First we visited the Waitomo glow worm caves. The glow worm caves were discovered by the Māori, the indigenous people who settled in New Zealand in the middle of the 13th century. The Māori name for glow worm is titiwai, which means stars reflected in the river. (We weren’t allowed to take photos in the caves, so the next two photos aren’t ours.)
Glow worms make strings that are snares to capture moths for food, similar to how spiders catch flying insects in their webs. We found this award winning time lapse video that will give you a sense of how cool the glow worms are.
This popular tourist destination is now run by the descendants of Māori Chief Tane Tinorau and his wife Huti, who discovered the caves in 1889. Cynthia and Pete are outside the cave after our boat ride.
We walked around the area and hiked up to a lookout point.
Cynthia and Kristina look happy to be exploring NZ together. Behind them are limestone formations that were created 30 million years ago.
We drove south towards Tongariro National Park (in the middle of the North Island). Behind us in the background partially hidden by the clouds was the volcano Mount Ruapehu. Pehu means explosion in Māori, an obvious name for an active stratovolcano. New Zealand has three official languages: English, English sign language and Māori, and the Māori names for places are commonly used.
The next day we visited Tongariro, the oldest national park in NZ established in 1889. We saw this road sign warning us to watch out for kiwis on the road at night.
It was wet and misty for most of the day so we opted to take just a short hike to Taranaki Falls.
The meadow was filled with heather and other blooming shrubs.
We were rewarded with views of the Taranaki river as it flowed dramatically through the country.
Once we reached the falls we didn’t linger since we were getting pretty wet.
The next day we drove to Wellington to catch the ferry. Here’s the view of the North Island as we left the port.
It took four hours to cross over to the South Island.
The next morning we were up early so we could start our three day kayaking trip in the Abel Tasman National Park. We met our group and then hopped on this boat.
The boat was pulled down to the beach by a tractor. We could see lots of tractors and boat trailers parked on the beach.
After a 40 minute boat ride we arrived at Golden Bay where our double kayaks were waiting for us. As soon as we got them loaded with our camping gear, we were off to paddle. We were so excited that we were the first ones out.
Cynthia paired up with a single Japanese woman.
We were part of a group of eight paddlers and one guide.
We paddled a few hours to Canoe Bay and landed for lunch. Pete adorned the front of his kayak with gull feathers.
To make the boats more evenly balanced, Kristina and Cynthia decided to paddle together for the rest of the trip.
After lunch we paddled off to check out the marine reserve and sea lion colony.
We saw about 40 sea lion pups on the rocks, sometimes with their moms and sometimes alone. The pups don't learn to swim until they are two years old, so they are dependent on their moms to bring them food.
We were fortunate that the weather was clear and the water was calm. This rock is called Turtle Rock.
The Australian pied cormorant wasn’t afraid of us. Perhaps he felt safe in Abel Tasman National Park.
We had fun watching oystercatcher birds on this trip. This one is banded so it can be monitored by the national park.
We paddled to Shag Harbour, our guide Jeremy’s favorite place on the tour. The entrance was quite narrow and it would have been easy to pass it by without seeing it.
Behind Pete you can see Kristina and Cynthia paddling in.
The water was so clear and green. Luckily it was high tide so we could explore the hidden cove.
Jeremy had us raft up and pose for a group photo. It was a fun group.
We spend the night in Mosquito Bay. We got a few bites as we played cards on the beach.
We were facing east, so we didn’t get much of a sunset, but the light at dusk was beautiful.
The next morning we got up early to see the sunrise. It was low tide.
But the tide came in quickly as the sun was poking through a few clouds on the horizon.
On the beach by our campsite we saw a family of oystercatchers. This was one of the parents.
One parent was always right by the baby because it couldn’t fly yet. Cynthia got too close and one of the parents flew at her very aggressively to protect their baby.
Pete had his zoom lens so he was able to get a few close up shots of the family as they ate breakfast on the beach.
Our guide Jeremy rigged up a griddle on top of two camp stoves so he could toast English muffins for breakfast.
