What is up, my friends? Welcome back to New Zealand. I know I’ve made you wait for it, but at long last we have finally reached what is famed by many, including me, to be the most stunning place in New Zealand….

Drum roll, please…

Queenstown!

We arrived late in the evening and knew we had picked the right backpackers when we saw this type of artwork adorning the walls.

Ah, yes, home sweet, twisted home.

So are you ready to see some scenery or what? Without further adieu, I present to you…Queenstown.

Not too shabby, huh? After spending an entire day walking around town with our jaws practically dragging on the ground from all the beauty…and Sauvignon Blanc the previous evening, we pulled ourselves together for a visit to the quaint and charming town of Arrowtown.

Arrowtown has a Fall foliage festival every year, but we were about 2 weeks too early to celebrate officially.  I think it’s safe to say we weren’t disappointed with the views.

Of course no visit to Queenstown is complete without a ride up the Skyline Gondola.

It just wouldn’t be right if I didn’t share my panoramic pics from the top.

Here are some of Amar’s night shots…awesome!

The next day we headed off to do a day hike on the Routeburn Track. It is meant to be spectacular, especially if you do the whole thing, but Amar and I weren’t really feeling hiking with all of our gear including food and water for 3 days so we decided to take ‘er easy and just bust out a day tramp. I know, I know….weak, lame, unacceptable, blah, blah, but I’m totally OK with it.

The drive to Routeburn is spectacular as you might imagine.

The hike itself was definitely gorgeous with lots of suspension bridges over beautiful streams with the mountains in the distance.

I know it seems kind of lame that the picture above is the only picture I have from Routeburn, but it was more about hiking and being outside than snapping pics. Also, I think the most spectacular scenery requires the full, hiking/camping commitment so I think you’ll have to visit google images for more on Routeburn.

After Routeburn it was time to power on to Fox Glacier. The drive there was absolutely breathtaking. I can see why people lose their minds over this part of NZ. It’s otherworldly.

I was kind of obsessed with these tall, yellow trees. They are stunning and located all over the south island.

This is Wanaka, which was described to me as the kiwi’s Queenstown. As you can see, it’s off the charts gorgeous as well. This is Lake Wanaka.

And this is the drive to Lake Hawea. It’s starting to feel like the Shire, don’t you think?

Lake Hawea, folks.

It was definitely one of the most scenic drives we’ve had while in NZ. During this journey I’ve experienced many firsts in the adrenaline category, including sky diving, walking with lions, ultra light gliding, gorilla trekking, swimming with dolphins, etc. These adventures have been limited to the sky and the sea. It seems only fair that I take this adventure to the ground with a little stroll along a glacier.

As you may have gleaned from reading earlier posts, I’m not really a girl who enjoys cold weather. I have to say that the absence of winter for the past 2 years has been absolutely magnificent and I would be quite content to never have to experience winter again except maybe for a long weekend or two here and there for old times sake. That being said, I’m not going to let something like a little cold weather keep me away from breathtaking scenery like this gorgeous glacier.

Before stepping foot on the glacier it was necessary to attach some crampons to the bottom of our boots. This was my first time wearing crampons and I have to admit that I felt like a bit of a badass while I was wearing them. I mean, it’s not everyday that one gets to attach spikes to the bottom of her shoes, you know?

We ascended this ice stairway to access the glacier.

It was surprisingly easy to walk on the ice. Within minutes I felt like an old pro.

Btdubs, we were instructed to tuck our socks into our pants.  I recognize I’ve rocked some hideous looks on the road, but this one was mandatory.  Whatevs…when on a glacier, right? 

Some parts of the glacier were stunning and reminded me of a Georgia O’Keefe painting.

Here are some more scenes from our walk.

My favorite part of our walk was when we descended into this deep crevice in the ice. It was so steep and slippery that we actually had to grab a rope to guide ourselves down the terrain. Rock on!

Needless to say, we were pretty fired up after the glacier and all about the ice. We met this skydiving pro at one of the lookouts outside of Queenstown who told us about this iceberg graveyard within Mt. Cook National Park so you know we immediately added that to the itinerary. I mean, how could we possibly pass up an iceberg graveyard? Obviously we can’t.

Before we get to the graveyard, how about some more magnificent scenery from the road?

We had to hike a little bit to get to the graveyard.

Are you ready for it? Are you fired up? Can you stand the anticipation?

OK, here you go.

Do you see those inflatable boats? Folks can shoot around the icebergs by boat or kayak. Kind of awesome, huh?

Yeah, I’m totally chilling in an iceberg graveyard…

And I think it’s awesome!!!

The weather was not on our side so we didn’t get to see much of Mt. Cook, but the clouds cleared for a second so we could catch a quick glimpse of the peak. Behold, NZ’s highest mountain.

Cue the song On the Road Again by Willie Nelson.

Amar and I decided to power on to Littleton, a small town about 30 minutes outside of Christchurch because we thought lodging may be more abundant than in Christchurch, which was at full capacity housing displaced residents and aid workers. As we rolled into Littleton, we quickly discovered that, sadly, it was also devastated by the earthquakes.

