The New Zealand Excursion

Delays, delays, delays. The trip was going so incredibly smoothly up to this very last leg of the journey. Apparently, the weather in Philly...

Three words: First Class ROCKS! Not sure how or why our SFO-ATL tickets were upgraded to first class... but who's complaining?! It...

We left early and drove all morning from Pahia to Auckland. We were dreading another 13-hour flight from Auckland to San Francisco. Ugh. ...

We made a quick stop for breakfast and headed down Highways 11 and 1. The scenery is just as beautiful on the way south as it was on the wa...

Must start having spaghetti and toast (with or without beans) for breakfast again! Must attempt (again) to make a pavlova for Christmas. Gr...

We did not feel the quake in the Far North District. Around 8:55pm last night, a 30-second, 6.8-magnitude earthquake rocked the east coast, ...

Not surprisingly, we were the first ones to bed... and the first ones to rise. Other than our skipper, Peter, and the aforementioned Dutch ...

http://rocktheboat.co.nz/ From the Paihia Wharf, we caught a shuttle out to The Rock around 5pm. It's an old car ferry. It was bought...

Waitangi is ground zero for New Zealand history. It's been called the "Birthplace of New Zealand." It's where the Britis...

By chance, on our way to Paihia, we noticed signs for the Kawiti Glow Worm Caves. It turned out to be a great, spur-of-the-moment side trip...

The rain came down in buckets overnight. Downpours so loud we could hear it beating on the motel roof. In the morning, Northland was shrou...

The weather has treated us pretty well most of the trip. It's been warm and humid the past few days. Christchurch: mostly sunny. Kaiko...

The drive to Whangarei (fahn-gar-RAY) wasn't too bad... but we had to deal with rain much of the way. Some of it very heavy rain. This...

It's incredible what a difference 20 years makes. Parts of Warkworth are just about as I remember them... but other parts are totally u...

Today was the day. We got to spend time with Anne Waddington and Rose Rose... two of the best host mums a kid could ever ask for. It's...

Thankfully, our rented Toyota Camry (we landed a free upgrade) is good with fuel. We've been more than 1200km on the North Island and w...

In New Zealand, never try to get dinner after 9pm. It ain't gonna happen. Especially in a place like Whangarei. In Auckland, you migh...

We really should have worn some sunscreen today. We both ended up with a bit of sunburn after being in the sun during our trip to Waiheke I...

The weather was foul this morning. The rain came down in buckets. But in the short time it took for us to drive to Orewa, only about 20-30k...

Waiheke Island is known for its beaches and "eclectic lifestyles" (read: "bunch of artists and homos"). There are galle...

Wow. Things have changed in 20 years. We're in my neck of the woods now. These are the areas where I used to live... two decades ago....

We have to give a shout out to the folks at Swain Tours and Grandview Travel. About six months ago, I went to Rob Elking in Grandview and t...

In Cornwell Park, atop one of the tallest summits in the city, a monument honors the great Maori nation. Until a few years ago, a single tr...

A few kilometers out of the city, the west coast beaches are beautiful black sand. We went to one of the popular surfer locations, Bethell...

I threw myself off a 192m (630ft) tower this morning. The SkyTower is the tallest tower in the southern hemisphere. It's Auckland's...

Exploring Auckland's gay scene was a bit of an adventure. And, sadly, underwhelming and disappointing. Before we left the U.S., we did ...

The Auckland headquarters for Television New Zealand is only a few blocks away. So, of course, I had to stop for a look. It's smallish...

The drive up to Auckland takes about 2.5 hours. It's an okay drive through rolling countryside. It's pretty. Getting into the ...

The village of Te Wairoa is gone... along with 153 souls. So are the Eighth Wonder of the World, the Pink and White Terraces. They were al...

The Hangi is the traditional, cooked-in-the-ground Maori feast. In Rotorua, it's become a tourist-trap-style event... complete with a s...

We walked through the living, breathing, killer crater of New Zealand's only active marine volcano. White Island is connected to the sa...

Hell's Gate is on tribal land but now owned by a private firm. Many of the employees are members of the land's original Maori tribe...

While Jeff was napping this afternoon... so stole away to explore a bit and headed for the lakeside, etc. The first stop was Government Gard...

The Zorb is, quite literally, a big ball of fun. We did the water version. It's a giant, hamster ball, surrounded by an even bigger hams...

We stopped for petrol again today. Oy. $1.70/litre. Total of NZ$90.01. Gawd it's expensive to drive a car here! Jeff's keen sens...

Orakei Korako was our first thermal area. It's just north of Taupo, in the middle of rolling rural area, between Highway 1 and Highway ...

The allergies are going a bit nuts on the North Island. We don't really know what the specific triggers are... but since it's late ...

Twenty years ago, TVNZ had only two channels. Now, there are at least six main channels and a few side channels. The daily "newscast o...