Monday December 30, Melbourne and Auckland An uneventful night flight to Melbourne, a three-hour layover and another uneventful flight to Auckland. Inge managed some sleep but I didn’t. With losing a night and a five hour time change, it’s great that I’ve been sleeping well for the last few weeks. Slow process going through the … more
Tuesday December 31 to Saturday January 4 It has been a quiet fun week with Mike and Liz. We ended 2013 with a good New Year's Eve dinner in an excellent Auckland restaurant with Mike and Liz, spent a quiet New Year's Day in Auckland, and the remainder of the week north of Auckland with … more
Sunday January 4 to Tuesday January 7 Sunday in Auckland was a rainy day. We spent it shopping and packing for our trip to the South Island, where we will do two multi-day hikes, the Kepler and Routburn tracks, near Queenstown. The shopping involved checking out three local outdoors stores. I can proudly tell you … more
Wednesday January 8 to Sunday January 12 We are in Queenstown after a wonderful hike on the Kepler Track. This is a summary of the last few days plus a few photos. When we get home to Vancouver we’ll put more photos from the track on the website. Background: the Kepler Track is one of … more
Monday January 13 and Tuesday January 14, Queenstown A quiet two days. Haircut, purchased food for the upcoming hike, cleaned and waxed the boots, got one of Inge’s boots repaired (part of the sole had come loose and needed to be reglued), and we bought some additional warm clothes. The weather turned sunny and warm, … more