The entire town was rubble, literally. We couldn’t find a single shop, restaurant, or property that was in tact. It was heartbreaking!

At this point it was about 8:30 PM, which I have learned is the equivalent of midnight in most other countries, meaning everything is closed. We called every property listed in our Lonely Planet guide in an attempt to find a place to lay our heads in Christchurch, but they were all booked solid. We powered on to Christchurch and continued to see no vacancy signs displayed on all the properties. Wow…it seemed like we were going to enjoy yet another evening in the car. At least this time we had our luggage and most importantly for me, my ear plugs! As we were making our way out of town we discovered a property that appeared to have a vacancy. We inquired within and while the price tag was significantly more than we were used to paying in the backpackers, it was better than a night in the car so we jumped on it.

The gentleman at the counter asked where we were coming from and when I mentioned Littleton he looked at me with this strange expression on his face and asked me what exactly I was planning on doing in Littleton. I told him how we had hoped to grab some dinner and spend the night, figuring it would be a better bet than Christchurch. His perplexed expression remained unchanged as he informed me that Littleton was in fact the epicenter of the earthquake. Wow…I felt like a bit of a loser, but at least it was clear I was a foreigner. I can’t say the same for my kiwi travel companion who was also clueless about Littleton, but I did all the talking so his kiwi identity was not revealed. You’re welcome, Amar!

The gentleman asked me if I’d like an upper or lower room and I opted for the latter so we wouldn’t have to lug our bags up the stairs. When we got to the room I was a little taken aback when I saw this…

“Um, if you were me would you choose upstairs or downstairs?” I inquired. “Maybe upstairs is better so we won’t get crushed if the upper floor collapses.” The gentleman reinforced that the beams were just for support purposes and that we would be fine. In what I can only assume was an attempt to comfort me, he informed me that they hadn’t had an aftershock in 3 whole days. Sorry, but that didn’t really do much to calm my nerves. Sensing my concern, he continued that this was a new property and it sustained no damage from the earthquake. Evidently these support beams were just an extra precaution. Both Amar and I were a bit sketched out, but after a long day of driving we were beat and starving and decided to just hope for the best. Fingers crossed we aren’t crushed to death in the middle of the night.

I’m pleased to say the room held for the evening and Amar and I survived. Yay!!! It was time to power on to Picton and catch the ferry back to the North Island. The drive through the Marlborough region is breathtaking.

Throughout the drive I shared my enthusiasm about sinking my teeth into that spectacular carrot cake from the Picton Village Bakkerij and was devastated to discover that the bakery was closed for all of Easter weekend. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!

We powered over to the ferry to buy our tickets, but the ferry we wanted was sold out so we decided to spend the night in Picton and power on to Wellington in the morning. I guess we were feeling a bit morbid about the night before in Christchurch because we opted to stay at Tombstone Backpackers. Notice the door is a coffin.

It was actually one of the nicest backpackers we had stayed in thus far though so if you are in Picton I’d definitely recommend it.

We arrived in Wellington on Easter Sunday, but had already called ahead and learned that the famous museum, Te Papa, was open. It was a miracle! It seemed like everything was closed all of Easter weekend, but not Te Papa. Sweet! It’s a fabulous museum with exceptional information and artifacts about Maori culture as well as NZ history and culture. I have no idea what this freaky deak baby had to do with anything, but it creeped me out enough to make me want to take its picture.

How about an even closer look of this Flowers in the Attic baby?

Some of the other highlights included a room that simulated an earthquake as well as the Colossal Squid display.

As the name suggests, the colossal squid is massive. In fact, it’s the largest invertebrate in the world with eyes the size of soccer balls. Crazy! It was definitely impressive and very cool to see one this close.

The next morning, Anzac Day, which is a public holiday in NZ and which Amar and I decided we would commemorate with the famous Anzac cookie,

we fully intended to nerd out big time and do a Lord of the Rings tour. Our new friend, Alexis, from Abel Tasman raved about the tour, getting us all excited to relive the adventures of Frodo in person, but the weather was horrendous with pouring rain and gusty winds so we decided that we’d have to take a pass. As it turns out, Peter Jackson was in town filming The Hobbit so we wouldn’t have been able to see the Shire anyway, which was huge on my list. Next time I’m in NZ, it’s a definite.

So we blasted out of Wellington with hopes of hiking the Tongariro Alping Crossing, but when I called DOC (Department of Conservation) to inquire about the weather conditions the ranger informed me with an incredulous laugh that it was torrential rain and blustery wind, making it an absolutely horrible idea to even contemplate doing the walk. Wow! There was no ambiguity there. Tongariro was a no go. So instead of stopping there we powered on to the lovely town of Taupo. The weather was kind of crappy so we made a quick trip to Huka Falls and then just walked around the town, which was absolutely adorable.

In the morning we powered on to Rotorua to immerse ourselves in Maori culture. Ever since Rob returned from NZ I have been obsessed with the Haka and now it was finally time for me to see it in person. I could not wait!!! But before we get to the main event, let me introduce you to famous, but extremely elusive kiwi bird.

