New Zealand - The South Island
Trip Start
Oct 13, 2004
1
11
23
Trip End
Jun 21, 2005
Nelson,
New Zealand
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
December 21, 2004
He Said:
Highlights:
1. Having High Speed Internet Access in Auckland
2. Lunch for a family of 4 for under $20 NZ - yes we took the kids to McDonalds
3. Executive Club Access at the Stamford Plaza (Free Happy Hour Drinks, Free Internet and Free Continental Breakfast). As Shannon coined it "Club Microsoft definitely has it's Privileges".
4. The Indian Food Kiosk in the Food Fight a block from the Hotel in Auckland
5. Oh did I mention we had a Starbucks Sighting or two, or three...
6. The TranzAlpine Train Ride from Christchurch to Greymouth (it was a nice change of pace and quite scenic)
7. Hiking Fox Glacier with Kayla
8. The Plateau Restaurant in Fox Glacier
9. Jet Boating on the Dart River
10. Spa break in Queenstown
11. Doing the Maze at Puzzling World (not sure who had more fun the little kids or the big kids)
12. The drive to Milford Sound and the boat trip around Milford Sound - totally awesome not to mention the weather was pretty flash.
13. The Thai food at @Thai - yes we like our food
14. The 2002 New Zealand Pinot Noir - definitely a good year
15. The People of New Zealand, they are amazingly friendly
16. Discovering the value of Motels for family travelers, forget Hotels.
17. Hitting a few Wineries in Blenheim and Nelson
18. Nelson Restaurants Poppy Thai, In Vino Fides, Smokehouse Café and Lambretta's
19. Cadbury Chocolate - although I've been a bit obsessive about it since hitting NZ.
Aukland
Lowlights:
1. The Weather - Summer, what Summer. Auckland was cold, rainy and windy, Fox was cool and cloudy and Queenstown upon arrival was cool, overcast and very windy. Is there a theme here, hmmmm.
2. Paying $90 to hike Fox Glacier - it was probably worth it for the walk on the Glacier part with Kayla but the rest was just a mountain hike. Gee, I've never done one of those on my own, I better get a guide to help me with my boots. Sheesh... That said our guide was great and quite knowledgeable about the area, the geology and the Glaciers.
3. The generally cool, wet weather we've had on the South Island. That said no one will believe us because on the days that we've actually booked to do things and are taking pictures the weather has been stunning.
4. Having to turn around and go back to Queenstown after discovering Tyler had left the XBox Jumper (NZ for Hoody) he was wearing at the restaurant.
5. Having to back to Queenstown yet again after deciding to skip Dunedin and go right to Kaikoura.
6. The weather in Kaikoura pretty much sucked and while Nelson had sunnier days, the temperature we continue to be told is well below normal.
7. Having to miss the Cadbury Chocolate Factory Tour, due to skipping Dunedin.
8. Budget busting... the South Island has been a blast and the scenery is amazing but the activities have not been cheap and tend to be a bit hard on our budget. And we really don't need a lot of help with budget busting so that has been a bit sobering.
9. Arriving at our "Tourist Flat" in Nelson, I had to work through a few preconceptions you might say...
Well here we are, 25 percent of the way through our trip.
Cruising Around Milford
At this point we find ourselves on the South Island of New Zealand. What an amazingly beautiful place. As Shannon and I both described it, independent of each other, it is like the Canadian Rockies meets Vancouver Island all in an area perhaps the size of Alberta. So, what that provides is the opportunity to be walking on a beach on the Tasman Sea and 30 minutes later, after driving through some temperate rain forests, you can be hiking to the terminal of a Glacier in the Southern Alps. In that sense it is like nothing else I have ever experienced.Now if you break it down and do a Southern Alps vs. the Canadian Rockies comparison the Canadian Rockies win hands down, in my opinion. But that fact that you have all this diverse and amazing raw natural beauty all viewable in a short period of time, and with less than 1 Million people on the entire South Island makes it truly a must see.
