Category: Travel

Our day began with an early wakeup at 4:30am (ouch!) for the 5:30am Dolphin Encounter. Early wakeup plus the mere thought of jumping into 55 degree F water caused us to have some second thoughts, but they were soon forgotten.

We put on our lovely wetsuits, which although damp, kept us surprisingly warm. We watched a safety video explaining that the dolphins might have no interest in us, so don’t be disappointed that you woke up SUPER early and willingly jumped into freezing cold water to see potentially nothing.

We boarded the bus to take us to the boat and before we knew it were were cruising away with a lovely view of snow-capped mountains greeting us from the Kaikoura Coastline. We started spotting Dusky Dolphins and I got nervous – shoot – now I have to jump in the water. As we sat on the back of the boat with our flippered feet feeling like popsicles, I thought “I hope it’s” worth it.

OH MY GOSH. Upon jumping in, two things immediately strike you. First, the sensation of COLD water trickling into your wetsuit, and second, “OMG there is a dolphin swimming right at my face at this very moment”. We were instructed to “sing” to the dolphins, as they are curious about noise – “la la la la la” was my call to the dolphins and they seemed to respond well, as I had several come within inches and swim around in circles with me, in an effort to check me out. After a while, the pod we were swimming with moved on, so we got back on the boat and tried again. This is when you realize how cold you actually are. We made three swims with the dolphins, each of which was fantastic. Upon climbing onboard, our guide told us there was a surprise in store that were were going to check out. I had a heck of a time trying to get off my wetsuit with essentially non-functioning fingers and then had the further pleasure of stripping down and struggling immensely to put on all of my warmest clothes without the use of my hands. No time for embarrassment when you are freezing your you know what off. Glad I hurried though because just as I was clothed, I heard the unmistakable sound of a whale coming to the surface of the water. An out of season humpback whale decided to come over and visit and what a treat! He got so close to the boat and the dolphins were playing with him, it was incredible (so much for feeling torn about whether to do the Whale Watch instead). We were then served hot coacoa and cookies to round out the experience as AWESOME and 100% worth it.

After returning, we made our way back to the hostel for a nice long hot shower and boy, did it feel good. We packed up and hit the road north to Blenheim, NZ’s famous Sauvignon Blanc country. We did pull over for some awesome fur seal viewing points, including a waterfall that baby seals hang out at. Very cool. Not cool was the drowsiness while driving that set in around 10:30am (we had been up 6 hours already). We had to pull over and take a mini nap in a cafe parking lot and get a “flat white” – NZ capaccino and frothed milk thing before carrying on.

We finally made it to Blenheim, and visited several wineries, including Yealands, Lawson’s, Auntsfield, Georges Michel, Moa (beer), St. Claire, and a nice chocolate shop too. Nearly all the wineries offered FREE tastings – it was usually just the two of us and the person pouring the wine and telling us all about the different flavors. For being proclaimed “I’m not really a fan of white wine” folks, we sure enjoyed the fruity and crisp flavors on NZ wine!

We then made our way over to a place called SCOTCH that came recommended as a good place for inexpensive food that isn’t McDonald’s (yuck). Even still, the tab for one burger and one large order of fries was $22 – yikes! I miss our cheap American food. The prices that is, all the food we’ve had so far has been lovely. After a filling supper to cap off a wonderfully sunny afternoon (this is the first time we’ve seen the sun for an extended period the entire trip =( we made our way to backpacker lodge #2. It’s definitely a no-frills way to stay some place for $50-70 a night, but they have generally been clean, quiet, had nice kitchen facilities and suited us quite well.

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We’re on a boat…

Today’s the day we cross over to the South Island.  Despite the cheaper rates on car rentals (free relocation for the companies), every travel site recommended going North to South, saving the “best” for last.  Being the larger island, plus the extensive list of sites to see and activities to do in the South Island, we’re making the switch pretty early in the trip.  The journey across the Cook Strait is a scenic one, and we’re very much looking forward to this day of mainly travel.

The crossing is 92km and takes about 4 hours.  Pretty cool to pull your car on board and sit down and relax while they take care of the crossing for us.