Sadly, this picture is of a stuffed kiwi, but this bird lived a long and fruitful life, bearing many baby kiwi birds for Kiwi Encounter, NZ’s largest kiwi recovery program. This program was exceptionally well run, allowing visitors the opportunity to walk through the incubator and hatchery areas. In the evenings visitors can walk through the outdoor kiwi enclosure, offering a rare opportunity to actually see this highly endangered, nocturnal species. Amar and I had already made plans to attend a hangi (meal prepared in a traditional way) that evening, but we fully intended to see a kiwi on this trip so we’d be back tomorrow evening to see if we could spot this quirky bird in person.

The owner of our backpackers who has lived in Rotorua for more than a decade gushed to us about Mitai Village, claiming it was the one thing that was an absolute must while in town. Obviously with such a glowing recommendation, we had to do it. I was beside myself to see the Haka, but this evening proved to be so much more than just the Haka. The night began with the unveiling of the hangi, which included chicken, lamb, stuffing, potatoes and kumara (sweet potatoes) cooked in a hangi pit.

Yummy!!! It looked and smelled delicious, but we had to wait to gorge ourselves on this tasty feast, allowing the cooks some time to carve the meat and get everything prepared. In the meantime we were taken down to the stream where we were greeted by the traditionally clad warriors in a hand carved waka (war canoe).

It was awesome. From there we were taken through the woods up to the area where the cultural performance would take place.

OMG, it’s Haka time, folks. I could barely contain my enthusiasm.

Are you ready?

Are you excited?

OK, game on!

It was everything I wanted it to be and more. When it was over I wanted them to do it all over again. From the crazy eyes and outstretched tongue to the fierce gestures and intimidating shouts, I loved everything about it. If you are unfamiliar with the Haka I urge you to google it ASAP. You will love it, guaranteed!

After the Haka they engaged in other activities like stick games, a weapons display, and poi ball dances, all of which were exceptional and gave us some time to work up an appetite. At long last it was time to taste the delicious hangi. I shoved my face with the delectable meats and veggies, going back for seconds, and I think actually a third serving of the lamb. I know I’m a pig, but I’m telling you it was that good and one serving was insufficient.

After the meal we took a walk through the forest to see some glow worms in their natural setting. Did you know that glow worms are actually a maggot which uses it’s luminescent tail to attract insects? When put that way they sound kind of gross, but when you see them illuminated at night they look absolutely beautiful.

What a fabulous evening! As you may recall from my first NZ post, Amar and I were unsuccessful in our quest to visit White Island due to inclement weather. We were hopeful that we’d have better luck the second time around, but when we returned to our backpackers after our evening with the Maori there was a note waiting for us indicating that White Island was closed due to the weather. That was ok though because we had 3 days in Rotorua so we had one more chance for it to work out. Fingers crossed.

The next morning we headed out to the Buried village and as we were getting ready to roll out we noticed this adorable little bird on our windshield.

Let’s just say that the Buried Village left a little something to be desired so the only picture I have to share with you is of this waterall on the park grounds. 

After the village we took a gondola ride to the top of Mt. Ngongotaha, offering gorgeous panoramic views, but the main attraction for us was the high speed luge ride to the bottom of the mountain. I have been on many luges over the years, but I have to say this one was among the best I’ve done. It was a long ride, offering lots of twists and turns where you could be cautious and slow down or be a psycho and go full speed ahead. Apparently one of Amar’s friends chose the latter on one of their boys weekends in college and actually flew off the tracks. Whoa! He must have been flying to actually shoot off the tracks. Thankfully Amar and I made it down the mountain unscathed.

After the luge we walked around Rainbow Springs National Park, which is home to lots of wildlife including the highly intelligent and mischievous kea bird.

This bird is notorious for destroying people’s cars. One of the car companies in NZ actually donated a camper van to one of these birds at the park, which it absolutely decimated. They video taped it and got such a kick out of it that they now sponsor this exhibit at the park. These birds are generally very social, but one bird in the park named Jenny had to be separated from the other birds after she killed her mate. Um, Jenny, you need to take it down a level, sister.

The information outside Jenny’s enclosure mentioned that she liked attention, encouraging visitors to speak with Jenny even if she acted like she hated it. Apparently she would sometimes even cry when people left her area even if she ignored them the entire time they were there. Of course I felt compelled to talk to the avian sociopath, speaking to her in many accents including Forest Gump and she totally loved it. She flew down to where I was standing so she could get a better look at me.

We “hung out” like that for several minutes, but when it was time to say goodbye and I walked away, Jenny actually cried. Aww, Jenny, you are breaking my heart. I walked back to her enclosure to say goodbye one last time. Poor disturbed Jenny.

The night was upon us and you know what that means…

That’s right, folks, it was time to see if we could spot some kiwis in person. We returned to the Kiwi Encounter and within minutes of entering their enclosure we heard a rustling in the bushes and this adorable and very industrious kiwi quickly walked past us to find the perfect spot to shove his beak in the ground and forage for food. It was absolutely adorable and unlike any other bird I had ever seen before. There were a total of 4 birds in the enclosure and we succeeded in seeing 3 of them. I’d say that was a pretty successful trip.

