| Click here to go to the Australia part of the story. |
New Zealand
Starting on March 21, 2025 we embarked on a 44-day trip to both Australia and New Zealand. I’ve divided the trip into two stories. This part of the story is for New Zealand, April 19 through May 3, 2025. To jump to the Australia story, click here.
Below, I will attempt to give a sense of what we did and our adventures, and perhaps some commentary. Oh, and a lot of photos! Be warned! This was a L-O-N-G trip, and so this is a very long blog posting of the details, descriptions and photos. To make reading this easier, I’ll put clickable links immediately below here for each day. This will make it much easier if you come back multiple times to continue reading. (At the end of each day, I’ve included a link called [Top] which will bring you back here.]
April 19 ♦ 20 ♦ 21 ♦ 22 ♦ 23 ♦ 24 ♦ 25 ♦ 26 ♦ 27 ♦ 28 ♦ 29 ♦ 30
May 1 ♦ 2 ♦ 3 ♦ Conclusion
Planning
The New Zealand plan was suggested by our Audley advisor, going from the South Island to the North… essentially working our way to Auckland for our flight home. It worked out well!
Itinerary
We didn’t want to travel every day, but unlike the Australian part of the trip, we didn’t have as many in-between days in New Zealand, either. So it was a bit more rushed, but not too bad. Here’s the plan for the entire trip:
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The traveling was a mix of driving, flying one segment, and on a train for one segment. Below is a map of New Zealand; the colored lines represent our travel (the numbers are only there for sequence and don’t necessarily align with the table. Also, the numbers don’t necessarily align with the days, either; they are just in order of occurrence.) The straight line show transport via aircraft (#20 Christchurch to Rotorua), and the others are via car or train (#19 Greymouth to Christchurch). Click on the map to see a larger image in a pop-up box.
April 19 – Flying from Sydney to Queenstown
Upon arriving at the Queenstown airport, there was driver waiting for us. This was always nice so that we didn’t have to worry about wrangling our luggage and figuring out a way to the hotel. The driver quickly got us into the car and headed toward The Rees Hotel. We knew this hotel wasn’t in the central business district (CBD) (or, I should say, areas, because Queenstown seems to be split into two areas, and they are about 5 miles / 8 km separate from each other). The hotel is between the two, so, 2.5 miles /4 km from either. We didn’t know how convenient (or not) getting to a grocery store would be, so we talked the driver into stopping at the only open convenience store. The selection was… poor, as you’d expect in a gas-station-associated convenience store. Oh well! The hotel was quite nice, but since it’s built on the side of a hill that slopes towards the shores of Lake Watatipu, the “ground floor” where check-in is, is floor 7, and the other floors are below it. It was confusing the first couple of times we left and came back to the room, but we got used to it.
I knew the hotel had a shuttle to the main CBD, but the reviews implied it wasn’t trustworthy. They were wrong! It was very predictable and ran on time 99% of the time. You did have to make reservations, and once we had to wait because we waited too long to make a reservation, but that’s okay… we just waited for the next one. The employees who ran the shuttle, and the front desk people making the reservations were all quite nice and professional, so I have nothing but good things to say about this arrangement. It was a 45-minute walk, if you chose to do it, so that’s easily within our range, but we never had to do it.[Top]
April 20 – Milford Sound Coach, Cruise, and Fly, a full day
Even though we arrived in Queenstown after dark, we managed to get an okay night sleep and woke up early. We ate breakfast at the hotel (with a fantastic view), then hustled over to the bus stop across the road from the hotel, waiting to be picked up for a trek to Milford Sound. A large van pulled up and we got on, heading off for parts unknown. The plan was to go in the van, stop at a few interesting places on the way, drop off at the cruise dock at Milford Sound, sail around the sound on a large boat then, upon return, drive to the airport and get on a flight that would take us back to Queenstown.
The overall drive to the boat docks, from Queensland, took almost five and a half hours, so we were glad there had been a couple of stops, and that (hopefully) the flight back was still on. We dreaded the thought of having another 4.5 hours back in the van! But everything worked out as planned. Whew!
The trip to Milford Sound consisted of a lot of GOTB-GOTB stops — Get Off The Bus – Get On The Bus. Our first stop was a small town call Te Anau. It’s on the edge of Fiordland National Park and has a nice view of Tui Bay. There were sucker shops, er, I mean, tourist shops and having lost my previous ballcap decided to buy a New Zealand themed ballcap.
