Since Christmas

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Our Journey has been incredible. I would first like to say....We Are Married!

We left Tauranga and drove thru Rotorua and Taupo to our first camp site at the base of Tongorio National Park after Christmas. We awoke to constant rain and continued on with our hike over the crossing. It was very cold, wet and extremely windy at times. We had no view, being in the clouds for all but the last part of our decent. But I was told it would have had magnificent views of several volcanic craters, the dormant volacanoes around us, deep blue sulfuric lakes and the largest lake in NZ, Lake Taupo with all the surrounding areas. In short, painful challenge, but well worth it. We will be returning someday to do it as it was meant to be done. I was also told, by several avid hikers that spent their lifes in NZ. "Worst Conditions of Any Hike EVER!!"

We moved on to Wellington the next day and met up with my Dad, Anne and Emily on their way north crusining from Australia up around the sounds in the south island to Auckland via Tauranga and the Bay of Islands. Great city, much like a Boulder, CO or Austin, TX. It's their capital and built on hills around a beautiful harbor.

Leading up to out New Year's Eve in Picton, we crossed the Cook Straight from Wellington, on a large ferry into the Marlborough Sounds in time for sunset. Great little town and great big celebration.

We spent the remaining 3 days in the south island at Kaikoura. We had our best weather yet and it was smooth seas and an awesome amount of sealife. Many come there for whale watching and swimming with the dolphins. We awoke our first day to pods of hector dolphins swimming past our beach. Kerryn and I took the kayaks out to find them and they found us instead. They circled us, swam under us looking up in our eyes on their sides and jumped and flipped out of the water, mostly around Kerryn. We snorkeled in a rocky kelp forest with fur seals that afternoon and harvested our own dinner that night. We found more dolphin the next day with Kerryn's parents and her uncle Mike having a go. I'm sure it was spectacular to them, but Kerryn and I were spoiled by that point. Nothing could have beat the amount of time and playfulness we found the day before.

We had snorkeled for Paua, New Zealand Abalone, for extra dinner each night. If I was allowed to be the greedy american that I am, we would have easily had our daily limit of 40 to 50! (10 per person) We only took a dozen or so extra, beyond dinners, for relatives during our wedding week.

We made a straight shot for Tauranga, with one night in Taupo and a brief dip in the hot spring fed Kerosene Creek on the way in. The week leading up to the wedding was busy with lists and to dos. We managed to go Scuba Diving off of Mayor Island with Kerryn's sister and friend and my brother, the day of the hen and stag's nights out. We had a wonderful rehersal dinner and an even more perfect wedding day and reception.

On our first morning married we had a brunch with all of the local and out of town guests that could attend. We watched all the great photos that we will be endlessly sorting thru on the Plasma TV while I shared some more Paua. I can't eat it all, as much as I would like to. We finally got packed after all the goodbyes and heading off to Hick's Bay for the first part of our Honeymoon.

The family bach or beach house is nested in a small bay with a great beach and surrounded by a high mountain ridge. It was wonderfully unpopulated and relatively empty, since the main summer holiday travels for most had past. We hiked up and down the ridge several times, boogie boarded and played in the surf, read and picnicked on the beach, walked the longer beach out of the cove to the river we had swam in, followed the rocky coast and tide pools, star gazed and fished. We could have stayed forever.

Finally, we are packing for our stay in Fiji and return home. Kerryn is sad to be leaving her home, family and friends; and I look forward to our return as soon as possible.

Check back for more and more pictures and edits.





our getting to NZ slideshow


our travel pics slideshow


our wedding day slideshow


our fiji slideshow

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