Haka…check

Kiwi…check

What else is NZ famous for that I can share with you?

How about the silver fern

And some sheep?

Apparently there are more sheep in NZ than people so let’s get all up in their grillz.

I know I didn’t get the chance to visit the Shire, but this part of NZ totally reminded me of it. Wouldn’t you agree?

After staring at some sheep we decided to kick it subterranean and see some glow worms at the

We descended into the caves and boarded a boat where we silently glided along the water through this labyrinth of limestone caves, stalactites, and stalagmites. The glow worms emit luminous colors making the roof of the cave resemble a star filled sky, but from the depths of the earth. It was so peaceful to silently glide along the water and take in the light show from above. Here’s a picture of our local guide gliding back through the caves to pick up her next tour.

After the caves we headed up to Auckland, but only for the evening to do a load of laundry and gather a few additional supplies for our trip up to the Bay of Islands. As with much of NZ, the landscape we passed along the way did not disappoint.

We based ourselves in Paihia, which happens to be the birthplace of NZ, as it’s where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the Maori chiefs and the British Crown. We arrived into town in the late afternoon and while we could appreciate that it must be a gorgeous place, the torrential rain prevented us from really doing much exploring.

The next morning the weather seemed decent so we decided to explore the quaint town of Russell, a mere 5 km from Paihia and reachable by ferry. The town was absolutely adorable filled with cute shops, gorgeous art galleries, delicious food, and some beautiful beaches.

In addition to a cute town with impressive natural scenery, Russell happens to be home to some of NZ’s oldest buildings including its oldest church.

While the town was adorable I think my favorite part of the trip was the discovery of this natural wind tunnel atop a hill. As we were walking along the beach, we discovered this path that led up a grassy hill offering some great panoramic views of the town. Making our way to the top, we noticed the wind was particularly ferocious in this one part and all the landscape there, especially the tall grasses, seemed to grow at an angle. The wind was so ferocious that we could actually stand at an angle and practically have our entire body weight supported by the gusts, but because the temperature was warm, it felt great blowing against your face and body.

I became a little obsessed with the breeze and had to hang out here for about 10 minutes, screaming into the wind and letting it threaten to blow me down the hill. It was so much fun!

Unfortunately the weather went steadily downhill from there, with the rains so bad that they actually caused flooding in much of the north, washing out bridges and closing many of the roads. Since most of the beauty of the Bay of Islands comes from actually spending time outdoors, we decided it best to cut our losses and expenses and head back down to Auckland.

Here are some pics from One Tree Hill, which happens to be about a 5 minute walk from Amar’s house, offering stunning views of Auckland. What I loved about this place in addition to the great views and rolling hills was the fact that sheep and cows are grazing on the electric green grass. It’s so cool to be right in the middle of Auckland and still have sheep and cattle nearby.

After One Tree Hill we headed to the impressive Sky Tower where we took in more panoramic views of this beautiful city. They had these cool kaleidoscopes with information about the various sights in the distance that made for some interesting pics.

Like the World Financial Center in Shanghai and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the Sky Tower has patches of clear glass, showing you just how far up you really are and how much it would suck if you fell from this height.

The beauty of NZ is that it’s pretty small, making day trips to towns with vastly different landscapes very doable in the matter of a few hours. One such day trip was to Piha, a rugged beach known for its wild surf.

Another trip was to breathtakingly gorgeous, Waiheke Island, a mere 35 minute ferry ride from the Central Business District of Auckland. When you are there you definitely feel like you are on some beautiful island miles and miles away from the mainland with emerald water, white sand beaches, and a micro-climate that is several degrees warmer than nearby Auckland. As if the scenery isn’t enough, you also throw boutique wineries into the mix along with 5 star restaurants serving up mouthwatering fare, making Waiheke a little piece of paradise. I couldn’t get enough of this place and would absolutely recommend a visit if you find yourself in the Auckland area.

Stunning isn’t it? That is really how I’d sum up NZ as a whole. It offers some of the most magnificent natural scenery I have ever seen as well as friendly people, spectacular wine (Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is my new obsession), amazing wildlife (um, need I remind you of swimming with dolphins in the wild), fascinating glimpses into Maori culture, and delicious food. I really don’t know what else I can say except book yourself a ticket ASAP.

A huge thanks to Amar for being such a wonderful host! It’s been fabulous meeting up all over the globe to explore exotic lands together and I hope our adventures continue after our respective entries back into the real world. Oh no, not the real world!!!!! Truth be told, I’m actually looking forward to what the next chapter holds and I believe great things are on the horizon. I just have to stay positive and trust that it will all work out. With mom watching over me and guiding my path, I have every confidence that I will be ok…actually, not just ok, but fantastic!

For now, it’s back to Thailand for about 10 days to hang with Rob and the rest of my Mae Sot family and then it’s back to the US for Rob’s graduation, the christening of my new nephew, Bryson, and then back to DC to hang with my crew and think about what comes next. I feel like I’m on the cusp of something great so fingers crossed that it all shakes out that way.

