I am hopeful that we have an apartment in Pest near the Elizabethen Bridge. [View Full Entry]

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We got up and started making the arrangements to fly home. We had to go through American Airlines (Quanta’s Partner). Of course the call went to India. The lady on the phone was very nice but inexperienced since it was her first day. It took about 3 hours to get everything booked. We were very fortunate to be able to rebook our flights for the next day. We then booked a flight from Wellington to Auckland and Ron & Sylvia drove use to the Wellington Airport the next morning. Talk about the luck of the Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. Not [View Full Entry]

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Our stay in Christchurch was quiet and Juanita was able to rest up. We had a very nice motel with a big living room and bedrooms. I had to take a picture of Ron’s car since we had traveled 3000K in this purple ford. The drive to the Picton was across the Canterbury plains. About the only flat level ground in New Zealand. It seems that the Kiwis have no trouble driving in the mountains but in the 350K from Christchurch to Picton there were 4 major accidents. . We caught the Ferry at 5:30 PM and got to Wellington about [View Full Entry]

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We drove from Invercargill to Dunedin today. Dunedin is a beautiful College Town (University of Otago). It has a large medical school. It was a beautiful drive through the Catlins. We stopped at the little town of Milton to visit Richard (Sylvia’ son). He is a nice guy who has been flooded out twice in the last 4 years. Unfortunately everything sort of caught up with Juanita. She was totally exhausted. Then she started to have a physical and emotional melt down from the busy travel schedule and Frontal Temporal Dementia (FTD). So we decided to come home as soon as [View Full Entry]

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Had a nice drive from Te Anau to Invercargill. We then drove down to Bluff at the end of the south island. I had a problem with the computer. I thought it was a goner but a guy computer told me to just take out the battery and reinstall it. Sure enough it worked. Kiwi word is Bach. This stands for Bachelor’s place is what we would call a cottage. On the South Island they sometimes use the term Crib. [View Full Entry]

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We went to Milford Sound today. It is everything they talk about as you can see from the pictures. We went out for 2 hours on the boat. It is about 7 miles up Milford Sound to the Tasman Sea and 7 back. The weather was perfect which is very unusual. The boat held about 500 and I don’t think there was more than 20 on the boat and only 4 of us on the top level. The road from Te Anau to Milford was beautiful with a two mile tunnel. The Kiwi word for the day is Metal Road, we [View Full Entry]

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We had a nice relaxing day. It was only about 150 k from Queenstown to Te Anau. Juanita and I took the Kingston Flyer. It is a really neat old steam train. I have put in a couple of pictures. Our friend and guide, Ron Head is a real RR person and spends 2 days a week rebuilding a 1900 coach car. Te Anau is a beautiful little town. Our motel is right on the lake. We booked on a noon boat in Milford Sound. Kiwi word for the day is Take Away or what we call Carry Out food. [View Full Entry]

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Today we just sort of relaxed and recharged. There is not too many pictures because I forgot the camera battery charger in Wellington. Fortunately a camera shop was able to recharge it. We were also able to get the wash done and take a nice nap in the afternoon. We went out to one of the Bungy jumping area. No way is this guy going to try it. It looks like fun on TV but in reality, it is a bit much. Tomorrow it is off to Te Anau and then the drive up to the Milford Sound. We are going [View Full Entry]

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We had a beautiful ride through the mountains this morning. Everywhere you looked there were waterfalls. Once we got over the Haast Pass it was beautiful and sunny. Queenstown is really beautiful. Our motel is just off the lake near downtown. Ron is congratulating himself on his wonderful choice of motels. We plan on staying two nights and then we will go to Te Anau for 2 nights. From Te Anau we will go up to the Milford Sound and probably take a boat out into the sound. Went to see the jet boats go through the gorges in 6” of [View Full Entry]

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Today we drove up from Westport to Karamea about 95K. It is truly the Wild, Wet West. There are a lot of old gold and coal mines. They call it coaling in clouds. We then drove down to Greymouth. This is the largest city on the West Coast of the South Island (About 13,000). It has the feel of the Iron Range towns in Minnesota, sort of Virginia, MN on steroids (with the mountains and the Tasman Sea). We went to an old Union Hotel for supper and as the Kiwi would say, “had a Lovely meal”. Kiwi word for the [View Full Entry]

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