New Zealand - Rotorua and North Island

Rotorua is full of natural geothermal activity, with hot sulfur springs, mud pools, and geysers. We had heard it might be stinky (due to the sulphur) but fortunately for us the wind was right and we weren't bothered much by the rotten egg smell. On our first morning, we booked ourselves in to the Polynesian spa for massages and a soak in the hot spring pools with views of Lake Rotorua.

We walked around the downtown Rotorua area to explore a bit. It would have been nice to check out the Rotorua Museum (located in a historic former hot springs bath house) but the interior was closed to tourists due to the building being "earthquake-prone". We were able to enjoy views of it from the nearby bocce/boules lawn.

There is a lot of evidence of Maori culture around Rotorua, and there are several Maori village attractions where visitors can go to learn more about the indigenous people of New Zealand.

Polynesians came to New Zealand in the 1300's and had lived off the land and sea here for hundreds of years before European settlers arrived in the late 1700's. To learn more, we visited the Tamaki Maori Village. The visit included several interactive lessons in Maori culture - their daily life, crafts, games, warrior culture, and music. It ended with a fabulous buffet-style meal of traditional foods.

The next day we rented a car in Rotorua and drove ourselves out to the Waitomo Glowworm Caves. The experience takes you on a boat through a cave system where the bioluminescent larvae of the New Zealand Glowworm attach themselves to the cave ceiling to feed on insects.

We weren't able to take photos inside the cave but we did splurge on the "deluxe photo package". I can assure you the interior of the cave looked *exactly* like this.

We didn't linger too long in Waitomo because we had an appointment to keep in Hobbiton. Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy (and The Hobbit trilogy) of movies was filmed in New Zealand and one of the more popular attractions on the North Island is the Hobbiton Movie Set.

It is in an idyllic location and immerses you right into the movies. The walking tour took us past plenty of Hobbit-holes and presented many photo opportunities.

Seriously. We have hundreds of pictures like this, of us just geeking out with the adorable Hobbit houses. Okay, last one, I promise!

In the evening, we went back to Rotorua to explore the Redwoods Treewalk at night. Just outside town there are 15 acres of California Redwood trees that were planted in the early 1900's.

Today they are a tourist attraction, with hiking trails through the forest and a 60ft-high suspended walkway that is lit up at night by enormous artistic lanterns hanging from the giant trees. Night photos don't quite capture the scale or eerie beauty of the lanterns.

On our final leg through the North Island we drove ourselves to the Coromandel Penninsula, stopping at the Karangahake Gorge along the way.

The Window Walk path leads past and through former gold mining tunnels and along the former Crown Tramway.

We spent the last evening of our New Zealand trip in the beachy coastal town of Hahei. We took a rather grueling hike up and down beachside cliffs to get to Cathedral Cove.

The walk to the cove was hard enough, but hiking back (uphill both ways!) really took it out of us! We celebrated our accomplishment and the end of a wonderful trip with dinner and a round of drinks at the Pourhouse. We managed to see quite a bit of New Zealand on this trip but there is still a lot to explore so hopefully we make it back here someday!

New Zealand - West Coast of the South Island

After finishing the Milford Track hike we rented a car in Queenstown to see some of the South Island by car. We only had a few days, so it was a bit of a whirlwind roadtrip. We had a brief stop for coffee and a snack in Cardrona, home of one of the most-photographed hotels in New Zealand.

The 155-year-old hotel has just 16 rooms but it's worth a stop even if you aren't staying the night -- they have a beautiful outdoor beer garden out back with several antique cars scattered among the outbuildings. You'll want to have some refreshment before stopping off at the bra fence just a couple miles up the street. Yep, you heard that right - bra fence.

More eyesore than tourist attraction, no one in Cardrona is sure what possessed people to begin attaching brassieres to the roadside fence back in the 1990's. If unmentionables aren't your thing then you can look the other way at the Cardrona distillery next door.

We stayed the night in Wanaka, which was a wonderful small town near a freshwater lake and if we'd had more time we would have stayed a couple nights to explore the area.

Unfortunately we had to move on because we had a long mountain drive and lots to see! First stop was a short hike to the Blue Pools.

