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
