Rawhiti Cave

National Geographic, yes you can buy this picture for $2,000. Signed --DJ Hewey


Nope, that's not it, just a dark hole in the woods, creepy huh?




Cave entrance! This was the coolest cave either one of us has ever seen. And you are totally welcome to explore the place all on your own. Awsome :)




Looking back at the entrance from inside the cave!


Holy Abyss!!! Maybe Sarlacc Pit??



I do see the similarities!!



A mighty stalagmite!


Couldn't figure this one out... looks like an old concrete bucket placed there a hundred years ago with stone mineral buildup on it?? Fountain of Youth??




Interior cave formations.


Stalagmites with drips splashing off them.

Kathy in the cave.


The best picture ever... Had to be put up twice :)

Harwoods Hole

Again, no picture can do this place justice. This is the biggest sink hole you can possibly imagine, and it goes straight down into blackness, vertical rock walls on all sides. Totally amazing!

Woods walk

The North Island Robbin. ...Hey! What are you doing on the South Island?? He was very friendly, and posed nicely for my camera.

Purple mushroom anyone?

Labyrinth Rocks!

Pictures will do this place absolutely no justice... It was a true "nature's playground" with tunnels, slides, mazes, pathways, caves, and all sorts of fun stuff to explore!




karst rock formations, that's for you Eileen ;)

Golden Bay

Never did figure out why they call it "Golden Bay"...?

Well, we were told the roads were flooded, who knew it would be this bad? Think we can make it?

Cat's Eyes! No, we did not kill a bunch of cats... Or a bunch of crustaceans either. These are the doors of some type of snail found here in NZ. The locals call them "cat's eyes" they have a very fun look to them though, and so we collected a bunch... not sure what for, but here's what they look like.


We even found a snail with his door still attached!! Don't worry, we threw him back into the sea.

300,000 Kilometers!!!

Yup, the ol' van hit 300,000kms today, still going strong!


As a celebration of Vixen's age, we parked her under this precarious rock formation and took her picture. These rocks are called the "Devil's Boots" (yes, there are 2 of them, no picture of the second one...) we're guessing because they look like boots sticking up from out of the ground! Seriously though, if these rocks were in the states they would be roped off with all sorts of danger signs, here the dirt road goes right between them, and you can park under them, climb on them, whatever. PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY!!! Something we forgot about in the USA.

Wharariki Beach

It's a 20min walk to the beach through sheep pasture. Lots of NZ walks go through farmland. Kathy and I are through with having sheep poo land mines everywhere...


This beach was very secluded and had some nice big sea caves to explore! See the one on the left?



From the top of the hill in the previous picture.

Kaikoura seal colonies

Here they are!!





These NZ fur seals will hunt at sea for up to a week at a time, so you can imagine how tired they are when they get back to shore!

Christchurch... post Quake

This is what is called "liquefaction" it is when, during an earthquake, the fine sediment from the ground below rises up through cracks and effectively causes buildings, cars, and streets to sink right into the ground.





Lots of historic buildings were lost...



The whole center of the city 20 or 30 blocks were fenced off and patrolled by police. Almost felt like a bad zombie movie where the city is deserted.

Avalanche sequence on Mt. Sefton

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This is a whole different avalanche, spectacular!