The drive out to Milford Sound is a prime example. You leave Te Anau and you're in Sheep Ranching Country and not just a few sheep, then you have a few rivers, then a couple lakes, then some amazing mountains, a tunnel through a mountain, snow covered peaks, cascading waterfalls and then you get to Milford Sound (which is actually a Fjord) and you get to cruise through this amazing Fjord with Dolphin, Fur Seals, Water Falls, and more amazing Peaks. All in a distance of 120 KM's. It is mind blowing really and if you're lucky or maybe not so lucky you'll get to meet some Kea's along the way. What is a Kea you ask well it is an Alpine Parrot, first River Dolphins and now an Alpine Parrot - who knew.
Fox Glacier on the South Island of NZ
Anyway these rather large and intelligent Alpine Parrots are also very bold and at times quite pesky. The one we saw had absolutely no qualms with jumping into the boot (that is trunk for us from North America) of our car. Another one we saw was on top of a bus trying his or her best to rip the rubber antennae from top of the bus. They apparently are famous for ripping the rubber off of windshield wipers and weather stripping etc. on cars or in this case a bus. Cool birds, but you definitely need to watch your back when they are around.Another interesting point is that this is the busy season, summer holidays just started, and so we braced ourselves for a Banff or Whistler-like experience. However, we have been pleasantly surprised. As our travel book so adequately described it busy on the West Coast of the South Island is seeing another car every 5 - 10 minutes. And that is so accurate, there were times where it felt we had the place to ourselves and the places we've stayed while busy do not have that insane level of busyness you find in a place like Banff or Whistler. This just adds to the charm of this place.
Queenstown, the home of bungee jumping, is what you've probably heard it is, Adrenaline Junky Central, you can do it all here. From Jet Boating to Sky Diving, from Riding the River on Wake Boards to Bungee Jumping you can find and do it all here. That said you could also spend a small fortune doing so. We chose a nice quiet family event and went for a 40+Km Jet Boat Ride up the Dart River.
Hedo Kayaking
It was a total blast and the Hamilton Turns these guys do in the boats are amazing. Oh to be twenty again and know what I know now. I'd definitely come down here seeking some fame as a Jet Boat driver, what a blast! I highly recommend the experience. Queenstown also stands out for the best food we've had to date on the South Island and with only Nelson left on the South Island leg that just might stand up. That said, I've heard good things about Nelson so we'll just have to wait and see. Queenstown has an amazing assortment of Café's and Restaurants. However, we were smitten by a couple, @Thai which had fantastic Thai food and the Nav Café where we had breakfast a couple mornings. I'd recommend both.
Queenstown is also where we finally got a good introduction to New Zealand Wine. You knew we had to get around to some serious wine drinking sooner or later and we did. We found this great store called Wine Deli.Com and the owner was fantastic giving us a breakdown of the various wines and the good vintages of region. On his advice we picked up a couple of bottles of 2002 Pinot Noir's from the Central Otago Region that we exceptional. And for a couple of Cab/Shiraz/Zin bigots that is high praise. My favorite so far was the 2002 Goldfields Pinot Noir, a truly great wine for $30 NZ. We also picked up some Bubbly and some desert wine, the latter of which was carelessly left chilling in the minibar fridge upon our departure. Oops. It is not Canadian Ice Wine but the Late Harvests here are very nice so there was some wailing and nashing of teeth upon realizing the oversight.
Jet Boating the Dart River
The Champagne, oops Methode Traditionnelle, was fantastic and we have since purchased 3 more bottles for Shannon's Kir Royales, I've even had a few myself. At writing we still have 2 left just in case you think we've become total lushes.We also indulged ourselves in a little spa time. And while not cheap, it is clearly part of Shannon and my Self Care program while on this trip. Be it physical, emotional or spiritual - nothing helps more than a great massage. It is also a great way to relax and get some down time to just relax and chill out. Thank God for Spas.
