Author: admin

It took us a half an hour to reach the trail head for this hike from our Airbnb situated in the middle of nowhere. Scenic Reserves here in New Zealand are akin to our state and national forests and wildlife refuges back home. We had no idea what beauty laid ahead of us on this 5 mile hike.

This hike reminded us at times of walking the trails back in the Northeast of the States. Looks almost like a black and white photo but I promise, it is in color.

Found this picturesque spot about half way to the summit. Gorgeous valley and clouds in the blue sky!

The going got a bit rough after a while but nothing we could not handle. Nice to walk up this natural rocky staircase rather than the usual manmade stairs that New Zealand has become famous for (in our minds anyway).

Made it to the faux summit and had to step out onto a ledge for a closer look at the scenery. Laurie is flashing the peace sign for some reason. Peace and out brother.

Cannot believe the diversity of scenery around here too. The Pacific Ocean is pictured behind many layers of farmed hills and rows of hedges which, for this life of us, have no purpose. Realizing we were not yet at the top we were excited to keep going.

Back downhill on those famous NZ stairs. Always seems like after one false summit you must go back down a ways before regaining the altitude, and more, later.

Notice the pressure treated step installed long enough ago that this tree has engulfed it with its root system. The orange triangle on the thinner tree is the equivalent to a colored blaze marking the trails back home.

What a surreal hiking experience this was. Great scenery inside the bush and outside too.

After hiking downhill for a while we reached a stream with a sign that read “waterfall 5 minutes –>” Of course we wandered in that direction in search of some beauty.

This spot and waterfall were definitely worth capturing a video. Enjoy.

We don’t recall ever hiking away from a waterfall to get a view of the same falls through the canopy of trees. Somehow, all felt right in the world at this point.

The sign said the trail headed straight up to the summit. Guess we will give it a try. Most trails are easier to walk than they appear once you get started. I wonder sometimes when Laurie is asking me to pose for a picture whether she is procrastinating or not?

Definitely not as strenuous as it looks but they did install some handrails here and there as one wrong move and you were kaput. This is the first time we have found a trail with a safety feature here in New Zealand.

We finally figured we were at the summit when Laurie spotted an even higher point.

I sent her to scout it out. Boy were the views from there out of this world!

We felt for this poor hairy tree as it had been a good three months since our last haircut. We have seen rocks in the Catskill Mountains that seem to need a haircut but not a tree like this.

This little guy got about as close to us as a bird has ever when we are not eating or near a place where folks had eaten before. Very cool that it almost jumped onto my outstretched hands. Nice way to end a fabulous day of hiking.

A short hike around the Kelvin Peninsula near the city of Queenstown produced views like pictured above.

Our drive into Queenstown each day from our Airbnb in Cardrona was spectacular. Not often in life one gets to enjoy the drive to a destination about as much as the destination itself.

The last portion of the drive involved a series of ludicrous switchbacks. While I was driving I did not have the ability to properly enjoy the scenery so the pictures Laurie took helped me get a greater appreciation for the area.

Our walk around the peninsula started out just like many other walks with a nicely maintained trail through a picturesque and lush landscape.

The meandering path was also home to a number of sculptures installed within the last decade. The one above blends in with the forest nicely.

The path also crossed an open golf course. As we avoided getting beaned by a stray ball we ran into this nice sculpture that reminded us so much of all the windswept trees on the island.

Another sculpture doubled as a nice bench to relax on and one to use as a focal point for some nice pictures.

NICE VIEW!!!

Our last set of sculptures were these 3 mountain goats. As we rounded the corner and got our first view, we thought they were real for a second.

Although the hiking loop was near a large city, there were no other folks around leaving us to enjoy the peace and serenity of the lakeshore.

The crystal clear water allowed us to see some really neat striations on the rocks. The constant erosion caused by the waves over the years created this beautiful scene.

We only wondered for a wee moment about why they would have a used RV for the purpose of “race control”. The trailer was parked on the property of the Wakatipu Yacht Club so they must be referring to sailboat races?

After a nice hike it is always good to “get a feed on” as they say in New Zealand. The famous hamburger joint in Queenstown is a place called Fergburger. We had been hearing about it since our arrival in Auckland.

