Tuesday, March 11, 18:53 (our itinerary) Our “down day” was wonderful. The day began with rain, and showers were forecast to last all day, but after some indecision we decided to go back to Matai Bay. A school group was there, but we hiked to the far end of...

Monday, March 10, 21:25 (our itinerary) When we board the plane home on Friday, there’s going to still be so much that we’d like to have done, but we’re trying hard to keep in mind that we’ve seen and done more than we dreamed possible a few years ago....

Sunday, March 9, 07:10 (our itinerary) We’re down to our last week now, and have mixed feelings about that. We both miss our home, our family and our friends, but we are really going to miss New Zealand – the land and the people. The weather has turned gorgeous,...

Tuesday, March 4, 06:45 (our itinerary) We’ve been in Wellington the past couple of days, touring, visiting with friends and their families, and in an hour or so we’ll be heading north. Internet access has been less common than I had expected, but that’s partly because of the region...

Monday, Feb. 25, 21:20 (our itinerary) The past 24 hours or so has been incredibly varied, and it’s been planned as by far the most expensive 24 hours of our trip. Last night we went to the Mitai Maori cultural show and hangi, an extremely good and varied series...

Sunday, Feb. 24, 17:20 (our itinerary) The storm intensified overnight, and waking up in Mt. Maunganui was not a particularly pleasant experience. There were still lots of joggers on the boardwalk in front of us, though – the locals seemed to be little bothered by a tropical storm. Although...

Saturday, Feb. 23, 17:17 (our itinerary) Mt. Maunganui is hugely popular with Kiwis, but doesn’t show up very often on the itineraries of international travellers. When we arrived, we didn’t have high hopes, but we’re having a great time here. A strong tropical depression has given us screaming winds...

Friday, Feb. 22, 21:10 (our itinerary) Here we sit in our cozy little motorhome in Mt. Maunganui, on the edge of one of New Zealand’s best surfing beaches (that’s our rig on the right). It’s very windy and we’re just listening to the surf and wind now, but for...

Cathy and I got married at Cathedral Cove, one of the most spectacular remote beaches in New Zealand (it’s also known by its Mauri name, Te Whanganui-A-Hei). While we were sorry that we couldn’t have had some of our family and friends with us, it was a perfect day...

The city was very quiet on our first day because it was Sunday. Yesterday was very different, but we weren’t downtown much anyway. At 9:00 we met the shuttle bus for Kelly Tarlton’s Antarctic Encounter & Underwater World. This was one of Cathy’s must-sees, and I’m now glad it...