Goodbye South Island

We spent Friday morning and afternoon in Picton, both killing time before catching the evening ferry and checking out the Marlborough Sounds again. We took a scenic drive past Waikawa Bay. Below are some pictures of the region, which is truly breathtaking.

Tonight we are off to the North Island to spend the weekend in Wellington! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the States! We hope everyone is enjoying the turkey that doesn't really exist here unless you are willing to pay a fortune!

Blenheim

Blenheim lies in the heart of New Zealand's Marlborough wine country, so we decided it would be the perfect place to celebrate our second anniversary. This region is heavily celebrated as producing the best wine in New Zealand. On Thursday, we took a full day wine tour to check for ourselves. Below are some pictures from one of the cellars. These wines are kept only for testing, not for sale.


We were lucky to be with a great (all Irish) group and even luckier to have a fantastic tour guide, Chris, who turned out to be the sister of Glenda Davis (one of our WWOOFing hosts in Queenstown). What are the odds!?


The Marlborough region claims to grow the best Sauvignon Blanc grapes in the world. We are allowed to bring three bottles each back to the U.S. for Christmas. We thought they were excellent but a few wineries into the tour everything tasted pretty good! We will decide at Christmas!

Kaikoura

We spent Tuesday night in a beautiful little town called Kaikoura. Our accommodation was an extremely nice, friendly hostel where, apart from one English woman, all of our fellow guests hailed from Germany.

Like many coastal towns, Kaikoura has a gorgeous beach.

Hanmer Springs

On Monday afternoon, we soaked our tired selves in the warm mineral waters of the Hanmer Springs Thermal Reserve. Sorry, but we were far to relaxed to take pictures. Plus, little old ladies and Europeans in tiny swimsuits tend to be a little camera shy.

We went for a hike before we left on Tuesday. The Waterfall Track was a beautiful hike through both native and exotic forest (it's weird when pine trees are called exotic), which, as the name promised, brought us to the magnificent 41 meter (133 foot) Dog Stream Waterfall.

Christchurch

Christchurch is the second or third largest city in New Zealand (depending on how you count). After four weeks of circling the South Island, Christchurch felt like a booming metropolis, and we decided to spend a few days doing city things. We checked out the Christchurch Art Gallery, local markets, and explored the city streets. Here are some pictures of the Christchurch Cathedral and some of its famous stained glass windows.

On Sunday, we went to the International Antarctic Center. Christchurch is the gateway to Antarctica for most countries that do research on the frozen continent (including the U.S.).

Here we are in a simulated Antarctic environment (minus the penguins). Steve is operating a machine that makes the wind chill a reality.


Steve took a ride down an Antarctic ice slide, while Vicky hid out in the igloo.

The Christchurch area is also known for some of the best rock climbing in New Zealand. Unfortunately, the cold and rain kept us inside for most of our stay. The weather finally cleared up on Monday, the day we were leaving, so we decided to delay our departure and spend the morning climbing (sorry, no pictures). Then we headed off for Hanmer Springs.

Up the East Coast

We spent the night in Dunedin, a beautiful little university city with a lot of British influence. Dunedin is the home of one of the South Island’s most tempting attractions: Cadbury’s Chocolate Factory. It was just like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory except instead of Oompa Loompas, they use Kiwis (also from a tiny island in the middle of nowhere). Below is a picture of the front of the factory (no cameras were allowed inside to protect top secret chocolate making techniques, we really should not even be talking about it)!

Before we went in, we had to cover our hair – all of it.
Sufficiently stuffed with chocolate, we continued north. We stopped at Shag Point to check out some more New Zealand Fur Seals.

From there, we headed up to Oamaru to spend Thursday night, a city whose main claim to fame are the hundreds of penguins that spend the night there (a la Phillip Island in Australia Valerie and Steve C.). We watched the little (10” tall) blue penguins swim ashore and (very tentatively) make their way up the beach and into the bushes. They do this every night, but weren’t very good at it. It took some of them about an hour to make the fifty-yard trip. We were not allowed to photograph the penguins coming ashore, but we snapped a shot of these little guys on the road on our way home. They were lost.

From Oamaru we drove to Christchurch on a very rainy Friday. We took the scenic route but could not see much because of the rain. This is what cancelled our plans to go to Mt. Cook. We saw it from the West Coast so we aren't too stressed. We will spend the weekend exploring Christchurch before heading north early Monday!

The Southern Scenic Route (Southland)

From Milford we headed south about as far as we possibly could without hopping on a flight to Antarctica. On Wednesday, we had lunch in Invercargill, the southernmost city in the world (depending on whom you ask) and checked out the amazing Queens Park. The best part of the park was the amazing playground with all kinds of dangerous looking toys that lawyers in the U.S. would have a field day with. Below is a picture of Steve on the verge of a head injury and Vicky on a swing definitely meant for those shorter than four feet.

