Waiting in Singapore Airport

Halfway through our flight back we had a six hour layover in Singapore Airport. We got to see lots of planes, but it was quite rainy outside.

Looking around Waitomo

Grandma and Grandpa came with us on our trip to New Zealand, and here they were near Waitomo, a cave full of glow worms that Bill kept trying to eat. This was a natural land bridge not far away.

Also we drove to a big waterfall nearby. It was our last full day, and sadly we did not see any other platypuses or pandas during the whole trip! They really should come visit, because it was great!

Leaving Mt. Doom

After we threw the ring into the volcano, we had a look around and saw a nice cool lake we could go relax in. So we decided to go play around there.

The lake was very nice, but there weren't many water bugs unfortunately. I did look quite a bit. Maybe it was too high up, because there weren't really plants either.

Lord of the Rings

Before us lay Mt. Doom. My mission, accompanied by my trusty sidekick Strange Panda, was to carry a ring up the mountain and throw it inside the volcano to destroy it.


Orcs sometimes threatened us, so I had to slip the ring onto my claw and become invisible, while Strange Panda used his extradinary camoflauge skills. Dad took a picture during one of these times.


However, being the ring bearer is quite tiring, so once Strange Panda had the bear the burden of helping carry the ring up Mt. Doom. The mountain was surprisingly steep and hard to climb.

Eventuall we made it to the top of Mt. Doom, with the crater below us. It was a bit colder than it looked in the movie, but oh well.

Finally I chucked the ring into the crater, thus defeating the evil Sauron and fulfilling my destiny as hero of the world!

Hiking in a bird sanctuary at Manawatu Gorge

We stopped off for a hike through a bird sanctuary and saw lots of giant pigeons in the woods. The forest was pretty cool too, with lots of fern trees and other cool plants.

We had some lunch on the side of the trail to restore our energy.

Then we kept hiking for a little bit more.

We discovered a cool bench area to sit on where we could see down into the gorge below, and we watched a train pass by. We could also see some windmills over the mountain.

Ferrying to the North Island

Dad went kayaking in the sea the day after. So we had to wait a day before heading to the ferry. This was a pretty overlook on the way to the ferry.

The ferry was a big boat, and it took awhile to get out to the sea. During our trip we passed a lot of pretty coastline.

Hiking at Golden Bay

We went to the north coast of the South Island the next day and drove to Golden Bay, where we went on a hike with the sun setting.

The area was very pretty, and was part of the Abel Tasman National Park, which Dad went kayaking in the next day.

Sunset Point

After hiking to the glacier, we drove up to a town called Hokitika where we got to see some kiwis in a wildlife centre. Then we went here to Sunset Point to look up and down the coast.

Glacier hike

The next day we hiked up close to a different glacier. This glacier is called Franz Josef, named after a famous Austrian panda who discovered it.

There were a decent number of people doing the hike to the glacier, but I was the only panda we saw surprisingly. This gravel path used to be a lake 40 years ago, but the glacier erosion filled in the lake with rubble. That means we no longer need to swim up to the glacier, as that would be very cold.

Going on the West Coast Highway

We were too tired to go to Doubtful Sound the next day. Then Dad went to do scary adventure stuff in Queenstown, so we just hung around the town instead. Finally we moved on towards the west coast. We had some great scenery while we were driving.


We did a swamp walk during the drive and Bill eyed the swamp hungrily for delicious water bugs.


We ended the day by visiting Fox Glacier. The glacier looked very black and white, just like a panda.

Here I am in all my glorious beauty before the glacier. I am definitely the more impressive thing, but the glacier was kind of cool too.

After all our driving and hiking that day, we got tired and collapsed at the hotel.

Walking around Lake Manapouri

We went for a walk before leaving Te Anau and stopped by a lake, where Grandma posed with us for a picture.

Taieri Gorge train trip!

Today we took a scenic train trip through Taieri Gorge, near Dunedin.


It was a bit rainy but the gorge was very pretty.


At the end of the day we drove to Te Anau, and fell asleep exhausted there!

Penguin spotting

We flew down from Auckland to Dunedin and went to visit some penguins. They had a very lovely coloring, though one of them in this picture was molting.

We stayed the night at the penguin reserve, and it looked like we had a nice view out of the window. Sadly we were too short to see well even when we tried to lift each other up.

Meeting up with Mary

We went over to Mary's house after the island. We met Mary in Sheffield but now she lives in Auckland. Her sofa was very blue.


She had a neat little balcony for us to get some fresh air on.


Mary made me a cup of tea as I was thirsty after all that climbing.

Here's Mary reunited with her laptop (and us!). Doesn't she look happy to see us!

Mary was holding Bill so she could take a picture of the city behind him.

Rangitoto Island - A volcano up close!

On our second full day in Auckland we took the ferry to Rangitoto Island, a volcanic island in the harbor.


That's Auckland from behind us as we took the ferry. You can see the Sky Tower we climbed yesterday - it's the tall one.


The island was pretty cool - there was a lot of volcanic rocks, trees, birds, and some caves to explore. Plus lots of pretty views like this one.

We had to drink a lot of water as there was a lot of hiking on the island.

Below us is some of the volcanic soil and rocks. Off in the distance is Auckland. It looks so far away from there!

Auckland - The city of rocks

We arrive in Auckland after two very long flights, and went to the hotel room. Thankfully we had our own ledge where we could put all our stuff.


This is a few of Auckland from the top of its large tower, the Sky Tower. Somewhere out there in Auckland are lots of volcanic hills. The city is built on top of them, so it is a city of volcanic rocks. At least that's how we like to think of it.

I looked down and saw some people walking around the outside of the tower with harnesses and fashionable orange jumpsuits. I wanted to do it but Dad did not think they would have one that fit me.