27 April to May, 2026 - Christchurch is the largest city on the South Island of New Zealand with a population of 550,000 people. We are actually staying in Templeton, a suburb. Our route today took us through Burkes Pass where we stopped at the eclectic Three Creeks area. I found a sign for Jax Beer and wonder if that's from Jacksonville.... Buni and I decided to try out the motorcycle. Our next stop was the Fairlie Bake shop where we had the obligatory pie. Chris had some

April 24-27, 2025 - Lake Tekapo. Lake Tekapo is known for its beautiful blue lake, for stargazing and for it's church. It is a part of the the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve. The church is the Church of the Good Shephard and it's lovely panoramic views. It has about 400 full year residents and is known as a vacation spot. We really enjoyed our time here and would rate it 9/10 for accommodation, rabbits, and walkability. We would come back again. April 2

April 21 - 24, 2026 - Oamaru. Oamaru is a much bigger city than I thought. It is the largest town in North Otago with a population of ~14,000 people. It is famous for its exceptionally preserved 19th-century Victorian architecture built from local white limestone, the nightly return of little blue penguins, and its status as the Steampunk capital of New Zealand. We enjoyed our time here and rated it overall 7/10 for access, accommodation, charm and the pizza and beer. Apri

April 14 - 21, 2026 - We are in Dunedin. Dunedin is New Zealand's seventh largest city with a population of around 133,000. It's been populated by the Maori from the 13th century and by Scottish settlers originally in the 1830s. It has some of the best preserved Eduardian and Victorian architecture in the Southern Hemisphere. There were some lovely sunrise views - do you see the bunny having breakfast? April 14 - We caught the 8am boat back to Bluff where we stopped for co

11-14 April, 2026. In summary: Glad we went to satisfy our curiosity. Unfortunately, didn't see any kiwi and not much star gazing due to bad weather. April 11 - Get to Stewart Island. Visit Ulva Island. Today was an early morning where we cleaned up the AirBnB and drove the hour back to Bluff to catch the ferry to Oban. The ferry ride is about an hour. The sky was quite grey and threatening. The crossing was uneventful. Even though it was around 10am the sky was quite r

From April 7 - 11, 2026 we were in Invercargill. Invercargill is the fourth largest city on the South Island and has about 58,000 inhabitants. Everyone we asked about it said we shouldn't stay more than 1 night because there's nothing to do here. We are staying four nights and I hope I will get a good rest as I am exhausted. In summary: we enjoyed Invercargill and were busy each day - no rest for the wicked - but probably won't come back again. Hiking: 7/10, Food: 6/10,

March 31 through April 7, 2026 we stayed in Te Anau. Te Anau is about a 2 hour drive from Queenstown. The drive began along the south end of Lake Wakatipu and continued to Kingston before turning toward the West, into the fjordland area and Lake Te Anau. We just drove through the small town of Te Anau on our way to the Milford Sound hike a few weeks ago. Our AirBnB is a bit nicer than near Queenstown. It's a 2 bedroom house at the end of a very quiet street. RIGHT behind

March 24-March31, 2026 - Stay at 98B Stalker Road, Queenstown. (photos were in the last post) Shotover is a small bedroom community outside of Queenstown. There is not much to recommend it, other than it is rather quiet and, if interested, you can plane spot because it's close to the airport. On the positive side, there is a bus which runs hourly and goes to Queenstown so you don't have to drive. Parking in/near Queenstown is very expensive if you can't find on street parki

March 19-24, 2026. The Grand Traverse is a guided hike organized by Ultimate Hikes. Ultimate Hikes owns the concession for access to the Fjordland area on the West side of the South Island of New Zealand. You can either go as an independent and stay in common huts, or as guided and stay in "more luxurious" accommodation. The Grand Traverse combines both the Greenstone Track (3 nights) and the Routeburn Track (2 nights). We found out that this will be one of the last oppo

We are taking this hike again after 9 years to try to complete it. Last time we took it, this may have been my first organized hike and what began my love affair with hiking. In 2017 we made it to the base of McKinnon Pass (day 3) and the authorities closed the trail due to snow. As a result we were helicoptered to the top of the pass to continue from there. I have no written record of our last trip and very few photos, so have forgotten most of it. Looking back on this

March 8-12, 2026. Downtime in Queenstown, New Zealand before starting the Milford Track. March 8 - we had a 4:30 start to get to the airport in time for our 7:40am departure. At least there wasn't any traffic and there was a first class Qantas lounge we could use for a champagne breakfast. I had Turkish eggs - poached eggs with some extra spice added. The flight was 3 hours long and the flight crew was very personable - even getting to know our names and chatting. We had