New Adventures Sunday 2.3.08

This is eerie. We rise and shine, do a few chores, explore around town a bit visiting the retail area and town gathering place where there are entertainers and a market going on, grab a bite of lunch with a cold beer, we walk through the park that separates one side of the central city from the other where we check out the botanical gardens and playing fields and hit the arts district where there is an afternoon art fair in full swing. We head back to the hotel for a bit of a rest before heading out for some Asian food. Wait a minute, this is an exact repeat of yesterday, and yesterday was GROUND HOG DAY!!!

Okay, there are a couple differences. The chores we had this morning included getting up at 3:00 AM to be at the airport at 5:00 to catch our 6:25 flight to Melbourne, continuing on to Adelaide. Once again everything was as smooth as it could be. We caught an earlier than scheduled flight from Melbourne and reached our hotel in Adelaide before noon local time. Adelaide is 2-1/2 hours (how do you do that?) behind Christchurch so we have been up for almost 12 hours after a couple hours sleep and our desk guy gets us right into our room.
The eerie part is that the fellow who laid out Adelaide also laid out Christchurch and the central part of the cities are very, very similar. Christchurch has a population of about 400,000 while Adelaide is 1.2 million so there is more sprawl here, but we almost didn’t need a map to get around in the central business district where our hotel is located. Additionally, Adelaide is the capital of the state of South Australia while Christchurch is the principle city of Canterbury but the similarities probably end there. ChCh, as we mentioned, is the most English and genteel of NZ cities while Adelaide is a shipbuilding port on the ocean side and a mining, agricultural center on the inland side so it has a much more rough and tumble image. We got a feel for that on the plane from Melbourne when we noticed that most of the fellas were wearing their wife-beater shirts, although not the pilot. If Adelaide has any English to it, it would be Newcastle.

Our hotel is on Rundle Mall, the pedestrian only shopping and entertainment street. There are tons of folks milling about when we go out for lunch in spite of the 90+ degree heat. They have had a dry and painfully hot summer and it shows in the brown landscape. It is overcast, hot, humid and still which is not a way for a city to make a good impression on its new visitors, but the beer is really cold and our veggie pizza is first rate. We did the park and art fair thing only to keep from sleeping all day but we were both happy to get back to the room late afternoon for some air conditioning and a nap.

When we checked in the desk guy told us that the Chinatown we had heard so much about was actually a China-lane, but he assured us that there were a couple worthwhile restaurants there and we should give it a visit. When we went back out at about 6:30 all of the shoppers were gone leaving a few semi-rowdy teenage groups milling about so it was a bit uncomfortable. We did find China "lane" but nothing jumped out at us so we went back to the "Grange" restaurant which was on our list and in the same neighborhood. The table next to us was a group of young Chinese folks so we thought we had made the right call. We both had the fresh snapper special on slivered pea pods, wilted lettuce, and a little champagne sauce. It was perfect but we both thought we could have used a bit of starch on the plate and we were missing our Kiwi chefs already. We need more food.

The walk back to the hotel was better. There were more people around so we had obviously just hit a dead time slot when we left earlier. We manage to stay awake until 9:00 before crashing.

Today's Local Headline: Locked Up in Vegas Adelaide Sunday Mail (It is discovered that a local footballer had been arrested 3 years ago)

Christchurch Saturday 2.2.08

Christchurch is a wonderful city. The second largest city in NZ, it is described as the most "English" and it is easy to see by its low-slung skyline that it is very different from the North Island big cities. We do the fruit and bars breaky thing in our room, Mary cranks out the laundry with minimal help and we head to town center to return the rental car. We patrol most of the retail area and spend some time in NOOD (New Objects of Desire) which is one of the concepts from a hot new retail entrepreneur in NZ. The store is electronics, kitchen stuff, leather goods, furniture, everything edgy and unfamiliar. We can understand the appeal.

We find the bar zone and the Tram mall and Cathedral Square and begin to have a pretty good feel for the city. There are Irish dancers, chess matches and a flea market going on in Cathedral Square that we saunter through on our way back towards the park for lunch. We stop at Ferment for a burger (with bacon, cheese, fried egg, beets, lettuce, tomato and mayo), fries, and a beer.

After lunch we happen upon the arts area around Worcester Street and there is an arts and crafts fair in full swing. Most of the emphasis is on Maori inspired paintings and jewelry with a sprinkling of soaps and home canned products. There is a jazzy group playing at one end as a musical backdrop. John sees the bratwurst stand with fried onions and sauerkraut and figures he could have skipped the burger and beer. Moving a little farther towards the park we pass the theater (The Producers) and find a courtyard where a Maori kid band, Tabu-Tabu, is performing. This really is shades of Hannah Montana with tons of screaming little kids who know the words to the songs. Most of the audience is Maori so that may have something to do with it. There is a Maori TV station here with local programming in the native language so many of the kids are probably catching these little stars at home. Interestingly enough one of the features on Maori TV is the NZ Breakers Basketball Team games starring Rick Rickert, formerly of the University of Minnesota.

We head back into the park through the botanical gardens that are in full bloom. There is a huge tree on one side of the path with a name tag on it, and when we check it out it says the scientific name is Sequoia something, but the common name is "big tree." No kidding. Our goal is the west bridge over the Avon River (English?) and we find that is our entré into the bowl and croquet pitches. First there are ten grass tennis courts, each as manicured as a top-notch putting green with a match on each. Then we find the bowls pitch manicured slightly better than the tennis courts and we watch some 80-somethings in a heated match. Then we move to the croquet lawn and lo and behold, the world croquet championships are taking place here and now. Unfortunately the early afternoon matches are just wrapping up and the next ones won’t start until later so we watch some of the big hitters working on their games. We check the line-ups and they really are from all over the world. Who knew?

We complete the walk across the park to our hotel so we can make a few phone calls and finish packing. The front desk guy recommended a couple restaurants nearby for dinner and we select Thai Orchid. It looks deserted when we approach but there are a few tables going inside. By the time we order the place is packed with locals so we decide it might be OK after all. We have an order of springrolls and John orders the green curry with chicken and Mary has the "64" which is some sort of chicken and mushroom stir fry and a double order of rice. All excellent. A little toddy with Kerri in the hotel bar to say goodbye to New Zealand, set the alarms for 3:00 AM and early to bed.

Today’s local headline: $250 million hole in the ground NZ Weekend Herald (A municipal Auckland construction project gone awry.

Christchurch/Lyttleton Friday 2.1.08

Airline reservations for Sunday, check. Car rental return verified, check. Guest laundry located, check. We are all set to get on with our day so it is the ever-popular yogurt bar and a little fruit for breakfast and we’re off to Lyttleton.

Lyttleton is actually the port for this part of the world, and if you saw the movie “8-Below” when the folks are looking for an Antarctic boat in a bar in Christchurch, it is probably in Lyttleton. (Mary of course says the bar was probably in Toronto where they were filming, but I insist that it would be a long trip from Toronto to Antarctica.) It is a hard-working port with ships being loaded and unloaded and piles of containers and acres of logs stacked up waiting to be moved out. This is the seagoing access point for this side of Antarctica and for a great deal of money you can hop a ship and visit a new continent. Antarctica, check.

We drive out around the harbor with great views back to the land side. We have a choice to make a turn left to Akaroa or right back to Christchurch and (in spite of the Coach’s discouraging words) we turn left to Akaroa. The sign says it is 59km (which is about 37 miles) so figure an easy 45 minute drive followed by lunch. About an hour and a quarter later with the low gas light on, we are on top of a mountain and we can finally see Akaroa on the ocean below us.

Akaroa is the first European settled city on the South Island where the French had landed in order to claim New Zealand for the Homeland. Unfortunately they found out that the treaty of Waitangi had been signed five days before and there were Union Jacks being planted all over both islands. If only they hadn’t stopped for dinner. The town still maintains some French influence in architectural style and has a quaint harborside business district. We grab lunch at Ma Maisson on the water (Mary the prawn salad and John the Spiced chicken sandwich) and if there is a common fault among Kiwi chefs, it is not knowing when a dish is done. The Italians are noted for their simplicity of ingredients and style and the Kiwis would be at the other end of the spectrum. If five ingredients are good, wouldn’t eight be better?

