Day 6 , On to the south island

The hard thing about doing really important stuff when you're on vacation is that you wake up way too often wondering if you've accidentally overslept. So began day six, where it was absolutely vital that we make the 9:00 a.m. inter-islander ferry to the south island. We knew it was a short trip from the hotel, but got up early so there would be nothing left to chance. I think we were the 3rd car in line. The Ferry ride is an extremely scenic 3 hour trip around the tip of the south island, across the cook straight through Picton Harbour an in to Picton. It was really cool to watch all of the freight and trucks get loaded on to the ferry. (before the cars) and then we cautiously drove on to the boat ourselves. I'd read stern warnings about taking a Dramamine before you get on, because it could be interesting, but our passage was quite smooth.
We grabbed some breakfast on board, and even had a beer to help make the trip a little easier. The views from the upper deck were worth the price of admission, bu there's a movie theater, a business class style deck (we decided it wasn't worth the upcharge this time) multiple places to eat or drink and even some live music. The good news about being early to the ferry is you're first off too, so we were quickly on our way to the Picton i-site. We needed a place to stay in christchurch, an a nice lady there found us a place recommended a place to eat along the way, and told us about Ohau bay seal colony. I wish I'd gotten her name, because she was absolutely money on recommendations. We took the scenic coastal road carefully eyeballing every sign, and wishing longingly that we had time to stop at the hundreds of wineries we passed (next time...) Just when we were giving up hope of seeing seals in the wild, along comes a sign that was a good candidate, and then another. Our two stops were the seal colony, and a scenic waterfall walk. We went too far to catch the scenic walk, so we decided we'd go back to it after dropping in on the seal colony. They were mostly lazily sunning themselves on the rocks and occasionally moving around, having little seal fights, and making some noise. Having what we thought was our fill of seals we went back to the must see scenic walk, and it was 10 minutes as advertised. We got to the waterfall at the end, and found a young seal swimming in the pool below it. I got down on a rock, and he didn't take to kindly to that and promptly chase me off of it. Then three more of his friends came waddling up the creek to play too. Eventually we made our way to kaikoura to the third place our i-site lady recommended the Kaikoura Food Company. You absolutely must make this stop if you're on the road. Make sure you try the rum raisin fudge too. We then made our way to Christchurch and checked ourselves into the Lattimer Hotel. We were excited that it had laundry facilities, and the concierge recommended a restaurant for us. We never made it to the recommendation, after driving in too many circles on the one way road we finally just parked someplace and walked until we found a menu that looked good. It was a little late, and apparently the staff at Viaduct decided to spend all their time on their closing duties rather than help us. I'd totally bash the place, but the food was actually really really great. I had some farm raised venison that was awesome. We had a beer at the hotel bar, and chatted for a while with the Irish bar tender, he wanted to talk US politics and immigration policy too. We then settled into our spacious room for the night with plenty to do the next day.

New Zeland Day 5, To the Capital

On the fifth day we packed up all our stuff, and then went for our morning walk along the beach. Unfortunately the weather chose once again not to cooperate, so the pictures are kind of grey and sad looking. We then stopped to check out of the hotel. We chatted up the guy at the desk for a while, turns out he was a retired barrister living out a dream of hotel ownership and meeting interesting people who passed through. It sounded great, except for the toilet cleaning part of the deal. We even found what seemed like a great lookout spot (following another unassuming brown sign again) but you couldn't actually see anything once you got to the top through all of the pea soup fog. So we continued south eventually stopping for some breakfast at the Lilly Pond in the town of Waipukurau. The food here was incredible, including the best fresh scones I have ever eaten. We stocked up on some snacks for the road, and then continued on to Wellington. Our first order of business was to find a place to say, so one more time to the i-site we went. They found a bargain for us, right down town. I won't tell you about how lost we got on our way in, but we managed eventually to get un-lost and find parking. Next we were off to the Museum of New Zealand AKA Te Papa Tongarewa. Admission was free, so we got our money's worth the minute we stepped inside and breathed the air. We arrived hungry so we went to the museums really fabulous cafe. You could get coffee or beer (we chose beer) and the food was really great too. Refreshed and ready to rock through the museum, we walked through lots and lots of exhibits, learning about early life in New Zealand, Maori culture, Natural history, and all kinds of fun interactive stuff. We even met a museum curator who had an accent that I knew wasn't local, but I couldn't get my brain around. He was from Louisiana, had come to study 9 years ago and never left. We thanked him for dropping some extra knowledge on us and then we went on our way.

I didn't take many pictures, mostly because of the hands on nature of many of the exhibits, and it was pretty dark in all the rooms. Every once in a while it's nice to enjoy things rather than document them anyway. We shut the museum down, and then walked around the harbour and found the Mac's Brewery Restaurant. Now that I've seen the website I greatly regret not having a tasting paddle, the beers we ordered were fantastic, and we ordered an appetizer sampler that looked a lot more like dinner than the snack we intended. With full tummy's we went to check in at the Abel Tasman Hotel. By the time we got there we weren't hungry anymore but we were tired, and we knew we had an early morning, so we crashed early and prepared for a whole lot of traveling the next day too.

