Sure glad we are home! Fortunately it's only 9 days to spring.

The sun sets on a great trip!

Blake and Marin head to the water at Milford Beach in Auckland

Back in Auckland, we had a visit from Vicki’s friend, Nigel, and his daughter, a cutie-pie!

Andy’s giving the lamb one last turn on the grill.

Not a good spot to be claustrophobic!

Di’s into a book on the deck of our ‘sleeper’ in Waipara.

Shorn in 3 minutes, this drysdale sheep gives about 4” of fleece twice a year.

Di feeds a 3 week-old lamb at a shearing show in Kaikoura.

They get their money's worth out of their bridges...a rail line above and a single lane for autos below.

The Marlborough region is known for its wines...especially the Sauvignon Blancs. I am tasting a wonderful Pinot Blanc at Montana Wines near Blenheim.

Another fern reaches for the sky!

Marlborough Sound has 1 500 km. of coast line…1/6 of all of N.Z.’s coast.

Cruising on Marlborough Sound, we pass the Inter-island Ferry

The Clock tower in Blenheim, on the north coast of the South Island

You never know where you're going to encounter penguins in New Zealand.

The tui has a wonderful song. Here he is enjoying his favourite meal of flax seeds.

Sometimes you get lucky with the blow holes!

At Punakaiki, limestone layers on the sea bed were lifted by an earthquake. Erosion by wind and wave have created these interesting formations.

We did get to see the toe of the Fox Glacier and it was very impressive.

This shot of Mt. Cook was taken by a French traveller who we met. Our weather in Fox Glacier was the pits and we missed this sight.

Mt. Brewster, 2 400 m, lies along the Haast Pass on the way to Fox Glacier.

Hey, we have to be in the Okanagan!

Sorry, folks, but I am busy right now.

Nobody said that travel was going to be uninterrupted!

There are many deer or elk farms throughout the South Island.

Mt. Aspiring, 3033 m, is a mass of ice and rock.

We head off to Mt Aspiring National Park from Wanaka

Looking south the Queenstown and the Remarkables.

For $180 you, too, can fly into the Kawarau Gorge.

Clyde grew out of gold rush of the 1860’s.

This structure was typical of homes built during the gold rush in the 1860’s in NZ.

The Botanic Garden in Dunedin was one of the nicest gardens we saw on our trip.

We loved the Proteas in the Botanic Garden in Dunedin.

Like the Kettle Valley Railway in B.C., the line has many trestles and tunnels through the gorge.

We took a four hour tour to the Taieri Gorge.

The beautiful train station in Dunedin was built in 1906.

Ya, ya...I'm coming. The penguins trundled up into the dunes behind the beach to bring dinner to the fledglings in the nest.

Looking down on Sandfly Beach…looking for yellow-eyed penguins.

The nine to ten foot wingspan on the Albatross dwarfed the other birds in the area.

We loved our visit to the Albatross colony at Taiaroa Head

Looking down on Akaroa, an hour south-east of Christchurch.

I met my dad's first cousin, Mary Barrett, with her grandson, Joe, in Christchurch.

We Are Off to the South Island

Christ’s College, 1850, a private boys’ school in Christchurch.

Catching a big one on Whale Beach at Raglan.

Ngarunui Beach near Raglan is beautiful.

We walked along Paritutu Beach in New Plymouth