Tag: new zealand
Seeing Kiwis in New Zealand
The kiwi is the national icon of New Zealand. It is on their 1$ coin. They use it on tons of marketing. The people even refer to themselves as kiwis. So I knew I had to see one if I could on our trip to New Zealand. So in planning I set out to find the sanctuaries in the towns we went through. We ended up finally seeing them in Rotorua at Rainbow Springs, and here is a bit about the experience.
Auckland, City of Sails – Harbor Tour
Auckland, New Zealand is called the City of Sails. This is somewhat hard to believe when you walk down Queen Street and around the city. However on a harbor tour, this becomes much more apparent. On my last day in Auckland, we decided to take a harbor tour and saw more why the City of Sails makes sense.
Steam Engine on an Island : Kingston Flyer
I never expected to see a steam train in New Zealand. I knew they had the modern scenic trains, but I don’t think of the county as train heavy. However a lot of the land was settled and opened up in the age of steam, trains were definitely a part of the landscape. As a part of our bus ride to Milford Sound we stopped at Kingston, the other end of Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown King and Queen, huh?). There we saw the restored Kingston Flyer.
Islands in the Sea and Sky – Indie Travel Challenge
This Week’s prompt for the Boots’N'All Indie Travel Chellenge revolves around islands as travel destinations. I quite like islands. Actually I really like boats, but islands and boats seem to hang out together. In the past few years, I have island hopped in Greece and Croatia on cruises and spent a day on Hong Kong Island on the way to New Zealand, also islands.
Fiordland Park : Forests, Mountains and Waterfalls
Fiordland National Park and Milford Sound were the highlight sight of my two weeks in New Zealand. There is only one road to Milford Sound and it goes through the Fiordland National Park. The drive through the three valleys and all the stops we did was my favorite part of the trip. Come take a look at this drive.
Queenstown from Above
Flying into Queenstown, New Zealand on Christmas Eve,w e decided to do something with our afternoon. We choose the gondola ride up for the view of Lake Wakatipu and the surrounding area. The skyline Gondola goes to the top of Bob’s Peak. (It really is called this. Isn’t that cool?) The views of the area are fantastic and you can watch the storms come in. Play in the gift shop and watch others defy death for an afternoon.
Creepy Santa And His Deformed Reindeer, Auckland
In general the Christmas decorations were not overwhelming in New Zealand. Very understated in most places, except for this guy. He stayed up past New Years and we called him Creepy Santa for navigational purposes. I am always on the lookout for oddities and unusual things when I travel. This certainly qualifies.
Off to the Wild Blue Yonder
My wife is on her round the world trip and will be in New Zealand through Christmas and New Years. So we planned for me to come down and meet her. So again the frightened-of-flying guy is getting on a flight again. This time it will be the longest flight I will have ever been on, even when I was flying. This will be two flights about 11 hours with a long connection in Hong Kong.
