New Zealand

If it weren’t for the throngs of foreign tourists in buses, R.V.s, campers and rental cars most of New Zealand’s narrow winding roads, (with their ubiquitous single lane bridges), would be left to the great herds of cattle and sheep…

The tourist spots are busy and throughout our trip we have heard the same cry from hoteliers, “No room at this inn”. Fortunately we had booked all our 16 accommodations well in advance and stayed mainly in motels.
The “Motel” sign in North America screams, “Cheap,” and conjures nightmarish images of nylon sheets on lumpy mattresses; of peeling paint and cracked Formica; of drunks and druggies being hauled away at midnight by the cops. Not here. Here in N.Z. motels have modern, spotless, generously furnished, spacious apartments, each with fully equipped kitchen including dishwasher and washing machine, Jacuzzi bath, super-sized beds and big-screen TVs.

New Zealand has more than its fair share of picturesque scenery like this view of the mountains overlooking Lake Wanaka…

...and this waterfall on the north island...

But, despite the number of tourists, there is little money to be made from selling the odd scenic postcard or stuffed toy sheep. So the Kiwis have outdone themselves when it comes to enhancing the rural experience and markets itself as ‘The Adventure Capital of the World.” Guided tramps (that’s a hike to us) and cycle tours are popular, but for those seeking real adventure before dementia, New Zealand offers year-round high octane daredevil activities from bungy jumps and giant swings to swaying treetop walks, cable cars and claustrophobia inducing caving,

Jet boats, jet skis, kayaks, surfboards, flyboards, sailboards, kiteboards and rafts take thrill seekers on spine-crunching rides on lakes, rivers, rapids, waterfalls and waves, while others float serenely on inner tubes through subterranean streams to view the glow worms. Some are simply content to while away an afternoon just fishing or cruising on a glassy lake…

Whichever way you view New Zealand, by land, water or on one of the many helicopter and fixed wing sightseeing flights, there is no doubt that it is a beautiful unspoilt country populated by gentle and kind people that is safe, clean, easy and completely familiar for western English speakers. There is absolutely nothing here to frighten Granny. We could easily stay longer but Aussie calls – see you soon in Tassie cobber.

The sunny days of summer are slowly sliding into fall as we sink further south with only the ocean between us and Antarctica. There is no snow on the beaches, but there are penguins - although we have yet to see one…

Before the Maoris arrived from Polynesia, (only a few centuries before the Europeans), these islands drifted unmanned in the vast emptiness of the great Southern Ocean for many millennia. The landscape was wrought by catastrophic seismic eruptions and fashioned by the fearsome Roaring Forties that circle the globe almost unimpeded – it is a rugged windswept land of fire, water and ice…

It has a ragged coastline smashed by a million storms...

More often than not the tiny two-street town of Franz Joseph is up to its waist in water. More than 5 metres (16 feet) of rain falls here every year and seven thousand tourists a day cram into the hotels, motels, hostels and campsites with only one thing in mind: will they be lucky enough to get a clear view of the Franz Joseph glacier that overlooks the town before it finally melts into the history books? Will they, like us, get to see the glacier’s reflection in Peter’s Pool…

Will they, like us, be mesmerised by the thundering waterfalls that cascade a thousand feet into the wide valley below…

Will they, like us, be enchanted by the vibrant lichens that colour the boulders in the glacier’s rocky debris field…

Will they, like us, be awed by the sight of the mighty Franz Joseph glacier…

Or will they, like so many, be dismayed to discover the glacier shrouded by the thick curtains of cloud that can blanket these mountains for day after day.

The west coast of New Zealand’s south island has a rugged landscape of mountains, rivers, lakes and forests punctuated with numerous tourist attractions like the fur seal colony at Cape Foulwind...

...and the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki – fascinating formations created by numerous layers of sandstone which took hundreds of thousands of years to create…

On the west coast the scenery and the weather changes faster than the automatic gearbox on our rental car and we could stop for a snapshot every 50 meters. Here is a just a tiny selection starting with a deserted beach…

…A picturesque lake…

…A snow capped peak…

…And a glacier fed river…

They all have names but, after twenty or more of each, names become unimportant. Every corner on the switchback road brings another scenic lake, river, mountain or stretch of forest… luxuriant evergreen forests bursting with all manner of fauna unique to these far-off isolated islands…

And at the end of the day, a relaxing soak in the hot springs at Franz Joseph after learning that we drove through a 4.4 earthquake and thought it was just a bumpy road...

