New Zealand



2022

New Zealand



2022

I think the trip started because Ernest Kung was planning a vacation to New Zealand. Dave Bryan and Ernest had talked a lot in the past about how wonderful a place New Zealand would be to retire. Dave was game to make the trip. Since we’re both retired Dave and I have lunch pretty often. He mentioned the trip to me. It just so happens that my lovely wife, Dellis, has always had New Zealand at the top of her bucket list. Dave and I worked together at CBS2/KCAL9 and did a lot of traveling together covering the news. Dave, Dellis and I hung out together in New Orleans a few years ago. I mention all this because we’ve always had fun hanging out together.

Dave was game. Dellis and I hadn’t been on a vacation since well before Covid. We were all in.

Dave and Ernest did most of the planning. It wasn’t long before we bought our tickets and booked places to stay. It got real really quick.

A couple of weeks before the trip I reserved rental cars and we all made sure our passports were up to date. We were ready to go.

Covid was still problematic for some places, but New Zealand had been able to lift all Covid related travel requirements. We were all vacinated and boosted and some of us might have also been a little stir-crazy for not having traveled in a few years (that might have been me).

It’s a couple months later as I write this and work on curating the thousands of photographs we took. Not gonna lie, I’m still amazed we actually went.

We went to New Zealand and saw a lot of sights that most people have only seen in the “Lord of the Rings” or “The Hobbit” movies. We traveled to a destination for no better reason than we thought it would be cool to go there.

We laughed, had some pretty good meals, did a lot of walking and saw a lot of another country. That’s a pretty cool adventure. It’s okay that we couldn’t see and do everything. We managed to squeeze in a lot and have pictures to prove it. The best part to me is that we created those amazing memories and after we got back, we’re all still friends.

Actually, that’s the important part right there.

“Wheels up” was October 25th, 2022...

At the gate in the Bradley Terminal at LAX.



We met Dave Bryan at the airport and were wheels up from LAX at about 8:05pm on a Monday.



It was a long, but uneventful flight. One of the first things we saw in New Zealand is this fancy wood carved gateway to greet folks entering the country. I think some people might find that it looks kind of creepy. If it was intended to scare off bad spirits, well, I think it must be doing an excellent job.

Taking a red-eye flight had some advantages. I think we all pretty much slept through most of the thirteen hours from Los Angeles to Auckland. There was a good selection of movies to watch, but nothing memorable.

I had a beer when the beverage service came around, because “free beer” is not something anyone should ever pass up.

The meals were just standard airline food, but I was more sleepy than hungry through most of the flight anyway. I kept to my routine travel schedule. Sleep, wake, snackage, and repeat (with some random movie watching to break it up a bit).

After the flight the next big hurdle was the customs checkpoint in Auckland. Our customs protocol was pretty straight forward. If you get stopped, we don’t know you.

That was just a joke. We weren’t about to leave anyone behind.

At least not on the first day.

There’s a lot of construction going on all over New Zealand. The airport was no exception and we had a choice to either ride a shuttle bus or take a ten minute walk to get to the domestic flights terminal. We decided to walk it. I think we all agreed, it felt good to stretch our legs after being so many hours on the plane. Follow the green line!

It was a much shorter flight to Christchurch. I don’t think I even had a beer. It was also about 9:00am local time. So, there was that.

I hadn’t flown this far around the world in a while and the time difference was interesting. We left Los Angeles on Monday, October 25th and arrived in New Zealand on Wednesday, the 27th of October. Can we just agree somebody owes us a day?

The currency exchange in Los Angeles was closed. They were on a break. No big deal. The Auckland currency exchange was also closed. Still, no big deal for us. We then went to an ATM, but it was giving us problems instead of cash. We had enough cash to cover our cab fare to the hotel, but it was going to complicate things and seriously dampen our mood if we were going to have trouble getting New Zealand currency.

We made it to the hotel and settled the currency exchange issue. The next order of business was lunch! Ernest Kung had lived in Christchurch and recommended a few food options. We took a short walk and had a nice first meal in New Zealand at the Mona Vale Cafe.

It was a little overcast, but the meal hit the spot and the garden setting at the cafe was beautiful. I think we remarked for the first time at that point about how genuinely nice the people of New Zealand all were. They also make pretty good beer.

We finally caught up with Ernest later that day in the hotel pub. It was fun to watch some cricket and have a decent martini.

