New Zealand is a beautiful little country, with 4 million people and maybe 40 million sheep. We spent most of our time on the South Island, which has dramatic mountain scenery on the West Coast, beautiful shorelines all around, a major wine producing area, and only 1 million people. On the North Island, we visited Wellington, the nice small capital city; Napier, whose downtown is pervasively Art Deco; and the geothermally active area around Rotorua. And we went through the airport in Auckland, where another million people concentrate, helping keep the rest of the country reasonably unpopulated.
Wild Foods Festival
The timing of the eclipse coincided somewhat with the timing of the Wild Foods Festival, an annual party in Hokitika on the west coast of the South Island. More pictures...
Glacier Country
Hokitika was hopelessly crowded, and even though we booked ahead, the closest place we could find to stay was further south in the town of Franz Josef Glacier. We spent the next day walking on the glacier and driving around the area. The following day we drove even further south past Queenstown to Te Anau. More pictures...
Fiord Country
The southwest corner of the South Island is Fiordland National Park, which contains many long narrow fiords, just like in Norway. Te Anau is the central place to stay when touring in the area. We spent three days there: we went "tramping" on a small part of the Kepler Track one day, took a tour of Doubtful Sound the next, and drove up to Milford Sound and cruised around it the third. More pictures...
Dunedin to Blenheim
After a fun-packed week on the mountainous west coast of the South Island, we began a quick trip over to the east coast. We started in Dunedin, where we saw albatrosses and penguins; zoomed up to Christchurch, the largest city on the South Island; and then drove past the beautiful cliffs of Kaikora to Blenheim, the center of the Marlborough wine district. More pictures...
Wellington and Napier
It took about two hours to cross Cook Strait to Wellington, on the North Island, where we spent the last four days. A couple we'd met on the Galapagos cruise have a very nice apartment there -- Adrien Brody was staying in another flat in the same building while King Kong was filming. The next day we drove to Napier, home to many buildings in the art deco style. More pictures...
Geyser Country
We spent a day or two exploring Taupo and Rotorua, located in the actively geothermal area of New Zealand. More pictures...
