The Incredible South Island and a Quick Stop in Aussie

After leaving Nelson, the final three weeks of our year long adventure was upon us, three weeks of tiki touring through the most incredible (or so we’d heard) scenery that NZ had to offer.

The long drive to Franz Joseph and Fox Glaciers seemed a little longer than either of us expected, which could have been due in part to the celebration the night prior. In the end, we made it, pitched the tent on the hardest ground you could ever find in a holiday park and called it an early night. We awoke the next morning to beautiful weather…on the agenda, a handful of walks up to and around both glaciers. Franz Joseph being the more popular of the two was actually less impressive from our perspective than Fox. Both of course are extremely beautiful and had it not cost over $150 per person for a (mandatory guided) tour through the blue ice we may have seen more. We opted to take the budget friendly route and view it from afar…above is what we were able to capture.

I think glaciers are beautiful, I just wish they didn’t get so dirty! Sounds ridiculous I know, however, my ingenious idea of having them pressure washed every morning for the tourists gave John quite a laugh. I thought you all might appreciate it as well. We headed off, satisfied with our views of the glaciers and anxious for the next big stop.

The next stop happened to be quite a small one actually. There’s a tiny coastal town called Haast situated perfectly for tourists just before they get ready to head through the high mountain pass toward Wanaka and Queenstown. Blink and you’ll miss it, we almost did. The most exciting thing about staying here was the opportunity to see a colony of emperor penguins just south of where we stayed. Unfortunately the closest we came to seeing the alleged penguins was a crossing sign. At this point, we were still convinced that all of NZ had a conspiracy about promoting penguins to tourists when in fact…they do not inhabit any aspect of the islands.

We jumped back on the highway after the failed penguin encounter and headed through the mountains toward Wanaka. The Wanaka/Queenstown area is most well known by trampers and tourists alike as the place that sucks you in and cleans you out of any cash you may have been saving up. Fortunately, we were well prepared and had budgeted appropriately for this stop. Located only an hour away from each other, both towns are beautifully situated on picturesque lakes with a variety of adventure seeking activities at your fingertips. Needless to say, this felt a lot like MT and ID to us.

We arrived in Wanaka (after a quick stop off to see the blue lakes) with just enough time to enjoy a run along the waterfront. The next morning we awoke refreshed and headed out to explore the town.  Fall had just begun and all of the leaves were changing color which made this place look even more magical. Most notable Wanaka experiences:

1.        Wine tasting at Rippon overlooking the lake – the most amazing views and with a free tasting and huge pours, how could you go wrong?

2.       Catching a foreign flick at the local cinema – all seats are comfy couches and half way through the film they have huge freshly baked cookies literally right out of the oven.

We decided to spend one of the days in the area driving to Mt. Cook. What an amazing mountain. Mt. Cook is the tallest peak in NZ and Sir Edmund Hillary used it for training before he summitted Everest. We stopped at the head of Lake Pukaki for some quality sandwiches and looked forward to the rest of the journey to the mountain, it was also a view of the Misty Mountains from LOTR. Remember the lighting of the beacons Mary? Yep, that was it. The whole drive up was mesmerizing and majestic. After a few beers/wines at the café directly overlooking the summit we headed back to Wanaka.... thankfully we were responsible in our drinking and passed the sober checkpoint set up on the highway, after which we were rewarded with a saussie sizzle for our responsible ways.

Don't drink and drive and get a free saussie!

The next day, we were off on a short journey to Queenstown. It happened to be Easter weekend while we were there which meant not only was it packed with tourists, but there were plenty of Kiwi’s in town as well for the holiday weekend. We started out our thrill seeking weekend quite conservatively with a round of mini golf in which John won (I think I still owe him a beer for that, and yes she does, I guess she’s waiting till we get back to the States and they’re less expensive). After our thrilling game, we headed out on the lake for a boat cruise. It was incredible learning about the town from our skipper and how the insane tourism operation works there…365 days a year. We had an amazing view of the Remarkable Mountain Range (They are the only true North and South mountain range in the Southern Hemisphere and also home to Mordor for you LOTR fans) from the water, which we’d be seeing from a different angle a couple of days later. Later that night we met my council workmate Olivia for a very tasty dinner at Cow, which I must say has the most incredible garlic bread I think I’ve ever had (awesome suggestion Kat). The next day was spent relaxing and getting ready for a jam packed Easter Sunday. We met some more of my council workmates Angela and Don who happened to be in town and caught up with them over a couple of beers at the local brewery.

