Driving to Milford Sound

So a pretty boring title, but it's a beautiful drive!  When planning our trip, I originally thought we could make it from Queenstown to Milford Sound in about an hour.  At least, that's what it looked like on the map!  Luckily, I checked with Google....and discovered it was over four hours.  Eek!  You have to drive around a large mountain range.  I had to do some rearranging with our schedule so we would could make it fit.  At the time I hadn't booked anything yet (except our Milford Sound excursion) so I didn't have to worry about canceling anything.

Before we understood the road signs, we just stuck close to the car in front of us!

We ended up having to depart Queenstown soon after we arrived (but we're coming back!).  Part of the fun of driving is the one lane bridges.  Obviously, it's cheaper to build it one lane...but do they save that much money?  This is right on the outskirts of Queenstown, too, so there is traffic.  Luckily, we're finally able to decipher the road signs to determine who has right of way going on to the bridge, and safely navigate the ten bridges we cross.

So lots of scenic pictures in this entry, and nothing too exciting happened to us while we drove.  I would take pictures, then put my camera away, saying, "That's enough."  Only to pull it out again five minutes later. 

Mountains, lake, and sheep - quintessential New Zealand

The roads tend to follow either the coast or a lake.

I so wanted to have that little camper!

More mountains and lakes

For a change - mountains and fields

Our first waterfall!  We were excited, and stopped the car to take pictures.  Little did we know that by the next day this would be blase. 

Remember that one lane bridge I showed you earlier?  Well, that's what we were standing on to take this picture with the waterfall.  It made us very nervous, because we had to keep looking in both directions to make sure cars weren't coming - we wouldn't have all fit on the bridge at the same time!




We stopped the car for other pictures, too.  Here we're at an overlook of the Hollyford River, and viewing the work of the glaciers (from about 15,000 years ago).  The roads are actually built along the routes that the glaciers took.  Let them do all the hard work!

Then we stopped to get a closer look at the Hollyford River...no one fell in, though Steve was hopping around on the rocks to get some pictures.

No rocks were harmed in the taking of this picture.

We stopped here, too (and caused three other cars to also pull over - they wanted to see what we were looking at).  It's hidden in the picture by the clouds, but we could see a bit of a glacier on the top of the mountain.  This becomes important to Steve later in our trip...

It's hard to comprehend the scale of the Darran Mountains in these pictures, because there's so little in the landscape.  We left cell service about an hour earlier, and other than the road and a few highway signs, there was nothing man made...which was wonderful!  It's been a long time when I could drive for a couple of hours and not see a single restaurant sign, billboard, etc, etc!  Anyway, I had Steve stand at the edge of the road so you could get an idea of the mountain size.  I couldn't get both Steve and the entire mountain in the shot, no matter what I did.  Since they are about 6000 feet high (the mountains, not Steve), it makes sense.  I just found out you can go ice climbing on them....cool!  Put it on the list for the next trip!

We finally got to drive through the mountains that we'd spent three hours driving around.  It was a one lane (surprised?) road, through about 2 miles of mountain.  It was just carved through the rock - no pretty tile or even concrete to decorate it.  No lights, either, as you can tell by the picture.  I was having flashbacks to Stephen King's The Stand, when the character is trying to get out of the Lincoln Tunnel...

And then we come out to more beautiful landscapes!  I prefer this "tunnel" of trees.

We have our first sight of Milford Sound!  Again, your perspective is off, but there's a boat coming in to the dock (not our boat).

"Not Penny's boat"

Here she is!  This is where we'll be spending the night, along with 60 new friends!

Queenstown, Part 1

After our adventure at the airport, we're ready to explore Queenstown.  Luckily we landed on time, so we're able to go to the Queenstown Arts Market where we're finally able to see some local artists' work for sale.  The guidebooks mention a lot of handcrafted items are available in New Zealand, but up til now I've seen a limited amount.   I buy some earrings and a bracelet, but otherwise just enjoy looking.  It's held outside by the marina, but I forgot to take pictures.

