South Island Days 14 – 15: Blowholes, Pancakes & Nelson
NOTE: This is the final entry in our South Island picture round-up. I had hoped to finish our south island trip pics before we left for a trip of the north island, but no such luck. So despite the fact that we have just now finished our north island trip, and have got plenty of pictures to show for it, I’m going to post these last pictures first.
And now that you’re totally confused, dear reader…
Punakaiki
After several days relaxing on the beach in Hokitika, we started the final leg of our trip: first from Hokitika (A) up along the west coast highway through Punakaiki (B) and then across the top of the south island to Nelson (C); finally, back to Picton and across to Wellington (D) on the ferry.
We stopped at least once as we traveled up the coast to shoot some photos; we could easily have stopped much more often. The only thing that I’ve seen in the states that compares to the New Zealand coast is the coast of Oregon, or possibly the Olympic peninsula in Washington, but even these seem to pale compared to the vast number of beautiful formations that just make you want to stop and stare and say, “whoa”. It’s always amazing to see what you get if you just pound rock with water for, say, a few million years.
Possibly one of the best (or at least most concentrated) examples of this are the “blowholes” and “pancake rocks” near Punakaiki. As you can see from our pictures, the layers of limestone and sediment gradually worn down from the Pacific surf create a host of otherworldly towers and portals, which then channel the water into spectacular geysers. Check it out.
Along the way up the west coast
Pancake rocks and a rainbow, to boot! (photo credit to Katie for this one)
More oddly-shaped pancake rocks
A blow-hole geyser
And finally, though it’s not a rock formation, isn’t this a nice family photo?
Our family at Punakaiki
Nelson
What is it about one city that makes you like it more than any other city? To some extent, the mid-sized towns we stayed in or passed through on our South Island trip were pretty interchangeable. That’s no slight to the Kiwis; I think that’s probably true of similar-sized towns in any geographical area. For some reason, though, I really liked Nelson. And I really can’t say why. There’s a river that winds through town (the Maitai), which is a plus in my book, especially when the town makes the effort to line the banks with walkways and parks instead of roads and the backs of light industrial buildings (as I too often saw in Tennessee, for example). And the weather was wonderful for the time we were there, so that may have influenced my feelings as well.
Our first choice for accommodations didn’t work out for us, but luckily we found a nice little motel by the river. Nothing fancy, but it did have a family suite (a kitchenette and two separate bedrooms, one with a queen, one with two twins), which is pretty common, even for smaller roadside motels. And a short walk down the river was a community playground for the girls. Perhaps it’d have been a bit boring for more than one day, but as it was, I left with the impression that if I were ever considering living on the south island, I could do worse than Nelson.
Along the river in Nelson
Playing on the playground
Home Again
After waking up in Nelson, we packed the car for the final time (for the south island trip) and headed out to the playground for a while. Then it was a pretty short trip to Picton, where we caught the ferry to Wellington. The weather didn’t hold up, unfortunately, and though we were able to have a picnic lunch without being rained on, by the time we were on the ferry it was pretty bad. The crew spent much of the three-hour journey handing out “just-in-case” bags, and when I didn’t have my head between my knees, I saw more than one passenger using them (not something I really wanted to see). Thankfully, we all made it through without the contingency; in fact, Ali barely noticed. (When we hit high seas on our trip back to the main island in Fiji—a much worse but shorter trip—Ali simply slept; I’m convinced that her equilibrium is better calibrated than ours somehow.)
Roadside picnic on the way to Picton
Sara picks up an extra child on the ferry ride
Don’t forget: as usual, there are more Punakaiki & Nelson photos available on our Picasa website.
Until I started putting these pictures together, I’d forgotten how beautiful it was between destinations in New Zealand. The west coast of the south island was particularly gorgeous; and it didn’t hurt that the weather was spectacular as well.
By this point in the trip, I was doing the driving whenever I could so that Sara would be able to enjoy the scenery. She’d gasp at the scenery around almost every corner (as would I—though I had to glance at the road every once in a while too). Eventually it would just be too much for her and she’d tell me to pull into the next lookout so that we could take some pictures. Consequently, we have a number of pictures of the drive up the west coast; one more stunning than the next.
