Island Hopping

On Boxing Day, December 26th, we hopped a ferry to Wellington and crossed back over to the north island. There wasn't anything spectacular about this trek (as we had hoped), but I thought this picture was funny enough to share with you. Once in Wellington, we slept there for one night and headed north to Napier, the Art Deco city. When riding down the street, it felt very much as I recall the streets of LA felt... lined with palms of great height. The gardens seaside warranted many many photographs and so did the architecture. Apparently, twice a year they have a festival where everyone dresses in period clothing, drives around old cars, and pretends they have stepped back in time a bit. The next one is in March, so we'll be missing that, too. :(

Christmas in Nelson

We stayed at the most odd li'l BnB for Christmas - and I'll refuse to name it here. Chris and I were just glad to be alone and enjoy some peace and quiet for a switch (normally Christmas is filled with lots of family!). I'm sending you a couple pictures from the 25th. Here we are calling Trish and Gary on speaker phone to send them good wishes and find out if they got our special holiday delivery. (We are not always the best photographers!)

I have been missing my girly stuff, too... mainly having my toenails painted all the time. The polish didn't make it into the big duffel bag, so, for a treat on Christmas Eve Chris got me an appointment in town to be spoiled. Can you see my tropical orange toes and then who can miss his hobbit feet?

Merry Belated Christmas!

By the Sea in Nelson

We had decided a while back to splurge a bit and spend our Christmas in Nelson at a BnB, but managed to get there a bit early. This is a shot from our balcony at Accents on the Park, an amazing hostel with a pub, decks with views of the park, and a location only steps away from the fun of the city.

Trekking over to the mystical water's edge, Chris and I saw lines and lines of Catamarans and Rata trees (the red blooms you see next to them).

Seafood was on the menu and I had Trumpeter fish while Chris had Bouillabaisses. New Zealand is known for its Green Lipped muscles and when we saw them in the soup, we understood why. The edge of each shell is the most brilliant shade of emerald. The muscles themselves were giant, too!

Touring Wineries

Now, I have been a food professional in some capacity or another for quite a number of years. Despite my enamorment with wine, I have never toured a winery or been to a tasting room (as they like to call them here "cellar door"). When we left Oamaru, we drove up the east coast buzzing through Kaikoura and settling in Picton for a couple days. Surrounding the Picton area, in Blenheim, is the heart of the Marlborough wine country. Each picturesque stretch gives way to the next landscape beyond and some of the wineries in this flat valley are so close that biking tours are common here. You know, you rent a bike, get a map, and go - as the day wears on the bike path gets a bit more wiggly and giggly.

The first three pictures are from Allen Scott winery which was still small enough to be called *boutique* but had really neat grounds. They had a cafe under a canopy of vines, a huge chess board (the pawns were glasses of wine!), and rows of hedges like you wouldn't believe. We bought a couple bottles (yet to be opened) of late harvest Riesling.





Our favorite winery was Clos Henri which, yes, is French. The owners of the winery have been making wine in Sauternes for generations, but because of the AOC, they have been looking abroad to expand elsewhere.

After a ten year search, they found the soil conditions in Blenheim to be perfect for growing Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir on both river bed terroir and clay. We tasted bottlings from each and ended up with a bottle in hand - although I will admit that the favorite thing we tasted was one of their Pinots from France. It felt just wrong coming all the way to NZ to buy French wine at a winery... so we passed on that and are bringing home the runner up.

Here's a neat picture of the vines with the surrounding mountains in the background. Not bad, eh?

Olive Grove

We did it... we saw the Milford Sound, hopped around the glaciers, saw the Pancake Rocks, and drove over most of the western side of the South Island. After a long haul back across the country to the east cost, we spent a couple days in Oamaru at the Olive Grove Lodge.

I don't know if I can speak for Chris, or maybe I can, but this was my favorite place we have stayed and the gardens made it post-worthy. Kim and his wife Lyn run this former scout camp turned lodge with their two sons, nestled at the foot of the beautiful mountains and coast surrounding. We saw picture of the rather boring and run-down concrete BLAH that it once was and couldn't believe it's start.

Lyn has turned it into this beautiful oasis with lush gardens filled with poppies, foxglove, and I don't even know what else. The air was perfumey and gorgeous. Right by their li'l place in the world was also the Yellow-Eyed Penguin colony... and when we went there in the evening we got to sit in a hidden perch and watch them return home. They call to eachother from the shore and sea... and seem to greet one another and help the others groom, too. It was amazing to see. There were big furry seals there, too... not the best for picture taking, but breathtaking for quite a while to sit in the quiet, listen to the calls, and get lost in mother nature.

Milford Sound

At the southern end of the South Island lies the fjordland. New Zealand is home to only two areas in the world with beautiful fjords - the other being the Netherlands. Of these two areas - one is covered in snow, ice, and the like... and the other is warm(er) and very, very green. I doubt I'll ever make it a priority to get to the cold, snowy one, but our cruise through Milford Sound was pretty spectacular!

Again, the grey day made for neat pictures of the waterfalls and off the front of the boat, but my favorite was the top picture. It kinda makes you feel its splendor, doesn't it?

Billy Falls

The countryside here is littered with pesky waterfalls... can you imagine what it's like to *CONSTANTLY* see signs directing you to stop and take a look? I mean really... who needs that many waterfalls?