We stopped just a little bit later on specifically for the view, with mountains in the background. You can see my new ball cap with the selfie we took. The mountains in the background will have snow on them later in the year, but for now we were happy to see the very interesting clouds that form around them.
We then traveled a bit further on and stopped to walk along a boardwalk on the shore of Mirror Lake. Alas, it wasn’t a good day for the “mirror”, but it was still pretty.
Moving a few more miles down the highway, we stopped at a viewpoint to admire the view and take photos.
Then, a bit further, we stop again to see Christie Falls and admire the strength of the Falls Creek.
Another stop (we were not letting moss grow under us!) was Monkey Creek. This was our last GOTB-GOTB before we arrived at the boat dock area for the Milford Sound “cruise.” My Canon DSLR camera suffered an “oopsie” just before we got on board the ship… it fell about a foot and broke the UV filter on the lens. It protected the lens itself, which is one of the other reasons photographers put them on their camera (you know, other than filtering UV light!). But since I couldn’t get the broken filter off the lens, I couldn’t use that camera on the Milford Sound boat, or flight back to Queenstown. But my smartphone has done an exceptional job in most situations, so I wasn’t too upset.
By this point, you may feel overwhelmed with the utter beauty of a lot of these places, and I certainly understand! However, Milford Sound was stunning and I’m afraid the photos I took won’t do it justice. The biggest issue of all is the scale. In some of the shots below, if you look hard you’ll see ships, and they will be tiny compared to the surrounding areas. I know now why people come to New Zealand just to visit Milford Sound. It’s pretty amazing! Note that I’ve cherry-picked these images among the 140+ that I took. Some images I didn’t select primarily because there was no ship around to give it scale, thus you’d interpret it incorrectly.
Now that the cruise is over, we were scheduled to take a flight back to Queenstown, weather permitting. And the weather did permit, so, off we went! The drive to the airport was very short, but unfortunately we stood in exactly the wrong spot in the queue for getting aboard, and we ended up with a wing spar directly in the center of our view! As Charlie Brown would say: “Aaugh!” So most of the images have the damn spar in them, but I managed a few without that were still decent. If you don’t see a spar or only a tiny bit of one, it’s because I heavily cropped that photo. And don’t get me started on window reflections! I’m so spoiled, flying my own plane, where I can get pictures without spars or reflections. Once again, as with virtually all my photos, I took too many so I’ve had to cherry-pick the best ones, just for you! (There are still a bunch! 98 out of 140) [Top]
That night, as we got back to our hotel room, I managed to borrow some wide-mouth pliers from maintenance, and managed to unscrew the broken UV filter from the DSLR camera lens. I then carefully inspected the filter threads and they looked okay. Whew! So now, when I had the chance, I was going to see if I could find a replacement UV filter. (Hint: it was Christchurch before I found one.)
April 21 – Bike ride from Arrowtown to Gibbston Valley Winery
We took the shuttle, then walked to the bike shop in Queenstown to sign in for the bike ride. They shuttled us to Arrowtown, handed out the bikes, gave us a short briefing on various topics associated with the bike ride, and we set off. This was a marked (though not well-marked) bike trail that would take us to Gibbston, but we ended before the actual town, at the Gibbston Vineyards. The trail was good and the views were fantastic, as you’ll see below. For this (and several other) excursions, Fall was the right time to come… it was beautiful! The actual on-the-bike distance was 10.7 miles / 17 km , which took us two hours and fifty minutes. I stopped a lot for photos and regretted not stopping more…but, every 20 feet there’s something new that’s beautiful, but that’s just over the top, so I restrained myself.
We stopped for a while to watch the bungee jumpers. (No thanks!) But mostly it was riding, stopping to drink some water, take pictures, negotiate the occasional bridge, and then back on the bike. We finally got to Gibbston Valley Winery and sat down to eat. Their menu was (to us) very posh and nothing jumped out at us, so we went into the small deli they had (it was mostly cheeses) and found a small pint of ice cream that we shared.
Eventually, the bus/trailer came to pick us up and they shuttled us back to the Queenstown bike shop. We called the hotel to reserve two seats on a shuttle and, while we waited, we went into a few shops to see if they had a UV filter for my camera. When the shuttle arrived, we headed back to the room for some well-earned R&R.