This might be the bite when Steve ingests the e coli.  At least, we think it might be from here.  It took him two weeks after we returned before he finally went to the doctor to get checked out. 

Then we decide to try Fergberger, which was recommended to us by a Kiwi.  It must be good, because there's a 30-minute wait, but we entertain ourselves by taking selfies while in line.
I'm kind of surprised Steve can eat so much, considering what he has scheduled for later in the day.  He's checking off a bucket list item - bungy jumping!  It doesn't affect his appetite, though.

I did a lot of daredevil feats in my 20s, so I feel fine just being on the sidelines for this event.  Steve decides he wants to do the highest jump they have - 440 ft (that's pretty close to the height of our 46-story apartment building)!  I think the scariest part of the whole day had to be the bus driving up the mountain on the dirt road with limited guardrails (like they would stop a bus, anyway).  I can't believe there hasn't been an accident.

See the road on the left?  We are on the edge of a cliff, hundreds of feet in the air (that's a dirt bike course way, way below us on the right).  Pictures do not capture the scariness.

Once we arrive at the station (at the end of the hair-raising bus ride), we still need need to go out to where the bungy jump takes place.  That would be in the little "basket" on the right side of the picture below.  It's going to the platform "floating" in the middle of the gorge in the left corner of the picture.  The trip to the platform got everyone's heart beating fast!

On the left is the observation deck for people who don't want to ride out to the platform.

Here's a shot of the gorge - I assume it's at least 450 deep, since the bungy jump is 440 feet!


We're out on the platform with about a dozen other people, plus the two workers.  Here's Steve as his turn is coming up....









And here he goes!  Look at that form!  Even the East German judge gives him a 9.5.

And the after jump smile.

Steve's wonderful jump wasn't the highlight of the day for the crew.  Apparently, after you jump, you can jump a second time for free....if you're willing to do it naked.  And there was a girl from the group right before Steve's that was willing to do it.  She undressed under a blanket, but was strapped in to the harness completely naked.  They told her the cameras would not be broadcast back at the station, but I noticed they didn't say they would not be recording...  Everyone (workers and jumpers) was very professional while she was on the platform, but as soon as she leapt the male jumpers all ran to look out the window at the bottom of the platform.  She was 400 feet away - it wasn't like they could see anything.  

After the excitement of the day we headed back to our B&B.  Beautiful views from this one, too!

Flying Adventures

New Zealand is so big (much larger than I originally thought) we have to take a few flights so we can make it to all the places we want to visit.  We head off early in the morning to the airport, one - because we have an early flight and two - because it's an unfamiliar airline/airport and we have to get gas, return the rental car, etc.  

We discover we can't get gas (no gas stations open at 6am), we return the car (no problem), then go to check in at the kiosk (no problem).  Air New Zealand has you tag your own checked bags.  Really?  I thought there was some law in the US that didn't allow you to do that?  With some minor mishaps (and some assistance from the attendant working) we successfully have the tags attached.  We get lots of practice, because we have to check three - Air New Zealand only allows a small carry on, no more than 15 lbs.  We then go over to wait at the gate.  Wait....aren't we missing something?  Can you see it in the picture below?

The check in kiosks....from the gate area.  Look at all that empty space...

That's right - no security!  For the small domestic flights, you don't go through security.  When we ask the attendant about it, she said, "We trust you."  Hmmmmm......  It felt nice, but a little uneasy at the same time....  I did kind of check out the passengers getting on our flight.  Everyone looked pretty normal though.

If you also notice, people are missing in the picture above.  That's because we ended up being 75 minutes early for our flight.  Our helpful attendant (obviously employed to help the wandering tourists) said a couple of flights had just left, and another wasn't expected to land for an hour, so that's why it was so empty.  Steve was totally bummed, because he totally ruined his average wait time of five minutes to board the plane (if he can't walk to his gate and board the plane immediately, he feels he got there too early).  So we enjoyed having the entire airport to ourselves for the next fifty minutes.  Finally some people wander in...but they're not on our flight, they're greeting people coming off the arriving plane.  At the gate!  Oh, the good old days!  It's like flying in the 80s. (Remember when you would do school trips to tour the airport?  I bet they don't allow that anymore.)

