Wed. Dec. 6  –  Full Day #7

 

This morning was a tough one. We knew we were going to have to leave our little paradise and we didn’t wanna!! Taking advice from a local bar patron from the day before, we decided to hit the road later in the morning to cut down on traffic. It didn’t take much convincing because it meant we had a few more hours to overlook the cliffs and relax in the Cabin. We slowly made our way out from under the mosquito netting, hesitantly packed our bags, and headed up to the main house to get our morning breakfast.

On the menu: fried eggs (straight from the chicken coop), local bread topped with fresh butter and local jam, thick-sliced bacon, and sautéed mushrooms with fresh miniature peaches and oranges as a side. From the cold bar they had homemade muesli with homemade yogurt as well as local honey (by local I mean from the driveway). We took our time eating and enjoying the view and company. Alas, time eventually caught up to us and it was time to leave.

We had a 4.5 hour drive ahead of us to Raglan, NZ.  Luckily we took the advice of the locals and started late and really caught a break in driving through Auckland. Traffic was flowing nicely. We had a few opportunities to stop along the way (only stopped one quick time to use the restroom and grab a chocolate bar)…but we really wanted to get off the road as soon as possible. By looking at the GPS, we knew we were getting close, but looking at the scenery it was all mountains. We couldn’t see the coast. Then, all of the sudden, it popped up. Bright blue waters and a small beach town. We had made it.

Our home for the night was Bow Street Studios at 1 Bow Street. We met the receptionist in the hallway as we were looking for the check-in counter. We had arrived sooner than we thought we would, so we somewhat surprised her. Luckily she had a room available, which she showed us to. It looked nice. The back doors opened up to a private patio connected to a community area with tables and umbrellas. Compared to the beautiful place we had just arrived from impressing was difficult. So, we were thinking, okay cool. Then we went up the stairs and, wow, the view from our bedroom window, awesome! It was a little different than anything we had experienced so far on our trip. While we had views of the natural landscape, this time we also heard the sounds of children of all ages having fun – laughter. This was a neat location.

Listen above for the sounds of Raglan – Birds and Play

This was nice. We stopped and looked out our window for some time. We heard songbirds out the window while we listened and watched kids laughing and playing on the beach. One of the best things about our time here – we were able to witness KIDS BEING KIDS! In this area, not only was it allowed but the culture seemed to encourage it. So often back home it seems we are putting restrictions in place that prevent our kids from learning. They need to make their own mistakes. They need to learn independence.

Alas, we popped open a bottle of wine, admired the view and hopped on our WiFi connection for a little bit. We had learned that we should take advantage of this when we got the opportunity. We wanted to try to update the blog. We were feeling a little guilty telling so many friends and family we would keep updating along the way and then were unable to keep up. We wanted it to work like that so much!! …still, we weren’t going to let it defeat us (hence why we are still posting our trip weeks later!).

After a little bit we decided to forgo the WiFi and to get out and about in it! We started for a walk on the beach. What a walk… and what a beach setup. We first made our way down the stairs to the pedestrian path where kids were riding bikes and skateboarding. We walked over the footbridge where the youth were jumping/flipping off into the water and letting the current take them to the exit point. We can’t explain how great it was to see kids actually acting like kids and enjoying the surrounding as opposed to seeing kids back home locked to phones and computer screens.

As we continued on, we made our way past the skate park. Then, we found ourselves on a black sand beach. The tide was low and the sand was soft (low tide) and fine, but it didn’t stick to your skin like back home. The beach followed around the large bay with an opening to the sea. It is said that at the opening is the longest left-handed break in the world. This explains the surfing town vibe.

 

 

We made our way around a good bit and slowly headed back to the Studio, passing along the skate park and pump track one more time. What a pretty location.

Once back at the Studio, we finished off the bottle of wine, enjoyed the view and headed out to see what was popping in town. Our first stop was Orca, right across the street from the Studio with a view of the bay and an open patio on the back deck. Here we opted for a glass of wine, and a few starters. Since he was in New Zealand, Adam had to get the prawns (Pensacola Royal Reds are much better!). Angela went with the Green-Lipped Mussels. She wanted to see how they paired up to the ones we cooked back on Motukiekie Beach. Expecting something much more flavorful than what we had cooked with limited herbs and spices, she wasn’t too impressed. Our mussels were better.