Today, no planned excursions, so we can do whatever we want; this was our last day in Queenstown. I had thought about taking the cable car up to the top of the mountain overlooking Queenstown, but all the reviews (and people we heard at the hotel talking about it) said it was kind of “meh”. Well, we didn’t care for “meh” but we went into town anyway and walked around some. I continued looking for a UV filter, but there were no camera shops in this section of the CBD. We found a place to eat lunch (when you next see one of us, ask about Fergburger, where we didn’t eat), and wandered around some more. It’s a cool small town with a lot of shops. While waiting for the shuttle to come get us in the early afternoon, we were standing in front of an art gallery, and this small bronze statue of a dogman was there… I was impressed with it, but not enough to buy it!
April 23 – Rented car, drive to Lake Moeraki
I think yesterday was the last day, before we fly home, that we didn’t have an excursion. It was a nice breather! Today is definitely a travel day.
We packed up our bags and took the shuttle into town, and walked to the Budget car rental. Soon, by 9:30 am, we were on the road to Lake Moeraki, about 4- to 5-hour trek. We weren’t in a hurry so we stopped at a few viewpoints and parks.
We arrive at Lake Moeraki and the Wilderness Lodge about 4:30 pm. It was tiring driving through the mountains, but pretty! Wilderness Lodge is fairly old, in good condition, but not at all upscale, and the people who owned it were wonderful. The dinners they provided were not only delicious, but fun to look at!
Later the same evening, we went for a “glowworm walk” with the husband, who is also a knowledgeable naturalist. Taking a picture of glowworms is difficult at best. I tried several times, but this one was the best. Note that they are blue in color. The ones we saw later in a cave were green, which I thought was pretty interesting! The only part I wasn’t a fan of was walking around in the dark! My 72-yr-old eyes were not happy!
April 24 – Monro Beach Walk and Lake Moeraki
While we didn’t specifically have a planned excursion today, there were a lot of things to do. It was probably a bit too cool for us to go kayaking, but that was one option. Another was taking the Monro Beach Walk, through the forest, to the shores of the Tasman Sea. This is what we opted for.
It was about 2 miles / 3.2 km from the lodge, and it took us about 1 hour 10 minutes to make the walk, including stopping quite often to take pictures (of course!). The trail was quite good, with a couple of nice bridges to cross. A large fraction of the forest were tree ferns (fern trees?) which are beautiful. One of the coolest things were the New Zealand Blue Mushrooms, something not seen anywhere else in the world. And in certain parts of their life-span, they are indeed quite a pretty blue! We also were “followed” by several different fantails, small birds that didn’t seem afraid at all, and would fly right by us, darting back and forth between each side of the trail. It was fun!
Once we arrived at the beach, the forest fell away and the Tasman Sea and the rough surf captivated our view. Off to our left and right — mainly on the left — were some seastacks that provided dramatic contrast to the blue ocean water. It was fun to look around… the forest ended at the beach and was slightly intimidating. One rock “hill” blocked our way around to the mouth of the Moeraki River, but the layers evident in that rock were fascinating. We sat for a while and contemplated the 1,000-mile distance between us and the Australian mainland, the area lovingly called “the Ditch” by the locals. But the sand flies were merciless so we didn’t linger too long.
We got back to the room by around noon so we grabbed some lunch and took a siesta! That afternoon, we joined a guide who would take us and the other lodge visitors on a tour of some of the flora and fauna of Lake Moeraki. It was quite educational and interesting, and the views of the lake were ideal. I had so many pictures of black swans, I had to do a collage!
This was our last night at the lodge. The next morning, we were again going to be heading north!
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April 25 – Lake Moeraki to Franz Josef, about a 1.5 hour drive
The drive to Franz Josef was fairly short and straightforward. We became intimately familiar with the frequent one-lane bridges. Some of them were quite long! As you approached one, a pair of signs would tell you which direction had the right-of-way. I never could figure out a pattern, because it didn’t alternate. Some of the bridges and their approaches were not designed very well because you couldn’t see the other end. So, a number of iffy moments during these traverses. The long bridges would have tiny pull-outs that would allow a small car to get out of the way of an oncoming vehicle. We lucked out and had the few really long bridges to ourselves. We stopped a couple of times to admire the view, but it was mostly just driving.