Tomorrow – the famed Franz Joseph glacier.

A fearsome tempest swept past us in the night and we received word that as much as eighteen inches of rain had fallen over our destination of Nelson on New Zealand’s South Island. The sea looked foul as we readied to board our vessel – the good ship Kaitaki – and we contemplated retreating to our comfortable lodgings in Wellington…

’Tis barely conceivable that souls could survive is such conditions, but almost as soon as the mainsail was hoisted the weather began to improve. With a backwards glance as we cast off from Wellington quay we spied a great schooner under a leaden sky and wondered at the privations those poor passengers must have suffered being transported in such appalling conditions…

Many a sound vessel has foundered in The Cook Strait twixt the north and south islands of New Zealand so, as we left the shelter of Wellington harbour, we were relieved to find that the wind had abated and the waves declined. We were barely two hours out under a cloudless sky when the lookout cried “Land Ho!” and passengers flocked to the rails for a glimpse of the new land…

The previously cramped and claustrophobic areas below decks were suddenly deserted…

And the flocks of sheep held in wagons midst the carriages on deck ceased their pitiful baa-ings as they smelt the sweet pastures of their new home…


After two weeks of hard tack and boiled mutton on the North Island we were anxious to get ashore and try the local seafood which, we are assured, is some of the finest in the Empire. First we travelled overland to Nelson to give thanks at the great cathedral which is being built atop a hill…

Nelson is a most delightful town with many parks and gardens and already numerous traders have built attractive stores on its wide boulevards…

Ah! If only those poor souls in 1845 had the luxuries of today.

(P.S. Lest you are concerned - so far we have dodged 3 earthquakes and a typhoon in New Zealand, but can we avoid the rain on the notoriously wet west coast)

A highlight of any trip to the South Pacific is the star studded view of the Southern Cross against a cloudless black sky…

Impressive eh! But hold onto your moas for a minute. Let’s have a closer look at those twinklers…

Yup – those aren’t stars at all. They are a smattering of the fascinating glow worms that live in the caves of Waitomo near Hamilton. According to Kyle, our knowledgeable guide in the Footwhistle caves, glow worms aren’t worms at all: they are devious little critters that live on the roof of the caverns and know that when fly larvae hatch in the subterranean rivers the young flies are genetically programmed to fly high into the night sky. So, the glow worms put on a celestial light show overhead and lure their victims into a deadly curtain loaded with sticky droplets of venom…

Glow worms aren’t the only ones putting on the lights in New Zealand. Thousands of Chinese lanterns will be lighting up the trees in the Domain in Auckland this weekend. Unfortunately we won’t be there for the event but we were lucky enough to witness the preparations. This Morton Bay fig tree was a masterpiece without the lanterns…

Auckland is big in New Zealand terms. It only has one and half million people but that’s a third of the entire population. Like Vancouver, Auckland is a new city with few buildings a hundred or more years old. This is the old Custom’s House on the quay...

Auckland is the hub of New Zealand. All roads, ferries, flights and cruises land here.
But, as one New Zealand taxi driver put it: the best thing about Auckland is the road south to Wellington – if you can get through the traffic jams.
We didn’t drive to Wellington, we flew. But we could see what he meant as we drove to Auckland airport.
Wellington, (a.k.a Windy Wellington), is the capital of New Zealand and an altogether more laid back city of just 200,000. The slow ride to the botanical gardens in the cable car is a treat…

….and the gardens themselves are a treasure of native and imported flora and fauna.

The islands making up New Zealand are very new in geological terms – less than 500 million years – and because it is so far from the nearest land it evolved a unique ecosystem. Only one mammal… a small bat; and one tree…the kauri, were here before European settlers came in 1839. New Zealand has the perfect conditions for all manner of temperate plants and trees and today its primary export is timber. Here in Wellington we’ve had time to smell the roses…

Now we are heading south across the Cook Strait to the South Island of New Zealand. See you soon.