Month: March 2025

We left the Blue Penguins and drove to Christchurch. A pretty town with the river Avon flowing through it. We hiked for a number of miles along the river enjoying botanical gardens along the way. We then set off for Nelson, not sure how far we would want to drive in one day. A scenic drive mixed with one lane bridges and very narrow roads at times but we did make it to Nelson. We found open lodging, explored downtown a bit and retired early. We were off after breakfast to Marahau where our water taxi embarked along the coast. We arrived early luckily as we weren’t sure where the operator was. We boarded the boat and road-boated to our launch site. A great ride in the taxi. The water was flat with no wind. We arrived at Anchorage Bay to start our hike back. The guide recommended adding on a trip to Cleopatra’s pool which we did. I was amazingly out of breath with our uphill portions and was eventually begging for downhill I don’t know if it is this recent cold I’ve had or just generally out of shape this quick.

The Coastal Trail is beautiful and well marked. We made it down to the beach for lunch. Enjoyed our sandwich and beers and shared a few dropped Pringles with the flightless Weka’s, who were very curious and unafraid.

We made it back to Nelson in the early evening and had a nice dinner at Lombard’s in the central part of town. We visited several wineries in Marlborough the following day. Nautilus was our first. We tried several whites all ok but not great. We drove a short way to Allan Scott winery to have lunch. The Cellar Door consisted of a number of cabinets with wines inside. You received a payment card and selected each wine to taste. Unfortunately no wine info given so just read the labels and looked at the prices. Not the best wine tasting experience but we did see this same type of thing in Bordeaux when we were there a couple years ago. I hope it doesn’t catch on. We had lunch outside at the winery which was pretty good. I had a raw salmon salad and Katie had just some sides of brussel sprouts and fries. Yum. We managed one more winery before our flight to Wellington. That was Cloudy Bay, a big production place with a large Napa like tasting room. Our server was from France as many are and we had a terrific tasting here. It was a little squirrelly dropping off the car as no one was around the small airport in Blenheim. I eventually called the company who had me just leave the cars in the parking lot and drop the keys off in a box in the airport. I haven’t seen any extra charges for the car yet but I am waiting

We flew from Blenheim to Wellington on a 10 seater prop plane. Quick flight but a bit bumpy coming into Wellington. I had no idea Wellington has been objectively identified as the world’s windiest city. After 3 days of walking 7-8 miles miles around town, I would not argue that. We stumbled into a Homegrown music festival downtown, 3 stages of various genres and thousands of parties streaming all about. We walked around the bay and were a little surprised to see swimmers out in the water. I guess if you grow up thinking the water is warm, well OK. We rode the cable car up the hill to a lovely park and walked back to our hotel. We spent the rest of our time seeking homegrown craft beer. Never as hoppy or as dank as US IPA’s but many were good.

we picked up a car and drove north to Napier. A lovely drive in the green rolling hills quilted with sheep, cows, horses, and orchards. Clear cut forests with uniform stands of pines in a grid pattern. Our goal was Hawke’s Bay, known for red wine other than Pinot. We stopped in Hastings to the Decibel Winery cellar door. Holly served us some of their fun wines. The owner/winemaker is a fellow named Daniel Brennan from Philadelphia. He came from Philly some 20 years ago leaving not only his punk rock band but his families very popular Irish Tavern to open a winery in New Zealand. Since then he has grown a reputation for his Pinot, his first love, but his variety of Malbecs. We talked a little with him but Holly was his main number 2 and she was fantastic. The wines were fun though not great. We drove a short ways to Craggy Range Winery to have lunch. This was a well built up cellar door and restaurant much like Napa. Our lunch was fantastic. I had a salad of summer veggies and homemade falafel and we both had their short ribs. Delicious.! Finally, we had heard of an area called Gimblett Gravels, noted for their robust reds. We visited Trinity Hills there and sampled quite a few Syrahs, Blends, and a Cab. Some sell for $150NZ. We thought some were OK. The Merlot tasted nothing like a Merlot and most of the Syrahs were thin lacking in any fruit. Snobs!  We’ve tried many craft beers in New Zealand. Some were pretty good but nothing close to the hoppy, dank US iPA’s. Snobs!

Well, we are now waiting our business class flight to Perth, sipping Champagne in the Air New Zealand lounge. Snobs!!

Well, we had an easy day of travel, utilizing the lounge of the partner of Air New Zealand prior to boarding. I was definitely shocked by the seating layout on Air New Zealand. The seats were narrow and a flail to get them lie flat. Probably not worth that much extra money but service was great, food was good and the flight did pass pretty quickly. Nobody took off their clothes running up and down the aisle though we did return to gate for a medical issue with one of the onboard staff.

We arrived in the evening of the next day though the flight was 9 hours. We Ubered to our hotel which turned out well located in Auckland. Katie and I walked around a lot and we were able to cover pretty much all we wanted to see. We jumped on a ferry to Waiheke Island the next day and enjoyed spectacular views of the departing city and the many surrounding islands.

We hiked to Cable Bay Winery once off the boat and mixed together a custom tasting for us, skipping a number of whites and Pinots. They were very nice. Notably, all the help were from foreign lands. That seemed to be a common theme during our visit both in restaurants and wineries. I think our custom tasting of their best wines came out to maybe $20 each.

