Our second and last morning with our new friends and hosts, Pam and Rod, found us around the table enjoying breakfast together. We found more and more in common the more we yakked. She is big on genealogy so Dian connected her to one of her neices who has studied that at the University level. …
Author: redpathatease
Christchurch
We woke this morning to our hosts coming in from a morning walk with their friend, Alex, another rather amusing gent. Said he was fluent in three languages.... English, Swedish and Rubbish. Ha! He was spot on. We were treated to a delicious breakfast including homemade yogurt and toast and croissants with homemade jam. And …
Dunedin to Christchurch
After quite a rain spell while we had dinner last evening the weather turned for the better by morning. We can't complain as though it's been a bit colder than we expected (I've worn my winter coat several days) the only rain we had was while we drove from Invercargill. Our delightful home owner had …
Dunedin & the Otago Peninsula
We woke this morning to a very chatty host who filled us in on many aspects of her life as we ate breakfast. Time to move on! In my haste to skedaddle I inadvertently backed into a stone rampart surrounding the house column. Oops. Well, it's a good thing we're driving an old rental car …
Rakiura / Stewart Island
We woke this morning and went to the kitchen for breakfast where we soon were met by Riki, our host. He was quite voluble telling us about his rather checkered past. He referred to himself as an old hippie druggie, who after 12 years found Jesus and it turned his life around. Considering he's been …
Invercargill
We opted for a slow start this morning as we were just having a transition day going from Te Anau to Invercargill and down to Bluff briefly to get the lay of the land. We packed up and wandered over to a local cafe where we heard they had passion fruit smoothies. After our desserts …
Fiordland – Doubtful Sound
We spent our first night in our rather rustic Airbnb, getting a few good chuckles out of dealing with things we haven't seen since our childhoods. We were surprisingly cold, as the house only had one heater in the living room, so we pulled out all the blankets we found. Not so bad then. Up …
Te Anau and Milford Sound
Waking up before dawn we were packed and on the road from Queenstown through Te Anau and on to Milford Sound. The drive took us first along the southern portion of Lake Wakatipu giving us our first view of a sunrise here. The drive continued through a very pastoral area with farming and sheep galore. …
Arrowtown and Lake Wanaka
Today we chose to drive north a bit to the historical mining town called Arrowtown. In the 1860's gold was discovered which brought in all sorts from around the world, including a good number from China. We had a pleasant drive to the town and snagged a parking spot. As we were standing there trying …
Queenstown
After the most refreshing night's sleep we slowly got moving this morning with a breakfast of yogurt and fruit and headed out for the day's exploration of the area. We thought we'd begin by going up on the gondola for an overview of the city. So much for that plan! While I successfully if not …
Redpath At Ease 