After returning from Stewart Island we traveled to Glenorchy, a tiny village about 45 kilometers north of Queenstown for the final few days of our trip.
Photos do not capture the sheer scale of the landscape. Sitting on Lake Wakatipu at the base of the spectacular Thompson Range, this was the location used for several Lord of the Rings scenes, including the forest hideaway of the Elves and the treacherous Misty Mountain.

We had unexpectedly beautiful weather today. Thunderstorms were forecast and I was expecting a rough ferry crossing for the 25 mile ride to Stewart Island off the southern tip of New Zealand. After all, at 47' South we are in the sub-arctic zone known as the Roaring 40's because of the constant strong winds. But the sun came out and we had only brief showers throughout the day, including this one while walking to dinner this evening.

It was a 1 hr boat ride across the long lake, then another hour up over this mountain pass by van and down into the Doubtful Sound for an overnight tour on a small charter with 10 other people.
Rain, rain and more rain... but, thousands of waterfalls... snow capped mountains in the distance, 3,000 ft peaks rising straight up from the water and penguins on shore!

After our road trip and cottage rentals we chartered a 30ft monohull for 4 days of sailing among the Bay of Islands.
It was pouring rain when we left the dock and forecast was for winds gusting to 35 kts by nightfall. We went out only a short ways to a well sheltered cove and anchored for the night. A British couple anchored nearby invited us onboard their spectacular sloop for tea. We returned to our skimpy charter boat for dinner and tucked in for the night.
In the morning we sailed off the anchor in very light air and ghosted out towards Albert's Pass at the east end of the bay. But an unexpected and fierce rain storm forced us into a protected bay at Otehei. We were able to pick up a mooring and went ashore after the rain cleared. But it was only a lull between weather fronts. Luckily we picked up several good bottles of wine from the nearby vineyards before setting out.
The next day was finally clear and sunny with a stiff breeze so we spent the whole day sailing. By evening the weather had turned again and now there were gale warnings for our area. So again we anchored deep in a protected cove for the night but the storm passed around us with no drama.
on our final day we had a nice sail back to the dock. Grabbed lunch, did a load of laundry and headed back to Auckland for our flight to the South Island the next day.

From our cottage in the hills above Whangarei we drove to a remote DOC Reserve at Tutukaka and walked out to a lovely overlook where we spent the afternoon doing watercolors of the spectacular seascapes.

So lucky to have found this spot. We're just over the hill from Russell, about 200km north from Piha and on the other coast. The beach house looks out over the Bay of Islands and comes equipped with a 2-person kayak that we use to see the spectacular coastline up close.

I don't normally open email that is obviously an advertisement but I couldn't resist the "Discount flights to New Zealand" in the subject line. So here we are...
It's early November, late spring here. Weather is clear and a mild 75 degrees. We picked up our rental car at the Auckland airport (Yikes! right-hand drive) and threaded our way west, across the narrow mountains and down to black sand surf beach in Piha for our first stay over.

We've been back in the "real world" for about 15 months now and I realize that I actually like work and domestic life better than sailing around the world (gasp!) No regrets that we tried - now I can cross it off the list - but so grateful that we had a chance to live the adventure we dreamed of. We're looking forward to the new year and wish all of our friends and all the people we met along the way, safe passage.