A Quick Note

I was so good at posting regularly and then it all just stopped!  I promise this wasn't just due to laziness.  Mere hours after posting the final Christmas Vacation post, I might have accidentally deleted EVERY SINGLE picture we'd taken since November from ALL of our hard drives (including all 3000+ Christmas Vacation photos).  I was in the process of copying the pictures to the external hard drive that we keep at work (just in case something happens to our apartment), and somehow managed to DELETE EVERYTHING FROM EVERYWHERE - and yelling "No! No! No! Stop!" at the computer a the top of my lungs at 11pm didn't fix a thing!

Fortunately, as I lay immobilised from shock on the living room floor, Rob managed to figure out a way to get them all back.  It cost us $70 in recovery software and hours of stress, but I'd say it was well worth it.  Either way, I've been a little computer shy since it happened. But everything is now backed up in multiple places (3-4 to be exact) and I am slowly regaining my computer confidence.

In other news - as I was repenting the error of my ways, I had a bit of time to reflect on my computer usage, and long story short, have decided to dial back the amount of information I share via Facebook.  Therefore, blog updates will no longer be posted there, and after a couple weeks I'll remove any past links to the blog.

Fear not! The blog will continue as always (which is to say, sometimes updated regularly and other times more erratically), but I just won't be posting links to Facebook whenever there's a new post.  So be sure to bookmark the address before it disappears for good!  You can also subscribe to the blog via email and follow me on Instagram (where I'm EmJayPow), which seems to be all the best parts of Facebook without all the bullshit. I'll put the blog link in my Instagram profile and maybe put some updates on there? 

Christmas Vacation - Part VI: Otago

We made it - seven posts and one month after our return, the final Christmas Vacation post is here!

We left Akaroa well-rested and looking forward to spending a few days heading South toward our final destination - Dunedin. Dunedin has a whopping 126,000 people, over 20% of whom are students at the University of Otago, so it has a bit of a college town vibe - but in the best way possible! But more on that later....

Our first stop was the town of Ashburton, home to the world's most famous spinning wheels. I don't spin (don't have the hands for it), but they had plenty of other goodies for me to check out - along with a cafe for Rob to hang out in while I browsed.

I have been waiting to go here since we moved to New Zealand - it's pretty magical!

The drive to Dunedin was 6 hours, so we decided to break it up and spend a night in Oamaru (population 13,650). Oamaru is famous for its Blue Penguin colony, its Whitestone Cheese Factory and for being the Steampunk capital of New Zealand.  We had our fill of penguins in Pohatu, so headed to the Steampunk HQ, which was odd, to say the least.

Outside of Steampunk HQ

Inside Steampunk HQ - I don't really understand what's happening in here, but it was a good way to kill an hour.  The Infinity Room (pictured in the top right) was actually pretty cool, but there's no good way to describe it.

The next morning marked the beginning of a no good, very bad day. Now you may be wondering how a day that starts at a cheese factory could possibly be bad, but it was where things started to go downhill. The cheese factory's "legendary cheesecake" turned out to be lemon flavoured, which I'm allergic to and is gross.

Top row: That cheesecake is taunting you! Bottom row: The one high point in an otherwise crappy day - the tasting room at the Emerson's brewery in Dunedin.

Sighseeing in Dunedin, which is known for its Victorian architecture.

Over the next 12 hours:

• My favourite knitting needles broke after I slammed them in a door. They're super pricey, but nothing else can compare to them. None of this matters because they're not sold in New Zealand, so replacing them is probably not in the cards anytime soon.
• We had to walk nearly 2 miles to find replacement knitting needles, and they didn't have the right size.
• It started raining while we were walking back from the brewery.
• The restaurant we reserved dinner at lost our reservations and told us it would be an hour wait.
• The food at the restaurant we went to instead was inedible, and the waitress was incredibly rude.

None of this seems too terrible writing it all out, but it was made so much worse by what happened as we were leaving the cheese factory - I pulled my green sunglasses out of my purse only to find the frames had snapped!  I bought them for St. Patrick's Day 2013 for $10 at Claire's, so it was probably only a matter of time, but that didn't make it any less devastating. 

In memoriam - RIP green sunnies. You will be sorely missed.

