New Year's in New Zealand

Wow! Here it is New Year’s Day 2009 in Queenstown, New Zealand, and we’re halfway through our South Island adventure already. Time has really flown-by. We arrived here in Queenstown in the afternoon on New Year’s Eve in a light rain and checked-into a very nice two bedroom unit at the Blue Peaks Apartments in plenty of time for our 6:00 p.m. cruise across the lake on the TSS Earnslaw for a fabulous buffet dinner at the Walter Peak Farm. After dinner we were even treated to a sheep-shearing demonstration prior to arriving back “home” at the dock at 10 p.m. From our apartment we had a great view of the Queenstown fireworks display at Midnight!

Our 2008 Toyota Camry rented from Budget has served us exceptionally well, with plenty of room for the four of us and lots of luggage space in the trunk. From Christchurch we drove to Kaikoura on Christmas Day but were disappointed when our 12/26 dolphin-watching trip was cancelled due to rough surf. Fortunately we were able to book a similar trip out of Picton where we spent some time watching a pod of Dusky Dolphins (a smaller variety) cavort around the boat. Our main event the next day at Abel Tasman National Park was a sea kayak trip (double kayaks) which turned out to be a lot more work than we’d bargained-for, especially in paddling against the wind. Weather, however, was clear and the scenery spectacular.











Rugged coastline scenery—not too different from the Oregon Coast—was the order-of-the-day along the west coast when we stayed overnight at Hokitika and Haast, visiting the famous “Pancake Rocks” at Punakaiki and both the Franz Josef and the Fox Glaciers.


Even though it was partially cloudy, weather was clear enough at all points for good photos. While the glaciers are retreating rapidly due to global warming, it’s really impressive to see massive glaciers so close to sea level. (By the way, since New Zealand is 18 hours ahead of EST, we were able to watch the ball drop in Times Square at 6 p.m. on New Year’s Day!) - rw