Nelsonian and Yestravel, thank you both for your comments.

Yestravel, we found that our sneakers were just fine for the short hikes that we did. We chose the Abel Tasman Coast Track because a great-niece had recently been to NZ and told us that hiking this track was one of her favorite things that she had done. We chose the hike to the Franz Josef Glacier because we wanted to see the glacier as close as we could and did not want to do a heli-hike.

We got the discount coupons via BookMe (https://www.bookme.co.nz) while we were in New Zealand.

I used the Lonely Planet New Zealand Tour Book; however, my primary tool for all of my trips is always the appropriate Fodors forum. I read the questions/answers and look at the trip reports for the country (or countries) to which I want to go, which in this case, of course, was New Zealand.

Since we were traveling by InterCity bus, I made a lot of use of the tools on their web site to plan my itinerary. I also used the Holiday Houses website (https://www.holidayhouses.co.nz) to pick rental accommodations.

Thanks so much, Larry. This is very helpful.