By the time my no-good, very bad day rolled around, I was exhausted and ready to get home. As a reminder, I spent three weeks travelling back and forth from Sydney, only to arrive back in Auckland the day before we left for our Christmas Vacation trip. At this point, I'd slept in 18 different beds in just five weeks. I love travelling, and I know how lucky I am to have these problems, but I also learned what my limit is, and that's 18 beds in 5 weeks!

The next day was the last day of our trip, and we headed out to spend the day at the Otago Peninsula before catching our evening flight back to Auckland.

First up - the Royal Albatross Centre! It is not raining and I am not afraid of sun, but I am protecting myself from bird droppings - which you would do too if you'd been pooped on as many times as I have!

The Larnach Castle on Otago Peninsula - built by some crazy rich banker in the 1880s. The castle fell into disrepair and then was restored by a single family starting in the 1960s. The grounds are a great spot for a picnic.

Home.

Christmas Vacation - Part V: Pohatu Penguins

We were first interested in Akaroa because we read you could swim with dolphins, but they were completely booked, so we didn't think we had any other reason to go here.  However, as I was searching for dolphin swimming companies, I came across a blurb about Pohatu Penguins, which is a family owned company whose primary business is the running of a sheep farm that just so happens to be in the middle of a penguin colony.

Years ago, the family noticed that the Australian Little Penguins living in their bay were struggling, and started rescuing them. The New Zealand Department of Conservation now assists them, but the family is still primarily responsible for the rehabilitation and rescue of the penguin population in this area.

They have a number of different tours, but the one that attracted our attention was the Pohatu Package, which includes a sight-seeing drive out to Flea Bay (the unfortunately named bay where the farm is located), the option of a 2-3 hour hike through the bush, an evening penguin tour, one night's accommodation, and an optional 2-3 hour sea kayak trip the next morning. The price was cheaper than a night of just sleeping in a hotel, so we leaped at the chance!

Our stay at Pohatu ended up being one of the highlights of our entire trip! Our private cabin was in the middle of a sheep pasture, and sheep do not stop baa-ing at night, but we would go back tomorrow if we could.

Embedded videos don't work on mobile devices, but if you click on this sentence you'll be taken to a video of what it sounds like to stay on a sheep farm. Does anyone else think sheep kind of sound like some guy is yelling at you?

We have no affiliation with Pohatu Penguins nor were we paid to write this review - we are just very enthusiastic, pleased patrons!  Bottom right is overlooking the Akaroa Harbour - one of the prettiest we've ever seen!

An amazing waterfall we passed on our hike down to our lodging - very glad we didn't drive all the way down, but also very thirsty at this point. We thought we had a stop before our hike started, so didn't pack enough water. By the time we reached the waterfall (2 hours into the hike), we didn't care whether or not it was safe to drink.

Some views on our hike, including our home away from home on the right of the bottom right picture.

I am not ashamed to admit that I chased a sheep down for a good five minutes to get this picture. #mysheepmatchesmyshirt

Some of the rescue penguins. Rescue ranges anywhere from hand feeding penguins that need more personal rehabilitation to providing safe boxes along the shore where penguins can go to malt and umm... be romantic together.

Our little penguin watching hut - built so they can't see you and you don't spook them. This guy is a yellow eyed penguin.  The bottom left shot was taken through binoculars - pretty cool!

Sea kayaking through Flea Bay

The many, many seals we saw.  The top left picture was taken without zoom - Rob accidentally steered the kayak a bit too close for comfort, and shortly after this picture was taken , the seal started growling and hissing at us while our guide frantically warned us to paddle quickly away.

Christmas Vacation - Part IV: Canterbury on the East Coast

We arrived in Christchurch on the train on the evening of the 30th, and had one night out on the town before M had to fly back to San Francisco the following day. 

To give our time in Christchurch a bit of context, it's probably best to provide a bit of back story. Christchurch is the third most populous city in New Zealand (368,000 people) and the biggest city on the South Island. In the early hours of September 2010, it was hit by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake, weakening the city's infrastructure. At mid-day in February 2011, a 6.3 earthquake struck central Christchurch, devastating the city and killing 185 people. This event is a turning point in Christchurch (and New Zealand) history the way that 9/11 is in New York. 