Even though we intentionally left late, we still arrived at the hotel in Franz Josef Glacier before our room was ready. So we took at walk just outside of town, along the Waiho River, to see Peters Pool. We were glad we did… absolutely mirrored surface so we captured a truly postcard shot of the mountains.
April 26 – Franz Josef Glacier Heli-Hike
Today was one of those pinnacle excursions you plan for on a trip such as this… and my using the word ‘pinnacle’ is kind of a pun because we were going to take a helicopter to the top of a mountain, and set down on a glacier! The meeting place was their office, and that was within easy walking distance from our villa. Once there, we filled out forms, got weighed and all the other things that needed to be done. At one point, they asked everyone to “go up and down” on this step structure so that they could assess your ability to climb the steps carved out on the glacier. These steps were tall, almost as much as the height of two normal steps. And there were handrails. But both Amy and I had no trouble with it. (What they didn’t tell you is that you’ll be going up and down such steps for almost 2 hours, with no handrails!)
We then gathered into a small group and hiked about 100 yards to the helipad. They split us into two groups, and we each headed for our respective helicopters. I had read that the flight to the glacier was 3 minutes, but I took a video for the entire trip up to the glacier and it was 7 minutes. Upon arriving, we deplaned and they had us sit down nearby while the helicopter got filled from a group that was leaving, and then it took off, back to home base. And then another helicopter came in a very short distance away. The whole area was very, very noisy during these operations so the guides had to wait in order to give us instructions.
While we were sitting, I took a good look around, trying to enjoy the moment of being on a glacier! When on the ground, we had been given little bags that contained crampons, and we were told to put those on. A few minutes later, we were told to follow the guide so we started tramping up the glacier. The first impression was that the glacier wasn’t snow, it was ice. Hard ice. The good news is that the crampons did an excellent job of preventing your feet from moving around. The bad news is that the crampons did too good a job of preventing your feet from moving around. Once you planted your foot, the subtle side-to-side movements you do without thinking, to adjust your stance and/or prepare for another step, you couldn’t do that. So that took a bit of practice to get used to.
I mentioned the ice was hard. Some of the steps were carved through small sections of ice (about the size of a car) so that there were “walls” to either side… unforgiving walls. The single walking stick they provided helped a little in balancing, helping you step and keeping you away from the walls, but only with minor success. I found myself bumping into the hard ice walls frequently. And the steps… yep, they were just as tall (or taller) than the practice steps but there were a lot of them. Despite all of this, I was happily tromping around, looking around, and taking pictures. But I was also keeping a close eye on Amy, as she was experiencing the same “getting used to it” moments that I was, but maybe with additional issues. And, yep, she had an additional issue that quickly came to light.
This being a glacier, there were cracks in a lot of places but most were very small. After perhaps 50 yards of climbing, we came across a slightly wider crack (you’ll be able to see it in the photo). Amy stepped across it with one leg, and she had stepped much further than a usual step, and then found that she couldn’t move! The minor ACL problem she had in her knee suddenly wasn’t so minor. She realized that she didn’t have the oomph required to shift her weight and bring the other leg across the crack. So she was stuck! I was, of course, right behind her so I stopped and inquired as to her situation, which she explained to me, without moving. I offered to help, but she declined because she was trying to figure it out.
After maybe half a minute in that position, she decided it wasn’t going to get better. While we were standing there, more helicopters had come in behind us, and the noise prevented me from yelling to guide (rather, prevented him from hearing me). So, I waved my arms and my walking stick until he happened to turn around and saw us. Other hikers just in front and behind us were waving their arms, too.
The guide came down from the front of the group (he was about 20 yards ahead) and we told him what was going on. He helped Amy move back so that she was no longer straddling the crack, and she and I stood together. Amy wanted me to continue, but I declined, telling her I wanted to make sure she got back okay. At that point, there was a lot of talking on the radios, and another guide — one that had finished the hike and she and her group were waiting for their helicopter — came to get us back down to the landing area. She kept hold of Amy almost the entire time, making sure she didn’t have any more issues. At the landing area, we sat down and there was a lot more radio traffic trying to figure out how to get us down off the glacier. There was a chance we’d have to pay for a separate flight just for us (which would have been mucho expensive!), but they finally decided there was room in the next one to land. And indeed there was… there were three empty seats, so, more than we needed.
