Wanaka ended up being my favorite town on the South Island in New Zealand. Big enough to have plenty of places to eat, shop and stay, but small enough to be completely walkable. It is perched next two one of the two large glacier-formed lakes in the area, and also […]
The road south first went down the middle of the South Island, over some mountain passes, before turning west to the coast. On the mountainous part of the road, there was some sort of running race going on. Hundreds of people were running, stretched out over a dozen or more […]
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.
After quaffing a few of the local shiraz in Napier, I was faced with a decision on how I wanted to proceed to see New Zealand. AC/DC was playing a big stadium concert over in Auckland and I had some friends I wanted to see there. But the weather report wasn’t that great and I figured some good, quality nature sightseeing on the spectacular South Island would be good for my soul, and my liver, so I decided to head down to Wellington and across to the south via the ferry.
The other point of interest for Napier is that it was almost completely destroyed by a huge earthquake on February 3, 1931. New Zealand has quite a volcanic and seismic history, as it is part of the “Ring of Fire” that circles the Pacific Ocean on both sides.
I would like to introduce everyone to Caleb. If you want to be given some reasons to come visit New Zealand (which frankly, everyone should do at least one time in their life), there is no better ambassador than this particular 12-year-old Kiwi.