Then we followed the south coast on the Southern Scenic Route, making a few stops on the way. Out of pure curiosity, we tried to chase down a waterfall on our map called Niagara Falls. We failed – we’ve got one of those on our continent anyway. We also stopped at a petrified forest. Here we are sitting on a 180 million year fossilized log from the Jurassic Period.

Milford Sound

Milford Sound is actually misnamed. It is a fiord carved out by glaciers. Many call Milford the most beautiful and iconic place in New Zealand. Even after such a buildup, it did not disappoint.

Half of the Milford Sound adventure is getting there. On the road to Milford we wound our way through and around dozens of steep-sided (some nearly 90-degrees), snow-capped peaks with innumerable waterfalls cascading thousands of feet down. We passed through Homer’s Tunnel, a kilometer long, unlit death trap with exposed rock walls and a dirt road surface. The route was definitely our most scenic and exciting drive yet. Unfortunately, it was like the Grand Canyon – too big to photograph well, so you’ll have to take our word for it.

Milford Sound was equally amazing. We decided to see it best we’d have to get out on the water so we signed up for a two hour cruise that took us through the Sound (fiord) out to the Tasman Sea and back. Below are some pictures from the boat ride. There were so many great pictures it was difficult for us to narrow it down!

Milford Sound resembles a flooded Yosemite Valley. Mountains rise steeply right up out of the water. Some are as high as 8000 feet. That’s a bigger vertical drop than just about anything we’ve got in Colorado! Our boat driver decided to wash the windows in this 500-foot waterfall.

Above is a picture from the end of the journey: the Tasman Sea. This was an exciting U-Turn! If we would have kept going for six days, we would have hit Tasmania (in Australia).

Onward!

Tuesday morning we headed out of Queenstown to Milford Sound after a little dead car-battery debacle (Vicky’s fault not the Cyclone's). We will miss vineyard life! Thank you again, Glenda and Russell, for being such gracious hosts!

Several people have asked us if we are going back to the sheep farm and we are happy to report we are going back for weaning, shearing, and shipping in early December! Yea!

Queenstown Hill

On Sunday morning we went for a little hike and some climbing at Queenstown Hill, just outside of town (the trailhead is actually in town). It was a little chilly but the view was definitely worth it!

Tennessee Reunion

Last night we had dinner with DH and Barbara Johnson from Knoxville! They have been in NZ for a few weeks and we are finally in the same place. It was great to hear a familiar accent and share travel tales.

Mount Roy

Friday was so lovely that we decided to go for a day hike. We had grand aspirations to hike to the Rob Roy glacier outside of Wanaka. However, we found that in order to get to the trailhead we had to cross over about 8 fords, all of which the water was pretty high because of recent snowfall. There was a girl coming back in a car similar to ours (but looked much more reliable) and she said she did it but got a flat tire. We figured the Cyclone would never make it and looked for alternative plans for the day.

We found Mount Roy closer to Wanaka. It offers panoramic views of the area (including the “mountain” we climbed earlier in the week, Rocky Mountain, which is actually much closer to a hill). This was quite a reward after the quite steep 3-mile ascent. Below are pictures from the top!

We also met our second set of Americans, proving the theory that if there is a nice view, a lake, and mountains, Americans will be there!

Vineyard Life

We are having a fantastic time here at the vineyard. This is a small operation and they do not make any wines themselves, but rather sell the grapes to a larger vineyard down the road. The grapes grown are Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir and Riesling. We hear that Otago Pinot Noir is the best and hope to bring some home for Christmas if possible (both Vicky and Aunt Vicky enjoy Pinot Noir very much)! There is not a ton of work to be done but our wonderful hosts; Glenda and Russell are doing their best to keep us busy!

Through the week we worked moving wiring down so that the recently pruned vines can grow through and did some “layering.” Layering entails using the long tendrils of some of the vines to start new vines. We trim off most of the lower buds, dig a hole to place the bend (we bend this tendril in a U shape), and place a rock on top to keep it down. Then we fill in the hole, place a plastic protector around the base, and tie the top to the closest wire so that hopefully this plant will take and be clipped from its parent at a later time, creating a new vine. It is interesting work!

We experienced some of the region’s famed crazy weather as well. On Tuesday, it was so warm and sunny that we were quite hot when climbing. Then on Wednesday, it snowed! Below are some pictures of the vineyard when it was snowing and then the next morning with fresh snow on the distant mountains. These are ski mountains and look much more so now!


Finally, the sunset on Friday...