We breathed a sigh of relief when we took off, glad that we were getting off the glacier without any further risk of misadventure, but also because we didn’t have to spend the $$$ for a separate flight. Upon arriving back on land, we tromped the 100 yards back to the office, turned in our coveralls, crampons and other paraphernalia, then walked back to the villa.
Soooo…. we did fly to a glacier, landed on it, and hiked for a short distance, then returned, all without injury… we decided to call that a successful excursion (albeit short). No, it wasn’t the experience we wanted, but it was the experience we got, and we were okay with that. [Top]
April 27 – Franz Josef drive to Greymouth, then TranzAlpine to Christchurch
Today is a travel day, but two-pronged… we drive by car to Greymouth, then turn in the car and hop on to the TransAlpine train that will take us from Greymouth to Christchurch, through the New Zealand Alps.
The train leaves at 2:15 pm, but the drive from Franz Josef to Greymouth is only 2.5 hours, so even if we didn’t leave until 9 am, we’d be there quite early. And that worked out quite well. We got to Greymouth around 11:30 am so we had some time to kill. We drove out onto the south breakwater and looked around. From there we could see the north breakwater, so we drove there, too. We then stopped at Sevenpenny for lunch, then turned in the car and waited for the train.
Once on the train, we found our seats and settled in. For most of the train ride, we were in our seats, but occasionally I’d head to the “observation car” which was the last car on the train. Since we were near the front, getting back there was tedious. After my first visit, I wasn’t too impressed with the observation car, so I only made a second visit later in the trip. The New Zealand Alps were, well, big, as mountains usually are, but somehow I expected them to have snowy tops and thus be much more photogenic. Still, the vistas were fairly amazing, and we both enjoyed the train ride.
In the large number of photos below, most of the shots after Arthur’s Pass are from the observation car, but a few are while I’m sitting in my seat. In my seat, the reflections on the windows were bad. But the observation car was usually crowded and most of the vistas were blocked by brush, trees, walls, telephone poles and lines, fences and a number of other obstructions. Oh well! [Top]
April 28 – Explore Christchurch, Botanical Garden, etc.
April 29, 2025 – Traveling from Christchurch to Rotorua, and the Redwood TreeWalk
Today we got up quickly and went down to wait for our driver to the airport. He was a couple of minutes late, which gave us a tiny bit of anxiety only because these drivers are usually quite early. But we had plenty of time so once we were on our way, the anxiety evaporated. The Christchurch airport is quite small and — big surprise! — there was no security for our flight! We ate a light breakfast in the area next to the gate, then afterwards walked a few steps over to the gate waiting area. When the plane was ready, we simply walked on to it. Well, we climbed stairs to get on to it, as it was what is commonly called a “puddle jumper”… i.e., a relatively small aircraft (holds maybe 60 people) with two prop engines. The take-off was loud but was tolerable once we got to about 8,000 feet… it eventually climbed to 17,000 feet and had a cruise speed around 300 mph. Not bad for a puddle jumper!
We were traveling from the South Island to the North Island, to Rotorua, and we saw some of the landscape of New Zealand. There were a lot of clouds, so we didn’t see it all. We did pass right next to Mount Ruapehu, an active stratovolcano and is the largest active volcano in New Zealand. The North Island’s major ski resorts and only glaciers are on its slopes. It is the highest point in the North Island and has three major peaks, the tallest is 9,176 ft/2,797 m. There were several moments when clouds didn’t cover that area, so I got a few nice shots. [Top]
Upon landing in Rotorua, we picked up our rental car and made our way to the Pullman Rotorua. We spent a bit of time figuring out how the parking worked in this part of town, but eventually figured it out. There were quite a number of shops and eateries in the area, so we walked around for a while, then picked a place for lunch. We still had plenty of daylight left and although it was misting a bit, we decided to head over to the Redwood TreeWalk. This was exactly what it sounds like: an elevated walkway around a number of redwood trees. It was in a heavily forested area very close to town, so we didn’t have far to drive. Probably because of the mist and dreariness of the day, there were very few people in attendance, which worked in our favor. While we didn’t have the entire place to ourselves, we never really ran into anyone else during our walk, so that was nice. [Top]
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April 30, 2025 — The floatplane flight that wasn’t, and, Maori cultural edutainment
The next morning, we were supposed to go on a floatplane sightseeing flight, but the weather was against us… it was overcast and raining. We checked in with the flight operator and they confirmed the flight was canceled. Oh well. The weather we’ve experienced for the entire rest of the trip has been fantastic, so as they say, into every life a little rain must fall, and this was ours. (Without the rain, though, I wouldn’t have gotten so many pictures of rainbows, so, for that I’m grateful.)
