New Zealand

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Another disrupted flight

On the return train journey back into Dunedin, Air New Zealand rang to say that our flight had been delayed. The first leg to Christchurch was delayed and we’d miss our connection to Auckland.  The kindly rebooked us on an earlier flight non-stop to Auckland. We hopped of the train near Mosgiel, which was closer […]

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The Taieri Gorge Railway

We left the hostel and ate nearby before walking to Dunedin’s Railway Station. The rail journey to Middlemarch took 2h30.  For most people, the journey was the destination as the route took us through rugged gorges, impressive viaducts, clear rivers and green pastures.  But some people opted for a one-way journey so they could mountain-bike […]

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Edinburgh of the South

Today we flew down to Dunedin … Edinburgh of the South, as it is New Zealand’s most Scottish city. As we approached the town centre, the shuttle driver told us that the railway station was the second most photographed building in the world!  Hhmmm! So, it is more photographed than the Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower […]

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Resurgence

With an evening flight back to Auckland, we had a lazy day and went out briefly to the Riwaka Resurgence.  That’s where the Riwaka River comes out from under the ground.  Beautiful clear water but I think it would be too cold for me.  

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Sea-kayaking despite a tsunami warning

We woke early and rang the kayaking company.  It’s still all on, regardless of the tsunami warning … we later understood that Civil Defence’s expectations was that it would affect the North Island more (the TV showed some surges in Northland when we went back at the end of the day). We had booked the […]

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A sad day for Japan

Sea kayaking is something I’ve always wanted to try out … well, not quite always … since I saw the beautiful green waters of the Abel Tasman National Park. We flew down to Nelson in the evening and drove to Motueka where we stayed with family friends. We arrived to hear about the big earthquake […]

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Swim with sharks

In between the various events at the Art Deco festival, I had some spare time. So I decided to go swim with sharks in the National Aquarium. I checked out the pricing and it wasn’t too bad compared to just a walk-in visitor. I was led up to the backroom where I donned a thick […]

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Home again

Thanks to the switch from Daylight Saving back to Standard Time, it wasn’t too hard to wake up for our 7am flight from Hokitika to Christchurch connecting to Auckland.

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Glacier country

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 […]

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With a German Journeyman

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 […]

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