Taste Test - NZ

We were amazed at how many good breweries there were in NZ. 15+ breweries sampled over three weeks.

Tuatara was the winner as our favorite brewery; it's clean and balanced offerings seem under-appreciated.

Other interesting brews we tried worth checking out for their quality and/or uniqueness: Moa, Duncans Founders, Emersons, Epic.




We are used to buying growlers full of beer from breweries at home... in NZ, they call them "riggers" and they are 2-litre plastic bottles! Crazy! This beer had a clever name - "George Best," after the Manchester footballer.


This slogan, painted on the wall at Mac's Brewery in Wellington, says it all:

Chillin' Out

This is where things started cooling down a bit... to glacial temperatures! The hail pounding on our van's roof-top kept us awake (and cold!) at night.

We visited Franz Josef Glacier and were amazed by the moon-like landscape.

Heading South

From Ruby Bay, up to Abel Tasman and down the West Coast through Punakaiki, the South Island has some amazing views.






Some parts reminded us of California's Highway 1 (especially Big Sur!).

Cook Strait Crossing

We bought ferry tickets to cross the Cook Strait down to the South Island from Wellington despite multiple warnings of a pending storm and rough weather.

We lucked out and had a sunny trip over.








... but then the storm came. Our drive through the wine country of Marlborough lived up to the name of this winery, Cloudy Bay.

Mt. Maunganui

The "Mount," as it's called, was one of our favorite places in NZ. The unique geography of this extinct volcano provides awesome beaches, great hiking and amazing vistas. We camped at the base of the mountain, right on the beach, and lucked out with a great sunny day for a hike up and around the peak.




View of campsite:



View from campsite:




Hiking shots:

Kauri Coast

2000+ year old trees are the highlight of this stretch of the North Coast. At over 50m tall, Tana Mahuta, was spectacular, even for those spoiled by the beauty of California's well-known Giant Sequoia, General Sherman.






Some of the smaller guys were pretty cool, too, including the awesome ferns.