Our first trip to the east side of of Australia was to visit our Son and his family who had just moved to Coomera (Just south of Brisbane) in late 2015. They had originally planned to move to Tasmania but had changed their minds at the last minute. Consequently, we had already made plans and bought airplane tickets to and from Melbourne with plans to take a Ferry to Tasmania, rent a car, and drive to where ever they had settled. Because they were in Coomera and we were already flying into Melbourne (which we could not change) we decided to see a little of eastern Australia before, during, and after our visit with our family. We were going there for the holidays (Christmas, Andy’s birthday, New Years. and my birthday) and had made arrangements to spend at least a couple months there. We flew in to Melbourne in early December, spent a few days there, then traveled in the area and eventually up to Coomera arriving just before Christmas.
After the holidays we decided to drive down the east coast of Australia to Sydney and on to Melbourne, leave our luggage there and take a two week trip to New Zealand, back to Melbourne and home. Eventually I will post each major segment of our time in Oz (Australia) but for now, and to keep the posts from getting way to long, I will post each segment separately. This post is our time in New Zealand. There will be two sub posts with this one. North Island and South Island.
A bit about New Zealand. I was never personally interested in going to NZ. I thought of it as stodgy old Brits, goats, sheep, and aboriginal people. I was very wrong. NZ is an amazing place with a tremendously diverse population, geography, and history. The indigenous people there are Maori (pronounced Mow ray) and are proud, hard working people who can tell you what boat their ancestors came to NZ on from Tahiti, Hawaii, Samoa, or other South Pacific Island. They have reclaimed much of their land from early poachers through the courts and hard work. They are active in all levels of government and proud of their country. There may be some Aboriginals in NZ but very few. Most live in Australia.
The early settlers, or poachers, were Europeans who came to NZ and claimed large tracts of land and used the locals to farm it for them. They have seen the writing on the wall and are working with the government to reinstate original owners and pay local workers a fair wage. While they did bring progress, they are not entitled to colonization.
The geography of NZ is the most amazing. In two little islands you can find mountains, deserts, fertile farmland, forests, glaciers, thermal activity, swamps, and seacoasts. Their history is just as diverse.
We only had a couple weeks to spend in NZ so we moved quickly to cover both Islands. I have included maps depicting where we drove. I took pictures of things Nancy and I found interesting. Follow along and I encourage you to goggle or research anything or place I mention because my photos and commentary do not do the country justice.
We had no real itinerary. We stopped at the end of each day and started at the next morning. We had made no reservations so as we got to mid afternoon we would decide how much farther we were going, find a McDonalds that has WiFi, logged on to booking.com and found a place to stay a couple hours down the road. We would go out for dinner, talk about our next day and get some sleep. Breakfast was normally included, and we pressed on. Life is good!
Come on along!