Kristina gave a salute with her paddle as we headed off. Here's a link that shows our route through Abel Tasman.
We stopped to stretch our legs and explore at a private beach.
Jeremy and Cynthia gathered some green-lipped mussels.
While Kristina cooled her feet in the water.
Jeremy had us raft up and raise a sail so we could float in to our next campsite.
There was just enough wind to push us most of the way into the shore.
We stayed at Anchorage Bay, a big campsite with lots of boats.
That afternoon we went up to Cleopatra’s Pool to swim in some fresh water. This was our view of the bay as we hiked up.
We could hear the cicadas as we walked and Cynthia spotted this one.
Our final day of kayaking again had beautiful weather.
We had lunch on Fisherman Island.
Then back at the dock we took our final group photo, feeling dirty but happy after our 30 kms of paddling.
We headed south to Queenstown, taking three days to get there so we could enjoy the sights along the way. We arrived in Punakaiki in time to watch the sun set. We rented a cabin on the shore.
Looking at the ocean, we got our first glimpse of the pancake rocks.
Here’s a slightly closer look at the jagged forms.
The red beaked and black-beaked gulls seemed to be watching the sun set too.
The next morning we took a walk around the pancake rocks.
Made of layers of limestone eroded over time, we enjoyed looking at the curved shapes.
We were encouraged to use our imaginations to see animals and creatures in the rocks.
We drove south to Franz Josef. Since kiwis are nocturnal and endangered, we didn't have much hope of seeing one in the wild. Pete was happy to pose with this kiwi mom and baby statue.
We took a walk out to see the Franz Josef glacier.
We stayed in Fox, noticing lots of cattle and sheep grazing.
We took a walk around Lake Matheson at dusk.
The reflection of the scenery on the lake was nice, as there wasn’t much of a breeze.
There were clouds reflecting in the lake too.
The three of us have fun together, and we've traveled in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Canada.
Continuing south, we stopped for a quick walk to see the Fox glacier.
There was so much greenery and lichen.
We were glad for this view of the glacier.
Driving takes longer in NZ, in part because of the windy roads and in part because of most of the bridges have only one lane.
We broke up our long drive down to Queenstown with a stop at Roaring Billy Falls.
The river behind Pete and Cynthia looked large.
But we had to cross this large dry river bed to get to it. Pete made a rock sculpture.
We spent four days in Queenstown, and enjoyed hiking.
Queenstown is on Lake Wakatipu and we hiked up to Queenstown Hill.
Halfway up we stopped to photograph Basket of Dreams.
It was sculpted by Caroline Robinson.
Cynthia and Kristina took in the view from the top.
We rented bikes and rode the bike path along Lake Wakatipu to Franktown.
Behind Krisitna and Pete are The Remarkables mountain range.
Pete stopped to pose on the bridge over the Shotover River.
Kristina rode up the hill, thinking it would be nice to cool off with a swim.
We visited historic gold mining town Arrowtown.
Kristina and Cynthia got caught by store security in one of the shops, "Don't shoot, bunny!".
We hiked along the Arrow River and saw more limestone formations.
You may have noticed we are all sporting sun hats to keep our faces shaded while we hike.
The scenery reminded us of California in the summertime.
Strolling around Queenstown we came upon an iconic silver fern sculpture. To Māori, the elegant shape of the fronds stand for strength, stubborn resistance, and enduring power. It has been New Zealand's national identity since the 1880s.
Queenstown has lots of good restaurants and we enjoyed going out for lunch. Here we are at Rata, enjoying their two course lunch menu.
Pete's starter was hamachi crudo with beets.
Cynthia's main dish was salmon.
At the front of the restaurant was a sculpture of fantail birds.
Another restaurant with yummy food was Bespoke. They offered vegan, no refined sugar desserts, so we tried mocha, caramel and twix treats.
We heard that it hadn't rained in Queenstown since October, but the weather changed while we were there.
At The Bathhouse we had lunch of cured salmon.
We spent time on our final day in Queenstown watching the rain and soaking in this delightful hot tub.
Next the three of us will be hiking in Milford Sound.