We now know that it is a bit longer drive back to Christchurch than we had imagined and we still want to head to the Antarctic Center near the airport. Fortunately we breeze through town in spite of some Friday rush hour traffic and get to the center about 4:15. It is 34-degrees C (about 93F) so we are very happy to get into the air-conditioned display.

This is one of the top attractions in NZ and one would expect it to be equally popular among locals and tourists alike. They have great exhibits detailing the history of the exploration of the south pole, recreations of the existing buildings at the international base, a real live blue penguin swimming and breeding area, and many other animal, vegetable and mineral displays. They do the south pole experience where they put you in a cold room with a coat and boots and crank up the wind to freezing conditions. It is 17.8 degrees F and the wind is blowing at 25 mph for a wind chill of two below. The fellows were anxious to see how impressed we were with the conditions when we came back out and we told them it was a warm winter day back home. They quickly moved on to the next people. The Antarctic Center is located at the Christchurch airport because this really is the international access point for the base on the ice. There is a huge US facility (United States Antarctic Program - Operation Deep Freeze) across the road on airport grounds and the C130s they use for travel back and forth are parked there.

When we come back out at 6:15 the temp has dropped 27 degrees F and the wind is roaring out of the south (meaning that it’s cold). We hustle back to the hotel and decide to eat in tonight. The restaurant is bright and noisy so we opt for the bar. Mary gets a fish and chips and our bartender Kerri lets John order the roast of the day (leg of lamb with about 10 different vegetables) from the dining room menu. The bar is dark and quiet and we chill out inside while it starts to rain outside. Plenty of chores to do tomorrow, so off to bed.

Today’s local headline: Man Fakes Death Christchurch Weekend Press (Wife collects $1.2 million life insurance)

Winding Down NZ Thursday 1.31.08

There are some mixed emotions today as we pack up in Lake Tekapo to head for our final Kiwi destination. We still have 3 nights in Christchurch but we will have any activities interspersed with laundry, airline details, rental car stuff and the final packing process so it seems like the end of book one. We get a slow start nibbling on some fruit and yogurt bars, and then drive about a block to check out the church of the Good Shepherd and the monument to the other shepherd, the border collie. We elbow our way through 2 buses of Japanese tourists who are dressed for the prom so we can snap a photo of a bronze dog. Actually the little church is very impressive with a glass wall behind the altar that looks our over the lake to the mountains. No chance for daydreaming during the sermon here.

It is an easy drive through lowlands surrounded by the mountains once again but there is a little haze this morning so we don’t have the same pop to the view. Geraldine is our destination for lunch and we read somewhere that there is a great little café in the middle of town but we don’t have a name. We walk the length of town (3 blocks) and check out the possibilities and settle on a place called "Plums." Good choice. Mary has her first NZ pie, a nifty little chicken, mushroom and brie number and John has the Turkey Ploughman which turns out to be roast chicken with lots of fruit and great fries. If this isn’t the right place it has to be a close second. We walk around after lunch and find a bakery/café combination that is loaded with tourists from 3 buses parked out front but we remain happy with our choice. Coach told us to head north from Geraldine on the scenic inland route and we do, continuing through very scenic river valleys with Southern Alps to our left.

We get to our hotel in Christchurch late afternoon and once again the Princess of the map gets us through the weaving streets error free. The hotel is on the west side of Hagley Park, a 400 acre multi-use monster right in the center of town. The town center is straight across the park from us and we take one of the jogging paths to get the mile into town center for dinner. We walk through golfers, bikers, joggers, and soccer players, a few very happy dogs, and a few old duffers like ourselves out for a nice evening stroll.

We have a list of about 6 restaurants that were recommended from one source or another and we see two of them right away. We opt for Barcelona with an outdoor patio on the sidewalk on a street known as the "strip" because it is lined with bars and cafes. Mary gets a wild mushroom linguini thing and John has the Groper once again on a hazelnut risotto with crayfish emulsion. We watched the city scene as we sipped a little Shiraz and it was almost as nice as last night.
The hotel has a shuttle and we hustled to Cathedral Square to catch it. It arrives right on time and the driver tells us that we are lucky because without a booking he never would have stopped but he just thought he would drive by. As our friends Dave and Mary would say in code "SFL" where the "S" and "L" stand for "so lucky." Feel free to provide your own "F." ("We like fantastically.")

We have a nightcap at the bar and chat a bit with Irwin the bartender, a pleasant fellow from Singapore who is married to a Kiwi. He is off on holiday tomorrow with his wife and three little ones so we compare notes and we give him the details on the secret penguins in Moeraki. He is very familiar with the Singapore American School where our friend Patti from Crosslake taught for two years. Small world. Off to bed. Two NZ Days to go.

Mt. Cook Wednesday 1/30/08

When you sleep in a turret with windows 3/4ths of the way around you get up early. The sun got us moving at 6:00 this morning so we get all of our parts in place before breaky at 8:30. Our table partners this morning were another English couple from Cornwall. Like the folks yesterday they are on the way to Fiordland and will spend an overnight on Doubtful. With clear weather they will be in for a star studded spectacular.

Ingrid whips up some French toast with fresh fruit and a potato/cheese frittata which will define how much food we can eat for the rest of the day. We get a chance to chat some more with Ingrid and Adrian, and they are enthralled by the idea of something being in the middle of the US (unheard of) and want us to look for a lake place for them for our summer. We can now keep our honorary Chamber of Commerce membership. There are supposed to be penguins on the Otago peninsula, about a half-hour away, but Adrian tells us they are only visible at dusk and dawn. However, he has a secret place up near Moraiki where there might be penguins around during the day, so off we go.

We want to take a peek at Otago University, and we pass through on our way north up the coast. There is no buzz that comes with school being in session, but they’re all back next week. At Moraiki we find the right road and then lighthouse road and follow a dirt track we think Adrian was describing, and bingo, here is our parking area with no other cars around.

We walked down a fairly steep hill, through a gate, and follow signs to the "penguin hide." We stop to look at some huge fur seals that are worshiping the sun when a woman coming from the hide tells us that there are a couple fledgling penguins hiding in the bush nearby and if we look closely we might get a glimpse. We scurry down to the hide and try to spot some movement in the heavy underbrush. Just when we think we see something about 20 feet in, out pops a little penguin right next to the fence at our feet. Hello. He stops to greet us and then keeps moving beyond the hide. We then make out his sibling still sitting in the shrubs and he finally works up the nerve to follow his brother. He edges his way closer to us and eventually pops out by the fence, says "hi" and then crosses to the other side of the hide and back into the bush. We have penguin tours scheduled for Australia, but we won’t have this type of solitary experience again.

We take a quick peek at the Moraiki boulders (the real tourist attraction in the area) and head for Oamaru. Coach Bryce is not just a pre-game strategist, but we find he is also a game day bench coach. We catch his comment on the blog this morning just before we left so we change our route to head for Mt. Cook. We stop at the Whitehouse cheese factory in Oamaru and grab a couple chunks to go with our fruit on the ride north. We expect as we head back into the mountains that the going will be slow with a return to twisty roads, but are surprised by a straight shot up the valley. Once we pass Twizel (isn’t that a great name?) we travel along the shores of Lake Pukaki which appears to be filled with blue milk. All of the lakes and rivers near the mountains are cloudy-white with rock "powder" that comes from the glaciers mashing the rocks as they move. For the last 50km of the drive, Mt. Cook dominates the scenery in both direct view and reflection.

Mt. Cook is the tallest mountain in the Southern Alps and stands a head taller than its neighbors in the area. Edmund Hillary made this one of his first conquests before Mt. Everest, so has been in the news lately with the death of Sir Ed, but also because a chunk fell off the top making it about 15 meters shorter. It remains snow covered year round and all of the mountains here are dotted with glaciers.