Our other plan for the day was a late afternoon Maori cultural exhibition, Te Pā Tū. The location was about 10 miles / 16 km south of the city, and seemed to be an authentic Maori compound, as well as a culture-appropriate entertainment venue. It was raining, so the performance was held inside, but I don’t think we missed much other than some ambiance. The individuals were each great, and all of them together were magnificent. They called it edu-tainment, and it was. We learned about portions of the Maori culture while they performed — and got some of the audience to perform as well (see the video). It was well done! And afterwards, they provided a 3-course meal and dessert, sharing several items that were Maori in nature, and it was all delicious, and there was a lot of food. Our dinner table companions were from Canada, the UK and Austria, and they were fun to talk to. So, a great evening! [Top]
During several segments of the entertainment, I took some video… it’s not great, but it will give you an idea of what it was about. The video is about 13 minutes (and can get loud), and only conveys a fraction of what it was like to be there.
[su_youtube_advanced url=”https://youtu.be/XI4WsQAHHSw” width=”480″ rel=”no” title=”Maori Edutainment Night”]
May 1, 2025 – Glowworms and Hobbits, oh my!
Today we drive to two different excursions, and end up for the evening in a tiny place called Richmond Downs (for just one night).
We first drove from Rotorua to the Glowworm cave tour, which was about a 2-hour drive. The glowworm cave tour was fairly short. Amy loved it; I thought it was a bit underwhelming, plus they didn’t allow any photos, so that never makes me happy. The cave was pretty nice, with a variety of speleothems, but there was only a brief talk about the cave features and the history of its discovery. I felt like they should have emphasize the cave features and history more than they did. We then clambered onto a boat (in near darkness) and took a short, 10-minute ride where you could see a large number of glowworms on the ceilings and walls of the cave. Since we had already seen glowworms near Lake Moraki, this wasn’t as thrilling, but they were a different color (green vs. blue at Lake Moraki) and there were certainly a lot of them. Generally worth it but, as I said, for me it a bit underwhelming. [Top]
We then pointed the car toward Hobbiton. I had low expectations but was happy with the tour and what we saw. I mean, it’s a movie set, so what better photo-op am I going to find? None! So, yeah, I was pretty happy with most of my pictures there. (In fact, my inner self was rubbing his hands together and cackling with glee! After all, this rainbow appeared just for me, right? Haha!)
We were told that the big tree (in the image above) is the centerpiece of the “set” but it was almost cut down. Apparently, just days before the location scout was due to arrive, someone was hired to cut down that tree… but his chainsaw broke. The guy left and didn’t come back. The location scout said they likely wouldn’t have selected the site if that tree hadn’t been there. So… whew!
The tour was not rushed and the guide was quite good. She knew a lot more about the movies than either Amy or I, so we were partly lost when names came up that most people on the tour seemed familiar with. But it didn’t take away from the overall enjoyment. Despite it sounding commercial, I’d still recommend anyone who is remotely interested in Hobbit/LotR stuff to visit! [Top]
Most of the doors you see in the images above have little to nothing behind them… they were just for show. It wasn’t until recently that they decided to outfit one of the hobbit homes with an interior, so it was a good thing we didn’t visit a few years ago. The interior detail was quite amazing, including a post with hobbit children’s height measurements! They obviously put a lot of thought and effort into this interior. [Top]
After that Hobbiton visit, we were pretty exhausted but still had to drive another hour to our overnight stay, at the Villa Walton in Richmond Downs. Turns out, it was a really nice cottage and we enjoyed staying there (pictures below). (And we kind of wished we had more nights there.) We drove to Matamata to get some takeaway from Osteria, an Italian restaurant. It was ~very~ good! [Top]
May 2, 2025 – Richmond Downs to Auckland
Today it was a pretty easy day, driving from the cottage in Richmond Downs into Auckland. We stopped once at an overlook to take pictures, but otherwise drove straight to our hotel, the “M Social” in the Viaduct district. We were floored when we found ourselves in a top-floor room with two couches, a large table for meals, a bathtub and shower, and 2 TVs. And the view of the harbor… it was magnificent from the 12th floor! It was so good, we found it hard to look away!
| We just couldn’t resist poking fun at the over-the-top features of this room, so we did a little walk-through video… just for fun! | [su_youtube_advanced url=”https://youtu.be/r7L5RjcfuUI” width=”480″ rel=”no” title=”M Social Room tour”] |
But we did have to go to dinner, which was ok; then after a bit of ice cream we headed back to the room. This is yet another room we wished we could stay in for another week! But it has been 44 days away from home and, well, we are both just a little bit anxious to be heading back.
