New Zealand, South Island

Happy 2025, friends and family! We hope you are all off to a terrific start to the new year.

We are still enjoying "winter" in Bangkok -- a perfect 70-90F respite from its usually much hotter temperatures.

We're also playing catchup on old photos to share. We posted recently about our stay on New Zealand's North Island. Now we are happy to (finally!) share photos from its dramatic South Island.

We visited the island's bottom half, aka the Southern Alps, flying into Queenstown and then driving to Te Anau & Milford Sound, Wanaka, Mount Cook, and back to Queenstown. All of it is spectacular.

Te Anau

We started on the SW coast, in Fjordland. We hubbed in Te Anau, a small lakeside town nestled in snow-capped mountains and blessed with clean air and a moseying pace of life.

Milford Sound

New Zealand's most visited destination, the fjord of Milford Sound is home to stirring mountains and, on a rainy day, hundreds of impromptu waterfalls. We celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary with a slow boat tour, huddling over hot tea and soaking up the spectacular views as the weather shifted from Spring to Winter within an hour.

Some bottlenose dolphins gave a nice show.

The area outside Milford Sound is even lovelier. We enjoyed several stops en route.

Kea Birds

The mountain pass between Te Anau and Milford Sound is home to the endangered Kea bird, the world's only alpine parrot.

It is as smart and mischievous as they come. Above, one tried to sneak into our van. Below, one figures out how to open a closed trash bin. Amazing creatures.

Wanaka

After the Fjordland, we went up to Wanaka for several days of hiking and relaxation near its lake.

Mount Cook

Then we headed farther up to Mount Cook, which was the absolute highlight -- in a trip overbrimming with them -- for Davina.

We took the manicured trail to Hooker Valley lake, passing along snowy mountains, rough pastures, and green rivers, until reaching the lake, home to a glacier and icebergs.

A panoramic video to better show the scale of things:

We visited during China's "golden week," a twice yearly national holiday week. The park was ready for throngs of Chinese visitors, apparently. We've never seen a sign meant solely for tourists from one specific country.

Later, we hiked to Tasman Glacier and Blue Lakes for more views of colorful waters and glaciers.

Mount Cook is famed for its dark sky reserve, one of the world's best places for stargazing. Sadly, we missed out on the night tours, where the guides share their fancy telescopes to view the Aurora Australias and Southern Cross. Sigh... Nonetheless, the stargazing and Milky Way were truly awesome from our meager perch.

It's a shame that using our cell phones without a tripod didn't quite capture much. But, thanks to our friend Eric's advice, we used a stargazing phone app to identify the constellations. These apps are so cool. Here are its photos of Pegasus, Sagitarius, and Pisces Austrinus.

Views from the Road

We normally try to avoid driving in other countries. We much prefer to stay in one hub for at least several days. But things are too spread out in NZ for that. So we drove. On the left side!

Thankfully, the conditions were comfortable, in fact much better than back home in New York. No potholes. No self-important tailgaters. Just easy roads and polite drivers.

We managed well. Except for one minor incident in which a mischievous road construction sign sprang out of nowhere, locked onto our location, and, despite our best evasive maneouvers, took our sideview mirror as passage payment. That mirror is now lying in some ditch, just another trophy for a deranged sign. Otherwise, it was a surprisingly pleasurable driving experience, if there is such a thing.

And those views from the road...they are stunning. We gasped or "wowed" every few minutes. Here are some of them.

From the drive between Queenstown and Te Anau:

From the drive to Wanaka:

From the drive from Wanaka to Mount Cook:

Sheep farms line the small highways. We must have pulled over 20 times for the cuties.

Some red deer too.

That's the last post on our NZ trip. Thanks for joining us.

Up Next: Our winter holidays in Laos and northern Thailand.