New Zealand

Wednesday, December 9 continued. The flight from Sydney to Christchurch was only a few hours long, but it was quite bumpy. There were strong winds heading into Christchurch and the landing was a bit rough. Fortunately we landed okay and headed through immigration. The man at immigration was very pleasant, warned Keith not to speed and told us that he had once gotten a speeding ticket in Wyoming and the cop was an “asshole” - gotta love America! Waiting for our bags Keith's carry-on was approached by the customs sniffing dog. The dog took quite an interest in Keith's bag and sat down to signal that something was amiss. We had forgotten that there we had a few slices of pizza in the bag! Anyways, after straightening things out with customs, we picked up our rental car and headed to where we would be spending the night – jail – no not really jail jail but rather a jail that had been converted into a hostel. Our cell was quite nice and we even had a television. By the time we were settled it was around midnight so we called it a night.

Thursday, December 10. We awoke to dreary cold weather. After checking out of the hostel we drove around Christchurch for a bit. It really wasn't the kind of day to walk around a city, so we decided to hit the road. Our immediate destination was Hanmer Springs – about 2 hours away. Driving to Hanmer Springs it became abundantly clear why everyone rants and raves about New Zealand. The drive was beautiful. Even through it was raining at times and overcast, the landscape was breathtaking. Hills and mountains in every imaginable shade of green, sheep and cows roaming on huge pastures and on the hills and rivers cutting through the mountains. The landscape was unspoiled in with very little sign of human life. Only occasionally would we come across a house or a small town. No McDonald's, no Starbucks. Bridges where only one car can go at a time. Beautiful wild flowers. Everything amazingly clean. We arrived in Hanmer Springs – a small town up in the mountains where the main attraction is the hot springs. Keith and I headed to the Hanmer Springs Thermal Reserves which has been in operation for more than 100 years. The Thermal Reserves had 12 different pools including mineral pools, sulphur pools, landscaped rock pools and a freshwater lap pool. The pools ranged in temperature from 33-42 degrees Celsius. Even though it was dreary and raining out, Keith and I soaked in the pools and enjoyed every moment of it – though at times it smelled like rotten eggs. The cool air and the hot springs were a perfect combination. After lounging in the pools for a couple of hours, we grabbed some lunch and got back in the car for our 1 ½ hour drive to Kaikoura, where we would be spending the night. Once again the landscape driving to Kaikoura was breathtaking. My Lonely Planet describes Kaikoura as the following: “Kaikoura is a stunning town with a superb setting on a bay backed by the steeply rising foothills of the Seaward Kaikouras, which are magnificently snowcapped in winter.” Unfortunately it was quite foggy by the time we arrived in town, so there was very little for us to see. After checking into a motel right along the ocean, we checked out the small town and did a little grocery shopping. We then headed out to see a seal colony. There were many New Zealand fur seals laying around the rocks. Unlike other places we had been, there were no barriers between you and the seals. Though there were signs asking you to stay a certain distance away, it you could really get as close as you wanted. After taking a few happy snaps of the seals, we headed back to our motel to regroup. Next we headed back into town. I hung out at an internet shop for a little bit and booking us a few accommodations while Keith went across the street to play some pool. We then went out for dinner. We split the seafood platter for two which included mussels, shrimp, fish and the local specialty, crayfish (the name Kaikoura in Maori (the native people of NZ) means “kai” - “food” and koura - crayfish). It was scrumptious. Being a lobster fan, I thought the consistency of crayfish was better than lobster (it wasn't as chewy) but I still think lobster is a bit more flavorful. After dinner both Keith and I were stuffed so we decided to call it a night.

Friday, December 11. After some breakfast we set out to visit the seal colony again. The fog had lifted and to our amazement there were huge snowcapped mountains all around us. We wandered further around the seal colony, seeing seals of all shapes and sizes. There was one large seal that we watched lumber across the rocks right in front of us. We then hit the road – destination Blenheim about 1 ½ hours away. The drive to Blenheim was beautiful as we had mountains on one side and the ocean on the other. Our drive took much longer than 1 ½ hours as we stopped a number of times to take some happy snaps and to see the seas lounging on the rocks by the ocean. At one stop we saw a pod of dolphins at another we saw reindeer. We finally hit Blenheim – one of the largest towns we'd come across so far. It had a McDonald's and KFC. We checked into our hotel – a nice spot right in town called Chateau Marlborough. We then went to explore the reason why were in Blenheim – the vineyards. Blenheim is in the region of Marlborough, New Zealand – a spot where many many wines originate. We stopped a number of vineyards, tasting the wine and even purchasing a few bottles. The vineyards were beautiful, set against huge snowcapped mountains. At one vineyard we ran into a very drunk and very entertaining group of Kiwis (nickname for New Zealanders) who were on a work outing to celebrate Christmas – they even posed for me. We, of course, also had to stop at the local chocolate factory. We then headed back to the hotel to call it an early night. As an aside, it doesn't seem to get dark out until 9:00 pm or so and the sun comes up around 5:30 am – I guessing it's due to the fact that we're so close to Antarctica – it is taking some getting used to.

Saturday, December 12. We slept in quite a bit and got a very lazy start. Not much was on the agenda for today, other than going out and tasting as many wines as we could. We once again sampled many wines, purchasing a couple of more bottles. We had a gourmet lunch at one of the vineyards, complete with Belgian dark chocolate mousse for dessert. It was delicious. We met a nice Canadian couple, Dean and Tara, at one of the vineyard who had been hitching their way across New Zealand. They were heading in the same direction we were, to Picton, the following day so we said we would happily give them a ride. After several hours of sampling wine, Keith and I were graped out so we decided to head back to the hotel. I sat by the pool for a bit, reading. The sun was out, but it was quite windy and cool. We had a lazy night, watching a couple of movies including Atonement and called it a night.

Sunday, December 13. Today we were off to the North Island. After checking out of our hotel we headed to the next town over to pick up Dean and Tara. It was a short ½ hour drive to Picton and it was great to be able to pick their brains about what they had done and certain sights to see or not see. The scenery to Picton was beautiful. We arrive in Picton and bid Dean and Tara farewell. Like us, they plan to be in Queenstown for New Year's, so we look forward to meeting up with them in the few weeks. We had planned to take the ferry from Picton, on the South Island, to Wellington, on the North Island. We had an hour or so to kill before boarding the ferry, so we went and checked out the town of Picton – not too much to see. We then returned our rental car and boarded the HUGE ferry to Wellington. The ferry to the North Island couldn't have been anymore different than the ferries we had taken in Southeast Asia. While the ferries in Southeast Asia were dirty and barely looked like they could stay afloat, the ferry to Wellington was more like a cruise ship with approximately 10 levels, several restaurants/bars, a video arcade and even a 2 theater cinema. The 3 hour and 20 minute trip was beautiful. Going out of Picton you go through Queen Charlotte South where there are huge green mountains rising out of the crystal clear ocean. It reminded me a lot of the fjords of Norway. We arrived in Wellington to rain, gusty winds and cold. We picked up our rental car and checked into the apartment where we would be spending the night. We then headed out to the grocery store to pick up some dinner. Wellington from what we could tell look like a cute city, though it being a Sunday afternoon, it seemed like much of a ghost town. More on Wellington later...