So Many Exciting and Beautiful Places!

Saturday, February 7 (I mean, 8)

I do believe that if I were not doing this blog, I’d have absolutely no idea what day or date it is. Nothing was scheduled for today, so we slept in a bit, then took the local bus to town.

We wandered around downtown, did some shopping, and stopped at a rooftop bar for libations. There was a craft fair in the town square, with some very nice glass and woolen items, among other things.

Queenstown is a fairly typical tourist town, with lots of souvenir shops and activity offerings. Their busiest time is January. In the summer, there are many activities offered, including tours of the various Lord of the Ring filming sites (by airplane, helicopter or jeep.) In the winter, they fill up with skiers. There are many woolen shops with beautiful sweaters, hats, scarves, etc. I do wish I could wear wool, but even the softest ones make me itch, so I’m leaving the home of the Merino sheep without anything wool for myself.

The city has a gondola that takes people to the top of the nearest hill, about 2,500 feet in height. The ride gives some great views of the city and the mountain, which appears to be a very large and steep rock. Lodge pole pines grow quite tall – we estimated some to be between 150-200 feet tall.

After getting to the top, there are several options. You can paraglide, bungee jump, take a luge ride (more like go carts), hike or bike, and even have lunch or dinner. The views of the city were awesome as it was a clear day. We could even see our hotel from there.

We had dinner at an English style pub in town, where Mark had the largest ribs I’ve ever seen. It’ll be hard to leave New Zealand, but tomorrow we head to Australia.

Thursday, February 6

We flew from Rotorua to Queenstown, a fairly short flight. We were all ready to go through security, dumped our drinks, had the plastic bag of liquids ready, and all for naught. Apparently, the Kiwis, as New Zealanders refer to themselves, don’t worry about hijackers on local flights. What a treat!

We arrived at our hotel, Heritage Queenstown, about 5:00, had an early dinner and retired. We would be starting early tomorrow.

Friday, February 7

Got up about 6:00 am to be ready for today’s adventures. We went to Milford Sound, about a four hour drive by motorcoach. There were some stops along the way for snacks and photos. This country is absolutely gorgeous! On the way, we drove through a 2 km long tunnel that was dug through a mountain. This was done in the 1930’s and took six years, with most of the tunneling and blasting done by hand.

We boarded a boat at Milford and cruised for about 1.5 hours to the Tasman Sea and back. Along the way, we were treated to numerous waterfalls and a few seals sunning themselves on the rocks.

Tasman Sea

After the boat ride, we had the option of taking an airplane back to Queenstown. We jumped at the chance as it would allow us to see more of the mountains, plus get us back three hours earlier than the bus. It was a small plane, holding eight people including the pilot. Everyone had a window and plenty of photo ops. It was a good decision. We got back early enough to enjoy our evening. It was such a beautiful day that we had dinner on the outdoor terrace, with views of the lake and mountains.

On this trip, we have now traveled the furthest south we’ve ever been, also the furthest west and the furthest east.

Tuesday, February 4

The bus picked us up at 7am this morning. We barely made it (the wakeup call didn’t come), and were barely awake. It was good napping time, After an hour or so, we got off the main roads, and began traveling through farm land. It is very beautiful, with rolling hills, streams, trees and crops.

The two largest groups of livestock are sheep (30 million) and cattle (6 million). The number of sheep has been dwindling, while the number of cattle has been growing. Dairy products are in great demand. Some visitors from other countries will buy as much powdered milk as they can carry back to their homes. I believe China is a very large customer.

At about the halfway point, we stopped at the Waitomo Glowworm Caves. These caves were discovered in 1887 by the local Maori chief, Tane Tiorau, and an English surveyor, Fred Mace. We rode a boat on the river that runs through the cave.

Not worms at all, these fly larva live on the ceiling and walls of the cave. They drop up to 10 sticky filaments, and turn on their lights to attract mosquitoes and other insects. The insects are trapped by the filaments and kept there until the glowworm gets hungry.

We arrived in Rotorua mid-afternoon, Our hotel is located close to the downtown, so we did some exploring. Now, we’ll try to catch up on our sleep.

Sunday, February 2

We disembarked this morning and headed to our hotel – Heritage, Auckland. We were too early to get into our room, so decided to do some wandering around. The hotel is located downtown, not far from the Sky Tower.

Auckland looks a lot like Minneapolis, but with more diversity. It is a city of about 1.5 million people. This is about 1/3 of the total population of New Zealand. The city sits atop almost 50 dormant volcanoes. Some of the craters are used for soccer and rugby fields. Since there is so much of it, volcanic rock is used for curbing, walkways, even siding for buildings. Auckland is called the “City of Sails.” There are as many as 135,000 yachts in the area. Westhaven Marina is the largest marina in the southern hemisphere, boasting 2,000 moorings.

Sky Tower

Volcanic rock used for curbing

Volcanic rock walkway

Largetst marina in Southern Hemisphere

Monday, February 3

While most of you were watching Super Bowl pre-game shows, or the game itself, we toured the area, visiting many of the neighborhoods. There are many homes built in the 1800’s that are still in use today. They were built with wood from the native Kauri tree. This wood was very desirable because it is very straight, has no knots, and emits a chemical that repels insects. It doesn’t rot. If the home is well maintained and painted regularly, it can continue to look like a fairly new home. Unfortunately, the Kauri was harvested almost to extinction and shipped to other countries. It is a slow growing tree, taking about 90 years to reach a size that builders would want to use. The tree is protected, but is now threatened by a microscopic organisms in the soil that damage the tissues that carry nutrients to the tree. Once it’s infected, it will die.

Young Kauri tree

We stopped at their war memorial, which afforded some great views of the surrounding city and water.

My, you have a big gun!

We visited the Waikatere Ranges, which form a natural barrier between Auckland and the Tasman Sea. This is rainforest, so everything is very lush. The hills look like they have been carpeted with trees and ferns. There are tree ferns, which can grow to 50 feet in height. From a distance, they look a little bit like palm trees. The Maori word for water is wai, so any name that begins with wai is referring to some body of water.

Tree ferns

Nearby is the Karekare waterfall. Just a short hike from the road, and we were afforded the beautiful view of the water falling into a pool at the bottom.

Karekare Waterfalls

Last stop was at a black sand beach. It was dark but not really black like some beaches we’ve seen. The black sands are iron. If you use a magnet, you can pull the iron grains out of the rest of the sand. The beach looks out to the Tasman Sea. There were some good waves, and several surfers were taking advantage of them.

Tasman Sea