We have been hearing about the earthquakes since we moved here - everything is pre-and post-earthquake, and the economy has been greatly affected by the rebuild. Everyone talks about all the historic buildings that were destroyed, particularly the Christchurch Cathedral. All that we've heard about it didn't prepare us for the extent of the destruction. We thought a few old buildings over a couple of blocks had been affected, but it was so much more than that.

According to Wikipedia, 1,000 of the 4,000 buildings downtown were initially expected to be demolished - including hotels, office buildings, homes, etc. Based on what we saw, many of those buildings are still yet to be demolished. Some of them look like they've been sitting untouched since February 2011 - including many restaurants. I wouldn't want to be on the demolition team that has to empty out those kitchens!  A big part of the problem is that New Zealand has such a small population that the resources aren't available to reconstruct the city at the rate you might expect, so if you know any builders, send them our way!

We spent three days in Christchurch, including New Year's. We were sad to see M leave that morning, and our sadness grew when we finally made it to check out downtown Christchurch (in the rain, no less). We had dinner near our hotel and then toasted with some Amisfield bubbles to ring in 2015. On New Year's Day we carried out our 5-year tradition of spending all day in bed watching TV before heading out to Lake Tekapo on the 2nd.

We were in Tekapo to check out the Mt. John Observatory on the Dark Sky Reserve, but once again, our plans were thwarted by the weather. Although it was a nice day, it was too cloudy to see anything, so we had to cancel our tour. We took advantage of our stop in Tekapo to do a horseback ride in the region, which played Edoras in the Lord of the Rings movies. It was supposed to be a 3.5 hour ride, but ended up being 4.5 hours - which is a lot of time to spend on a horse if your name isn't Aragorn or Eowyn.

Near the end of the ride, Rob's horse slipped on a beer can, spooked, and bucked. Rob fell off on the way back down, but thankfully wasn't hurt or too traumatised to get back on his horse.

After Tekapo we headed out to Akaroa (population 700), which is the only French settlement in New Zealand. It it a popular tourist spot, so has a better selection of activities and nice restaurants than its size might suggest.  We loved it so much we stayed for three nights, including one overnight on a sheep farm, which we'll tell you more about later!

Clockwise from top left: the Container Mall in downtown Christchurch - a quick construction solution; the old Christchurch cathedral, missing its steeple; the famous Cardboard Cathedral, a stunning example of Kiwi ingenuity; 185 white chairs in front of the CTV buildling, where 115 people were killed; Rob lighting a candle for Grump (in keeping with family tradition)

Top: Our new favourite bar, Volstead Trading Company; Bottom: New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

In Lake Tekapo.

Horseback riding - with a cookie stop at what appears to be a fairy ring.

I've been horseback riding in the US, Mexico, Switzerland and Jamaica, but this was the most stunning ride I've ever taken - we went through open plans, over mountains, around the lake, along the beach and back through some fields.

Top: On our horses; Bottom: our campsite in Akaroa

Akaroa - our new favourite town in New Zealand!

The Kiwi Bushman

As Megan mentioned in her recent Christmas Vacation Part III post, our heli-hike at the Franz Josef Glacier was cancelled over X-mas break, leaving Megan, M and I in search of a fun activity to fill our day. It was quite a scramble to find anything that wasn't already booked between the general busyness of glacier region during the holiday and the dozens of other travelers with cancelled hikes that day.

One activity which caught our eye was the Eco Rafting whitewater rafting day trips, but unfortunately we couldn't get anyone to pick up the office or mobile phone numbers provided; we even tried stopping at the i-Site, who kindly placed a few calls on our behalf with no joy. After wandering around for a bit, with all hope virtually lost, I decided to make one last attempt and called the Eco Rafting mobile ... and got through! The line had a lot of static, but I made out:

"We're out on the river right now! How many people do you have? What sizes are you? Okay, meet us in Hari Hari at the Pukeko Tea Room at 1:30, we'll be in the black 4x4." click 

Okay... says me. "Hey M&M, we're driving up to Hari Hari and going rafting!" So we hop in the car and drive 1 hour up to Hari Hari (pop. 348), locate the Pukeko Tearoom, and browse some light country reading (see below) while sunscreening up for for our rafting trip.

US friends: let me know if I can look into a subscription for you.

