New Zealand

So now we're in New Zealand and have been here for about 10 days.  I'll be posting lots of pictures of scenery because that's what it's all about.  Beautiful views wherever we are, and within an hour, we can see beaches, green fields, rocky cliffs, bush land.  The variety is amazing.  But sheesh, do you PAY for those views.  Even a powered campsite runs upwards of $100 because they charge for the site and another $10-20 for each person.

East coast of the North Island

To travel from the North Island to the South Island, we did a campervan relocation.  You can rent a camper for $5/day and have three days to deliver it from Auckland to Christchurch.  New Zealand allows for Freedom Camping--in certain area, if you have a self-contained vehicle, you can just pull over and camp.  Because of costs, we did this all three nights.

This was a fun experience but put our togetherness to the test--bed in back, bed up top, table that folded into a bed, and a very narrow walkway through it all.

And we're back to driving a Sprinter--although things are a little backward.

Waking up to views like this each morning made it all worthwhile.

And of course we had to stop at the giant kiwi!

I was curious because I have no idea how kiwis grow.  On the right are the trees.

And they were definitely in season--falling off the trees.

Near Rotorua, on the North Island, we visited a Redwood Forest:

One of the biggest draws to Rotorua is the thermal pools which are found all over.  We went to a city park and found these fenced in areas everywhere.  And there were also a number of orange taped areas where new hot springs had been found.  Some were steaming water and some were pools of bubbling mud.

And then we stopped at an area where you can swim in the thermal pools.  They take the boiling hot water, which is running down the hillside, and adjust the temperature for a variety of pools.

In Wellington, we had a necessary stop to apply for our Chinese visas at the embassy.  Wow--if pick up goes smoothly, this was the way to go.  It was just a tiny little office and they hardly asked for any info--much easier than sending it in from the states.

Between that and catching the ferry to the South Island, we visited Te Papa Museum, an amazing museum about all things New Zealand.

One floor was an art museum and Trina spent most of our time at this tracing table.

On the South Island, we've enjoyed the scenery in a number of different ways:

A beach in Kaikoura where we Freedom Camped

We took a hike around the peninsula there and encountered tons of fur seals.

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In Queenstown we did a pretty intense uphill hike overlooking Lake Wanatipu and the town.

My "must do" was a trip out to Milford Sound.  Unfortunately it was a cloudy day (the odds say it will be) but the rain held off and it was beautiful in a powerful kind of way.

A typical shot of Mike--most likely explaining rock formations or wind forces.

We did some hikes in the Milford Sound area that were filled with this lush, green vegetation--like an enchanted forest.

We've been drinking lots of this--New Zealand's native soda

There are a surprising number of vineyards.

Watching bungy jumpers

We've been staying mostly in hostels while traveling around and we've encountered some beautiful ones.  This is where we stayed enroute to Milford Sound with this pretty lake view.

Whew--way too many pictures, but even this is just a sampling.  Driving around here is almost like a big Thanksgiving feast.  You take it all in and almost get full from it--but then the next day you're ready to start right in again!