The Best of New Zealand and Australia

I've spent the last week recalling amazing experiences listed on the blog, so I figured I would detail the highlights and areas for improvement here.

For starters, New Zealand and Australia were both AMAZING! We were in Colin's hometown this past weekend and he said, "I can't believe I was just in New Zealand and Australia, and now I'm back home where I grew up." Well said, Colin. It's incredible to think that we followed through on a plan so large as a trip across the world. How many people get to do something like that in their lifetime?? It is a blessing to be able to afford a trip, in good health, with my life companion.

The question I am always asked is, "which country did you like better?" It's really hard to say, actually. New Zealand just has such incredible natural beauty, plus the dollar did go a lot farther! Australia is so overwhelming. We barely scratched the surface of what there was to see.

Here are my favorite places/photos in New Zealand:


Mount Cook: The grass really is this green, the sky this blue, and the snow this white! It was amazing to be among all this beauty at once!


Everywhere in New Zealand: Farming as it should be with sheep, cows, and deer all feeding on the grass, which has been nourished by the sun and the rain. And the rainbows had such vibrant colors. We were always tempted to look for the pot of gold on either end!


Abel Tasman National Park: I cannot believe we actually kayaked in the beauty of this water and enjoyed this amazing beach.


My favorite places/photos of Australia are:


Whitsunday Islands: Sailing to Whitehaven Beach, especially when the motor was off and we were 100% powered by the wind. How exhilarating!! Whitehaven Beach was also impressively beautiful, except for the stingers.


Great Barrier Reef: snorkeling among the largest coral formation in the world was amazing. I can't even begin to think of how small the area we explored is compared to the 1,600 miles of the reef exist.


Fraser Island: The best two days in Australia came with some swimming in the lakes of the largest sand island in the world. The waters were immaculate, the sand was like powder, and best of all is that you could swim in it!!


Australia Zoo: My favorite animal from the trip is the Koala. It has the softest fur - which I did get to pet - and has the cutest face! The dolphins in New Zealand come in at a close second place!

If I were to do this trip all over again, with the same amount of time at the same time of the year, I would only have changed the Australia part of the trip. Because Colin and I both love the beach and the ocean, I would not have flown to Cairns, but rather to Brisbane, from New Zealand. The tropical north and all its rainforest's were wonderful, but not so much in the middle of their summer. Not being able to swim in the waters was a bummer. I would have flown to Brisbane, possibly not rented a car, and taken a 2-3 day trip (flight) to the Whitsunday Islands in northeastern Australia. That way, perhaps we would have had some time in the Sunshine and Gold Coasts (where we could have swam). We really needed another full week in Australia to slow our pace down and relax more like we did in New Zealand (not that we chilled out very much there either!). Slowing down would have allowed some time to observe our surroundings and possibly see Koalas and Kangaroo in their natural habitat. Oh, to be a European with their 3 month holidays! Wouldn't that be nice?

Non-Miami Dolphins

This video was taken in Milford Sound, New Zealand. I think the dolphin was having more fun than I was having.

Last day in New Zealand - January 7, 2010

Welp, we checked out what Christchurch had to offer. The city has a modern feel to it without losing some of its late-1800s feel. Most of the buildings and streets were clean. Even the older buildings were skillfully maintained.



Christchurch had a welcoming park centralized downtown. This “central park” included, among others, a meandering stream, national museum, and botanical gardens. The stream allowed for canoeing, kayaking, and “punting” (think Venetian boats). We didn’t do any of the stream activities, though they seemed decent.

Instead, we visited the Canterbury Museum and botanical gardens. The Canterbury Museum was pretty commonplace, as far as museums go. The Museum had interesting exhibits about Pacific/Antartic exploration from the Polynesians to Captain Cook. The botanical gardens were similarly mediocre; roses, native fauna, etc.

Literally stopping to smell the roses:




Colin at the Peace Bell in the garden:


We also stopped into the cathedral located in the city’s central square. Meh. I’ll take St. Patrick’s or St. John the Divine. You could probably fit Christchurch’s cathedral inside the walls of St. John the Divine. I guess Christchurch gets a pass for being about 1/30 the size of NYC.