It was what Kiwis call “takeaway only” meaning they had no seats inside to eat at. We asked for take out at a number of places in NZ and got the craziest looks from folks until we remembered it was takeaway. The line was about 30 deep outside the shop when we got there and an employee told us that was not very busy and it should only be about 15 minutes for our order to be taken.

I had the Ferg Deluxe and Laurie had the Fergburger. When in New Zealand you go for a Fergburger and when in California you go for an In-N-Out Burger.

Not a chain restaurant as this location was all they have in New Zealand. There are no plastic straws or utensils at any restaurant locations in NZ as they evidently do not want to contribute to the problems of plastic and microplastics in the oceans.

This huge pine tree was planted here back in the 1800s in front of the then newly constructed courthouse. Its original purpose was to give some shade to the folks waiting for their cases to be heard in front of a judge.

On our drive back to Cardrona and our Airbnb we did what we have done many days while in New Zealand. We parked the car and walked to a secluded beach to do some reading. Cannot get any more peaceful than that eh?

This little gem of a distillery was located right across the street from our condo. They offered tours at $25 with the ability to put that $25 toward a purchase at the end of the tour if you liked the product.

The barrels they age their Scotch in come from all over the world and made with many different types of wood. During their opening back in 2016 they ran a promotion where you, or a group, could purchase an entire barrel of spirits. Sounded great until we learned the price started at $20,000 NZ! Hope it turned out good.

Boy did I like the product. All their spirits, from vodka and gin to single malt Scotch, were brewed from the same mash coming from barley. Never heard of barley being used in distilling. It was absolutely fabulous though. Note the percent alcohol is 47%. Gin that is sold commercially in NZ is 37% by law so this was a bit different. Some of the single malts I tried were upwards of 65% or 130 proof.

One day our drive was to take us 3 hours so we added a few minutes to side journey down to this river flowing out of the Southern Alps. Fabulous color and a nice steep hike to boot.

A view of the bridge we had to drive over to start our hike. This bridge was like many here in New Zealand, one lane. Folks around here are used to it so no big deal. So few cars around that in the 2 months we were there we only had to wait twice for oncoming traffic to clear the bridge. One side is designated to have the right of way with signage clearly marking that. Some of the bridges did have a pull out spot in the middle in case people became mindless of their situation.

The stump of this old tree provided a nice photo op as well as a respite from the intense sun.

The other side of the dead tree. Rock art or graffiti? The markings were actually made in hard dirt so an irrelevant question but we have learned recently that as long as the markings are over 50 years old, it is called historical rock art.

Check out the demarcation line between the cold water on the right and the sandy beach to the left. Beautiful backdrop here as well.

Our next detour on our drive was to the coast and “Dashing Rocks”.

The rocks indeed were being dashed by the waves. This one just happened to get me a wee bit wet. Laurie missed that moment by just a second.

Not sure what a slumpage is but not even the spell check likes the name. I guess the picture on the placard is worth exactly 5 words.

We have passed by many rugby pitches, cricket fields and football (soccer) fields but had to stop and take a picture of our first lawn bowling center. Looked like a cross between bowling and curling?

Strangely enough, on that day we also walked by our first croquet pitch. The sign out front said “if you are watching, come in and give it a try”. Sure enough an elder gentleman came over and asked us if we wanted to play. We begged off for some reason or another but, as usual in NZ, we did have a good 10 minute conversation about this or that. Nice fellow.

Our Airbnb host said we should visit the Valley of the Moa. A moa is an extinct flightless bird akin to an emu or ostrich. When the Maori people canoed over to New Zealand from Polynesia about 600 years ago they hunted them to extinction here in this valley. Love the stipulation that there are to be no visitors during lambing and calving season.

A picturesque valley to hike through with cool limestone cliffs on each side.

A view of some of these cliffs. We saw what we thought were bats flying in and out of the caves along the cliff walls. Thought bats came out at night?

We saw a small sign that said “Maori Art” with an arrow up a grassy hill. When we got there we found some dark smudges on the wall that was fenced of with chain link. Not as impressive as the rock art at Mesa Verde but interesting anyway.

