The Very Highest Point
The highest mountain in New Zealand is the awkwardly-named Aoraki/Mt. Cook, which sits in the Southern Alps in the middle of Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park. The name is a compromise […]
Category Archives: New Zealand
Badlands
Driving through New Zealand’s grazing landscape often feels like being in the western US — specifically, the broad northern stretch of the West between the Dakotas and the area east […]
Rob Roy Glacier
In the many South Island hiking blogs I’ve skimmed, at least two cite the Rob Roy Glacier Track as their favorite day hike. That seemed more than enough reason to […]
Wandering Around Wanaka
Though we loved our breakfast at Joe’s Garage, where the wait staff was easygoing and fun, we were so disenchanted with Queenstown that we decided to leave early. Our trip […]
Snow in Summer
After the Fellowship of the Ring lost Gandalf in the Mines of Moria, they rested briefly at Dimrill Dale. In the movie, this scene was filmed at Lake Alta, an […]
Getting to Our Alpine Retreat
We’ve driven inland, coming up into the mountainous center of New Zealand’s South Island. The road took us past Lake Aviemore, part of the enormous Waitaki hydroelectric setup. This series […]
The Whitestone City
The town of Oamaru, population 14,000), lies along the South Island’s coast. We went there so that we would have fun things do if it rained (though we’re learning that […]
There’s Heat in Them Thar Hills
New Zealand has a unique — and somewhat precarious — geological position: it sits at the edge of both the Australian and the Pacific tectonic plates. These plates are always […]
All Along the Briny Deep
We’ve made the crossing from the North Island to the South, relinquishing our rental car in Wellington on a cloudy morning … … and making our way across Cook Strait […]
The Most Remote Capital City in the World
When we ask people on the North Island what their favorite city in New Zealand is, the universal answer is “Wellington,” the country’s capital. So we arrived with high hopes. […]
Traveler Tina 