New Zealand 2014

If you’re thinking of visiting New Zealand in the Fall, prepare for rain. So far it’s been wet for 70% of our trip. Seeing some sun peeking through on this photo? Correct, that was one of two breaks we got to remind us that there is a sun out there somewhere. It made for a much better ferry ride this morning, as I’m not a big fan of boat-on-ocean situations… With a 7am departure from Wellington (after a 5:45am check … Read More

We can’t believe a week has gone by already. It’s been 7 days and we finally made it to Wellington, our last stop on the North Island. Tonight we are staying at the closest campground to the ferry terminal which is a nice little place, but it’s basically a parking lot with power hookups. We leave bright and early tomorrow morning to catch the first ferry that departs at 7am. We have to get there before 6am, so we’ll be … Read More

Our laundry is done, we had nice hot showers, we dumped our waste water and we’re all set to get back on the road. Taupo is a town and lake smack dab in the middle of New Zealand’s north island. The lake seemed to be about the same size as Lake Tahoe. Just north of town are our first two stops. The first one, Huka Falls is just off the highway. It’s not a high waterfall, but it really gushes … Read More

So – I read that New Zealand gets quite a bit of rain in the fall. And we’re here in the fall … and we can attest to the above statement. After a night of continuous rain fall, camper-shaking storms and waking up to a drenched campsite (and curtains), we decide that the ongoing rain will not stop us from exploring Karangahake Gorge, which is located just a few miles down the stream from our campsite. The Karangahake Gorge (a DOC … Read More

It was just after 8am as we hit the road to start our adventure south. Today we have three goals for day #4: 1. See glowworms at Waipu Caves 2. Visit Piroa Falls 3. Pickup Andrea’s passport We headed off on today’s adventure down Highway 1. A half hour later as we passed through the town Kawakawa, Andrea screamed, “Hundertwasser Toilets!” Apparently Hunderwasser was a famous artist/architect from Vienna, Austria known for building without straight lines and plenty of color. … Read More

“Tiny World” panoramic of our campsite at Aroha Island Ecological Centre in New Zealand

Day 3 starts with getting ready and packed up again for a 10am hotel check out. Just as we exited the elevator, we bumped into Eddy from Discover NZ, our campervan guy. We walked outside and saw our home for the next two weeks. What a cute little thing it is! (And as the owner of a 15-ft camping trailer, I can say that!). We take off (Eddy driving) for a parking lot near the hotel where it’s a bit … Read More

As it’s our last night in Auckland, I wanted to get a nice shot of Sky Tower before we head out to see the rest of New Zealand. This is a 360º Photo Sphere taken with my Nexus 5. You can use your mouse to look around in every direction just like you can in Google Street View. Go ahead and take a look up.

Jet lag or not, we were up early today, as I had to stop by the U.S. Consulate here in town to get my passport visa stamp renewed. After that we decided to do some prep work for our campervan set up and went shopping: pillows, sheets and towels will be provided, but there’s nothing like having your own (Kirk is a bit picky after our experience in Australia … see that post from 4 1/2 years ago for more). … Read More

After a very long flight from San Francisco, we finally made it to Auckland, New Zealand. 13 hours on a plane may sound pretty bad, but it was actually a good flight. We were a few rows from the back of the 747-400, but the seats had decent leg room. The only hiccup during the flight was when the flight attendant’s beverage cart hit a seat and a bottle of wine spilled on me and two other passengers. I will … Read More