mike's travel blog

I spent the last 2 days in Christchurch. Got here Wednesday afternoon which left time to explore Cathedral Square and the CBD. Drove to the Port Hills Thursday morning, took the Gondola up and hiked for 3 hours to Godley Head and back to the car park. Picture was taken half way overlooking Governors Bay. Spent the afternoon in Lyttelton and New Brighton beach. Today I spent the morning in the Botanic Garden and drove to Willowbank Wildlife Park in the afternoon, which features the largest live Kiwi display in NZ. Kiwis are quite strange and fun to watch in their more natural habitat. Will drive to Blenheim tomorrow for some wine tasting in the Marlborough region and plan to take the Picton ferry to Wellington Sunday morning. Have to be back in Auckland Tuesday night to catch an early morning flight to Sydney. Time in NZ is slowly coming to an end - I will surely miss this place.

Made it to Kaikoura yesterday in beautiful weather and joined last minute a whale watch tour in the afternoon. Saw 5 sperm whales, about 100 dusky dolphins, bunch of albatross, seal and cormorans. I took some excellent pictures of the encounters - just not with my phone - enjoy a Kiwi picture instead :-) Glad I made it here yesterday as the weather turned cloudy and cold today. I will head down to Christchurch for a couple days.

Easy day today. Went to Puzzling World and its Maze on the way out of Wanaka and spent the afternoon at Mt Cook (center in picture), the largest mountain in NZ. Easy trail to the vista point. Will spent the night in Geraldine on my way to Kaikoura for some whale and dolphin watching. Had to switch the plan around to get the nice weather in Kaikoura before finishing up the South Island in Christchurch.

Thursday I drove down to Te Anau. From there I took a Milford Sound Cruise on Friday and a Doubtful Sound Cruise on Saturday ( picture taken at Doubtful ). Sunday I drove back to Wanaka to finally get the para gliding in. It was great fun and the guide even let me steer the parachute in a thermal climb. I also stopped to watch the Wanaka Air show which takes place every 2 years and is the biggest one in NZ. It is sad to leave this place. I will have to come back to do one of the big tramping tracks - dusky, Milford or keppler. Next to Abel Tasman this is truly the best place in NZ. I liked Wanaka much over Queenstown, which is still nice - just too big and touristy. I am tempted to come back here for a month after my Queensland and Fiji time. Anybody in for some 5 to 10 day hard core tramps? It'll be one of the most amazing things you will do. It is true bliss down here at the 45th.

Wishing everyone a happy Easter holiday - hope you enjoy some tranquility wherever you are. Picture taken at Lake Matheson.

Wanaka is good fun. Lots to do and beautiful scenery. Paragliding got cancelled due to high winds - same issue I had in Alyeska a few years back. Will try again Sunday or Monday on my way back from the Fiordland. I went to Rob Roy glacier instead which is a nice steep climb. Can you count the number of waterfalls in the background? I stayed for a few hours and didn't want to turn around - too nice with very few people. Also starting to feel in much better shape after all the hikes recently. Yesterday was the drive from Fox to Wanaka - stopping at Lake Matheson for some great water reflections of Mt Tasman and Mt Cook. Tomorrow will be drive to Te Anau which will be the base for the next 3 days for the Fiordland trips to Milford and Doubtful Sounds. I will stop in Queenstown on the way for a quick look. As with all stops on the South Island I am trying to avoid the overly touristy areas.

Drove down from Greymouth early this morning and went on a day hike on Fox Glacier. Unlike the Alaskan glaciers they don't seem too worried about accidents and took the group into cravesses or had us hike on some ridges. Lot's of fun and great pictures. Tomorrow I will drive to Wanaka for some hang gliding and more hiking.

Thursday I drove up to Golden Bay staying the night north of Collingwood in an Eco friendly backpacker. Found the most amazing beach all the way on top called Wharariki Beach - all sand dunes and every rock in the water has a hole making for beautiful pictures. Only very few people here. Friday I went to the north end of Abel Tasman to take a 19k hike to Seperation Point for some close seal encounters - can't wait to share the pictures. Most roads up here end up being dirt roads. Saturday I stopped at the Te Waikoropupu springs - the clearest fresh water springs in the world. Spending the remainder of the day back on the beach mentioned above. Friday and Saturday night I stayed in Takaka. Today I drove to Greymouth as stopping point to the Glaciers. Tomorrow will be a full day at Fox glacier before heading south to Wanaka, Queenstown and Milford Sound. Time is getting a bit tight again and I will probably have to speed things up again. So much to see - 6 weeks turns out ...

Turns out a couple of my emails did not make it to the blog. Saturday I drove from Coromandel via the Waitomo Caves, where they have glow worms unique to this part of the world, to Rotura. Rotura has several Maori Tribes and shows. I went to Te Puia on Sunday where they also have mud pools and 2 geysers (picture taken just before a major eruption). Afterwards I drove to Taupo via the Huka Falls and stayed the night in Turangi. Monday I drove through the Tongariro National Park and stopped at Mt. Ruapehu (Mordor in Lord of the Rings). Since it was cloudy and limited visibility I drove on to Wellington. Catching up with today I took a 14k hike from Tonga to Torrent Bay via Bark Bay - all in Abel Tasman National Park. This was probably the most amazing hike I have taken outside of Alaska. A water taxi dropped me off and picked me up at the end of the day. Tomorrow I will drive to Collingwood at Golden Bay for some relaxation. Nelson is completely booked tomorrow and is becoming ...

I spent the night in Wellington and took the Interislander to Picton this morning to start the 3 week trip of the South Island. I am in Nelson now which will serve as base the next few days. Planning some kayaking and hiking Abel Tasman National Park. Maybe I'll get some wine tasting in as this is part of the Marlborough wine region. Picture shows Wellington from the ferry. I didn't spend much time in Wellington but will try to take a day exploring on my way back.

Hot water pools at Hot Water Beach on the Coromandal peninsula. Also visited Cathedral cove and Cooks Beach. I fear I con only repeat myself on how beautiful this place is. Starting to run into mostly German tourists though - seems easier to approach people in German first. I missed to mention the 2 adventure sports tried so far - sand boarding and boomnetting - both were good fun. Sand boarding is surfing down a high sand dune at pretty good speed. Will speed things up the next few days to make it to the south island by the 12th.

Today the weather is great. I am taking a tour of Cape Reinga - the most northern point of New Zealand. The way back will be a bus ride in the sand of ninety mile beach.

Monday was a travel day. A beautiful drive up highway 1 to Pahia. Unfortunately it is very rainy here. I am currently on a day trip through the bay. We had to stop before the hole in the rock due to a gale carrying 50kts winds. Picture is taken from one of the islands. It is impossible to capture the beauty of this place though.