Next Stop - New Zealand's South Island, January 4th - January 12th, 2011

QueensTown, January 4th

Had a fantastic time in New Zealand - just a breathtakingly beautiful country. It was all of Canada scrunched into a thousand kilometers. We rented a car for the week and explored as much of the south island as we could. Highlights were seeing Fox Glacier, the Pancake rocks and paddle in Punakaiki, and seeing the seals and walking the shoreline of Kaikoura. Wish we had more time.

Minus 5 Degree Bar in Queenstown- Gotta good laugh seeing this. Patrons get suited up in parkas, toques and gloves and head into a "cold" bar...

Just some of the beautiful scenery....

Sheep, sheep and more sheep!

NZ has fantastic "holiday parks" with full kitchen, washroom/shower facilities. Great if you are camping. We stayed in these for a couple nights in their 4 bed dorm rooms. The rest of the time stayed in what they called "kitchen cabins" or standard rooms that were fully equipped with kitchen facilites and sometimes a separate bedroom for the kids.
We never drove a road that wasn't curvy or winding it's way through mountains or along the coastline. We quickly learned how to drive on the opposite side of the road. Would like to come back and explore the rest of the South Island that we missed and even take in some of the North.

Monstrous tree in Te Anau

A stop while on our way to Wanaka

A lunch stop on the West Coast

Kids at the Pancake Rocks in Punakaiki

Pancake Rocks

Paddle in Punakaiki

Fox Glacier

Weke - just one of NZ's flightless birds

The toilets in Wanaka's Puzzle World

Kaikoura

"Indiana Rein" with his kelp whip in Kaikoura

Kaikoura shoreline

Seals basking in the sun in Kaikoura

Sea kelp on the shores of Kaikoura

Kids climbing rocks on Kaikoura's shore

Cows grazing on a hill in Kaikoura

Christchurch's Central Square

Christchurch's countdown to Rugby World Cup 2011

Kids at Christchurch's Art Gallery