Three Weeks in New Zealand - An Awesome Place

In November 2024, we returned Liward to her normal spot in the marina in Tahiti and hopped on an easy 5 hour flight to New Zealand. We spent 3+ weeks exploring the north and south islands and had a blast, drove about 1200 miles. The people are so friendly, the views are stunning, the motels always super clean with views of the ocean or mountains, the food was an interesting experience, and nothing is crowded. On the north island we visited the capital Auckland, Whangamata a funky beach town, Raglan famous for surf, Rotorua the Maori hub, Napier with lots of old US cars, and Wellington for the NZ museum. Then we caught the interesting 4-hour ferry to the south island. There we started with a fun ebike tour of wine country in Blenheim, then to the seafood town of Kaikura, a drive up to the mountains and lakes of Tekapo and Wanaka and we ended our trip in Queenstown. The highlights were a small airplane flight from Queensland to visit the beautiful Milford Sound, real fruit ice cream on the sides of the road, breakfasts with abundant avocados on our motel balconies, waterfalls, super people, no crowds, and the thermal wonderland of Waiotapu. Take a look at the pictures below, click on the first one to get started.