For the remainder of the day we putzed around Christchurch. I should note that we stopped into the Public Library. I was pretty impressed with the Library’s facilities and its free Wifi. Well played Christchurch.

We couldn’t putz around too much because we had to catch a flight out of Christchurch to Auckland. This flight ultimately marked the end of our time in NZ. The goodbye was messy because our flight from Christchurch to Auckland left Christchurch at 8:20PM and arrived in Auckland at about 9:40PM. That, itself, is not too bad. The bad part came when we had to catch another flight from Auckland to Cairns, Australia, at 6:45AM the next morning.

The dilemma we faced was whether to: (a) sleep (insufficiently and poorly) in the Auckland airport because we had to check-in for the international flight at 4:45AM; or (b) sleep (insufficiently) in a hostel located close to the Auckland airport. We chose option (b) because, as much fun as sleeping in airports can be, we figured eating the overnight stay cost to shower and sleep in a decent bed topped the other option.

In hindsight, I’m not sure we chose correctly. The hostel we stayed in was probably the most janky establishment we’ve stayed in so far. It gave hostels a bad name. And that’s saying something. Plus, though the hostel employee gave us a ride to and from the Auckland airport, he was delirious from sleep-deprevation (he spent all night picking up/dropping off other travelers). If we had stayed in the airport, we could have enjoyed playing with metal detectors, sleeping on the floor, and large bathrooms all to ourselves.

C’est la vie. NZ was exceptional. So much to do. So little time. Even less money. I highly recommend any part of NZ to any one who can swing the time/money. In fact, we might go with you.

On to Australia.

East Coast - January 6, 2010

Today brought a relatively relaxed itinerary. The first half of the day involved hiking the Queen Charlotte Track (“QCT”) in Marlborough Sound. Marlborough Sound is an extensive network of sounds (go figure) in the northeast corner of the South Island of NZ. The QCT enjoys recognition for being an approachable hike with some stunning vistas. (I think I’ve used “vista” more since being on this trip than in the past three years; part of sightseeing I guess.)

The entire QCT extends about 20-30 miles. A worthwhile multi-day trek to be sure, but we did only about 7 or 8 miles in total. We were able to mosey on over to the trail because we knew the hike would take only about 3 or 4 hours. We scheduled an advance return trip on a water taxi to allow us a longer trip. Basically, we would hike to a point and the water taxi would pick us up and return us to our destination, instead of worrying about the return hike.

The trail itself was well-maintained, which meant hiking it was a breeze. We were able to see some stunning views of the nearby sound.




In addition, we saw the ubiquitous national plant – the silver fern. You will notice it on the jersey of the All Blacks and other national affiliations. Silver ferns take their name from the color of the underside of the leaf being silver with the top being green, as most other ferns are.



Llamas, on the other hand, I don’t know what their deal is. I’m pretty sure they’re not any country’s national symbol, and I’m willing to bet they’re not on sports jerseys either. But, hey, they’re funny looking. Plus their names are spelled funny. Get a good laugh out of that picture, I’m sure llamas get made fun of by other animals too. (Donkey: “Don’t you realize you get made fun of by other animals for being bizarre looking and having a strange name? :::Snort::: Llama: “You’re an ass.”)




At the end of the hike we ate lunch in the picturesque Misteltoe Bay. Not much going on in Mistletoe Bay except the usual amazingly clear and beautiful emerald green water with stunning mountain profiles and surrounding vegetation. Yawn. If I had a dollar for every lake, sound, etc. that I’ve seen like that…





The water taxi scooped us up and returned us to where we started the hike. Along the way the water taxi treated us to a nice boat ride through the sound.

We saddled up our Toyota golf cart and began the 4 hour drive along the coast. Our destination was Christchurch, full circle from our sojourn on the South Island. Driving can be annoying. Nevertheless, the trip to Christchurch included a scenic ride alongside the eastern coast of the South Island.

This eastern coast was impressively beautiful. The east coast should be relatively similar to the west coast of the South Island. But because the east coast is on the other side of the South Island’s mountain range, the east coast receives much less precipitation. [See rainy/foggy pictures from 1/2/2010] In addition, I believe the coastal waters along the east are calmer. The waters certainly were today.



