Craters Of The Moon One of the many things to see around Lake Taupo was the so called Craters of the Moon. The site is basically a giant piece of land covered in hot pools and fumaroles (holes in the ground exposing hot gases). The smell of sulfur was ubiquitous and you could clearly feel the heat coming from the surrounding fumaroles.

Huka Falls Another one of the many things to see in Lake Taupo was Huka Falls. Huka Falls is created from a fairly narrow opening in the land whereby the Waikato River passes through.

Cook Straight Taken from Tisa's original journal entry: Cook Straight/Marlborough Sound-The ferry took us across the Cook Straight when we traveled from the North to the South island. The boat ride was very enjoyable, relaxing and provided us with a great opportunity to talk with some local kiwis. We were surprised that the ride wasn’t as rough as was we had heard but had fun swaying back and forth on the decks. The total trip time was about 3 hours but it all went by so fast. It was fun driving our camper van onto the lower deck of the boat where everyone parked their car in a compact yet organized manner. After the boat set sail, we were not able to return to our cars. To our surprise, the facilities were super nice with comfortable couches, a formal bar area, cafeteria, separate rooms with beds in them and free coffee and tea! The most magnificent part of the ride was the last 30 minutes. As we began to approach Marlborough Sound, the ferry slowed down as we made our way through the tall, rich green, soft looking mountains. They towered over us on every side and you could not see past them. The speed of the ferry is regulated so that the wake produced does not erode the mountainside. Unfortunately, the shores have all been washed up due to ferries going too fast or even too slow. This shows how close to the mountains you are as you drive through them. It is a breathtaking site and has been one of my favorite activities of this trip.

Marlborough Sound Taken from Tisa's original journal entry: Cook Straight/Marlborough Sound-The ferry took us across the Cook Straight when we traveled from the North to the South island. The boat ride was very enjoyable, relaxing and provided us with a great opportunity to talk with some local kiwis. We were surprised that the ride wasn’t as rough as was we had heard but had fun swaying back and forth on the decks. The total trip time was about 3 hours but it all went by so fast. It was fun driving our camper van onto the lower deck of the boat where everyone parked their car in a compact yet organized manner. After the boat set sail, we were not able to return to our cars. To our surprise, the facilities were super nice with comfortable couches, a formal bar area, cafeteria, separate rooms with beds in them and free coffee and tea! The most magnificent part of the ride was the last 30 minutes. As we began to approach Marlborough Sound, the ferry slowed down as we made our way through the tall, rich green, soft looking mountains. They towered over us on every side and you could not see past them. The speed of the ferry is regulated so that the wake produced does not erode the mountainside. Unfortunately, the shores have all been washed up due to ferries going too fast or even too slow. This shows how close to the mountains you are as you drive through them. It is a breathtaking site and has been one of my favorite activities of this trip.

Nelson Taken from Tisa's original journal of our trip: Nelson- (population: 52, 300) Nelson is an artsy town with cute cafes, galleries and art vendors. The streets remind us of a typical town life scene in Colorado (eg; Boulder and Denver). Small independent stores line the streets one after another, a very peaceful and quite atmosphere, cute architecture, no loud signs or advertisements everywhere, no traffic congestion, many trees and nicely paved streets. However, with this beauty comes a price tag. The food was rather expensive as was all the merchandise. It didn’t take us long to realize that this wasn’t a place where we would be residing but I would love to retire here. My favorite part was having trees fill and surround the area. Makes for a great, relaxing morning to stroll down the street, buy a cup of coffee from the corner vendor and sit under a tree and read a book!

National Cathedral of Nelson Taken from Tisa's original journal of our trip: Nelson- (population: 52, 300) Nelson is an artsy town with cute cafes, galleries and art vendors. The streets remind us of a typical town life scene in Colorado (eg; Boulder and Denver). Small independent stores line the streets one after another, a very peaceful and quite atmosphere, cute architecture, no loud signs or advertisements everywhere, no traffic congestion, many trees and nicely paved streets. However, with this beauty comes a price tag. The food was rather expensive as was all the merchandise. It didn’t take us long to realize that this wasn’t a place where we would be residing but I would love to retire here. My favorite part was having trees fill and surround the area. Makes for a great, relaxing morning to stroll down the street, buy a cup of coffee from the corner vendor and sit under a tree and read a book!

International Antarctic Centre One of my goals in New Zealand was to find a way to make it down to Antarctica, a place I have longed to go. Tisa and I stopped off at the International Antarctic Centre in Christchurch and though we went through the tourist stuff, I was really just trying to see if I could meet someone there that could give me some information about any programs they might have had. Needless to say, though I sent email after email trying to get into a program last minute, my requests were denied on account of signing up too late.

Methven Methven is the base of where we shacked up in order to do our skiing at Mt. Hutt. There really wasn't much to the town except for a few restaurants, pubs, and that sort of thing. I had a fun time helping to build a snow igloo with one of the local kids.

Mt. Cook Mt. Cook was definitely one of the more enjoyable and scenic parts of Tisa and I's voyage. To anyone who is not familiar with it, Mt. Cook (or Aoraki in Maori) is the tallest peak in New Zealand with an summit of 3,754 meters or 12,316 feet. The water in the river was frigid and the shaky suspension bridge that towered over it was something out of an Indiana Jones movie. To say the very least, I loved the experience.

Blue Penguin Colony Though it was already getting late, Tisa and I decided to drive out to the tip of the Otago peninsula, just east of Dunedin. It's about a 30 or 40 minute drive all the way out there and though we did our best to make it before sundown, we weren't quite successful. Just when we were about to leave, one of us noticed a small blue penguin in the distance. I naturally followed it so that I could get some pictures in it's natural habitat (only to find later that this is strongly discouraged). As we started to leave we rolled down the windows and heard what sounded like hundreds of babies crying. We didn't know it just then, but this was the Dunedin blue penguin colony - a safe haven for blue penguins.