The Downtown Farmhouse

We drove from Queenstown this morning to Arrowtown. It is  a small quaint town that had an original Chinese settlement during the gold rush. You guessed it, Steve was not able to walk into any of the homes. We wandered the streets for a while and stopped for a Latte and a hot chocolate. The weather cleared a little today but it’s still a little chilly for me.

We then drove into Queenstown to check it out. There is little parking so we found a spot and walked towards the water. Ordered some takeaway lunch and found a great spot on the grass to sit.

There will be no pictures of me for a couple of days cause this is what I feel like. A nasty cold found me all the way in New Zealand. Curses……..

Sunday morning bright and early we loaded the bus for a 6 hour ride to Fiordland, New Zealand to cruise the Milford Sound. The bus as you can see offered roof windows so nothing was missed.

We drove through Southland where the population is less than 100K to 6 million sheep. Thank you lamb chops, lamb burgers, lamb kabobs, fleece lined boots, Lambskin jackets, etc.

The scenery was spectacular but 6 hours in a long time! Boredom set in.

We had alot of stops on the way.

The cute little horse was not so cute. Came running over so excited to see me and then tried to bite me. Jerk.

We arrived in Fiordland around 3:30pm and began loading the boat at 4:3o. The boat we were on  held 64 passengers. We were issued our room keys, put our luggage in our rooms and the boat traveled the fiord for about an hour.

Ok so I thought a Fiord was a thing. Well it’s not, it’s a place.

A fiord is a glaciated valley – typically narrow and steep-sided – that has been flooded by the sea after the glacier’s retreat.  A sound, on the other hand, is a river valley flooded by the sea following a rise in sea levels or depression of the land, or a combination of both. Thank you again Wikipedia.

We boarded a tender and went out for a tour of the harbor. The weather was wet, wet and wetter and cold but without the rain there would be no waterfalls. I am not talking 1 waterfall but hundreds of waterfalls. There are only 4 permanent falls that still flow when it’s not raining but temporary falls pour water as long as the rain falls. It rains approximately 200 days a year in Fiordland and we were grateful for the rain. If you drive all the way to Fiordland, you want to see waterfalls. It is one of the most spectacular views I have ever seen. Here we go……waterfall overload.

This was our tender guide Michele.

This was our boat the Milford Mariner

We had dinner around 7 and sat with a couple from Germany who are now living in Singapore and another couple from Australia. The food was outstanding. The dessert was also a big hit.

The next morning we set sail around 8:00am.

The Mariner headed out to the Tasman Sea. 

The seas were pretty choppy. I was not disappointed to be heading back into the fiord. My stomach thanked the captain. 
The pictures cant begin to describe how beautiful the scenery was on this journey. We docked again around 9:30 and got back on the bus for the 6 hour drive back to Queensland. We arrived back at our hotel around 4:00pm. I am feeling a little under the weather so we stayed in the rest of the evening.

Left Rotorua this morning and headed to the airport (with a really pretty view)to fly to Queenstown. The airport was a little small for my comfort level but instead of this ….. we got to fly 

this.

I also got to have one of these. New Zealanders like milk in their coffee. I like cream. Please I need cream!!!

Just a little people watching in the airport in Christchurch waiting for our connecting flight. Look at the cutie in the hat. She also had on glittery shoes and the guy with the guitar, I bet he has a story.

A few shots from the airport landing in Queenstown. Stunning.

And finally a view from our balcony.

The TV even welcomed us. Weird…..

Heading out early tomorrow morning for our overnight cruise to the Milford Sound. Stay tuned 🙂

After the Waitoma Glowworm tour, we drove another 2 hours into Roturoa. This place stinks, what the heck? It also has steam coming out of everywhere. The history of this place is phenomenal. Wikipedia thank you!!