We arrive at the Hermitage Hotel and Alpine Center (the end of the road) at about 4:00, much earlier than we anticipated, so we check out the property and take a walk along some of the paths carved out of the indigenous brush. There are spectacular views whichever way one turns and perhaps justifies the $1000 a night rooms at the hotel. The campsites nearby have the same view. We check out the restaurant but decide we are not ready for dinner so take off back down valley for Lake Tekapo, our destination for tonight.

The sun has dropped near the tops of the mountains and we have long shadows across the lakes and valleys with brightly lit peaks and clouds. Clouds, stuffed down into the gorges in the mountains, look like the cotton you might use as snow in the Christmas scene at home. It is just one more in a very long list of NZ sights that will be impossible to forget.

We get to our motel (Lake Tekapo Scenic Resort) in the middle of Lake Tekapo village and are in our room by 6:30. We have a nice view from our balcony of Lake Tekapo ( a whole new color) so decide to grab a bottle of wine and pizza to bring back to the room. We end the day sitting on the balcony, nibbling and sipping, watching the sun fade behind the mountains and the stars come out, and listening to the fellow downstairs play some very gentle tunes on his guitar. Magical!

How to decide which picture to use today?

Today’s local headline: Labour to lift school leaving age The Press of Christchurch
(Raising mandatory school attendance to 18 years from 16 years of age)

Dunedin Tuesday 1/29/08

Dunedin lies on the southeast coast of the south island of NZ. It boasts 100,000 residents, 25,000 students at the university, a distillery (the only one in NZ) and a brewery. The reason it has all those things is that it thinks it is Edinburgh in Scotland. The early Scottish founders laid it out to mimic Edinburgh with a height reversal as the center of Dunedin lies down at the harbor mouth and is surrounded by hills while the center of Edinburgh is perched atop the highest hills to look down on the harbor. Apparently the Dunedin folks weren’t as nervous about the Viking invaders. You can still pick up the roll of an "r" in the local lingo and our cab driver from last night was tossing a "wee" this and "wee" that into every sentence.

Our hosts at Claremont House, Adrian and Ingrid, are originally from Holland but have lived down-under for at least the last 30 years, first in NZ then 20 years in Brisbane in the printing business, and finally following their student daughter back to Dunedin. They had been antique collectors for years and didn’t have anyplace to put them so they bought this mansion on a hill, spent 18 months refurbishing, and loaded the place up with the accumulation of a lifetime. The result is pretty spectacular and they are justifiably proud of what they have achieved.

Mary had the poached egg with a little fruit this morning and John of course had to try Ingie’s mushroom/ham omelet. So much for the once-a-week big breakfast. Our breakfast partners were a newly retired couple from northeast England on the coast near Durham who are on a 5-month holiday with a mixture of driving, cruising, flying and train travel. It seems that with our 3-month trip we are not in the least unusual among visitors to this part of the world.

The only thing on the agenda today is seeing what we can see of the town by foot so we grab some time to update posts (finally) and swap stories about world travel with Adrian who is a very amiable and chatty fellow. Ingrid is a bit more businesslike and finally hauls Adrian off to get at some of the chores. We hike the mile downhill into the city and about a third of the way down pass a tennis court with a fairly low fence at a school on the side of the road. One would naturally wonder what happens when a ball comes this way over the fence. If you drop anything in Dunedin you will find it in front of the railway station at the bottom of the hill.

We stop at the info center and check out the tours for the day; John pays a little old lady 50-cents for a map of the historic buildings of Dunedin; we walk a few blocks and see a few buildings and poke into some stores; we walk a few blocks to the Cadbury candy factory and decide to pass on the tour; we walk a few blocks and walk around the historic railway station (where you find your stuff that you dropped); we walk a few more blocks, see a few more old buildings and at that point decide that our heart is definitely not in the program today. We need a day off.
When in doubt, do lunch. We are at "The Palms" which is on our recommended list. John has the fish special which is a local Moki with a salad, and Mary has a cold smoked salmon salad. We have decided to pay the price for our laziness today by walking back up the hill and it is really up hill. Dunedin claims to have the steepest street in the world (with no apologies to San Francisco) and we suspect that we may be on it. We arrive sweaty and tired at about 3:30 and settle in for a bit of napping, reading and internet stuff.

We fire up for dinner and take Adrian’s suggestion of "Berta the Cow" which is located at the bottom of the hill. It is a vast improvement over the night before. John really likes the hazelnut stuffed chicken with veggies and mashed and Mary has the shrimp, scallop and rissoto appetizer which is just the right amount for her. There are two other tables eating, one of them a couple we had seen both nights at the "Blue Ice" restaurant in Franz Josef--what are the odds? The other table has six folks speaking French and we find out later that they are Swiss. We chat with one of them for a couple minutes and none of us understood a single word the other said.

We walk back up again which may be a local record, chat a bit more with Adrian and take a glass of wine to our turret for a wee bit of reading before bed. We're looking for out kilts.

Today's local headline: MP Faces challenge for seat Otago Daily Times

Deep South Monday 1/28/08

The band has finished sometime during the night—we missed the finale—and we take advantage of having a light day to grab an extra hour of sleep. John has some scrambled and beans for breaky and Mary has a bite of fruit and poached egg while we chat with a pleasant couple from Nottingham, England. We mention that we have our own versions of Robin Hood in the States who steal from the rich and give to the poor while keeping 30% plus expenses. They’re called lawyers.

John is going to grab an hour to update posts but instead settles in with Matt our host to solve all of the problems of the hospitality world while Mary loads the car. Everybody has their job. Matt does redirect our route to Dunedin today to follow the southern coast for some dramatic sights.
We have several maps in front of us and still manage to be on the right route for about 12 minutes of our first three hours of driving. Not to worry because the best sights are still to come. As we pass Invercargill we lose our pavement, but strangely enough we are now on the right road. This, again, is pretty dramatic country with trees growing sideways from the wind coming directly from Antarctica and some old shoreline petrified forests. At about 2:00 we reach Slope Point, which is the southernmost point of the South Island of NZ, so only a couple off-shore islands separate us from the big ice. Last year on the north coast of Scotland we were the farthest north we have ever been, and we suspect that this is the farthest south we will ever be. We nibble on some fruit, chat with some sheep (one was lucky enough to get an apple core) and wave to the penguins that must be out there somewhere.

The seagull says to the penguin, "That’s funny, it looks just like you’re wearing a Tuxedo." The penguin says, "What makes you think I’m not?" (Garrison Keillor)

Our slow day gets us into Dunedin about 6:30 and Mary does a reamarkable job of getting us through town and directly to our B&B. We are up on a hill overlooking the town in an old mansion and, because they are a little light on guests this evening, our hosts put us into their big suite which has a huge sitting room with a bedroom and bath upstairs in a turret. As the grandchildren would say, "sweet!" We turned on the television and there is a game show on the Maori channel. The host is Mr."T" who was our host at the Maori Hangi in Lake Taupo last week. We now have bumped noses and foreheads with a NZ TV personality. We walk about a mile straight downhill into the city for a quick fish and chips for Mary and chicken pasta for John, neither of which will make our top ten list, and then catch a cab to get back up the hill. For $NZ6 we get the ride, and 50 suggestions about how to spend tomorrow. On this trip we have missed more than we have seen and that will certainly continue to be the case. We have a complimentary glass of wine to help us doze off and it works.

Again, a news free day.

Sights and Sounds Sunday 1/27/08

Today is another sound. Named "Doubtful" by Captain Cook because he thought if he went in with prevailing winds blowing straight down the sound, it would be doubtful that he could get back out, it was later discovered that it opened so wide once inside that there was plenty of room to maneuver a ship under sail. There are 14 "sounds" in Fiordland which in fact are really fiords (hence Fiordland) because they are created from glacial rather than river erosion. Doubtful Sound is the second largest and many times larger that Milford from the day before.

