Akaroa, a quaint village (population 650, 33% being seniors), 80Km from Wellington, was first settled by NZ'a indigenous Maori,who were Polynesian settlers arriving by canoe in the 1200's. Long complicated story made short: the British arrived in the 1800's, skirmishes ensued, treaties were formed, French arrived a short time later, having bought part of the…

This is a busy cruise, with port calls almost every day. Today put us in the capital of New Zealand, Wellington. It was a beautiful day, not living up to its Windy Wellington reputation, in this reasonably sized city (population 412,500) with a manageable pace of life. We rode the famous cable car, of the…

Our next port was Napier, the Art Deco city. The city's architecture was "revitalized" after the great earthquake of 1931. What survived the quake, burned to the ground. The municipal  powers-that-be took advantage of the opportunity to start from scratch.  They researched current architectural style and liked the Deco design that allowed them to incorporate…

Riding back through the Marlborough wine country to the airport in Blenheim, we left the magical South Island by prop jet to Aukland. We'll board Holland America's Noordam in the afternoon. The sailing  of our ship was moved up to an earlier time so there was no room for delay or we'd have had to…

Last night's sleep was really good. Lulled by the sound of the water in the bay it was like sleeping on a ship, only better still, it wasn't moving. Brekkie was once again, an OSM bar and yogurt. The owner of the resort dropped us off at the track, saving us we figured an additional…

Queen Charlotte track – Day 3 of hiking Due to yesterday's torrential rain, our rest day and time limitations, we water taxied to Torea Saddle to begin the day's hike. I did my honest best to convince C to take one of two alternative routes in order to avoid some 20+degree grades and 400 meters…

Can you imagine a rest day, after just two days of hiking? Last year our first rest day was after ten days! It was a good decision, though, given the torrential rain and heavy winds. Those scheduled to walk today skipped the next section due to slippery, wet, windy conditions with poor visibility and no…

Today was supposed to be the same distance, but much easier. Reminded us of a hike we did when we first arrived in Canada, one a neighbour told us we could do in our “high heeled slippers.” To hardcore BC and NZ trekkers, that translates to 10-20 degree inclines and gullible hikers. It wasn’t bad…

15-20k depending upon whose gps you trust. When reading the official website this sentence keeps coming to mind: “the QCT is not so much a steep track, but a long one…” I want to meet the person who wrote that as I believe they reversed their descriptors. It should read it is not a long…

Wifi, finally, so here starts coverage of our big down under adventure: a four day trek on New Zealand’s Queen Charlotte Track followed by a 15 day cruise around NZ then over to Australia. I was so apprehensive about the hike, given that the plan was to fly 14 hours on Oct 29, on the…