An incredible encounter with whales.
New Zealand is on a major whale highway, and we took this opportunity to get out and see some whales. In our 3-hour tour of the deep waters just off the coast of Kaikoura, on the east coast of the South Island [location], we had four sperm-whale sightings. Twice we spotted a local resident, whose name escapes me, and twice we spotted different non-resident sperm whales. Read on and check out the photo gallery!
Mangoes!
A few weeks after we arrived in India I posted an entry in which I described the things that each of us missed about home. Now, about four weeks after departing India we are all missing many things about India. Here are some things that come immediately to mind.
And the beautiful IISc campus.
This post was transferred from MobileMe to WordPress in 2021, with an effort to retain the content as close to the original as possible; I recognize that some comments may now seem dated or some links may now be broken.
The Cook Strait separates the North Island from the South, and can be a wild and rough passage.
We drove straight through from Rotorua southward to Wellington, at the southern tip of the North Island; although it was a cloudy and drizzly day I did get some nice photos. We stopped to meet an old friend for dinner, in the little town of Featherston a bit north of Wellington. Read on for our ferry ride across the Cook Strait.
New Zealand and New Hampshire are the same latitude!
I have always understood that New Zealand is south of the equator, but I’ve never really recognized how it compares with familiar places north of the equator. Thanks to my friend Troy Baisden, who supplied this handy graphic, it’s easy to see that New Zealand spans roughly the same latitudes as North Carolina to Maine, and even a bit of Canada.
Coincidentally, Aoraki (Mt. Cook) is almost exactly as far south of the equator as Dartmouth is north of the equator. Dartmouth (Baker Tower) is at approximately 43.7 degrees north; Aoraki is at approximately 43.6 degrees south [map].
This post was transferred from MobileMe to WordPress in 2021, with an effort to retain the content as close to the original as possible; I recognize that some comments may now seem dated or some links may now be broken.
The northeast coast of the South Island is ruggedly beautiful.
An overnight in Blenheim, near the northeast corner of the south island, placed us smack in the middle of the Marlborough wine country [location]. This fertile flat floodplain is home to some of the best wines in New Zealand, and that’s saying something. Read on!
Rotorua, a town of geysers, hot springs, and a pervasive odor of sulfur.
“Daddy, it stinks here!” The kids were none to happy when we pulled into Rotorua, a large town in the center of the North Island [location]. It is full of geothermal activity, with geysers, hot springs, and bubbling mud everywhere – and as a result, a persistent smell of sulfur (aka rotten eggs). Read on!
We spent our first day in New Zealand, a glorious sunny day, hiking up the harbor volcano called Rangitoto.
Kia ora! We are now in New Zealand, after a pleasant flight from Sydney. We had a fantastic first day, Sunday, with warm weather and sunny skies. We took the ferry out to Rangitoto island, a small volcano which popped up out of the harbor only 600 years ago. Read on!
A surprising find in the backpack.
The dog sniffed around the kids’ roll-on bag. And sniffed some more. The dog’s handler, a customs/biosecurity agent, asked whether we had any food items inside the bag. No, we assured her, we did not – but she was welcome to look inside. Read on to see what she found!
We’re off to Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji.
After spending nine months in India, hey, why not keep on going around the world? So, we’re spending two weeks in Australia, two weeks in New Zealand, and 10 days in Fiji before returning to the US. See map; our tour of Australia includes Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, and the south-east coast.
This post was transferred from MobileMe to WordPress in 2021, with an effort to retain the content as close to the original as possible; I recognize that some comments may now seem dated or some links may now be broken.
David Kotz 