Our Southern Sojourn!

Trev and I are off to Melbourne for a couple of days, then the South Island of New Zealand, then back to Melbourne before flying home to Brisbane. Join us!! 😀😀😀 Read more

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Our Southern Sojourn!
Te Anau, Southland
September 24, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C
I adore this little town, the gateway to New Zealand's Fiordland. I'm so happy to be back and sharing its beauty with Trev.

Our accommodation, The Mayflower Cottage, is adorable and perfect for our needs. It's time to settle down after our big day and tomorrow is the lunch cruise around Milford Sound. I really hope this tour isn't cancelled due to the weather as well; there has been a fair amount of snow falling in the mountains in the South during our trip!!Read more
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Our Southern Sojourn!
Milford Sound, Fiordland National Park
September 25, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C
We had an amazing day today!! Milford Sound is not actually a Sound (which is carved out by a river), it's a Fjord as it was carved out during several Ice Ages.

We travelled with Cheeky Kiwi Tours and our driver and guide, Jeff was fantastic! Highly recommended! Jeff explained how the landscape ended up like it is, also with the Maori legends explanation and what it was like working on the Lord of the Rings trilogy with the aerial photography The other people we were travelling with were a mixture of Australian, New Zealand locals and Americans and we all got on famously! They were awesome!!

On the way up, we stopped at Mirror Lakes because of the way the Lakes reflect the towering snow capped mountains behind and Gunn Lake. Pure pristine beauty.

We had a lovely trip up and back, playing in the snow, looking at evidence of very recent snow avalanches, waterfalls, pristine rivers, the jade green of the Sound (indicating a lot of freshwater on the surface of the water) vs the darker blue of the Tasman Sea (indicating salt water).

We saw Kea's, Weka's, New Zealand Fur Seals basking in the sun, Fiordland Crested Penguins (third rarest in the world,) and Bottlenose Dolphins. We were very lucky to see all three 😄😄😄 What a magical day!!

Part Two is next!Read more
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Our Southern Sojourn!
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Part Two of Milford Sound
September 25, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 4 °C
Suzie Holland Kea
9/25/24Reply
Suzie Holland Bottlenose Dolphin
9/25/24Reply
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Our Southern Sojourn!
Part Three of Milford Sound
September 25, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C
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Our Southern Sojourn!
Our Last Day in Te Anau
September 26, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C
Our last tour we had booked from Australia for the Glowworm Cave Tour was cancelled due to the amount of rain and snow that the area received. It was raining here for most of the day so we stayed in and watched movies until the rain stopped 😀😀

When we ventured out, we went for a walk by the lake which was just lovely and very cold!Read more
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Our Southern Sojourn!
Cardrona, Otago
September 27, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 3 °C
What a gorgeous place! This was a gold mining village half way between Queenstown and Wānaka and the Cardrona Hotel (where we are now) is one of the oldest in New Zealand, built in 1863.

It's also home to the Cardrona Alpine Resort which attracts families, Olympic and X Games athletes. Looks pretty good, might go!!

Cardrona even has a Bra Fence!! I have donated one of mine!!Read more
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Our Southern Sojourn!
Wānaka, Central Otago
September 27, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C
We stopped off at Wānaka to get supplies for Makarora as there aren't any stores for provisions there. Adorable!!!
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Our Southern Sojourn!
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Makarora, Mt Aspiring National Park
September 27, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 4 °C
This area is absolutely gorgeous with forests of native beech trees, mosses, ferns, mountain daisies and various grasses. The birdsong is so beautiful.

We are staying at the Makarora Wonderland Lodge in a Swiss-style chalet with snow capped mountains surrounding us and it truly is a wonderland here.

The stars are going to be so beautiful and clear tonight 💜💜💜💜Read more
Suzie Holland Do do do, looking out my front door!! 😀😀😀
9/27/24Reply
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Our Southern Sojourn!
Bushwalk 😀😀😀😀
September 27, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 3 °C
We went on a bushwalk 😀 We had no idea where we would end up 🤣🤣🤣 Our walk took us through old growth forest with beech trees, mosses, ferns, vines, bubbling creeks, waterfalls and birdsong with a backdrop of snow capped mountains.

We came out back onto the road 4.5km later and it was lovely! Well worth it!Read more
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Our Southern Sojourn!
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Puzzling World, Wānaka (Part 1!)
September 28, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C
What a wonderful and fun way to spend the day! It's advertised as Wānaka's Wonderful World of Weirdness and it lives up to this name!! It celebrated its 50th year in 2023 😀😀😀

Six rooms - Glow Safari, Tilted House, Hall of Following Faces, The Ames Illusion Room, Sculptillusion Gallery and Paradox Lane - are designed to challenge the mind (is seeing really believing??!!) and the Great Maze - challenges the mind, the senses, the body and advises that 'the maze is designed to be achievable before total desperation sets in'! I think Trev and I weren't too far off or went beyond it - it was too hot to work out which it was!!

The objective was to find all four towers of green, red, blue and yellow and get to the exit and we found all four towers and the exit! Yay us!!

The cafe even has puzzles on the tables to challenge yourself before, during and after lunch. It was so much fun!!

