Our Last Day in New Zealand - Oct 25th

Sunday started off with a little birthday celebration for Jim...he is
really old. Then we went down to the
local park for there annual Labor Day
celebration. We then headed for town for a little sightseeing, and to pick up lunch and then off to Pay and Pack (like Costco) to pick up some food for the birthday barbecue dinner. After lunch Gordon thought it would be a
good time to take the kayak out for a little paddle....the kayak never left the dock-before
he got stuck and then ended up in the
frigid lake water. After Gordon dried off....most took there afternoon nap to get ready for the big celebration. The barbecue dinner was great....the dinner ended with the traditional singing and birthday cake for the old guy. We are going to drive up to the Auckland Airport first thing in the morning....we depart Auckland at 2:40 pm on Monday the 26th and we arrive into Los Angeles at 6:40 am on Monday the 26th - we land 8 hours before we take off....now that's time travel....We hope you all like our blog and we will see all of you real soon.

Off to the North Island - Oct. 24th.

Our Saturday morning started with an early 7:00 am breakfast; before we headed to the Queenstown Airport for our flight to Rotoruta on the North Island. Our accommodations a 3 bedroom 3000 sq foot house right on the lake. After a couple of hours at the lake we went to downtown Rotoruta for a little lunch at the local McDonalds and a then off for some shopping. With money still in our pockets we headed up the mountains to the Dry Land Luge facility. Gordon, Jim and myself all each took 3 rides as our wives watched in terror as we safely made it down to the bottom unscratched. Tomorrow our last full day in Newe Zealand will be spent kayaking, relaxing and enjoying the nice forcasted weather.

Trip to Milford Sound-Oct. 23rd

Today's adventure took us to a
magical place called Milford Sound.
We took a little twin engine plane from
Queenstown and landed out in the Sound. The flight took us through the southern alps of the South Island. The sound is actually a fiord. After arriving, we took a 2 hour boat cruise along the cliffs of the sound....waterfalls... snow cap peaks...wild life The trip was unbelievable, and if you get a chance all must stop at Milford Sound. On our arrival back from the sound we did a short tour of an area near Queenstown called Arrowtown. Reminded me a lot of Truckee..We also went to the bridge where the first bungy jumps were made in the world...unfortunately it was closed.

Driving to Queenstown-Oct. 22nd

Our first stop of the day was at Fox Glacier...it is actually growing about 2 feet in size everyday. The rest of our trip to Queenstown was threw some of there Alps, around lakes, along side rivers and then out to the coast and a lot of windy roads. Most of us really appreciated the scenery....but there is always one....We made 3 or 4 stops on the 5 hour drive....when we arrive in Queenstown we were pleasantly surprise with our new home for the next couple of days....Great location overlooking the lake; about three miles to the airport, about another 3 miles in the other direction to downtown.

Trip to the Glaciers - Wed. Oct 21st

Wednesday started off - with a little rain, wind and numerous stops on our way down to the glacier region of the South Island. We did not bring warm clothes....so a few of us had to make some purchases... Before we tried to attempt the glaciers; we also needed to get some hearty local Bushmans food to keep us warm. The first and only Glacier we visited on Wednesday was the Franz Josef Glacier, we will attempt the Fox Glacier on Thursday... your Wednesday. We have to apologize for not answering many of your questions from your daily comments....we usually either do not have the answer or we forgot what you did ask. One of the questions that we remember was what region were we drinking in and which wineries. We are in New Zealand and we were in somewhere between 6 and 10 wineries. And all of the wine that we bought for all of you....which you wanted us to bring back...we put in shipping boxes label the box.....reopened the box and drank the wine with some New Zealand cheese.....sorry. Another popular question is....What are we eating? Here is what we ate today: Breakfast....coffee, tea, juice & water....fruit....2 people ordered pancakes and there were 4 with eggs. Lunch....water, soda & beer....4 had fish and chips, one cheese sandwich and a hamburger. Cocktail hour was a bottle of wine and some cheese. Dinner started with a bottle of wine, beer....3 salads and 1 soup....then 2 ordered lamb curry, 3 ordered rip-eye steak and there was 1 pasta....Desert was 3 vanilla sundaes, 2 beers, and Gordon finished off the bottle of wine.