We will wrap up this post with a picture of New Zealand’s largest supermarket chain. Most are named “Countdown” but the company is changing its name to Woolworths. We wonder if it has any connection to the old department store back in the states that has been out of business for quite a while.

We took a nice hike along the coast and quickly realized we were walking the same trail that starts/ends up at Cape Reinga at the northern tip of New Zealand called Te Araroa

Memories of hiking the Appalachian Trail. 3000 kilometers is about 1860 miles.

Laurie looks like she is having a fabulous time! This place is called Lookout Point. The views were stunning.

I may look a bit less enthusiastic but, boy was I happy to be on the coast of New Zealand for another awesome hike.

A very sad placard was placed at Lookout Point especially the 7 year old dying of hypothermia in his father’s arms.

On our way back up the trail we ran into a trail maintainer. We stopped and chatted with him for a moment about all things trail related then thanked him for his service. Not sure if he was a volunteer or not but the sentiment is the same either way.

A nice passer-by snapped this photo of us under a sign very similar to the one at Cape Reinga in the north.

Not sure where all these places are but, they are all pretty far away.

On a cooler and less sunny day we opted to walk around the rocky shores of the bay. Cool little lighthouse we ran into.

The rocks were not slippery at all and the timing of our visit corresponding to low tide allowed us lots of room to explore.

A quick drive up Signal Hill followed by a walk up to the viewing platform gave us nice views of the entire town of bluff. The port was bustling with activity most days with the unloading of a cargo ship and the unloading of tourists from a cruise ship.

Gotta tell you, it was really windy most days in New Zealand. We almost got blown off the platform the wind was so strong!

We had to get up at 5 am to catch low tide in order to view the ship graveyard. At first we thought it was an area that was dangerous for navigation, hence, all the ship skeletons. Come to find out it is simply a spot that folks or companies discarded their old and useless ships.

Here is a picture of the ribs of an old ship along with some sort of metal container it was carrying when it met its demise.

The kiosk for this dead ship said that the pile of rocks in the middle was actually the ship’s ballast and are still there a hundred years later. Cool to think they were in use during the 1800s.

At first I was going to call this a US Geological Survey marker like you find at the summits of mountains back home but…..NOT. Being in New Zealand we assume their Lands & Survey Department is a similar organization.

Had to mention the public restrooms during one of these posts. NZ is incredibly good about providing restrooms for the public in just about any place you might want one. They are also kept in immaculate condition. There was a light system to tell you if it was vacant or occupied and when you entered the door automatically locked and music started to play. This one had nature sounds to assist with you needs.

Also thought it appropriate to mention an oddity on the roads in most of the country. Except for the busiest spots in the larger cities, there are no stop lights and very few stop signs. Most intersections had one road with their version of a yield sign. No more tickets for that “rolling stop” we all do on occasion.

We will end this post with a picture of the working barometer that was hanging on the wall at our Airbnb. Curiosity got the better of us and we opened a door on the back only to find the instructions on how to read it. Guess these are obsolete now with the advent of the weather people on the evening news.

Oh my was this a beautiful spot. A bit of exercise too as it was over a mile to weave our way down the newly constructed path to the beach. The up was well graded but, as a local just said, “it was a puffer”. As usual, the beach got its name from what you saw, a tunnel. More on that later.

The waves turned this sea kelp into what we likened to a car wash with its brushes swishing back and forth.

I saw a sperm whale and Laurie saw an old man’s face much like the old man of the mountains in NH. It was a sad day when it collapsed a few years back but it appears he was reincarnated here.

We had no idea the beach was called Tunnel Beach because there was literally a hand dug tunnel through the mountain down to the beach. Wild!

We knew this would be an adventure when we saw this signage. We love the idea that just because something has potential danger involved their government does not simply shut it down. Again, much like New Hampshire.

As we were visiting at lowish tide we had quite a bit of beach to explore. Amazing that so many things to see and do here are tidal specific.

Cool little cave to explore. Almost got wet going in as the tide began to come in. Our trusty hiking boots kept us dry.

Laurie is dwarfed by another “old man of the mountains”. Can you see the face in that huge limestone rock?

Never did have the urge to be a rock climber but I figured this one had to be stood on.