After our appetizers, nothing really struck our interest on the menu so we went searching for our next stop. After walking for a while it was clear that this town shut down early. Not much was open – and of what was open, still nothing really struck our fancy. Being a tad hungry and a little frustrated at the amount of closed restaurants, we took a chance and made our way to the “social club” (a place with pool, darts, a bar, and a little “Italian” restaurant in the back. We’re not going to say it as a bad idea but it sure wasn’t our best. The restaurant was attached to the club (but not actually part of it). It was its own separate entity, and recently open under new management. We were met with our waiter that really did his best to sell the menu (we should have ran at this point), but we reluctantly took a table. Angela ordered the roasted pork and Adam took what he thought was the safe path. He ordered the Bangers and Mash. Both meals – hardly edible. The vegetables that came with each meal were your typical frozen then steamed crap. We forced what we could down and left the restaurant as quick as possible. Since the town was practically closed we decided to grab a stiff drink at the bar while playing a game of darts (we wanted to make sure we had enough alcohol in our system to kill anything we just ate). After the game, we headed back and called it a night.

The next morning…yeah we were definitely going back to Orca. We weren’t up for trying any other restaurants after the bad experience the night before. We didn’t regret it. Check out our breakfast plates.

 

 

After breakfast, we were on our way to the Glow Worm Caves. Join us for that adventure soon!

Wednesday, Dec 6th  –  Full day #7

Waking up, Adam was excited to start the days adventure. Angela, on the other hand – not so much. Nerves. When we checked in Susy mentioned that breakfast would be ready at 7:30. Usually, Angela would be ready to go, but today was a little different. Today was dive day, and Angela was a little nervous. To be diving on the other side of the world as a relatively new diver, I say the nervousness was warranted. Adam walked up to the main house and decided to give Angela a few minutes alone in the cabin before breakfast.

Finally, Angela made her way up the hill to the breakfast bar that over looked the cliffs. You could see the Poor Knights Islands (our dive site) out in the distance. For breakfast, we were served thick and crisp bacon with an egg, over easy. To compliment, fresh mushrooms and local toasted bread. It was just what we needed for our highly anticipated dives.

By 8am we made it to Dive Tutukaka! charters. We checked in, signed our lives away, got assigned a 5 mil top w/hood and a 7mil wet suit and hopped on the boat (named Calypso). Here we had about 20 folks onboard from all over the world as well as the dive crew. Our journey would soon begin.

We decided not to use a GoPro on our trip but for a video exploration similar to our adventure, check out this video:

 

Just before we left the dock, the captain, Stevie led us in a quick “in case of an emergency” brief and a boat safety meeting. (In so, he discussed what to do you if you get sick at sea… Hmm, Angela never thought about people getting seasick?? Oh God.) After that, we were off. Just 23 km through the South Pacific Ocean to go.

Check out this website below for a more detailed description of the Islands, which are the remnants of ancient volcanoes that erupted in the Pacific Ring of Fire! Wow, so proud of us for making this dream trip a reality. The history of the islands is also very intriguing. I’ll expand later in the post.

Poor Knights Islands

We cruised past the marina and out of the inlet, then we stopped. The crew unloaded the dingy and a guest and crew member hopped onboard and headed back to the marina. Oh, did I mention that somebody brought a baby on board? Yes, a non-walking, must be held, under a year old BABY. WTF???

Well the family forgot the baby food and needed to make a trip back to the car to get it. (It was the dad that left and the grandma/grand-dad/ and mother on the boat.  Finally, once the dad made it back with the baby food, we were off to Poor Knights Islands.

 

 

The trip out there wasn’t the smoothest (this is an understatement). Team AA (being boat people) held their own, but some others didn’t. The first to loose it was the Grandma… then the mom. After that, a few others joined in for the need of a barf bag (or two or three, sick!). The staff seemed unfazed by it, taking the full bags and replacing it with other as the other staff went to explain the dives and make the teams.