Thermal activity is at the heart of much of Rotorua’s tourist appeal. Geysers and bubbling mud pools, hot thermal springs and the Buried Village (Te Wairoa) —so named after it was buried by the 1886 Mount Tarawera eruption— are within easy reach of Rotorua. In Kuirau Park, to the west end of Rotorua, hot bubbling mud pools dot the park. Visitors can soak their feet in hot pools. Rotorua has the nickname Sulphur City, because of the hydrogen sulphide emissions, which gives Rotorua a “rotten eggs” smell,^[1] as well as rotten-rua combining its legitimate name and the rotten smell prevalent.The especially pungent smell in the central-east ‘Te Ngae’ area is due to the dense sulphur deposits located next to the southern boundary of the Government Gardens, in the area known as ‘Sulphur Point’.

We find our hotel and go to the grocery store to pick up a few things. Needed a little taste of home, so pbj was our choice for dinner.

Friday we headed out with map in hand to some local spots. Thanks Becky for the Fodor book. It’s been amazing!! A short drive brought us to the Tikitapu/Blue and Lake and the Rotokaki/Green Lake. The Blue Lake is used for boating and swimming. The Green Lake is protected and can only be viewed from the observation site. 

The Observation site also has trees that look like palm trees but are actually ferns.

We drove a little further and stopped at the “The Redwoods” WOW so big and beautiful. The picture above was in the Visitor Center and the tree I am standing in front of was 95 years old.We walked through the forest and the trees got bigger and bigger. I didn’t get a picture but the mountains behind the forest were covered in Redwoods which looked exactly like Christmas trees. The picture of the stream is actually a sulfur pool. Clear all the way to the bottom but vewy vewy stinky.

We drove into town to find the Kuirau Park. It was a beautiful park and the weather was awesome. We wanted to discover the thermal pools at this park. They are protected by walls and as you can see in the picture below why. Bubbling and boiling and yes very stinky. We found a foot pool to soak our feet in. It was warm like a jacuzzi tub.

We then drove to the City Center which is a bustling part of town full of Maiori culture. We wanted to walk the town, find dinner and enjoy the scenery which is exactly what happened. New Zealand puts beets on everything. Weird. Dad……Steve said he ate that piece of bread just for you. 

Wow We are here on the other side of the world. We left for Orlando on Monday the 23rd. Our flight was at 5:30 in the afternoon. Courtney and Kyle both took us to the airport. This picture shows how excited they were. Courtney will be leaving on Wednesday to go to Canada so it was a bitter sweet goodbye and Kyle will be holding down the fort and tending to sweet JR.

While we are waiting at the Orlando airport, the Orlando Magic were greeting and checking in passengers at the gate next to us. It’s was crazy loud but alot of fun to watch.

Monday, February 23rd 8:30pm PST we arrived at LAX. What a ridiculous airport that is. We checked in and had a 2 hour wait until our next flight. We grabbed some food and waited.Monday February 23rd 10:30pm PST we boarded and left for Fiji. Steve took some sleepy pills and slept alot of the way. I slept lot too but thank goodness for airplane in flight movies.

We landed in Fiji at 6:30am Wednesday, February 25th. Yes we lost a whole day. We waiting another 2 hours at the Fiji airport before loading again for the final flight to Auckland New Zealand. Tired does not even come close to the way we felt. We still however have to get our rental car, find our way to the hotel in a very large city and do all this while driving on the opposite side of the road we are used to and being very sleep deprived. We did have a little difficulty getting out of the rental car parking lot but success, we made it to the hotel. Driving in Auckland is a little like driving in NYC. Lots of cars, lots of people. We found a parking garage since our hotel did not have parking, unloaded our luggage and walked the 3000 blocks to the hotel. We had not had a shower since Monday morning so that was the first thing on the agenda. The next item would have been dropping into bed and immediately falling asleep but since it was 3ish in the afternoon, maybe not. We decided to go find something to eat and waste a little time until WE COULD go to sleep. Auckland is very easy to walk. We went to the water and found a cute little restaurant directly on the water called The Crab Shack.

After dinner we went back to our hotel. Pajamas and a little tv……I think I was awake for approximately 8.2 minutes on the couch. Steve led me to bed and I woke up 12 hours later. Feeling better and ready to go. Stay tuned, here we go 🙂

Downtown Auckland

Downtown Auckland, dinner the 1st night

Elevators in NZ are called Lifts

Downtown Auckland