The Frolicers: We visit the Land of Kiwis

the gardens at the hotel

Carl loves the pool

On Tuesday, Aug. 19, we headed to Australia to visit Carl’s brother, Alan, and his family with a side trip to New Zealand. We left MO. at 6:00am and we got to LAX at 10 AM, but since our flight to NZ wasn’t until 11 PM we went to a hotel for the day. The Travel Lodge was a 1950s design and decor and a great pool that we swam in before taking a nap then out to the airport. We finally arrived in NZ at 4:30pm on Thurs. Aug. 21. A long trip, many hours in the air!!

Our Van the "All Blacks"
The New Zealand rugby team

We rented a Wicked Van as it was cheap, $30/day, but didn’t realize they had not only weird paint jobs, but also some controversial saying painted on the vans. They have a rep of renting to younger back backers, whose disregard for the local population has not helped the reputation. We got the most conservative paint job we could, The All Black, which is their national rugby team. It was a great van as the big game between Australia and New Zealand was during the week we were there, and New Zealand won.

Some scenery in NZ

We feed cattle on the way

At the first camp site I saw an ad for a tour of Lord of the Rings film sites so I signed us up. I gave her the credit card and found out I had signed up for an all day $250/person trip! A bit more expensive than I had thought, but we were signed up so the next morning we met the driver and found out we were the only ones on the tour, so we had a private tour drive of 4 hours with a stop at the Big Salmon for breakfast.

Edoras was on top of the rock and
the town was at the foot at the right

Leslie stands where the entrance was

At the film site for Edoras of the Riders of the Rohan, nothing was left, but we saw pictures of what it looked like when they were filming and then hiked up to see the site. It was quite spectacular scenery, but only took us 30 minutes to hike and we were back at the tour van, where Carl found out it was the only site we were going to on the tour. We had a sword fight with some props and a champagne lunch. Then it was 4 hours driving back to the camp site through beautiful lightly touched fields, hills and farmland.

We drink champagne at the site

We sword fight at the site

A bueatiful island on the way back

The big Salmon stop

vinyards on the way

Carl meets a woman

We only had 5 days in New Zealand so we didn’t see as much as we would have liked. We definitely will have to go back and climb the glacier as it was a three day round trip from our campsite. On the drive to Hanmer Springs we stopped and did some wine tasting. They have a vineyard area with a lot of wineries. At one we met a group of ladies traveling the tasting trail in a cute customized van.

The wine tasting room

inside the "wine mobile"

The ladies "wine mobile"

Three different temp hot tubs

some of the hot tubs

We spent a day in the hot springs at Hanmer which was great! They have water slides and a dozen hot pools of different temperatures, and it was only $15/ person/day. We met a group of people heading to the US Antarctic Station. It sounds like an exciting experience. Maybe I’ll apply. There was also some hiking just outside the town so we hiked up a hill at the edge of town. The view was spectacular!

The view from the hill into the valley

The life guard thought it was colder
than Leslie did

steams between the pools

Carl enjoyed the water slides

Leslie with Admiral Byrd

Leslie in the streets during the 1800s

We also toured Christchurch and saw the damage caused by the earth quake of 2011 and the museum about them, there were 2 that year. There is also a free museum about the history of Christchurch which has a replica of a street in Christchurch in the 1800s among other exhibits.

Leslie got shock socks

The church damaged by the quake

Leslie and our van

Leslie boards the cross island train

The view on the ride

We took an all day train ride across the south island and back that was great! They had a narrative about the area throughout the ride and we had about an hour to walk around Greymouth, the end of the train ride. At the top of the Southern Alps, Arthur Pass, we had to add two engines to go down through a steep tunnel which was the longest tunnel in the world when it was built to connect the East to West coast. It is still the 4^th longest tunnel in the world.

Athurs pass the high point of the trip

they add an engine to the train

Some of the mountains

one of the lakes

A yatch club on the lake

our tain winds through the valley

An antartic cat

The cat obstacle course

We turned in the Wicked Van and took a taxi to the airport early so we could go to the Antarctic museum. New Zealand is the staging area for many Antarctic explorations and stations. The museum is really neat! We took a ride on an arctic cat through an obstacle course that demonstrates the abilities of the cat. We also went in a room that simulates an Antarctic storm. They gave you clothes to wear in there as it was really cold!