Tides coming in so it’s time to vacate the beach and head on to another adventure. What a cool tunnel. Cannot believe someone did this without those crazy tunnel boring machines used for the highways these days.

Off to what is called Seal Beach. We figured there would be some cool wildlife to view there. We were not aware that these beasts actually climb out of the water and waddle quite a long way inland.

The path down to the beach was quite steep and sandy but no problem with a bit of time and care. At least if we took a tumble it would be on sand and not rock!

The sign at the carpark said to stay 20 meters away from these creatures. We did not bring our tape measure and even if we did it is not ticked off in metric. He is actually yawning here and not upset. As soon as I snapped this picture he plopped back down in the sand and continued his nap.

We counted 7 seals napping on this day. Should that be part of the 12 days of Christmas tune? These did not move even though we were making a bit of noise.

It was a rather windy day and when the surf rolled it the white caps and their splash were blowing horizontally. Not sure you can see it here but it is a nice scene anyway.

We thought it pretty cool that the “flipper prints” were still visible in the sand.

Did not get to see any of the odd looking penguins today but a picture of the kiosk was interesting enough. They stay out feeding in the ocean all day and come into the beach to sleep at night.

We learned the differences between a New Zealand seal and a sea lion this day. Allan Beach had sea lions that were quite a bit larger than a seal and had a mane of fur on the top half of its body. Both species seemed particularly lazy to us. Not a single sea lion moved for us today.

They try to cover themselves in sand to keep the flies at bay while they nap. Did not hear any snoring from this soul.

Our accommodations near Dunedin was this Tiny Home. Really cool place with really nice hosts to boot. Spent some time comparing notes between our tiny home and this one as well as all other things NZ vs. US. They even invited us to their place on a nearby river to use their kayaks.

The downstairs was actually fairly roomy. Complete with a dishwasher and washing machine.

Upstairs was a nice sitting room and a queen size bed. I did have to duck before I covered when getting into bed.

Laurie is muscling her way up river, against the tide and into an extremely stiff head wind! Click above to view her in action. So nice of our hosts Greg and Angela to allow us to use their boats. These are smaller boats than we are used to but we found them very responsive and much lighter to carry.

From the farm………..

To the grocery store!! The only deer we saw on either of the two islands were in the fields being raised on farms and in the store.

These birds are huge. Never mind the fleece jacket in the middle of summer here, check out the huge wing span of the albatross as I am 6 foot tall.

Caught this bird in flight. So majestic. The smaller looking birds on the ground are also albatross but they are curled up on their lone egg of the season hoping their mate will return from feeding at sea for up to a week at a time. We did witness one “change over” when the mate returned and took its turn on the egg.

This young pair is courting. Not sure if it is the male or female that is showing off but they do mate for life so being careful in the selection process is important. Our guide, who knows all these birds by name, said there have been a few divorces over the year but not many. The birds raise their young for around 10 months before flying to the coast of Chile in South America and living it up there for over a year before returning to this same breeding ground. Albatross only visit land to breed once every two years, otherwise they stay at sea and rest on the water from time to time. Fabulously interesting species.

Looks like a match! Notice the other pair of adolescents too. Quite a few pairs. They are the ones doing most of the flying for our pleasure.

This adolescent bird gave us quite the flying exhibition. Click the link above to check it out for yourself.

The road out the peninsula to the Albatross Center afforded us many stunning views. The roads are so narrow and without guard rails that it was tough to find a spot to take a picture like this.

Took this picture from Lookout Point in Dunedin. It is the ridge we had to drive along to get to the Albatross Center. Could have driven the only other road which runs along the coast, but we will save that for a bike ride tomorrow.

This is Dunedin from the Lookout. One of the nicer cities we have found in New Zealand. With these surroundings, how could a city be anything but fabulous?

A picture of windswept trees along the road to the Albatross Center. No that is not a one lane road! No center strip either. Curves in the road are aplenty too. You really rely on the skill of the other drivers to stay safe around here.

As the Albatross Center is actually a retired New Zealand military fort we got to tour the fort and museum in the same building we observed the birds from. The Russian ship above was the reason for the fort’s existence. The Governor of New Zealand was invited on board the Russian vessel. He noticed that that one ship had more weaponry than the entire country of New Zealand. He decided to ask the British Throne for the resources necessary to defend itself. The Throne said no but did agree to sell them some armaments.