May 3 – Auckland Botanic Gardens, and flying home
Our flight back to Houston is at 7:40 pm, so we have a pretty good amount of time left to us, even given that we’re supposed to arrive 3 hours early. So, we slept in a bit, then had breakfast at the hotel. Around noon, we loaded up the car and headed for the Palmer Farmers Market. When we got there, it was closed. So we headed for the Auckland Botanic Gardens and had a look around. It was pretty nice… not the best one we’ve been to, but still quite nice. Then to the airport.
By the time we arrived in Houston, it was 4:15 pm Saturday… or (if you weren’t paying attention to time zones) 3 hours before we left! When we woke up that morning in Auckland, it was 3:00 am on Friday, Houston time. So now it’s 4:15 pm on Saturday, and we have another 6 hours before we go to bed. That means it’s been a 31-hour day! Yikes! (A “normal” day for those who sleep 8 hours would be, of course, 16 hours, so this is like being awake for almost 2 full days.) Even though we slept for part of the flight home, a couple of naps are definitely in order! [Top]
My perception of various elements of our trip are below. They aren’t deep or profound but just some things to consider and understand:
People
Overall, I was delighted with everyone we encountered. They are every bit as friendly as Texans, and probably even a bit more polite. Granted, the majority were in the travel/hospitality industry and they should always strive to be friendly and polite, but you could tell that most of these people we encountered seemed truly happy (or, at least, not bothered) about their jobs and roles, and all seemed quite genuine. No one ever said or even gave us a side-look when we were asked about our nationality. (Frankly, we were worried about this and, if it had been bad, we were going to try to pass ourselves off as Canadians. But we never had to resort to that, thank goodness!) Even more surprising were the travelers not from Australia or New Zealand; they were also quite nice. We met people from Canada, Austria, China, Japan, England, Singapore, etc. They all treated us no differently than we had been treated on past trips, so we were very happy about that.
Driving
Prior to leaving on this trip, I researched opinions on the driving etiquette in Australia. Many of the stories were quite scary, so I was going into this (I thought) with my eyes wide open. Turns out, it wasn’t necessary at all. They were slightly better and more polite than Houston drivers (which is maybe not a great standard, but it’s what I’ve got!). And of course, I was driving on the left side of the road, which created a few interesting moments. Only once did I make even a momentary mistake, which was corrected immediately, so I did fairly well. (I have, on previous trips, driven in Ireland, England and Scotland, so I wasn’t a novice at driving on the “wrong” side.) But, just as in most places outside of North America, the roads and parking spots were smaller, and the cars — as a rule — were smaller. We unfortunately got saddled with slightly-larger-than-normal (for Oz/NZ) cars during the trip, which made it a bit more difficult for me, but I managed it. They have a lot of roundabouts… but I like roundabouts… yet going the opposite direction from what I’m used to required concentration. The top speed was about 68 mph / 110 kph (in New Zealand, it was more like 62 mph / 100 kph), and at first I tried to travel at that speed. But the roads and curves aren’t made for that speed, so I was constantly adjusting my speed lower. Eventually, I would only go the limit if the road was long and straight. When it got less-straight — which was A LOT! — then the top speed I’d choose was about 10 kph slower than the limit. That turned out to be more comfortable for me; and, surprisingly, I didn’t get passed that much.
Interestingly, both Australia and New Zealand are mostly cashless… only once did we encounter a situation where they did not take a credit card. So, I consider that to be an improvement over the U.S., but it was interesting that not one of the fuel stations had a card reader at the pump. In every case when we filled up, we had to go into the store to pay for our fuel!
