NZ Report Part 1

Shawn took the initiative to write a play by play journal of our adventures in New Zealand.

A work in progress......Enjoy!

Friday January 12th


5:10pm the journey begins…

… of course not without a minor hiccup to start us off. Phil and I spent the weekend before typing up all of the exact details of our 2 weeks abroad, including confirmation numbers, addresses, and driving directions, in an effort to make it as smooth a trip as possible. Well somehow smarty, that would be me (Shawn), forgot all the details of our itinerary at work, and had myself a minor diva moment before calming down and convincing my brother Keith to help us out! He had to make the mad dash south to the hospital and then across town to JFK so Phil and I could put the finishing touches on our packing, and get off to the airport. With little more than 30 minutes to spare, he finally pulled up and saved the day… nothing like starting the trip off with a BANG! Thank you little brother!

To our surprise and delight, Air Tahiti Nui turned out to be a bit of a treasure. For the price of our ticket, compared to its competitors, we were expecting to be in the cargo with the chickens, but found ourselves in a rather spacious, clean, and well appointed cabin. A la Virgin Atlantic, every seat had its own entertainment center with many choices of movies and games to keep you comfortably distracted for the 13 hour flight time to Pepetee. Even better, they offered a nice meal and all the drinks we needed to keep ourselves sane!

Tahiti was nice, at least as best as we could tell in the middle of a rainy night from the curbside of the airport! We arrived at 2 in the morning and were greeted with warm hospitality by 2 lovely native women offering up Tahitian gardenia (Tiare Tahiti) http://www.thetahititraveler.com/general/flora.asp , a traditional white flower worn behind the ear, and a 2 man band playing yukalele and singing… the welcome was short-lived though as we were rushed through a make-shift customs room and shuffled on to the street where the airport doors were promptly locked behind us! We had 4 hours to kill before they let us in with nothing but a small café to keep us entertained. We took out a small stash of French Polynesian Francs from the sole ATM in the airport and managed to spend it, without any idea of how much money we were actually playing with, on bad silly named snacks and drinks. It’s easy to be amused by anything at 4am in the morning after being awake for 20+ hours and having a few mini bottles of wine under your belt! A word to the wise, if one were to choose to drink a Candy up, and I’m not entirely sure it is a wise decision in the first place, it is best not to let the strawberry milkshake-like drink spend 3 hours warming in the Tahitian heat beforehand!

At 6 in the morning, the doors opened to us and we were on our way to Auckland.

Sunday January 14th

We arrived in Auckland at noon on a bright sunny summer day! We picked up our rental car, a standard with the driver’s seat on the right side of the car, which of course is the wrong side if you’re an American. Yes, if you didn’t know this, New Zealand, like the U.K., drives on the “wrong” side of the street! Thankfully, I was coordinated enough to drive us out into the world beyond the airport with few mistakes… the most persistent one being my turning on the windshield wipers instead of signaling.

Auckland is New Zealand’s largest city, and the most like other cities you might know so it is an easy transition for folks coming to travel here. We checked into the Hotel Formule 1, http://formule1.co.nz/6487/detail/default.aspx
a few blocks from the Sky Tower right in the heart of the city. It was a cute modern hotel with TINY rooms done up something like a cruise ship. It came fully equipped with a kitchenette, washer/dryer, and a bathroom set up so that you could take a shower while sitting on the toilet if you chose to… fear not, we didn’t choose to!

We stopped to feed Phil at a Belgian restaurant just down the street from our hotel before venturing out around town. We had a hearty meal with some local brews and recharged the batteries before setting off to explore the city. We took the outside seats to enjoy the beautiful day, but didn’t realize it was a high fly zone for the local pigeons. Poor Phil’s meal and shoulder were christened by one who chose a perch just over our table. Our waitress was gracious though and replaced his potatoes (at least we think she did!). The pigeon mishap started a dialogue with her though that lead us to discover one of our trip highlights, Waiheke Island, a gorgeous little island about 18km east of Auckland in the Hauraki Gulf. After our meal, we roamed the city on foot and explored some of the major parks and a touristy area known as Sky City. This included the famous Sky Tower you see in all of the pictures of the Auckland skyline. FYI, it is the largest tower in the southern hemisphere. The whole complex is reminiscent of the Stratosphere in Vegas, casino and all, just a little more tastefully done! The Tower offers spectacular views of the city, surrounding harbor and waterways, and extinct volcanoes scattered throughout the gulf. It was amazing and a great way to start! http://www.skycityauckland.co.nz/