This “disappearing gun” was purchased along with 3 others. It gets rotated into position, raised up through the hole in the roof and fired before lowering it back down. Never was used in a war setting but was fired a few times when the soldiers thought they were being attacked by submarine. Turned out only to be sea kelp. The kelp is very large around here.

The spotter outside would relay the position of the enemy and the gun would be rotated to the corresponding number of degrees labeled on the wall above. The red line painted told them not to fire in that range no matter what as the shell would hit the lighthouse!

Here is one of the shells the gun would use. We were allowed to move it around a bit but at over 100 pounds each that was no easy task. They had piercing shells like this and explosive ones too.

On the way off the peninsula we were treated to a showing of black swans. Cool creatures in their own right.

The last stop for the day was Baldwin Street. The steepest street in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

After visiting the street we had to verify this sign and it was indeed correct.

Not as hard to walk up as it looks but steep indeed. I installed an app on my phone to measure the angle of inclination and it came up at 19 degrees. That translated into a 35% grade (using the tangent ratio….who said math is not useful in the real world?). In the states, the National Park Service will only allow its trails to be certified if the grade is less than 10%. The Mount Washington Auto Road is an average 12% grade with a maximum of 25%.

Another day, another adventure or two. Long walk down the steep hill to find a cold beverage to celebrate!

A nice bike ride along the islands 12 miles of road produced a ton of nice pictures like this one above.

The ferry terminal was only a mile from our temporary home so we walked and found it amusing that they labeled their train crossings with these sign instead of lights or gates.

As we waited to board our ferry we watched the onboard crane hoist the luggage onto the boat including this fully loaded touring bike. We wondered why they would not take the packs off and just hand them and the bike over the railing separately? Cool to watch folks using their toys anyway. Spoke to the older chap who it belonged to and he had cycled the length of the two islands and wanted to finish off at the southern tip to complete New Zealand. He was touring with an electric bike for the first time and said he enjoyed it and had no problems charging it.

Leaving the small port town of Bluff. Cool place with nice folks and some really good hiking and scenery. We will return later in the day.

Not a large ferry but for the hour long trip it ran us $110 NZ apiece each way or $70 US. Comfortable ride on this calm day.

We pulled in to the small and only town on the island called Oban. Quaint little fishing village with a nice array of eateries and accommodations.

A short little quarter mile walk to the “Electric Bike Depot” for our e-bike pick ups. Very accommodating place with free use of the helmet and panier for the day. There was even a helmet large enough to fit my immense noggin as they call it around here.

Made it to the other side of the island in a flash with our powered up bikes. Lots of steep and long hills but no issues today. Left the bikes unlocked, at the okay of the shop owner, and headed off for an hour long hike along the coast.

As New Zealand is fastidious about their public bathroom access there was one at the trailhead and that meant a series of pipes to dispose of the waste. There were four sewer caps and each had a different saying on it. We thought this one was appropriate for us.

The trees on the coast have to be extremely tough to survive the windy conditions. I thought I would help one of the trees out here by lending it a hand in its perpetual battle with the wind. The wind was actually no blowing this day and the trees simply stay in this configuration all the time. Cool.

Here are pictures of the “Anchorchain”. The top is on Stewart Island and the bottom in the town of Bluff on the mainland. Read the description in the middle as it is pretty cool.

Laurie is riding in circles waiting for me to take a picture so we can ride to get a good feed on (how they say go out to eat in NZ) back in town. The guy with the dog is also the owner of the bike shop. He was dropping off two bikes (unlocked of course) for two hikers that were finishing the hike around the island that takes three days to complete. Not sure what he charges to drop the bikes off but there are no Ubers here on the island.

Everyone we bumped into, a total of 10 maybe, said this fish and chips place was the best they have ever had. Supposedly the woman inside that owns it won a medal in Tae Kwan Do in one of the Olympics for New Zealand. Had a chat with the elder guy sitting there and almost prompted some fisticuffs with a young family who overheard his comments on the Maori people in politics. The mother of the family was the head instructor on Maori studies at the Christchurch University. Both sides had their points and were actually fairly polite but bluntly straight forward with their thoughts.

