high…..at 15 kgs holy doodle, huh! Both are extinct.

We did another walk-about of the downtown and waterfront area of this quite lovely city. After, Jeanette and I went for a harbour cruise on a catamaran. It was so nice and relaxing, meeting a young couple and their two daughters from Houston Texas but living in Sydney….so unlike your usual executive type Americans. Walked too much…. Just posting pictures.

In 1981 they opened Beehive capital building. It is really quite ugly. The 2 other previous parliament buildings are much more beautiful.

Did you notice the sun and blue skies…..wow! It was so nice!

13,650 steps

Scotch broom…. Huge problem here as well as at home.

We drive over the top of a river that is 37C.

Apparently there is a power plant that looks like nuclear but is geothermal power plant… not as good as expected. Most power comes from hydro.

Our first stop is Waiorupu geothermal …..bubbling mud. The temperature of the pools is between 60-80 C with the steam being 100 C.

Kaingaroa Forest….2900 sq kms… largest forest planted by hand first by prisoners and later by unemployed. Trees grow really fast because of the ash from the volcanos

Huka Falls….. wow! Spectacular colour.

250 cubic meters per sec (200,000 litres every second).

Taupo volcano eruption was sensed in Rome and China. The worlds largest volcanic eruption in 232 CE created Lake Taupo, a crater lake the size of Singapore….. the largest crater lake in world. It is 169 meters deep. …. Means sacred waters.

Coming to 1st world heritage area.

1100 meters above sea level…. Through “desert road”….. not dry in-fact raining again but the vegetation has changes to scrub brush. At the top there are no trees. It’s basically flat. You can see only about 1/3 of the highest mountain in the north island. The rest is in the clouds. 12-13 C now … patch of snow in distance. As we come down, the hills return, as does grass and some trees

Mountains continue to the north island…for1400 miles from the southern tip.

2-3 earthquakes every day in this small nation.

Wellington Harbour to the left @6pm…. Very large.

360-380,000 population

$10,000 a year for university.

Arrived at our Hotel Naumi about 6:30. It is quite lovely but the mattresses are on top of a painted plywood board. Be careful. Jeanette and I had “THE BEST LAUGH” when her book fell off the bed do she reached over to get it but the whole mattress & pillows slid over on top of her as she went over…. And then she couldn’t get up partly because the two of us were laughing so hard. OMG we just about pissed ourselves. We had just said we didn’t like that the mattresses were too “slippy”!

8533 steps…. I’m surprised cuz we spent so much time on the bus.

I am looking forward to seeing the bubbling pools of Rotorua. I have (at least I am pretty sure I have) a picture of my dad standing on the sandstone of the pools. He had been touring the South Pacific with a band called the “Americanadians” some time in the 1930’s as young man. It was probably then when he met my half-brother’s mom.

It’s another lovely wet grey day

Some of us are doing the zip line and some are doing white water rafting over a waterfall.

Last night someone spotted glow worms so a few ventured out to see them. They are not worms at all but small maggots of insects. The glow portion is poop that hangs off them. They were found on the side of a dirt slope.

A fart tax is being considered. 400 cows produce more methane than diesel vehicles putting on 25,000 km in week.

Multi cultural experience in Rotorua. They cook the food in an earth oven. Rocks used with quartz found in rivers pick on a dark night it glows. Kai is Māori name for food.

Waiatta… singing.

British Trench warfare was learned from the Māoris.

Drove through Matamata which is where Hobbiton is located.

There certainly is lots of cows and very few sheep. The area is very green, flat with hill that are quite steep….. kinda reminds me of Wales

Mt Telemata has pink and white terraces. Volcanic areas are natural oven & warms a person in the winter. Name of Rotorua means “2 lakes”….. but I think I heard there are 17 lakes. People were taking straight hot water from it but the government has stopped that practice because the geyser had stopped firing.

Largest documented eruption in modern time covered

Sandstone, pumice and soil makes for best conditions for mountain biking in Rotorua

Wakatua… canoe

Hannia… underground oven

Hakka pouri