New Zealand – Southern Island
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Boarding Pass Stories: Christchurch, New Zealand
More Details: Boarding Pass Stories: Christchurch, New ZealandThe destination, the when(s), and the reason(s) After spending two weeks there, I flew from Melbourne, Australia to New Zealand. My entry point: the very livable and lovely town of Christchurch. This was in 2009, so before the large earthquake that did so much damage to this beautiful town. I got to see it before…
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A Very Southern City – Dunedin
More Details: A Very Southern City – DunedinWell, by southern I mean “geographically”. It was the southernmost city I visited in New Zealand and I was expecting it to be frigid but, mercifully, it was not. In fact, we had some really beautiful days though one morning we had minor rain. Dunedin with about 130,000 inhabitants is quite a pleasant town to…
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Criss-crossing the southern island of New Zealand
More Details: Criss-crossing the southern island of New ZealandBesides flying into and out of the country and riding the TranzAlpine train, buses (or coaches) were my main mode of travel. I was surprised that trains were not talked about much in my readings about how to move about the country but it seems buses are the main way to get around (outside of…
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Experiencing Majestic Fiordland
More Details: Experiencing Majestic FiordlandA Question For some reason, fjords here in New Zealand are fiords. No time to google it. Just sharing… In any event, I left Queenstown early in the morning to see the wonderful site that is Milford Sound in the southwest corner of the south island of New Zealand. As the bird flies, this should…
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The Adventure Capital of the World – Queenstown
More Details: The Adventure Capital of the World – QueenstownQueenstown’s claim to fame, perhaps among others, is that bungy jumping was invented not far from the town. By now, taller and scarier jumps have been created in Queenstown and elsewhere but that original bungy jump exists in the same bridge. Now, I am not sure if Queenstown is indeed the adventure capital of the…
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Flying onto and Hiking a Glacier in New Zealand!
More Details: Flying onto and Hiking a Glacier in New Zealand!The village of Franz Josef on the west coast of the southern island of New Zealand (whew, that’s a long “address” to give for a village) exists to share the Franz Josef glacier with those who want to see it. This glacier and neighboring Fox glacier are 2 out of 3 glaciers in the world…
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New Zealand – Traveling from Christchurch to Franz Josef
More Details: New Zealand – Traveling from Christchurch to Franz JosefIn order to get to the village near the Franz Josef glacier on the west coast of NZ, I had to take a train across the mountains in the center of island (which are called unofficially the southern Alps, hence the train is called the Tranz Alpine train). This train cuts through the plains of…
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Arriving in the Southern Island of Middle Earth: Christchurch, New Zealand
More Details: Arriving in the Southern Island of Middle Earth: Christchurch, New ZealandThere are so many awesome places in New Zealand but I feel Christchurch, though not one of the top 2 cities in NZ, may be the best place to hit first on a trip over (Dunedin is not far behind!). The arrival I arrived in Christchurch on the eastern coast of the southern island of…