Our B&B, Te Anau Lodge, was a convent in a previous life and was taken apart and moved to this location by some previous owner. Matt and Chloe bought the place because it sounded like a good idea at the time (sounds familiar) and are so far enjoying entrepreneurship. Our breakfast is served in the chapel and Mary orders something sensible while John decides on what Matt refers to as the "Mother Superior." Our breakfast partners are a young couple from Paris, and she says that she loves visiting America and Americans because they are so uninhibited. We suspect that is a rare point of view in her country.

We are picked up by bus at 8:30, gather up some fellow travelers, and drive about a half hour south to Manipouri. Off the bus and onto a tour boat that travels across Lake Manipouri which takes another 50 minutes and we are moving pretty fast. We are seated with an English couple from Devon who tell us that they like chatting with Americans because their own countrymen are too reserved to make friends easily. The world is upside down this morning (but then again we are in the Southern Hemisphere). Now, off the boat and back onto a bus, which had been brought over here by barge, and we travel on a dirt track through woods and over a mountain pass for another hour to reach our deep water anchorage where our final tour boat is waiting.

Doubtful is much longer and wider than Milford so you don’t have the same effect of being at the bottom of a "V" but the overall feel of the place is of course astounding. We head out towards the Tasman which lies 25 miles (40km) away and we are traveling at 25mph so we will have an hour out, an hour back, and an hour of poking around on our 3-hour tour. We don’t see Gilligan, but think we spot Lovey and Thurston Howell.

More of the same. Waterfalls, spectacular rock formations, fur seals hanging on the rocks, and today we are joined by a pod of dolphins who put on a leaping show for us while we turn off our engines to enjoy their act. It was like "cue the fish!" It is another perfectly clear day and again our guides tells us that the mountains are like middle-aged people—they look a lot better with a little something wrapped around them, but we are happy with the blue skies and sunshine. Again, we can’t do it justice so won’t try.

On the way back we stop at the Manipouri power station on the Doubtful side of the lake, which is surprisingly interesting. Our bus drives straight into the mountain on the side of the lake and we descend 1.5 kilometers down below the level of the lake. The water is dropped through some specially drilled shafts and cranks seven very big generators designed to power an aluminum smelting plant in Kawai, about 50 miles south while feeding a little leftover dribble into the national grid.

Now it is a pleasantly warm afternoon for the ride back across Lake Manipouri to our bus and back to Te Anau. There are a lot of drifty eyelids after hours on the water with sunshine through the window. There is a private party going on at a college building next to our B&B and the band is cranking a little Van Morrison as we have a post-tour cocktail and update Josie, our resident black lab, on the activities of our day. We decide a little pasta will make up for the Mother Superior breakfast so John has the Bolognese (again) and Mary the smoked salmon-spinach (again) at a local Italian where all the waiters are all "prego, prego" and "molto bene" but otherwise crappy at their jobs. There is another great sunset as we walk back "home" where we grab another shared cake and glass of red wine and listen to Van Morrison. The band has obviously restarted their play list so should be done soon.

No Newspaper today

Milford Saturday 1/26/08

We have referred to our Kiwi coach Bryce in previous posts, and we won’t do it much anymore, but, this is his day. When he first reviewed our itinerary, this day had a late wakeup followed by a leisurely lunch and a relaxing 3-hour drive to Te Anau for the night. He suggested that we change that to get up and be in the car before sunrise, drive 5 hours to Milford Sound, take the boat cruise, and then drive another two hours back to Te Anau for the night. We tried to explain that didn’t seem like our preferred mode of travel. He said’ "You’re lazy, stupid, fat Americans if you can’t drag your sorry arses out of bed in the morning for the experience of a lifetime" or something like that.

After a 4:30 alarm we dragged our sorry arses out of bed, had a bite of breakfast left in our room the night before, and we are on the road at 6:00 sharp with a couple words for Bryce. Now, as we start around the east leg of the lake and turn south we are starting to get a little sun reflecting off the tops of the mountains around us while the full moon is still up behind us. The road south winds around another leg of the lake and the sun is appearing on the horizon as we travel through some green valleys that are dotted with mist and thousands of grazing sheep. We turn back west and there is a line of clouds to our left and sunshine to our right and we seem to be traveling right along a straight line separating the two. It is a unique perspective and we feel like we are in a special effects experiment.

We arrived in Te Anau at 8:00, an hour ahead of schedule, where we grab a coffee and bathroom break. It is about 60-degrees with bright blue skies as we look out at Lake Te Anau and sip a long black. Back on the road to Milford we parallel the lake for about 20 miles and then start heading up past lakes and rivers, always with the mountains as a backdrop with sun shining through patches of morning mist. The valley becomes more and more narrow with the mountains closing in from both sides as well as straight ahead. If you ever feel a need for insignificance in your life, this is the drive for you. A few decades ago some intrepid engineers punched a hole through the mountain leading to Milford sound to open the area to fat Americans. The tunnel is one-way so you wait up to 15 minutes for your green light to pass through. The parking area on the Te Anau side of the tunnel is populated by the Kea bird which is a mountain parrot said to have the curiosity and intelligence of a 3-year old and has been known to unzip camera cases and unsnap purses to swipe whatever it can. We have an intimate relationship with a certain 3-year old so we decide we can afford to pass on these guys.

Once through the tunnel we started a twisty carnival ride down the mountain zooming out to the edge of the cliff and curling back into the downhill switch back. We hadn't seen the water yet but you can see the valley heading out to what must be the Tasman Sea. We are accompanied on the trip down by roaring rivers and waterfalls. We get to the visitor's center just as the 9:55 tour is leaving so we book an 11:25 trip on Mitre Peak tours that was recommended by one of our fellow travelers in Q'town. This is a deep water harbor at the eastern tip of the sound and there are a half dozen tour boats lined up of varying sizes. We picked our's because it is a smaller boat and goes places that the bigger ones can't. We nibble some of our supplies we purchased yesterday, do a woodsy nature walk, and get on board at 11:15. There is nothing we can say to describe the next couple hours. Straight up cliifs, waterfalls that seem to be coming right out of the sky, 1000 foot deep water that is fresh on top and salt on the bottom, fur seals basking in the sun, sailing under one of the waterfalls (John was a "hero" because he stayed outside; Mary was a "pussycat" because she did not), and venturing out into the Tasman where Captain Cook once anchored because he missed the entrance to the sound. Buy the DVD or catch it on travel channel because we do not have the talent to capture what Kipling called one of the true wonders of the natural world.

We stopped at the mirror lakes on our way back to Te Anau where the crystal clear waters are supposed to reflect the surrounding mountains (not so much) but we did watch ducks and trout swimming from top to bottom as clearly as if they were suspended in air. The scenery returning was so good that a local highway patrolman thought John should be reminded of his earthly responsibilities of driving the speed limit which will cost more than Mary might make with many more casino trips. When we checked in at Te Anau Lodge, our hosts Matt and Chloe (he from the North Island and she a London lass) decided that it was beer-o-clock and we gradually mellowed out from a very very big day. We walked the mile into town, ate at the recommended Redcliff Cafe (Mary, Scallop appetizer; John, the groper ((their term, not mine)) fish special served over a warm potato salad), and then headed back for some chocolate cake and red wine in the lounge at the Lodge.

Okay Bryce, you win. No, actually we won because we finally listened to your advice. It was one of our best-ever days and it turned out to be eerily like the description of your day doing the same thing. The guides said it is really good when it is a little cloudy and rainy, but we'll take this one, thank you very much.

No Newspaper today!

Q’Town Friday 1/25/08

This is our lazy day. We have no activities planned and we have nowhere to go. We get our once a week cooked breakfast and Alex throws some puff pastry sheets into a muffin tin with the tops extending up and over the outside like a tulip, drops an egg into the middle and bakes it. When the egg is done he tops it with a tomato and a few bacon slices and drizzles hollandaise and pesto around the outside. Very tasty and there is plenty of fruit, cheese, cereal and yogurt to go around.