On this trip from Cardrona up to the beach at Hokitika, we passed by a couple of glaciers: Fox and Franz Joseph. I’ve done a number of beach trips, and I’ve never before had them interrupted by glaciers. Certainly not by glaciers with such non-glaciery names. But these two glaciers are a real tourist attraction on the south island (which is not always a good thing: a week or so before our arrival some boneheaded tourist crossed the do-not-cross line and managed to get himself killed). So despite the long drive and tired kiddos, we took time for a quick stop at Franz Joseph to have a look-see.
We didn’t get as close as one is allowed; we just took the simplest walk to an overlook. But it was still pretty cool. Unfortunately, we happened by at the same time as a large German tour group (for some reason, Germans seem to be the most numerous of all foreign tourists), so we didn’t spend a lot of time at the lookout. Just up and down and back into the car and on to the beach.
A panorama from our drive up the west coast
A shot of the coast, traveling north
The bit of Franz Joseph we saw from afar
The goal of our trip up the coast was Hokitika, a beautiful little beach community on the west coast of the south island. I didn’t take many pictures, mainly, if I remember correctly, because I was reading and playing games and relaxing and walking downtown with Meg or Katie or going out for ice cream … in other words, enjoying the beach. Luckily, Katie and Sara made up for my laziness by taking some great shots. The HOKITIKA driftwood sculpture (which is about 2.5m high, btw) and the self-portrait with Ali are Katie’s; the sunset shots are by Sara.
From the driftwood sculpture competition during our stay
When we first talked about traveling the south island, those friends of ours who’d been to New Zealand were ecstatic. Oh yes! You have to see the south island! When X and I went, we just rented a camper-van, or found a tent and hitch-hiked, or traveled with a band of barefoot missionaries or something. It didn’t take long to figure out that these people were not traveling with multiple children and that they had visited New Zealand in their early twenties, or for a honeymoon, or in some other way that didn’t exactly match what our experience would be. So while we welcomed their suggestions for fantastic sights, we decided right at the beginning that we’d stick with hotels; not even the wimpy kind of car-camping we do in Colorado for us this time.
The one almost-exception to this was Milford Sound. Many of our NZ-experienced friends had declared that Milford Sound was the be-all and end-all of south island beauty. But it was going to take some effort: as you can see from the map, Milford Sound (point “C”) is out by itself, not on the way to anywhere. So Sara plotted a course that took us from Dunedin (point “A”) through Te Anau (point “B”), where we could take a boat trip through glow-worm caves, and then out to Milford Sound. We’d stay the night at Milford Sound Lodge, take the boat tour through the fiords the next day, and then head out to Cardrona (point “D”) to spend the night. This, it turns out, was a perfect plan for our family: just enough boating and almost-camping to get a feel for the wilderness, not so much that we’d regret bringing a toddler. And let me tell you: it was worth it.
Before I get too far into Milford Sound, though, I should mention the glow-worm caves of Te Anau. First of all, I really liked the little town of Te Anau. I’m not sure what struck my fancy; maybe it just reminded me of the one-horse tourist towns in North Carolina that I visited in my youth (I’m looking at you, Spivey’s Corner). Maybe I was finally over my virus, pushing through to good health and everything just felt better. In any case, I bought an excellent rain jacket there and we had lunch; somehow, that was very satisfying. Then it was time for the glow-worm cave boat trip.
I wish I could have taken pictures inside the glow-worm caves themselves, but the best I can offer are shots from the trip out to the caves. Inside the caves it’s wet, dark and unfortunately not a great place for a 2 year old. After a long walk through caverns and over waterfalls, all the people on the tour are herded onto what feels like a large flat rowboat, and the guide pulls you out among the glow-worms. All of the lights are off, the worms are spectacular and the silence is phenomenal. Or I imagine it would be, if we didn’t have a toddler with us. Mostly I felt bad for the others on our tour, and for Sara who ended up with thankless task of trying to explain how inside-the-cave-voice is even quieter than regular inside-voice.
(I should point out that A) she really wasn’t that bad, and B) that was probably the worst of the whole trip, for which I’m very grateful.)
On the way to the glow worm caves
Outside of Te Anau, on the way to Milford Sound
Okay, on to Milford Sound. Milford Sound has got to be one of the most beautiful places on the south island, if not the whole of New Zealand. It also has sand flies the size of kitchen appliances. Billions of them. So if you’re looking at these pictures and wondering why it’s not overrun with million-dollar beach houses, that’s it. But for a day, even the sand flies were worth it.
