Cape Palliser and Martinborough

The southernmost point of the North Island: the Cape Palliser lighthouse

After having climbed Mt Taranaki (by now over a month ago) we headed south towards Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. While in the region, we visited the southernmost point of the North Island and the Martinborough wine district. It was a magical moment to stand next to the Cape Palliser lighthouse. After all, now we had conquered the whole North Island. It took us 136 days to explore it!

It was awesome

Cape Palliser is quite remote. As we were driving there, we were suddenly confronted by an unusual road block having passed a blind curve. The road was filled with cows. We had to stop and wait for the pack of cows to wander by while they smelled on our car and marveled at us. Cape Palliser lies in the middle of a seal colony. When we arrived some seals were frolicking in the water just off the shore and tried to get their lunch. It was nice to watch how easily they swam in the turbulent water amidst very sharp and dangerous rocks.

What are you looking at?

There was good surfing waves too but we didn't start our surf careers yet.

JBB having some fun with the seals

After a good morning with the seals we headed to Martinborough - a well known wine district, most famous for its New World pinot noirs. This time we didn't go on a commercial wine tour but drove around some wineries ourselves instead. This time Giigan got to be the designated driver. We improved our wine know-how with four wineries: Murdoch James, Ata Rangi, Te Kairanga and Alana Estate. Of these four we liked the wines of Ata Rangi the most. In fact, it was also the one making you feel most welcome and the one with the best service. After this we felt more confident touring wineries by ourselves. It's typical for vintages from the Martinborough district to have very different flavours. We tasted, for instance, 2006 and 2007 wines of the same producer and grape, and found that they had indeed distinct flavours.

JBB at the Ata Rangi winery sampling its great Pinot Noir

Stay tuned for our next blog post, telling you about Wellington and the arrival of our first Finnish visitors.

Business as usual: MORE PICTURES available by clicking this link (hyvä että tietotekniikkaekspertimme Samikin on päässyt tästä lisäkuvien sijainnista kärryille pienen avunannon jälkeen ;-)).

The East Coast

At the time of writing we are in Dunedin on the South Island. We're driving around the southern part of the island while waiting for Giigan's parents to arrive in Christchurch in a couple of weeks or so. A lot has happened since we left Mt Maunganui (besides climbing Mt Taranaki which we already told you about) so we have lots and lots of stuff to write about. However, due to the trouble our laptop gave us in January, we haven't even had time to write about everything we experienced when we were still living in the Mount. So today's blog post will take us back to the first few days of this year and the road trip we did back then.

Our primary destination was the East Coast (of the North Island); the cities of Napier in Hawke's Bay and Gisborne in Poverty Bay, to be specific. We left from home on New Year's Day and spent four days in total touring this part of New Zealand.

We stayed two nights in Napier to begin with. On the way there we stopped in Rotorua, where Giigan went on the Rotorua Gondola and got some adrenaline kicks out of racing down the mountain side in what is called the Luge (a sealed downhill track on which you ride a three-wheeled cart with steering and brakes).

The gondola in Rotorua

Napier is one of the absolutely nicest towns we have visited in NZ. In 1931 an earthquake more or less leveled the city to the ground. At the same time huge areas that used to be seabed were lifted 2 metres above the sea level. This new land has, for instance, been used to build an airport. The city was rebuilt mainly in the Art Deco style, which gives it a classic look and feel. The architecture radiates adventure and creates a comfy atmosphere. The waterfront location of the town centre doesn't make it any worse either :-) It was also pleasant to notice that all the modern box-like buildings like giant supermarkets and department stores had been built outside the old town centre, and were thus effectively out of sight, but still easily reachable. Good street planning!

Art Deco in Napier

Hawke's Bay where Napier lies is the second largest wine producing region in the country and the principal region when it comes to red wine production. There are more than 30 wineries within a 30 minute drive from Napier. Most of them are open for cellar door sales and tastings. Some wineries even have restaurants or provide accommodation. If you have a car of your own it is an easy thing to tour some of the wineries. Simply collect the region's free winery guide from an i-site and drive to the cellar doors. Usually there is a nominal tasting fee, for which you may taste 4-8 different wines depending on which wines the winery have available for tasting for the moment. The downside of driving to the wineries yourself is, of course, that the driver needs to keep a rein on his consumption.

An alternative is to go on an organised wine tour. It's more expensive (but still not impossibly so) than driving around in your own car, but on the other hand no-one has to mind their drinking--I mean TASTING! Of course you're not drunk after touring four wineries, no, no, ehm...

