Mike and I took a vacation trip to New Zealand in May, 2003. Andy was already there, working at Vidal Estate winery near the city of Napier at Hawkes Bay on the North Island. We flew into Aukland, picked up our "North Island car" and drove over to see Andy, stopping the first night at Lake Taupo (where we were introduced to New Zealand green lip mussels!). After a couple of days with Andy, we continued south to Wellington and the Ta Papa Museum, and then on to the ferry to the South Island.

After leaving the ferry, we picked up our "South Island car" (remarkably like the one we'd left in the north), and headed over to the West Coast. We drove for two days, ending up in Queenstown, where we spent the next week. We flew from Queenstown back to Aukland, and from there back to the US.

The New Zealand Tourism Board maintains a beautiful web site that we used a lot before going over there. It's filled with maps and pictures.

And speaking of beautiful pictures, here is a sampling of the ones we took. The picture at the top was taken from our car, driving across the northern part of the South Island on our way over to the west coast.

By clicking on the thumbnails or captions below, you will see a larger version (800x600, around 100KB) in this window. I hope you enjoy them.

A larger photo of the picture
at the top of this page.

Mike and Andy on top of
Te Mata Peak, Hawkes Bay.

Ann at Punakaiki Rocks,
west coast, South Island.

One more picture of the beautiful western coast of the South Island.

Queenstown, our "home base"
for a week

Flying into Milford Sound

Our first view of Doubtful Sound

Ann and Mike at a Chinese workers cottage in Arrowtown

A toast from Queenstown

Haere ra. Ka kite ano.
So long from New Zealand.

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