Easter Sunday Funday...

Easter Sunday, we decided what better way to celebrate than jump out of an airplane. I mean why not, you’re only in Queenstown once…so we went for it and at 12,000 ft jumped out of a plane over the incredible. Anyone who has skydived knows the feeling, and if you haven’t, we would highly recommend trying it out at least once. It’s an incredible feeling, and one that we (and our pocketbooks) will never forget. Once that was ticked off the list, it was time for a quick lunch break at Fergburger, I won’t go into details, but John and I shared one of these and it was more than enough…easily the best burger we’ve ever had in NZ. Afterward, just to test our stomach, we decided to go jetboating. Another incredible thrill seeking adventure in which you jet through a picturesque canyon in water that gets as shallow as 6 inches at speeds of up to 60mph and a jet engine with 2 V6 engines in them. Our caption said each boat was worth a quarter of a million. It’s crazy how close these drivers get the boat to the canyon walls…so much so that you find yourself ducking to keep yourself in one piece.

After all of that craziness, the following day we took a more low key approach and went wine tasting. Central Otago is well known for its delicious Pinot Noirs, and we took full advantage, even bringing a few bottles home to ‘cellar’. We’ll see how long they last!

 All in all, our time in Central Otago was phenomenal.

Milford Sound was next on the agenda, and more specifically the Routeburn Track. We set off for a three day tramp in Fiordland National Park which turned out to be our favorite hike during our entire trip. We hiked into Lake McKenzie the first day and set up camp as our home base for both nights. It was a decent 12K hike in for the first night passing a 175 meter waterfall and having clear skies while seeing the range across the valley. The next day we took a day pack up to the saddle and then up Conical Hill (more like Conical Mountain, it was basically straight up) and back to camp. This was a solid hike and left us exhausted. The views from the summit were great, we could see into the Milford Track area as well as Milford Sound. The next day we hiked back out with our packs a little lighter and a great sense of accomplishment.

After all of that walking, it was time to relax, once we got out we headed deeper into the park to the tiny town of Milford Sound. This place relies 100% on tourism and with over 500,000 people coming through from around the world each year, they do pretty well. We booked a boat cruise through the sound for the following day and we spent the next 24 hours taking in some of the most beautiful scenery we’ve ever encountered. It definitely wasn’t easy leaving this area as it was what we were both looking forward to most out of any of the various destinations on our itinerary. It didn’t disappoint, the photos of course don’t do justice, but it’s a small piece of the experience that we hope you all enjoy.

Onward and downward…Bluff and Stewart Island were next on the agenda. Well known for its famous oysters, Bluff is the connecting point from the South Island and Stewart Island.  

 









We had just enough time to grab some take away (oysters of course) before jumping on the passenger only ferry to Stewart Island. Unfortunately the oysters were served breaded and fried, and proved to be not as yummy as we were hoping. Sorry Lonely Planet, this fish and chips shop did not live up to your hype. It was all good though, we drugged John up (choppy open water and him don’t mix) and we were on our way. The short hour ferry ride was chocker full of dolphins, albatross and a simply stunning sunset.

Better than the best restaurant.

We arrived in Stewart Island on a Sunday night, which just happens to be the biggest night of the week for the locals. The weekly pub trivia was in full swing when we walked into the main bar in Oban (main town on the island). We were quickly assigned a table by the quiz master. I don’t think we would’ve had a chance to opt out of playing had we wanted to. The place was completely full and we were lucky to get a seat with three local women, older and wiser beyond our years. Fast forward 20 or so questions later…our table had the most correct answers and thus won the $40 bar tab. Sweet as, we’ll take it! We enjoyed our winnings with the team and headed back to the hostel for some R&R before our scheduled tramp the next day. We did a walk through Rakiura National park and found ourselves camping at Maori Beach that night. This quick overnight trip was very reminiscent of our first backpack into Abel Tasman in which we had an entire campsite and beach to ourselves. It felt as though we had come full circle and besides the obscene amount of sandflies, the journey was well worth it. We left Stewart Island satisfied with the experience (besides not seeing a kiwi) and glad we were able to make it down there.