We stayed at Milford Sound Lodge, and it was quite comfortable for that one night. Four bunks to a room; toilet, kitchen and all other amenities shared with the other guests. And there were quite a few of those other guests; this was probably the busiest place we stayed at. “Guests” feels like the wrong word, too. Maybe “outdoorsmen/women” or “adventurers”. Rugged individuals wearing the kind of rugged outdoorsy clothes we wear in Boulder, but in this case because it was actually necessary. For everyone else at the lodge, this was obviously the high comfort point of their travels. People were putting together lavish feasts on the shared stoves and looked to be staying up playing guitar late into the night. We cooked some noodles and fell asleep.
Above the Milford Sound Lodge
A view inside our bunk room
The next day we took our boat trip, and that’s not something that I’ll easily forget anytime soon. The girls mostly stayed inside by the window reading Harry Potter, venturing out for particular sights or just to stretch their legs. Which was fine. But I think that Sara and I, given the chance, would’ve just stood at a railing the whole time and stared. This was the kind of scenery that just gazing at makes you feel like you’re meditating. My pictures won’t do it justice, of course, but I’ll try all the same.
The Milford Sound Dock
Our touring vessel
If you look closely, you can see a ship of similar size WAY down in the left corner of this next picture, for scale
One of many waterfalls along the way
Not scenery, but a favorite picture of mine nonetheless =)
Another favorite: Sara enjoying the view
This one helps you understand why LOTR was filmed in NZ
Finally, another panorama
And as always, you can see more of these on our Picasa website. In this case, many more, as I had a really hard time culling for this part.
South Island Days 5 – 7: Scots, Chocolate & Penguins
I’d have to say that Dunedin was the loveliest city I didn’t really see on our south island trip. My virus (or whatever it was) hit its peak while we were there, and even the parts I did see, I only vaguely remember. I do have a clear sense, however, of a city with beautiful architecture. And our hotel room beds; I remember those also.
We arrived in Dunedin on Saturday evening, and by that time it was clear that whatever I had wasn’t going away by itself. So the next morning I went to the walk-in weekend doctor, so that he could give me the Kiwi version of aspirin and tell me it would probably go away all by itself.
In the meantime, Sara & the girls went exploring. At the downtown railway station – a building prominent enough to have its own Wikipedia entry – they happened across a couple of young girls practicing their bagpipes. Kids these days! They also managed to get some pretty nice shots of churches, parks, and whatnot, which I’ve added to the Picasa website.
(The bagpipes aren’t too terribly surprising, as there seems to be a large Scottish influence in this part of the south island. In fact, Dunedin, the name, is an anglicisation of Edinborough! There now, you’ve learned something new.)
An example of Dunedin architecture
Bagpipe practice downtown
Missing an ad hoc primary school bagpipe concert is one thing (possibly a good thing?), but failing to see the Cadbury World chocolate factory, when it’s located just blocks from our hotel? I think not. So I roused myself in the afternoon, and we all took the tour. We weren’t allowed to take pictures on the tour (the Oompa Loompas are quite shy, you see), but I got some shots of the girls playing in the 1920s Cadbury delivery truck, and the mechanical puppet window which – considering its originality – was probably conceived and built around the same time (see below). The factory tour, it turns out, was a tour of a factory, and factories, it turns out, aren’t really that exciting. But we got some free candy and made it out of the gift shop with our wallets mostly intact, so I was able to put aside any feelings I might have had about paying a corporation to spend a couple of hours embedded in their advertising. And considering the quality of Cadbury’s chocolate (and ice cream!), I can’t be too upset.
Cadbury World
A ready-made Cadbury ad, if I ever saw one!
On our second day in Dunedin, we headed out to the tip of the Otaga peninsula to see the penguins. We went to a special yellow-eyed penguin reserve, located on a small beach at the end of Harington Point. That this beautiful, pristine beach, just thirty kilometers from one of New Zealand’s largest city could be a penguin reserve instead, oh, a multi-bazillion dollar resort, is a testament to the laws of supply and demand. There are many, many such beaches, and there just aren’t that many people.
There are, however, sheep. And seals. And penguins. (And albatrosses, though I didn’t get any good pictures of those.) And they all seem to be living together peacefully on the Otaga peninsula. Here are a few photos to prove the point:
The Yellow-Eyed Penguins have themselves some sweet-as beach property
They’ve even got little condos
The one little guy we were able to get close to
We saw this little fellow from within a rabbit-warren of blinds that are strung out along the edge of the sanctuary. They were so intent on keeping the people away from the natural habitats that it felt like we were on safari. In tunnels. Hunting small, flightless birds.
