2008 - Washington DC
2010 - Cuba
2011 - DR, Bermuda, & Cruise
2012 - DR & Costa Rica
2013 - Cruise, CR, & USA
2014 - SE Asia
The Year Off 2015 - 2016
- Preamble
- Thailand & Malaysia
- Italy
- Germany, Belgium, & Lux
- Czech, Poland, & Germany
- Austria, Slovakia, & Hungary
- Slovenia, Croatia, Austria & Germany
- England & Scotland
- Turkey
- Colombia
- Peru: Lima & Amazon
- Peru: Cusco & Inca Trail
- Peru: Cusco to Lima
- Mexico, Guatemala, & Belize
- New Zealand
- Australia & Thailand
2017 - The Balkans
2017 - Hungary, Romania, & Switzerland
2018 - New York
2018 - Amsterdam, Poland, & The Baltics
2019 - Costa Rica
2019 - France
2020 - Thailand
2023 - Mexico
2023 - Iceland & Cruise
2024 - Philippines
2025 - Japan
2025 - Iceland
Short Trips
Lists
Links
| January 6, 2016 - Wednesday | Auckland | New Zealand |
Arrived at Auckland at 5:40am local time. Got my rental car. I walked around
the One Tree Hill area and Mission Bay Beaches areas, then went to the hotel
to nap. In the evening I went to the downtown area to walk around that area.
Everything closes very early here.
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| January 7, 2016 - Thursday | Whangarei | New Zealand |
Drove up to a town called Whangarie. Weird name. I checked out the waterfall
and did a very short hike in the area. Drove over to the Whangarei Heads
area to check it out.
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| January 8, 2016 - Friday | Whangarei | New Zealand |
| The reason I was in this area was to scuba dive. I drove east of the town to a place called Tutakaka which has a marina. Got on a boat and we motored over to the Poor Knights Islands. Did two dives here. The boat ride was very rough, the waves were high. Diving was good though. | ||
| January 9, 2016 - Saturday | Hamilton | New Zealand |
I drove south, past Hamilton, to the Mangapohue Natural Bridge. There is a
short walk here that goes under a stone arch. Pretty place. Drove back up to
Hamilton for the night.
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| January 10, 2016 - Sunday | Rotorua | New Zealand |
Today I went to Hobbiton and did the tour. It was excellent. Got to see all
the places from the movies, including the hobbit houses and party tree.
After that they took us to the Green Dragon Inn where we had a glass of
cider. I took many great pictures of this place. In the afternoon I went to
Wairere Falls and walked around, spent the night in Rotorua.
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| January 11, 2016 - Monday | Rotorua | New Zealand |
| Visited Blue Lake and Okere Falls. Another night in Rotorua. | ||
| January 12, 2016 - Tuesday | Turangi | New Zealand |
Visited Crater Lake and then Waiotapu Mud Pools. Also did Huka Falls. Got
lots of rain today, so didn’t spend too much time outdoors. Spending tonight
and tomorrow at Turangi.
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| January 13, 2016 - Wednesday | Turangi | New Zealand |
Today I did the Tongariro Alpine Crossing hike. Took me a little over five
hours. I dropped my car off at the end point and took shuttle to the start.
Forgot my lunch in the car. Beautiful day and very scenic hike. Lots of
people on the trail. Got to see the volcano that stood in for Mt. Doom in
the Lord of the Rings movies.
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| January 14, 2016 - Thursday | Taupo | New Zealand |
Drove up to see the Craters of the Moon park, which had steam leaking out
from the ground. Spend the day (and night) at Taupo.
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| January 15, 2016 - Friday | Napier | New Zealand |
Drove over to Napier and explored the area.
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| January 16, 2016 - Saturday | Napier | New Zealand |
| Did a hike in Te Mata (near Hastings), back to Napier for the rest of the day. | ||
| January 17, 2016 - Sunday | Wellington | New Zealand |
Bit of a long drive down to Wellington. Toured the Weta Workshop where they
make movie props. It was okay, but not a highlight of the trip. This is my
last day on the North Island.
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| January 18, 2016 - Monday | Nelson | New Zealand |
| Walked around in the morning, then took the car ferry to the South Island. Drove to Nelson. | ||
| January 19, 2016 - Tuesday | Nelson | New Zealand |
| Had heavy rain until mid-afternoon, so did not do too much. I went for a drive in the afternoon. Couple of months later I got a letter in the mail with a photo radar ticket. Apparently I was going 66kph in a 60 zone. The fine was roughly $30 New Zealand dollars. | ||
| January 20, 2016 - Wednesday | Franz Josef | New Zealand |
Today was a long travel day. I drove south, along the west coast. Stopped at
Pancake Rocks to do the short walk there and see the unique rocks. Drove on
to Franz Josef.
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| January 21, 2016 - Thursday | Wanaka | New Zealand |
Lots of walking/hiking today. Started with the Franz Josef glacier walk. The
glacier is pretty dirty. Was expecting it to look cleaner. I then went to
Lake Matheson and walked around the lake. It was overcast, but I’m told on a
clear day there are great views of Mount Cook. Oh well. I still got some
great pictures of reflections off the lake. Driving on I went and did the
Fox glacier walk. Again, lots of dirt on the glacier. Spent the night in
Wanaka.
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| January 22, 2016 - Friday | Te Anau | New Zealand |
| I did the Mt. Iron hike in the morning, which was nothing special. Then drove to Te Anau. | ||
| January 23, 2016 - Saturday | Te Anau | New Zealand |
Drove to Milford Sound to do the cruise on the fjord. It was raining, and I
got wet, but the scenery is spectacular. Was standing out on the deck and a
gust of wind broke my umbrella. Back to Te Anau for the night.
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| January 24, 2016 - Sunday | Queenstown | New Zealand |
| Drove to Queenstown. Walked around town and also drove over to Arrowtown and walked around. | ||
| January 25, 2016 - Monday | Queenstown | New Zealand |
| Rained the whole day. Tried driving out of town to Glenorchy in the hopes of better weather, but it was not to be. Drove back and spent most of the day at the hotel. A girl that I had met two years ago when I was on the tour in SE Asia messaged me out of the blue. She lives in Auckland and had no idea I was in New Zealand. We made plans to meet up later on the one day I would be back in Auckland before going to Australia. | ||
| January 26, 2016 - Tuesday | Twizel | New Zealand |
| Still raining. Drove to Twizel to spend two nights here. Did a short walk, but not much else. | ||
| January 27, 2016 - Wednesday | Twizel | New Zealand |
Drove to the Mt. Cook area and did a couple of walks in the area. Still had
low level clouds, so could not see the actual mountain.
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| January 28, 2016 - Thursday | Christchurch | New Zealand |
| Drove to Christchurch. | ||
| January 29, 2016 - Friday | Auckland | New Zealand |
Did a walking tour of Christchurch in the morning. Got to see some of the
buildings that were still damaged from the earthquake. In the afternoon I
flew to Auckland. Was originally planning on getting a hotel near the
airport, but that girl mentioned a few days ago invited me to stay with her,
so I did. Tomorrow morning I fly to Australia.  I enjoyed the north island more than the south, but I suspect a large part of that was due to weather. If it had not rained so much on the south island I know I would have had a better time. |
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