After making our way back across the Foveaux Straight, we stayed the night in Invercargill. That’s all we need to say about that, Jeff you were right…there’s nothing at all worthwhile here.

There's a penguin there, can you find it?

We got out of there as early as possible the next morning, I mean, they don’t even sell beer or wine in the grocery stores…then we were on our way through the Catlins. The Catlins are an area of the south western coast ‘where the rainforest meets the ocean’. It was quite a beautiful drive with a wide variety of landscapes to take in. We hiked into a couple of waterfalls, visited the most southern point on the South Island, hiked into nugget point and visited the lighthouse and FINALLY, FINALLY we found some penguins. Not just any penguins, but the yellow eyed penguin, which is supposedly one of the rarest species in the world. The local community is very serious about keeping these little guys safe as we witnessed when the Penguin Nazi (as we dubbed her) continued to preach and yell at people to “Step away from the penguins” the entire time we were there…entertaining nonetheless.  

Once we had our fill of the Catlins, we were on our way to the university town of Dunedin. A great town of over 100,000 people, the city is decorated with brilliant cathedrals and a brand new rugby stadium for the recent world cup. We stayed at a hostel near the heart of the city and spent the weekend walking around town, enjoying some local microbrews, visiting the Saturday market, popping into Cadburry world and of course attending the rugby. It was a great match and our old flatmates Jeff and Kat’s favorite team Otago (which means it’s our favorite team as well) won by 3 points. It was a great city to chill in before we headed up to Christchurch to sell off all our yearly collected belongings. 

Before we knew it, we were back in Christchurch. We gave ourselves three days to sort out all of our loose ends; selling the car, selling our camping stuff, etc. Once all was taken care of, we treated ourselves to a great night out at Pomeroy’s, one of the best beer drinking bars in NZ. A bottle of wine, three (or was it 4?) beers, and lots of fabulous food later we slowly made our way walking back to the motel for our last sleep in NZ. It was a short one as our shuttle picked us up at 3AM…the plane taking off, knowing that we weren’t coming back to NZ for quite some time was a bittersweet feeling. We’ll be back at some point, there’s no doubt about it, it’s just a matter of time.

On our way back to LA, we took full advantage of the free layover VAustralia offers you on flights to NZ. We landed in Brisbane and spent a fabulous 3 days north of there on the Sunshine Coast. A vacation from our year long vacation, right? We visited Steve Irwin’s Australian Zoo which was great fun. Walked along the beach in Caldoundra, sipped shiraz at some of the local wineries and spent a fair amount of time at the Sunshine Coast Brewery tasting some of the local micros and a great fresh seafood platter. It was a killer layover, and we would highly recommend the sunshine coast to anyone thinking of visiting Aussie. We’ll definitely be back for a proper trip sometime in the future.

Back in the States

Well, that’s about all she wrote, literally. That’s the end to our year long adventure in amazing New Zealand and should wrap up There and Back Again, a New Zealand Holiday. Thanks to everyone that followed our adventures, we hope that you enjoyed the blog as much as we enjoyed writing and reliving all of our experiences to share with you. Sitting at LAX writing the blog we sure can feel the pace of life picking right back up. We’re both looking forward to seeing all of you very soon.

All of our love back home in THE STATES!

John and Shannon 

A Special Edition...Back in Nelson and YEP, We’re Getting Married!