We were teamed up in groups of 5. Each group was paired up with one guide to lead us.  To Angela’s delight we got Dave, he was the first person that helped us at check-in and Angela felt comfortable with him. Adam was just happy that Angela was getting relaxed. As we pulled up to our first dive spot (Treavor’s rocks), Captain Stevie gave us a little history lesson of the site as well as a few things to look out for. This all happened above deck so that the crew could get our gear ready and anchor the boat.

 

We learned that the spot was called Trevor’s Rocks because some guy named Trevor ran his boat up against the rocks that we were going to dive because it was high tide and he didn’t see them (they use to just be called “The Rocks”). We also learned the history of the Island and some other cool things.  But now… now was the time to suit up and jump in the 58 degree fahrenheit water. Angela looked like a deer in headlights. Once we jumped in they did a weight check on us (Since we had a 5mil top and a 7mil suit we had a ton of weight on us). Initially the water was quite crisp, but after a few minutes of moving around it got pretty comfortable. And no, not because we peed in our suits. This, as we were told, was called Swamp Suits – and not allowed. Dang, back in Florida they encourage it!

Surprisingly out of the group of 5 of us, neither Adam or Angela was the last to get down. We did pretty well finding our buoyancy and we waited for the other girl in our group to make her way down (by the way, she was one that needed a bag on the boat…).  This first dive was great, the visibility was amazing and sea life was alive. Angela actually had a mask (prescription) that she could see out of! Imagine that!

We saw a ton of small fish… among them some Angel fish that were protecting their eggs, a few really cool scorpion fish, and a couple of rays. The plant life that was under the water was impressive. The kelp was thick but not too thick that you couldn’t swim through it, the Nuudie’s (I guess best disturbed as a sea slug) were attached to the rock.  We dove for about an hour with a max dept of 13.8 meters. Once we got to our pre-stated remaining oxygen level in our tanks we exited the water and hopped back on the boat. We both chose to take the bag lunch and eat it on top deck.

As we ate our lunch Capt. Stevie guided the boat through the island while giving us a history of them. Then he drove us in side a sea cave. This sea cave, named Rikiriki was just recently granted the world record of Largest Sea Cave (by Volume). It was huge. Stevie had us all yell and stomp our feet on the boat to hear the acoustics of the cave, which was actually a pretty neat experience.

After that we went to our 2nd dive spot “Middle Arch” which was a little different than Trevor’s Rocks. In this dive, we mostly dove against the rock wall with a stop in a cave that was 7 meters under the surface. It had an air pocket at it’s roof. The fish life and plant life was similar to our first dive but the rock wall went a lot deeper. Here we had to watch our depth a little more closely since the wall just kept going down.

 

As we entered the cave Dave pointed out this gigantic ray (roughly 7 ft wide) hanging out on the cave’s floor. After a few seconds of us being in there she started to fly. She went up on the wall and the flipped over showing us her white belly. You could see that she was pregnant (neat!). She stayed close to the wall which gave us the oputunity to hit the air pocket for a quick conversation (just because we could) and then head back down. As we came out of the pocket she was right below us which made for an amazing vantage point.

After we left the cave we continued along the wall till our air hit our previously discussed limit. From here we loaded back up on the boat. We decided to take seats on the top deck this time (wanted to get some sun). Before we made the trip back to shore, Stevie took us around the Islands a little bit for some sight seeing.

It is said that as you depart the Islands, they start to resemble a Poor Knight when laid to rest – with a shield placed over his chest. The Islands are very spiritual. Sometime around 1820, the last chief of the Islands declared them tapu (meaning sacred) after returning to find his tribe was invaded while away doing warrior things. Most did not survive. I took a picture of the history below if you want to read more! After declaring the Islands tapu, they have never since been inhabited. Only researchers have respectfully taken foot on the land of the marine reserve.

On the way back we got to see a Pilot whale surface once and the ride home was a lot smoother since we were going with the waves. (still some got sick, but not us). Soon, we could see the harbour and marina as we approached land again.

