Our Kiwi Adventures 2025 (week 2)

Monday morning, March 10, we were off to the Auckland airport to head south to Christchurch for the start of the Sir Edmund Hillary Explorer Rail & Coach tour. The program was holding an orientation at a hotel by the airport, and after waiting and searching for a shuttle, it turned out that the hotel was only about a 5 minute walk from the airport! Of course it was too early to check into our room, so they held our bags and we wandered over to a nearby shopping center. 

Eventually, we checked in, threw our stuff in our room, and found the Pounamu tours (the organizing company) desk. They gave us small travel mugs and a big packet of papers with colored ribbons attached. At orientation they explained that there were two buses, pink and green. We were on the pink team. There were extra colored ribbons to be added for later parts of the tour. Already impressed with their level of organization. 

We were on our own for dinner, so we went back to the same shopping center and tried "Lone Star" (apparently it's a chain). The waiter got a kick out of the fact that we were actually from Texas. The bar's motto is 'Be Staunch. Walk Tall.' As cheesy as it was, it was one of the better meals we had - John had beautiful venison, and I had seafood piccata.

We had to go back and get to bed early, because we were off and running at 6AM on Tuesday! [This was one of my least favorite parts of this amazing tour - there were a half dozen days when we had to have our luggage out to the lobby at 6 or 6:30am! I am NOT a morning person. UGH.] 

 

So Tuesday morning, we had breakfast in the hotel at 6:30 and took our bags out to the lobby. We met our bus driver, Campbell, who turned out to be one of my favorite people on the tour! Though he'd been in NZ for 20 years, he still had a thick Scottish brogue. (Seriously, I could listen to him read the phone book.)

Day one of the trip, train trip #1. We boarded the TranzAlpine train, which would take us across the south island. We had lunch on the train (and snacks we'd bought) and wound our way to Greymouth. Like Hobbiton, the TranzAlpine had a location-aware app, so we could read about the various towns we were going through. One of them mentioned "John McAlpine" (see screenshot!). The train also stopped at Arthur's Pass, which is just past the mid-point, and sits at 3,000+ ft above sea level. We were able to jump off (it was COLD) and take a few pics. (see top photo)

When we got to Greymouth, we got back on our buses (they drove across while we were on the train) and drove a few more hours to the small town of Franz Josef, which is right at the foot of the mountains. Our 'comfort stop' was in a little town called Ross, where we got some ice cream and I refrained (for once) from buying yarn. 

We had buffet dinner at the hotel (UGH. There were soooo many buffets on this trip!) and sat with a lovely Australian couple. It turned out that of the 74 people on our trip, there were seven couples from the US, and everyone else was from Australia! So we didn't meet many kiwis other than our tour guides.

More Tuesday pics 

Wednesday morning was another early one, but it was worth it - we took a helicopter to the top of the Franz Josef glacier! This was by far the coolest thing I've ever done (pun intended). The weather was touch-and-go (gray and gloomy) on Tuesday afternoon, but it cleared up enough for us to fly on Weds morning. It was AMAZING. They put six of us in each helicopter (our pilot was a young woman, yay!) and off we went. I've never gone up in a helicopter before... I loved it! It was really windy and cold at the top. The chopper was being buffeted by the wind as we came over the edge, which was a little nerve-wracking - but we were able to land. The ground was icy with divots of snow, so I tried to step in those -- one of the ladies from our bus was on the other helicopter, and when she got out she slipped and fell! We were out of the helicopter for maybe 5 minutes, but it was so cold and windy that we got back in pretty quickly, and they flew us back to town. The trip was so much shorter than intended that they gave us a partial refund. We found out later that ours was the only tour group that got to land on the glacier that day! (John was glad to have his wool-possum sweater up there, it kept him nice and warm.)

After the rush of the helicopter (we were downright giddy!), we got back on our bus and rode south to Haast. Along the way we stopped at the Tauparikaka Marine Reserve (see pic), where we walked on the beach and climbed a lookout tower. It was lovely. From there we went on to lunch at the Hard Antler restaurant, and then on to a brief stop at Thunder Creek Falls and Lake Wanaka. 

Have you ever gotten sick of saying the word "Wow"? This whole country. Wow. The scenery out the bus or train windows, and wherever we stopped, was just "Wow." 

We ended the day in Queenstown at the Novotel. We got settled in our room and then went out to wander around and find dinner. We ended up at a cafe that was part of a Casino, which we mostly chose because it wasn't overly crowded. Queenstown is gorgeous, and people gather at the waterfront to watch the sunset. 

More Wednesday pics 

We were excited that we were going to get to sleep late on Thursday... until the hotel fire alarm went off at 8am. Sigh. But we had a lazy-ish morning, breakfast at the hotel, and then walked down to the wharf to get on the TSS Earnslaw, the only coal-fired steamship in the southern hemisphere. The boat took us (and many other tourists) to the far end of the lake, where we had a BBQ lunch (buffet) at the Walter Peak High Country Farm. The lunch was actually delicious. Then we were invited to the "farm show" which turned out to be a sheep shearing and a sheep-herding demonstration with a super smart dog. This time, I did buy some yarn at the gift shop on the way out.