Sunset at Kat and Jeff's...the first place we called home in NZ

Most of you have probably already heard our very exciting news…yes, we got engaged in Nelson! However, before we go into the proposal story, here’s what we were up to prior to the big event…

We arrived in Nelson and headed to the CBD for a dinner out with the old flatties. It was great, catching up, telling them all about our adventures in the North Island and hearing what they’d been up to since getting hitched themselves. Dinner turned into drinks back at Kat and Jeff’s, the first place John and I ever lived in NZ (besides the shed). We turned in at who knows what time and awoke to a beautiful day and a classic kiwi breaky. Poached eggs on toast with beans in tomato sauce…a job well done chef Jeff.

After breakfast, we headed out for our first adventure of the day, dune buggy riding out in the wop wop’s (boonies). It was a blast, John drove and I held on for dear life as we tore through the tracks. Wish we could’ve taken a video, but here are the before and after shots.

 What else would you do after tearing through the mud and dirt in a dune buggy other than go wine tasting…so we did. Neudorf winery (Kylie, the Sauv Blanc we had at the Boatshed) produces some of the most amazing wines in the Nelson region. Very quaint with a welcoming and relaxing vibe, Jeff and Kat met us out there and we had a bottle of their Pinot Gris in the grassy courtyard among the vines. Olives, Neudorf cheese, fantastic olive oil, bread, biscuits, apples and strawberries, OH MY, just made the experience that much better.

Afterward we weren’t quite ready to pack it in, so we headed to Mapua for some Golden Bear beers. Not a terrible day at all and the best was yet to come. We had a BBQ at Kat and Jeff’s that night with some of their mates and we dined on some of the Scotch Fillet (Ribeye) that was stashed away from the wedding cow. As you all can probably guess, John was ear to ear excited…I took a photo for your enjoyment. We were up until the wee hours of the night (we think) and went to bed with fond memories of good vino, beer and mostly, amazing steak.

Saturday we had plans to meet with some of our mates from Nelson down at Founders Park for some beers. After a leisurely morning and another amazing breakfast (American style) in which Kat and Jeff’s new flatmate commented “I’ve never even seen anything like that”…we were off to Founders. After enjoying some beers, chatting with our friends for one last time and enjoying talking shop with the brewery owner who we became good friends with, it was time to head back to Kat and Jeff’s for our last night in town.

As we left the park, John began to walk off the path toward some Dahlia flowers. Of course, I asked, what are you doing…. “I want to show you something”, he said “let’s pick a flower”. I chose the flower and he was insistent on picking it himself, at which time he got down on one knee told me how much he loved me and asked me to marry him. He tied the flower around my ring finger and of course, I said yes to spend the rest of my life with him.

We spent the rest of the evening celebrating with Kat and Jeff, making sushi and feeling very excited for what the future holds.

Of all the adventures in NZ thus far, our time back in Nelson was by far our favorite. We headed off early the next morning down to the rugged west coast. Can’t wait to share with you the next blog and what we’ve been up to (besides being engaged!!)

Love from NZ,

John and Shannon

Tiki Tour 2012 - North Island Part 2

Sitting on the ferry on our way back to the South Island is the perfect setting to wrap up our blogging for the last portion of our North Island adventure…so here goes!

We left off in Raglan after some killer surfing at Ngarunui Beach. Surfer Steve was a great coach and both of us were able to get up and catch some waves. We would love to prove it via photos, however, Surfer Steve being his laid back self has yet to email them to us. We’re not holding our breath that we’ll ever see them...but who knows, it may be a nice surprise a couple months down the road. Regardless, it was a beautiful day and a great way to end our time in Raglan.

Heading to Northland the next day, we had a quick stopover in Hamilton to rest our heads before attacking the big city. The only thing notable about our stay here was the incredibly ridiculous showers at the holiday park we stayed at. The shower was turned on via a button, which in turn had to be pressed every 17 seconds to keep the water coming (yes, I counted so I could accurately report). Anyone who knows how much I love a good shower can imagine how irritating this was…however, we both got through it, had a nice dinner and were ready to head north the next morning.

HEAVEN...

