Three weeks in New Zealand requires nothing less than a 6 berth Campervan. This thing was wonderful to travel around in (mostly because it was a manual and I couldn't drive it) but also because we could stop anywhere and have a meal, snacks were always on hand and it came with a TV/DVD player for the kids.
New Zealand is perfectly set up for tourist traveling this way. All the holiday parks have showers, laundry facilities, and kitchens for you to cook and eat in.
And it is incredibly beautiful to tour.
Our first night we spent near Mount Cook at a holiday park on Lake Pukaki. The lake is stunningly blue with glacial water
Mount Cook
A stop along the way to Queenstown.
Milford Sound is in The Fiordlands in Southwestern New Zealand, it is amazing to see. The mountains go straight up from the waters edge and drop hundreds of feet below.
A waterfall in the Milford Sound, the captain brought the boat directly under the falls and we were all drenched, it was very cool and is suppose to bring good luck and fortune....we'll see.
Not to bad for a self portrait
Looking out over the water in the sound
We took a hike out to Diamond lake- we never reached Diamond lake (next pic will show why). It was a lovely walk along a creek. I always marveled at how clear the water is in New Zealand, no matter where we were we could see perfectly to the bottom. There was a sign at the beginning of the trail for fishermen- limit one per day. You certainly are not going to feed the family on that.
After this picture was taken hiking rule #1 was established
"Never follow Logan"
Logan was not paying attention to where he was going and missed this bridge. Heading into the mud below he did go.
Happy he was not.
The Mountains surrounding Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu
Not too bad of a teepee they built
Our campsite in Queenstown
In Wanaka we headed to Puzzling World- a very cool place of illusion rooms, puzzle rooms and a giant maze.
How did the kids get so big and Duey so small? Magic? No- it's an illusion- didn't I just tell you there were illusion rooms
This was the entrance to the bathrooms- A replica of a roman toilet room.
If you look to the left of the picture you can see where the real seats end and drawing begins.
At the top of Mount Iron- we hiked to the top with the kids. In the back is Lake Wanaka and Mount Aspiring National Park
It was during this hike that hiking rule #2 was established
"Never follow daddy's shortcuts"
Duey decided he and Chesney would take a shortcut down the mountain and beat Logan and I to the Camper- His shortcut took him to the other side of the mountain and he and Chesney had to hike back up and come down the proper trail. Good thing the mountain wasn't too big.
The clear nights led to some incredible star gazing.
That was week one of our trip in New Zealand- of course there are about 500 more pictures to show but you have to stop somewhere. Week two will be coming up shortly.
