Kia Ora! Welcome to the New Zealand Travel Stories. Within these pages, you can read selected stories and musings about the honeymoon that turned our waterfall hunt into a worldwide affair. Hopefully, you'll find these stories entertaining and educational. Perhaps you might get a good laugh at our expense, or you might find some nuggets that you can apply to your own travels.
Thumb through the travel stories below. They are arranged chronologically with the most recent escapade at the top. Enjoy :)
Ch- Ch- Ch- Changes: I guess our sentiment that this place was rather "Dead As" was challenged when we happened to witness some hideous shouting of two Maori gangs hurling insults and even bottles at each other. It looked like some Maori females from a block away started heading in the direction of the commotion to join the fray. Even one guy chased a car that was leaving the hullabaloo. Shortly thereafter, some cops showed up and handcuffed two Maori girls... [read more]
Whale Of A Way To Start The New Decade: While the dolphins were still putting on a show, the tour time was running out. So that prompted our Maori MC to call out over the loud speaker for everyone to return to their seats. Of course, no one was exactly rushing to do it, so that prompted our MC to say, "I know it's difficult to leave the dolphins and return to your seats, but one thing I do know is that all of you can hear me..." [read more]
Putting Our Book To The Test: Sometimes Mother Nature dictates what and when you can do any activities, and today was certainly not one of those days where you could do anything. We'll just have to cross our fingers and hope tomorrow turns out better... [read more]
Picking Up Where We Left Off: Unfortunately, it appeared that either our GPS died or our software on the computer wasn't behaving correctly. Both of us were royally bummed that we wouldn't be able to trip log and navigate with our GPS/netbook combo. It's strange how it always seems that something goes wrong in every one of our trips. And I guess this was the bit of adversity we were faced with this time... [read more]
The Soggy Sojourn along the Milford Track: My hands were numb from the icy rain and frigid cold. The opportunistic keas were all around us looking to steal food and didn't seem to mind the weather. With the rain coming down harder and the cold seeming to cut right through our layers of wet clothing like a knife, we had beat a hasty retreat into the Pass Hut Shelter. I knew this region was one of the rainiest in the world and they sure weren't kidding... [read more]
The Sound of Silence: Snow was coming down as we made our way into the Doubtful Sound. It was the last week of November, which is like the last week of May back in the States, but it was really weird to see snowflakes piling on top of dense rainforests. I was concerned that the unseasonable and unstable weather would kill our viewing experience, but as the bus driver turned into pullout, we were blown away by what we saw... [read more]
On Thick Ice: It had been pouring rain since yesterday. We worried that this would cancel our pre-booked heli-hike on the thick ice of the Franz Josef Glacier. Given the low-lying clouds and poor visibility, the outlook was rather iffy. So we anxiously waited along with tens of other people hoping we'd get to do our very first glacier walk... [read more]
Just in Time for Sunset at the Pancake Rocks: We had a lot of ground to cover today. Starting off from Hamilton, we had to drive a couple of hours north to Auckland. There, we had to return the hired car, catch a shuttle to the airport, fly to Christchurch, pick up another car hire, then make our way to Greymouth via the Lewis Pass. I wasn't sure we were going to make it to the Pancake Rocks in time for sunset - especially given our Maui rental car snafu experience and the probability it will rain on the South Island's West Coast...
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The Journey Through Mordor along the Tongariro Crossing: The weather report had predicted bad weather until Friday. Unfortunately, it was Tuesday and I was worried our hoped-for Tongariro Crossing hike was in jeopardy. So I had to rearrange our plans. Obviously, it didn't look like the one-way shuttle hike was going to happen tomorrow so I thought we could explore the southern slopes of Mt Ruapehu in search of...[read more]
The Shortcut through Te Urewera National Park: When I planned out this trip, the one part that concerned me the most was the 120km stretch of unsealed road between Rotorua and Wairoa. Any number of things could go wrong when you're driving that deep into nature. Besides, I had read somewhere that this road tended to break up marriages as couples would argue after finding out it wasn't the shortcut one of them hoped it would be. Since Julie and I just married a week ago, I prayed this would not be our fate... [read more]
A Destination Wedding to Remember: When I look back at the photos taken by Susanna and her nephew, I still get misty-eyed. It was one of those rare times when all of my expectations were exceeded. I'll never forget the Tuscan hospitality and language lessons from Giorgio and Margherita. I'll never forget the genuine heartfelt music of Sasha and Natarani. The smiles on everyone's faces in Susanna's photos said it all. The risk that Julie and I took thinking outside the box to do this really paid off...[read more]
Pulled Over in Northland: After spending a few minutes at Rainbow Falls, we made our way over to the Kauri Coast. We headed west along SH12 when we had to follow a slow-moving truck. Such was the norm it seemed since New Zealand's roads were mostly two lanes and twisty. And so we merrily waited for an opportunity to pass the truck safely when a police car was suddenly in our rear-view mirror...[read more]
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