We had a long drive to get to Kerikeri which is in Northland – the Northernmost area of NZ – and once we arrived we treated ourselves to two nights at a beautifully restored hotel. Before we got there we had to stop off in Whangarei for a few Irish beers, after all it was St. Patty’s Day. We went into an Irish bar had a few beers and a snack amongst many people who were entirely too sober for it being St. Patty’s Day. I guess they don’t take it to seriously here, I mean there were kids in the bar on St. Patty’s Day, what’s up with that?

No, I didn't drink them both!

Rock Sculpture in Kerikeri, NZ

For some reason the skies decided to open up and proceed to downpour on us the entire time we were in Northland. Of course, we wouldn’t let a little rain dampen our spirits, so we headed out and about to find an adventure. Wine tasting it was, and enjoy it we did! We also made time to visit Waitangi where the treaty was signed between Britain and the Maori people many many moons ago. Of course, the fee to get into the actual grounds was horrendous, so we settled for a photo of this plaque just outside as well as this cool fish and chips boat! 

We were rested up and ready to head back out on the open road after our relaxing couple of days. After a brief detour (the highway was flooded out and people were forging the rivers due to all the flooding) we ended up on the road toward the Kauri Forest. The Kauri tree is among the world's mightiest trees, growing to more than 160 feet tall, with trunks of up to 50 feet wide and can live for more than 2000 years. The rain was still being persistent, however, we made our way out of the car, down the short path to view the largest kauri in the area. The photo doesn’t do it justice as you need to stand before this incredible giant to really appreciate its enormity. Stand before it we did, long enough to take the photo, then we were back to the car to dry out. John did such an amazing job driving through the nasty storm the past couple of days, that we decided a brewery pitstop was in order (you all know rain or shine we would’ve stopped). 

Hallertau is a solid brewery with some great IPA’s and a few German beers to honor and represent the hopply named brewery. They even had some beers from the US and had a Sierra Nevada on tap, not sure how long it took to get down there so we opted for some of the beer brewed on premise. Great job with the brew pub.

That night we stayed in North Auckland and early the next day headed into the city, thankfully the rain had subsided just long enough for us to enjoy a dry day out. Auckland has an amazing skyline that reminded us very much of Seattle. They even have their very own version of the Space Needle. The Sky tower & Casino is a huge tourist trap and yep…we fell in. Although I will say it was well worth it. With only having a day in the city and shopping being out of the question, from the Sky tower observation deck, an amazing panoramic view of the area enabled us to see for miles (The Sky tower is the tallest building in the Southern hemisphere, a little fun fact for ya).We even tried to gamble for you Glee Nelson, unfortunately, us not being at the top of our gambling game, couldn’t figure out how to work the machine (I’m having a flashback of Messenger Christmas party circa 2009…although we didn’t try it with a $20). 

After visiting Gollum and the Orc in the Sky city gift shop (sorry, no hobbits Thorsten) we decided it was time to head toward the Coromandel Peninsula. Not before, of course, John had his peeking duck meal at the Chinese BBQ place featured on Grabone that day. An experience it was, and we headed off, full of duck and not needing to eat for another 12 hours.

The rain started up again and challenged our itinerary which had us scheduled to stay around the peninsula the next couple days, so we decided to put that adventure on hold and head south to Tauranga. We rented a quaint cabin for the next three nights, which turned out to be the longest we have stayed in one place since our tiki tour began. The next morning we headed off to Matamata in search of some hobbits for Thorsten (a fairly young one, still trainable without super hairy feet). Unfortunately, we didn’t run into any hobbits but we did stumble upon Hobbiton. Yes, we paid the ridiculous $66 per person to tour the Hobbiton movie set, and it was worth every penny. The details on the hobbit holes and the various props were simply incredible. It was great because they remade the village for the new Hobbit movie so everything was up to date and looking very authentic.

The rain stopped long enough for us to enjoy an afternoon back in Coromandel at the hot beach. The hot beach is a pretty cool place where a hot springs comes up right under a sandy beach at the edge of the ocean. People flock to these ‘hot spots’ on the beach and dig-dig-dig until they’ve created their own personal hot pool, right there at the beach. It’s quite a funny sight to see, everyone in their swim suits digging to create their hot water pool, crammed together in these two tiny areas at a huge beach. Great day, thanks for the suggestion Rachel Gray.