The coastal area around Kikoura was unbelievable. Heading north and east from the beaches will put you at about Fiji. Rougher surf would be expected, but the waves were tame and the seas were calm. Except for a few differences, including black sand, I figure this area probably resembles the Californian coast before extensive development. We even saw seals like out in Cali.



The drive finished with our arrival into Christchurch. We didn’t have a chance to partake in nighttime activities because the usual responsibilities (meal preparation/laundry) needed attention. We will check out Christchurch tomorrow.

Lounging on Onetahuti Beach - January 5, 2010

I would mislead if I stated that we “awoke” the morning after the day of six-hour kayaking and three-hour hiking. Rather, we basically just interrupted the cycle of disturbed resting. The sun had risen and slightly warmed the air and we eagerly awaited the goal of relaxing on one of the beaches we frequently passed as we kayaked and hiked.

Breakfast on the beach:


So we departed our beloved campground:


But a little more hiking was in store before we could lounge on a beach. From our campsite, we hiked another two hours to the beach at Onetahuti.



The hike difficulty and vistas were similar to those experienced the day before.

The beach was welcomed and (somewhat) hard earned. We threw our bags on the sand, set our towels, and lounged. The sun was intense and I was sweating from the hike, so I figured I should cool myself off in the beautiful teal water. As I submerged myself I realized that the water temperature had overshot my attempt at cooling off and brought me right to freezing. I’ve been in cold waters before (Lake Champlain, the Atlantic out of season, etc.) and my inexact internal water thermometer would put that water at about 62 degrees. Such temperatures bring the swimming experience away from refreshingly cool to numbingly cold.

All was not lost. We still soaked up some intense sun for a solid three hours before our beach taxi arrived to return us back to the launching station in Marahau.




Once back in our car we packed up and made our way to the next stop in Havelock. The drive was a paltry 2 hours.

The hostel we booked turned out to be one of the nicer establishments we have stayed in so far. The town of Havelock is a small hamlet with not much going on beside the self-proclamation of being the green-shelled mussel capital of the world. I have yet to verify that. The hostel, however, feels like a converted hotel from the turn of the 19th century. It’s only slightly renovated and doesn’t appear to have required much anyway.

Sea Kayaking in Abel Tasman National Park - January 4, 2010

Our patience in dealing with a few rainy days on the west coast was rewarded with a magnificent day today!! For all of you that read the blog and wished us better weather – THANK YOU! It was wonderful to have a day on the water in a beautiful park with the sun shining.

We started our day fairly early, arriving at the Marahau Sea Kayaking office at 8:30am. The adventure started with a 1.5 hour kayaking preparation lesson. When the guide started teaching us about how to get out of the kayak if we flipped, I got a little nervous.

Once we got our gear on, packed all our overnight stuff in the kayak (tent, sleeping bags, etc.) and finished the preparation talk, we were on our way for a full day of kayaking with our guide. Thankfully, we managed to get in a small group of 8 people (4 boats with 2 people each). After just 15 minutes in the water, the guide had all 4 kayaks in a row and we had a sail up pushing us along! It was fantastic! If the entire day of kayak was riding the wind with the sail, my body certainly would never get sore.

It was also our lucky day that we had the wind at our backs most of the way. The water was chilly when we hit some waves, or got wet with the water off the paddles, but for the most part, it was sunny and warm.

The guide led us along the coastline at Abel Tasman National Park from 10:30-12:30 and then we stopped at a beautiful beach to have lunch.



The lunch was surprisingly delicious! We had chicken sandwiches with picadilly sauce (which Colin really liked), fruit, juice, cookies, and an amazing piece of chocolate cake! After a meal like that, the last thing you want to do is continue kayaking. To help fight off food coma, Colin and I went on a short walk to a viewpoint to look down at the beach where we had lunch. This is our view:



The second half of the day was nice. We kayaked at a good pace, explored a lagoon (which later showed us the dramatic tide changes when it was completely empty!), and we even saw a penguin in the water! Unfortunately, the penguin dipped back into the water too quickly before I could get my camera. We finished kayaking at 3:30pm and proceeded to start the adventure for the second half of the day. We had to hike 12km to the next beach where our campsite was located. Since I felt all salty and sandy, we stopped at a freshwater lake where I was able to rinse off and change out of my bathing suit and into more appropriate hiking attire.