Weather
One might think that traveling in the Fall would be weather-risky, as there are often many weather events, but for almost the entire trip, we had great weather. We were rained on at the Sydney Toranga Zoo, it rained at the Penguin experience, had two days of light rain in New Zealand (and that caused our floatplane flight to be cancelled), light rain forced the Maori cultural edutainment inside, and we had a misty rain at Hobbiton (that didn’t slow us down), but we generally were quite happy with the overall climate. From other travelers, we heard sad laments over how most of their trip was being rained on, so we again were quite lucky by comparison. Even in the Outback, it was never very warm, and most days it was a very comfortable 65-75°F / 18-24°C or so.
The train in NZ
The only train we took was from Greymouth, New Zealand to Christchurch, through the New Zealand alps. Overall it was fairly comfortable, but their USB ports didn’t work (I had a battery pack, so no real issues). They had an observation car just for taking pictures, but it wasn’t as nice as other observation cars I’ve experienced. Generally speaking, the cars seemed just a bit less roomy than other trains we have been on. The mountains we saw were indeed tall and dramatic, but none had snow on them, so they weren’t as pretty as I had hoped. Perhaps we’ll return in the winter! Ha! (We certainly had a LOT of extremely pretty views throughout NZ, so this isn’t meant to detract from that, but just telling it as I saw it.) As far as the quality of the train, I’d say it was slightly better than English trains, but not as good as European trains.
Activity spacing
We did a good job, in general, with our schedule while we were in Australia… we added days between stops, for the most part, which allowed us to rest and explore. But it occurred to me as we were flying to New Zealand that we failed to do the same for the NZ part of our trip. Now, it’s possible we discussed it and decided that the trip — at 44 days — was already too long, but by the time we got to NZ, I realized how much I enjoyed that practice. So in NZ, we went from point to point without much rest or time to explore in between. It wasn’t terrible, but it would have been better had we followed the same practice as we did in Australia.
By the Numbers
Unlike a simple Point-A to Point-B trip, there were (obviously) many twists and turns involved in this 44-day trek. Consider the info below as a combined “approximate summary” of both the Australian and the New Zealand portion of the trip!
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| Flights – from / to | Distance | Date(s) |
| Houston to Sydney | 8645 mi / 13910 km | March 21-22, 2025 |
| Sydney to Cairns | 1232 miles / 1982 km | March 28, 2025 |
| Cairns to Melbourne | 1445 miles / 2325 km | March 31, 2025 |
| Adelaide to Sydney | 727 miles / 1170 km | April 19, 2025 |
| Sydney to Queenstown NZ | 1211 miles / 1948 km | April 19, 2025 |
| Christchurch to Rotorua | 423 miles / 681 km | April 29, 2025 |
| Auckland to Houston | 7463 mi / 12008 km | May 3, 2025 |
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| Total for flights —-> | 21146 mi / 34024 km | over 7 legs |
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| Driving (self or driver)* | Distance | Dates |
| Cairns to Port Douglas (driver) | 41 mi / 66 km | March 28, 2025 |
| Port Douglas to Cairns (driver) | 41 mi / 66 km | March 31, 2025 |
| Melbourne to Phillip Island, return (driver) | 181 mi / 292 km | April 3, 2025 |
| Melbourne to Adelaide (self) | 624 mi / 1004 km | April 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 2025 |
| Adelaide to Rawnsley Park Station, return (self) | 519 mi / 836 km | April 14, 2025 |
| Queenstown to Greymouth (self) | 326 mi / 524 km | April 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 2025 |
| Rotorua to Auckland (self) | 246 mi / 396 km | April 29, 30, May 1, 2, 3 |
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* not including airport transfers
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| Total for driving —-> | 1978 mi / 3183 km | over 9 legs |
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| Trains & miscellaneous | Distance | Dates |
| Wilpena Pound flight | 83 mi / 134 km | April 16, 2025 |
| bike ride | 9 mi / 15 km | April 21, 2025 |
| Heli flight | 17 mi / 27 km | April 26, 2025 |
| TransAlphine train, Greymouth to Christchurch | 149 mi / 239 km | April 27, 2025 |
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[su_table]
| Total for misc. travel —-> | 258 mi / 415 km | over 4 legs |
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| Totals for all travel —-> | 23382 mi / 37622 km | over 44 days |
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(All of the numbers above are conservative, and the actual total is likely 5% greater. And, just for scale, the circumference of the Earth is 24,901 miles.)
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Thanks for reading and we hope you enjoyed our stories!
| Click here to go to the Australia part of the story. |