Our last day in Tauranga, we headed to Mt. Maunganui and beach which is home to NZ’s first artificially constructed reef. The short hike was great, and on a hot day it felt amazing to finally be out in and see the sun. We enjoyed a couple of cold ones and laid on the beach for awhile watching the surfers catch waves. After our beach time and a quick picnic we were back on the road, headed for the smelly town of Rotorua.

Rotorua is a huge thermal hotspot in New Zealand where the pungent smell of sulfur welcomes you. Before we made our way to the city, however, we had a quick stop off to try zorbing. Zorbing is probably one of the COOLEST things to do in NZ (okay, not really) but it’s pretty fun. You jump in a giant bubble filled with a few gallons of warm water, they seal up the outside and send you on your way down a grassy hillside track, twisting and turning the entire way down. John and I did it together and it was probably the quickest way to burn through $45, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat. 

The holiday park we stayed at had thermal pools that you could relax in while soaking up all the natural minerals found in the water. Other than those couple things and a sweet little Belgian bar that we hung out at one night, Rotorua doesn’t have much to offer. They call it the Vegas of NZ… Rotovegas? We don’t get it.

Quick detour through Lake Taupo for a killer steak and mushroom pie…don’t judge us because we go out of our way for pies…then onward to Hawkes Bay.

Hawkes Bay was our next stop to fill up on some art deco architecture and of course the vino from the region. In the early 1930’s a large earthquake hit Napier and destroyed much of the town centre buildings. When rebuilding, many of the structures were designed utilizing art deco techniques. Very cool to see, Shmeegs, you would have loved it. After visiting Mission Estate (the oldest winery in NZ) we headed to Hastings where we would continue our wine tour via bike the next day. 

This bike tour was a little lengthier than the one we did with you Kylie and Tyler, but once we reached those cellar doors, we would forget all about it while sipping delicious wines. After our tour we grabbed our loot and headed back to the holiday park to continue our own personal tasting. Not a terrible way to spend an afternoon. 

The next morning we were off to experience our first high tea. The ladies tried to get us to dress up; however, we opted not to and simply enjoyed sipping our tea and eating our cakes and sandwiches. Note to self…don’t eat a huge breakfast before high tea. I don’t think we ate anything for the rest of the day.

Look what we passed on the highway…Mt Bruce! Pretty cool Daddio…

Martinborough was a quick stop before arriving in Wellington later that day. We dropped in to Te Kairanga Cellar door for a quick tasting and some more goods purchasing.

Wellington showed us another great time, John had his first Teppanyaki experience, which of course he loved and afterwards we headed to Hasigo Zake Beer Bar, a great beer bar with a lot of beers from the states like Rogue, Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head. They also had an awesome selection of NZ beers and a great one from Norway from the Nogne O Brewery The next day we were off to the WETA Cave, which is the company that did all of the costuming, modeling, digital effects etc. for the LOTR movies. We watched a pretty cool behind the scenes clip of what exactly they do at WETA across their 8+ departments. Very interesting work, and cool to see how some of the details of the trilogy and other huge blockbusters came to be. We rode the cable car from the botanical gardens to the town centre and enjoyed a couple of brews at the Bruhaus which was a nice place and had some good beers on tap. So far our favorite brew bar in Wellington has to be the Fork and Brewer, with the Tap House in a close second. No dinner necessary that night, we drank it.

We took full advantage of our late checkout the next morning, fit in some amazing Malaysian food for lunch, and were off to the ferry terminal. South Island, here we come.

Shannon’s Top 5 North Island Adventures:

1. ZORBING
2. Surfing in Raglan
3. Wine tasting in Hawkes Bay
4. Tongariro Circuit
5. Hobbiton

John’s Top 5 North Island Adventures:

1. Surfing in Raglan
2. The drive to and day in Lake Taupo
3. Hobbiton
4. Mt. Taranaki
5. Beer Bars in Wellington

Cheers,

John and Shannon

Wellington Botanical Garden