We were rewarded with some pretty amazing views along the hike and stopped a few times to rest our bodies, eat some snacks, and drink water. The hike was not difficult, but felt that way after kayaking all day and carrying about 20-30 pounds in our backpacks.

Once again, we were rewarded when we got to our campsite around 8pm and saw that it was just a few feet from the beach. We quickly put down our gear, set up our tent and had dinner. Before the sun set, we caught a few photos of low tide on the beach.





We tried to keep ourselves awake until 10:30pm, when the sky got completely dark to do some star gazing. I have NEVER seen so many stars out at night as I did in the park! There were so many clusters of stars they created a haze of white in places. Some stars where sparkling, others were just so bright. It was worth staying up for, that’s for sure!

Driving stories - January 3, 2009

Ah, another rainy day! Looks like the New Year has brought the Millers bad weather in New Zealand. As Colin mentioned yesterday, our hostel was a nice house situated in the middle of the rainforest. Since it was rainy and foggy, it was nice to relax in the evening and sleep in this morning. Our only plan for the day was to get ourselves to the northwest area of the south island called Abel Tasman National Park.



The fog was not as thick this morning, so we could see a bit more of the rough ocean. We decided to do a little cave exploration on our own after breakfast. It was exciting to finally use our headlamps for something other than sleeping in hostels. The cave had a marked “trail” in it, so it wasn’t really exploring on our own, but there was no guide with us. After the cave exploration, it was another quick walk to the beach before leaving the west coast.

During the drive we hit some really rainy sections, but as we got closer to the northwest it seemed to be clearing up a bit. We spent four hours driving, and reached our destination, a town called Motueka, around 2:30pm. It wasn’t sunny, but it also wasn’t raining. When we got to Motueka, we realized we took photos on the camera without the SD card in it! So, we have photos on the camera, but we don’t have the connector for the laptop. We quickly got the SD card in the camera, and took some photos on our drive to the very northwest corner of the South Island – an area called Golden Bay. Unfortunately, the rain seemed to follow us from the west coast and once we got over the mountains it was raining so hard we could not see the bay up close.




Disappointed, we returned to Motueka, praying for some better weather the next two days. The forecast says sun – let’s hope NZ weathermen are much better than those from the U.S.! We have a two day expedition set for Abel Tasman with kayaking tomorrow, camping overnight, and then walking and taking a water taxi on Tuesday. Fodor’s tells me this area competes with others for the highest amount of sun, while the west coast is known for all its rain. They were right about the west coast, so let’s hope they are also correct about this area.

Since the last two posts haven’t included too much exciting information, I will share here some of our struggles with petrol stations (aka gas stations).



NZ understandably has small towns. It’s two small islands. It’s a small country. NZ also understandably has few gas stations in those small towns. Not many automobiles on the roads drive the roads of this small island country.

Travelers must remember to plan ahead. The distance between some of those small towns are easily underestimated. In two instances, we have underestimated those distances. Sure, we take the blame for such a misstep. The problem, however, is that the few gas/petrol stations that do exist are annoyingly unreliable outside of business hours.

Twice we have white-knuckled a drive with the fuel tank sinking dangerously below “E”. Perhaps we exaggerated our fears because, after all, we drive a glorified golf cart. [See for yourself in the 12/26/2009 posting.] Nevertheless, we would breathe a sigh of relief as we finally came across a gas/petrol station only to find that we would be forced to use a blasted machine that doesn’t take American forms of payment! More on this later…

Ice Climbing – Canceled. Fun – PPD. January 2, 2010

Just our luck. Another early morning of eagerness to ice climb. Another cancellation. What are the chances of a glacier situated next to a rainforest experiencing torrential downpours that cause tours of the glacier to be cancelled? No, seriously, what are the chances? I got nothing.

Anyway, we took our jilted-selves from Franz Josef and headed north along the west coast. The trip went relatively fast because our view of the coast was clouded; literally, the rain and fog descended into the area for an extended stay.