Not a postcard, just your run-of-the-mill NZ view
You can find more pictures, including ones of Ali & Meg who for some reason aren’t in this blog post, and a shot of Katie’s hair that goes to show just how incredibly windy it was out there, up on the Picasa website.
UPDATE
Sara complained that I’d not included some of the best pics of the Otaga peninsula, so here you go:
Lonely Seal
We got to watch this seal slowly make his way across the beach and into the water. We tried to get a good movie of it, but neither Katie’s nor mine really turned out all that well, so you’ll just have to imagine the waddling.
Sheep and Seals Living Together
It was a little hard to see in the original picture, but what you’ve got here are some sheep and some seals hanging out together in the same little meadow by the sea. Since neither is a carnivore, I suppose it’s not all that amazing, but it does feel a little strange, doesn’t it?
Our trip around the south island of New Zealand generally followed the pattern of a six-hour or so drive to a new city, then a day or two (sometimes three) exploring the area, then another six-hour drive, and so on. I’ll admit that I was worried that this was too much movement and not enough staying in one place for a while, but I think that in the end it was a good balance.
At this point in our travels, though, we hadn’t quite gotten the packing job down right (poor Katie had to be squished beside her luggage in the way-back seat), and I was starting to feel the sickness that would knock me out for almost all of the next week. Despite all of that, however, we managed to enjoy both Christchurch and the trip down from Kaikoura.
(As usual, you can find all of the pictures below on our Picasa website.)
We started this part of the trip with a stop at one of the many lavender farms near Kaikoura. This half-hour stop got a disproportionate number of photos just because it was so dang beautiful. Plus the lavender (and the mountains in the distance) made for a wonderful backdrop for group shots of the girls. If I were a portrait photographer living in Kaikoura I’d probably just set up my office on one of these farms.
Something the camera couldn’t capture well enough, though, was the sound of the bees. There were thousands, for all I know millions, of bees among the lavender. And the sound was cacophonous. I tried to take a short movie, but the sound doesn’t come through like it really should. The best that I could do was the close-up shot that I got below.
Katie, Megan & Ali on a lavender farm near Kaikoura
Bees on the lavender
Sara did a fantastic job on our “travel days” of finding someplace interesting or merely gorgeous where we could take a break and have lunch. On our way to Christchurch we stopped on the shore for a picnic, as you can see below. As Sara just reminded me, everyone was grumpy during this stop, but if you’re going to have a grumpy picnic, you might as well have it among the birds on the shore of New Zealand’s south island.
Our “grumpy picnic” neighbors
I’m probably not the best person to be commenting on our visit to Christchurch, since I was already sleeping through about half the family activities by this point. I do remember arriving in town that first evening and admiring the way the light hit this clock tower (though Sara was the one with-it enough to get a picture). We had ventured downtown for dinner after our semi-suburban bed & breakfast hosts had suggested a few chain restaurants at the local mall as being good family fare. (I shouldn’t give the wrong impression: they were lovely hosts; in fact, it felt more like we were staying with friends’ grandparents than at an actual place of business.)
A clock tower in Christchurch
The Christchurch Botanic Gardens was a visit that I missed, so I won’t say anything about the following pictures other than it looks fantastic. Maybe not up to Wellington standards, but certainly worth a visit.
Botanic Gardens of Christchurch
Speaking of worth a visit, the other major Christchurch attraction we visited was – our paper tells us this morning – the second most expensive tourist attraction in all of New Zealand: the International Antarctic Center. Featuring all of the good stuff about a trip to Antarctica (i.e. seeing cute penguins, riding in the ultra-cool Hagglund vehicles, surviving the first few moments of a winter storm), without all of the bad stuff (such as the possibility of frost-bite, the isolation, and anything after the first few moments of a winter storm), the International Antarctic Center was one of our favorite attractions of the whole south island.
One of the disabled penguins at the Antarctic Center
The best shot I could get of Sara & Katie riding out the Antarctic storm together
(As always, you can see more than just these pictures up on our Picasa website. Enjoy!)
UPDATE: Katie’s Pix
After I posted this, Katie reminded me that she took some good pictures from within the Antarctic center, and so she did. I’ve added several of them to the Picasa website, and posted a few more below:
Penguin Crossing Sign
Penguin crossing signs are actually pretty common in New Zealand, though I admit that this one is stranger than most.
