A good time to visit a host Nation of the Olympics is the year before or the year after the event.  We decided to incorporate New Zealand in our trip to “Down Under”—Australia—in 2005.  The 2004 Sydney Olympics was a great success and we had to make a trip to see these wonderful countries.

We flew 13 hours from Los Angeles to Auckland, NZ.  I noticed on the marque at the Los Angeles airport of all the wonderful places planes fly to. I was indeed intrigued to know where that one flight to China was going, marked “Unknown.”

Using our American Express Gold airmiles on Australia’s Quantis Airlines, we were able to secure two seats together.  The configuration of the plane was 2 seats, 5 seats in the middle and then another 2 seats. We learned sitting in the middle was not for us. A Google pic. 

We were politely asked to move in the back of the plane to the middle seats.  I about made a formal complaint.  It so happened, though, we were given an entire row to ourselves.  The plane was not crowded as we were heading into the “winter” season for those “Down Under” countries.

I really don’t sleep well on a plane.  I was dreading the 13-hour flight.  We boarded around 10:00 PM.  I fell asleep across three seats for what seemed to be six hours!  It was a good sleep too!

We made it to Auckland at 4:00AM.  We gained a day flying west. We remember going through customs—no problem—and then having to walk across to their domestic terminal.  We had to go outside in about 30F temperatures.  There was indeed snow on the ground.  We were fully awake by now. 

Knowing that our time was limited, we decided to trek two weeks in New Zealand’s famous South Island.  There are far less people down that way—ten times the number of Sheep—and the scenery to be spectacular.  This was also the place where “Lord of the Rings” was filmed.

We were able to see a volcanic mountain in snow.

And even our first sunrise in New Zealand:

We spent three days exploring the major city in South Island, Christchurch.  In 2005, there was about 300,000 people in this quaint community. 

We visited one of the most iconic buildings in Christchurch, the Cathedral.  We met a friendly docent.

 

The Christchurch Cathedral may not be as  dramatic as European Cathedrals, but unique nevertheless. 

I did find “swastika” crosses inside the church.  Before Hitler’s misuse of the symbol, the swastika is a symbol of “well-being.”

Outside the church was a large marque for New Zealand’s Rugby team, “All Blacks.”  They have won the World’s championship three times. 

The Blacks are most famous for doing Maori Haka dance.  After listening to this famous rally cry, I would not want to play these guys.

 

It was also in this downtown area that there is a statue saluting New Zealand being the First Nation to allow women the right to vote.

The downtown area interweaves with River Avon. 

We made our way through a delightful free Botanical Garden.  We came across a giant oak tree—the Albert Edward Oak Tree—planted five days after the famous Civil War Battle of Gettysburg. Interesting how time, distance and attitudes can change between areas of the world. England had forbidden slavery since 1830.

We came across a beautiful fountain.  We were told it was similar to the one in Sydney honoring the famous WWII battle in North Africa, El Alamein. Everywhere we went—both in New Zealand and Australia, were memorials to the price that young men paid dying in WWI. 

There were a number of unique cafés in downtown.  We loved the one named Six Chairs.

We did rent an older model car.  Driving on “the wrong side” is no problem if you remember to keep your outside shoulder always on the line.  We also rented an automatic so I did not have to think about changing gears with my left hand. 

One day was spent exploring Akaroa area that was once a volcanic mountain that blew-up.

Besides this rainbow, we came across hundreds of sheep crossing the road.

In the town of Lyttelton, we came across a unique restaurant called “Rat and Roach Bar and Grill.”  We did not eat there.

Our visit was in June of 2005.  In February of 2011, a powerful 6.2 earthquake hit Christchurch.  The famous Christchurch was destroyed. 

Like Notre Dame in Paris, the Cathedral in Christchurch is being rebuilt. 

185 people died in that one earthquake.  There were three major earthquakes in a span of three years.  Over 1500 buildings were destroyed.  One of those buildings being “Six Chairs mssing.”

We have fond memories of Christchurch. We took off in the early morning with frost and snow on the ground going north.

Our drive north was short as we decided to visit Kaikoura on the coast. 

We did have to cross several interesting streams.

There were also a number of interesting signs.

The ocean canyons at Kaikoura has  tremendous currents that supplies nutrients for all the fish and mammal life—dolphins, sperm and humpback whales to name a few species.

It was a gorgeous “winter day” in New Zealand.  We passed a small airport along the way that advertised flights along the coast.  Kathie, who is claustrophobic, was more than willing to take a small plane.  She never gets in small planes.  I am most proud of her.

We flew over a sperm whale—native to Kaikoura waters.   The sperm whale was a major target for whaling ships, particularly in the 19^th century.  Whale oil was used for candles, various lubricants and most of all, oil lamps.

The average length of a mature male is about 52 feet. What is most remarkable about the sperm whale is their brain.  They have the largest brain—and heaviest about 17 pounds—of any species in the world. The average weight of a human brain is about three pounds. 

We did spot a pod of at least hundreds of dolphins. 

The views in the plane were majestic. 