The first stop along the way was the town of Hokitika. After some grocery shopping and a nap in the car by the ocean (again clouded by fog), we visited a relative of the Miller family who lives in town. He, Peter Kettering, is a transplant from the northeast US and is the brother of my dad’s brother’s wife. If you’re like me, you’ll probably need to map that out on paper.

He and his partner, Vicki, were extremely hospitable. They treated us to a quick tour of their intimate home, extensive gardening, and delicious muffins. More important, they graciously entertained our interests in their experiences in NZ, California, and the rest of the World. Interacting with locals and their living situations breathed fresh air into a trip dominated by tourists.





The second and last stop was the sleepy “beach” town of Punakaiki. Similar to most of this leg, fog prevented the vista of, what we were told, resembled northern California. No worries. The hostel we booked turned out to be a diamond in the rough. And by “rough” I mean dense rainforest about 150 meters from the ocean.

Happy New Year from New Zealand - January 1, 2010

Even though it is still New Year’s Eve for all you Americans...

The beginning of the 2010’s. What will the next decade bring? Teleportation? 100 Home run MLB seasons? Faster and more courteous service at the DMV? I, for one, am not sure about the first two. But I can tell you that, in addition to the DMV probably still being a mess, the first day of 2010 brought an early wake-up call for a day of ice climbing.

We had booked an ice climbing trip on the Franz Josef Glacier. We settled on ice climbing because the hikes didn’t satisfy our sense of excitement and our bank account frowned upon the helicopter trip to the glacier.

Our alarm clocks sounded at 630AM on New Year’s Day. Nicolle and I hurried ourselves into a quick breakfast and out the door. Normally we’re never late for anything (cough!), but we literally had to run down the street to ensure that the ice climbing trip didn’t leave without us.

As we walked in the door of the tour company’s store, we noticed that it seemed conspicuously empty. Turns out that we were the only individuals booked for that ice climbing time. Though just us two and a guide might have made for an intimate climb, the tour guide canceled our climb. We were dismayed by the cancellation, but the tour company made up nicely: they rescheduled us for the next day and comp’ed us some free passes to a local hot pool spa.

We figured that the spa might serve us well later on in the day after, say, an invigorating hike near the glacier. So we researched the local map, chose a hike, and set on our way.

The hiking trail was listed as taking about 5 hours roundtrip, with the summit rewarding hikers with a nice view of the Franz Josef Glacier. The hike itself was moderately difficult. The elevation climb wasn’t too drastic. Based on my poor conversion of meters to feet, I estimate the climb gained about 2000 feet in elevation. Sir Edmund Hilary would scoff at such a trifle…while being carried by his sherpa guide. The trail, however, included a few steep climbs, rock scrambles, rickety bridges crossing raging rivers.





One interesting characteristic of the hike was varied environments among differing elevations. At one point we walked through dense vegetation with noticeable humidity and warm temperatures. The next we were climbing up open rock faces where the air was a little cooler.

After about two hours of hiking, we reached the end of the trail. The end was not the summit of the mountain. Nevertheless, the end was high and open enough for a great view of the glacier.





The glacier itself was/is impressive. It’s one big ice cube carving the mountains as it advances/retreats. Even more impressive is the contrast between the glacier sitting next to, essentially, a rainforest. Just another absurdity of NZ.

Finally, we took our wobbly legs and exhausted bodies to the hot pool spa. Normally, I’m not a fan of spas. But we matched my affinity for the right price (free) with Nicolle’s love of spas. I had hoped that the spa was geothermal pools. In this case, the pools were artificially heated to three temperatures: 36, 38, and 40 degrees Celsius. My conversions of temperatures is even worse than for distances, so you’re gonna have to convert that one yourself. What I can say that the pools were warm but not hot. That is, nobody was basting me with melted butter and filling the water surrounding me with diced vegetables. Nicolle says that the 40 degree pool was uncomfortably hot. Sorry we didn’t take photos, but the pools were outdoors in the rainforest, with beautiful steam rising above.

To be sure, one one two zero one zero was a relatively relaxing day. Tomorrow brings another early wake-up (for the rescheduled ice climb).