We spent a couple of hours chatting up a british traveler about cricket (mainly because none of us know how to play). We got to bed early because of jet lag, but managed to start the next day with a nice breakfast at another one of Ernest’s spots.

The earthquake that hit Christchurch in 2011 did some major damage and a lot of the construction was still their efforts to rebuild. We saw a lot of new modern buildings that were all completed after the earthquake. We also saw a lot of public art that reflected modern sensibilities towards beautifying outdoor spaces.

They had a fair amount of murals and even some graffitti. We had a good tour of the city thanks to Earnest.

We tagged along with Ernest and got to meet some friends of his at a non-profit that creates unique community events to better utilize public space (or something like that). They were super nice, but being in New Zealand that’s kind of redundant.

The next day, Ernest gave Dave and I a lift back to the Christchurch airport to pick up a rental car. New Zealand is a left side of the road driving country. Dave and I had to practice a bit before jumping into regular traffic.

Our group was taken to the top of a windy hill (Sugarloaf Scenic Reserve) by Ernest. He actually wanted us to hike to the top of the hill, but we ran out of time after sightseeing around Christchurch. Thank goodness.

The Ohinetahi Viewpoint was closed, but weren’t going to let that stop us. We’re Americans! Ok, the parking lot was closed because they’re building a nice viewing platform, so we just walked around the fence.

It was at the top of this viewpoint that we saw the first of many mindblowing sights. Hurry up and turn the page.

Ohinetahi Reserve

Next up was a stop at the “Sign of the Kiwi” café for some refreshments. You have to keep your strength up when you’re traveling.

Overlook near the “Sign of the Kiwi Café” with a lush view of what I believe is the Port Hills area. Christchurch is in the distance.

The Lyttleton Christchurch Cruise Terminal was completed just in time for Covid restrictions to halt all cruise travel.

A quick stop at Corsair Bay for a few pics. Just checking out where we’ll be parking our yacht. Just kidding, we’re parking it in Marina del Rey.

Driving left? I made it through the vacation without hitting anything or anyone, but it was also nice to ride and just take photos for a day.

We had dinner and celebrated Ernest’s birthday in a town called Sumner. We explored a local landmark, the Sumner Beach Cave Rock. The name pretty much sums it up. It was low tide and we got to see the inside of it.

Another beautiful view. This one is overlooking South Shore and New Brighton. I got the impression this was where the well-to-do folks lived.

I think that’s Bexley Park in the center left. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but this is another hill and we actually climbed this one.

Of course, when I say, “we”, I’m talking about Ernest. He seemed really intent on revisiting some of his favorite photo spots. I can’t say I blame him. The view from the top of this hill was pretty amazing.

Dellis and Dave stayed in the car. The wind was pretty strong and apparently this hike involved just a small amout of trespassing.

In the U.S. I’m sure we would have been arrested. In New Zealand, I think they must look the other way as long as nothing gets broken and nobody gets hurt.

I’m told that New Zealand is also a much less litigious society.

That sounds really nice, but I’m sure they face other types of problems.

I just can’t think of what those problems might be.

Ernest and I made it up to the Christchurch Gondola. It was closed and there wasn’t anyone else around and that made me very concerned. New Zealand might have fewer lawyers, but we don’t know where they stand on axe murderers.

I think if you look closely, you can see Dave and Dellis enjoying NOT hiking up the mountain.

Christchurch Gondola

New Brighton, Southshore, Avon Heathcote Estuary

Lots of convenient gates to let the trekkers (what we call hikers) get in and out, but they don’t want the sheep making a run for freedom.

I would say, it was worth the climb, but that’s only because we didn’t get arrested. Shucks, it was a really spectacular view. It might have actually been worth getting arrested, but I’m glad we didn’t. Dave or Dellis would have had to drive Ernest’s rental car back to the hotel.

The next day, we were on our own without Ernest. The plan was to drive to Arthur’s Pass and see the Devil’s Punchbowl Waterfall.

We appreciated everything we learned about New Zealand from Ernest, but we were now on our own without Ernest to guide us. It felt like we were really exploring and having more of an adventure.

I think we can agree that the efforts to respect and incorporate the indigenous culture is something the USA could do better.

On the road to Arthur’s Pass. A tiny home on wheels and plants protected from the elements were a couple of the points of interest. We stopped to have a look, but decided against taking the long track to get a closer look at the interesting area in the distance.

