New Zealand

We walked miles all around this town and stumbled upon a Lantern Festival in town for the weekend. There were lanterns everywhere - floating in the river, hung from trees and in the park. The [...]

We topped off our last night in NZ with what they call punting down the Avon River. Kind of like a gondola, but without the singing. The boat is very flat on the bottom as [...]

Christchurch looks a little like England - cathedrals and artwork abound, along with a lovely river winding through town and Botanical Gardens with huge trees planted in the mid-1800's. We stopped at the Rose Garden [...]

We hiked up about 10km to this ice cave at the bottom of the glacier (I'm standing in it, if you look closely). It was drippy and cool, which felt pretty good after our uphill [...]

Here we are the the Wilderness Lodge at Arthur's Pass, which was our best stay in NZ. It's a working sheep and cattle ranch, with owners that are passionate and knowledgeable about the environment. We [...]

Horse Trek through the Alps. When it's a clear day here, the scenery is like a 360 degree postcard...you'd swear Julie Andrews is going to pop out and start singing that the hills are alive [...]

We are in the Southern Alps and the glaciers and mountains are breathtaking. The Franz Josef and Fox glaciers are only about 200 meters above sea level, in the midst of a lush rainforest. While [...]

The hike was through streams and the rainforest, with lovely moss and mushrooms along a glacial whitewater river. No bears to worry about here. We got our feet plenty wet and muddy, despite the fact [...]

This small town has but one claim to fame...the SIBERIAN EXPERIENCE! They helicopter you out in the woods, and you find your way back about 4 1/2 hours later to the jet boat pick up [...]

A three hour hike near Milford Sound. They said to be ready for all kinds of weather here, so we carted up coats, sweaters and raingear. Turned out to be a beautiful, sunny and humid [...]

Our 80 ft. boat sailed very close to a huge (2,000 ft) waterfall, that sprayed so much it cleared the decks of all onlookers. Mike was the last man standing, happy but soaked when we'd [...]

Not a sound (apparently misnamed), this is actually a fjord. (We learned that sounds are created by rivers, fjords by glaciers). We flew there in on a Cessna (top photo includes the wing), and took [...]