JBB at the Ngatarawa winery, which used to be horse stables

Anyway, as this was the first wine producing region we had ever visited, we felt more comfortable with going on a real tour. The four hour afternoon tour took us to four wineries around Napier and included (besides the tastings) a cheese platter matched with a complimentary glass of wine. The wineries were Trinity Hill, Ngatarawa, Matariki and Moana Park. The wines of Ngatarawa were overall our favourites. Their Hawke's Bay Merlot and Merlot Cabernet would go excellently with game, whereas the Sauvignon Blanc made from Marlborough grapes lifts a cheese platter to entirely new heights. For those of you with a sweet tooth (like me) I recommend giving the Late Harvest Riesling a go. It's not overly sweet and has "a luscious palate of ripe mandarin with lingering flavours of dried apricots and honey" (at least that's what the tasting notes say).

The members of our wine tour enjoying the cheese platter and white wine at the Ngatarawa winery

The downside of going on an organised tour is that you can't choose the wineries yourself, but on the other hand, the guide is a professional and should thus be able to pick the good ones :-) The nice thing though, is that you may find interesting people on the same tour. Of the six other people on our tour two were, in fact, Finnish! We quickly befriended Jukka and Elina, who were in the same age as us. Elina is, like we are, on a working holiday in NZ, whereas Jukka was just visiting his friend. After the wine tour we challenged them to a game of mini golf with a round of beer in the pot (we were all kind of thirsty for something less wine-like after having sampled over 20 wines). Guess who won? ;-) It was fun talking Finnish in a group and to discuss the cultural differences we had encountered with someone sharing the same cultural background. Siinähän se ilta mukavasti pyörähti!

On our third day we left Napier in the morning and headed north along the curve of Hawke's Bay towards Gisborne.

On our way we strayed to the Te Urewera National Park. Besides vast stretches of rolling hills covered in untouched native forest, the national park is home to many lakes and rivers. Time allowing, we would have done some of the many walks in the area, but we had to settle for admiring the views.

Lake Waikaremoana in the Te Urewera National Park

Our flatmate Matt had recommended visiting the Mahia Peninsula south of Gisborne because of its beach. Despite the cloudy sky occasionally giving us a shower, we also strayed there. It turned out to be very fortunate, as there was a dolphin swimming with the people on the beach! We learned that the beach is its home, it's lonely and likes to swim with people. It's so tame, that it even lets you touch it. Giigan ventured into the cold-looking water and can now boast with having swum with a wild dolphin :-) He reported that its skin is very slimy and that its breathing sounds human.

Gisborne in Poverty Bay was a bit of a disappointment. Sure, the location is quite beautiful and there are endless miles of sandy beaches, but unless you're a surfer there isn't that much exciting to do. The city and the main street are a bit dull. There are, however, a lot of wineries around Gisborne too, but since we didn't have much time and we'd already done a wine tour recently we didn't go for it. Nevertheless, from a historical perspective, Gisborne is quite significant. It was in Poverty Bay that Captain James Cook stepped ashore in New Zealand as the first known European. The year was 1769. To commemorate this there is a statue of both Captain Cook and Young Nick, the boy who first sighted land on board the captain's ship, next to the beach in Gisborne.

Giigan striking a pose next to Captain Cook

All in all, it was once again a very successful road trip! The end of it also marked the end of our Christmas holidays. On Monday 5th January we both had to go back to work. As usual, you can access MORE PICTURES from this part of our journey by clicking this link.

Culture shock!

Some things in a culture you can touch and get an understanding of by reading, listening and seeing. You can watch movies, go to sports events, listen to music, read books and participate in cultural happenings. Often these experiences can remain quite shallow and only brush the surface of the culture. This is what tourists are usually fed and all that tourists usually are able to get into. It's a shame, but nevertheless the truth. We've all been subject to this "Samsonite" -rule and will undoubtedly be so quite frequently in the future too.

Sometimes, however, you will have the opportunity to experience something truly remarkable. Something the Lonely Planets and information sites won't tell you exists. Something culturally specific that you have to experience together with locals in order to fully understand and appreciate it.

Drinking a crate of beer in a day is one of these things.

Crate Day (the name this social event is known by in the land of the Kiwis) is a full day drinking party Uni guys usually put together after the last exams before the holidays. The objective of each and every one is to drink a crate of beer. Crates in NZ only hold 12 beers, BUT, they each contain a wine bottle's worth of liquid. This translates to 27 bottles of Finnish Karhu or Lapin Kulta!

Showing our appreciation of our host

Our flatmate and host Matt arranged such a party in the days between Christmas and New Year's Eve, and invited us so we could have a true Kiwi experience. We won't go into all the details here, but suffice it to say, that of us six participants, two reached the bottoms of all their bottles (we made sure no Finn needs to be ashamed of us). Some, in their attempts to succeed, had to use the only lifeline available: TY (tee-why = tactical yak). As Finns we were quite shocked and surprised by this behaviour solely demonstrated by our Kiwi fellows. Well, whatever floats your boat matey!

Cheers!

