Kiwi Summer

We dropped off our adventurous travelers in Auckland then headed for the northland. This is the north finger of the north island. They say it's very summery and tropical up here. Look out summer here we come.

We stayed in a little beach community called Bayly's Beach. The lady at the campground said,"Oh ya you can drive down to the beach. In fact you can drive right onto the beach." That's awesome! This is the road leading to the beach.

Wide open beach asking for Black Betty!

Woohoo! John driving on the beach.

Yahoo! Ang driving on the beach.

We stopped to chat with a local fisherman. Oops we stayed too long!

Like most kiwi's he had a rope in his ute. Out in no time. :)

You're in kiwi country now! (The bird, not the person.)

Oh no! What are we going to do!

The northland is known for it's Kauri trees. Back before the Europeans settled here, the island was filled with them. These are very old, slow growing, fragile trees. In fact they are so fragile that you can damage the roots by stepping on them through the soil! There are walkways close to the trees to prevent damage. The Maori tribes used to cut them down and use them for canoes. They are protected now.

Here are four trees all growing from the same place. It's called the Four Sisters.

This is the largest living Kauri in New Zealand named Tane Mahuta (god of the forest). It is 51.5 meters tall with a trunk girth of 13.8 meters. They think it's about 2000 years old!

A little perspective of how big this tree is.

Why did the chicken cross the car park?

The tropical flowers of the north.

Looking down the coast at Opononi.

This was the sunset looking across the Hokianga Harbor in Opononi. That is a huge sand dune silhouetted on the other side. The sky was really this color. Amazing!

Authentic New Zealand :)

Looking out at Ahipara Bay just south of Ahipara.

We camped in a little grassy campground along this beach just south of Ahipara along Ahipara Bay. Turns out this is the only beach in the entire country that is Maori owned.

Black Betty is enjoying some shade while we went for a swim.

At this very interesting Maori owned campground we woke up to quite a surprise. Yes that is the hillside behind the campground that is on fire.

A chopper came in to assist with the fire relief efforts. Good thing we were close to the ocean!

This is the only road leading out of the campground. Yes it is blocked by fire, firemen, and fire trucks.

Chopper dropping its water.

Nice work boys. By about 10am the blaze was out and we were free to go. Phew! On to the next adventure.

Vacation within a vacation Part II :)

After beautiful Arthur's Pass we stopped in Hokitika, a great little beach town.

They were having a driftwood art contest on the beach. Hope the tide doesn't come in too far!

We had lunch with this guy at Moorhouse Beach.

Ang and Daddio at Moorhouse Beach:)

Then we headed south to introduce our visitors to the stunning glaciers. The end of December and the beginning of January brought heavy rains and lots of flooding to this area. This is what the Warning sign at Franz Josef Glacier looked like on Dec. 21, 2009.

This is what it looked like on Jan 27, 2010. Water is very powerful!

What do you think this is? Ten points for the correct answer. :)

Fox Glacier

Lake Hawea on the way to Wanaka.

In Wanaka we stayed at an awesome B&B. We climbed up the hill outside the back door and this was the view. Wow!

A tulip, my favorite!

Lake Wanaka, so beautiful!

There is a place in Wanaka full of illusions called Puzzle World. How many people in this photo are real?

Wow look how strong we are!

In Queenstown we took a ride across Lake Wakatipu on the TSS Earnslaw, built in the early 1900s. This ship uses steam created from burning coal to get across the lake. It was built to cut the travel time from one end of the huge lake to the other.

Beautiful Lake Wakatipu.

After Queenstown we continued our adventure to Fiordland where we visited Doubtful Sound, a very remote area of the country. The start of our journey was a one hour boat across Lake Manapouri.

Enjoying the ride on Lake Manapouri.

From there we loaded in a van for a 45 minute drive over a very curvy Wilmot Pass Road. This is the view of Doubtful Sound from the top.

At the bottom of Wilmot Pass Road the Sea Finn of Deep Cove Charters was waiting for us. We loaded into the overnight fishing boat for our adventure on Doubtful Sound. We had an absolutely stunning day, beautiful weather!

Don't worry even though the boat in the distance looks like a pirate ship it's not a real one.

Beautiful Doubtful Sound:)

Since the weather was so favorable we went out into the Tasman Sea to try our luck at some fishing. Yeah, John got one!

I caught a blue cod too!

When Chris, our skipper, was filleting the fish, the birds were swarming us. This is an albatross checking out the tasty fish scraps.

The next morning we were greeted by dolphins playing in the wake of the boat. Neat!

We then took a flight from Queenstown back to Auckland.

We ate dinner as the sun was setting in the revolving restaurant at the top of the Sky Tower. This is the view from the top.

The Sky Tower all lit up at night.

Chris, our skipper from Doubtful Sound, gave us three huge crayfish tails (aka lobster) to take along and eat. They were quite tasty!