It looked like more plants with protective covers, but could have been anything.

The next stop was near a marker for the entrance to Arthur’s Pass National Park. The streams and riverbeds all had the awesome teal coloring that comes from the sediment derived from glaciers.

Made it into the small town of Arthur’s Park. It felt good to have a bite to eat, even if it wasn’t at the cafe recommended by Ernest.

The recent rain provided a lot more waterfalls in the area and a lot of the rivers and streams still had the cool teal coloring.

Not exactly the Devil’s Punchbowl, but still very cool to see. This was just a random area of runoff caused by the recent rains.

It couldn’t be helped. We were going to be spending a lot of time in the rain. Thankfully, it rained mostly at night and grey skies didn’t bother us.

We made quite a few stops to appreciate the local scenery, but never made the full hike to get to the Devil’s Punchbowl because of the weather.

Dave and I did walk from the parking area to the entrance to the track, but decided against walking all the way to the falls. We were hiking through ankle deep water just to get across the parking lot.

It felt like we got a good look at some rushing waterfalls. Maybe next time or maybe when it isn’t quite so cold and wet.

We made it back to Christchurch safely. After drying off, Dellis and I decided to explore the local art scene a little in between rain storms.

I dropped Dellis off at the Canterbury Museum and circled the block a few times trying to find parking.

It wasn’t easy, but I got to see the area and we managed to also visit a small gallery that had a nice selection of crafts from local artists.

I’m told it looks more impressive at night, but the outside of the Christchurch Art Gallery was another iconic spot to check off the list.

I think the only regret any of us might have had was that we didn’t have more time to spend in each place we visited.

There was always so much to see and do and we barely scratched the surface in getting to know the places we visited.

We got to see Ernest one last time at breakfast before heading out of the Christchurch. Most of our drives between towns were three or four hours. That’s a good way to see a lot of a country. We could just stop whenever we saw something interesting.

Speaking of interesting, we came across these older “steampunk” science fiction fans who were meeting for coffee (in costume). Honestly, that’s something I’ve never witnessed back home. I think it was awesome and I wish we could have talked to them longer, but we had a lot of miles to cover to get to our next stop.

One lane bridges are insane. They’re common all over New Zealand and it’s my understanding that they build them this way to save money.

Gas (petrol) is more expensive in New Zealand. Being on vacation and traveling by car didn’t hurt...much.

There were always lots of sceneic lookouts where you could pull over and snap a pic or just enjoy the view.

New Zealand is known for beef and lamb. Dave Bryan is known for being a great reporter. One doesn’t have anything to do with the other and I think I just might need to get more sleep.

Our first view of Lake Tekapo. Our longest drive (staying left) was almost done and all I can say is, the color of the water was amazing.

Lake Tekapo

We expected rain that night, but the clouds and blue skies and snow-capped mountains made great scenery while the sun was out.

We checked into the hotel, but kept moving. I knew we’d have plenty of time to sit and enjoy the view later. I didn’t want to take the chance of losing the light and just wanted to keep shooting as much as possible. This was a sightseeing vacation and we had a lot more sights to see.

There were several iconic spots that I wanted to photograph and The Church of the Good Shephard was one of them. We could have gone inside, but they don’t allow photography on the inside. They also had a service starting and for that they require you stay for the entire mass. So that was a nope. They had lost me at no photography anyway.

Theis is the view from the Lake Tekapo Footbridge that crosses the Tekapo River. Also called the Maclaren Footbridge, named in honor of the architect who designed it.

Lake Tekapo

I’m glad they provided us with information. I’m not sure everything we saw was included in the guidebooks.

We had a decent meal, but the hotel (like a lot of places) suffered from a lack of staff. That’s one of the effects Covid had on New Zealand.

I went out after sundown to take some long exposure shots and maybe some night sky photography. Too many clouds already had rolled in. Shooting anything night sky wasn’t going to happen. That was a bummer. New Zealand is known for being a great place for astrophotography.

The Bluewater Resort was a very nice hotel. We were going to be staying in quite a few different places. Most of them were actually really clean and nice, but we had to get used to sleeping in a different bed every couple of days.

We hit the road early’ish the next morning. A shorter drive, but we still had a lot to see and do.

Lake Pukaki, but we were just passing through on the way to Glentanner.

