Photos and Stories from Christchurch

We wrapped up our tour of New Zealand’s South Island with a brief stay in Christchurch.

Christchurch is probably best known, unfortunately, for the damage it suffered during earthquakes on September 4, 2010, and February 21, 2011, the latter of which killed 185 people. Adjusted for inflation, these earthquakes caused over $52.2 billion in damage, making them New Zealand’s costliest natural disaster and one of the most expensive disasters in history. 

We visited Christchurch for one day during our 2013 cruise from New Zealand to Australia. At the time, the destruction in the downtown area was still plainly visible. Some buildings had been demolished, while others stood abandoned. It was sad and a bit eerie.

Now, 15 years after those terrible earthquakes, we are happy to report that Christchurch has rebounded. The downtown is vibrant with attractive new buildings. The Christ Church Cathedral, which sustained massive damage, is still being rebuilt, but most other evidence of the earthquakes’ damage is gone.

During our stay, we visited the Christchurch Botanic Garden, the Christchurch Art Gallery, and the Arts Centre, all located within a couple blocks of each other.

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Oamaru: Victorian Architecture and Blue Penguins

Oamaru (pronounced ŌM-a-RU, not ō-MAR-u as we had initially guessed) is a town of 14,300 on the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island, between Dunedin and Christchurch. A century and a half ago, it was a rapidly growing, bustling port city. While it’s relatively sleepy today, many of the impressive limestone Victorian buildings remain, giving the downtown a stately, elegant appearance. Institutions such as the Waitaki Museum and Archive, Whitestone City, and the Steampunk HQ document the city’s history.

For us, the biggest attraction was the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony. The Blue Penguins, or Little Penguins, are the smallest species of penguin, and can be found in New Zealand and Australia. More on that below.

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Dunedin: A Taste of Scotland in the Southern Hemisphere

After Queenstown, we took a bus ride across the picturesque Otago region to Dunedin, a city on the Pacific (eastern) coast of New Zealand’s South Island. We stopped in Dunedin for a day during our New Zealand-to-Australia cruise in 2013, and we were eager to return to discover more of the city.

Dunedin’s name comes from Dùn Èideann (“fort of Edin”), the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. The Scottish settlement was established in 1848, and between 1855 and 1900, many thousands of Scots emigrated here. The city retains its Scottish character in the architecture of some of its buildings, such as its handsome train station.

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Photos and Stories from Queenstown

From Auckland, we flew to Queenstown, a resort town in the heart of the “Southern Alps” on New Zealand’s South Island. It was touristy, to be sure. It would probably be a quiet, sleepy town if it weren’t for tourism. Despite this, it was charming and beautiful. There were many attractive hotels and residences, and the surrounding lake and mountains were spectacularly beautiful.

Queenstown has been called “the Adrenalin Capital of the World,” and it lives up to that claim. Here, you can bungee jump, skydive, hang glide, ride a speeding jetboat up and down a narrow river (with occasional 360 spins for added thrills), ski (in winter), and ride a motorless go-kart on a downhill track (called luge, but not to be confused with the Olympic sport). We did none of the above, although Dave seriously contemplated the jetboat. We decided to save the luge experience for our visit to Rotorua.

Instead, we visited the Queenstown Gardens and Kiwi Park, a wildlife sanctuary for endangered New Zealand birds and reptiles, cruised Milford Sound, and enjoyed a day-long wine tour in the surrounding region. Milford Sound merits its own post, and highlights from the rest of our visit are below.

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The Spectacular Beauty of Milford Sound

During our visit to Queenstown, New Zealand, we took a bus tour to Milford Sound. The ride to and from Milford Sound was nearly as spectacular as the sound itself.

Technically, it’s not a sound, it’s a fiord. (Fiord is the New Zealand spelling, as opposed to the Norwegian spelling, fjord.) But the name Milford Sound has stuck.

In this post, we’ll share a few of the dozens of photos and videos we took on this unforgettable day.

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Auckland is Awesome!

Our first stop in New Zealand was Auckland, home to 1/3 of the country’s population. We visited Auckland once before in 2013, at the start of a cruise from New Zealand to Australia. So we’ve already seen some of the most noteworthy sights, such as the War Museum, Winter Garden, the Sky Tower, the Sea Life aquarium, and the zoo. 

The centerpiece of this visit was an all-day wine tour on beautiful Waiheke Island, a 40-minute ferry ride from downtown Auckland. It was a wonderful way to celebrate Valentine’s Day. We also visited the Auckland Art Gallery and the Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT).

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Aloha from Honolulu!

In February 2026, we visited Honolulu, Hawaii, for three nights enroute to New Zealand. The stopover provided a welcome way to break up the long flight from the US to New Zealand.

Our visit was disappointing in some regards, but rewarding in others.

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Photo Tips & Tricks

As you’ve probably noticed, we enjoy taking pictures when we travel.

(You: “Nooo…!!!”) Haha…

We’re not professional photographers by any means. We take all of our pictures on our iPhones. We no longer bring separate cameras or video cameras on our trips. But we have a few tips and tricks we use to improve some of our photos. We’ll share them with you in this post. We hope you find them useful.

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Photos and Stories from Adelaide, South Australia

The last destination on our Fall 2025 SE Asia-Australia trip was Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. Adelaide was a nice city with some interesting things to see and do, but we weren’t as enamored of it as we were with Perth. Perth was a tough act to follow! We stayed five nights and four days – about the right length of time.

We enjoyed the Adelaide Zoo and the Adelaide Botanic Garden, which we covered in this post. The highlight of the city, for us, was the Art Gallery of South Australia, which we covered in this post.

Here, we’ll share a little bit of the story of Adelaide’s founding and some pictures of the downtown area where we stayed and the surrounding countryside, which we visited on a wine tour. 

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Inside the Inspiring Art Gallery of South Australia

If you’ve seen many (or even some) of our posts from the cities we’ve visited in 2025, our first year of extended travel, you have probably noticed that we visit museums in most places we go. Some have been devoted to history, archeology, oceanography, musical instruments, or even chocolate, but the majority are art museums.

After three one-month trips (two to Europe and one to Southeast Asia and Australia), we’ve lost count of the museums we’ve visited. At times, we have felt maxed out on art museums – especially those that specialize in the “classic” European art of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. After a while, they all look the same.

We’ve seen some outstanding art museums and others that were a waste of time. Most have sufficient merit that, at the end of our visit, we felt our time was well spent. Occasionally, a museum stands out as a particularly exceptional experience.

Such was certainly the case at the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) in Adelaide. We spent most of the afternoon absorbed in its exhibits. We had planned to visit the history museum next door during the same afternoon, but we pushed that to a later day. 

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