Monday January 15th

We caught a ferry at Princess Wharf just a few blocks from our hotel and enjoyed a beautiful half hour jaunt across the harbor and into the gulf towards Waiheke Island. http://www.waihekenz.com/ One of the highlights of the ferry trip is the close passing of Rangitoto, a striking 850 foot symmetrical cone volcano that dominates the bay just to the north east of Auckland. It is the most famous of the more than 40 volcanoes that make up the Auckland Volcanic Field. The ferry docked in a cute quiet little cove with bright blue waters dotted with small sailboats on the western side of the island. We hadn’t been on the island more than a minute or two when we met an animated man by the name of Max, a local resident of the island, who convinced us and a local NZ couple to avoid the standard large bus tours and join him in his van for a half day tour of the island. It proved to be a great decision. He told us stories of the Island’s history and development, drove us to great lookouts, showed
us some spectacular beaches, and took us inland to several of his favorite local wineries, of which the island has many!!

We started at Goldwater Estate Winery http://www.goldwaterwine.com/ which turned out to be our favorite. The winery itself is gorgeous. Perched on a high hill, the famous old pohutukawa tree, seen in their stylized in their logo, is the centerpiece of the grounds, sheltering the picnic tables beneath its branches and providing a spectacular vantage point from which to enjoy the lush grapevines sloping gradually down to the spectacular turquoise waters of Putiki Bay on the southern side of the island. For us, Goldwater was a reintroduction to the world of white wines… who knew?! The New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is a home run, and the dry Riesling is far better than its candy sweet cousin we usually taste over here. We highly recommend them even for you red devotees!

From Goldwater Estate, we drove to the Onetangi Road Winery http://www.onetangiroad.co.nz/ . We were the sole patrons when we got to this cozy little winery, as our NZ cohorts decided to try out some local olive oils instead. For all of you fans, the island is also famous for its olive oil, so have at it! We opted for the booze! Part of what we loved about this experience, and so much of the trip itself, was the intimacy of it all. So often when exploring various vineyards, and shops, and natural wonders, we were the only two around! For those of you seeking some quiet romantic alone time, this is your place!! At Onetangi we enjoyed a flight of wine as well as some tasty beers; the winery doubles as a micro-brewery for the beer lovers among you!

After Onetangi, we drove off towards Max’s house on the north coast to Obsidian Winery, http://www.obsidian.co.nz/ a beautiful winery that sits in a little bowl surrounded by high hills just inland from the coast. We had a fun tasting of the various offerings at their outdoor bar! The nice thing about wine tasting in New Zealand is that every place we went to had a list of at least 8-12 wines, all of which were available for free or $1-2 NZ which was pittance compared to Napa and Sonoma prices!! At this point we had a comfortable buzz on, and were 4 bottles of wine heavier since we couldn’t help but buy a bottle from everyplace that we had visited! Danger! Rather conveniently, our next winery was right next door, so we climbed up the steep hill through lush green rows of grapevines to our last stop at the Miro Vineyard
http://www.mirovineyard.co.nz/ . Here we had our final tasting and a gourmet tapas lunch at Casita Miro, a charming little café on the hill overlooking the Obsidian Winery in the valley below and hint of Pacific Ocean off to the north. Our food was prepared by a colorful woman by the name of Sarah La Touche. She walked us through her menu and made some suggestions for pairings. We chose a seat in the sun, to enjoy some more of the warm afternoon light. Why not right? We were in the middle of winter just a few days ago! Apparently the strange red color my skin was turning was making our waitress nervous though, and she suggested I take a large hat out of their bag o’ tricks to help protect myself! They had a wide, colorful, assortment of hats and, um, wigs, to play with, and well that was an open invitation! Come on, you had to know that a little drinking combined with the adrenaline of lounging in the summer sun on the other side of the world, might lead to a little silliness. We went from Asian, to Milddle Eastern, to Bozo the clown in a few minutes. I think we were scaring our NZ partners!

The last beach stop on the tour was Onetangi Beach, which means “weeping sands” in Mauri. The beach was a 15 minute walk from Miro, so after feeling revived from our meal, we walked down the winding road to the waterfront. Onetangi Beach is a beautiful long stretch of white sand with light green / blue waters along the shoreline. There is also a quaint community that sits along the length of the beach. It was fairly quiet when we got there, with only a handful of the local kids out enjoying the day in the water. We enjoyed some leisure time walking on the sand and wading in the warm crystal clear waters. At times, you could see schools of silver fish swimming across the face of the waves before getting lost in the foam of the breakers! It was amazing! After about a half an hour or so, we were picked up in front of Max’s house on the beach, and taken back towards the cove to meet one of the evening ferries. Instead of rushing back and sticking to our schedule, as Max said we Americans are so prone to doing, we let him drop us off at Church Bay for one last adventure. We finished the day in Waiheke with a great hour-long coastal hike back to the cove to pick up the ferry. We got great views of Auckland, and were dazzled by beautiful blue water and rugged coastal vistas the whole way! You must go!

