May 31 - June 4, 2026. Stay at the JW Marriott and prepare to re-enter the Norther Hemisphere. This is the longest stretch of time (just under 3 months) either of us have not been on a plane for 10+ years. Auckland is New Zealand's largest and most populous city, home to over 1.6 million residents. Nicknamed the "City of Sails", it boasts the highest boat ownership per capita in the world and sits on a volcanic field featuring more than 50 dormant volcanic cones. Auckland

May 28 - 31, 2026 - Paihia. Paihia is a town in the Bay of Islands with a population of 1623 (as of 2023). It is close to Russell (see below) and the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. The Bay of Islands is an "enclave" with more than 140 subtropical islands next to the North Island. May 28, 2026- The drive from Hamilton to Paihia was about 5 hours. There weren't any road closures and all the road was paved, so we didn't really have any issues. We made several stops along the way

May 27, 2026 - Arrive in Hamilton for the night. Not much to report for this blog, other than our journey to the West Coast to Hamilton. We stayed here one night to break up the longer journey to Auckland. Because I insisted we see the Natural Bridge, we missed out on the Hamilton formal gardens - the main thing to see there. I'm not sure it is important enough a landmark to make a trip for next time, but we'll see. Stop 1: Elephant Rock and Three Sisters. You can only a

May 20-27, 2026 we plan to stay in New Plymouth. New Plymouth is the major city of the Taranaki region on New Zealand's west coast and home to over 60,000 residents, it is famous for its striking contrast between the ocean and the perfectly symmetrical peak of Mount Taranaki. There is really not much to do there. May 20, 2026 - Drive from Taupo to New Plymouth. This was a long drive because Route 3 was closed, forcing us to go via back roads, some of which were unpaved. We

May 13 - 20, 2026 we stayed in an AirBnB at Taupo (pronounced Toepaw), North Island in New Zealand. Taupō, population ~44,000, is home to Lake Taupo, New Zealand’s largest lake (and the larges lake in Asia), a 622-sq-km body of water filling the caldera of an active super volcano. The lake is the size of Singapore. Depending on which website you read, the super volcano here is the second largest in the world - second only to the one in Yellowstone. The region is renowned

May 11-12, 2026 were spent in Wellington. According to Wikipedia, Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand, located at the southwestern tip of the North Island, and is officially the world's southernmost capital of a sovereign state. Known as "Windy Wellington" due to its high average wind speeds, it serves as the nation's political, cultural, and gastronomic center. It has a small town feel (population of about 200,000 people) and also reminded us a lot of a small San

4-12 May, 2026 we were in Nelson, NZ. Nelson is the oldest city in the South Island, settled in 1841, and named after Admiral Nelson. It holds records for high sunshine hours, often over 2700 hours annually. Unfortunately, it rained several days of our visit.. It's urban population is around 60,000. It is near several national parks, among them is the Abel Tasman National Park. May 4 - We had a wonderful, and long, drive from Christchurch to Nelson. First we found oursel

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