Oct 20th - Driving the West Coast of NZ

Today's blog could be without pictures. It is extremely hard to find a good area with enough strength to download pictures; we even have a video of our ziplining across the gorge. We left Nelson Tuesday am and our first stop was breakfast at the only cafe in Wakefield. We then drove through a couple of mountain ranges and along the banks of many rivers. After 4 hours we came to the west coast of New Zealand where they are famous for their rough coastline and Pancake Rocks and blowholes. We are staying at a nice B &B right on the beach a little north of Greymouth. Wednesday drive will be to Fox Glacier - which is also on the west coast of New Zealand.

Northern New Zealand - Here we come - Oct 19th

We started our Monday drive by all actually fitting into the mini van with all of our luggage. We had a 2 hour drive to Nelson, which is on the Northern part of the South Island. We hit a little rain, a mud slide, (they call a slip), and some sunny weather. We stopped for lunch at a little harbor village and had some good and bad sea food. Our next adventure was to find the Abel Tasman National Park for a little hike along the Tasman Sea.


The hikes range in length from a few miles to a of 5 day adventure. The variety of trees are spectacular. Our crew is still hanging in there. Gordon is in the back row of seats...he can not hear us...and we can not hear him. Next to him is Joan - whom we all feel sorry for. In the second row of seats is Linda, whom we assigned the task of map reader. Next to Linda is Barbie - who's seat does not stay lock in place. So, when the car moves forward or backward Barbie and her seat also moves, yep, slides right back into Joan. In the passenger is Jim, he is the navigator....he periodically forgets that we are driving on the wrong side of the road. On Tuesday our adventure takes us to the west coast of New Zealand. We will be spending the night in Greymouth.

Wine Tasting - October 18th

We started Sunday morning with a trip to the local farmers market; and then off to a world class World War 1 air museum. Then we started the main part of the trip....wine tasting. We visited somewhere between 6 and 10 vineyards/wineries - no one can actually remember the total. After a quick stop at Allan Scott
winery for lunch and some locally brewed beer - we headed out for some more wine and chocolate.

The Train Ride - Oct. 17th

This morning we left Christchurch Train Station at 7:00 am for our 4.5 hour ride up to Blenheim (Northern Wine Growing Region) of the south island. The train was about 5o years old. They had an open air train car were you could go outside and view the scenery as it goes speeding by. Outside temperature was in the high 30's. The scenery
was spectacular, roaring along the east coast of New Zealand and then into the wine growing region. We were picked up at the train station in Blenheim by our guide Ryan and we went directly to the Highfield Winery and vineyard for a great lunch. The rest of the blog will be in pictures instead of BS. On Sunday the 18th we will be heading into town to the farmers market to collect some food for dinner.

New Zealand - Day 1 - Oct. 16th

We left our hotel this morning on a private tour of Christchurch and Akaroa. Akaroa is about an hour and a half drive from Christchurch. Brian was our tour guide, extremely knowledgeable of the South Island of New Zealand. On our way to Akaroa we traveled over the beautiful Banks Peninsula, which was formed by violent eruptions of a coupkle of volcanoes. The French city of Akaroa and the bay leading out to the Pacific Ocean were at onetime the crater of one of the volcanoes. After a little shopping, a couple of beers, lunch we took a cruise out in trhe bay searching for the world's smallest and rarest dolphin - the Hector's Dolphin. After our tour of the harbor we headed to the local cheese factory back on the mountains towards Christchurch. Early on October 17th we will catch the Trans Coastal Train for a four hour ride to Blenheim - which is the northern wine growing region on the South Island.

A full day in Sydney - Oct. 15th

The day started with Gordon and Jim walking down to Hyde Park and the Sydney Botanical Gardens at sunrise. The rest of the group was enjoying some much needed sleep. After a leisurely breakfast we headed back down to Darling Harbor to catch the Doubledecker bus tour of Sydney and the world famous Bondi Beach. We only were able to spend about a day and a half in Australia.....too big and too many things to do. Traveling on the upperdeck of the bus let us see a large region of Sydney in a very short amount of time.

We left Australia around 6:30 pm and headed to Christchurch, New Zealand.....where we
arrived at our hotel around midnight. We will be up first thing in the morning to for a tour of Akaroa and its picturesque harbor.