New Zealand 2001 Summary

In 2001 we spent two weeks in a rented RV exploring the south and north islands of New Zealand. Then we went on a 5 day cruise on the Great Barrier Reef out of Cairns.

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Favourite Days
While almost everyday of the trip was great and I encourage you to look at them all, these are the ones I consider the most memorable.
If you click on the picture you will be taken the post for the day

Milford Sound

Fox Glacier

Maori Village

Black Water rafting

Mar 24 – To Home

We got back to Cairns in the early morning.

We spent the night back at the same hotel.

The next morning we flew home. I remember it took us almost exactly 24 hours from the time we left the hotel until we walked in the door at home. We flew from Cairns to Sydney, to Los Angeles, to Toronto.

The Sydney to LA flight was particularly hard on me. The flight 12 hours long and was almost full. I have a really hard time sleeping on a plane and with no place to stretch out I spent most of the time pacing the aisles.

This is still the best trip we have taken and we would go back in a flash if it wasn’t so far and expensive to get there.

Mar 23 – Back to Cairns

On the last day as we headed back to Cairns, we spent the day lounging around the ship. The last dinner was extra special and every one dressed up.

The crew put on a show. Unlike a larger ship with specialized entertainers, this was the actual crew.

Mar 22 – Great Barrier Reef

Today was the day to actually swim on the Great Barrier Reef. During the night the ship had moved out to a section of the reef that seemed to be in the middle of the ocean. The tender would take us out in groups for about an hour. Once everyone on the ship had a turn, they kept making trips for the rest of the day with whomever wanted to go back.

The girls came out with us on the first trip and paddled around in the mask and snorkels. I was very impressed as neither one is a great swimmer and the reef was about 10 feet down. Neither one likes fish much either.

Jennie and I made two more trips back, having lunch in between. The waterproof camera we had just does not convey the colours that we saw. It was an amazing day and we were thoroughly waterlogged by the end.

Mar 21 – Lizard Island

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We spent the night moored off of Lizard Island. Last night they asked who wanted to go on an early morning hike up to Cook’s Look. The girls declined but we were up for it.

Cook’s Look is supposedly a hill that Captain Cook stopped at, to climb and have a look around.

They wanted to go early to get up and back before the sun got too hot. I think we left the ship sometime around 6 in the darkness before we even got breakfast. Around 20 people went on the hike.

This is the picture above enhanced to bring out what little light there was.

We took the tender in to the beach and took the roundabout, but less steep trail to the top. Cook’s Look is about 400 meters or 1300 feet high.

We got some great views on the way up. The guide kept of a pretty brisk pace and we got kind of spread out.

This marker at the top had the direction and distance to various other places. For example we are 240 km from Cairns and 2210 km from Sydney.

We had a beautiful 360 degree view of the island and ocean.

Our ship and another smaller one are parked in the bay. You can see a private, very exclusive resort just around the point of the bay that the ship is anchored in. You can also see a bit of the airstrip was used to fly the guests in and out

Back down we go to the beach and then back to the ship for a late breakfast.

We then came back to the beach for a swim. There was a small coral reef out a bit in the bay. They supplied masks, fins and snorkels so that we could explore it. It was very shallow and you had to be very careful not to stand or even put a hand down so as not to break anything.

After lunch back on the ship we hiked to a beach on the other side of the island. Part of the hike was along the airstrip. There were markers along the edge that we were not allowed to pass so we stayed off of their property.

It was a really hot hike with temperatures well into the high 30’sC with no wind.

The water at the beach on the other was felt wonderful.

A great sunset over the ocean.

Mar 20 - Cookstown

This morning we sailed up the coast to check out the small town of Cookstown.

Here they could dock the ship and we all got off to wander around town. There was no real tour. There was also not a lot to look at. We did see our first kangaroo but it was too fast to get a picture.

Below it was kind of weird to see a designated handicap parking spot in such a small town.

An old hotel.

I guess lawn bowling is popular here as they had quiet a large club.

After about 2 hours of wandering we went back to the ship for lunch and headed to our next destination.

Mar 19 – Great Barrier Reef Day 1

This morning we checked out of the hotel and caught the shuttle bus to the docks to board our ship for the cruise on the Great Barrier Reef.

The ship, the Reef Endeavour, can take about 170 passenger but there are only has about 120 passengers on this trip. A large number is a group of dentists on a ”conference”.

I didn’t take any pictures of the ship but found some online.

Lots of streamers went off as we left the dock.

This was our room. The kids had the room next door. There were hardly any children on the cruise. I think ours were the only teenagers. However the crew was quite young and treated the girls very well. They loved the cruise.

At our first stop they asked if anyone wanted to go on a hike to Nudy Beach, except that it was really spelled Nudee and was short for the name of a small creature called a Nudibranch whose shells littered the beach.

There is a small tender that hangs off the back of the ship, We piled in and were taken to shore. First we hiked through a forest called The Secret Garden.

Nudee Beach with all the shells and the ship in the background.

Mar 17,18 – To Cairns

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Yesterday, we drove to Auckland and checked into a hotel. We cleaned out the motorhome and returned it to the rental place.

Today we had an early morning flight from Auckland to Sydney, Australia and then north to Cairns. We are booked into a resort hotel for the night and they sent a bus to pick us up from the airport. I was sure we had more pictures from the hotel but a just cannot seem to find them.

We took a shuttle back downtown and wandered around a bit. It was pretty touristy.

Back at the hotel, we all enjoyed the pool and then went a very good buffet for dinner.

Mar 16 – Bay of Islands Cruise

Today we went on an all day cruise of the Bay of Islands. We spent most of the day perched up on the bow. This boat moves very fast and there was not a lot to hold on to other than a low railing. It got interesting when it got a bit wavy.

The captain repeatedly warned people on the bow that they would get wet as the waves often came over the front. I always managed to either get my camera in a pocket or at least shield it with my body so it never did get wet. One guy was not so lucky. His multiple thousand dollar video camera got a full blast of a salt water wave. It never started again.

It was a bit dreary when we started off but it gave this picture of a sailing ship a nice look.

At lunch we stooped at this island and some of us climbed to the top to get this great panoramic view.

You can see our boat parked at the dock.

For part of the way a group of dolphins jumped along with the bow wave.

This was our destination, the imaginatively called Hole in the Rock. It was quite pretty though.

An option for people in a hurry was this very fast boat to get you here and back very quickly.

Our boat was too big to go through the hole but we watched them do it several time.

Their tour was not as fast as usual because their boat broke down and the guy had to get into the water to fix it.

We eventually saw them blast by us on the way back.