Wellington

Riding the antique cable car at the Wellington Cable Car Museum. It's steep as!


Adams' last days in New Zealand. Views over Wellington from the cable car museum. Soak it in, dude.


Kiwi art installation at the Te Papa museum in Wellington. Now that is sweet as!

Sunset along Sinclair Head Seal Colony

On a weekend trip to Wellington we walked out to the Sinclair Head seal colony. There were a number of these guys lying around not too interested in what we were up to. You could walk right up to them and they may open an eye and look at you, but more often than not they'd conserve the energy.


Sunset along the south shore near Wellington.


Enjoying a weekend away from the trouble brewing in Levin.

Tongariro Crossing

Tongariro crossing looking back on Whakapapa Village.


Mike eyes the summit of Mt. Ngauruhoe.


Mike's triumphant summit.

Tongariro

One of the most popular tramps in New Zealand, the Tongariro Crossing, is a day walk between these two volcanoes. When the weather is clear, it must be spectacular. Things were looking good as we drove closer, but what started out as a clear morning progressed to summitting Mt Ngauruhoe (cone on the right) in whiteout conditions. Does this mountain look familiar? It was Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings.


Taranaki Falls, one of the natural wonders on tracks around Tongariro.


After Adams was done drying his hair... (and hitting the Korean restaraunt in rural Lake Taupo)...


We got a start off to the hut for the night.

Scenes around Levin

The Kiwis are a civic minded bunch. The guy in the billboard founded the Swazi outdoor clothing company and is the spokesperson for the national 'buy New Zealand made products' push. We see him at the coffee shop and around town as well as in all the newspapers.


Toadstools in the woods on a walk to the Trig, above the town of Levin.


Where there is so much rain with frequent 'fair spells', rainbows are frequently spotted.

Coming back down a wooded trail we spotted a couple of these Moreporks. They are a small New Zealand owl whose call supposedly goes "morepork ... morepork". They were pretty intrepid and would fly down the trail ahead of us only to roost again on an overhanging branch and let us come close enough for this photo. Hopefully the flash didn't permanently damage those eyes.

Hokio Beach

The beach "in our backyard" is called Hokio Beach. It's incredible that whenever we go there, it's empty of our fellow humans. We have the beach to ourselves and it's surrounded by sand dunes without a condominium or sky rise anywhere around.


Oh, there is quite a large Kiwi guarding one of the beach houses though!

Although it was wintery temps when we arrived, everyone was selling these tropical fruits on the side of the road. Feijoas, rumoured to be from South America somewhere. They are very fragrant and perfumy, with texture like a pear. We didn't take to them as a fresh fruit, but heard they may be more enjoyable in jams, chutnetys, salads, etc. We still stocked up on the copious cheap fresh fruits and veggies from farm stands.

Arrival in Levin

Ahhh. . . home sweet home. Well, it's a bit cold. And the electricity is er, "old school." After we tried just huddling together for warmth, we went and bought a second hand heater.

Sky Tower

The tallest tower in the southern hemisphere was a must see. The glass floors were really scary. It was as close as we got to bungy jumping.

Mt Eden

Great views from the top of Mt. Eden, one of over 48 extinct volcanoes in Auckland. Our first day in New Zealand, so full of sunshine.

Arrival in Auckland

After leaving Salt Lake at 5:30 pm on May 2nd, we arrive in Auckland on May 4th 5:30am. Even though we felt pretty beat, Rob proposes that we go for a 2 hour run and explore some of Auckland. This turned out to be a pretty nice idea. . .