We got an early start out of Tongariro (thanks to our early night from being exhausted on the mountain) to make the drive down to Wellington to catch the Interislander Ferry to Picton. We got there a little early, so we decided to park and walk around Wellington, the capitol of NZ. Between having a heck of a time making right hand turns out of streets that we made wrong turns on to and ending up in a parking garage that had NO spots and wanted $6 an hour for parking, we finally ditched the car and made our way to Wellington’s #1 (supposedly)b tourist attraction, the famed cable car. Well let’s just say – after seeing San Francisco, we were not impressed. It made two stops over the course of a 3 minute climb up a hill overlooking the cloudy waterfront. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice and all, but #1 tourist attraction in Wellington – Lonely Planet, you left me disappointed. Anyways, we grabbed a nice lunch on the main shopping strip (fishcake that was a lovely combo of seafood and potato for Audrey and a nice toasted sandwich for JD. This was after we decided that the $12 “Lamb-burger” (I’m not kidding) from McDonald’s was a bit ridiculous, as well as the $10 footlong at Subways. I still can’t get over the price of food in this country! I guess we should have gone to Te Papa (the national museum of culture in NZ) or on a Lord of the Rings Tour (except they are $, and there are so many LOTR-esque things that you can see on your own in this country).

After our disappointing Wellington excursion, we made our way over to the Interislander Ferry terminal, which was an interesting experience. We pulled up, the attendant printed our boarding passes and she told us to pull our car into the queu in lane #4. And then we just sat there and waited for about an hour with no further instruction. The kiwis are very easy-going people, so we didn’t think much of it – also, everyone else appeared to be in the same boat (pun intended) as well. We got to watch the big-ass ship pull into the harbor and all the cars unload from the previous voyage. Then came the exciting part for us – pulling our car on to the ferry. It’s amazing just how many full-size tractor trailers, railway cars, campervans, cars, motorcycles, bikes, etc. they can fit on a BOAT. Very cool. Once parked onboard, you simply get out, lock up and head up to a seat. The sailing was fine going, although it was a bit too cold and windy for my liking to stand on the deck. We did brave the cold when we neared the South Island, as the scenery was beautiful.

Upon arrival in Picton, we drove off the boat and headed south on Hwy 1 to Kaikoura. The fact that their great coastal highway is also named Hwy #1 is pretty cool. Unfortunately, clouds and rain obscured the fantastic view and we would have to hope it’d clear on the ride back tomorrow to get the fantastic views I had read about. Poor JD was tuckered out after 6+ hours of driving and 4 hours on the boat, but thankfully we made it to our lodging alright – the Dolphin Backpacker Hostel. What a neat little place. We had our own room with ensuite, and have encountered so many Germans (they really know how to travel!) and other nationalities in the kitchen/living area – this has been true across the country – it really makes me realize how very little vacation we as Americans receive compared to the rest of the world.

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We were originally scheduled to this hike the day previous, but snow and cold made the passing impossible, so we had to reschedule to today.

Our day began with a 5am wakeup, which didn’t prove to be a problem thanks to the little bit of jet lag. Not lag really, just a shift in our time. We caught the bus from our wee backpacker cabin to the start of the Crossing and were on the trail by 6am. The clouds hung low over the mountain and we were worried if it was going to clear up to give us a good view once we climbed the formidable “Mt. Doom”. The first 1.5 hours was fine. Mostly flat, slightly uphill through some Scottish looking heath. Then the steps up the back side of the mountains began. And we climbed. Until we reached the base of Narihou. Some intrepid souls tried to to make it up, but given the snow last night and the STEEP grade, it looked like a terrible proposition. We carried on nearly on our hands and knees up to the summit of the Red Crater and were greeted by strong bitterly cold winds. We then caught glimpse of the Emerald Lakes and Blue Lake. We had lunch atop a sheltered vantage point that gave us lovely views minus the wind. The slide down the steep snow was hardly fun, until we got to see a recently erupted (and sill very much steaming) volcano in the Tongariro complex. (Aug 6, 2012.)   (We came to find out after the fact that there’s a good chance another volcano in the Tongariro complex is going to blow shortly – the shuttle provider we went with was very reputable and very much concerned about safety, so I’d like to think they would NOT let anyone go if there was imminent threat.  All the same, I’m glad to be off the mountain!  There were signs all over warning us about not getting near the area and being in the “volcanic activity zone” – holy shit. I didn’t realize I was hiking a volcano that was quite THAT active =/ The trek down was longer than expected, and our bodies will be thanking us later for the abuse on our knees and toes, but the Crossing was definitely worth the physical exertion. Upon the bus ride home, we happened across the piece in our hiking phamplet about the owner of the lodge where we’re staying winning a mountain running championship – it took us 8 hours to make the crossing – it took him 1 hours, 25 minutes. Well, I guess we better try harder next time…

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Audrey has developed a Tim-Tam addiction.

In other news, the weather can’t make up its’ mind today. It rained and poured and then the sun poked out. We saw an awesome rainbow or two on the drive out of Rotorua to Taupo. We had grand hopes of skydiving AND visiting some wineries in Napier, but with the weather threatening our skydive, we had to decide one or the other. And although we love wine, skydiving won out. And it was worth it.

We dove with Skydive Taupo and we had a great experience.