At the dock we loaded up our gear, got to the shop to write up our dive reports and headed next door to Schnappa Rock. It was time for a few celebratory brews, then it was getting close to dinner. We opted to just hang out the bar until we got hungry (because we knew if we went back to the Cabin we’d never leave for dinner). This time we opted for the Toasted Cibatta again (this was a no-brainer…and it was just as great the 1st time) and then choose the grilled halloumi with saffron risotto and roasted almonds. It, too, was delicious. This place still amazes me on the quality.

 

Now, finally time to head back to the Cabin and enjoy. We popped open a bottle of local wine, sat on the deck and just relaxed. Moving back into the cabin, Angela had to try the hanging tub… a well deserved treat after a day of dive. From the tub it was time for our final nights rest in the Cabin.

 

Tuesday, Dec 5.  – Full day #6

No time to sleep in today. Gotta hit the road, return the rental and check into our flight.  Today we leave the South Island and fly north to Auckland NZ.

So, we get the car dropped off to GoRentals and make it to the terminal with time to spare. As we were checking into our Jetstar flight we were pleased to hear that they only had a “total” weight limit on bags, not a specific bag limit or additional fees for the 2nd bag (just a total weight limit which we fell well under.  Wish the US carriers would do this). Now that the bags were checked, we heard overhead that there was a delay to the flight (a little over an hour,  darn). So in trying to make the most of it we hit the airport bar Airspresso Cafe and Bar for a little breakfast, a bucket of beer (go Team AA!) and some free WiFi. This allowed us some time to catch up on the stories and get some photos downloaded ( still trying to figure out our upload problem with the blog.  we kept getting an error. our pics bounced back for no apparent reason. so frustrating!!).

After an hour or so it was time to board, so we finished our beers, closed the laptop and made it through security. Easy breezy. They even allow bottles of water through security – imagine that! Once on board we realized that only one of our seats was by the window (even though Angela paid extra for us both to have window seats!). We didn’t throw up too big of a fuss…it was only a 2hr and some change flight so Angela got a window seat and Adam took an aisle (Adam was going to sleep so it didn’t really matter where he sat).

 

The flight was uneventful (which is always a good thing) and we landed in Auckland. We grabbed our bags (yes, they all made it this time, hooray!!!), got to the car rental, GoRentals, and actually got our car with no issues and relatively quickly. It was also a bonus that Angela reserved the exact same type as the last one – this one was even the same color! This was good – no new learning for Adam. Driving on the opposite side of the road was enough. We put our bags in and we were off to Northland.

Today’s drive was a 3hr drive to Tutkaka. Off the coast of Tutukaka lies the Poor Knights Islands, our dive destination. The first 2.5 hrs of the drive sucked. We started out battling big city traffic, then road construction (they call it “works”) and heavy loaded trucks as we traveled up the mountain side. At first we were trying to be positive. Then we came clean with each other – we were really regretting leaving the South Island. The landscape wasn’t as magical – the scenery, it just wasn’t as green as we were accustomed to in our NZ experience.

As we got closer to Tutukaka the traffic begin to die down (a little) and the landscape started to change. It started to look much more like a fishing village. We were looking forward to arriving at “The Cabin” at our AirBnB The Lighthouse Lookout. We decided to drive straight to the place to get settled in, then grab some dinner. We were soooo happy we did this.

The drive to get there was off the main road up a single line drive that had a few gated driveways connected to it. Finally, as we got to the end of the road we saw our sign to turn left down the drive. What a driveway this was. There were manicured flowers on either side of the split paved tracks and even some beehives off to the left. As we pulled up to the house our jaws dropped.

The main house was sitting on the top of the cliff overlooking the crashing waves with beaches on the sides. As soon as we pulled up we were greeted by the owner “Susy.” She set the tone of the land perfectly. Relaxed and welcoming. The Cabin was not connected to the main house but was about 150 yards aways. Susy gave us the tour of the cabin and I’m not sure neither I nor Angela listened to one word she said. We were still in shock at the shear beauty of this place. We’ll just let the pictures do the storytelling, because words just cannot do it justice. Needless to say, we were ecstatic to be staying here for 2 consecutive nights.

