NZ- Westward

We started our day on the north end of Lake Wanaka. We’d found a nice campsite for the night, and got to see a lovely sunset over the lake. Beerman and C-man discovered perfect walking sticks  – C-man’s was even carved out a bit – so they could pretend to be Gandalf.

In the morning, we got up and headed  Northwest to the Western coast of New Zealand. We had no plans, other than to go north on Highway 6. And it turned out perfectly. After breakfast and dumping the RV’s gray water (gross – totally Beerman’s job), we saw waterfalls and beautiful views everywhere in Mount Aspiring Park.

Some were roadside.

Some were at Blue Pools.

Some were at Roaring Billy Falls.

Some were under one-laned bridges.

Then at Monro Beach, we got out and decided to do the walk for a bit. It was a gorgeous walk, with loads of ferns and fantail birds and a great swing bridge. 

At the end, there was the Tasman Sea. Later in the year, it’s a penguin breeding ground. But for now, it’s just a lovely view.

Unfortunately, the sand flies sent us on our way, and we continued North on Highway 6. We saw more gorgeous views, and eventually made our way to the Fox Glacier, where we are going to camp for the night. After dinner, we walked a few minutes down the road, and into the local forest which was full of glow worms. It was so cool to see! It really was a great end to an extremely nice day. And tomorrow - glaciers.

NZ- Adventure-town

We woke up in Queenstown today. After a little debate about whether we should go across the lake and see the sheep farm or stay around town, we decided to stay in town. The sheep farm, while my preference, would take four hours, and the others in the RV voted against it. So instead, we went to the Kiwi Bird Sanctuary. It was a fantastic little birding habitat and conservation spot where we learned about tatuaras, kiwis and other indigenous New Zealand birds.

After a nice lunch, we headed over to the Jet Shot Over Boats. Since this is totally not my thing, Beerman and C-man got in the red boat of death and shot up and down the river, through the canyons, spraying water.

They were thrilled.

I was completely content with my gorge photos.

From there, we moved on to check out the bungy jumpers off the Karau Gorge Bridge. C-man really wanted to do it, but knew he’d chicken out at the top. So we settled for watching the crazies.

Then we moved a bit further north, stopping at a lovely cheesery and winery, picking up items for our dinner. C-man fell in love with the smoked cheddar. Note to self: Don't eat another man's smoked cheddar.

Along the way north along Highway 6, I made the boys stop for some photos. This is Lake Dunstan in a lovely reflective moment.

And Lake Hawea.

And now, we're heading North as far as we can go until we hit the West coast or dark - whichever comes first. It's definitely been a trip of adventures. And with some adventure fun behind us, we're ready for some whales and seals and penguins or whatever finds us. (Sheep, most likely). It's a nice place, this New Zealand.

NZ- From tree to trees

Day 3 in New Zealand, we got up and drove toward Lake Wanaka. I’ve been wanting to see the lone tree in the lake I’ve seen so many photos of. So we headed there and, parked the RV on the shoreline. While I took a bazillion photos of my tree, Beerman made us breakfast. I took my photos, and then we ate breakfast in front of the tree. It was really, really perfect on a lovely Fall morning. (Fall - I know, right?!)

From there, we drove a bit further down a bazillion (only a slight exaggeration) switchbacks, to get to Arrowtown.

Along the way, we stopped at a roadside stand for some eggs. Beerman had eyed up a few stands prior to this, and just couldn't help himself when he saw this one. "This is why we're doing this by RV!" We got 6 duck eggs and moved forward.

Arrowtown is a beautiful little area, but we moved on pretty quickly. Because when you’re traveling with an 11 year old, art galleries and scenery and yarn stores aren’t really how you’re occupying your time.

So we pressed on toward Queenstown.

And if we didn’t know it before, this was totally an 11 year old boy's speed - quirky and fast and crazy. We found a nearby campground, plugged in (we're beginning to understand how these campgrounds work now), and walked the 5 minutes into town.

We promptly booked a zipline tour for later in the day. After seeing a little of the town area, we made our way to the gondola, which took us up the mountain with some gorgeous views.

When we got to the zipline, it was just C-man and me along with our two guides. Apparently the 5 p.m. tour is the one to take if you want to be alone! C-man was quite nervous, but as soon as he went down one zip, he was hooked (literally and figuratively).

After we were done, we went to the Kiwi Haka show. It was a quick show, but we all got to learn the dances. C-man and Beerman got to learn how to do the Haka – something C-man is keen on trying before his wrestling matches now.

