Laura's Side Trip to Akaroa

We were pooped from a full month on the road. But the siren-song of New Zealand called for me to see still more.

So on our last full day in Christchurch, I couldn't help but squeeze in one more side trip. I left Dan slaving away in the kitchen (he had offered to make a mole sauce for our hosts Richard and Colleen), and set out for the charming town of Akaroa.

The drive took me onto Banks Peninsula, an area settled by the Maori nearly 1000 years ago, and settled again by the French in the 1840s.

Today Akaroa is a weekend retreat for Christchurchers, and a quiet destination for low-key tourists. It has an active artist community, quaint shops, and is the jumping-off point for harbor tours to see little blue penguins and rare Hector's dolphins.

I shopped for souvenirs and ambled along the main street with the other tourists, mostly older Europeans, just taking in the good salt air and feeling truly relaxed for the first time in a week.

On the way home I stopped off to sample some delicious artisanal cheese at Barry's Bay cheese factory. And with fresh local gouda in hand, I headed back to Christchurch to celebrate our last evening in New Zealand.

A Crisis That Wasn't in Kaikoura

When you have a month of travelling with barely a hitch or a problem the entire time, it's inevitable that something has to go wrong.

And so we decided to lose our documents.

We were staying the night in Kaikoura. We were roughly halfway done with our two-day "ceremonial last drive" home to Christchurch, and we were only a few days away from flying back home to the States.

We were relaxing in our hotel room, having eaten dinner a couple of hours ago in a casual little takeout place a couple of miles up the road. And that's when we realized we had left Laura's bag at the restaurant.

Uh-oh.

We jumped back in the car, rushed back to the restaurant (it was just closing up at 9:30), and asked, loudly, if anyone had SEEN A NAVY BLUE BACKPACK!!??....

..... .....

...And oh, it's right over there, exactly where we left it two hours ago. Duh.

This isn't to say you should go around leaving valuables all over New Zealand, expecting to find them hours later, unmolested. We were just lucky. But this little "crisis" does help illustrate, in a very small way, how things roll here in New Zealand.

One final note about Kaikoura: We stayed at the Donegal House and thought this little inn was so good that we had to recommend it to others. A nice atmosphere, beautiful gardens, free wireless internet, a large room and a friendly Irish pub, all for the reasonable price of NZ$150 (about US$80) a night.




Horses in a paddock next to the inn. Laura offered the horse on the right a sugar cube, but she hated it and spit it out.



We like to think that this bird stood guard over Laura's bag at the restaurant.


If you spent a month looking at scenes like this every day, you'd be in such a state of bliss that you'd start leaving your stuff in restaurants too.


View from our hotel room door that evening:


Related Links:
Donegal House
Schoolhouse Road, Kaikoura
Phone: 03 319 5083

Winetasting in Marlborough: The Wairau Valley

We had just made the crossing back to the South Island, and we were feeling a bit queasy and, paradoxically, hungry.

Of course, the best cure for a case of interisland ferry-induced nausea is to knock back a little wine.


And once again, we experienced a curious coincidence that seemed to occur regularly throughout our New Zealand trip: exactly what we wanted just happened to be exactly right where we were. We were just a few minutes away from the Wairau Valley, known worldwide for its excellent wineries.

A few weeks ago, we sampled some wines in the South Island's Central Otago region--one of New Zealand's newer wine-growing areas. And just a few days ago we were richly rewarded for taking a side trip to a winery up in Whangarei. Today, we'll get to sample wines from New Zealand's oldest and most established wine-making region.

The Wairau Valley is best known for Sauvignon Blancs, but you can find exceptional wines of all types here. Two wineries we visited that we recommend highly are Hunters Wines (one of the most highly-regarded wineries in all of New Zealand, and, notably, one of the last of this region's wineries that is still family-owned), and Cloudy Bay. Cloudy Bay might be of particular interest to American tourists because it is one of the few wineries in this country that exports in volume to the United States.

Barrels in the cellar at Cloudy Bay:


The wines at both of these wineries were excellent. We particularly liked some of the refreshingly understated Chardonnays that we tried (memo to California wineries: not all wine lovers enjoy drinking a stick of butter in a glass). And despite the world-class quality of their wines, all of these establishments somehow keep a Kiwi-esque casual modesty about them. It makes visiting the wineries a more special experience, and it certainly makes me want to buy a lot more wine.

Also, we have to mention that we had one of the best meals ever in the cafe at Hunters Wines. Go there. You won't regret it.



You can get maps of the region, as well as information on guided tours, in the Marlborough Information Center in Blenheim, New Zealand.



Related Links:
Hunters Wines
Rapaura Road, Blenheim
PO Box 128, Renwick, New Zealand
Telephone: +64 3 572-8489
Tastings 7 days: 10:30am to 4:30pm
Garden Cafe open 7 days: 10:30am to 4:30pm

Cloudy Bay
Located on Jacksons Road, in the heart of the Marlborough wine region.
Telephone: +64 3 520 9147
Tasting Hours: 10am to 5.00pm, Mon-Sun

Lake Taupo and the Drive Back to Wellington

Today was another day of driving, which meant another chance to see still more of New Zealand's stunning scenery. In about six hours of driving time, we went from Rotorua to just north of Wellington, the town where we would catch the ferry the next morning.