Mary heads into town to poke around in some shops looking for Grandson’s birthday present and John finds a couch to catch up on internet stuff. We head out late morning to Glenorchy which is 25 miles up the road, exactly at the other end of Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown. There is nothing further that we can say to describe the drive but it continues to be drop-dead, eye popping, jaw dropping spectacular. Our only traffic jam came when we rounded a bend and drove straight into a flock of oncoming sheep. We had to park in the middle of the road while they strolled by on both sides. We walk around town and buy a couple possum souvenirs from a local tanner and head for lunch at the Hotel. Mary grabs a pumpkin soup with garlic bread and John finally has a NZ pie (mince and cheese with mashed tatties and peas). We take the Glenorchy walk along the lake for about a half hour, and John can begin to bend his legs after the glacier thing. The local abbreviation for Glenorchy is GY and the clothing store in town is DKGY—get it?

When we get back to Queenstown we do a polka around several blocks to get to a liquor store, gas station and grocery store to stock up for an all day trip tomorrow to Milford Sound. We have an early wake-up and the folks at the hotel are leaving breakfast in the room so we will be back in the saddle again after our day off. Mary’s turn on the computer and John’s turn for a nap.
We head into town in the evening for a bit more shopping and get a table at Luciano’s which is, yes, an Italian with a gangster theme. We order a basket of garlic bread, two salads and one garlic chicken with sweet potato mashed to split and it turns out to be the perfect amount. Main courses in NZ are usually between 25 and 35 NZ dollars and to get an idea of how that compares to home we usually multiply by 0.6. The NZ dollar is about ¾ of ours (changing daily) and tax and perhaps tip is included in the price. ($NZ30 would be an $18 menu item at home.) There is much discussion of tipping here with some despising the concept and others think a little something for the effort is OK. In cafes and pubs where you order and pay at the bar with the food delivered later we have generally not been tipping, while in restaurants with table service we will leave about 10%. At no time have we had a tip refused and many of the restaurants now have the tip line on the bill.

We have heard many good and bad things about Q'Town, the bad usually including the term tourist trap. Coming from a late career in the tourism industry, however, we think the town is just about right. The population is 13,000 (about the size of Brainerd), and is intirely included on a hillside surrounding the end of the lake. There is the aforementioned casino, tons of shops and restaurants, a big chairlift gondola thing that goes up the mountain, parasailing over the city and great walking areas around the lake. In other words, plenty of things for people to see and do while also enjoying the natural attractions outside the city. It is what it should be.

After dinner we took a stroll along the waterfront with the sun setting down lake and reflecting off the mountains behind the city with a neat border of pine trees in front. Mary thought it was the most dramatic visual she had ever seen and us with no camera. No casino tonight. Just back to the hotel and hustle to bed for a 4:30 rise and shine. We’ll see how Mary feels about that view.

Today’s Local Headline: Debt Burden Heading For Crunch Time The Southland Times

Recovering Nicely Thursday 1/24/08

What a difference a day makes. When we got up this morning the sun was just coming up over the mountains, bright blue sky and about 60-degrees. Mary was bouncing around like a gymnast and John was wondering who beat his thighs with a baseball bat while he slept. It is quite obvious who is the better-conditioned hiker/climber.

Mary, who is no longer angry, took pity on John and gave him her leftover steak from the night before as a breakfast treat, then on the road by 9:00. Driving through Franz Josef and Fox Glacier was perfect this morning with no clouds and cool temps. Without being repetitive we can just say that the whole day was like that.

Our only requirement for today is to drive to Queenstown about 6 hours south and in addition to the weather we had majestic waterfalls, snow capped peaks, deep green rain forests, crashing waves on white beaches, sky blue lakes, and lush valleys. We decided that we have seen all of this before, but to do it we had to go to Montana, Hawaii, California, Colorado, Maine and maybe our own north shore of Lake Superior. Like some drives in Hawaii there is a gasp at every curve.

We grabbed a couple take away sandwiches, chips and a diet coke as we passed through Haast Village at about 11:30, crossed Haast Pass and then plopped down in the grass on the shore of Lake Wanaka for our picnic lunch. There was virtually no activity on this part of the lake and only a bit more on neighboring Lake Hawea when we passed by there later. We got off the main road to go through Wanaka and Arrowtown as we dipped down toward Queenstown. Both towns were bustling with summer visitors and Arrowtown was dotted with cutesy restorations, shops and restaurants.

Queenstown is booming. We are at Brown’s Boutique Hotel which is on a hillside overlooking the city and lake. This is a kickoff point for the fiords, mountains and lakes nearby as well as being the heart of ski country in the winter. Our host, Nigel, said his daughter is in Canada now as part of an international junior ski team and she will get to ski Whistler (2010 winter Olympic site) before returning home. Sorry Bryce, but there is no longer a Brown’s Pizza. The hotel is great. Balconies and gardens, complimentary beer and wine in the fridge, nice views, and wi-fi that works part of the time to help us get caught up on these posts.

We wander around town for quite a while before settling on Chico’s upstairs balcony overlooking the pedestrian mall for dinner. Mary had a chicken pasta thing and John does the greenlipped mussels and a pile of ribs. There was a group of about 30 American students in the dining room from Elon College in North Carolina who were enjoying their last supper in NZ. There are a number of Americans at the hotel as well who are heading back to California this afternoon (arriving this morning in LA). This is a bit unusual for us since we have seen almost no Americans so far on the trip. We've seen tons of Aussies, quite a few Brits, a good smattering of Europeans and Canadians, and least of all, Americans.

After dinner we stop at the Casino and Mary wins $34 on the third pull on the 2-cent machine. Who cares about the stock market. Off to bed after a perfect day.

Note I: The Intellaspa comments on our blog are from our Kiwi coach Bryce. That is especially telling from his comments about our glacier day. Good on ya Mate.

Note II: Please ignore most of the junk we post here. This is only our way to help remember the details of our trip into our old age (next May). Enjoy the pictures.

Today's Local Headline: DCC buys peninsula property, Otago Daily Times (Dunedin City Council is buying back part of the harbor property from a Maori corporation.)

Franz Josef Wednesday 1/23/08

Little did we know when we woke up this morning.

We got up early to head to lake Mathison in Fox Glacier. It is supposed to be the fifth most photographed lake in the world (who would know that?) as it reflects the full height of Mount Cook in the background giving a unique mirror effect. Unfortunately we still had a few lingering showers and a lot of morning fog so we waited as long as we could and finally headed out at about 9:45. It was about a half hour drive and a mile walk into the lake and now the sun was shining nicely but the mountain was still covered in fog. Bummer. As it turns out, the fog never lifted from the mountain so we made the right decision to walk the mile back out (those two miles become more important later) and head back to our villa for left-over pizza.

We have a 12:30 appointment with Glacier Guides for our half day hike into and on Franz Josef Glacier. The process of checking in, going through a health check, getting the spiel on all the dangers to your life, and being outfittied with wool socks, boots, and rain coats was tedious at best and took a full 45 minutes. We piled on a bus with 50 other adventurers for a ten minute drive to the access point to the glacier. From the bus parking lot it is about a two mile hike to the base of the glacier which starts with about a half mile through some rain forest. This is not horrible but provides a glimpse of what is to come as we have a couple jumps across streams and climbs up steep steps. We pop out of the forest by walking directly down a rocky flow of snowmelt to the roaring river at the base of the glacier where we once again leap rock-to-rock to cross about a 30-foot stream. We now have another mile and a half to the glacier itself and we are told that because the riverbed has changed course we have to take the "high route." We split into two groups of 26 based on our opinion of our fitness level and amazingly this takes ten seconds as everyone seems to know where they belong. All the blonde 22 year olds with backpacks are in one group and the over thirty crowd is in the other.

