Our unscheduled plane ride from Christchurch to the north island landed us in Rotorua. A very nice town right on Lake Rotorua with nice hotels and a very nice hot spring spa nearby. The first thing you notice about Rotorua is that no matter where you are, it smells like sulphur. But, our hotel room seemed to be immune to the smell which was a god send.

We no longer had our RVs so the Wagon Masters arranged for bus tours to the north island interesting venues. We did not get to see Wellington and Waitron or Napier, shown on my map as stops for our RV. But the tour company added several other visits that had not been on our schedule in the Rotorua and Taupo areas that made up for it. Thanks again Wagon Masters.

Our tour bus had a very unique rear engine cover. The air vents were the likes of the Kiwi bird, the bird of New Zealand. You have to stare at it a minute.

We visited a Russian husky raising farm. A couple over 70 years old raised huskies for competition and breeding. The noise from the huskies, as we arrived, was ear shattering for us older folks. I don’t know how the couple put up with it (or the nearby neighbours for that matter!). We got a very nice lecture from the husband about raising the huskies and where and when they raced while the wife went about getting them ready to race for us.

Here are a couple of short videos of the goings on during our tour.

The huskies in their pens getting ready to be hooked up. These huskies have little or no empathy towards humans. They are not mean, however. They cannot make the bond we see in dogs that we share our homes with. The trainers NEVER let a husky out of the cage or off a transfer leash. Once the dog is free, it is GONE.

I don’t see how the neighbours put up with the noise. Whatever. Getting the dogs from the kennel to their sled tow line.

The trainers use a tractor as a sled when there is no snow, which is most of the time, from what I understand. He simply keeps the tow line taught and lets them run.

We were driven to Lake Aratiatia on the Waikato River where we boarded a tour boat at the dam and motored about 2 hours up river to see the Hula Falls. The river come out of a very narrow steep rock walled canyon with Huka falls the result. The tour boat approached the falls and, similar to Niagara Falls, it approached the falls several times giving adequate time for romantic couples to take photos against the falls.

It is said that the canyon and falls were used in the Lord of the Rings movies. But since I never saw those movies, I don’t know.

We next went to Wairakei Thermal Health Spa. We dressed in our bathing gear and entered the multi-temperature thermal pools.

The pools were from 105 F to about 95 F as they travelled away from the thermal site. The photo below is the origin of the thermal water.

We next went to the Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland. This is a thermal area with probably hundreds of various thermal vents and formations. These are photos of the most interesting to me.

The first is a typical vent area with bubbling caldera at the bottom.

A panorama of the lake like caldera at the top of the area with jets of material shooting up giving us a perfect photo.

The most spectacular thermal stop, to me since I am red/green challenged, was this GREEN thermal pool.

Ending the thermal tour we were taken to the Lady Knox geyser. The sign at the entrance to the thermal wonderland stated the Lady Knox Geyser would be active at 10 AM every day except the days the thermal wonderland was closed. What? Geysers go off regularly on their own, not our our schedule. But, the reality is that this geyser actually goes off erratically. But historically it was found in the days of the nearby miners that came to bath and wash clothes found that putting soap into the geyser lowers the surface tension and allowed the geyser to do what it does on our schedule. So, an employee came out and made a little speech and proceeded to put soap into the geyser.

And then:

We had a day trip west of Rotorua. First stop was the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves. The photo below was the romantic place to take photos. So:

One curiosity in the cave was this pipe sticking out of the ceiling, shadowed above the guy in front of the light. The company that upgraded the caves to meet government safety and eco requirements drilled this pipe to supply the cave construction crews with wiring, food, etc. You look up the pipe 165 feet and you can see light from the other end as a small dot.

The glow worms appeared like this when the lights when lights are off.

If you take a time exposure, the filaments that the worms drop to capture food (who know what they eat) appear like this.

Our next stop was Hobbiton, the site of Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit movies. We had a couple come on this specific tour just to see Hobbiton. Of course the set has been upgraded and made a major tourist attraction where, they say, about 600,00 people visit a year. Some photos. See if you recognise any of these places.

Note: The tree at the top of the hill is man made from plaster and silk leaves and cost many many thousands of dollars to construct because Lucas wanted a tree there. Notice how much attention the tourists are paying to the guide in this short video.

In Rotorua, we were taken to a farm demonstration area. We had explained to us the various uses put to the sheep in New Zealand. There are 19 types of sheep with products from the finest wools in the world to the best eating and in between. Video show each type of sheep. Some are pretty weird.

We visited a Mitai Maori Village where warrior canoeing was demonstrated.

We witnessed, actually quite a good, performance from local native young performers of native dancing and “singing,” if you could call it that. But, it was very entertaining.

A few of our geriatric group tried the Zorb. So, you get inside this big plastic double walled ball with some water so it is slippery and then they push you down this mountain! They said it was very cool. We said, “ya, right!”

