Glaciers, golf and good times

The blog has almost caught up with current events, there is just one road trip to tell you guys about, and then we're finally done with all the old stuff! The road trip in question lasted for 10 days, started in Christchurch and ended in Queenstown, and had three passengers besides myself: Giigan and our newlywed good friends Juuso and Eeva. They opted for a slightly different honeymoon: no isolated pacific island resort for them, instead they flew all the way to NZ to visit us, which we appreciated a lot since we couldn't attend the wedding.

Queenstown - who wouldn't want to gaze upon a sight so breathtaking on their honeymoon?

The planning of the road trip was more or less entirely in the hands of me and Giigan (the bride and groom naturally busy with preparations for the ceremony and subsequent celebrations), and we tried our best to combine attractions we hadn't seen ourselves before, but still keeping the standard top-notch.

In hindsight, I think we can say that we succeeded and even surpassed the expectations. At least a terrible feeling of nostalgia swept over both myself and Giigan as our dear guests finally had to return home. But I should not get ahead of myself; there's 10 action-packed days to walk you through before we reach the end! Since we did do a lot of stuff, I'm going to keep it as short as possible, but still split the story into two blog posts in order to avoid the birth of an essay out of this.

Right, so part one is hereby commencing.

After nearly 40 non-stop hours in an airplane, Juuso and Eeva arrived in Christchurch on 24th March. Needless to say, they were feeling tired, dirty (NOT that kind of dirty!) and unfortunately, feeling the symptoms of an emerging flu. The comforts of the suite d'Amour we had booked for them at a hotel in Christchurch for the first night were undoubtedly much appreciated, even though the complementary bottle of sparkling had to be saved for later use. Most of this first day we just spent catching up and then going early to bed, since we had an early departure the next morning.

Day 1 of the actual road trip consisted of driving most of the day, destination the Franz Josef glacier on the West Coast. Once there Giigan, Eeva and I went to have a look-see at the retreating glacier, while Juuso felt too drained to make it out of our motel room. Both the Franz Josef glacier and the nearby Fox glacier (which all four of us got to see the following day) were very impressive, alas global warming doesn't bode well for them.

Juuso and Eeva in front of the Fox glacier terminus.

Day 2 was intentionally also a day of much driving as we continued south along the coast until the road cut inland towards Wanaka. We did have time to stop at a few places along the way. Fox glacier was one of them, as well as Lake Matheson, across which you can have splendid views of Mt Cook/Aoraki and the glacier on a clear day. From the beach at Ship Creek we got to admire the acrobatic skills of a large pod of dolphins, and in Haast we enjoyed a traditional lunch consisting of fish 'n' chips.

Our accommodation in Wanaka was superb: a modern apartment with a double and a twin bedroom, a large living room and a more than passable kitchen. We stayed for two nights and got to take full benefit of our temporary home the next day as it was raining most of the time. We did go to the Rippon vineyard for wine tasting and a game of GolfCross, but we had to suspend play after only three holes. In short, GolfCross is a Kiwi invention which is basically like golf, but the ball is in the shape of a rugby ball and there are goals instead of holes. The objective is to hit the mini-rugby-golf-ball through the goal using the least amount of shots possible. Because of the shape of the ball, you can in fact control the trajectory, spin and fade/draw of the ball like you were a pro by just adjusting the angle and rotation of the ball on top of the tee (all shots are made from tees).

Eeva teeing off on the GolfCross course. A goal can be seen to the right in the background.

While the rain was pouring down the rest of the day, Giigan and I prepared a four course dinner for the evening. How does strawberries, brie and Moët & Chandon champagne sound for starters? The rest of the menu was a bit more arduous for us chefs though.

Strawberries, brie and champagne for starters.

The morning of day 4 saw us teeing off on the Wanaka Golf Course - a lovely course in the middle of some astonishing scenery, you'll no doubt concur. After a pleasant game devoid of any serious injuries, although the new Mrs tried very hard to have her arm pulled out of its socket during two shots, we continued to Queenstown.

View across Wanaka from the golf course.

We spent two nights there. An eight bed dorm at the YHA Lakefront hostel sufficed to us backpackers, while the newlyweds occupied a suite in the "slightly" more luxurious Hotel St Moritz. Since our guests were curious about life in a hostel, we arranged an excursion to the lovely premises. Coffee and tee was included in the tour. Satisfaction wasn't guaranteed though, as one participant made the (to us) hilarious comment: "I couldn't live in a hostel anymore". Luckily for him, there are places that have dropped the "s". :-D

The excursion wasn't, however, our main activity in Queenstown. On day 5 we rode the gondola under a spotless blue sky to the complex on Bob's Peak. The views of the Remarkables mountain range and Lake Wakatipu from there are unsurpassed. Just like in Rotorua, there is a luge track at the top of the gondola. We had great fun racing each other down the sealed track propelled by gravity alone.

Giigan on the Luge. The Remarkables mountain range in the distance.

Check the PHOTO GALLERY for more pictures and a more detailed narration of the first half of the road trip. And stay tuned for the second half which will be published within a couple of days or so.

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.