Kaikoura was a bomb, see She Said for more details. We did stay at a great place Kaikoura Cottages at a great rate, trying to reign our per diem costs in, found a great place for Coffee, The Beach House, and I did get a round of Golf in. After a few days of chilling, literally, in Kaikoura we were off for Nelson and Wine Country.
First stop the Montana Winery, sold in North America under Brancott. We had a wonderful tour of the winery complete with Tastings and a few purchases. What was that I was saying about reigning in the budget... oops. They happen to make the bubbly I was talking about and some decent Pinot's and Chardonnay's. They also have a great Latin expression in their logo: "In Vino Felicitas et Caritas", loose translation "In wine there is friendship and happiness". I say hardy CHEERS to that.
Nelson is a great little town with a great restaurant (Café) scene, a great wine scene, wonderful Coffee Carts and some amazing beaches.
Land of the Ents...
Now if we could just get some temperatures above 15 or 16 C we might actually be able to enjoy the beach. It is truly awesome and the Holiday Park Tourist Flats we're staying at are right across from this amazing beach. Frustrating to say the least! As consolation we headed out to sample some more of the local wine and food from some of the areas around Nelson and we stopped in at the World of Wearable Art and Classic Car Collection. All great things to do in Nelson rain or shine. Some of you may be wondering what exactly a tourist flat is? I know I was when Shannon told me our fantastic hosts at Kaikoura Cottages had made a few calls for us and got us a reservation at the Tahuna Beach Holiday Park in their Tourist Flats. I was skeptical to say the least and my level of anxiety increased further on the news that linens were provided for an extra charge. Cleary we were heading into waters not seen in many, many years. But, part of this trip is about stretching ourselves and that includes having to check the ego from time to time and take a good dose of humility. So we checked in, but not before a visual inspection and some serious internal dialogue.
And I have been very pleasantly surprised. We've settled in and it meets our immediate needs, it is clean, it has enough space for all of us, provides some separation, a kitchen and it is priced within our target budget range. It will not be confused with the Fairmont Kea Lani on Maui but it does meet our needs. And as a bonus it provided an opportunity to work through some ego stuff and just let go of some preconceived judgments and one up stuff that I had going on in my head.
Lupins in full bloom...
It's the little victories that count right. :)She Said:
New Zealand, it kinda feels like coming home. It's like a little mini-Canada with all of it's beautiful attributes smashed together into a smaller area. Something for everyone - beautiful rocky mountains, gorgeous lakes, forest of all kind from alpine to rainforest, ocean with amazing beaches of every color, meadows full of sheep, yummy vineyards - all round amazing. Add to that, it's own unique brand of fjords, volcanoes, Lord of the Rings mania and it's a wonderland, magical land. The other thing that reminds me of home is how friendly the people are. Now Canada is renowned for it's friendliness but the Kiwi's take it to a whole new level. People will just come up and start chatting with you as you walk down the street, offer to put you up in their homes and are just generally really nice. It's pretty hard not to fall in love with the place.
I was surprised to find that NZ only has a population of ~ 4M people, with 1.5M in Auckland and only 800k in the whole South Island. Makes for lots of wide open spaces! Auckland is a beautiful city that feels like a small Vancouver without the traffic issues. It felt so cosmopolitan compared to anywhere we've been since LA....we just lapped it up! We checked into the MSFT hotel (these are beautiful 5 * hotels in every major city with special rates for MS employees) and took full advantage of the luxury... high speed internet, free happy hour, hot baths, gym etc..
