From Hokitika we drove down to the two Glaciers … Franz Josef and Fox.  Actually there are many more glaciers but these are the two that are open to visitors and managed by the Department of Conservation (with marked walking tracks etc for safety). While glaciers are pretty, the rivers that run from them aren’t […]

We drove from Picton to Hokitika today to set ourselves up for the glaciers tomorrow.  The road trip would have been 5 hours non-stop but naturally we stopped a little bit to take in the scenic beauty. We picked up a hitch hiker Phil from Germany who was bound for Greymouth (in our direction).  He […]

It was meant to be an early morning start out of Auckland but we found out that the flight to Blenheim on the bigger plane was full …. one of the complications of using staff standby tickets.  We managed to get on the 11:15 flight on a smaller and fully-packed aircraft, affording us a leisurely […]

I flew out in the morning home to Auckland while Marie took an excursion on the scenic Taieri Railway.  It was something I’d like to do some time but I couldn’t risk taking the evening flight back to Auckland in case it was full since I was on staff standby tickets.

In the morning we wandered around admiring Dunedin’s beautiful old buildings including the railway station.  We broke for a snack at the markets near the station which sold many home-made goodies, savoury and sweet. Text continues after this gallery.     In the afternoon (yes, a strange time to start), we were picked up to […]

While Christchurch is the most English city in New Zealand, Dunedin is the most Scottish … it is referred to as the Edinburgh of the southern hemisphere. Dunedin’s airport is rather far from the city but fortunately there is competition amongst the shuttle providers and I managed to prebook a very cheap transfer service which […]

With Marie (my friend and overseas visitor) here, I thought I’d join her in Dunedin for the weekend.  I’ve always wanted to go to the Royal Albatross Colony. After a full day at work, I headed out to the airport to fly down to Dunedin on Air New Zealand’s ex-Indonesian aircraft.  I could tell because […]

Above: This copy of the Cardona hotel in Auckland didn’t conceal a garden behind. Today is officially the last day of summer.  Tomorrow it will be autumn, and Marie will hop on the plane home after a two month visit.  Who knows where and when we will meet again! We commiserated the twin-event at the […]