After about another half mile walk through rocks and boulders along the river we have to head up along the mountain for phase one of the "high route." The guide tells us to stay right behind the person in front of us otherwise we will be hopelessly lost. The route starts up a fairly steep path that leads to our real path up which is a stream flowing straight down the mountain. We hike up the stream bed and then about 200 feet up we get to walk along a cliff edge and continue to climb scaling rocks that require a foot lift of about 3 feet. At one point Mary turned around and said, "I don't think I can do this'" and then after a 3-second pregnant pause she turned back around and climbed over the next boulder in front of her while ignoring the drop to her death to her left. Little did we know that on a scale of one to ten, this spot had a degree of difficulty of about 3 while we have 7's and 8's to come.

We make our way back down to the river slipping and sliding down rocks while grabbing branches and roots to help break our mini-falls. Thank God all we have to do now is walk through the boulder field for another mile to get to the glacier. Ha! We once again have to head up the mountain, but this time we don't have it so easy. Now we are hiking and climbing and crawling and clawing straight up the mountain with some ropes pounded into the cliff walls to grab in case we start to fall to our deaths. We then get to a ladder (first of four) which will enable us to climb the 15 feet up the cliff in front of us so we can get to another death defying path. This torture goes on and on and on crawling over boulders, sliding down mud and dealing with those damned ladders. We were never so happy to see the boulder strewn beach for our last half mile walk to the glacier. Now our group splits into two again as we get down to 13 grimacing over-50 types, being led by Carlos the Columbian, who are wondering why the hell they are here.

We put our "Talonz" on our boots for the hike onto the ice and sit for a bit while a bunch of folks coming off the ice come down the path (no one smiling) and everyone gets sorted out. We finally head up the ice path onto the glacier and again we are going straight up hill on steps cut into the ice, each one like stepping up onto a coffee table or higher, while holding onto a chain pounded into the ice wall on our right to keep us from falling down the ice cliff to our left. After about 15-minutes of this we come to a stopping point where our youngest member, a twenty-something Dutch girl is bawling her eyes out. She speaks for all of us.

We spend about an hour on the ice crawling through ice caves and oooohing in all the right places at the color of the blue ice, the 1000 foot drop waterfalls, the snow covered peaks, the speed of the glacier, yada, yada, yada. Everyone is just thinking about the hike back out. Without torturing this subject any further, we will just say that we survived the return trip made even worse by very tired legs and screaming joints (refer to the two mile "practice" walk in the morning) and a disappearing guide. Did we mention that there were periods of rain, or that it was steaming hot for our mountain climbs, while frosty and wet on the ice? Did we mention that what was described as a 4-1/2 hour hike requiring moderate fitness, was in fact a 5-1/2 hour death march? Did you hear that we are bloody, and dirty with clothes that are ice soaked on the outside and sweat soaked on the inside? Okay, maybe it's just us as the 22 year old, 6-foot tall nordic boys and girls who sorted themselves into the lead groups are still smiling and chatting. We need a beer.

We pop back to our villa for a beer and shower, and Mary the trooper throws in a load of laundry. We fulfill our promise to the person at the Blue Ice restaurant and return tonight for a real meal--Mary has an unbelievable filet on a huge portabella with mashed potatoes and Irish Whiskey gravy, John has venison leg sliced on a bed of sweet potatoes with red cabbage sauerkraut, all washed down with a Hawkes Bay Syrah, and dammit, we deserve it. Back to bed with dreams of survival and screaming muscle spasms.

Today’s Local headline: A Nation bids farewell to Sir Ed, The Press (Christchurch)

Wild West Tuesday 1/22/08

Today a cyclone (not a term I would have recognized) moved across the country for the first time in ten years. The result for us was a very rainy, foggy day for our longest drive of the trip so far. Our departure from Nelson was held up when our credit card wouldn’t work. With the help of Donna, our hostess, we made the overseas collect call where we had to answer a bunch of automated questions and were finally connected with a customer service person in Mumbai. The end result was that our account had never been accessed and the problem was with the system on this end. One more rerun with the card and we were off and running.

It was really windy for us but nothing like just across the strait where southern North Island winds were over 140 km/h. The rain was alternating between a mist and a horizontal downpour with fog reaching most of the way to the ground. We hugged the Buller river in what we can only imagine is a beautiful drive down to Westport where we stopped for lunch at a local pub/café. John had another of those egg/bacon/tomato/lettuce/onion/beet burgers and Mary stepped out of the box with Souvlaki.

The good news is that about 40km south of Westport at Punakaiki is a formation called Pancake Rocks which features spectacular blow holes that are best viewed when the weather is the worst. Perfect. We bundled in all of our rain gear and marched 10 minutes through the driving rain to the cliffs above the angry Tasman Sea to see some interesting rocks but no blow holes. No problem. We follow the path a little farther to a surge pool where the water is crashing in between a small opening to the sea—now we’re getting somewhere. Rain is now inside of our hoodies and running down our necks but we head to the next viewing area—nothin’. Walk, wetter, wetter, walk, pounding waves, roaring wind, driving rain, wetter, and no blow holes. We’re out of path and we head back drenched as Mary said, "those rocks were interesting." We asked the conservation fellow in the info center, "Hey hey hey, what’s the deal with your stupid ocean?" (Not what we said, but probably what he heard.) He said the blow holes need high tide, wind out of the west, and big swells. All we had today were big swells and, oh yeah, driving rain.

We stop for more breakfast fruits in Greymouth and decide we can get to Hokitika for gas. Unfortunately, all of the power is out in Hokitika and the fellow at the gas station said it would only be 5 minutes. It is now after 3:00 and we have three hours to go so after waiting 15 minutes we decide to keep going. Our low gas light comes on with about 35 miles to go and we haven’t had many viable gas options for a couple hours. We finally find a little joint about 10 miles short of our destination where gas is $2.02/liter (We have been paying $1.70) so we throw in 20 bucks worth and feel better about not having to walk. We get to Franz Josef and check into our cottage at about 6:15 so we are safe and now dry.

As miserable as the day was, the drive through river valleys and along oceanside cliffs with views of the southern alps was certainly spectacular at times and we can only imagine what it might be like on a perfect day. Unfortunately we can’t just pop back next week or wait out the weather. We have places to be and things to do so have to keep moving. We have a date with glaciers on Wednesday.

The village of Franz Josef was sleepy last night and our hostess at the Blue Ice Restaurant let us order off the bar menu so it was pizza and wine. A couple folks came in after us and wanted to know how to get one of those pizzas. Thanks to our bad example, a very nice restaurant became a pizza joint. We promised to come back on Wednesday night to order real food.

Today's Local Headline:

The Crossing Monday 1/21/08

When we started to plan our trip we didn’t know this, so bear with us. New Zealand used to be part of Australia and popped off by itself (along with Antarctica) a couple hundred million years ago. NZ is roughly shaped like a banana with the top pointing off to the northwest and the south leaning to the southwest. About 20 million years ago the top third split away from the bottom two thirds to form the north and south islands.

Today was our day to cross from the bottom of the north island (Wellington) to the top of the south island (Picton) on the inter-island ferry. It is a three hour crossing through the Cook Strait and, oddly enough, we go west to get to the south island. It is like going south to get into Canada from Detroit.

After downing the rest of our north island fruit, we caught a taxi from the hotel at 9:15 for our 10:35 departure and were easily checked in with baggage stowed by 9:30. We were able to snare a chair in the sunshine on the pier until they let us board about 10:00. This 3-hour trip has been described as the most spectacular cruise in the world and that may be no exaggeration. We snapped away but no picture is going to do justice to the beauty of the water, islands and mountains visible all the way.

Mary popped for lunch (tuna salad sandwich for her and she actually got a sausage roll and diet coke for John) and we nibbled while oohing and aahing at the scenery. They had movies going on and a live magician on board for the kids. Our seat-mates were German, he a thirty-eight year old business type and she a 22 year old very-non-business type. We might be reminded of the Teutonic Titwillow (Hey Cowboy) in Blazing Saddles if we were cynical Americans.