We hiked over to a small beach town for lunch. The island has many accessible white sand beaches and a few surf type towns. Nice vibes for sure. We caught a public bus across the island to Tantalus Winery. Apparently it is one of the more famous in the area. Again our server was foreign, coming from the Bordeaux region of France. He was trained as a sommelier and was now exploring different wine regions. We did some custom changes on their high end menus and again it was 20ish dollars apiece. Wines here were better but nothing that we wanted to buy. Bus back to ferry and ferry back to port. At sunset we treated ourselves to gin and tonics at a rooftop bar called Churchill’s. Great sunset views overlooking the city.

The following day Katie felt she was getting my cold from 3 weeks before, what? We walked about 7-8 miles around town seeing Ponsonby and Parnell neighborhoods as well as several parks including the Auckland Domain which is a terrific park close to downtown. We managed to sample some beers at a beer cooperative along with some fish and chips. We thought we would manage something that night but we both felt exhausted falling asleep pretty early.

Our flight to Queenstown in the am left at 6:40 so we were up very early. Both of us now felt sick, so I think it was our time in business class that got us. Karma, should have flown riff-raff. We Ubered to our hotel to drop our bags off, then walked to downtown. We rode the gondola up above the city and then hiked out on the Ben Lomond track

We hiked about 7 miles this day and barely dragged ourselves to a brewpub in town for a short rib burger and a couple of IPA’s. They let us checkin at our lodging slightly early and we proceeded to collapse for a 2 hour nap. We rallied for a walk into town at sunset discovering one of the best ice cream stores on the planet. I may have been hungry and feverish, but…it was that good. The name is Patagonia Creamery and Chocolatier’s. Fantastic and spoiler alert, we went there the next night too! Our lodging had a hot tub so we spent our final awake hours simmering.

We got up a little early the next day to catch our tour bus to Milford Sound. It was a scenic trip to the sound though I was feverish and slept several hours of it. The boat on the sound was a huge new catamaran which went out to the ocean fast (against the strong wind), then slowly back. We saw multiple waterfalls, seals and several dolphins swimming in front of the boat.

The journey home was unbearable. Both of us sick and a 4 1/2 hour bus ride that seemed to go on forever. We did get dropped off in town and then, more ice cream. In the am, I rode out to the airport to pick up my car. Drove back trying to feel good about being on the wrong side of the road and ignoring the windshield wipers as I kept using them to signal my turns. 2 days later that hasn’t got much better. We drove over to Dunedin on the coast. We managed to catch a personal tour at the Royal Albatross Centre which is at the end of the Otago Peninsula. We saw 5 baby albatross in their modest nests, waiting for their parents to bring them food. After hiking about a bit, here came 4-5 huge Albatross soaring through the sky. They have 8-9 foot wingspans and typically just ride the wind. They don’t like to flap too much. Once the baby is old enough, like 8 months or so they take off from the Otago Peninsula and fly to the coast of Chile! They return after a number of years to breed.

Stayed overnight in Dunedin then drove less than 2 hours to Oamaru where a Blue Pelican Colony was located. We did a lovely hike in the town’s Glen Warren Reserve and stopped along the wat to eat out sandwiches, drink our beer and soak in the views. We checked into our bed and breakfast which was built in the early 1900’s

We managed a hike up to lookout point and then down. Like in Dunedin’s Signal Hill area, there are well defined, marked, and graded mountain bike trails everywhere. Most have banked turns, built in jumps and other added on technical features. All maintained by local volunteers. After Lookout Point we followed the trails down into town only to discover….a brewpub just 2 blocks from our house. That evening we were out to view the Blue Penguins come in from the sea. That night was the first notable rain of our trip! The viewing area was covered so we were all good. Over 100 penguins came in that night in different groups. So funny to watch them climb or hop up the rocks and scurry across any open section. We left Oamaru the next morning and ventured on to Christchurch where I am tonight. We visited the International Antarctic Centre where we rode in a Hagglund, (look it up), watched Blue Penguins get fed, met some Huskies, and generally learned about life in Antartica. We have since checked into our lodging which includes a W/D so we are doing clothes. Til the second week ends. Kia Ora

Well, we have begun are trip to the down under. A stop on O’ahu for a week has gotten us on the right path. Tans have begun. The liver is cranking up and we are slowly adapting to the time changes.

We stayed in Waikīkī which turned out to probably be a mistake. I thought we would partake in some of the nightlife downtown but that was really never the case. One we never could find good local musicians playing in a club or bar and two we were just too tired to stay up! We traveled to all corners of O’ahu in our car but always paid the price coming back into town with bumper to bumper traffic. We are just not used to this congestion in Hawaii.

We have had great weather during our stay. We found some great beaches on the Kailua side as well as North shore and Yesterday on the west shore at electric beach. Some of the best snorkeling has been off shore from an electric power plant. Quite a few eels and turtles mixed in with a good variety of tropical fish. A group of some 3o spinner dolphins were playing just off the beach on and off for the afternoon. We’ve managed a few minor hikes but not nearly as much as planned. TheBeach just kept calling.

Today we are saying goodbye to Hawaii. Tomorrow we say hello to New Zealand