Category: New Zealand – 2018

Who wants to live forever...or the life not well lived is not worth living https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKthRyf6t10 This was the day. We had just gotten off the bus - I was traveling with Ryan and Johann, a couple of recent buddies from another bus group - we were all pretty excited and nervous. Saying to each other… Continue reading New Zealand Bungee Jumping →

Auckland as seen from Rangitoto The day was sunny and clear in the 60 – 70 degree range. A perfect one for a nautical adventure, albeit a very brief one. The actual boat trip would be about a half hour to 45 minutes to get to Rangitoto. Went down to the docks early (or so… Continue reading 22 – Rangitoto →

Up relatively early to head for the airport. Took a shuttle there and checked in. Did the wait for the plane dance until it was time to fly. Got to see the mountains in the distance as we flew north on a cool (29 degrees this morning in Christchurch.) bright day. Good flight of about… Continue reading 21 – Auckland revisited →

Still rebuilding after the earthquake Ben was there to greet us for our 9am start. It would be sad to have to say goodbye later today. This was a travel day. We were headed to Christchurch where many would be going their separate ways. On our way we stopped in a town named Geraldine. Nice… Continue reading 20 – Christchurch →

Once again the whole room was up at about the same time. We packed up, checked up and said our goodbyes to many we had traveled with including Jordan who was staying behind. We'll miss his dry sense of humor and straight faced delivery of bold faced lies. Quite a character. The good news is… Continue reading 19 – Lake Tekapo →

Yeeeaaahhh.....going to jump into that eh? This was the day. As stated in an earlier blog the decision to delay the bungy jump for the sake of a lower bunk had been made with some trepidation. The day we had arrived in Queenstown had been sunny and nice. This day was gray and rainy with… Continue reading 18 – The Nevis Bungy →

This was an early day. Modest celebration the night before as it was Colin's last night. Of course this also meant the dissolution of the Fab Four. Sad but true, we must simply cherish the good times while we got 'em. We had a new roommate arrive a couple of days ago. His name was… Continue reading 17 – Skiing Cardona →

Back in Queenstown We were up at a leisurely 8am. On the agenda was some local hiking. There is a Gondola in town that will take you a ways up the mountain. They have a mini luge run up there as well as a restaurant. There is even a zip line outfit, but more about… Continue reading 16 – Return to Queenstown →

Blossoms in Queenstown Up at 7:30 after a good night's rest. Raided my food stores for breakfast as the hostel had a dismal offering of cereal and toast for $4. A couple of the guys staying at the hostel who were not on our tour had said “make sure you get the breakfast...really good”. As… Continue reading 14 – Off to Queenstown →

Milford Sound A 7am start after an epic pub crawl the night before made more than a few of our crowd somewhat quiet for the first two hours of bus ride to Te Anau. The pub crawl had taken us to 4 bars with a shot awaiting us at all of them. The first bar… Continue reading 15 – Milford Sound →