Audrey’ take: it wasn’t as scary as I thought it could be. After the initial roll out of the plane accompanied by some serious screaming, it was mostly just COLD. And hard to breathe. I guess that’s why they pump you full of Oxygen on the plane ride up. The spinning in free fall was cool, as it allowed us to take in the lake. My favorite part was when the parachute came out and we got to enjoy a gentle coast down to the ground. My instructor (who was tall and handsome ;^) let me steer the parachute for a little while which was really neat. The landing ended up being a pretty hard thump on the rear, but nothing I haven’t experienced playing soccer. I would definitely do it again (although the price does hurt).

John David’s take: Really overwhelming – probably would not want to do again.

We then grabbed a bite to eat at Burger Fuel (our new favorite chain restaurant in this country) and drove down to National Park to stage for our big hike tomorrow.

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Day 2 – Rotorua

We made the drive down to Rotorua and made our way to the Wai-o-tapu geothermal area, a literal hotspot of volcanic activity and reminder that this island is still very much active. Our visit started with a trip to the Lady Knox Geyser, which erupts every morning at 10:15am with a little help of some added surfactant to help break the surface tension of the water. It was quite impressive shooting 20m into the air and then continuing to errupt for 1 hr (although not at a sustained 20m). We then went back to the main part of the park, which is a series of boardwalks, trails and overlooks that highlight bubbling mud pools, steam vents, and acid lakes – all of which smell like rotten eggs.

We then drove up to the Agrodome, a well-loved attraction in NZ. It’s a bit touristy, no doubt, but enjoyable nonetheless. As many know about NZ, it’s a country of 3+ million people and 30+ million sheep. The show highlights the different varieties of sheep in the country, shearing of a sheep on stage and sheep dog demonstrations. There were tour bus loads full of Asians, which made for a funny show – especially when one Korean dude drank a bottle of formula that was meant to be fed to the baby lambs. Afterwards, we got to go up on stage and pet the sheep and take pictures. There was also a petting area with the baby lambs and pigs that was enjoyable. Audrey had hopes of a nice NZ Merino wool sweater, but they were SUPER expensive.

We then made our way to Burger Fuel which was an AWESOME burger. 100% NZ Grass Fed Beef and fries with Aoili. We then came back to the hotel an enjoyed a few NZ beers. Speight’s amber Ale and Mac’s dark.

We then took a stroll over to the Rotorua City park, which is geothermally active. Imagine that! – a city park where there are steaming pools and acid pits and bubbling mud.

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Day 1 – The Coromandel Penninsula

After clearing passport control and biosecurity (move over TSA!), we made our way to NZ Telecom kiosk to pick up a NZ cim card for our phone. We then caught the shuttle to the car rental place and were in and out within 15 minutes. Then….the fun began. Navigating the roads just outside of the Auckland Airport was terrifying to say the least, and as if to add insult to injury, we encountered our first traffic round about came within about 30 seconds of departing. OH MY GOSH! After pulling over in a Dunkin Donuts parking lot and getting our bearings, we were soon on the interstate and making our way out to the Coromandel Peninsula. The roads were narrow and twisty turny. This, combined with the fact that it’s hard to force yourself as the driver on the right hand side of the vehicle to hug the center line, made for quite the adventure! Our Nissan Wingroad station wagon handles pretty well, but doesn’t make it up hills so well, which is fine with me, because going slow seemed like a fine idea. When we heard that the national speed limit on the open road in NZ is 100km/h, we thought that seemed slow. How wrong were we! I haven’t felt safe going much over 80 km/h in this country and I routinely get passed by the locals.

The trip out to the Coromandel was worth it! White sandy beaches, limestone arches, and beautiful blue water – it truly is a taste of the South Pacific! JD was brave enough to get in the 55 F or so water for an invigorating dip after our trans-pacific journey. Hiking through the bush (there are all these magnificent fern “trees” about. We keep ferns in pots, they grow to be 50 ft tall in this country!

We then made our way to hot water beach, which we learned is called “hot” for good reason. We rented a shovel, headed down to the water and quickly learned about techniques and ettiquite for digging the perfect hot tub. (Some people get them in their hotel rooms on their honeymoon – we dug one like little kids in the sand =) At low tide, the water bubbles up due to geothermal activity are HOT! So as you dig, if you encounter a hot spot, you let the water bubble up and fill a hot pool. You then dig your pool to the side to let the otherwise cool sand water mix with the hot stuff to make for a nice bath.

We then visited the EggCentric Cafe, where we enjoyed a fish and chips and chicken meat pie – both of which were delicious and so fresh!

We then got lost for a bit on the highway, but eventually made it to our B&B, where we stayed in a lovely cottage in the garden. As soon as we showered, we fell asleep by 8:30pm local time and slept through till 5:30am. We slept like logs.

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