Christchurch to Rotorua

 I probably should have mentioned this adventure for Bonnie and me takes place in New Zealand with my cousins Shaaron, Karen, Denny, and his wife Lisa.

We left Christchurch and drove on down along the picturesque highway to Dunedin and stayed at a lovely little English cottage.  

One thing that is really wonderful about NZ is that nearly EVERY small village has public rest rooms and they have signage clearly marking the location.  They will also often times paint them in very artsy colors and designs.

One thing about Dunedin that I know our daughters will remember is the sea lion colony. When we visited this time, there were only a few on the beach as the rest were in the water.

Then on further south of the sea lion colony was a beautiful bay.

Later that same evening, we went to see the fairy penguins also known as blue penguins.  They come in from the ocean at dusk and are hard to see in the picture, but right about in the middle of the picture below, look for white/light gray. These guys are only about 12" tall. 

We continued our journey on to Te Anau to spend a couple of nights and board the bus to go to Milford Sound. Once we get to Milford Sound, we board a boat to travel through fiordland and had a wonderful lunch included.  The iconic picture of New Zealand is Mitre Peak in the fiords. Since this year is our 50th anniversary, Bonnie also brought her original wedding dress along for some pictures.

The "wedding party" for this trip this year was best man Denny, Matron of Honor Lisa, and bridesmaids Shaaron and Karen.

We went to a bird sanctuary to see the endangered Takahe birds slowly being restored by the Department of Conservation.

On to Queenstown, we stayed in a wonderful place that was high up on a hillside. So, we had afternoon tea overlooking Queenstown. We also rode the gondola further up the mountain for a gorgeous view.

The drive to get to Queenstown was also quite lovely.

Leaving Queenstown behind, we headed up the west coast to Franz-Josef glacier.  However, it did rain that day so we really only spent the night. From Franz-Josef, we continued on to Reefton, a charming little town with a beautiful mural depicting the days of mining many years ago.

As we continue on to Picton to spend the night before taking the ferry back over to the north island, we learned that two of the ferries were out of service so getting back to the north could be challenging.  However, we went early and were able to get on the first ferry of the day back to the north. But on the way, we drove by a swinging bridge across a gorge and decided this was a good opportunity for adventure.

After spending the night in Greytown, we continued on up to Napier and the landscape views were not disappointing.

Our next stop was in Rotorua where there is a lot of thermal activity.

The Maori's use the thermal steam in which to cook

There is also the Agrodome, a place where people can learn about the very important farm product, sheep, and for what each breed is best.

Denny was selected from the audience to milk a cow

The next posting will be from Auckland and north.