This year we decided to winter in New Zealand. We aren't getting any younger and we figured that we could pretty much do the same things as in Florida combined with some great site seeing. What a fine decision.

We flew into Christchurch, the biggest city on the South Island, rented a car, and spent the first 7 days getting used to the time zone and the local stores, facilities, customs, etc. Fortunately, Christchurch is also the home of Ray Barakauskas who was my dentist for many years in Toronto. His family were great hosts and really helped us get started. From Christchurch we spent 3 more weeks in the South Island visiting Dunedin, Te Anau, Queenstown and touring the West Coast up to Nelson.

Next we took the InterIsland ferry to the North Island and spent February driving north. We started at Paraparaumu (a suburb of Wellington), and then went to Napier where we stayed both in a regular motel and spent a weekend at a farmstay. We moved on to Rotorua followed by the Coromandel, and spent our final week in Paihia in the Bay of Islands. On our last day we drove back to Auckland and flew home.

The shots are organized chronologically by location:

Christchurch
Dunedin
Te Anau & Milford Sound
Queenstown
The West Coast
Nelson
Transit to the North Island
Napier
The Farmstay
Rotorua
The Coromandel
The Bay of Islands

There is also a page that summarizes some things we learned about New Zealand, to help other travellers.