Category: 2026

January 26, 2026

It was about a 3 hour drive from Hanmer Springs to our next destination in Saint Arnaud. The morning was very overcast and it was raining periodically. I took over driving. Our first stop was Lewis Pass, but since it was still raining and we had visited there before in 2019, we only stayed long enough for a quick bathroom break and rest stop.

Another 10 minutes of driving took us to Maruia Falls. This nice small waterfall was just a short walk from the parking lot.

Our next stop was at a bridge that crossed the Buller River. We walked onto the bridge and had very nice views of the river in both directions.

We drove to the town of Murchison where we wanted to visit the Tutaki Bakery. We heard this was a good place to buy pies. The bakery was inside a food truck. The sign outside said "Open", but the truck was closed with nobody around. Just down the street from the bakery we stopped at a small park. The Mataki Willow Grove Walk was a pleasant 20-minute loop hike near the Matakitaki River.

We drove another hour and stopped to take the Kawatiri Historic Railway Walk. We had done this walk before in 2019, so this was a repeat for us. It's a nice loop walk through a railroad tunnel and then returns with views of the nearby Hope River. Here we had our first encounter with the dreaded sandflies. Many flew inside the car as we were getting ready to leave.

We reached Saint Arnaud after another 25 minutes of driving. Our accommodation was a kiwi bach: a huge old house named Long Lookout. It was very private and had its own dedicated path down to the shore of Lake Rotoiti.

After settling in, I took the path down to the lake. The weather had cleared a bit, and I had a nice walk near the lakeshore.

Back at the house we had lamb burgers and salad for dinner.

January 25, 2026

The day started out cloudy and drizzly, so we decided to drive into town and eat out for breakfast at the Mumble's Cafe. I had the salmon benny with potatoes and fresh spinach. This was the very first time in my life that I had tried eggs Benedict, and it was delicious. Heinrich had the Big Breakfast with scrambled eggs on toast.

After breakfast we took a walk around the outskirts of town. Saint Mary's Hospital had park-like grounds with trails running throughout the property, and we admired the trees. We walked north past the golf course and then returned to town.

In town there was a farmer's market going on. I finally got some New Zealand cash from a nearby ATM, and we bought some fresh vegetables. One booth was selling varieties of New Zealand honey and giving samples. I tried the manuka honey and discovered I did not care for the taste. But I did buy two jars of the local brand.

The weather had not improved and light rain was coming down. I got a message from my friend in Hawaii that episode 41 of the Kilauea volcano had started and was attaining record-breaking heights (1,575 feet!). So we stopped at the bakery, bought a chocolate eclair and a chocolate cluster scroll, and drove back to our room to eat our treats and watch the volcano erupt via the webcam view on the big screen TV.

The weather cleared a bit, so I ventured out to the Woodland Walk one more time to take some photos of the nearby stream which now had rushing water from all of the rainfall. I followed a different path back for a new adventure.

In the evening we drove back into town and bought fish and chips for a take-away meal. We also bought some food at the grocery store to get us through the next couple of days: we were going to be driving into a remote area with few food options.

January 24, 2026

It rained hard overnight, and we woke up to overcast skies with puddles everywhere. We decided to explore the Hanmer Springs downtown area. Hanmer Springs is overflowing in cuteness with lots of shops and eateries along beautiful tree-lined streets. Early in the morning before 10 am there were no issues finding a parking spot, and only a few other people were walking about. We did some souvenir shopping and purchased some decorated cotton storage bags, jute bags for groceries, and a kiwi refrigerator magnet. We stopped at the bakery to buy a few chocolate treats.

By late morning the rain had stopped and the forecast indicated we should have a few hours of dry weather. So we returned to the Woodland Walk to complete the circuit hike. The area had several trails branching out to various places. One spot that I had wanted to visit was the Dog Stream Waterfall, but the road to the car park was closed, so it was a much longer hike. The map indicated we should be able to hike a connecting trail from the end of the Woodland Walk. So we took the Timberline Trail up through an area where the forest had been heavily clear cut, and it climbed a few hundred feet up a hillside, offering nice views of the village below. But when we reached the top, we found that the trail to the waterfall was roped off. So we hiked down a side road to rejoin the Woodland Walk and returned to the motel.

For lunch we drove back into town and purchased a couple of meat pies at PJ's Pies. I tried the South Island lamb pie that was the special for the day, and Heinrich had the Angus beef and cheese. I was a little bit disappointed in my selection since I thought it was too spicy. But Heinrich enjoyed his.

The weather was still dry after lunch, so we drove up the road to hike the Conical Hill Walkway. This was a very popular hike with switchbacks climbing about 500 feet to a lookout with panoramic views of the Hanmer Basin. The hike through the forest was quite nice, although the trail was a bit squishy and muddy from all of the rain. We sat at a picnic table at the top to admire the views.

By late afternoon the rain had restarted, so we spent the remainder of the day relaxing in the room and getting caught up on more sleep. I had another distraction late in the evening when it appeared that the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii might be getting ready to erupt. Currently some of my friends are visiting there, so I was keeping tabs on its activity. I had the volcano webcam up on YouTube on the big screen TV in the room; however no eruption occurred that night.

January 23, 2026

Our plane landed in Christchurch about 5 minutes early at 10:30 am. We crossed the international date line, so it was now January 23 and we had skipped the entire day of January 22 while in the air.

We walked off the plane and into the duty free area, where we immediately saw the place to buy our SIM cards to get New Zealand phone numbers and 10 GB data plans good for the duration of our trip. We picked the company that had nobody waiting in line (this was the same company that we had used before), and the phone setup was fast and easy.