Making a pit stop at a Lake Pukaki Viewpoint. Beautiful sky? Check. Snow-capped mountain? Check. Awesome azure waters? Double-check!

We had to make one epic trek while in New Zealand and the Hooker Valley Track hit all the right selling points. It wasn’t too long of a trek, was mostly flat land, and had a big payoff for photos at the end.

It’s only 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) in length. We were all capable of easily hiking the entire track.

We had a good time, but don’t let the snow-capped mountains and the icy rushing waters fool you. It was too hot for snow gear. I almost got heat stroke. We passed people who looked twice my age that were probably from New Zealand and could walk around the entire island.

It feels different being outdoors and breathing clean air. I’m not sure how cold the water was, but it looked beautiful.

You could look in any direction and find something worth photographing.

Lower Hooker Suspension Bridge over Hooker River

The rushing rapids of Hooker River.

The downside of the entire track were these flies eating anything not completely soaked in bug repellant...and also this set of stairs near the beginning of the track.

It took us about an hour (with frequent stops for photos) to trek all the way to Hooker Lake.

Sunscreen and bug repellant saved us. Our trusted tour consultant, Ernest, had recommended buying a local version of bug repellant that contains a chemical that I’m pretty sure is no longer legal back home. I don’t care. You could see the bugs trying to eat us.

Top of the snow capped Mount Cook overlooking the Hooker Valley.

We rested a while and enjoyed seeing the glacier and fragments of it floating in the Hooker Lake. We got our little wagon train moving and turned around to head back. Dave Bryan got in the zone, built up a head of steam and made the trek back in less time than it took getting to the lake.

The colors of the ice that covered the peaks of Mount Cook was pretty incredible. I wish I could have gotten a closer view or maybe hung out long enough to see some of the ice break off and fall to the canyon.

Like I said, something to see everywhere you looked.

The Hooker Valley Track was 3.1 miles. A 6.2 mile round trip. That’s not what was in the guide book. I’m just saying, I want to be accurate even if the maps and guidebooks were dirty rotten liars.

There was no fine dining to be had this day. We lunched on cafeteria style food at a nearby hotel. I had a brewski and that was pretty far from the gin martini I craved, but it hit the spot and was perfect at the time.

We met some native New Zealand guys on the walk back and talked to them about how nice everyone was that we’d met on the trip. They’d been to the USA and we had a nice time comparing the beautiful parts of America with what we were seeing all around us.

I really enjoyed New Zealand, but I think the beauty of it made me appreciate more of what we had back home.

Home for the night was the Glentanner Park Centre. It was a campground. We had two one-room cabins with enough beds for almost a dozen more people.

There weren’t a lot of rooms available and we were lucky to get what we got.

This was a place that catered more to campers and folks who ski in the winter and trek in the summer. It was fine and I liked that it added another unique experience to our vacation.

We only stayed one night.

Did I mention the shared bathroom?

I woke up at about 5:30am and discovered the clouds had cleared out. I tried to capture some stars, but the sun was already coming up.

I don’t recall grabbing breakfast that morning and there wasn’t any reason to hang around. We hit the road early. It was another beautiful day.

To be honest, Puzzling World looked interesting. Not interesting enough to get us to stop of course.

Lake Wanaka and “That Wanaka Tree”

We had another opportunity to shoot iconic pictures...well, we had an opportunity to take really good photos of an iconic subject.

We have trees here in the United States, but somehow they aren’t #thatwanakatree.

We were soon back on the road and discovered that something we (yeah, I mean me) had to stop and check out.

Bradrona! There is a fourteen year old living inside of every grown man who dreams of this magical place...the Cardrona Valley bra fence probably didn’t start out as a tourist attraction, but it’s grown into one. It also raises quite a bit in donations to the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation. Efforts to raise money to help find a cure is respected, but this was still an awesome roadside attraction.

The incident at the top of the hill involved high winds and puddles of water. I’ll leave it at that. Heading down the hill the road was twisty, but at least traffic was light.

Lookout points were easy to find. Spectacular views were even easier to find.

We made it to Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu. Out of all the places we visited, I think it had the most attractions for tourists. It reminded me of Spring Break resort towns with lots of bars and clubs. It also had a cemetary which I thought was awfully convenient.

We rode the Queenstown Skyline Gondolas to the top of Bob’s Peak.

I liked that people rode mountain bikes down from the top of the mountain. I’m not interested, but it seems like a fun way to get to the hospital.