 

Once Angela and I were able to focus and embrace the totality of this place we opened a bottle of wine and gave cheers and thanks to this amazing venue. (The property can be booked as a wedding venue.) After a little exploration of the land we knew we had to head to town for a little dinner.

To give you a better idea of the beauty of the property of Lighthouse Lookout:

 

 

 

 

 

 

More info on King Tides, if it sparks your interest:  http://auckland.kingtides.org.nz/about/what-are-king-tides/

As per the suggestion of our gracious hostess, we headed down the mountain to a local place called Schnappa Rock. Another positive – we discovered that this was the same place we were to check in the morning for our scuba diving trip. It was only about a 5 minute drive and the restaurant set overlooking the marina. The vibe was somewhat tiki’ish with a slight upscale feeling…more Hawaii-feel than Gilligans tiki hut.

 

Being as hungry as we were Adam quickly ordered a starter of Toasted Ciabatta as we both glanced at the menu. Just after we ordered our main (Angela, the catch of the day; Adam, Lamb medallions) the starter came out. And wow!!!  The appetizer offered 2 thick pieces of fresh, warm Ciabatta bread, with a healthy spread of local Goat Cheese and garden-picked green and yellow heirloom tomatoes with a few slices of red tomatoes on the side drizzled with locally produced olive oil – only to be topped by fresh micro basil from the restaurants garden. The taste, the texture, the freshness can only be described as PERFECTION. Once the starter was finished the waitress brought us our mains. I really don’t know what else to say about these but Angela and I looked at each other – we were shocked we weren’t in a 3-star, Michelin-rated, high-end restaurant. These dishes were cooked to the perfect temperature. The sides were fresh and complimented the meat to the tee. There were no corners cut in the preparation of these dishes. Even in some of the top restaurants in the states you would not find a better dish.

 

After the delicious meal we were excited to head back to the cabin. With the waves crashing against the cliffs and the cool breeze of the New Zealand coastal air, we finished off the rest of our bottle of wine that we left, tucked ourselves in under the mosquito net and drifted off to sleep.

Tomorrow was a big day for Team AA. ZZZzzzzZzzZzz…

 

Monday, Dec 4. – Full day #5

Waking up in this tree hut we knew today was one of our longer “drive” days of the trip. Mapping it, we had a 4.5 hour drive ahead of us. We weren’t necessarily in a hurry. We just had to make it to Queenstown sometime that day so that we could catch our flight out the next morning. We’re not big fans of big cities so much anyway. We made our way out of bed (starting to sleep in past 6:00am… better…starting to get adjusted to the other side of the world’s time).

Adam cooked the pre-ordered breakfast. Okay, he toasted the toast, layered it with butter and jam. Then, he tried and failed miserably at the coffee machine, and sliced a kiwi. Angela took her turn at the coffee machine. “Here, let me show you how, Adam.” FAIL. Then she went up to the front office. The “free WiFi” also was not working. They could take their “tree house” and shove it.

Ended up we couldn’t the get the coffee machine to work. The front desk lady said the pods they got weren’t the ones that go with the machine because they were trying the environmentally-friendly kind. I mean, I’m cool with that but they weren’t working. She offered to come to the room; she had personally tried out every single coffee machine the day previous and got every single one of them to work. (How environmentally friendly is this approach?) She gave me a number to call about the Internet. Maybe they could help get me individually signed in. Maybe it was because the walls were so thick, made out of logs, but she had never had anyone have issues in the past. I go back and relay all info to Adam. He goes outside, and Wa-lah!…WiFi connection. Back to the coffee press again. Adam, out to the front porch with the bugs to hop on the Web for a quick minute. I was over it. (I know I’m spoiled, it’s cool.)

So we basically ate quickly and figured it was time to go. No need to stick around. This drive took us South along the coast, hugging the mountains. Same amazing scenery and winding roads as we’ve become accustomed to here on the South Island, so Adam really refined his NZ mountain driving skills while Angela managed to, once again, avoid falling prey to becoming car sick. She asked him to avoid using the brakes, it made her feel more sick. Reasonable, right? Yeah right.