We had some time on our own when we got back, so we decided to do the Skyline gondola ride up to the top of the mountain overlooking Queenstown. They have a zipline, bungee jumping, a "luge" track (go-karts, not sleds), and a mountain biking track that starts at the top. But we're not adrenaline junkies, so we skipped all of these things and just went to the lookout point. It was beautiful. Just out of curiosity, we looked up home prices in the Queenstown area - everything is over $2M (NZ)! We stopped for dinner at The Cow. It's a tiny stone house with dark booths and wood beams - we were lucky they had one table left. We had to have one of their famous pizzas and garlic bread. (So glad I am only gluten-free in the USA. When we travel I can eat everything!) Deeelish. And random fun 80's music playing in the background! We took the leftovers with us to eat on Friday - and as it turned out, I was glad we did.

More Thursday pics 

Friday morning we were off to our next train ride, the Kingston Flyer. It was a 2-hour round-trip journey in rickety wooden cars pulled by an old steam locomotive, through mountains and farmland in central NZ. Beautiful! We got off the train at Fairlight so the engine could be re-positioned to pull the train back the other way. On the way back, we sat in one of the "first class" cars with one of the other American couples.. and John got to talk about computing!

After the train ride, we had a picnic lunch -- we actually took our box lunches back onto the train and sat at a table -- but I ended up eating the leftover pizza instead. 

From there we went to the Te Anau bird sanctuary. [We had to stop at one point for what the locals call a "kiwi traffic jam" -- a huge mass of sheep being herded across the road!]  There are lots of interesting flightless birds in NZ, which is why things like possums and stoats are so dangerous - the native birds had no natural predators until those critters were introduced. We still hadn't seen any Kea (giant parrots) but we did see the Takahē at the sanctuary - huge black things with orange beaks. Very prehistoric-looking.  The babies are smaller and fluffy. (Takahe baby and adult in photo) 

We checked into our hotel at Te Anau, and we were signed up to tour another set of Glow Worm caves. I went along, but John decided to sit this one out. We walked over to the tour company, and boarded a boat to ride up the lake to the caves. This time, they showed us a video of what the fly larvae actually look like (and how they make their 'traps', ewwww) before taking us down into the caves. These caves aren't as old as one we went to on the north island, and the walkways were much rougher to traverse. At the back of the cave, in total silence and darkness, we boarded a shallow boat and went deeper into one of the caves to see the glow worms. This one definitely had more little glowy dots... but the other cave (and the other guide) was much more fun. I told John he didn't miss much. I did think the beach near the cave was pretty though (see pic).

More Friday pics

Saturday we were off to Milford Sound, with a stop at the Mirror Lakes on the way. There's a short walkway through the woods that gives visitors the chance to take photos. It's serene and lovely. The weather wasn't great (low clouds, drizzle, fog) but the photos are still stunning. (see pic at left)

We weren't prepared for how jaw-dropping Milford Sound is -- it's been called the 8th Wonder of the World. It's part of Fiordland National Park. Another place that sees thousands of tourists every day - and gd bless the bus drivers, because the road to the visitors center/boat launch is seriously treacherous. We boarded the Haven (~120 ft boat, holds about 150 ppl), found our reserved seating, and were given our box lunches. The boats look pretty big until you're out there on the water and being utterly dwarfed by the looming peaks above. John spent the majority of the cruise out on the top deck taking pictures. He was "in his element." I mostly sat and chatted with the ladies on the tour and took some photos from the windows. Plus, I knew John would take hundreds of pics and videos, so was happier to just take it all in. 

If you look closely in this pic, you can *barely* see some of the other boats that were out there with us. (on the left at the base of the dark mountain). Yes, some LOTR scenes were filmed in Milford sound too. It was just stunning. 

 

More Saturday pics

Sunday, we left Te Anau and headed for Dunedin. But there was a very important stop along the way - in Mandeville, at the Aviation Center, John was scheduled to go for a ride!  One of the optional excursions was a flight in a WWII Tiger Moth plane. This was John's other birthday present. The aviation center supplied him with a leather bomber jacket and leather helmet, and off he went in the front seat of this little yellow plane (See pic), with the pilot in the back. They flew around for about 30 minutes. I took some photos and video, and tried not to be distracted by the gathering of English motorcycles that was coincidentally happening at the same time at the airfield. 

When he landed he had the biggest smile on his face! He said it was "bliss." John was the only one on the tour who went up in the plane. He would've gone again if they would've let him! 

Our next stop was the town of Gore, which had yet another giant creature for photos - a massive trout! We also toured the Old Hokonui Moonshine Museum and got a little taste. Whooeee! That was strong stuff. We decided not to buy any.  

We checked into the Distinction Hotel in Dunedin, and were pleasantly surprised to find that there are laundry machines (and supplies) in every room! (This was half-way through the tour, and perfect timing for laundry.) 

More Sunday pics

Monday started week 3 of the vacation, and week 2 of the big tour.