A view of a peak

That we could not see yesterday

Fjordland mountain peak revealed

We had nothing but rain on our way to Milford Sound. We dressed for it so we were able to do all of our planned hikes. But we could not see the mountains. Coming back though we had sun. And the extensive rain meant that we saw on our boat trip on the Sound dozens of waterfalls that only exist if there is rain. Amazing.

Mountain top

Emerging from cloud

Entrance to Milford Sound

From Tasman Sea

Red tussock

Overlook, Tasman Sea

More South Island roadside flowers

Thunder Creek Falls

Mt. Aspiring National Park

Craters of the Moon

Overlook, Taupo.

Tawhai Falls

Tongariro National Park, the fourth national park created in the world and a World Heritage site.

Back in Wellington

After a 2950 k trip around the South Island (1800 miles). We drove from the ferry at Picton down the west coast to Milford Sound, up the east coast from Dunedin to Christchurch, back to the west coast over Arthur's Pass and back to Picton.

"I climbed up

To look at that."

Arthur's Pass

Sound

Near Havelock, on the way to the ferry.

Breaking news update

I saw a pair of kiwis. On the edge of the road at Arthur's Pass

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Bealey Chasm

Arthur's Pass

Devil's Punchbowl

Another waterfall

Arthur's Pass

Hotel, Oamaru

Sleeping seal

Otago Peninsula

Kea silhouetted against mountains

Boat trip

Went kayaking; saw penguin.

Kea

Fjord land National Park

Eglinton Valley

In the rain

Temporary waterfalls

Wet wall

Fjord land

Chasm 2

The Chasm

Fjordland.

Our ship

For the Milford Sound overnight cruise.

Forest walk

Fjordland

Lake Misteltoe

Fjordland.

Valley view

Fjordland. Would be a fabulous view if it weren't raining.

Off to Milford Sound

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Jim

Holding up a rock so I can get by. Punakaiki.

More cave

Waitomo Caves

View from lunch

Kauri Coast

Roadside flower

CMC & JOL

In front of largest Kauri tree

Ruapehu again

Mt. Ruapehu

Tongariro

Pohutu and Prince of Wales geysers

Rotorua

Government spa

Rotorua

Craters of the Moon

Taupo

Auckland

We did a lot of walking.  We walked through the Auckland Art Museum, which had art done by New Zealand artists and about New Zealand. We walked up and down Queen Street looking for an Asian food court that Rebecca had suggested (we found it later, right beneath our hotel) and looking for my hat that I had left in the Art Museum.  We walked across town and through the Domaine to the War Memorial Museum and back through Parnell Village to Queen Street.  According to my pedometer, we walked 10 miles.

August

If it was June in Los Angeles (the poppies were blooming), it is August in NZ (farm stands were selling sweet corn, watermelon, blueberries, peaches, plums).

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Another view

Mt. Ruapenu

Tongariro National Park has three volcanos. One is still active. Although we have had beautiful weather, we really have not had a good view of any of the three.

JOL & CMC

At the Taranaki Falls, Tongariro.

Tongariro Alpine Crossing

New Zealand is a country full of outdoor enthusiasts- and why not-the place is utterly gorgeous. The country has designated a series of treks as great walks. The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is said to be the best one day walk in NZ. We did not even attempt it . But we did take a 6 k walk in the morning and a 7 k walk in the afternoon. The afternoon walk went to these Silica Rapids,

Hopefully

In front of us tonight.

Track and ferns

Taranaki Falls

Tongariro National Park

Jim

Trekking Tongariro. Check out his new hat purchased in Auckland.

Download trouble

I am having trouble sending from my iPad. Too much data. Postings will be random.

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Waitamo Caves

Back down past Auckland to the Waitamo Caves. Visitors have been guided through these caves for 125 years. The presentations at the two caves we visited indicated that one thing that the Maori and Europeans compete for is the right to charge tourists to view the country's natural resources.
One of the caves (the Glow worm cave) was guided by a Maori woman who talked about the caves being owned by her people for generations. The other cave (Ruakuri cave) was guided by a European woman who described how the descendant of the farmer who owned the land above the cave litigated his ownership of the cave from 1987 to 2003 after the government tried to sell the cave to private owners.

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Rotorua

Back down past Auckland to the Waitamo Caves. Visitors have been guided through these caves for 125 years. The presentations at the two caves we visited indicated that one thing that the Maori and Europeans compete for is the right to charge tourists to view the country's natural resources.
One of the caves was guided by a Maori woman who talked about the caves being owned by her people for generations. The other cave was guided by a European woman who described how the descendant of the farmer who owned the land above the cave litigated his ownership of the cave from 1987 to 2003 after the government tried to sell the cave to private owners.

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Kauri Coast

From Auckland we headed north to the Kauri Coast. The Kauri tree is the second largest tree in the world. It is not as tall as the redwood or the sequoia, but it is extremely wide. Most of the 2000 year old trees were harvested by the Europeans in a few decades after they arrived around the 1880s. We visited the Kauri state forest and saw the largest 2 of the remaining trees.
We stopped at the Kauri Museum, which described the life of the first European settlers. It had a lot of original artifacts, including a boarding house for the loggers and lots of original logging equipment.

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Huka Falls,

Taupo