 

A little over 3 hours into the drive and it was time for food, a stretch, a pee and a beer break. We stopped in a little town called Cardrona. You could tell this was a pass-through town, right on the highway.

We stopped at a bar/restaurant/hotel called, surprise! …Cardrona Hotel.  This was a delightful little place connected to an 11 room motel and an amazing garden out back. You couldn’t really tell from the front. We picked a good one.

^Out the back of the Cardrona Hotel.

^The constant travel is starting to catch up with Angela.

We ordered a local pint, decided on the Bangers and Mash to split for lunch and headed out back to wait for the food. While waiting we toured the manicured landscape and even discovered that Prince Harry himself stopped at this same bar a few years ago and ordered the Bangers and Mash (I guess great minds think alike.)

^It was so nice sitting out back in the crisp air while the fire crackled. Thumbs up Adam!

^Look at these amazing flowers! Flawless.

The meal hit the spot, and before you knew it, we were back on the road. As we got closer to Queenstown the scenery changed a little bit. It kind of reminded me of driving through North California (Napa Valley region). It was very dry here, which made the area very dusty. We could feel it in our sinuses. This was not the humid weather we are used to in Florida. Apparently NZ had a very wet winter and were now experiencing droughts. The locals said it was unusual weather. The further along we got, we could tell we were getting into more populated areas, but we still couldn’t see the high-rises beyond the mountains. We kept waiting, thinking it would be right around the corner.

^Maybe around this corner? …nope.

^Look at the GPS image for an example of the roads we were navigating!

^Can you see it down there yet? Nope, me either.

^Is that a teepee up on the hill??? I bet it’s an AirBnB!

Once we made it around a mountain and by looking on the GPS saw what seemed to be Queenstown we were a little taken-a-back. The town that we had been envisioning was filled with high rises and a metropolitan hub…this city wasn’t that at all. It was a much bigger and more defined town than we had seen in our earlier travels but it wasn’t overpowering. It still had a quaint feel to it. As we approached the downtown area we saw your typical brand name shops, but no high-rises.

^We made it! …this is Queenstown, NZ.

^Isn’t she beautiful?

It felt like a Colorado Ski town. Big enough to draw the people but not big enough create overpopulation. Our hotel was just a few blocks away (within walking distance) from the main hub and we decided to make a beeline for it and check in. The Hotel St. Moritz Queenstown was amazing.

Our room was on the side of the mountain overlooking the bay. Angela felt a peace with this place. We took our time in the room, made our way to the well-needed laundry room and did a few loads. This got us set for our flight the next day. We didn’t want to start our tour of the North Island with dirty laundry.

^Our super comfy bed for the evening. Angela was so happy.

^View out our window.

After a relaxing 2 hours of waiting for the laundry to be done we figured we’d treat ourselves to the fancy hotel bar’s happy hour. Here, we fell in love with the place. After a few minutes sitting at the bar (they actually had bar seats here) we went to the patio – a small patio that we had to ourselves. This view from this 4th floor bar overlooking the bay and mountainside…it was a picturesque scene that we cannot compare. It was truly breathtaking. We went on to have a few more cocktails and take in the views for as long as the temperature would allow.

^The way the mountains were catching the light as the sun sank was just incredible.

^Look at these clouds!? I mean wow, Queenstown, we didn’t expect you!!!

^Speedboat up in the bay about to drop some riders off for the evening.

^Okay, so we basically fell in love with Queenstown in one night.

After we finished our drinks and soaked in the view we headed out to the town. We’d been planning on going to the casino. Of course, we were expecting a big city casino like Biloxi or Vegas. Au contraire, we were a bit shocked as we walked into a large room with six tables…and a few dozen slot machines. We didn’t let it detour us. We decided to sit up at the $2 roulette table and see where the odds found us. FYI, there were no free booze and you weren’t able to tip the dealers. Long story short, the casino won. But, we did meet a group of physician assistants from Florida. The one we were speaking with was actually out of Destin. They had all gone to PA school together and now enjoyed touring the country together. That was kind of cool. Indeed, it is a small world.

