Hole In The Donut Travels

Alas, I had but one day in Christchurch, so I spent it walking around the city center. The weather here is positively balmy after the deep freeze of Queenstown and I stripped down from four layers of clothing to two. Even the flowers are still in bloom here – these pink roses hanging over blue [...]

New Zealand’s TranzAlpine Express is reputed to be one of the world’s greatest train rides, crossing beech forests, alpine tussock, glacial rivers, peaceful lakes, and the snow-capped Southern Alps on its 223.8 kilometer (134 mile) journey between Greymouth on the west coast and Christchurch on the east coast. Although I made few advance reservations [...]

Let’s put this into perspective. New Zealand has a total population of 4.5 million people, 45 million sheep, and between 80 and 90 million possum. The possum is not indigenous to New Zealand. It was originally imported from Australia by the British when they discovered there were no fur-bearing animals in the country. They probably [...]

The town of Franz Josef, like Queenstown, has a love affair with adventure sports. For $350 you can take a flight in a single-engine Cessna to view both the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers, landing on the glacier for a bit of ice hiking in the middle of the flight. You can also do this [...]

I was waiting for the shuttle bus when I decided I’d better use the bathroom before beginning the three hour hike to the foot of the glacier, so I stepped inside the shuttle booking office and asked to use their restroom. The clerk directed me to the public toilets across the street. They were [...]

New Zealand takes my breath away. Each place I visit is more beautiful than the last. Yesterday morning I left Queenstown on the InterCity bus, bound for the South Island’s remote west coast town of Franz Josef to hike its amazing glacier. The west coast is the last frontier of New Zealand. [...]

The good news is that I went to Milford Sound yesterday. The bad news is that it rained all day.
Located on New Zealand’s rugged west coast in an region named, appropriately, Fiordland, Milford Sound is a long, narrow fiord where sheer granite cliffs rise vertically from the ocean. The Sound was once described by [...]

Today was an exploring day. I began by taking a ride on the ski gondola that climbs to the top of the hill behind the town of Queensland and ended with a walk around the shores of Lake Wakatipu. The gondola is not for those who are faint of heart as it ascends steeply [...]

I awoke from my mid-flight snooze when the plane began its descent toward Queenstown on the South Island of New Zealand. We were flying over the red, brown and gold Southern Alps, their craggy peaks covered in fresh snow. The valleys between the peaks held a chain of lakes in their cupped palms. Formed of [...]

When the Dune Rider pulled up to my hotel at 7 a.m. I knew that this was not going to be your typical tour. This purpose-built, four-wheel drive, air conditioned Mercedes coach sat atop giant tires designed to negotiate the quicksand streams of 90-Mile Beach, traverse rocky outcrops, and barrel through surf on its way [...]