Linda, Erin, Adam and I do the South Island

As usual, I've done this from back to front, from now to then etc. I'll do better next time. We are now a day away from the Marlborough wine growing area and the Valentines Day Wine Festival. 9 hours , 50 wineries, 30 restaurants and live music all day long. We put on 3300 km in the last 12 days and have seen just a wee bit of this wonderful place. We could be here for a year and not see it all. Thats it for now. Take care of yourselves. John, Linda, Erin and Adam







It seems that every corner you turn in NZ brings another remarkable view. It's difficult to show you the beauty of this country because its all so beautiful. We head S to places like Nelson, Christchurch, Twizel, Queenstown, Oamaru, Akaroa and Kaikora. We see Mt. Cook, New Zealands highest mountain and home to The Sir Edmond Hilary Climbing Centre(he was the first to summit Mt. Everest), we see Emerald Lakes, valleys of rolling hills and ranges of striking mountains with every turn in the road. There are a couple of photos taken from our apartment in Queenstown, the adventure capital on NZ. Too scenic to describe.









We stuffed the Honda's trunk to overflowing and headed South. First stop was S of Lake Taupo where we spent the night in a famous fishing resort that had a beautiful winding river with great swimmin holes. So refreshing after a long days drive. Our routine is now, get up, coffee, light breakfast, DRIVE, DRIVE, buy and taste wine, find a place to spend the night, drink wine, snack, make or go out for dinner, drink more wine and go to bed. Not bad!!!




First stop, Auckland to say goodbye to Kristy, gather Adam and say goodbye to our good friends, Kay and Craig. Pat and I met them at the Equator while they were enroute to French Polynesia from San Diego on their 28', yep, 28' boat, Little Wing. We have spent many a time together since then travelling together through the Pacific and we are sad to see them return home. They will however, be buying a bigger boat and we will no doubt see them again. Craig treated us to one of his famous Rants before we all said goodbye. I don't have a clue what he was "on about" but he was funny.