New Zealand Day 4 From Volcanoes to the Beach

We had to rise and shine on day four to be sure to enjoy our breakfast at the Distinction, it had a wide range of foods ranging from traditional English to Chinese porridge. Then it was off to Wai o Tapu thermal wonderland, for a date with the Lady Knox Geyser. The geyser would likely erupt every day at some point, but to take the mystery out, they put some soap powder in it every day at 10:15 a.m. to keep the tourists coming. We really enjoyed walking around the rest of the park too, and were suddenly faced with our first difficult choice.

We had to decide whether to keep enjoying thermal wonder land at a normal human being pace or rush off so that we could make it in time to get to the national aquarium in Napier. We decided to move the aquarium to the "next time" list, and kept strolling around looking at all the cool colors and natural wonder.

We wandered around a bit there snapped up the requisite photos, and then kept it moving towards our final destination. After an hour and a half, we pulled up in Lake Taupo, New Zealand's largest lake. We dropped in at the i-site there, where they set us up with a room for the night in Napier. We stopped at a really great Kebab shop/Cafe, (that I'll find the card for eventually) where the Manager chatted us up about a whole bunch of things, including US politics. It turns out the rest of the world is pretty interested in what we're doing here the first Tuesday of November, so vote with care! We pulled up at the Fairley Motor lodge, and met the really nice gentleman in charge of the place. He was kind enough to recommend a restaurant for dinner, and sent us off to our nice little room. We walked over to the Westshore Fish Cafe and were really charmed by this cozy little restaurant. The owners are Dutch, and make a Dutch apple pie that makes the expression "as American as apple pie" obsolete. The seafood basket appetizer is worth making the trip for alone. We walked back to our room past the beach, and decided we'd start the next morning with a walk out on the beach. I almost forgot, it was this day that we learned the value of looking for signs directing us off the main road to interesting stuff. A very unassuming scenic overlook sign led us to this waterfall someplace between Taupo and Napier. You're on vacation, stop and smell the roses every once in while.

New Zealand Day 3, The Journey Begins

Day three started with the alarm clock going off before seven, it was going to be a long but enjoyable day. After checking out we dropped back by the foodtown to get some breakfast and some lunch, and a few other road trip necessities. Then it was off on the road, discovering the wonder of New Zealand's windy 2 lane roads, two hours later we found ourselves at the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves. The cave tour was enjoyable, and our tour guide was this cute little lady that said Peeeople in a rising tone whenever she wanted your attention to point out one of the caves features. You wander around the cave for about half an hour and then they sit you down in a boat that must fit 20-30 and was remarkably stable, and then the guide pulls you around the glow worm chamber using an overhead rope system. The glow worms were cool, but you only spend about 10 minutes on the boat and then you're on your way back out of the cave. They do ask everyone to be nice and quiet, so it was an eerily otherworldly experience. There was a 10 minute scenic walk outside that we took, and then we sat down and had our delicious lunch, then we were back on the road to Rotorua. You know when you're getting to Rotorua, because you can smell it, it's got a thick smell of sulfur hanging everywhere that you never quite get used to.

In Rotorua we went directly to the gondola to ride up and experience the luge, we opted for the gondola plus 5 luge rides, and for our last two rides, it was only W and I on the track. It was also getting very chilly especially on the chairlift that you took back up each time after your luge ride. I got a little carried away on one of our trips and tipped myself almost completely out of my luge, and still have the scars to prove it. Back down on the ground we checked into our hotel, the Distinction Rotorua and then went around town to find a place to eat. We didn't find anything we were super sold on, so we went back to the hotel to check out the Yakitori restaurant. We absolutely Fell in love with the restaurant, Mr Yakitori and instantly felt like we'd made the right decision. Yes I know, 2nd Japanese restaurant of the trip? Yes. 2nd helping of green tea ice cream? Yes. So, based on our trip down town, and how nice this hotel was, Rotorua is first on the list of places we'd spend more time if the trip were longer. The lady at the Auckland i-site looked at us funny when we said we thought our hotel there was nice, but that's because the distinction was her standard of measurement. It was really a great hotel.

New Zealand Day 2

On our second day in NZ we were awake reasonably early, and hungry, so we strolled down to the muffin break for a little breakfast. It was just as tasty as the muffins I'd gotten the day before, and we enjoyed a leisurely morning watching everyday Aucklanders shuffle off to work. After breakfast it was off to the Auckland Zoo. We got there not long after opening but oddly enough still had to work around a crazy amount of stroller traffic and kids on field trips. We gave ourselves a full two hours, but felt pressured because we knew we had to be back downtown for our scenic harbour cruise. We had scoped out an international food court on the first day in our wanderings and decided to run by there for a quick bite to eat. We settled on two delicious dishes for take away, and rushed off to the dock to buy tickets. As soon as we walked away from the ticket stand, the skies opened up to rain on us. We managed to take some shelter near the ticket booth and cram down some really great Indian food including our first lamb dish of the trip.