New Zealanders love their suspension bridges. They also have a pretty good sense of humor.

We slowly made our way to the west coast, stopping off at several waterfalls along the road before arriving at Ship Creek Beach park where we took a break to really stretch our legs walking along the coast of the Tasman Sea.

We also did a second walk through the nearby swamp forest to view the Kahikatea trees (New Zealand's tallest native trees at 65 meters).

By this time the clouds had started rolling in so we headed to our hotel up in the town of Franz Josef. We had hoped for some good views of the glacier, but thanks to the overcast weather we settled for some beers by a roaring fire instead.

The next morning we made our way up the coast to Hokitika, which was such an interesting little town with a lot of history. One of my favorite buildings was the Carnegie Free Library, which was completed in 1908 and is not earthquake-proof, in fact it is "earthquake prone". It is now the site of the West Coast Historical Museum and at the door there is a sign telling you to "enter at your own risk". We risked it, and saw an exhibit defining what it means to be earthquake-prone: it will exceed its capacity even in a moderate earthquake and "if it were to collapse it would do so in a way that is likely to cause injury or death to persons in or near the building". We turned around and decided to just enjoy the view of the building from across the street.

We also visited the Kiwi Centre to see the elusive nocturnal bird (they keep them in a dark room, so no photos allowed unfortunately) and to feed the eels. It sounds a bit icky but it was actually cool to feed them (you use a large forceps so they don't bite your hand) and to hear the docent talk about them so enthusiastically.

One of the landmarks in Hokitika town is the clock tower. After dinner, we saw a bunch of commotion and fire trucks arriving. Was it a conflagration? No, the fire chief was retiring so they took a group photo (he is the one behind bars).

At sunset we went to the beach for our last glimpse of the Tasman sea. Mother Nature did not disappoint.

For our last day on the South Island, we had to cut across the middle of the island, through Arthur Pass National park to catch our plane out of Christchurch. We stopped a few times on the way and encountered the famous alpine parrots known as Keas.

These birds are enormous, and aggressive, and not in any way afraid of people. They are also very sneaky and clever. At our lunch stop, I had my sandwich right in front of me and I turned to look at something and Kevin started shouting, and sure enough if a Kea didn't steal my lunch right out from under me! Kevin thought it was hilarious and could not stop laughing. I guess that's why they have these signs posted everywhere.

One of the prettiest stops on our route was at the Kura Tawhiti rock formation, also known as Castle Hill. Huge boulders dot the landscape and you could spend hours exploring among them. Too bad we had a flight to catch!

New Zealand - The Milford Track

The Milford Track is one of New Zealand's Great Walks. Kevin hiked it more than twenty years ago on his first trip to New Zealand and it has always been something we have wanted to go back and do together. We had booked a guided trip with Ultimate Hikes but over the holidays the south island experienced some heavy rains and terrible landslides that wiped out roads and part of the track itself. The NZ government shut down several of the popular hiking trails in the Fjordland national park and Ultimate Hikes had canceled several groups in the weeks prior to our scheduled departure. We were worried we wouldn't be able to see any of Fjordland or Milford Sound on this trip! Luckily the New Zealand Department of Conservation and Ultimate Hikes worked tirelessly to come up with a plan that would allow hikes to continue with a shortened last day (to avoid dangerous sections of the trail). We were fortunate that our group was the third group allowed back onto the track.

Click here for a short video documenting our Milford Track hike.

Day ONE: Queenstown -> Te Anau -> Glade House (1 mile hiked)

We boarded a bus with our fellow hikers and soon-to-be friends, and enjoyed a relaxing and scenic two hour bus ride to Te Anau, where we stopped for lunch. So much pastureland! So many sheep!

At Te Anau Downs, we boarded a boat to get to the trailhead. The Milford Track is a one-way trail, because it is a multi-overnight hike and you need to have reservations for sleeping in the lodges (no back country camping permitted off-trail). The only way to get to the start of the hike is by taking a boat across the entire length of Lake Te Anau.

They start you off very easy on the first day -- it is only one mile from the trailhead to the first lodge. We had a really nice leisurely walk in the forest before arriving at Glade House.