Going through customs was astonishingly fast. New Zealand now has an app that we were able to use to fill out all of the required customs forms while we were still at home, within 24 hours of the start of our international flight. That alone saved a lot of time. I had hiking boots and hiking poles to declare, and Heinrich had the same plus spices, so we entered the "Something to Declare" line. What surprised us was this line was before we had collected our baggage which contained the items to declare. An agent asked us to clarify what we were declaring, and I told her I had cleaned both the boots and poles before we left. She gave us a green card with a line number on it. We then collected our luggage and followed the path to our line, another agent collected our green cards, and we passed the sniffing dogs without incident. Then we were out the double doors and into the airport lobby. And we were done!

The shuttle to drive us to the rental car area was waiting for us when we walked outside. And there was no long line to wait to get our rental car. By the time we got our luggage into the car, we were already an hour an a half ahead of my predicted exit time!

Our rental car is a Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid 4-door sedan, rented with Apex Car Rentals. This is the same agency that we used for the New Zealand trip in 2023. They rent slightly older cars that are still in excellent condition, and they have no fee for an extra driver which is really important for us.

Our destination for the day was Hanmer Springs, about a 90-minute drive north of Christchurch. I got the honors of starting the drive and getting to remember what it was like to drive on the left side of the road. And immediately there were about 6 roundabouts (some double lane) to navigate, so that was loads of fun! But actually I remembered quickly what was involved and did not even once turn on the windshield wipers when trying to use the turn signals!

We stopped at the New World Ravenswood grocery store to stock up on a couple of days worth of food, and of course we had to get our must haves: Whittakers chocolate, steamed puddings, baked oaty slices, and L&P sodas! It was about that time when I realized we had forgotten to stop at an ATM at the airport to get New Zealand cash, and we also had neglected to fill our water bottles so we had nothing to drink. Back to the store we went a second time to buy a couple of cold peach teas (also useful later on as freezer bottles to store ice for our chilly bin).

Heinrich took over driving. I had planned a couple of intermediate stops along the way. The first place was the Kowai River Walk. We parked and saw that the area was soaking wet and uninviting for a hike, so we drove on. Next was a detour off the main highway due to bridge construction. It rejoined Highway 1, and then almost immediately we turned onto the side road to Hanmer Springs. A second planned stop was Frog Rock, but we missed the turnoff due to construction right in the parking area. The third planned stop was the Weka Pass walkway to Maori rock drawings, but Google Maps routed us onto some private road which was obviously not correct. The gate was closed and there was a large flock of sheep behind it. Since we saw no sign for the correct turnoff, we ended up skipping this. I made a note to get better directions or have a more detailed map in hand for some of these places to avoid these hiccups in the future.

Just after the turnoff to Hanmer Springs we stopped at the Waiau River Lookout. This was a nice view that I remember we stopped at briefly in 2019 on our way to Kaikoura in the opposite direction. The view was lovely again today, even with the cloudy and rainy weather conditions. It actually started to rain again lightly when I stepped out of the car to take a photo.

Hanmer Springs was only a 10-minute drive further up the road. We stopped at the I-site visitor center where I obtained information on the hiking trails in the area and bought a local map. The lady at the front desk told me that almost half of my planned hikes were unfortunately closed due to the recent heavy rains. So immediately I knew we were going to have a more relaxing stay here than originally planned!

We checked into our accommodations at the Forest Peak Motel: a nice quiet one-bedroom apartment with a kitchen. We reconfigured all of our luggage for the extended stay on the South Island, and then we had our dinner: chicken alfredo, a salad, and "steamy puds" (that was another name for our steamed chocolate pudding desserts).

It was still early evening and the weather had cleared with partly cloudy skies, so I decided to go on an evening hike on my own. It really helps being the middle of summer and far south where the sun doesn't set until after 9 pm. So I still had a few hours of daylight to explore. Our motel was within a short walking distance of one of the main trail areas that had not been closed. I went on the Woodland Walk and ended up hiking a couple of miles before turning around. The forest was really beautiful. Parts of the trail passed through areas that had freshly cut trees, so it smelled like Christmas with all of the tall pines around.

There was a nice meadow area with several picnic tables and a view of the mountains in the distance.

January 21, 2026

After months of anticipation, preparation and planning, the big trip to New Zealand was finally underway! It came down to the wire with packing and closing up the house, but Heinrich and I were ready when the Lyft driver showed up at our house to take us to the airport at 2:45 pm.

Check in at the airport was fast and uneventful. Our first flight from Denver to San Francisco was on time. Then we had almost 4 hours to kill before the flight to Christchurch. Due to construction in the terminal, the walk to our gate in the international terminal involved a long detour. It was almost a mile of walking, so we got our exercise for the day.

Heinrich had Priority Pass privileges on his credit card which gave us a discounted price at the Mustards Grill located near our gate. We killed at least an hour at the restaurant. I ordered the lamb burger to get in the New Zealand mood. It was quite tasty and filling.

After eating we still had an hour to kill, so we found a relatively quiet spot on an upper level above our gate area, and we both worked on our computers and cell phones.

United Airlines gave us priority boarding for both flights, which was a bit of a surprise. I guess the United Gateway credit card came in handy.

We had standard seating for the flight, which was 14 hours and 7 minutes from departure to arrival. The flight path went directly over American Samoa and Tonga. We hoped to fly along the east coast of both the North and South Islands of New Zealand, but unfortunately the flight plan flew us along the western coast, so we didn't see much of the country since we were seated on the right side of the plane. The flight itself experienced quite a few short periods of turbulence where we were asked to buckle in our seats. Otherwise I was able to sleep quite a bit, so I wasn't horribly jet lagged or tired upon arrival.

We were served 2 meals and a snack on the plane. I thought the food was okay: nothing to write home about, but it was filling. I do wish they had served us more liquid. I ended up drinking all of the water I had brought with me. I should have filled a second canteen with water.