After landing in Picton we grabbed another Toyota (like at least a third of all other cars here) and took the twisty back road to Nelson by way of Havelock. Our road followed the hillside looking down on the bay we had just sailed through so we got another look from a higher angle. NZ Coach Bryce had told us to have the Greenlipped Mussels in Havelock but since we had lunch we decided to pound through another hour to Nelson, our stop for the night. When we checked in at our Cedar Grove Motor Lodge we asked about greenlipped mussels and the lady at the desk told us we should have stopped in Havelock. We suggested that perhaps there might be somewhere nearby that could figure out how to get the mussels an hour down the road, and after thinking for a minute she said, "nope." We should learn to listen.

This is a great room with (once again) a bedroom and separate sitting room and kitchen. We wandered into Nelson which is famous as a jumping off point for the glacier-mountain-rock climbing and back-packing crowd that come here from all over the world for outdoor adventure. We, however, have come here for dinner and find Café Affair that specializes in stone grill dining. They bring a tray with a very-very hot stone in the middle and a little beef fillet, shrimp and scallops that you cook yourself to your liking. The idea is better than the actual application and the fries and Aussie Shiraz were the best parts of the meal. Mary opted for the smoked salmon pasta which was amazingly similar to the dish she still blames John for removing from the Lodge menu. Mama was happy so everybody was happy.

A quick stroll around town and back to bed. It will be a long travel day tomorrow as we head down the coast to Franz Josef and the glaciers through an incoming storm.

Bulletin: Our Sydney apartment reservation was screwed up and our one bedroom has now been replaced by a two-bedroom. Any takers for the other bedroom 2/22 – 2/29?

Today's Local Headline: Kiwis say goodbye to Sir Ed The Press (Christchurch) (State funeral today)

Wellington - Sunday, 1/20/08

Our hotel in Wellington is great. It is a one bedroom suite with a separate living/kitchen area, very much like our Auckland lodging. This type of facility seems readily available here and in Australia so we will be traveling in a bit more luxury than we normally would at home.

After our fruits and berries breakfast, Mary threw in a load of wash and then we headed down to Te Papa museum which is the national museum of NZ. It is exceptionally well done and we spent a couple hours learning about the formation of the southern continents and the populating of NZ in particular. We have been steeped in 19th century history since we arrived and had hoped for more from the last 150 years but that was not to be.

We walked back outside to a perfect day—bright blue skies, 72-degrees and a little breeze off the water. We had lunch just off the wharf at Macs brewery (Mary, chicken salad; John, Thai fish cakes) but being the good soldiers, we skipped a perfectly good opportunity to sit in the sunshine and drink beer all afternoon.

We headed down the wharf and stopped for a bit at an all-day outdoor concert that was sponsored by the city of Wellington and gave a bunch of local bands an hour of fame. A huge group of folks were mellowing out on a really nice Sunday afternoon. Being good soldiers we skipped a perfectly good opportunity to mellow out, and kept on going.

We wandered back near our hotel and caught the cable car up the hill to the botanical gardens. We worked our way back down through the gardens which were in full bloom and took advantage of unbelievable views of the city and harbor. We popped out of the gardens at Tinakori road and followed that through a cool neighborhood of shops and restaurants back down to Parliament and, a block later, our hotel. We picked up a couple muffins for breakfast, and still-good soldier Mary finished the laundry while John did the more important work of researching dinner options.

Not only is it a Sunday night, but it is followed by a Monday holiday. Our first choice could squeeze us in at 5:30 (too early), our second choice was closed, and our third choice that did not take reservations turned out to be closed as well. We finally settled on our fourth choice (the Matterhorn) for pub food and got seated at about 9:00, tired and a little crabby. They won us over with some good NZ Pinot, a trio playing some jazz in the corner and great fried chicken (Mary) and rare roast beef (John). After walking about 10 miles during the day, we both slept really well.

Today’s Local Headline: NZ’s Houses world’s least affordable New Zealand Herald

Driving Day - Saturday, 1/19/08

Our Saturday is reserved for moving down the road as we travel from Napier to Wellington. After exchanging universal hospitality horror stories with our host Gary we head back to the Black Barn Winery for the Saturday AM farmer’s market. There didn’t seem to be too many farmers there—it was mostly a collection of folks who do some home canning of sauces, jams, relishes and other tasty homemade goods. There were a couple people selling some organic veggies but not what we were interested in.

It is about a 4 hour drive to Wellington and our late lunch stop is in Grey Town, about 3 hours out. As we head south we are bracketed by a spine of mountains to our right (west) and rolling hills to our left which stretch back down to the Pacific. It is a blessing that traffic is fairly light and moving well without the load of trucks around on weekdays. With the exception of a couple miles of motorways around the big cities, all of the roads are two lane with an occasional passing lane to relieve frustration. Otherwise, the passing options are few with twisty roads and a steady stream of oncoming traffic. That being said, the roads are much better than the country lanes in England and Ireland, with the main difference being a bit of a shoulder and a visible fog line. The fog line in England is usually a rock wall or hedge which gives you limited options when facing an oncoming bus who is sharing part of your lane. That would be being between a rock and a hard place.

Grey Town was nicely developed and is in the center of a continuing flow of NZ wine country. Downtown is charming and the White Swan Hotel where we stop for lunch seems to be the pivot point of the shops and restaurants. After sitting in the car for a few hours John opted for the best-yet fish and chips and Mary nibbled on a smoked salmon bagel. We backtracked for about a mile to the north end of town where we had seen a row of fruit & veggie stands. We grabbed some strawberries, blueberries and apricots to be our hotel breakfasts for the next couple mornings.

Half of the last hour into Wellington was a twisty up and down spin through the hills that stretch north from the southern tip of the island. Wellington, the NZ capital, is at the bottom of the north island with a spectacular harbor and land that rises right out of the ocean and up to wrap-around hillsides.

We struggle for a few minutes finding the hotel downtown as the streets change names and go off at odd angles, but we finally get the hang of it and get checked in. We are turning the rental car back in and have to get it to the downtown office by 5:00 so the desk staff gives us the quick directions to the gas station and Hertz office and we’re all done by 4:30.
It is about a mile and a half back to the hotel so we take advantage of a late sunny afternoon and hike along the harbor and mingle with a lot of local folks milling around. When we get back to the hotel we check on the restaurant scene and find out that the best action is right around the Hertz office. Oh well, we can use the exercise.

We do wander around Courtenay Street and Cuba Street and finally settle on a place called Coyote which is a direct rip-off of the Santa Fe restaurant of the same name, right down to the logo. John had the "Texas Club" and Mary had the Quesadilla, and the folks in New Mexico should not be threatened. The action for the young folks is picking up in the area and the old folks are heading back to their hotel.

Today’s Local Headline: Govt’s Bill for Good News: $47m Star Times (Government’

Wine Country 1/18/08

Our Napier day turned out to be cool and cloudy so our sunny streak is over. Our first order of business was to check out Cape Kidnappers Golf Club which has been ranked as the 27th best in the world. Our host Gary called ahead to make sure we could get on the property (normally you can’t unless you have a confirmed tee time) and we were able to breeze through the security gate once we found it. They almost hide it. Once inside the gate it was a five mile drive to the clubhouse. The setting around the clubhouse actually reminded us of a course we played near Williston ND with harsh rolling land and scrubby grasses. As the course winds toward the coast it takes advantage of nasty Cliffside hole locations. Google it for some wild pictures. At $400 per round we checked out stock portfolio and decided to pass.

Our first winery visit was at Kim Crawford, a name we recognized from home. We tried a couple pinot gris and bought a bottle of sauvignon blanc just in case we got thirsty. We took off from there along the Tukituki river which winds through a spectacular valley near Havelock North, dotted with wineries and surrounded by substantial hills. We popped out of the valley at Black Barn winery which had been recommended for lunch. Mary had an appetizer tasting plate (smoked beef, salmon and cheese with bread and crackers) and John ordered the smoked chicken salad with nectarines and bleu cheese, and we both passed back and forth.