Right on schedule, the two fellas (Josh & Cam) pull up in their truck and immediately make quite an impression. Excellent beards and excellent chatter. Also excellent: learning how to play chicken on a one lane bridge, and close calls with puddle splashing hikers (don't worry, we stopped to chat with them about how we would have splashed them if the timing was right, but they got off lucky)!

We were pleasantly surprised to find that it was just going to be M, M and I on the river with the Josh's buddy, Cam, as our fearless leader. Josh is the owner of Eco Rafting, and would be driving the truck down to the end of the river to pick us up a few hours down the line at the end of our trip. As we got suited up, we heard from Cam about Josh's YouTube channel (and persona): Josh James Kiwi Bushman. A few highlights (there are many more on the YouTube page, encourage you to visit and subscribe):

Josh James the Kiwi Bushman:

"The old lady took the lads down to the local fishing hole and came back with this stonking great eel, Charlie insisted we eat it for dinner so I thought I would show you fullahs how to skin ye old Eel."

Our rafting guide, Cam, giving the Kiwi Bushman a hand with his gun review series:

Apparently Josh will be appearing on the Discovery Channel (or similar?) in 2015, so keep your eyes peeled!! (Definitely will highlight on this blog if it happens.)

Once out on the water, we hit a few decent rapids, but overall it was a reasonably tame trip (as we had been warned). These guys typically do much more exciting multi-day rafting and hunting trips, where you take a helicopter or drive into the deep bush and spend days making your way back out, but unfortunately we'll have to save that adventure for a later date! It was definitely an awesome day, and all the better due to our discovery of the Bushman. I know M is building up his legend back in the US and hopes to make it back for a long-haul trip at some point, which would undoubtedly be memorable. 

Top: low fog over Franz Josef Glacier, leading to our rafting trip. BL: Suiting up with Cam. BR: Heading into the river.

The Bushman winning at life.

The fog might have been low, but it was a perfect day out on the river. 

Christmas Vacation - Part III: West Coast Life

After D&L left, Rob, M and I left Queenstown and headed north to explore the South Island's West Coast, which is the most remote region of the country. The West Coast region takes up almost 10% of New Zealand's land, but has less than 1% of the population - which in a country of only 4.5 million people, means that this region only has 33,000 people. Many of the towns we passed through had populations of just a couple hundred people, and by the time we reached Greymouth (population 9,800), we felt like we were in a teeming metropolis. They even had a McDonalds!  Talk about bright lights, and the big city!

Our first stop was Wanaka, which is very similar to Queenstown in location and activities, but is not as globally famous. Instead, it's full of Kiwis who think Queenstown is a tourist trap, and it's a lovely town.

M said all he wanted was just to catch one fish in New Zealand, so we asked the owners of the campsite we were staying at for a recommendation. They gave us the number of a friend of the owner, and we headed out to do some trolling with a lead line on Lake Hawea (does it sound like I know what I'm talking about?). Between the three of us, we caught seven fish in three hours - six salmon (which we kept) and a trout. Our campsite had a place for us to clean our fish - complete with a fish smoker and some spices. Suffice to say, we feasted that night.

We each caught two fish - except Mark who caught three! Bottom right: Harry, our guide, administering the Judge to the salmon Mark caught.

Best dinner ever.

After Wanaka and Lake Hawea, we spent a full day driving through Haast (population 297) and up to Whataroa (population 405) through Franz Josef (population 330). National Geographic Traveller and Lonely Planet have labelled it one of the best drives in the world, but it was a bit lost on us, as it was so rainy and foggy we could barely see 10 metres ahead of us.

Top: Driving through Haast, a land without cell phone reception; Bottom left: Our hotel in Whataroa, which used to be a maternity hospital, and was just about as creepy as it sounds. When we woke up the bathroom sink was full of dead flies - this place is not at all haunted.

The next day we headed back to Franz Josef for the one activity we'd booked ahead of time - a heli-hike on Franz Josef glacier! Unfortunately, although it was a cracker of a day in the area surrounding Franz Josef, the glacier itself was covered in clouds, and it was too dangerous to fly - and there's no other way to get up there. The area was so packed with disappointed tourists that it was impossible to find an alternative activity. Thankfully, we managed to book a last minute rafting trip with the Kiwi Bushman, which Rob will tell you more about soon, as the Kiwi Bushman deserves his own post.