It seemed like Disneyland on a slow day. The Winter crowd was gone and the Summer crowd hadn’t shown up yet. It was nice to not have lines.

The jelly bean art looked tasty.

It was a long ways down. I want you to pay attention to how tightly I was gripping that rail. I’m good with heights. I have less trust with people.

The trip down the hill was uneventful, but I was eager to find a nice bar at ground level.

I might have tried bungee jumping, but it was closed. Yeah, I was super okay with that.

Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu

The first bar we came to was an ice bar. Basically a meat locker that served drinks.

We did a ton of laughing in the cold and that was even before we started drinking.

It was cool (ok, cold) to share the experience. We enjoyed the drinks and those glasses were made of ice. We got to smash them when done.

The hotel was operating at minimum staffing and felt like a ghost town. We enjoyed the stay, but hit the road the next morning.

On the road to TeAnu we were pulled over along with everyone else on the road. We thought there was an accident. Nobody had a clue what was happening at first.

Turns out there was a bike race happening and we were in the middle of it. It added maybe 20 minutes to our trip, but that was ok. It was an interesting interruption and fun to tease the stragglers as we passed them down the road.

SBS Bank Tour of Southland 2022

We made it to TeAnu and didn’t have to stop for any more bicycle races. The hotel was nice and sat right across the road from Lake TeAnu.

Very peaceful and relaxing. We were still a little concerned about the weather, but our first day there gave us plenty of sun.

Lake TeAnu

The hands down coolest thing in a trip filled with many cool things. We took a jet boat ride on the Waiau River and Lake TeAnu.

Our guide was a cool guy and he made sure we got our money’s worth. I don’t remember his name (yeah, I should write these things down).

We took a maybe twenty minute drive away from the main drag in TeAnu to a remote location on the river where they launch the boat.

It was another “uncrowded” situation. It was just the three of us.

Yes, we’re Americans, so we thought there was a possibility that we were going to be axe murdered.

Luckily, that didn’t happen and we had a pretty amazing ride along route that featured pretty prominently in “Lord of the Rongs”.

So, if you ever find yourself in TeAnu, New Zealand, I do recommend them. You for sure don’t want to come back and tell people you didn’t do donuts in a jet boat.

On the lake. The water was very drinkable. Some of the freshest natural water on the planet.

Either ride the jet boat or take pictures. Do not try to do both.

We didn’t see any Hobbits, but we could see where they shot some of the scenes for the movies.

We squeezed a lot into this vacation. There were a lot of moments and experiences that I would have chosen to slow down to enjoy. Riding in the jet boat was not one of those. It was okay to go a little faster. I could have done with fewer donuts.

I was sure this was going to be the last photo anyone saw of us. The ride included stopping at a remote section of the lake for a short walk.

At least we knew we could walk back if we had to. We were near a campground for folks on the Keppler Track.

Here’s a few screen grabs from video I shot. I hope this will give you an idea of just how fast the boat was going.

I didn’t mind missing out on the last couple of runs. I liked being able to capture the excitement from another angle.

If they tell you there’s no shame in getting nauseous while doing donuts in a jet boat, they are lying. Here’s Dellis

and Dave having a blast. (Not pictured: Bryan “My Name is Earl” Frank)

The next day we headed for Milford Sound for a short sightseeing cruise. We started early with blue skies (it didn’t last).

We had lots of forests along the route and saw some interesting landscapes that was different from what we’d seen so far.

Even Dave had to break out the phone and snap some pictures. Cut it out, Dave. That’s a union job!

Another two hour drive with some fairly lengthy stops for roadwork. The overnight rain provided lots of waterfalls.

Snow capped mountains? Yup. Can’t have too many of those.

My nemesis, the Kea bird. A large species of parrot that I’m told will eat anything, even eat the soft rubbery bits of an automobile.

I rolled the window down to get a better shot of them. One of them (hiding on the roof) nipped at my hand. Scared the crap out of me. It didn’t draw blood, but I’m pretty sure it was trying to take my finger. This happened while we were waiting for the one lane tunnel to clear.

A one lane tunnel straight through the mountainside. I’m sure it saved us some time, but it was not for the claustrophobic.

How could you not fall in love with a place like this? This is the view from the parking lot of the cruise terminal. The PARKING lot!

I don’t think there was ever a day where we looked around and said, “well, that’s a pretty mediocre view.”