More from the Land of Smiles shortly. 　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

Kia ora, friends and greetings from the land of kiwis. I was super pumped to see Amar waiting for me at the airport as I cleared customs. It’s been a while since I’ve had an airport pickup so this was quite a treat.

Amar lives in Auckland so I was able to make an immediate beeline for the shower and pull myself together for a tasty cup of chai on One Tree Hill followed by a a delicious lunch of green lipped mussels and a couple of glasses of a delicious NZ sauvignon blanc in Mission Bay. Yummy!!!

Since you know sister hates the cold, Amar and I were eager to make our way down south as quickly as possible before the colder temperatures arrived. As a result, we hit the road first thing in the morning and made our way to Coromandel.

What a stunning view! Wow! I’ve heard NZ delivers on gob smacking natural scenery (Lonely Planet’s words) and I have to agree that is smack daddy.  Supposedly the South Island takes it to a new dimension of spectacular so if it gets better than this I think I’m going to be a happy girl.

Next we hit hot water beach, which is famous for this small stretch of sand where warm water oozes up from beneath the surface. All one has to do to access the soothing water is to hire a shovel and dig some holes.

Sounds easy enough, right? Amar immediately got to work on digging us our sand jacuzzi.

After digging for a while, we finally came upon water, but instead of being warm and soothing, it was ice cold. It’s kind of a crap shoot as to which section of sand will contain the magical, hot water so if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

And again…

Unfortunately holes 2 and 3 were also duds, but thankfully some nice lady took pity on us and invited us into her pool. Don’t mind if we do…

The pools are only available 2 hours on either side of low tide so after all that hard work, it’s just washed away. No worries, though. We had plenty of time to soak in the relaxing water before heading on to our next destination, Cathedral Cove.

It seems like a beautiful place to go swimming, but it’s really only a good idea if you happen to enjoy arctic temperatures. I put my toe in the water to assess and practically got frostbite. So, Cathedral Cove…pretty to look at, but a death sentence for swimming in my opinion. Yes, I realize there are people swimming in the water who appear to be very much alive, but they are clearly insane. Enter at your own risk, folks.

The next day it was off to Mt Maunganui, or the Mount, for people in the know like yours truly.

The views from the top are absolutely spectacular with beaches and sea on all sides.

After conquering the Mount we powered on the Whakatane. Note, wh is pronounced like F so Whakatane is actually pronounced (fa-ka-at-ne). Yes, it sounds like what you think it does.

Whakatane is a tiny town, but serves as the gateway to White Island, NZ’s most active volcano. The White Island tour was canceled for today due to inclement weather so we were content to walk around town and check out the sites, keeping our fingers crossed that tomorrow would be better.

After checking out the town we checked into our hotel, which sat above an Irish bar called the Craic. I’d like to give a shout out to my Irish peeps, what’s the craic (’sup), y’all? The room was fine, but what the heck is up with this? Are we in NZ’s equivalent of the Bate’s Motel?

With the rainy weather there was absolutely nothing going on so we decided to see a movie at the local theatre. When we got back to our hotel at 10:15 PM we were surprised to discover that the hotel and Irish pub were both locked and completely vacant. Hmm, this is strange. Surely our hotel wouldn’t have locked us out. We actually cracked up laughing about how absurd it would be if we were actually locked out while we called the after hours number.

Standing outside the front door of the hotel, we could hear our after hours call ring inside, but when we peered through the glass to see if anyone was actually inside to take the call we saw nothing but this…

Neat. (insert hysterical laughter)

Next we decided to call the security company to see if they could help.

 

A very energetic and extremely helpful lady took our call, but advised us that this company was headquartered in Australia so she’d do the best she could to help us remotely. The number she had for the owner also rang inside so we knew that route was a dead end. Next she looked up the owner’s name in the phone book, of which there were 3 of them, ringing each of them in hopes that 1 would be the correct number. At this point it was around 11 PM so the people who answered were slightly annoyed, even more so to discover it was the wrong number. Oops, sorry.

This lady took it even a step further by calling the police to see if there was something they could do, but the police laughed and said this same thing happened 2 weeks ago and that we’d better find another place to stay. Going above and beyond the call of duty yet again, this amazing lady called a few hotels for us, but they were all booked…or not answering their phones. Whuck! Really?

So, it looks like Amar and I were going to be sleeping in the car after all.  These photos are courtesy of Amar’s cell phone. 

Ah, home sweet home! During all of this we were cracking up laughing at the absurdity of this situation. First of all, it was insane to me that literally everything in this town was closed at 10 PM and secondly we must have looked so sketch standing at the entrance of the hotel in the torrential rain laughing our faces off. Of course no one was around to see our sketchiness, but if they were they would have definitely wondered what was going on with us. 

Oh well, it could be worst. Though all of our luggage was inside the hotel, we both had our sleeping bags in the car. OK, time to get some sleep. Nightie night.

