Introduction

This blog provides an overview of our December 2014 trip to New Zealand. Like most blogs, it is in reversed chronological order, so if you want to follow our route, please start from the bottom. Our travels started in Auckland in the North Island. We then flew to Queenstown in the South Island where we rented a car. We stayed in the cozy nearby town of Arrowtown, then drove to Wanaka, Franz Josef Glacier, Westport, Nelson, and Blenheim. From Blenheim we drove to Picton where we dropped off our rental car to take the Interisland Ferry to Wellington in the North Island. We picked up another rental car at the ferry terminal there. We visited Wellington, Peka Peka, Napier, and Katikati in Matamata near Rotorua and Tauranga. Finally, we drove back to Auckland to have lunch before heading to the airport for our return to the U.S.


We flew to Los Angeles where we spent one night at the Beach House Hotel, right on the Hermosa Beach waterfront.

After one night in LA, we flew to Kauai where we spent 6 days at the spectacular Grand Hyatt Resort in Koloa, which deserves its own blog.