I made this map a little larger so you may be able to see the ferry boat icon adjacent to the water between the north and South Island.

WHAT HAPPEND AT PICTON?

Our 18 RV’s showed up on time at Picton so we could get up very early and drive to the ferry terminal, arriving at 6 AM. Our Wagonmasters showed up with long faces and informed us that there were 7 meter waves between the island and that the ferry had also broken down. We were scheduled to sail on April 2 but we could not be booked on the next ferry until April 10. On April 10 we were scheduled to fly out of Auckland, NZ, to Australia. That would not work.

Long story short, the Wagonmasters booked airline tickets for us on flights from Christchurch, NZ, where we started this RV tour, to Rotorua, NZ, on the north island. Wagonmasters surely have an iron constitution. So the next morning we packed up and drove to Christchurch to turn in the RVs and catch a plane early the next morning.

Anyway, a few photos from Picton.

Here I am leaving our RV in the Picton RV park.

Lynn and I met the group at the local Irish Tavern downtown and after a few eats and a nice drink listened to the walk in maestros. The man and woman with the blue windbreakers listening to the tunes are the Wagonmasters that handled our change in plan issue. For some reason he is smiling. Must have been the drink that evening.

Here is a view of the Picton harbor and the ferry that we would NOT ride to the North Island.

Ok. For the geek guys looking at this, hopefully they will enjoy this short plane take off movie clip. We rode a turboprop short haul aircraft from Christchurch to Rotorua that I thought would vibrate and be uncomfortable, but it was very pleasant, although quite small.

Westport was just another stop off point. But, on the way there along the beautiful NZ west coast we encountered the Pancake Rock and Blow Hole. The word Pancake comes from the layered rock formations at this location. The movie shows it well. The Blow Hole was a collapsed portion of the rock formation with an arched area that, at high tide, would act as a blow hole, which would have been cool to see, if we were there at high tide.

At the restroom there, we saw a sign that would be impossible to see in the USofA as of a few months ago. So sad!

The woman’s restroom was the same but I didn’t want to get caught taking a photo there, if you get my drift.

Alll in all, we really enjoyed our time here.

This was a flop! So, our next stop and next campground was at the famous Franz Joseph Glacier. Unfortunately, clouds and recent washouts made the adventure impossible. These photos/movies were the best we could do.

HOW DID 18 RV UNITS PULL OFF DRIVING 1200 MILES TOGETHER?

This is what 18 RVs looked like parked together. You would think that keeping them together, blocking the roads for every other car would be a miserable, and frankly probably illlegal.

But, this is how it worked. We each had a written turn by turn description of the daily route with the kilometre markers at each turn. Also, we had points along the route, like a MacDonalds for instance, that had kilometre markings in case we meandered off the route to visit something not on the route. That way you could recalibrate the kilometre readings, especially if you were good at math. Others, not so much.

Each evening or early morning we would meet and go over the next days or that days route with any changes noted from the same tour 6 weeks earlier. Each RV would leave when they wanted and take the route they wanted. Some would stop at zip lines, flower gardens, wineries or groceries. The ultimate target was for all units to show up at the next designated campground in the evening or at a specific time if there was something planned. By and large, all units did a great job!

So, at Franz Joseph, there wasn’t any Franz Joseph activity, so I tried talking to the cows across the fence from our RV. Their eyes were awful vacant so I gave up. Here is a poem I wrote years ago about that.

What Do Cows Do, Anyway?

Did you ever look into the eyes of a cow
Standing in a field, alone, chewing cud?
Ears striking vectors in the wind,
Tail cadenced with blowing grass.

If you wandered into a cow’s mind,
What would you find?
Thoughts of calves past,
or lovers pleasured or springtime
or expectations of coming feasts?
If left alone and unattended for time,
What would they add to the universe?
Hoof prints for young acheologists?
Cow pies for an explorer’s fire?

What DO cows do, anyway?

I don’t know what it is about cows, but here is one other poem I wrote about those beasts.

    The Cow

Standing heavily on all four legs
In the lush green of an irrigated summer,
She stands steady, solid, facing the north wind,
While her black leather thick coat quivers.

Her ears strike out at vectors in the wind,
Her tail counts cadence with the blowing grass,
She chews her cud, contemplating tomorrow,
While her black leather thick coat quivers.

Her deep black eyes circled by crescents of white,
Gaze out, past thin barbed wire strands,
Focused on the air before the mountain range,
While her black leather thick coat quivers.

Her mind wanders to places unfathomable to man,
Foggy space filled with golden heifer herds
And tall green alfalfa, and fields of dried corn,
While her black leather thick coat quivers.

Wanaka was a travel destination. There were some beautiful Lakes and narrow roads on mountain drives, on the left side of the road, of course. We did stop at one very beautiful valley and went for a hike to break up the trip.