Inside the Antarctic storm room
I didn’t go inside the Antarctic storm room, but Sara & Katie (and eventually Meg) spent a good deal of time in there, sliding down the snow slide, pretending to ride on the snowmobile, throwing snowballs and basically goofing around. By traveling to NZ at the start of Boulder’s winter season, and then heading home as NZ starts in on winter, we’re getting three summers in a row. So they had about a half hour to make up for it.
The Hagglund Ride
In the first part of this post, I didn’t expand upon the Hagglund and what a cool ride it was. This is an example of the kind of vehicle used on Antarctic expeditions, and they’ve set up an obstacle course behind the Antarctic center in order to give tourists a chance to realign their spinal columns as this thing travels straight up hills, across huge crevasses, and then swims through 3-meter-deep ponds. It is a marvel of indestructibility and complete discomfort, and I expect to see it on the roads of LA any day now.
I’ve been meaning for some time to go back & chronicle our trip to the south island of New Zealand which we took mid-January. Considering that we’re about to take a trip around the north island, I’ve realized that I need to do this now or never. And I’ve got too many great shots to make it never. And so…
On January 13th, after having spent a little less than a week trying to get ourselves settled in Wellington (buying a car, setting up insurance, funding a bank account, etc), we drove aboard the InterIslander Ferry and started our longest family car trip. Sara had done an incredible job planning our travel, booking activities and lodging, learning about the places we’d be visiting, and so on. I had done pretty much nothing; my job had been getting us settled in Wellington (finances, car, etc) and so I went into the south island trip with almost no idea of what we’d encounter.
The ferry trip itself was not bad at all: The ferry is huge and comfortable, and includes a couple of playground areas, some kids’ TV areas and even a movie theater (cost money; we didn’t bother). More like a nice airport terminal than a boat, really; and like an airport terminal it was inexplicably without anywhere to lie down comfortably, except the floor. (I still don’t understand why that’s the case; they obviously want to make sure people don’t nap… but why?)
We arrived in Picton that afternoon and made our way down to Donegal House, a great little hotel/bed-and-breakfast in Kaikoura. The real excitement, though, came the next day, when we went to see Kaikoura’s most famous residents: a pod of right whales who live just off-shore all year round. Since the whale-watching boats don’t allow anyone Ali’s age (and goodness knows, I don’t blame them), we went in two shifts: Katie & I in the morning, then Sara & Meg in the afternoon.
As it turned out, Katie & I were the lucky ones. We all got to see whales (I’m guessing that around that time of year it wasn’t too hard to find them), but Katie & I were also able to spend about twenty minutes sitting right in the middle of a pod of maybe two hundred dolphins! It was tailor-made for taking digital photos and videos; I’ve uploaded some of the best ones below.
I am only very vaguely aware that there are 10 more hours of the Bush presidency.
Every day I think that we’ve gotten to the most beautiful spot we will hit. Today we arrived in Milford Sound. It is like the Pacific Northwest on steroids. It is foggy (as I think it almost always is), and when we look upwards, we can’t see how high the mountains are around us. We are at ocean level, and the mountains go straight up. It’s unbelievably pretty. There are waterfalls everywhere, down the rock faces of the mountains. Everything is green. It smells like the Olympic Peninsula. We arrived at dinnertime, and have just settled into our bunks this evening (we’re staying in a hostel, which is a fun change). Tomorrow we will go on a cruise around the sound, and I’ll be able to give a fuller report.
It’s been days since we’ve done any entries. Dug got sick about five days ago, and he got really, really sick. The sickest I think I’ve ever seen him. His fever spiked at 103.5 while we were staying in Christchurch. He had chills for several days, and developed a terrible rash two days ago. He’s also had a terrible cough, and it seemed to be getting worse. We took him to urgent care in Dunedin, where they told him he had a virus and prescribed aspirin. Yesterday was the first day he seemed to be improving, and it seems to be going in that direction now (though he has no voice today). He finally has energy, and seems to be enjoying the views. It was a really rough few days, with him feeling so awful and me doing most of the handling of everything else. There is a lot of caretaking to do while travelling, not just figuring out food and daily activities, but also emotion management, as the girls are starting to feel quite homesick (I’m hoping it will subside somewhat when school starts and they both develop friendships). Ali has been a handful, developing a healthy two year old personality by asserting herself quite vocally and forcefully. She’s also been keeping us thoroughly entertained, so we’re glad to have brought her along.