The next day, after this extraordinary experience, we continued our plunge into all things Kiwiana by driving to Hamilton to watch a game of cricket between the Blackcaps and the West Indies. Or rather, to sit on the lawn in scorching sunlight drinking beers and enjoying the festive atmosphere. At times it felt like watching the actual game was secondary to having a good time in the group and cheering at the right moments. Nothing wrong with that, it was fun :-)

The 20-20 cricket game

Exhausted after these intense two days, it's only natural that the sofa and the TV at home felt rather appealing. Even here we didn't escape further exposure to this wonderful culture we are living amidst. There is a side to this country we haven't seen or got in touch with much. New Zealand is, after all, not only populated by Europeans. The Maoris have had to adapt to all things, good and bad, that the pakeha brought with them. Alcohol is without a doubt one of the vile things, as all native people have suffered profusely due to its effects on their societies. Once Were Warriors directed by the kiwi Lee Tamahori is an touching movie telling a story about poverty, alcoholism and family violence. We warmly recommend it for all NZ visitors, or why not for everyone?

We spent New Year's Eve in the Mount. After dusk the beach filled up with thousands and thousands of people. Two stages provided entertainment for the masses, while hastily erected stalls sold drinks and food for the party crowd (no alcohol was allowed in public places, including the beach). At midnight thousands of voices chanted the countdown and watched the fireworks go off from nearby Moturiki Island.

Among the first in the world, we greeted the new year 2009 in.

Happy New Year's!

MORE PICTURES from this adventure available here.

Kiwifruit orchard work and volcano climbing

After a good conversation how we should save the world we have decided that we don't publish any more "propaganda" here in our blog (JBB: we'll see about that...). Its perfectly OK to be serious, but the main thing in our OE isn't that. (OE=overseas experience. It's common among Kiwis to do OE.)

Yeah, back to normal life without any concern how the world is struggling with tough economical times and how the human behavior affects the climate change.. Life with full of adventures, even the past working period with pool parties, barbecues, new mates and much more.. Difficult mathematical formula says that this equation provide us an answer: Good times.

Juliano and Pagaloa our work supervisors.

After a farm job that did not end so well (where is the irony) I started working in a kiwifruit orchard. Kiwifruits grow as vines similar to grapevine and before they are ready to sent to markets all over the world (including Finland) there is all sorts of things to do. Including canopy training (leaders training), pruning and girdling (tree barking). Quite easy to learn and very common among travelers, because the work is seasonal and doesn't provide locals work around the year.

As any work of this kind, it's not about the work but the workmates and of course the boss. I was lucky and our boss Graig was great. He invited us to spend evenings in his house, buying the beers and the barbecue food.. Just to get us to enjoy ourselves and do better work! Our work group consisted of Brazilian, German (basically you can find Germans everywhere you go) and British workers. Most of my time I spent with the Brazilians. They were quite funny and now I can speak some Portuguese - all the unnecessary words which you can't use in public. I also participated in Brazilian parties and now I know what Brazilian barbeque means - lots of fat and salt!

Marcus our Brazilian chef.

Pictures from the kiwifruit orchard and the Brazilian barbeque are available by CLICKING HERE.

But now back to the adventure part.. After we left lovely Mt Maunganui behind on Saturday 24th January we headed to the west coast to a city called New Plymouth. The city wasn't anything special, but it lies at the foot of the very impressive volcano Mt Taranaki! The summit of the volcano is 2518 m above sea level, and of course our plan was to conquer it.

Sunset from New Plymouth. Mt Taranaki on the left.

On Sunday we woke up early and went about it with gusto despite of the misfortunes of the previous night: we had forgotten that the kitchens in some hostels close for the night, so when we intended to make some pasta for supper we discovered that it wasn't possible any more... We had to settle for JBB's favorite food instead (who can guess what?)

The summit walk starts in North Egmont half an hour's drive from New Plymouth. North Egmont lies at an altitude of 940 m, so there is almost 1,6 km to climb to the peak of Mt Taranaki. The trek may only be 13 km in length (return), but real climbing is involved, not just walking along stairs (like the Tongariro Crossing in general). The summit climb turned out to be considerably harder than the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, however, the views were not as spectacular in spite of the fabulous weather favouring us once again. (Not to say that there was anything to complain about the views; they were remarkable in their own ways, just not as good as in the Tongariro National Park.)

This was the easiest part of the climbing.

The feeling of achievement at the summit (and once we got down to our car again) was incredible. Never had we attempted and succeeded in anything like it. All guide books we've read say you need to be "very fit" for the climb and that it usually takes 6-8 hours in the summer. We finished in 6 hours and 15 minutes (including breaks), which we are quite satisfied with. But oh-my-god our legs and feet were killing us at the end, the rest of the day, the next day, and the day after :)

We did it!

Next time we have to aim for something even higher and more challenging... And if you want to enjoy our trip more, there is as usual MORE PICTURES available...