Logistics

We traveled to New Zealand (NZ) via New Zealand Air in both directions. We arrived in Auckland and met Monica at the airport. She flew up from Christchurch on Jetstar. We rented a car from Thrifty; driving a Holden Commodore (2018) and toured various areas on the north island. New Zealand follow’s the UK’s traffic laws for the most part with the most prominent one with driving on the left hand side of the road. We drove south to Wellington and took the interislander ferry across to Pincton. At Pincton we retrieved another Commodore from Thrifty (same color!) and continued on our way. As we traveled we stayed in Air B&B’s for all nights except two. On the west coast of the south island we could not find a B&B south of the Glacier area. This is a very isolated area between the southern alps and the sea. We stayed at the Haast River Hotel and Holiday Park. The second night was our cruise in Doubtful Sound on the ship. For trip planning we use the web and store all plans in google docs and google maps. We create personal maps in google maps for route planning and navigation. We save offline maps in google maps and also use maps.me app for offline maps were more effective. We use our phones and a Sony Cybershot DSC-RX100 for most pictures and video. For water sports we use our Hero 7 white Go Pro for pictures and video. For tracking some hikes we use Strava (iPhone App). We use Relive (iPhone App) for fly over views of some hikes. We purchased SIM cards for our phones from Vodaphone for cell and data when in NZ.