The big draw here is the blue cod. We had never had such a wonderful tasting fish anywhere. Similar to Atlantic cod but much creamier in texture. Evidently the blue cod is a deep and cold water fish only found off the coast of the south island in New Zealand and is actually blue in color. Oh my was it good.

The fish and chips actually came wrapped in newspaper like you read about in the old days.

Back on the bikes to check out the other side of the island. Came across this road sign to add to our collection of cool road side signs. Evidently there are quite a few penguins who call Stewart Island home. They feed during the day out at sea and come to sleep on land in the evening. We will not be here in the evening to see them in person, or is that in penguin?

Beautiful views of the different bays with their mini-islands and pleasure/fishing boats all over the island.

Nice park job was done with this boat eh?

Beautiful little cove for a swim if the water temperature was a bit warmer. Some folks were indeed swimming at the beach back in town but….

Beautiful old trees on the island. Some of these were decorated with old anchor buoys.

Back to the wharf to catch our ferry back to Bluff. Not really a large boat is it? There was a National Geographic cruise boat anchored nearby ferrying its 50 passengers back to it from a day of exploring the island. That is our type of cruise, only 50 folks.

On our way back to Bluff after a fantastic day of bike riding, hiking and blue cod!

We had no idea what we would be in for when we chose to drive an hour inland from the resort town of Twizel for a hike that Alltrails came up with. The past few attempts at Alltrails did not work out as they put us on private and gated property but this was a great one.

We knew right away that this would be a spectacular hike. The Belmore Dam is at the right and Lake Belmore to the left. The river coming out of the spillway had all sorts of boating activity on it. Water skiers and jet-skiers too.

Decided to sport the shades this day as the sun was intense. Lots of sun screen too. Trying to keep those pasty white arms and legs safe.

Spectacular ridge line trail this was. Not much trail maintenance needed here!

It sure would be cool to drive an off road vehicle on those roads cris-crossing the landscape. Our rental car contract tells us we must stay on paved roads. That has not happened but we do have our moral limits!

Same lake, different branch or arm of it. Love the little islands.

So nice of someone to put a bench for us at this wonderfully peaceful spot. We have learned during this trip to pack our books (and glasses) in case we find these types of spots and have the time to relax a bit.

We wondered about the engineers that planned the dam and their thoughts on exactly what pattern the lake shore would have after the river was dammed up. Note the lake takes “a right hand turn” and disappears into what looks like another lake in the distance.

The Clay Cliffs above was our bonus spot for the day today. Reminded us a bit of Bryce Canyon back home. Each day, almost without exception, we have encountered something of beauty that was not on the itinerary when leaving in the morning for a day trip. This place was down a washed out, rutted and dirt road about 6 miles from the highway. There was a sign noting its existence. The sign did not report that it was private property and you had to pay $5 to walk in from the carpark to see it. Once you got down to the spot you had to make the decision to see it to give the car a rest before bouncing all the way back to the road. There was also probably the largest house we have seen in New Zealand hidden off to the side of the cliffs. Guess business has been good over the years!

People in the know around here made us aware that this was some of the scenery used while filming the Fellowship of the Ring movie a few decades ago.

Off on another adventure! Picked up this small water taxi right around the corner from our airbnb and took the 5 minute ride to the other side of the river where there are many trails to explore but no roads. Only met 3 other people and they were passengers on our water taxi too. Life jackets must be worn at all times by everyone in New Zealand with heavy violation fines. Helmets on bicycles for all ages at all times too.

One of the more remote and unusual trail heads we have seen. Hope those stairs lead to a nice day of hiking.

As usual, New Zealand’s trails are called tracks and measured in time and not distance. At first we thought that rather odd as everyone hikes at a different pace but have realized that the times are pretty spot on. As we only had 3hr and 45 minutes to make it back to get picked up by the water taxi we figured on not lallygagging to much.

Most of the trees were beech trees. They have tiny little leaves that create a very comfortable walking tread. We touched that fungus on the dead beech above and it was really hard. No mushy fungus for the Kiwis.