Milford Sound
It was awesome. I don't think we've every looked more like travelers than when we checked in that morning after having flown all nite, no sleep, in scruffy clothes, plane-hair and just general haggardness. A very stark contrast to the Gucci & Prada business crowd making there way to VIP meetings.I realized at that point how much I've let go of image & ego over the past few years. All the same, it felt so good to be in place with shopping and city-stuff. We got haircuts and basically 'cleaned up' a little. Getting caught up on our email and web postings was great too - we must have spent 25 hours between us in the executive lounge working on the computers...for a couple of geeks, it was like winning a lottery. Didn't do much touristy stuff, SkyTower, ate some good food and just generally checked out the city. Frankly, man's achievements seem a little trite after experiencing things like the Amazon rain forest, Galapagos, Costa Rica wonders and general amazement of God's creations. Mark's been making a point of stopping at all the Microsoft offices along the way - you just never know when we might get the urge to settle down in one of these countries :-)Flew to ChristChurch to experience the South Island. Were we in for a treat!
New Zealand has to have the record for per capita world travelers - they even have a name for it "OE" - "When I did my OE" - meaning Overseas Experience. It seems like a right-of-passage of sorts. Awesome idea! The net of it is, they really have the travel thing nailed and coming to their country as an Adventure Traveler is awesome.
Mirror, Mirror on the wall....
First thing we found - the wonderful world of motels . We've never been motel people, but in New Zealand it's an accommodation world ideal for families. They're not at all like motels in NA, but very nice little cottages or self-contained units with separate bedrooms, kitchen, laundry facilities, often play areas for the children. They are typically owner operated, more often than not by former travelers. One place we stayed, the lady kept bringing us fresh baking and goodies every day, unreal! Every place had really sound advice for things to do, avoid and just general helpful info. Tourist Flats are a level below a motel and tho' we tried them once and they were fine, we preferred the motel atmosphere. Now when I think about our first bus trip in Costa Rica and how 'green' we were at this whole travel thing, it really makes me smile. We've come a long way since that time, in fact have gotten to the point where we hate to do any preplanning (vs the 'comprehensive' on-line researching we would do the day before we left to go the next place :-). We just find a place we like once we get there - wherever that is. This has been an awesome laid back way to get around. Unfortunately, it's summer holidays and Christmas season and we're finding our lackadaisical approach may not serve us so well for our remaining time in NZ. We've really only had one major disappointment to date (more on that later), but it was a good wakeup call that we'd better get our poop in a group or we may not even have places to stay over the holidays.
On the way to Milford Sound
We've done some pre-booking and currently there are only 2 days ahead where we can't find accommodation but aah, it'll all work out. One of the greatest things I've honed on this trip is I just don't stress about much of anything. It's pretty cool!Mark's good about filling you in on details of our stays, activities, comings & goings, so rather than duplicate our efforts I'll leave that in He Said's Dept.
For me, I've loved NZ - Lord of the Rings really does showcase the beauty and diversity of the land. The people are unreal and there is no end to fun, interesting things to do. Unfortunately, a thrill seeking family of 4 can really burn thru the cash (here's me on the money thing again). At $500 to go jet boating, you can't be doing too many back-to-back activities. And the marketing is supreme - the kids come home daily with an armload of pamphlets of things we just 'have to do'. In an attempt to keep things/$ to a manageable level, we instituted an "each get to pick one activity/area" policy. Kayla has decided this is a highly restrictive way to travel and has encouraged us to just "go with the flow" - ever the negotiator. The one adventure we unanimously agreed to take a pass on was the Nude Kayaking (they seriously have it!) - just didn't want to take the sunburn risks ;-)
Kayla and I both really wanted to Swim with the Dolphins and tho' there are a number of places to do this in NZ, the world-renown place is in Kaikoura where you swim for up to an hour with various species.
