Australia and New Zealand

North Island -

Auckland and Louis

Vuitton Cup

North Island - north

incl. Paihia area,

Rotorua and

Coromandel

Peninsula

North Island -

Tongariro National

Park

North Island - south

incl. the East Cape to

Wellington

South Island - north

incl. Abel Tasman

Park, Farewell Spit,

Kaikoura, Karamea

and area

South Island - Fox

Glacier, Queenstown,

Milford and Doubtful

Sounds

South Island - south

incl. Stewart Island

and Dunedin area

South Island - Mount

Cook and

Christchurch

New Zealand

Return to Main Menu New Zealand North Island - Auckland and Louis Vuitton Cup North Island - north incl. Paihia area, Rotorua and Coromandel Peninsula North Island - Tongariro National Park North Island - south incl. the East Cape to Wellington South Island - north incl. Abel Tasman Park, Farewell Spit, Kaikoura, Karamea and area South Island - Fox Glacier, Queenstown, Milford and Doubtful Sounds South Island - south incl. Stewart Island and Dunedin area South Island - Mount Cook and Christchurch Australia

Click on any of the pictures below (or any of the menu selections on the left)

to open an album on that topic.

When in the slide show click on 'Back to Album' at any time to return to this page.

In November 2002, after my contract in Vienna was fulfilled, we flew home, got together with

our adult children at Oxtongue Lake, and then left for 2 months in New Zealand and 4

months in Australia.

New Zealand has an interesting ecological system as it is very isolated from other islands. In

the absence of major predators, many ground dwelling birds evolved (the kiwi being the most

famous one); however, many of these are now extinct due to introduced species. For

example, the Moa, a very large  (200kg) ground dweller, and others, are now extinct.

Originally the only mammals in New Zealand were bats!

One of the introduced species that has caused great damage is the bush-tailed possum. As

there are no predators, possums do great damage to the habitat and have spread

uncontrolled - the government encourages eradication in many ways - however there are an

estimated 70 million possums in NZ.

For information about New Zealand from Wikipedia click here

Click here for a map of New Zealand

For travel information click here