We’ve been debating whether to move on to Milford Sound or stay here in Queenstown. Milford Sound has penguins and wildlife and fjords, which would be fantastic. The problem is getting there and back would take a minimum 2 days, with quite a few hours of hard driving. If it were just Beerman and me, I think we’d do it because it's supposed to be so fantastic.

But with an 11 year old who is game for just about anything but asking to 'do more stuff, not just look', we’ve decided to stay here and skip it. It will be really nice to not drive a long ways tomorrow, and just let C-man enjoy some crazy stuff that New Zealand has to offer. I suppose, with this sweet face, who can say no?

NZ- Making like a Kiwi

Travel from Fiji to New Zealand was really smooth. Really, all of the travel so far has been (knocking furiously on wood). We arrived in Christchurch, got to our RV rental place, got the tour of everything, saw that the food delivery (complete with beer) had arrived and was in the RV, and set off toward the southern lakes. We made it as far as Geraldine, where we pulled into our first official campground, The Farmyard.

Being new to this campground thing, we weren't quite sure what to do. So we drove in and the lady at the office told us to pick a spot we liked, and come back to pay. So we did. Later, we learned that we'd picked a non-powered site - something we wouldn't do again when paying for it. But that was okay, and we chatted with some really nice Kiwis in the morning.

Also in the morning, we woke up, had some breakfast in our RV, took showers, and went to check out the farm animals. C-man was thrilled, practically hugging every bunny and guinea pig and cuni cuni pig.

After checking all of that out, we moved further South toward the lakes. We saw Lake Tekapo. It was stunning.

And, of course, the church to the sheepdogs. We had to go in there!

And then we saw Lake Pukaki,which was just as stunning. C-man was napping in the RV, recovering a bit from his virus as well as all the travel and sunburn, so our stop was brief, and we kept moving forward.

As we navigated our way forward, we encountered several one-lane bridges. They are clearly marked as to who has the right of way, but you do need to pay attention when they come up and don't just plow across. Not to mention, they don't leave a lot of room for larger vehicles.

We finally parked our RV for the night in an area by Diamond Lake. There was no power, and there was a marked walk to what I'm sure was a lake somewhere. But really all I saw were a bunch of sheep. We were tired after the hours of driving and all the travel, though, so it didn't really matter.

Overall, the trip has been smooth. Figuring out RV living has had its quirks (make sure everything is locked down and constantly reminding Beerman to stay on the left, especially with turns!), but it’s been good, too. I don’t know how we’d be able to see it all (ie Get all my sheep photos) without doing it like this. (Because I’m certainly not getting on one of those awful tour buses!) We've figured out the roads (thankfully, we've driven on the left side enough elsewhere), and Beerman understands the right of way rules on the bridges and roundabouts, having been here before.

And now, we continue our way through the South Island...

Fiji- Sail Away

I’m putting Days 3 and 4 in Fiji together, because they were spent on the Gipsea, a lovely sailboat. We met our Captain and First Mate (Jerry and Saki) and set off about 9 a.m.

We sailed for about 2 hours before stopping at our first reef. Just beyond the reef is where international Quicksilver surfing competitions are held. But within it, we saw some great fish. And if there was any doubt about C-man’s interest in marine life, it was quickly put to rest. He was in love. The water was beautiful and warm.

Then we set off again, sailing around Cloud Nine, a floating bar, and off to other sand bars for snorkeling and lunching and more snorkeling.

At night, we made our way to Musket Cove. We had a barbeque on land (beef kebobs, chicken, and lamb sausage, with rice and cabbage slaw). It was a bit cloudy, but we slept on top of the deck anyhow. At some point in the night, the clouds cleared and we saw the amazing Southern Hemisphere stars.

By morning, we were sailing once again. As we made our way further North, the beaches got more pristine and the snorkeling even better. C-man and Beerman decided to try their hand at spear fishing. But as C-man put it, he talked too much. Beerman agreed that after spending so many hours keeping these types of fish alive, he couldn’t bear to pull the trigger. I loved them each a bit more for that. But it was a great experience overall.

The only issue we had was our sunburns. This equatorial sun was really brutal on us, and no amount of sunscreen seemed to help. At the end of day two, we snorkeled at a fourth and final location before riding some waves and getting back into the Gispea to head back to Nadi. We were sad, but our skin was more than ready.

We gathered our bags from the hotel, made our way to a hotel by the airport, and got ready for the next adventure.  New Zealand, here we come!