Our other nemesis, the sandfly, was also a problem in this area. Luckily we still carried our industrial strength insect repellent. COME AND GET ME, BUGS!

We started out at a pretty empty terminal and thought we might have another boat to ourselves. Busloads of tourists arrived just before we boarded the ship.

This was the first of many waterfalls we passed on the cruise. The roar of the water was pretty loud.

I keep reminding myself this was the off season. Everything would have been much more crowded if we had gone at a different time of the year.

Milford Sound

We had mostly grey skies, but the rain once again provided us with some awesome waterfalls.

Seals were sunning on the rocks. They could have been Disneyland style animatronics (they didn’t move much). Neither would I, if I lived there.

The trip took us to the mouth of the sound. We got to see where Milford Sound opened up to the Pacific Ocean.

As an intrepid explorer I came prepared for cold weather. This time we needed the jackets and hats. It was cold even in the sun.

They took the boat in close to one of the waterfalls. Yeah, it was just like at Disneyland on Splash Mountain.

There were probably some folks who weren’t prepared for water. Other folks were yelling to take us closer to the falls. Okay, that was me.

The cruise was awesome. It was a wonderful experience even if they didn’t do donuts on the water.

The trip back was slightly less eventful. We saw all the same gorgeous sights, drove through the same tunnel and ran into the same Kea birds.

Dellis got a great shot of this one jumping around. I think it was trying to distract us while the others stripped the car. They were not friendly.

It was so peaceful and relaxing, instead of heading back to Queenstown we stayed an extra day in TeAnu. I think we all just liked the TeAnu “vibe” better. The hotel offered us a great deal on an upgrade to the room and we just enjoyed another full day to chill by the lake.

Meat pies are a thing in New Zealand. They were tasty and reminded me of the ones from Natchitoches, Louisiana.

The meat pie mascot creepy. The giant Takahe bird in the middle of town was also a little creepy, but also scary if it was actual size.

It was nice to sit and watch an occasional boat drift by, but we had a flight to catch in Queenstown. We had just one more territory to cover.

It was a beautiful and relaxed morning. Even the sheep and cattle looked chill on the drive back to Queenstown.

Look how much space they have. If the unstressed animals provide better meat, I bet all these guys are going to taste delicious.

We made a u-turn to get a shot of this cafe/art gallery/farmyard/souvenir stand (and also maybe a bar). The sign was not exactly clear.

Lake Wakatipu



I think Dave had been studying up on the history and culture of New Zealand. He seemed ready to guide us by pointing out sights of interest.

“Over there is a large lake.” (Yup. He nailed it.)

Lake Wakatipu looked beautiful. I loved every one of the sights we got to see on our drive through the South Island.

I want to know how they keep the water clear. I hope it doesn’t have anything to do with not polluting, because we Americans aren’t good at that.

In Queenstown we got the car gassed up and dropped off. Funny, it was like the whole car rental industry is on the “honor system” or something. I’m still expecting to get a call with someone asking, “So, when are you bringing our car back?”

Another short hop on Air New Zealand. I hate air travel, but at least everyone on the flight was friendly (except maybe me, of course).

Rental car, short drive, homeless person, check-in and BOOM! We’re in Auckland...at the Hilton Auckland...and we saw a Hobbit. Okay, that last one isn’t true. It was just the guy who valets the cars.

I think The Hilton Hotel Auckland was intended to look like a boat. It was situated on the water. Quite the coincidence.

After we checked in we took a little walk to get the lay of the land...and also some food...and some booze.

We managed to find food and drink and checked out the immediate vicinity. It had been way too many days since our last martini and we managed to score some good gin.

It felt like we were in civilization again after being out in the wilderness. To tell the truth, I kind of missed the wilderness.

Dave and I hung out on his balcony. We killed a bottle of wine and joked about all the people probably still at work back home.

Auckland, New Zealand at Sunset

She says, it wasn’t, but I’m not sure if the only reason New Zealand was a bucket list travel destination for Dellis was because she really liked “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” movies.

Dave Bryan on the other hand (as far as I know) has yet to see either movie.

I just think it would be completely unconsionable to travel to New Zealand and not visit the shooting locations for one of the biggest movies of all time.

We had already seen some locations that were part of the movies, but nothing really compares to the Hobbiton location.

Even if you’re not a fan of the movies, it is amazing that they’ve preserved so completely the sets and props from the movies.

