On New Zealand’s Stunning West Coast, the Beauty Doesn’t Stop

This piece made me feel like crying with happiness. I miss the South Island and its extraordinary beauty. 

With this line (which I should have thought of), the NYT author captured precisely why we love being there: Nature, unleashed like it is on the South Island of New Zealand, has the power to reset your entire being.

Faithful readers will recognize several beloved locations, but will miss seeing the back of Art's coat in each one.  Click here for the video and text.

Why were people on White Island volcano when it erupted?

People have been asking if we ever toured White Island. The answer is no. It's not my kind of risk to take, walking around an active volcano.  Seductive online marketing (embedded in the first link below) makes it look like a walk in the park, but there are hundreds of other NZ parks to hike that aren't sitting on the edge of an active volcano.

White Island attracts 10,000 visitors annually 

Here's a link that also includes a press conference updating the situation as of 6:30 am Monday.

Click here for some perilous video shot by people who had minutes before stood on the crater's edge.

New Zealand's glaciers are turning red - and it's because of Australia's bushfires

Via CNN...
One of the most startling consequences of the bushfires that are still raging across Australia, is that they have turned some of New Zealand's famed glaciers red and pink.

Travel photographer and blogger Liz Carlson snapped the pictures of the discolored snow-capped glaciers on November 28 while on a helicopter flight around Mount Aspiring National Park, in New Zealand's South Island.  

More here