Blefevre

Did very little in Auckland, the road system is so confusing we got lost every time we went out. The weather wasn't great either and we were both tired. We spent all of Saturday laying around. Monday we packed up for our last week and headed north. Of course we got lost trying to get out of Auckland! We headed up the Kauri Coast towards towards Dargaville stopping at the kauri museum. Kauris are trees that grew here in mass many years ago, they were logged almost to extinction. Some of the trees are over 2000 years old. The trees also produced sap or resin called gum that was used in linoleum in the 1900's. What they found was 2-3 dead kauri forests buried in swamp areas and gum reserves buried as well. Most of the ... read more

The days are flying by! We are just leaving Napier, was so nice. The ferry from Picton to Wellington was a rough, overcast and windy with 2-3 mitre waves. Wellington was overcast and really windy, thought it would blow the car off the road. Drove straight to Napier, about 3/4's of the way there the clouds disappeared and the interior of the car started heating up. We found a tent site at Kennedy Holiday Resort. It's a huge but lovely holiday park run by the municipality, very close to CBD (central business district). Nice kitchens, bbq, pools, etc. Day one we wandered around checked out the town and looked at the architecture. There was a big earthquake here in 1931 so all the rebuild is Art Deco. We went and saw the film at the Art ... read more

Before leaving Invercargill, in the rain, we visited eHayes hardware. They have a great collection of vintage motorcycles and vehicles including some of Burt Munro's, they even had a replica of one of the motorcycles used in the movie The Fastest Indian. Drove through the Catlins from Dunedin to Invercargill, not as interesting as we thought it would be. Decided to stay in Manapouri rather than Te Anau, mostly because Te Anau was full. Found a nice place to pitch the tent, had to dry it out first. Booked a Milford sound fiord tour for Wednesday that included transportation from Te Anau. Woke up to sunshine, drove to Te Anau and boarded the bus to Milford Sound. Lovely drive 120km took 2 and a half hours! We had a number of stops on the tour, including ... read more

Spent Christmas in Christchurch, or just outside of Christchurch on the olive grove. Was nice, but not really Christmas with no snow, no turkey, no tree, etc. Our hosts cooked us a nice Christmas breakfast and then left us a plate of baking. We left there Monday the 26th and Bob wanted to stop at the mall, but after looking for a parking spot for half an hour we gave up, Boxing Day is a big shopping day here too. We drove, on the advise of a local we met in Hanmer Springs, to Lake Tekapo. The holiday park was chocker (full) so we ended up camping in the overflow area. Way too busy and not really a great place so Tuesday morning we packed up and headed for Timaru. Had 3 nights in Timaru. Nice ... read more

Arrived in Ohoka yesterday, suburb of Christchurch. Spent 3 great days in Hanmer Springs, did some great walks. One we shouldn't have done, way too hard, very steep, rocky and long; and it was 29 degrees! The springs where great, went 2 evenings so not as busy as during the day. Had a little earthquake Wednesday morning, 4.1. We are staying at a hobby farm (Airbnb) until Monday, they grow olives and press them for oil. Place is lovely, about 7 acres, the house is lovely too. Today we went to the Antarctic Centre, the weather was crappy and it is indoors. Was really interesting and educational. They have a penguin enclosure and we watched the feeding. All of the penguins are rescue, all with some disability. On the way home we were stopped in a ... read more