It was a nice tour and I’m happy we included it. There were some New Zealand things we just didn’t have enough time to include in our itinerary, but maybe we’ll make it back there some day.

It won’t be JUST for the Glo-Worms, but I know what I’m doing first next time.

Hobbiton Hobbit Hole

We had a very nice tour guide and she was a wealth of information and annecdotes about Hobbiton and the movies. Probably more than you would ever care to know...or maybe everything you’d want to know. I guess it depends on how much of a fan you are.

Dellis had fun and looked like a kid in a candy store. Everywhere you turned there was something to see.

It was fun to poke around and look inside of the Hobbit holes. There were some that opened up and some were just props that didn’t open.

We enjoyed the Hobbit village, but it would have been even better if there was a dragon around. Am I right? Maybe a couple of hobbits?

It was kind of amazing to see how sturdy a lot of this stuff was built. Makes me wonder if the TV series is going to revisit the shire.

I’m kind of wondering if a Hobbit hole wouldn’t be a good project for my backyard. I’m thinking I could Airbnb it.

An alcoholic beverage and a pastry (baked on site) is included with the price of admission. I could see just hanging out by the fire for a while, but everything is timed to hustle folks through. Drink up, nerds, then hit the road.

bakery had other treats and there’s an option to have a meal as part of the tour. No thank you. Just the booze and the bus ride back, please. The

Back in town we saw our second homeless person and few other unusual sights. The Auckland City Council is a swimming pool (in case you were wondering). The Palmela was just a weirdly named ship that Dellis and I thought was funny.

We treated ourselves to burgers (and I had a pretty good local beer) for lunch and had ice cream for dessert. The street musician kid was pretty good on that pipe. He was raising money to buy another one. I bet he already has it.

On our last day in New Zealand we decided to squeeze in a little more sightseeing. Silo Park, a mixed use art and event space, was just a short walk nearby. We decided to check it out, because, well, why not?

There currently wasn’t any art installations, but it was still a cool place to see.

I thought it was pretty cool that a guy on that yacht saw me taking pictures. Instead of ignoring me or flipping me off (American style), he smiled and waved.

I kind of wanted to see the Sky Tower, but let it go. I was running out of steam and we still had a little bit of a journey to get back to the USA.



There weren’t any other people in the area, but it was nice to see evidence of children playing and getting to use the playground.

Each of the bits and pieces of the trip might not have been remarkable on their own, but I will cherish every part of this vacation. I’m also happy to have a ridiculous amount of photos to remind me of a lot of the little moments.

There was so much to see. Too much for one vacation. You can’t really experience an entire country in just a couple of weeks. I think I’d enjoy being somewhere long enough to be able to relax and just enjoy discovering things about a place. We learned a lot about New Zealand, but it feels like there was so much more we could have seen and discovered.



It was just about time to say goodbye to New Zealand.

We loaded up the car and made it back to the airport. Side note, it was a little challenging to find a gas station. Also note to self, next time pre-pay the gas. This time, the rental return was similar to what I’m used to back home. Funny, I still didn’t get a receipt. I might owe them two cars now.

We decided to catch the bus to the international terminal this time. Yeah, we were getting tired of walking. So, Dave made it through security, but they looked at him HARD. A woman who we believe might have been a Russian spy was making her way to the states. I guess New Zealand is a good pipline for spies.

We had drinks and some food at the airport. All of us (even me) bought a few souvenirs and a few snacks for the flight home.

In the bar we met a fellow traveler who actually lives near us back in California.

Looking back at all of the hundreds (actually thousands of photos) makes me a little sad that the trip is over.

All three of us feel like this was just a wonderful time and simply a once in a lifetime experience. We’ve traveled together before and hopefully we’ll travel together again, but I think on some level we know something to be true.

We may never experience another vacation with as much of EVERYTHING that we had on this trip to New Zealand.

I’m just happy to have had the chance for us to experience it all together.

I would do it again in a heartbeat. While I don’t know how we could top this trip I do believe with all my heart, there’s no harm in trying.

The setting sun was a perfectly poetic final sight as we waited to board our flight home.

Our flight home was uneventful. I don’t recall what we had to eat. Nothing remarkable. I think we were all pretty tired at this point and just slept for the most part.

There are certain landmarks I always look for when flying into LAX that make me feel like I made it safely and I’m finally home. It was a great trip. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.