Afterwards, we made our way into Wānaka and had gelato by the lake and went back to Makarora. On our way to Franz Josef tomorrow.Read more
Suzie Holland I have this in common with Puzzling World!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
9/28/24Reply
TravelerHow cool
9/28/24Reply
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Our Southern Sojourn!
Puzzling World (Part 2!)
September 28, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C
Second lot of photographs from Puzzling World 😀😀😀
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Our Southern Sojourn!
Makarora River
September 29, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 3 °C
We were going to go to the Blue Pools, however the council is working on a new bridge to the Pools and I didn't want to risk being injured on a work site, so we did the bush walk along the Makarora River. So beautiful!!Read more
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Our Southern Sojourn!
Fantail Falls
September 29, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 4 °C
Spectacular and we made Cairns 💜💜💜💜
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Our Southern Sojourn!
Knight's Point, West Coast
September 29, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C
Hi all, Trev making a rare post. We had a quick stop to check out the view of the Tasman ocean from the spectacular Knight's Point. Only slightly impacted by the American tourists repeatedly commenting how "it looks like California".

Matters improved greatly after they left!!!Read more
Suzie HollandThen they started singing Red Hot Chili Peppers 'Californication'! Cringe!!! 😂😂😂😂
9/29/24Reply
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Our Southern Sojourn!
Franz Josef, West Coast
September 29, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C
Hello from Franz Josef!!! Here we are on the West Coast of South Island, New Zealand and our accommodation is lovely 😀 Rainforest Retreat is nestled in old growth forest and while our accommodation is not what we had booked (long story and management will be advised just before or after we leave) it's still lovely 😀😀😀Read more
TravelerIncredible
9/30/24Reply
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Our Southern Sojourn!
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Franz Josef Glacier & Sentinel Rock
September 30, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C
After a late-ish start, Trev and I went to see the glacier and found that the path to the glacier viewpoint (where, in 2016, I was able to walk across the valley and rivers to go to a much closer glacial viewpoint) had been washed away after a big storm in 2019. We went as far as we safely could and then went to Sentinel Rock, not far away 😀😀😀😀 Still absolutely gorgeous!

We were watching the helicopters taking people to the higher points on the glacier and surrounds which gave us an idea....Read more
Suzie Holland View from Sentinel Rock
9/30/24Reply
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Our Southern Sojourn!
Glacial Helicopter Ride!!
September 30, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C
Our brilliant idea was to see if we can get our own helicopter ride to the glacier! Today was a beautiful sunny day and we hadn't booked any flights so we thought it was a bit of a longshot but we tried anyway!

There are several helicopter companies in Franz Josef and we looked into Glacier Country Helicopters and were lucky enough to book a 25 minute flight with snow landing! $325 each and we were on our way! Well worth every cent and so glad we did it!! I got to sit in the front even!! 😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀 One of the best 25 minutes of my life!! 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜Read more
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Our Southern Sojourn!
Glacial Helicopter Ride Pt 2!!
September 30, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C
We travelled from the heliport to the Middleton Glacier and landed there!! We walked on a glacier! We flew over the top of Franz Josef Glacier and saw the crevasses and ice caves. Such beauty!!! We saw Aoraki/Mt Cook and Mt Tasman right in front of us 💜💜💜💜💜💜 I got a bit too curious about a hole in the glacier and was called back....it was a 20ft deep cravass!! Oops!!!Read more
TravelerWow
9/30/24Reply
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Our Southern Sojourn!
Glacial Helicopter Ride Pt 3!!
September 30, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C
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Our Southern Sojourn!
West Coast Wildlife Centre
September 30, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C
We saw Rowi Kiwi's!! These are the rarest Kiwi's in the world with less than 600 in their population. We couldn't take photos as they are nocturnal creatures. So beautiful 💜💜💜💜

There were wonderful glacier displays informing how a glacier is formed and gorgeous dinosaur-related Tuatara!! They are adorable!! 😀😀😀😀Read more
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Our Southern Sojourn!
Hokitika Gorge
October 1, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C
Old growth forest and a beautiful turquoise blue glacial river 🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵 This is perfect!!
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Our Southern Sojourn!
Pancake Rocks, Punakaiki
October 1, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C
This is the most north we are going on this trip 😀😀 These rocks are 35 million years old and I got to touch them!! Wooooo!! The rocks are eroding every day and no one knows for sure why the rocks have formed themselves this way - however there are theoriesRead more
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Our Southern Sojourn!
Arthur's Pass, Selwyn District
October 1, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C
This is so beautiful! We are back in the Southern Alps (my favourite place I think!) and it's perfect 💜

Our second last night in this amazing country and we are in the bar (named The Crafty Moa!) of the Bealey Hotel (established 1865), our accommodation, where we have a gorgeous little studio apartment, playing cards near the fire at table 42. Perfect!

We just had a lovely walk by the Waimakariri River and I have read that gold was discovered here in 1864.Read more
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Our Southern Sojourn!
Methven/ Mount Hutt Village
October 2, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C
We wanted to go to Mt Hutt to the ski area, however the road was closed, so we went to the Village instead for a little break 😀 Cute little village
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Our Southern Sojourn!
Christchurch
October 2, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
We are staying at the Novatel Christchurch Airport and it's in a perfect location - right next to the airport. I saw a gorgeous Emirates A380 take off right in front of me 💜💜💜 We had a lovely dinner at the Food Exchange restaurant on level 6 and came back and watched a movie. 9 hours left in New Zealand. We will be back! 😀😀😀😀😀Read more
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