Sunday, 28 February: We left Audrey with a promise to return in late March before we go home and drove to Auckland over the Kaimai mountain range. As is often the case, the road was very foggy through the mountains. Our first stop was at the Auckland Botanical Garden. Even though many of the flowers have gone by, it was a lovely walk, and the sculptures we saw in January are still there; so Joe and Mary got to see them as well. We checked in to the Waldorf Celest...

Sunday, 28 February: We left Audrey with a promise to return in late March before we go home and drove to Auckland over the Kaimai mountain range. As is often the case, the road was very foggy through the mountains. Our first stop was at the Auckland Botanical Garden. Even though many of the flowers have gone by, it was a lovely walk, and the sculptures we saw in January are still there; so Joe and Mary got to see them as well. We checked in to the Waldorf Ce...

Sunday, 21 February: Today we drove from Feilding to Whangamomona. The treat of the day was being able to see Mt. Taranaki in its entirety. This mountain is so often shrouded in cloud and mist that some travelers never get to see it. Whangamomona claims to be a separate Republic within New Zealand...long story. One gets there along Road 43 called the Forgotten World Highway because of the remoteness of the area. We arrived in mid afternoon and settled in for our ...

Sunday, 21 February: Today we drove from Feilding to Whangamomona. The treat of the day was being able to see Mt. Taranaki in its entirety. This mountain is so often shrouded in cloud and mist that some travelers never get to see it. Whangamomona claims to be a separate Republic within New Zealand...long story. One gets there along Road 43 called the Forgotten World Highway because of the remoteness of the area. We arrived in mid afternoon and settled in for ou...

Sunday, 14 February: The drive from Jack's Point to Lake Tekapo yesterday was uneventful except for the few drivers who were navigating on the wrong side of the road. Fortunately there were no accidents. We drove through LIndis Pass, stopped at Lake Pukaki where the water was a beautiful shade of blue, and we took the scenic drive up the Tekapo Canal Road only to find it was closed about 5km from the main road, and we had to turn back and take the main road the r...