The adventures of Jeremy and Bridget part 2: Days 15 - 16

With the excitement of the Tongariro Northern Circuit behind us, we spent our last night on the North Island in Taupo, as mentioned in the last post. We got up relatively early and set off for the Taupo Airport. There was no TSA Pre-check, in fact there wasn't even security at all! We got our tickets, grabbed a coffee (of course!), hopped on the free WiFi for a bit, then walked out and boarded the plane on the tarmack (not jet bridges here!). Unfortunately, we had to fly north to Auckland then transfer to a plane headed to Queenestown, but we made the connection no problem.

Smile-atte anyone?

After getting in to Queenestown, we picked up our rental car, which turns out to be an old Subaru hatchback with 158,000 miles and lots of wear. But, no worries - it'll work for us! After getting that sorted, we drove the 2 hours to Manapouri, which is east of Queenestown. I was interrupted during blogging by a magnificent sunset over Lake Manapouri. See below.

View with the sun high in the sky

Sunset pic 1

Sunset pic 2

The next day, we did a kayak adventure on the Doubtful Sound. We paddled around for about 3 hours on the sound. We did not capsize, so it was a successful day! And easiest told by picture. :)

Ready to paddle!

First look out on the Sound

This is called a "tree avalanche" - the trees grow on moss that grows on the rocks. So when the moss gets dry during a drought then gets too much rain, it can give way, and the trees go down with it.