Laurie wanted a picture of me standing out on the edge but I was not so sure! How is that tree hanging on there? See the undercut? They say earthquakes are a common occurrence on the South Island. Just saying.

Found this fanny pack in the middle of the trail and knew just who it belonged to as there were only 3 people over here. One young lady was hiking a different track to the Hope Arm Hut and a young couple who were hiking our track. The bag contained a wallet, 2 passports, a phone and some other stuff. As we knew the girl was from Australia and the guy from Germany the outside of their passports matched that. Did not want to pry into someone else’s private stuff so that was all we needed to know. Question: Do you pick it up and try to bring it to them at the lookout spot a mile or two up the hill, or do you leave it figuring they would come back to find it? A tough call actually. We opted to leave it and take a pic with gps coordinates to let them know where it was if we ran across them. If not, the only way back across the river is the water taxi at 4pm so we would see them there. We did run into them on the way up the hill and they were thrilled we had seen their bag back down the hill.

Nature is so beautiful when left undisturbed!

This is how the trail maintainers for the DOC (Department of Conservation) mark the track’s endpoint. We went a bit further and found the views to be more spectacular.

Nice place to “drop pack” and enjoy the scenery with a bite of lunch!

When we stopped there to eat our lunch these two little guys joined us. Wonder why there were not skittish? No, we did not feed them.

Much of the Circle Track had us on the shores of Lake Manipouri on the way back to our “ride”. Nice to have hikes with differing scenery. The Southern Alps in the background are stunningly beautiful.

We said goodbye to the trail and our water taxi before heading back to our temporary home in the little town of Manipouri.

Our sentiments exactly! NO WE did not do a bungy jump but got to watch a few folks take the plunge.

Sporting our e-bikes we were ready to tackle the 50km ride back to the bike shop in downtown Queenstown. We were transported by bus up to our starting point at the historic little town of Arrowtown. Bikes here in New Zealand are basically the same but one MAJOR difference is the front and rear brake handles are reversed. Very important going down hills or stopping on sandy surfaces as if you use the front brake strongly, you will flip over the handlebars.

Came across two of these cool suspension bridges on our route today. One of them we had to cross twice as it was on a detour to see the bungy jumping.

A view of our upcoming bridge we had to ride across. I suppose we could have walked it but that would be no fun.

Here is a view of the drop off from one of the bridges. No looking down while riding across!

Below are two videos to watch of our attempts to ride across each of the bridges:

Here is where we witnessed the jumping. This bridge also had fabulous views of the river and its gorge below.

Beautifully colored water in the river that flows into the giant Lake Wakatipu.

We saw many folks jump from the bridge but this was the only duo we saw. Hope they have bungies that will hold two folks at once.

Watch this guy jump and actually hit the water!

Once a jumper stops bouncing up and down they had to grab a pole extended by two guys on a raft that is tethered to the shore. Then they pull him in and ferry the jumper to shore where he has to climb many stairs to get back to bridge level. It only cost about $200 US to jump once. Yet another reason to just watch for free.

Fabulous sense of humor these folks in New Zealand have! Or are they being serious?

Appropriate signage for this place. They could have done a zip line version too as that was offered outside.

A good chunk of the bike path we followed meandered next to a nice river and then Lake Wakatipu. Only a km or so was actually on paved roads that were shared by cars.

I did not seem to bother these horse riders as they enjoyed this stretch of shared roadway.

Curious little fellow!

Cannot seem to get away from all the sheep here in New Zealand. I tried to converse with them to no avail.

We have ridden bikes across these cattle guards before but found the warning sign interesting. Usually signs are not put up until an accident of some sort happens to cause authorities to do so. Wonder what happened?

Made it here at last! This pizza joint had to be checked out for dinner after our tiring bike ride.

They even had gluten free and dairy free options in Hell. The decor was also rather hellish from the dummy at the pick up window above to caskets hanging from the ceiling above tables inside.

Check out some of the menu offerings.

I would feel like I was in hell if I ate the dessert “eat kinda ice cream”. Gotta love the kids menu option number 333.

Even their napkins had some great hellish artwork and gotta love the phone number too.

Just in case you wondered what a pizza in hell looks like. Love the customer comment number on the back of the box “how the hell was it?”