Queensland is the recreation centre for New Zealand. There are plenty of other cool places to recreate but Queensland is must stop destination if you want to play. Also, it is very nice tourist town in itself. We experienced some of the adventures available there during the short time we were there.

I didn’t take a panorama of the city and setting but here is the still I took that gives and idea of the area. The mountains are just frictin beautiful.

You take a tram to the top of the mountain.

The luge ride is very popular. (Also, crazy folks take there bicycles to the top of the mountain and bike crazily to the bottom.)

Just a movie panarama of the Queenstown area.

Leaving Queenstown, we bussed out to this river for a jet boat ride. The drive was beautiful, down this winding canyon on a famous narrow dirt road, Skipper Canyon. The area was used to shoot some scenes in the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings movies.

The following is the most intense thing that I have ever done! Going 70 kmh (55 mph) down this river skimming close to obstacles, feeling close to death. Intense! The jet boat driver, black hat at the front left, owned the company and had been driving this river in the jet boats since he was 12 years old. It was awesome.

Same Jet Boat Ride from above.

In a nearby collection of mining paraphernalia, I found an original “Ball and Chain.” Much different the marriage Ball and Chain we are all used to (That is a joke).

We toured the vintage steamship TSS Earnslaw. It included a trip across the lake Wakatapiu, a few drinks, lunch at the Walker Peak BBQ, a sheep shearing show including trained sheep dog performance. Here are a few photos/movies from that excursion.

The Earnslaw is an actual working steamship. Of all things, they allow tourists, men (cause women generally aren’t interested, right?), to enter the engine room watching the actual operation during start, sailing and docking. There are three men operating all the valves as the captain signals with bells and ship speed indicators what he needs. I could not get enough of this, personally. On ship mate actually stocked the fires with shovel and sinew to keep the thing going. What a job.

Lunch destination, Walker Peak BBQ

Lynn and I cannot say enough about Queenstown. It is beautiful, the scenery is gorgeous, activities are many. You can helicopter ride, airplane tour, paraglide and many many more. Need more time there!

We were bussed around Dunedin and our first stop was “The Steepest Street In The World.” (What?) Baldwin Street. Of course about 1/3 of the folks in the bus attempted the climb, including Lynn and I. Of course, Lynn was always right up front.

I made it to the top but was not the freshest I have ever been!

Out of a bus tour with 36 people, this is the group that made it to the top of Baldwin Street and Lynn and I were there!

Toured the University of Otago in Dunedin

Next we were bussed out to the Larnach Castle and Garden. The castle is owned by a woman over 80 years old who still actively gardens on the vast land on top of the mountain overlooking the large harbor. We took a docent guided tour of the interior of the castle and learned how folks int the 1800’s lived. I photographed a panoramic scene from the roof.

We had a romantic moment.

One of our stops while driving from campground to campground was the Moeraki Boulders. We wondered why we were stopping to look at boulders. Well, these were the strangest things we had ever seen. It is amazing how nature creates things that seem impossible.

HOW WE TRAVELED.

Each night our wagon masters reserved RV spaces for 18 rigs in various campgrounds along our route. Either the night before or that morning we all would meet and go over the written driving instructions for the next leg of travel. Each RV left on their own and traveled along the route given or they could go on any route they choose. Each unit was expected to show up at the next RV park that evening. Sometimes we had a scheduled event that evening and we got stressed to make it on time. During the entire trip, all the units had no problems with our schedule, even if a unit got lost that day. They always seemed to find their way to the campground that night.

Christchurch turned out to be a great jumping off place for air and passenger travel to stations on the Antarctic continent. Adjacent to the airport is the International Antarctic Centre that provides experiences for tourist. Below, are photos and videos from our experience there.

A retired Artic vehicle and personal carrier (partial vehicle) that tour guides drove us tourists through the obstacle course in the rear of the facility.

Video of the obstacle course ride showing the ability of the vehicle to traverse crevasses.

We got to experience what it is like in the Antarctic during a severe windstorm. We put on over clothes and went into a very cold room with snow and ice on the floor. For, I think, 5 minutes they turned on the fans at a temperature of 14 degrees F to let us experience foul weather.

You can see the snow on the floor. Their rooms was freezing. Unfortunately, I took a movie inside the room during the demonstration and I can’t find it. It was a great experience, however.

Our first breakfast meal in Christchurch after arrival. Streaky bacon and eggs. We call bacon strips. They say streaky bacon. Anyway, the breads in NZ were wonderful, for some reason. The tomato is served at all breakfasts, which is British origin. In all, we liked the freshness and organic nature of most NZ foods. Fish from the surrounding ocean. Cattle now make up about 50% of grazing animals taking over for the past where it was sheep almost 100%. We enjoyed the food in NZ much better than Australia.