On our way was Lake Taupo, formed by a massive volcanic explosion that occurred in AD 186. Today, it's one of the trout fishing capitals of the world.


We stopped into the town of Taupo, a bustling yet casual sports community that hosts the Crater to Lake Challenge, a multi-sport single-day race event involving 4.3k of skiing, 35.7k of mountain biking, 34.5k of road biking, 16.6k of kayaking, 31.5k of water skiing and 11.5k of running.

And Dan thought running marathons was hard!

We spent a relaxed hour enjoying a delicious lunch and coffee at the Bodyfuel Cafe.



And then headed back on the road. Here is Mount Ruapehu, as it looms into view south of Lake Taupo:


More scenes from the road:



Chalk cliffs, a famous landmark in the region surrounding Taihape, NZ (also south of Taupo):


We decided to spend the night in Porirua, about a 40-minute drive from the Wellington ferry terminal. And as it turned out, at NZ$150 (about US$80), this nice little double room with a kitcheonette and complimentary french press coffee was the most expensive accommodation we had on our entire one month tour of New Zealand. If you can just get past the airfare, it just isn't that expensive to get around in this country.

Finally, after a long day of driving, we enjoyed a couple of badly-needed beers and some fish and chips in a Kelly's Irish Pub. Tomorrow, we'll be taking the ferry back to the South Island. Our New Zealand adventure, sadly, is beginning to draw to a close.

Why We'll Return to Whangarei Part 1: An Evening at Tutukaka Beach

The Whangarei region is perhaps one of the most peaceful and beautiful places in all of New Zealand.

And if it weren't for Dan's friend Dan, a former Couchsurfing guest from this area who we hosted a year ago in Manhattan, we'd never have gone here. Dan lives in the nearby town of Ngunguru, and he and his wonderful wife Genevieve graciously "returned the favor" and hosted us in their wonderful home.

We were here two full days, and we barely scratched the surface of this area. This will be one of the first places we will return to on our next trip to New Zealand.

First, a quick pronunciation guide: Whangarei is pronounced "fahn gah ray," since it is based on Maori pronunciation. As for how to pronounce Ngunguru... well, we're still not exactly sure to be perfectly honest, but "newngaroo" is a close enough approximation.

And here's probably the region's most widely recognized landmark: the "dragon's teeth" islands, which come into view as you drive up the highway approaching Whangarei.


On our first night there, Dan and Genevieve took us walking at their favorite place in the area--Tutukaka Beach, which is just a ten-minute drive from their home.

This walk, something they do often, was a true blessing. And this evening was particularly special because we got to see the sunset and experience the landscape in the dying light of the day.

And after we were done with this astoundingly beautiful walk, Laura and I were literally stammering, "Y-y-you mean you can take this walk any day you like?"

This post will consist mostly of photographs--and a brief video at the end. There's just not a lot we can say to add to the beauty we saw here.







It was evening, so the light was beginning to get just perfect for photos:


Laura, falling into the soft, bushy grass here on the hillside. Don't worry, she was falling on purpose. It was a blast tossing ourselves into the deep and fluffy grass.


Dan and Genevieve in the setting sun, right before they started diving into the deep grass too:



During low tide, you can walk between these islands without getting your feet wet. But as you can see, during high tide there are waves crashing through in both directions.



Soon the light began to get quite low, and it was time to end a truly beautiful evening walk:




And last but not least, a brief video of the waves rolling in between the rocks here at high tide. Hopefully this will give you a little bit of an idea why we simply loved this place.

Warkworth and Tawharanui, and How Sidetrips Are Richly Rewarded in New Zealand

We had a little bit of extra time before we were due to arrive at our hosts' home up in the Whangarei area, so on our way up north we arbitrarily took a right turn off State Route #1 and headed towards Warkworth, NZ.

I don't know what it is about New Zealand, but we always were richly rewarded whenever we took an arbitrary side trip like this. And after stopping into the local information center in the adorable town of Warkworth, I walked out with a map and a suggestion, from one of the extremely helpful staffers there, to drive out to Tawharanui Park, just a half hour away.

But on the way, we were sidetracked yet again--after all, who could possibly resist a sign like this?


This was a sign leading us to the Omaha Beach Winery, a nearly brand-new winery here which was offering tastings of several of their prize wines.


We met and talked with the owner and his wife, bought a couple of bottles of their wine, and then sat out in the back and enjoyed the view over a couple of bottles of blueberry juice, a local specialty.


We were busy taking pictures when a local couple approached us, offered to take our picture, and then struck up a friendly conversation. When he found out we were on our way to the Tawharanui Park, he nodded his approval and told us, "It's a nice drive. Gets a bit curvy at the end though."

That turned out to be a particularly monumental example of Kiwi understatement.

Yet again, the photos won't do justice to the actual experience, but this was the skinniest, dustiest, steepest and curviest gravel road we had yet driven on. And it featured locals screaming down the road in both directions, seemingly oblivious to the possibility that another car might be coming around any bend in the road.


But we were richly rewarded after this drive with amazing views...


...and a sparsely populated beach. We shared the area with just a few scuba divers and a family enjoying an overnight camping excursion.





If you ever have the good fortune of visiting New Zealand, never turn down the chance to take a side trip.