The above picture is a bit misleading, suggesting perhaps that I did actually sleep, but within minutes of applying my “eye mask” I was abruptly shaken out of my relaxed state by the violent rattling of the windows. OMG are we in the midst of another earthquake and what is that deafening sound?  After tearing away my eye mask I discovered that we weren’t in any danger and that the simulated earthquake was being produced by my overly zealous, sleeping travel companion. Special…

As you know, Amar and I have traveled together before, but this snoring, which depending on his body positioning resembles a chainsaw or a fog horn, was definitely something new. Wow, I guess I won’t be sleeping much on this trip.

The next morning a bright eyed and bushy tailed Amar opened his eyes to discover me, 3 inches from his face, staring at him with an expression of horror. I believe my mouth was open and there may have actually been drool hanging from my lower lip. I proceeded to re-enact the evening from my perspective to a beet red and severely embarrassed Amar.

Apparently he suffered a terrible ear infection while in Africa and since then the snoring seems to have become an issue. Of course I realize there’s nothing one can do when sleeping, but we agreed that it was OK for me to shake Amar and tell him to roll over when the chainsaw revs up.

We made our way over to the hotel to notify the owner of her error, which resulted in a full refund and the invitation to shower in the room where our luggage had been held hostage. No harm, no foul and that razor blade sign does make a bit more sense now. 

Since the weather was still crap we couldn’t do White Island so we powered on to the adorable town of Napier. A few kilometers outside of Napier was Te Mata Peak, offering stunning views of Hawke’s Bay.

It was insanely windy up there, but I was ready for it.

This bush is called flack and it’s everywhere on the North Island. I became obsessed with it, but I’ll spare you and share only this one pic…well for now at least.

 

After taking in some of the scenery we hit one of the local wineries, Mission Estate, the oldest winery in NZ. I highly recommend their chardonnay. Yummy!

The next morning we set out for Cape Kidnappers. As per usual for NZ, it’s magnificent.

Cape Kidnappers is also famous for its feathered residents, the gannets.

The walk along the coast is tidal dependent so we definitely needed to get our buns in gear if we didn’t want to swim back to our hotel.

The next day we powered down to Wellington where we’d catch the ferry to Picton and the spectacular Marlborough Sound the next morning. I was kind of craving Mexican food and had read that there was a good place in Wellington, but I have to say that these positive reviews were definitely not written by anyone who has actually had real Mexican food. LAME!

The next morning we caught the ferry to Picton, but the weather was abysmal so we’ll have to wait for those stunning views on our trip back up north. While NZ may suck on Mexican food, one thing it does really well in addition to lamb, wine, and dairy is bakeries and the Picton Village Bakkerij has the best carrot cake I think I have even eaten. We bought a huge piece, which we gnawed on over the next few days. Yummy!

After gorging ourselves on cake and wine it was time to get a little exercise and since no visit to NZ is complete without a tramp (hike) through Abel Tasman National Park, we did just that.

 

The walk is gorgeous through fern lined trails that open up to vistas of golden beaches and turquoise water. We decided to take our lunch in this little cove. This pic is courtesy of Amar.

Within seconds of pulling out our sandwiches we had some friends.

It was all fun and games until Amar decided to give them some bread. Ok, Ok he may have gotten some prompting from me, but before the bread even left Amar’s hands this giant albatross swooped in to get a piece of the action.

Maybe that wasn’t the best idea. I have to say, it’s not the most relaxing experience to have several fearless birds staring at you while you eat, but we managed.

Once the meal was finished the birds lost interest in us

and moved on to bigger and better things like tree pose along the shore.

Another iconic image of NZ is Split Apple Rock.

Yep, it’s split alright. Kinda cool, huh?  Here’s a little insider tip from a local…if you come down to Split Apple Rock at night you can see glowworms inside one of the caves to the left of the rock.  Amar and I did this and it’s pretty cool.  Definitely bring a head lamp though because it’s crazy dark and you have to walk down a bunch of steps to get there. 

Wanting to experience Abel Tasman from several vantage points, we took to the sea the next day and kayaked up the coast.

 

Unfortunately the weather wasn’t great, but we didn’t let that dampen our spirits

After Abel Tasman we headed back to Nelson for a quick frolic around town. Rob lived in Nelson for a few months while writing his dissertation so he was thrilled for me to see his former stomping grounds. Not too shabby…not too shabby at all.

We decided to have lunch in Mapua, which is famous for their green lipped mussels and I’m so glad we did too because they were insanely delicious.

The drive back to Nelson was spectacular.

We originally intended to spend the night in Nelson, but we were there on a Sunday and evidently everything in Nelson is closed on Sundays, including the police station

 so we decided to stroll along the beach,

 

take in a lovely sunset, and then power on to Blenheim.

Blenheim is famous for the world renowned NZ sauvignon blancs so Amar and I were both pretty pumped to sample some of NZ finest. Cheers! 

Of course NZ wineries have sheep wandering around. I mean, sheep are everywhere in NZ so it just makes sense that they’d be grazing in the vineyards as well. I love it!

 

After a fabulous day in Blenheim we headed to Kaikoura for whale watching and swimming with dolphins, weather permitting of course. Both of these activities are huge on my list of things to do so cannot wait to get my buns to Kaikoura and see some serious marine life. Woo Hoo!

Kaikoura is absolutely breathtaking with mountains, rocky beaches, and stunning blue water.