Finally 20 minutes before our departure time, the other passengers on our flight start straggling in.  I felt like we were wearing a big tourist sign on our shirts.

For our flight to Queenstown, we had to connect in Wellington - and all we'd heard for the past week was how windy that airport is.  We check the weather, and it's actually looking pretty good.  (Side note on the weather website - We had heard that Kiwis like to abbreviate stuff.  Okay, no problem.  One of our tour guides recommended a New Zealand website for the weather, and he said it kind of fast, but I caught "dub dub dub" and figured I could remember that and I'd be able to find it.  Later that night at my computer, I couldn't find any weather site for New Zealand that matched it.  It took me another day before I realized "dub dub dub" was short for www.  Steve and I had to laugh at that.  Luckily, google came through for us and I was able to find the site - www.metservice.com).

Wellington is the capital of New Zealand (ha - bet you thought it was Auckland) and is on the southern most tip of the north island (yes, that meant we had to fly from the south island to the north island, to go back to the south island).  I would have loved to spend a couple of days there, but we just didn't have time.  So here's what I saw of Wellington.

Wellington, from the sky

Then once we landed, we had to walk from the plane to the terminal.  They had a cool sign up on the outside of the building:

that I took a picture of.  Turns out there are some security concerns in New Zealand - someone immediately started yelling at me about taking pictures.  They didn't make me delete it, though!  

Our thirty minute layover in Wellington turns out to be more than enough time (I'm starting to adjust to NZ flying) and we're able to make our flight to Queenstown (and I limit myself to just a cursory look over our fellow passengers to determine if everyone is "safe").

My favorite wine region!

The view from our room - beautiful!!

I wake up with some excitement this morning - we're going on a private wine tour in Marlborough, New Zealand.  We've gone to (many) wine countries, but usually we make our own arrangements.  Being my favorite wine region, we decide to splurge and do a private tour.  It ends up being one of the best days of our trip!

Kerry doesn't just drive us to the wineries; at each location she's also arranged to have an attendant pour and explain the wine just for us - so we don't have to push through crowds of people to have a tasting.

As part of our tour we also get to have a wine blending experience.  I have sauvignon blanc wine from three different vineyards (Steve, pinot noir) and we create our own perfect wine.  It was all very scientific - we even had graduated cylinders to precisely measure out each wine. :)  I thought my final product was very good, but the attendant did not run right out to get the winemaker to try my wine, so I guess it won't be bottled any time soon.  We also learned that Prince William and Princess Kate ate lunch at the table/room where we did our wine blending.  I looked, but no one carved their initials in the table.

Winemakers at work!

We also had a three-course lunch at a winery restaurant, at a table overlooking the vineyards.  I needed the food to help with the wine consumption (for once we didn't share a tasting, since no one had to drive). 

Fun display at Cloudy Bay - they show you the different types of soil and explain how the grapes taste different from each one.  Then they also have a "guess the scent" area.  I didn't do so good at that - I'd know I knew what it was, but couldn't come up with the actual item that produced that scent!

Very close to harvest time!

We had another day to spend in Marlborough, so we were able to go around and try additional wineries.  Thanks to yesterday's guide, I learned Kim Crawford wines are owned by Drylands (which is really owned by Constellation Wines), and they also own Monkey Bay, which I consider my "house" wine back in the US (I haven't seen it in Japan).  It actually seemed like a lot of wineries are actually owned by big conglomerates, and aren't smaller productions (like in Walla Walla, WA).   Apparently, when sauvignon blanc gained a lot of popularity in the 80s, companies came in and bought out a lot of the family wineries.  Not to say there aren't small production labels - it's just they're owned by a bigger corporation.  Several of them are French, and a lot of the employees of the winery would be 20something-year-olds from France working during a semester break from college.  (Side note - in the US, Kim Crawford is everywhere, but it's not really sold in New Zealand, maybe you'd find it at the grocery store.)

