Tweet In honor of “Blog for New Zealand,” which is an effort to get the word out via dozens of travel blogs that New Zealand is open for business after the latest massive earthquake in the Christchurch area, I thought I’d do a post highlighting some of the many great reasons people should put New [...]
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Dolphin Cruise: Bay of Islands, New Zealand
Tweet Quick post note — I think the last picture is the best, but had to put it down there so that the side bar didn’t interfere. Hope you make it down to it. North of Auckland, New Zealand is an area of the country that does not get enough credit as a great tourist [...]
Photo Journal: Franz Josef Glacier (New Zealand)
On the west side of the South Island of New Zealand are two glaciers (20 kms to the north lays Fox Glacier) that are unique in the world, in that they descend from the Southern Alps right down to almost sea level, and peter out in lush, warm, temperate rainforest at that level.
Whale watch in Kaikoura, New Zealand
I was only in Kaikoura for a little more than 24 hours and had only one goal in this tiny village – to go on a whale watch trip and see at least one behemoth. The coast of Kaikoura is one of the unique areas (yes, another unique natural wonder in New Zealand) in the world…
Milford and Doubtful Sounds in New Zealand
Tweet Te Anau is on the shores of Lake Te Anau, which is the largest lake by volume in New Zealand (bringing ‘ya the completely useless trivia). Continuing on the trivial water theme – Lake Te Anau empties into Lake Manapouri, which is only 10 kilometers from Doubtful Sound. The lakes are at few hundred [...]
Wanaka to Queenstown, New Zealand – more hitchhiking
Before I left for the first time, I did finally get perfect weather for my first skydive. Good stuff. Surprisingly a completely different feeling than bungee jumping, which is much more frightening. If you are going to do one, go ahead and do both for the comparison.
on to Wanaka by hitchhiking
Hitchhiking in this part of the country was tougher than the other places I tried to, I think because this area is very under populated and most of the drivers that passed me by seemed to be tourists. Although two American travelers finally picked me up, a brother and sister in New Zealand for a long stay, I have to say that I ended up getting pretty annoyed with most tourists as I stood on the side of the road with my thumb out.
Picton to Nelson and Abel Tasman, New Zealand
Nope. Intercity public bus. NZ$26 ticket to Nelson. Just a regular old bus, with the unpaid for, but added, bonus of a knowledgeable tour guide/driver. I am not sure I can say this often enough – these people may be the nicest and friendliest I have ever met. By the way, this ended up not being a one time occurrence; more often than not, the bus drivers played this informative role on the buses I took.
I took off in December of 2008 to circle the planet with no reservations and without leaving the ground. Sixteen months later, I succeed. My permanent travels have just continued from there. Feel free to email me at: michaelshodson@yahoo.com
Michael Hodson