After lunch we wound up Te Mata Peak Road which is a death-defying, switch back, no-guardrail, windy narrow path up the side of the tallest point of land in these parts for an unbelievable view in all directions. It is a very good thing we skipped the wine at lunch. It was an easy drive into Hastings that thinks it (not Napier) is the dominant town in the region. The main street in Hastings is lined at rooftop height with pink flowers for about 10 blocks and the result is impressive. We wandered around for about an hour and the city is less touristy than Napier with more of a hometown sort of feel.

Our next stop was back in Napier at the quay. A fishing boat had just come in and we watched them unload a pretty big bin of sole destined for some of our local restaurants. They worked so hard we were pretty thirsty by the time they finished so we popped into the Thirsty Whale for a pint of Tui. The "Whale" has about a 6-foot square glass floor area and as you look down you see a band of skeletons playing their instruments. Odd.

After a sit down looking at the ocean from our room we went to "Take Five" for dinner. This place was recommended by our host and the lady at Kim Crawford Winery so with a double rec we had to try it. The food was excellent (John, duck; Mary, stuffed vegetables) and there was a duo singing all the right songs for us. (Desperado, Ain’t no Sunshine, Love me Tender, Fever, etc.). Outside of the drive up the mountain, it was a very laid back day with a very nice finish.

Today’s Local Headline: Snubbed, Wellington Dominion Post (Royal Family skipping Sir Edmund Hillary’s funeral)

Napier & Hawkes Bay - Thursday, 1/17/08

Another B&B breakfast this morning as Angela whipped up a smoked trout omelette from some of their local catch. We could get used to that. We pulled out of Taupo at about 10:00 heading east to the Pacific coast and Hawkes Bay at Napier.

Angela told us that there was nothing to be seen between Taupo and Napier, and while there were no towns to speak of, the two hour trip was all beautiful peaks and valleys, pines and streams and the kind of geography that one saw in the shires of Lord of the Rings. Not much to see if you’ve seen it all before.

Napier was wiped out by an earthquake in 1931, and as the town was obliterated a bunch of new land was formed by the bottom of the bay heaving up and extending the acreage. The entire city was rebuilt in the popular art-deco style of the time and now it remains a very interesting period piece. The shoreline of the bay is bordered by the main thoroughfare, Marine Parade, and between that and the gorgeous blue water is a continuous series of parkland, all planted with a varied selection of summer flowers. The whole effect is pretty spectacular and one can see why this is a popular Travel Channel destination and a favorite among the Kiwis.

This is also wine country and after wandering around town for an hour we headed out for lunch at Mission Estate winery. It is the oldest NZ winery and the grounds and buildings would rival anything we have seen in Napa. After the big breaky (NZ lingo) we opted for the calamari appetizer for John and the roasted capsicum soup for Mary. We were very well behaved.

Our lodging here is a studio suite in a motel type facility (Pebble Beach) on Marine Parade and looking out at the water. We finally have the luxury of a double Jacuzzi, real cable TV, and high speed internet in our room so we may hole up for a couple days (just kidding). Mary had a hankering for Italian for dinner so we found one place about a half mile walk into the center of town. It wasn’t terrible, (Mary had the Penne with bleu cheese and broccoli; John had the Bolognese) but Gordon Ramsey could have made it into a show without much trouble. The owner (a big Kiwi) was cooking and cashiering and when we paid we got the impression he was pretty new at the whole process. We would have offered a consult but like everyone else who really needs it, he wouldn’t have recognized the problem until he closed the doors.

A nice walk back along the ocean as the stars were coming out and we sat on a bench across from our place at the water’s edge for a long time before heading off to bed.

Today’s Local headline: A Lifeline for Cancer Treatment, Wellington Dominion Post
(The government approved an new radiation treatment machine to shorten the 3-month wait for cancer treatment—a glimpse of national health care)

Lake Taupo - Wednesday, 1/16/2008

We had our first real B&B breakfast this morning with fruit, cereal, yogurt, bacon & eggs, and toast and jam. What a treat after a week of breakfast bars (A fig goes into a bar!). The result was that we took an hour and forty minute walk around the shore of Lake Taupo to wear it off.
Lake Taupo is the largest freshwater lake in Australasia. We have seen some square kilometer statistics but can’t relate those to our lakes at home. Suffice it to say that it is a big lake, 600 feet deep and dominated by the mountains on the far shore, including Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings. The water is crystal clear and the lakes usage looks very familiar with swimming beaches, jet-skis, sail boats and fishing boats.

The Waikato River flows north out of Taupo and we hustled up to the Aratiatia Dam to check out the water release at noon. They open the dam every two hours to create a rush that pounds down through a narrow gorge and feeds a power plant. The water comes out a spectacular color of blue as it flows north. Just above the dam is Huka falls which appears the same but is a natural narrowing of the river that forces a lot of water through a very small area.

After dam and falls it is back to town for a semi-light lunch (John, B.L.A.T; Mary, Brie & Avocado salad) and a couple hours of milling around in the shops. The town is about 8 square blocks of bustling businesses and restaurants that extend right down to the frontage road around the lake and the whole effect seems to work well. As far as we could tell there is no private property right on the water, at least on the parts of the lake we have seen.

After a couple hours rest we are off to a "Hangi" at Wairakei Terrace. This is a traditional Maori ceremony which includes a cooked-in-the-ground feast. The Terrace is a thermal area with bubbling hot springs that have been tapped in recent years to power a nearby geo-thermal power plant. The local Maori tribe then had to convince the Power company to return a portion of the captured water back to the tribal grounds to recreate the original setting.
It was a fun evening with some nose and forehead bumping and an interesting meal with chicken, pork, lamb, roasted pumpkin, kumara (sweet potatoes) and a great steamed pudding. There was a lot of singing, dancing and chest pounding with tongues sticking out. It was all pretty low budget compared to the big Hawaiian Luau productions but seemed more authentic and was very well done.

Back to our B&B, and a nightcap at the "Mole and Chicken" next door where we checked out the big cricket match. NZ is ahead 435 to 192 so it seems like a route but it may go on for another couple days so who knows. Off to bed.

Today’s local headline: Queen Kidnapping Plot Foiled International Herald

Heading South - Tuesday, 1/15/2008

We got out of Auckland at about 9:30 this morning with an easy do-si-do around the sky tower and onto the south motor way. We checked our route with a couple cabbies outside the hotel (The cabbies are the only ones in the city in suits and ties) and they told us the route would be posted all the way to Rotorua (our destination for lunch) and as I walked away they said "of course the signs are in German." Kiwi humor.

We zipped south through Hamilton arriving in Rotorua around 12:30. Rotorua was steamy--no really, it was steamy. This is the home of the NZ hot springs with steam literally rising from little pockets around town. We grabbed a bite at a little bistro (John, shrimp noodle bowl; Mary, portabello plate) before heading out to the Government Gardens along Lake Rotorua. We walked along the shore of "sulpher bay" and the water was bubbling and boiling in spots with pockets of steam rising out of the rocks. The mud was even bubbling. We were in a Manuca forest as well and the combination of sulpher and manuca was not an altogether pleasant aroma.
There were beautiful bowling pitches around the grounds and at the end of our walk we tried to watch a few 80-year olds but they were just wrapping up their match. Too bad.

We got to our final destination, Taupo, about 4:30 and our room was changed from Lakeview to Garden. Apparently a previous guest had cut a foot and bled all over the carpet and it had not been replaced yet so we don’t get to see the lake. Lake Taupo is the largest lake in NZ and is known for its trout fishing. Our host, Bruce, runs a charter fishing business that he bought on a whim on holiday five years ago. His wife Angela runs the B&B. Our room is a very nice two room suite, so we will just have to have lake views at home.

After a wine with Bruce and Angela we popped next door to the local joint (Mole & Chicken) for a quick bite. John tried to talk himself out of the lamb shanks but the menu said they were the best in NZ so you do what you have to do. Mary had the cheese board and we kept the wine theme going with a Marlborough Pinot Noir. A 30 minute walk after dinner down to the lake and (painfully) back up and we are ready for bed.

Today’s Local Headline: Stars Rumored at A1GP Taupo Times (Paris Hilton may show up for this weekends Grand Prix)