The Fellowship of the Van

When planning this trip, I don't think we realized just how much driving would be involved. We spent multiple days driving along the Eastern side of the South Island to position ourselves near Milford Sound. Every drive was beautiful by itself and with a stash of Pineapple Lumps I was good to go. Still, we had to come up with places to stop to break up the monotony a little and let the kids get out of the car. Some stops were better than others. The Moeraki Boulders are a bunch of big spherical rocks on a beach. Climbing on rocks is always fun although I think I may have broken my toe jumping on one of them. Another stop was in Dunedin, the oldest city in New Zealand and interestingly, the furthest city from London. We stopped to visit the world's steepest street and take pictures of the second most photographed building in the Southern Hemisphere. We also stopped for what was rated the best fish and chips in all of New Zealand. We did not agree. Our last detour was to Nugget P...

The weather in New Zealand is as unpredictable as the landscapes are stunning—sunshine one minute, rain the next. Our research told us to pack for all four seasons and that was pretty accurate. We all got sun burnt on the beach in the North Island then froze on the overcast and windy days. Sometimes, it even changed over the course of a single day. It poured the entire drive to Hobbiton, but we had nothing but blue skies the whole time we were there. But today was the first day we were concerned about the weather. We were planning to go see Aoraki / Mount Cook, the tallest mountain in New Zealand, and the forecast was showing rain and cloudy skies all day. On a clear day you can see the mountain from 150 miles away, on a cloudy day you may not see it at all. The Hooker Valley Track is one of the most popular hiking trails in New Zealand. It's about a 7 mile roundtrip hike with great views of Mount Cook (on a clear day). It was at the top of our list of hikes we wanted to do and thi...