One of the many falls on Milford Sound
We showed up in this little town so excited, only to find out that they are completely booked until the end of January. Ouch! The good news was there was a waiting list we could go on, so we jumped aboard with MANY others battling the same lack of pre-planning issue. We were one-away from getting on the first day, so got a little cocky in our chances and kept up the daily vigilance. Finally after 4 days, we gave up the ghost and moved on. However, not before prebooking a dolphin swim for New Years in the Bay of Islands, NZ - at least we learn from our follies :-). It's interesting how they take their thrill seeking reputation very seriously - this is the place after all where bungee jumping was invented. Now that you can bungee virtually anywhere in the world, it seems they feel the need to continually up the ante. Not to mention of course, the huge economic gains of finding the next cool thing! Keeping this in mind, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when I checked into this spa for some massage therapy. "Would you like a float with that?" Now I've had scrubs, wraps, soaks....but despite my vast spa experience, hadn't heard of this float phenom. Had to give it a go and was it great! For those of you that saw "Altered States" - a mildly interesting movie from the 80's - you'll be more apt to grasp the concept, for that's exactly what it was. You enter this completely enclosed steel tank full of water & enough salt to make you fully buoyant. They close the lid and you have absolutely no sensory stimulation of any sort - no sight, sound, smell, taste or even physical touch - the extremely salty water makes you feel perfectly weightless.
Puzzling World...
It's absolutely amazing - described as "reentering the womb state" - not sure how they know what it's like in the womb but sure makes for interesting marketing. All I know was that it was incredible and was the best way I have ever experienced to completely 'turn my mind off' - something I sometimes find difficult to do. If you ever get a chance, do try it. I must admit, as Christmas draws near I am missing friends, family & familiarity. As the trappings of commercialism and busyness are stripped away from our festive season this year, I am left with time to process raw emotion and feelings. I feel tremendous gratitude for my family & our journey and also sadness at missing my loved ones. We have tried to maintain some Christmas traditions - making Christmas crafts one rainy day, a Christmas movie, church services with wonderful carols and the message of God's gift to mankind and very minimal shopping for a couple of non-bulky, practical gifts for giving Christmas morning. In typical New Zealand fashion, people we have never met (family of friends back home) have invited us over for a Christmas BBQ on the 25th. Tho' it seems strange to be celebrating Christmas in people's home that we have never met, a part of me realizes that this is really the epitome of the season. Sadly, I realize in my past I may not have thought too much about those outside my family Christmas morning - I hope this message is not lost on me in the future. As I watched the B-Grade Christmas movie, "Christmas with the Kranks", it hit home again that every day we celebrate with a loved one is special.
Rainbow in Kaikoura
I don't often forget that, but it has been amplified this holiday season. I've sent many of you a Christmas email - don't waste this special season....make sure people know you love them! Carpe Diem! **********Brief NZ Translator - sparky (electrician), chippy (carpenter), dodgy (not so good!), flash (really good), bonnet (car hood), boot (car trunk), ute (truck), whinging (whining/complaining) ***********
Highlights:
1. Queenstown - what a great town - a beautiful combination of adventure, beauty, fantastic restaurants and fun. Loved it!!
2. Milford Sound - what a gorgeous place!!!
3. The people - I've never felt so warmly welcomed anywhere in the world - and I'm a pretty friendly person :)
4. Appreciating that I am even on a trip of this magnitude and what a beautiful journey it is! I marvel at my amazing family - what beautiful children I have, the incredible deepening of my relationship with Mark and how unbelievably beautiful our world is! I am so grateful to have this experience!!
Lowlights:
1. Not getting to Swim with the Dolphins at the #1 Spot in the World (Kaikaouro)
2. Long drives in a car
3. The weather isn't the typical summer heat in NZ
4. Missing my loved ones back home for the Christmas season
Kid's Said:
Highlights:
Tyler:
ˇ Jet Boating
ˇ Mini-Golf in Nelson
ˇ Playing with Kayla
ˇ The Train Ride from Christchurch to Greymouth
ˇ The Glo-Worm Caves with Mom
Kayla -
ˇ Milford Sound & seeing "Lion Mountain"
ˇ Watching the dolphins
ˇ Meeting a new friend, Mikaela (age 8) on the train
ˇ Hiking the glacier with Dad
ˇ The Maze at Puzzle World
ˇ JetBoating
Lowlights:
Tyler -
ˇ Not going to the WaterPark in Nelson (he'd already used up his activity card for Mini Golf :-)
Kayla -
ˇ Not being able to swim with the dolphins