We had high hopes for the Fullers Harbour Cruise, and it stopped raining but the day was kind of gray and the winds were whipping across the upper viewing deck. After our cruise we checked out a grocery store that we'd seen on the bus ride to Kelly Tarlton's, and grabbed a few provisions for our road trip. Once we realized it was open 24 hours we decided to make that the next day's first stop. We walked back to the hotel, dropped off our goodies, and then went to the i-site at the sky tower to book a room for the next night. We got what seemed like a good rate for a place that looked nice, but we'd just have to see when we got there. We found a great pub that somehow didn't make it in the journal, and made ourselves a booking at Midnight Express. We'd scoped the menu the night before and saw the huge lamb special sign outside that called to us like a siren song. We were not disappointed by the lamb dish, or the Mezze dish that I ordered (check out the menu, it's saliva inducing) or the tasty semi-local wine (a Stoneleigh Marlborough 2007 Pinot Noir). The meal got even better when I had my first flat white of the trip, with some Turkish Delight. Stuffed, it was back to the hotel to rest, we had a busy day three to look forward to, but I made a little time to snap some pictures of the sky tower.

Kia Ora New Zealand!

Sometimes at the convergence of perfect timing and good luck, a trip comes together even better than you'd planned, So begins the story of our trip to New Zealand. I hadn't had much time to blog lately mostly because every spare moment trying to fit as much of the country into a 10 short day itinerary as was humanly possible. I read through the better part of four guide books, and spent lots of time reading internet guides too, and finally settled on a wildly busy itinerary that would carry us all the way from the Bay of Islands to Milford sound. The trip started with a difficult decision, Should we A. Spend a little extra money flying directly to Auckland and possibly have to fly coach on Air New Zealand, or B. Fly to Sydney on W's employer, and then fly to Auckland giving up the better part of a whole day of the trip in transit, but most likely sitting in First class for the longest part of the trip. We chose option A, and through a little bit of magic ended up in ANZ's Business Class. First let me just say even if we'd paid full fare for a B-class seat it would have been worth it. W didn't know what wine to order with dinner, so the flight attendant sets down 4 glasses of wine on a napkin with the type of wine written below each glass.

The flight is manned by a concierge, who pulled location guides out of thin air and recommended sights to see and places to stay. A full wine guide comes with your menu, and they served the most delicious panna-cotta for dessert, with an absolutely amazing NZ dessert wine. The trip was getting off to a great start We decided at that point to skip the trip north to Bay of Islands, we'll just have to make it the first item on the itinerary next time. We made our first visit to a NZ i-site, where the guy there found us a room and was pretty helpful despite what seemed like a case of tourette's. Next we picked up our car at Apex where we got a great deal on a car that included insurance, roadside assistance, and a GPS. Our car served many purposes, camera stand, locker, picnic table,heater, refrigerator, and the list goes on and on. It was badly underpowered, didn't like going uphill very much and had the worst wiper blades I've ever seen, but got us everywhere we needed to go safely. We spent some time driving around in circles, because the GPS wasn't always perfect with street addresses, and the hotel was in a weird alley. We got W a little nap while I went out and wandered around the hotel to discover what was nearby and scout possible dinner locations. I found a little side street with some pubs and restaurants, and walked a few blocks down to the harbour. I came back and discovered my new favorite cafe for the trip, muffin break.

They have above average coffee, and really tasty muffins and sandwiches, and a guy working the counter who knew almost everyone by name. I gathered up a somewhat refreshed W, and we walked up to the sky tower (with a short stop at a kebab shop) to catch the bus to Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter and Underwater World. Most of the attraction here revolves around taking the snow cat around to see the penguins, which was actually really cool, but for us, we were lucky enough to show up on a Thursday to see shark, fish and sting ray feeding. We were finally ready for some food, so we paid a visit to the Queensferry Hotel. We ordered some potato wedges with cheese and sour cream and bacon that came with a delicious chili sauce. I learned to love a beer called montieth's radler. Then we went off to check out the Auckland Sky tower. You can pay an extra three $NZ for access to the upper upper deck, and it's totally worth it, at eight o'clock at night we had the whole thing to ourselves. The views from the tower are incredible, if not a little dizzying and then we took a few minutes to play the slots to see if we could win ourselves a nicer vacation. Needless to say we did not, but that doesn't mean we didn't enjoy ourselves. We grabbed some dinner at the Sushi Factory that we found quite delicious but gave us our first bit of restaurant sticker shock, although their green tea ice cream was very tasty. Then we settled back in at the our hotel, the City Life Auckland. It was a touch pricey, but was neither the best or worst value for the trip.