In January 2021 just before the Covid-19 pandemic hit Bill and I were able to visit New Zealand.  We went with friends who live in Salem, MA, and flew to Auckland.  One of our friends has a sister who was married and had been living in New Zealand for over twenty-five years.  We toured Auckland including a ferry ride to Waiheke Island where we lunched at an amazing vineyard.  

After Auckland, we flew to Wellington close enough to take an impressive photo from the airplane of the top of Mt. Taranaki along the way. Wellington was certainly a very vibrant city. For me, the highlight was visiting the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa with its exhibit of Maori culture. We were also there in time to see the annual celebration of Waitangi Day.  

We took a ferry from Wellington to Picton then drove by car to Nelson. The Nelson Cathedral, the Queen’s Garden, and the view from the top of the Center of New Zealand were all magnificent stops. We left Nelson and drove to Motueka having passed through Mapua on the way. We enjoyed drinks at the beach in Kaiteriteri and on another day left that area to take a boat cruise to the Abel Tasman Reserve.  

We flew back to Auckland to stay overnight then boarded Air New Zealand to Brisbane where we stayed another week with our friends whom we had last spent time with in 2013.