We stayed in Franz Josef that night in the hopes that we could hike the glacier the following day, but they were completely booked and it turned out to be even cloudier than the day before. Instead we went Quad Biking for a couple hours and then went to the Kiwi House so we could finally see a real live kiwi bird (no pictures allowed)!

Quad biking - much better than expected!

Lunch in Hokitika - sadly the Sock Machine Museum was closed until further notice.

Finally, we drove up to Greymouth through Hokitika (population 3,000) to sleep at a very noisy campsite before catching the TranzAlpine train to Christchurch, which is supposed to be one of the best train rides in the world. We even managed to fit in a Monteith's brewery tour before our train departed!

In case you've ever wondered what a keg looks like on the inside.

Aboard the TranzAlpine train - with a very important, helpful sign in the bathroom, just in case you needed instructions.

Views from the train.  Bottom left: This town Cass only has a population of one person (I'm not even sure what that means), but that one person has a mini golf course!

Christmas Vacation - Part IIA: Milford Sound

Of the 3,000+ pictures from Christmas Vacation, over 700 were from Milford Sound, and I'm still not sure that we managed to capture the magic of this place.  Either way - prepare yourself for picture overload!

We did a tour with the BBQ Bus. I was a little wary of the company when I booked it, but it was the only one that didn't stick you on a huge coach with 80 other people, so I decided to give it a go. It turned out to be even better than I could have dreamed!  There were only seven people on our bus, and we were five of them.  The drive from Queenstown to Milford Sound takes 4-5 hours, so the trip is almost as important as the destination.

Milford Sound is actually a fjord, and may be the most famous site in all of New Zealand that isn't associated with Lord of the Rings. According to Wikipedia, Rudyard Kipling once called it the eighth wonder of the world, and it's not hard to see why. The Sound itself is breathtaking - full of waterfalls and mountains and wild life. Two out of three days in Milford Sound are rainy, so we were very fortunate to have a sunny, warm, clear, perfect day. I'd like to go back when it's rainier to see the waterfalls, but we couldn't have asked for a better first visit.

Truth be told, the journey ended up being even better than our stunning destination. The further into the Fjordland National Park you drive, the more magical it gets. The BBQ Bus gets its name from its lunch stop. We stopped at a lovely little riverbank that the bigger coaches can't access, and wandered around among the lupins while our driver grilled up lunch on the BBQ he had packed in the trunk.

Once we reached the Sound, we took a 2 hour boat ride, complete with a trip into the waterfall.  Before boarding, our driver mentioned there was an option to fly back to Queenstown on a Cessna prop plane. I'm completely terrified of heights, and even moreso of flying, but I guess I was feeling giddy from the magic of the day and expressed interest. It turned out to be way too expensive for us, but when we returned from our boat ride, the driver let us know they'd be willing to fly us at a steep discount. D&L weren't interested, but me, Rob and M jumped at the chance.

By some lucky twist of fate, I ended up in the co-pilot seat for the 45 minute flight. I had multiple panic attacks and my vision may have gone spotty for a few minutes, but it ended up being the high point of a year that was already so full of magic, fun and adventure - and easily one of the best experiences of my entire life.

Stopping for lunch with the BBQ bus - not a bad spot for a picnic!

More stops along the way. The mountain range behind us in the top left picture is where the Routeburn Track is located, which Kiwis consider to be an "easy/moderate" trail. Rob and I are planning to hike the Routeburn Track over Easter, so this was a surprise to us! The mountains behind D&L in the top right picture are more famously known as the Misty Mountains.

On a boat tour of Milford Sound

The famous Milford Sound waterfalls - and me experimenting with the best ways to keep my beer safe from them. 

I still can't believe I volunteered for this (and am so glad I did)!  One last picture of Rob, M and I before taking off!  Right: Picture of our plane from the air. Bottom left: A quick detour over Milford Sound before heading back to Queenstown.

I'm a co-pilot!  The real pilot took the top right picture of me, and his hands were both on my camera while mine were both on my steering wheel holding the plane steady. So technically, I have flown a Cessna! Try not to be as terrified as I was (and Rob and M understandably were) by this idea.

Views from the plane

More views - no words.

Flying into Queenstown.  Top left: Views from the cockpit.  Bottom right: Hank, our pilot, with our plane.