We decided to do the whale watching first.

They rode us out into the ocean for about 30 minutes and the sights were just stunning.

These folks run a top notch organization, slowing the boat to a stop a few meters away from our first whale. OMG, it’s a whale! I was quickly trying to change my camera lens so that I could zoom in on this gorgeous creature when he finished his session on the surface and dove back down into the sea. Fortunately Amar was quicker on the draw than me so here’s a pic of our first whale sighting.

Woo Hoo! Fingers crossed that we see some more. Within minutes the boat came to a halt and it was time for our 2nd whale sighting. Bring in on, baby!

 

The captain and his crew are whale experts and notified us when it was time to get our cameras ready for the quintessential whale watching photo, the breached tail as the whale begins its dive below the surface. 3, 2, 1…it is on!

Pretty awesome, huh? So do you think we lucked out with any more whales? You bet we did.

Amazing!! 3 sightings in one day. Woo Hoo! I’d say that is pretty darn lucky. As if seeing 3 whales wasn’t awesome enough we also got to see some of their friends.

Here are some more scenes around stunning Kaikoura.

Kaikoura is famous for it’s delicious crayfish so you know Amar and I had to give it a try. It’s crazy expensive, even at a little roadside stand, but it was mighty tasty.

 

As we were enjoying our lunch we were treated to this parade of sheep. Does it get more NZ than this? Awesome!

After our tasty lunch we headed over to a seal colony near the Point Kean car park. Check out this lil’ guy who seemed a bit lost from his friends and family.

What a cutie. After gushing over him we headed down to the rocks where we met these guys.

He’s not pissed, he’s just yawning. 

These guys were so chill that we could get pretty close to them.

On our way back from the seal colony we saw our little penguin friend who seemed even more wigged out than earlier.

Poor little guy.  I hope he made it back to his family. We decided to check out more of Kaikoura’s natural beauty with a stroll along the Kaikoura Peninsula Walkway. It was awesome to be walking along the cliffs.

These next 3 pics are courtesy of Amar. It’s gorgeous here, isn’t it?

At the end of the trail we came to this beautiful Maori sculpture.

Time to walk back.

Ahh, what a perfect day. Tomorrow I would be swimming with dolphins so I could barely contain my enthusiasm. I think I yapped Amar’s ears off talking about this being a dream of mine since I was a little girl. (cue that ridiculous song dreams can come true)

I was up early and practically foaming at the mouth to go swim with the dolphins. Amar is not a fan of actually being in the water with marine life so he dropped me off. I think I actually ran into the office I was so excited. The only concern I had was the water temperature, but it wasn’t an issue at all. Each of us was fitted with heavy wetsuits, complete with a hood, so the only parts of our bodies that were exposed were our feet, hands and faces. That seems pretty doable.

Prior to getting on the boat we watched an instructional video about the do’s and don’ts when swimming with dolphins. What I liked about this operation as opposed to others I had seen in different countries was that the dolphins were totally in the wild. We would take our boat out into the sea and when we happened upon a pod of dolphins we would then get into the water to join them. Of course since these dolphins are wild they cannot guarantee that a. the dolphins won’t do something crazy and b. that the dolphins will even be slightly interested in us.

Dolphins are very playful animals, but we have to convince them that we are fun too and worth checking out. To increase the likelihood of the dolphins taking an interest in you, were were advised to make dolphin noises and flap our bodies around like a dolphin. Are you kidding me? Could this be anymore up my alley? Basically, I get to act like the biggest freak show on the planet and my reward is to have dolphins come play with me. OMG, this is just getting better with each passing moment.

Dolphins also like eye contact so if and when they do approach, we were instructed to do our best to maintain eye contact.

OK, enough background, let’s get this party started. Keep your fingers crossed that we see dolphins.

As we approached a pod,

the swimmers were instructed to sit at the back of the boat with our feet dangling in the water.

Once the bell rang, we knew the propellers from the boat were off and it was safe to enter the water. As you can see, I pulled out all the stops here, renting a waterproof camera so that I could share these images with you…and of course salivate all over them for years to come.

Upon hitting the water, I immediately switched into super freak mode, doing my best to be as insane/dolphin-like as possible with the hopes of attracting the attention of the dolphins. I cannot express to you the feeling I got when 2 dolphins came zooming up to me. It is, hands down, one of the most special and unforgettable experiences in my life. I did my best to make eye contact with the dolphins and swam around in a circle for as long as they willing to play with me. OMG, I’m really swimming with dolphins!!! (again, cue that cheesy song Dreams Can Come True)

 

 

I was seriously in ecstasy when a dolphin or dolphins took interest in me and did my best to be as ridiculously animated as possible to keep them by my side. They are very fast swimmers and would zoom past you, swimming in tight circles around your body to see if you could keep up with them. It was so cool!

Inevitably the dolphins would tire of you and swim away. I hated this and took this as an opportunity to ramp up the crazy in hopes of attracting them yet again. If you were lucky, some dolphins would come zooming by to see what’s up with your freaky self, but sometimes, they were just done. We would swim with the pod for as long as the dolphins remained interested. Once they tired of us, we were loaded back onto the boat in search of the next pod.