What a location! The lodge was nestled in the middle of the wilderness beside the Clinton River. Our room was more luxurious than we expected. In fact, all of the lodges that are run by Ultimate Hikes are really comfortable, especially considering that they have to bring all the supplies in by foot or by helicopter.

We gathered with all our fellow hikers for a briefing of what to expect on Day 2, followed by a delicious meal and drinks from the bar.

After dinner, Kevin was able to find his signature in the 1997 guestbook from his first time on the Milford Track. We had an hour or so to socialize with the other hikers until lights out at 10pm. Literally. The power for all the rooms is run by a generator that is shut off nightly, so we made sure to be safely tucked in by then.

Day TWO: Glade House -> Pompolona Lodge (10 miles hiked)

After breakfast and packing our lunches (if you've never had a Whittaker's chocolate, they are a MUST for a trail lunch treat), we got an early start and crossed the river via suspension bridge. Now we were really on our way!

The terrain was pretty flat and once we all got going it was almost as though Kevin and I were hiking completely alone in the wilderness. We would occasionally pass or be passed by other hikers in the group, and our wonderful guides were spaced evenly through the group so that they could answer questions or take photos.

The first section of the track was so green - towering trees with lots of ferns and moss. It was so different from the scenery we see while hiking in Arizona!

Later in the day the valley opened up and we could see more mountains and even some rivulets of waterfalls.

At the lodge we were treated to an impromptu talent show organized by one of our fellow hikers. Our guide Mitch stole the show with an original (and hilarious) composition about a romance that didn't work out because of dietary restrictions.

Day THREE: Pompolona Lodge -> Quintin Lodge (9 miles hiked, over Mackinnon Pass)

We knew we were in for a long day when we woke up to a very steady drizzle of rain. Luckily we had packed appropriately and layered on rain pants and jackets over warm wool clothes. Unluckily we had to stomp through several tiny streams making for very wet feet right at the start of the day.

At least there is one benefit of a lot of rain: we were able to really take in the beauty of the waterfalls as we made our way up the steep slope to Mackinnon Pass.

The steep incline to the pass was for sure the toughest part of the hike. There were lots of switchbacks and over 1500 feet of vertical gain. The trail was well-maintained though, so it was definitely challenging but do-able. Just as we approached the pass, the fog started rolling in and it turned from a light drizzle into gusty and cold winds. We were glad to get into the shelter near the top of the pass to have lunch and warm back up!

We made it back down the other side of the pass, and arrived at Quintin Lodge after a short detour hike to Sutherland Falls, New Zealand's tallest waterfall.

Day FOUR: Quintin Lodge -> Mitre Peak Lodge (6 miles hiked)
Day four would normally have been the longest day of hiking -- 13.5 miles -- but because of damage to the track we would only hike to the Boatshed, about 6 miles of hiking. The morning was misty and drizzly, and it made for some slippery hiking through the ferns. We were glad to have hiking poles in many places.

We were disappointed that we had to cut the hike short and miss out on some of the sights along the last miles of the track, but a helicopter ride from the Boatshed into Milford Sound more than made up for our disappointment.

Kevin and I were in the first group to arrive at the lodge, so we had time to take a quick hike to a viewpoint of Milford Sound.

Mitre Peak Lodge itself was in a stunning location with great views of the sound. Because the road into Milford Sound was closed to tourists, we were the only group staying overnight in the village. It was very relaxing although I'm sure during the height of tourist season, it would normally have been bustling with activity.

Our last night in the lodge was a lot of fun -- we played a custom board game developed by some of the other hikers, and we shared a few drinks with our excellent guides - Sophie, Lara, Kiel, and Mitch -- who had really gone above and beyond to make our hike safe and enjoyable.

Day FIVE: Milford Sound -> Queenstown (NO hiking!)

The next morning we joined the rest of the group on a cruise of Milford Sound.

The boat got us right up close to some of the spectacular waterfalls only accessible by water.

A very tired group of us piled into the bus for the four-hour bus ride back to Queenstown. It was truly worth coming all the way to New Zealand just to do this memorable hike.