(And don't miss the link to a second album of Hobbiton photos below!)
I have long wanted to visit New Zealand. When I saw a sale price for this short tour, I signed up. Plus, I had sufficient airline miles for our round-trip flights. But in the following weeks, there were changes. Certain activities were not going to re-open before we were there, and we made substitutions. In the end, we even cut Christchurch entirely and made the already short trip a full day shorter.
I was not surprised that it rained at least a little almost every day, but it was also colder than I expected. I never wore any of the short-sleeve T-shirts I brought.
We started in Auckland. We walked around a bit, including Albert Park. Few people wore masks. Although we were in downtown, it was difficult to find a restaurant open for early breakfast. We then had a day-long tour of the city and surroundings, including Mount Victoria, both the Pacific and Tasman Sea coasts, the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park, and Arataki Centre. We walked a tiny bit of the [Edmund] Hillary Trail in the rain forest, saw giant ferns, large kauri trees, and Piha Beach with gray magnetic sand. (See the photos.)
From Auckland, we went by car to Rotorua via Hobbiton. Despite the drizzle, it was fun visiting Hobbiton. See my separate photo album there.
In Rotorua, we went on a Duck Tours ride in an amphibious WW2 "duck" landing craft able to drive on city streets and become a motor boat in water. We did both. That evening, we saw the Maori presentation and had an indigenous dinner at Tamaki Village.
From Rotorua, we flew to Queenstown on the South Island. The Rotorua Airport is a welcome throw-back: no security check, no metal detector, no ID check, and family and friends welcome at the gate. But our flight was canceled due to fog, and we were booked for a flight more than 7 hours later! We spent all day at the airport.
The next day, despite great weather in town, the morning Milford Sound flight/cruise was canceled! When I called, they set us up for a later time, and that worked. The flight was a bit bumpy, but beautiful; lots of snow-capped mountains. (See the photos, of course.) On the cruise, there was more beautiful scenery, a dolphin, and seals.
The following day, we walked a bit, including Queenstown Gardens, a bookstore, and an art gallery.
A cold front came through on the day we departed, so Victor saw snow falling for the first time, even though it was only a few flakes.
Crossing the International Date Line cost us a day when we flew from Los Angeles to New Zealand, but the return was weirder: We left NZ 8 pm one evening, and after a 12-hour flight, arrived in LA at noon the same day!
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