We were allowed to enter the water on 4 separate occasions to minimize our impact on their natural behavior. The lady on the boat warned me that the camera was a little slow and that I might want to go with video. The pics featured above are my best shots, but most of my pics came out like this…

 

Awesome, right? My videos are a little better, but I decided that I wasn’t going to waste my precious time with the dolphins messing with the camera so I just enjoyed my time swimming with them. Fortunately, though, the peeps at Dolphin Encounter took pity on me and decided to include some pics taken by other swimmers…you know, pics that actually included a dolphin. Rock on! These pics are awesome. Enjoy!!!

This is my fave…could they be cuter?  These are dusky dolphins, btw. 

After the swimming part of the trip was over, we were invited to take pictures of the dolphins from the boat. This is definitely the best dolphin sighting I have ever had. Not only were there hundreds of dolphins, but these dolphins liked to jump. No way!!! Someone please pinch me because this is amazing.

I love this pic!  So cute. 

After hanging with the dolphins we headed over to some rocks where some seals were chillin’.

Hey you guys!!!

What’s up? 

Heeeeey!!!!

Alas, it’s time to head back to shore, but I have nothing but rave reviews for my dolphin experience. It was everything I wanted it to be and more. Wow, what a spectacular day and it’s only 11 AM.

Needless to say, I was beside myself all day. I bounced out to the car where Amar was waiting for me and proceeded to gush, squeal, and lose my mind for the next 30 minutes telling him all about my adventures. While I was swimming with the dolphins, Amar got the 411 (information) on another seal colony on the outskirts of town. Sweet. I hope you like seals because I’ve got some rockin’ seal pics for you.

Insanely adorable!

Aww, melt your heart adorable!

Our next stop was a quick visit through Christchurch. As you know, Christchurch suffered from a terrible earthquake, followed by hundreds of aftershocks. It was pretty depressing to walk through town and see the devastation.

This clay like substance is called liquefaction and it oozes out of the earth during an earthquake.

We met this sweet Aussie girl named Alexis at our hostel in Abel Tasman who happened to be in Christchurch during the earthquake. She actually saw the tip of the cathedral come crashing to the ground. Unbelievable!  She proceeded to tell us heart warming stories of people helping each other during this terrible disaster and shared her own story of wading through waist high liquefaction to get to some stranger’s house who was going to let her crash there until her father could arrive from Wellington. Insane.

Despite the devastation, one could tell that Christchurch was a beautiful city. The fall foliage was in full effect, but there was definitely a strange and sad feeling in the air.

For obvious reasons, we decided against staying in Christchurch. As luck would have it, a few weeks earlier I had been in Saigon to renew my Thai visa and gobble up as much Vietnamese food as possible and happened to meet the loveliest kiwi couple my last night in town, Jacqui and Richard, from Geraldine, NZ. We stuck up a great conversation and when I mentioned that I would be visiting their fine country they generously offered to let Amar and I stay with them. Wow, how sweet!

Amar and I had zero hotel reservations lined up for this trip, taking each day as it comes and finding a hotel a few hours before stopping in a town. It just so happened that Geraldine was pretty much the perfect place for us to stop on our way down south so I reached out to Jacqui and Richard to see if we could take them up on their generous offer. They were fabulous and welcomed us into their homes with open arms. We arrived just in time for dinner. Tonight’s menu: green curry chicken with a side of steamed broccoli. My favorite! Yummy! After dinner they let us do some laundry as we kicked back in the family room to watch a little basketball.

Jacqui and Richard live in a beautiful home on a farm that has been in their family for several generations. Richard is a farmer and offered to take us out on some quad bikes the next day to get a feel for life on Robinson Farm. Could this be cooler? Wow, what a wonderful and unexpected addition to our trip.

This is Mindy and as you can see, she is super fired out to take a spin around the farm. 

Here are Mindy and I on the back of the bike and ready to roll…

It’s time to herd some sheep.

Check out the concentration.  I think this dog’s name was Dude and Dude was defs not playing around when it came to herding sheep.

Mindy is content to relax while Dude goes to work. 

Does it get any better for a dog than this? 

Actually, I guess it does…

Amar and I are just as pumped as these dogs.  What a fantastic day!

Time to go check on some cows.

Dude is fearless…

Apparently the cows like this boldness…boom chicka bow wow…or should I say moo chicka bow wow?  Yeah, I actually said that…

We’ll leave you guys to your business.  It’s time to feed some goats anyway!!!

I’m totally feeding goats.  Awesome…

Baaaaa….

Ok, Mindy, we get the picture…time to go home. 

All aboard…

Man, what an amazing day!  I’d like to extend a huge thank you to Jacqui and  Richard for welcoming us into their beautiful home and showing us around their fabulous farm!  What a delightful and unexpected surprise.  I would love to return the hospitality so if and when you are in the US, please let me know.  Thank you again for such a special and memorable visit to Geraldine. 

Well, folks, that’s it for now.  Amar and I are headed further down south so prepare yourselves for more spectacular scenery.  See you soon!