Geo: -45.0311, 168.663We walked through the Kiwi Birdlife Park here in Queenstown. Got to see Kiwi's up close and lots of other native birds. New Zealand does not have any native mammals other than 2 small bats. All other mammals have been introduced and are destroying the native birds. The Kiwi are especially threatened due to the stoats eating their eggs. At the park, they have 2 breeding pairs. The one pair are both 10 years old and will be released into the wild at the end of the year. The other pair is a 3 year old female and a 5 year old male. They haven't had any successful eggs yet, but one was in the incubator. We got to see a Kiwi feeding and listen to the conservation show. It was a really nice ... read more

Geo: -45.0311, 168.663Monday morning we set off on our last driving leg of our trip, from Lake Tekapo to Queenstown. It was another sunny and clear morning and the drive was supposed to be about 2 ½ hours long. We stopped at a visitor center at the bottom of Lake Pukaki to see if we could see Mt. Cook. Mt. Cook is the tallest point in New Zealand at around 3700 meters. There were some clouds around the peak and we couldn't see the entire thing. So we continued on our way. But then we decided to take the drive north to the Aoraki National Park as it was only a 55 km road. We were so glad that we did! The road winds along the lake and the base of the mountains until you get ... read more

Geo: -42.4023, 173.681No whales! Tour was cancelled due to rough seas:( We woke in the morning on Saturday to clear skies and little wind. The waves were a lot smaller than they were the day before and it looked great. We went to the tour place to check in and they said there was a sea sickness warning for our tour. I bought a pill and took that and then we waited outside until it was time to go in to the briefing room. We sat down and then the announcement came that the tour was cancelled. The wind had picked up and we could see white caps out on the ocean. We got in the line and re-booked for the next tour at 1:15. Drove down to the end of the road in Kaikoura where ... read more

Geo: -41.2865, 174.776Part Two: Tongariro to Wellington. We woke up to pouring rain and gusty northerlies (saw that in the newspaper and I love that description!). Luckily it was down to a drizzle when we had to load up the car. The drive to Wellington was lots of up and down hill, tons of curves and, since it was raining most of the time, I was going pretty slow. The good thing is that New Zealand drivers are pretty polite and I never felt too pressured to go faster. There are lots of places to pull over and let others pass and we also stopped at a few scenic waysides. One was a nice waterfall and others were just nice lookouts over valleys. Eventually we descended out of the hills and the road became a little ... read more

Geo: -36.8474, 174.766Hello all from Auckland! It's day two of our visit to New Zealand and our last night in Auckland. We arrived after a seemingly never-ending flight yesterday morning a little before 8 AM. I did not get much sleep on the plane, but the ride was uneventful other than a few bumpy spots. Quantas has great amenities, even in the economy seats. We had dinner, breakfast and snacks throughout. Got into Auckland, cleared customs and biohazard security and were on our way to our hotel. The room was ready right away, which was nice. We were able to drop off all our stuff and refresh after the loooooong day to get here. A visitor center is located right across from the hotel so we stopped there first. Decided to take the harbour cruise so ... read more