During our two weeks in Melbourne we spent most of our time touring the central business district and its environs. In one area just to the east of the CBD…

When we first arrived in Melbourne we realized that we were going to be in town for the first week of the Australian Open tennis tournament. We checked online and…

When we weren’t at the Opera House or the Rocks or enjoying Sydney’s holiday decorations, we were at places like Balls Head, or the Powerhouse Museum, or the fish market….

You can’t see Sydney without visiting the Opera House. We managed to see it twice. The first time we wandered around the outside and then toured the nearby Royal Botanical…

When planning the first part of the trip we made a point to be in Sydney for the holidays. We flew in from Christchurch on the 19th and readied for our…

We left Nelson to start our fourth day on the road and headed south to Nelson Lakes National Park. We stopped at Lake Rotoiti for a short hike and then…

After visiting New Zealand’s three major cities, we rented a car and started a six-day tour of the rural areas of the South Island. We started along the east coast,…

Because of the earthquake damage hotel space in Christchurch is tight and comes at a premium. The best deal I could find on an Airbnb apartment for our three-night stay…

After leaving Wellington we flew to the South Island to begin our seven-day visit to the lower half of New Zealand. We spent one full day in the central Christchurch…

One morning in Wellington we rode the funicular from downtown up to the city’s hillside botanic garden. We worked our way back down the hill through the gardens before heading…