Our last stop of our 2 weeks New Zealand adventure: Queenstown 🙂 We took the Crown Range Rd again to get back to Queenstown from Wanaka and what a huge difference it made on a sunny vs cloudy day! It was so foggy that we couldn’t see the mountains and lake on the background: We reached… Read More South Pacific Part 11: Last stop – Queenstown & Glenorchy
At first, I was planning 2 nights in Te Anau but once I saw photos of Lake Wanana, I decided to re-adjust my plan so I can stay at Lake Wanaka for 1 night. It was a 3 hours drive from Te Anau to Lake Wanaka was a very scenic one, so far the most… Read More South Pacific Part 10: Lake Wanaka
The drive from Dunedin to Te Anau took almost 4 hours and when we got to Lakeside Motel, I went into the reception to check in, got our key and a map of the drive to Milford Sound. It was one of the few times I stayed at motels since not much choices in Te Anau, the… Read More South Pacific Part 9: Milford Sound
Our New Zealand South Island adventure continued to Dunedin; the drive from Lake Tekapo to Dunedin was around 4 hours and we stopped in Oamaru when we passed by many Asian restaurants – it reminded us lunch time! We saw a big Thai food sign and found parking right near the entrance of Bangkok Recipe Oamaru. We… Read More South Pacific Part 8: Dunedin
With less than 4 hours of sleep to catch our early morning flight at 7:10 AM to Queenstown arrived at 9:00 AM, we were tired but once we stepped out the airport, the fresh mountain air woke us up! We gave Apex Car Rental a call and they sent their shuttle over to pick us… Read More South Pacific Part 7: Stargazing at Lake Tekapo and 3 Hours Hike Mount Cook
Our first “real” New Zealand adventure started with a side trip from Auckland to the colorful geothermal valley of Rotorua. Early in the morning, we checked out the hotel and paid our $30 NZD internet bill for 2 days (yikes) and lugged our luggage up the hill to Europcar. The office just opened but a… Read More South Pacific Part 6: Colorful Geothermal Valley of Rotorua
New Zealand, we finally made it here…the furthest country in our 5 years of travel and probably the furthermost in terms of distance from Boston! In the flight we were given an immigration plus a declaration form…it was the longest form ever with specific questions! New Zealand has strict bio-security laws on what you can’t… Read More South Pacific Part 5: A Visit to A Great Friend in Auckland
It is below freezing temperature outside while writing this post so please excuse me if I sounded a little bit down or even rage on why did we had to come back LOL! When we left Aitutaki it was blue sky there (and I did debate if we should change the flight etc so we… Read More South Pacific Part 4: New Year in Rarotonga
The 2nd day in Aitutaki, Cook Islands, we took a full day “Seven Wonders Cruise” with Kia Orana Cruise. The reason I picked this cruise is because it’s small group max of 10 people compared to those big boats. We were picked up at the parking lot across the channel from our hotel at 9 am… Read More South Pacific Part 3: Aitutaki Sanbars and Crab Hunting
I was spoiled by the beautiful lagoon of Bora Bora so I went on a search for “the world’s most beautiful lagoon” and Aitutaki came up! As soon as I saw the photos of Aitutaki’s lagoon, I decided that’ll be my next South Pacific destination! From Tahiti, there’s a weekly Saturdays nonstop flight from PPT… Read More South Pacific Part 2: Aitutaki