That night we tried to explore the local nightlife, but as you might expect, Monday nights were a bit tragic! I had to feed Phil twice that night after a meal at deceivingly nice looking restaurant called Prego turned out to be the worst pasta we’d ever tasted! Who knew it was possible to screw up pasta! The evening was saved with a late night gourmet pizza from SPQR café. This is a trendy locale with a fun décor, colorful clientele, and friendly wait staff, and one you should probably hit up if you are going to spend more than a day or two in Auckland! We were warned by a couple of waiters that we would be hard pressed to find a lot on this night, but we decided to walk to “K” street anyway to see what we could find. Sadly, they were right, and we were a little disappointed to find only the Family Bar open for business! When we arrived, Phil, myself, and the bartender were essentially the only people there, save a random drag queen we had seen out on the streets near our hotel the day before, and some people sitting in the slot machine room! Oh well! We still had fun, and after a couple of beers and a little silly dancing, we called it a night and readied ourselves for the start of our road trip!

Tuesday January 16th.

We left Auckland early in the morning because we had planned two things in cities that were 2 hours apart… oy. We started driving south to the Waitomo region. http://www.waitomo.com/ This is a beautiful region with rolling hills and loaded with cavern systems and glowworms. The drive down was nice, and we quickly found ourselves far from city living! We passed through a small town called Taupiri and stopped at a very cute frog-themed café Phil could not resist. We learned at that time that the town was famous for being the sacred resting place of the Mauri queen who died last year. We passed the cemetery on the way through, and I have to say that it was stunning, set out on a dramatic hill, and unlike any traditional cemetery we might see in the states. Sadly there is no video or photographic evidence…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/5271234.stm

After recharging with some coffee and a couple of meat pies, we were on our way! In fact, the Lick Inn, as it was called, started a rather disgusting tradition of eating meat pies anytime, anywhere that we felt a little peckish!! Incidentally, if you are not familiar with meat pies and you are a meat eater, you should try these tasty savory treats! Here’s a local option for all you NYC Metro readers… http://www.dubpies.com/pies.htm Moving on, Waitomo caves were pretty specatular. There are 4 main cave systems open to the public. We chose two. The first was Aranui cave, the most ornate and least traveled of all of them. Phil and I were the only two on our tour so it was very intimate and exciting, especially since it was his first cave adventure. Once we got to the cathedral, the point with the highest ceiling, Phil was given a chance to test the impressive acoustics of the place, and sang whole-heartedly into the dead silence! You know I’m a fan and completely biased, but the sound was AWESOME! The second cave was a little more touristy, but fun. We went deep into the caverns down to an underground river where we had a chance to view the famous glowworms. These are little fly larva that secrete a chemical substance that causes them to fluoresce a brilliant blue green color. The cave walk culminates deep under the hills above in a dark room providing access to the river boats that guide through the glowworm grotto. The relaxing sound of the slowly moving water was all we could hear as we cruised slowly down the river mesmerized by brilliant “starry” night affect the worms created across the cave ceiling.

From there we drove across the northern mainland to Rotorua, and area of New Zealand a famous for its thermal activity. http://www.rotoruanz.co.nz/home.asp
We went right to Wai O Tapu (“thermal wonderland”) the most well known and spectacular of the thermal parks. It was other-worldly. The skies were gray when we arrived which added to the affect, and the air was filled with a heavy sulfur smell that overwhelmed the senses! It is definitely unsettling to know that there is steam, gas, sulfur, and acid bubbling up from the earth below your feet. It is humbling in many ways… a feeling we would feel again and again as the natural wonder of New Zealand seemed to improve and change with every day’s travel… but I digress. We spent an hour and half hiking the trails through the park looking at the various formations, pools, and vents.

From there we head back to the town center and got settled into the HotRock Backpackers, the first of our hostel experiences. http://www.hot-rock.co.nz/Index.aspx?Page=Rotorua_Main It was the most crowded of any of them, and we stayed in a room with 8 of our closest friends!! Actually it wasn’t as bad as it sounds. They had a great pool, a fun bar right next door, and it was right in the heart of the town. We explored the town while we still had sunlight (which was usually between 9-10pm depending on what part of the country we were in) and had a great meal at a place called ICONZ. This restaurant had a modern décor and served traditional New Zealand fare with a modern twist. Phil went for the meatloaf and I had venison sausage! YUM!!! We capped the evening off with a relaxing walk along the lake and a swim in the hostel’s bathwater warm pool before walking to the Lava Bar next door for a nightcap.

To be continued......