The Billy Falls were just off the way on our drive to Queenstown and really, the sign should have had neon letters, flashing lights, or something to indicate that this one was not to be missed. Let me rephrase - the experience was not to be missed, the falls were a lot like the others.

After a short and gorgeous walk through the forest, you end up on a very dried out riverbed that is lined with the most perfectly rounded blue-grey stones... as far as you can see. The small amount of water that is still flowing during their hot season is the most perfect shade of bright aqua that one can imagine. Think "Mountain Berry KoolAid". What's pretty cool is that the rivers in this area are almost all teal blue because of what they call Rock Flour.

The glaciers all around here feed the streams and as they melt and slide, they grind up the beautiful blue rocks beneath them into a fine powder that mixes with the churning water. It doesn't really matter to me what the reasoning is, just that is happens. It's WAY cool to see. It was such a chilly and grey day (again!) but it always makes for neat pictures with the clouds and fog rolling around. Oh, and I threw in another picture of us... are you seeing a theme here? My arms aren't long enough to hold the camera away and shoot, but his are!

GLACIERS!!!

Two of the most popular sights here in New Zealand are the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers that are nestled down the west coast of the South Island... and after a few hours drive in the rain, we were there. What is so unusual about these glaciers is that they are the only glaciers in the world surrounded by rain forest. When at the base, one can experience tropical weather (which we somehow managed not to get...) and then arctic temperatures at the top. The other fun and unusual fact is that because of this moisture around the glaciers, they are actually still growing via regular snowfall. So although each year they lose about 1' in height to melting, they also "grow" from the top at the same time. This is really rare - in fact, it may be the only place this happens... I can't remember if the guide said the only or one of only two where this happens. Through the compression of snow, oxygen is pushed out of the ice and the result is the blue appearance you see here.

I was still unwell at this point, but Chris spent 9 hours one day walking up the glacier with cramp-ons and an ice pick. He took several pictures and they're really worth seeing, but I wasn't there and decided to only retell what I experienced here in my blog. In perspective though, they only made it partially up the glacier, and I wanted the whole sha-bang.

The morning after his trek I surprised him with my Christmas present to him which was a helicopter ride over both glaciers and the surrounding areas. This checks yet another major to-do off the life list - we have never been in a helicopter before! So enjoy some pictures from the flight and from our snow top landing. There's also a picture from the cockpit and a couple of the awesome greenery around the base of the icy beasts. It's kind of unreal to think we have known been on glaciers, too. A c

Beach Day

We have seen the coolest beaches in our travels - ranging from stretches of sandy bliss to rocky and pebbly terrain. This was one beach we wandered when the weather let up for a few minutes. The driftwood that covered it was pretty amazing, a myriad of wiggling shapes and pointy twigs, and then there was my boyfriend... acting like a li'l boy and watching the waves. :)

Monteith's Brewery and Landscaping for Foodies

I'm going to start this post by saying... It's HOT! I am one of *those* people who hardly ever classifies the weather as too warm, but as I type I'm sitting here in a t-shirt with my hair pulled away from my face feeling like the Wicked Witch of the West - I'm melting. Not bad for winter, eh?

Where did I leave off...

So, this was around the time that illness struck me the afternoon we were set to fly from Auckland to Christchurch (on the South Island). I didn't feel right, not bad, just knew something was a bit off. When we arrived in C-Church, we spent our three days there sleeping and intermittently walking around the rainy town. It wasn't all bad... we caught up on much needed sleep, however, this was not the last of the cold that (for me) lingered for over a week. Chris was a champ and took care of the invalid. Back to happenings...

When we left Christchurch, we drove across the country (doesn't that sound funny?!?) to Greymouth. Mostly, we kept on relaxing and nursing our colds back to health, but, we did manage to make it out in the name of beer.

Monteith's Brewery is a really well known and well respected brewery in New Zealand. As with many businesses, in the name of *progress*, it is no longer privately owned and has been absorbed by another big distribution company - with the number of specialty brews significantly cut back. The 12 remaining people who work for the company have all been there for years and years... and do everything. Literally, everything! When it's a brewing day, the two brewers work for 14 hours straight until it's done. When it's a bottling day, other crew members pitch in to help the two brewers who now become bottling experts. It's actually pretty cool that it's such a small operation now. Two men make all the beer they are so famous for...

We saw everything from start to finish... all the tanks, the fermentation, the filtering and cooling systems. Chris stayed and sampled beer at the end of the tour while I, wiped out after a short stint out, settled into the car to fall asleep again. Monteith's Original was his favorite, by the way, although we have actually taken to drinking Tui beer while here - which is named after a warbling local bird.

Now we loved the South Island - as everyone here calls it "the pretty island" - but part of the insight that you get with me writing this in retrospect is... well, the perspective of time. I'm going to now show you the record of one of three glorious days we had in our entire time on the South Island. We just didn't know it yet...

Does everyone know that Chris and I met over pancakes at a local brunch hangout? Well, when we heard there was such a thing as "Pancake Rocks" we had to go see!!! I hope you can see a bit of the detail in the pictures. The limestone rock formations here have, and are, eroding into evenly spaced, flat, oddly shaped disks that lay one on top of another. It's really a pretty cool thing to see. Piles after piles of them are formed into neat stacks and it appears to go on forever. It's set up as a national park that you can just wander through. There are also natural blow holes where the incoming tide slams against the rocks and forces huge columns of water up through the holes between the formations. It's really something. When I get home and get all the pictures posted to flickr, you can peruse through at your leisure.

Can't you be patient?