We actually made no reservations on this part of the trip.  Finding a vacant hotel was easy.  The next morning, we awoke to a glorious sunrise.

Walking along the coast, we came across several seals.

We also came across this man wearing a Bob Dylan tee-shirt.  He was a “Aussie.” 

We drove as far north as Picton.  It is a major port in taking ferris over to Wellington and to the populous North Island.  There was a huge WWI Memorial in Picton.

A 2-hour ride will take you west to the artistic town of Nelson, named after Lord Nelson after winning the sea Battle of Trafalgar of 1805.

All along these well marked routes are cafés. Many of them will have displays on what they serve.

The community is rather spread out.  We did visit the Seafarer’s Memorial as Nelson is a major port.

We do remember having our first taste of New Zealand’s Green Lip Mussels.  It was good.  But our all-time favorite mussel eating area is the Normandy-style Mussels.  There is something rather special with all that cream.

Besides visiting the mall in Richmond, we went to a pub called “The Honest Lawyer.”  A unique name for sure.

We made a day of it at Abel Tasman National Park.  We took a tour boat tour out on another splendid winter’s day.

There were not many people at the beach.

We went to some restaurant and had a pleasant lunch.  I could not tell you the name of the place or what we had.  I just have this beautiful picture of Kathie.

On route 6, we went down the western coast.  We came upon this beautiful lake in the early morning hours.

Not far away was New Zealand’s longest swing bridge (360 feet) across Buller’s Gorge. Due to time restraints, we did not take the various trails in the area.

We did come across in the parking lot another one of these funky looking vans.  We came across a few of them in our NZ travels.

Along the western coast in a small national park called “Punakaiki” rocks and blowhole.  These “pancake limestone rocks” were formed as long as 25 million years ago. It is indeed a popular tourist area. 

We came across this “Kiwi” couple from North Island.  They had rented an RV—a popular method of traveling in NZ.  Their names long forgotten, but a picture reminds us of their friendliness and our brief conversation. If you are “open,” friends can be made anywhere in this world.

We found a hotel close to the beach in Hokitika.  We remember the temperatures to be quite cool and we welcomed the heat in our cabin.  I clicked this picture at sunset.

The next morning, we continued our drive down Route 6.

Luckily, we did not have to wait at various one-lane bridges. We drove through a small rural community of less than 700 people, Hari Hari.  Ironically, a few days before in “The Honest Lawyer” pub we met a fellow from Hari Hari, Peter Lucas.  He worked at the lumber/paper mill that is now owned by the Japanese near Nelson.

We did stop briefly to see the Franz Josef Glacier.  It was indeed named after Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria in 1865.  He had made a previous sojourn there in 1859.

Route 6 eventually turns eastward.  After riding several hours, we decided to visit the Warbirds Museum outside of Wanaka.  This museum holds several WWII planes. 

Wanaka has several types of these museums and is well worth a stop.  It was at this museum where we learned about the exploits of Keith Caldwell.

Our destination for a three-day visit, though, was to make it to Queenstown. Before we reached Queenstown, we did cross the 45^th Parallel—in the Southern Hemisphere!  The 45^th Parallel North does go through Minneapolis.

Queenstown is a favored resort town in New Zealand.  There are a number of extreme sports that can be done in the area like bungie jumping.

Surrounded by mountains and lakes, Queenstown does remind us of our visits to Switzerland, particularly to the city of Lucerne.

We did an upscale hotel with views of the lake.  At night was the surprise.  The clear cold air brought the best viewing of the Southern Hemisphere constellations. There were so many stars we never get to see living in the Northern Hemisphere.  And, then too, water in the sink goes “counterclockwise” in the Down Under countries.

Walking downtown is a huge Sequoia tree.  It was planted in 1874.  I think it is still a baby.

We later walked around a park down by the lake. We came across these statues of one of the largest birds in the world, the Moa.  Unfortunately, it became extinct about 200 years ago.

Our major highlight staying in Queenstown was taking a three-hour bus ride to Milford Sound.  Along the way, we stopped and I was able to take these pictures.

As one of the top destinations to visit in South Island, Milford Sound is a fiord in Fiordland National Park. The famous writer, Rudyard Kipling, called Milford Sound as “the eighth Wonder of the World.”  At the end of Highway 94 is the small village of Milford Sound. It is here one takes a scenic boat ride through the fiord.  Like the fiords we have seen in Norway, the Milford Sound fiord is indeed majestic.

There were a number of waterfalls.

Our boat went right under the waterfall.

We came across a pod of dolphins.

 

Like Alaska, heavy gauge aluminum boats are used in these waters.

When we left Queensland going north, we were really close to South Island’s highest mountain, Aoraki/Mount Cook, which is 12,218 feet high.  The roads everywhere in New Zealand are well marked.

 

At present, New Zealand is closed to Americans due to Covid. It is well worthy of a sojourn when conditions improve.  Our 2 weeks in South Island went fast.  It seemed like it was only yesterday that we had visited.  Our next destination was to make a three-hour flight to Sydney, Australia and Port Douglas.  These places will be future exposes.

Thank you for reading our journey to this majestic place in the lands “down under.”