We loved Dunedin, and I kept thinking how glad I am that Ruth (Dug’s mom) is visiting and taking a week there. It is a lovely city, lots of old architecture, and a very Scottish feel (we got to go to Scotland for three days without actually having to go to Scotland itself in the middle of the winter).
Yesterday we ventured out from the city to the Otago Peninsula, which I think is my vote for the most beautiful place we’ve yet been. It is hilly, sheepy, and is surrounded by a coastline on which we were able to observe albatross (the world’s largest species, with a 10 meter wingspan, I think—will have to fact check that one before publishing), seals, and yellow-eyed penguins (the rarest species, and we saw them from feet away at a penguin conservation site). To see the penguins, we walked a ways, and it was an absolutely lovely walk. We saw a lot of seals, including one that started on the beach and waddled its way into the water (nifty only because most of the seals we’ve seen thus far don’t seem to do much moving at all, and the movement is generally just to flop themselves to another side for sunning).
With Dug sick, the girls and I found a nearby restaurant that we liked, and had three of our meals there. It felt like an English pub. They delivered the girls desserts with little New Zealand flags and those funny little umbrellas you get in drinks. Ali loved it. I also did shopping excursions with each of the girls. Meg’s Christmas present to me was a sweater, and there was a lovely sweater store on the main square (main octagon, really). I went in three times before finally deciding to purchase the sweater that I fell in love with (it was outrageously expensive). The store owner was delighted to tell me all about the different kinds of wool used in NZ, and to advocate for the use of possum (she seemed to feel the need to defend it, which I imagine is common with the American audience). Stores here have funny opening hours: with her, I asked when she would be open the following morning, and she said 9:30. When I arrived the next morning a little after 10, she said that she was glad to see me and that she had gotten herself out the door that morning with a reminder that she had told me 9:30 (seemed to me that she opens whenever she arrives). Many stores and restaurants say “open 11 a.m. until late,” which doesn’t seem particularly informative. Perhaps it just means that they close whenever the last person leaves.
Also in Dunedin we saw two girls playing bagpipes/drums and doing Scottish dancing. Ali and I stayed to watch for about an hour. It’s unclear to me why bagpipes get such a bum rap, yet so many people seem to romanticize them at the same time. Someone want to explain that one to me?
January 14, 2009 (actually, February 16, 2009, as I am writing this a bit after the fact…) Kaikoura Sara
This is one of the most beautiful places on earth. The ocean is to one side, the mountains to the other. For much of the drive down, there was almost no land between the ocean and the rise of the mountains (enough room for a road, but no one seemed to live along there). Kaikoura is the first plateau (not the correct geographical term—big flat space) we’ve seen. We are staying in the Donegal House Bed and Breakfast, which is run by a big Irish family, and has an Irish pub/restaurant attached. We have two separate rooms, as we will several times throughout our journey, and Katie and Meg have settled happily into theirs. The rooms all exit onto a long porch, which leads out onto lovely gardens and a duck pond.
While in Kaikoura, we did whale watching (Dug with Katie, and me with Meg later in the day), and went out to Kean Point to see the seal colony. The abundance of marine life here is astonishing. We also went to a lavender farm, which is another reminder of the pacific northwest for us. Purple is a wonderful color.
I could easily see this being a regular vacation spot for us if we lived in the same hemisphere.
Those of you keeping score at home may have noticed that I've skipped the whole of our two-week south island trip. That wasn't really intentional, but due to a whole set of factors that include a virus plaguing both Sara and I (in serial, thank goodness, not parallel) I never got around to putting all the South Island photos online.
Now that we're back and things have started up around here, I figured trying to catch up by going back and posting those pics day by day (or even city by city) would only mean I'd never get around to posting the pics we're taking now and eventually I'd get so far behind that I'd end up posting our final NZ pics in between games of bridge at our retirement home. So instead of that, I'm going to use our South Island trip as a basis for my first MS Silverlight project... more on that later.
In the meantime, I offer this video, which is probably the funniest one I've ever shot. I felt a little guilty putting it on YouTube in order to post it here, but well ... not sharing this with you simply wasn't an option. Enjoy.
NOTE: This is the final entry in our South Island picture round-up. I had hoped to finish our south island trip pics before we left for a trip of the north island, but no such luck. So despite the fact that we have just now finished our north island trip, and have got plenty of pictures to show for it, I’m going to post these last pictures first. 