We had lunch at another winery, in their "secret garden."  I think I could stay in Marlborough for a long, long time!

Secret garden selfie!

The secret garden

Whales and dolphins and seals, oh my!

What a wonderful day to go out and look for marine wildlife!  The coastal area of Kaikoura is gorgeous.

There she blows!

I'm determined to see a whale on this trip, because the last time I went on a whale watching tour I only saw itty bitty bits of the huge whale.  I got my wish, as we managed to get close to two of them.  I missed the pretty tail "flip" shot because I wanted to see the whale (vs watch it through my camera), but I like this one for the water spout and you can see some of the top of his body.

Our boat then motors over to a favorite sunbathing rock, and we spot several seals enjoying the heat and light.

How many seals do you see?  I found three!

Then we get "attacked" by a pod of dolphins.  There are well over 100. I've never seen so many at one time!  They frolic and play around our boat.  I even see one doing backflips in the air - I didn't realize they do that in the wild (I just thought they were taught it in the aquarium shows).  I almost got a video of him, but I started recording too late. 

How many dolphins do you see?

I wonder what would have happened if I jumped in to swim with them??

Handsome man!

 

Beautiful day!

After being out on the water, we continued on our way to Blenheim, in Marlborough...my favorite wine region!  The drive was just as pretty today.

And I saw my new favorite sign.  This is a copy; I couldn't get Steve to drive back so I could take a picture, but I really saw it posted on the side of the road in New Zealand.

Why wait?  Just get it straight from the vine!

Driving can be thirsty work, so we stopped in at Yealands to try some of their wines.  We also learned about a company that would ship wine to Japan for us....but we were to find out later that maybe we didn't have all the details....

The Yealand vineyards stretch (literally) as far as the eye can see. 

Highlands and Coastal Roads

Run, Forrest, run!

The day after biking/running around Christchurch we go exploring the highlands to the east.  I finally see sheep - in fact, we inadvertently helped to herd them with our 4-wheel drive vehicle.  

Since we were crossing over working farms, we also got to see cows being brought to a pen by a group of farmers and dogs.  It was so fun to watch I forgot to take pictures.  

The Canterbury Plains are beautiful - similar to Switzerland in that you have patches of flat lands surrounded by mountains.  They may not be as storybook perfect as Switzerland, but they have their own charm.

We get a preview of the river we'll be on when we ride a jet boat later in the day.  They tell us the water only needs to be 4 inches deep for the boat.  I'll take their word on that.  Notice the steep cliffs in the picture...the boat goes within inches of the walls.  No wonder they tell us to keep our arms inside the boat at all times!  Though I wanted to hold my hands up in the air (like on a roller coaster) when we did the 360 turns. 

Should have worn a barrette for the jet boat ride!

The view at 40 mph!

After the jet boat ride we get to take a train back to Christchurch, which is rated as one of the top ten scenic train rides in the world.  The weather goes from foggy to partly cloudy, so we don't get quite the same postcard pictures as we did the day before.  

The front part of our train, as we head to the scary bridge over the Waimakariri River Gorge.

The next morning we head out to Waipara to visit some wineries.  A lot of pinot noir in the area, which isn't our favorite type but we're willing to try.  Our guide from yesterday recommended Torlesse  (they used his wines for their wedding) and we had a blast talking with the winemaker.  

We continue along the coastal road to Kaikoura.  Now the scenery is reminding me of Califonia! 

I'm glad they have an arrow to show which tunnel you're supposed to drive through!

After arriving at our B&B, Steve can't resist going into "the other side" of the Pacific Ocean.

The next morning, this is the view from our room.

I love New Zealand!