After we lost our allotted play money, it was time for dinner. Okay, it was well past dinnertime but we needed something to eat. At this point we didn’t have many options. To be honest, we had only one option (the only place that was open at this hour) Fergburger.

We later found out that this place was an iconic late night burger joint that the locals love. The menu was scattered with burger names and descriptions that would not be U.S. politically correct (we loved it). The burger hit the spot and then we made our way up the hill. Angela had to take her shoes off for the walk. These hills are REALLY, REALLY steep. And…going up steep hills in heels is not the easiest. Plus, our legs were already fatigued and sore from our previous days of hikes and treks. We finally got back to the room and ultimately, we passed out.

Sunday Dec. 3 – Full Day #4 – Franz Josef Glacier

As soon as we woke up we knew we needed the hit the road. There really was no reason to prolong our stay (let’s get the hell outta here!), plus we had places to be. Peace out Hokitika. We had a little over a 2 hour drive ahead of us and we needed to make our appointment at Franz Josef Glacier by 11:20am (and this couldn’t be missed).

As soon as we hit the road we started to worry. We had been so busy, the day felt like it snuck up on us and we felt underprepared. You see, today was the day we were going to visit the Franz Josef Glacier. In reading the itinerary it looked like we may need some quick drying pants and some wool socks. No jeans or flip flops on the glacier (these are things that was not mentioned to Adam prior to today). (Whatever, Adam, I told you we were going to hike on a glacier so I figured you would pack some pants you could wear in the snow, duh!) We also knew we needed something to eat for breakfast because we knew it was going to be an exhausting day.

With a little panic (well, Angela panics and Adam pretends to keep his cool), we continued down the road not knowing where we were going to get food, much less pants, we started our journey. There was nothing between Hokitika and Franz Josef – I felt confident we were going to starve (I have to eat first thing in the morning or it’s not pretty).

About an hour into the drive we stumbled upon an old gold mining town (you could see that it had been modified to accommodate traveling folks passing through to the glaciers). The only place that was open was a small mom and pop eatery. Adam parked the car and went in. A few minutes later, and after making a new friend, Adam came back out with a coffee, bacon & egg pie, and a sausage roll. -You see, Angela hadn’t had her coffee yet and because of this she wasn’t fully functional.- This was our first experience with the NZ meat pies – looking up online, this is one of their staple dishes…and we must say it was quite good.

After chatting with the waitress/owner of the eatery, Adam learned that therewere plenty of places to get great clothes at the base camp of the mountain (actually a small city that was littered with restaurants, places to stay, and a few outdoor stores). He was relieved. While Adam was in the shop, Angela was also relieved to find out, through a phone call, that most of the gear needed to go on the glacier would be provided.  This new news (along with the coffee) allowed Angela to relax and enjoy the drive.

Once we arrived at the “base camp” we toured a few shops and ultimately decided on a good pair of weather pants for both of us. From there, it was off to the check-in counter for the glacier tour. Upon speaking with a tour guide we were notified that the tour had been put on temporary hold (could turn into a permanent hold) due to weather – they would update in about 15-20 minutes. Since we got there a few minutes early and had to wait to see if the tour was going to be cancelled, it just seemed right to have a beer in the parking lot to pass the time (go Team AA!).

After the beer and a bit of packing for the excursion we made it to the check-in counter once again. At this point a lot of words were being thrown around and Adam started getting a little suspicious. He finally had to break down and ask Angela, “Are we going on a helicopter to the glacier???” Well, the answer was yes. Adam was SHOCKED!!! This is why it was possible that the trip would be cancelled – due to the clouds coming in off the mountains. Upon further investigation, on average, trips to the Glacier were canceled due to weather about 60% of the time. So they had us check in, sign our waivers, weigh us (to make sure the weight was evenly distributed on the chopper) and then moved us to the gear area.

In the gear area we were informed that we would not be taking our carefully pre-packed bags with us. We were only able to take what we could fit in our pockets and the fanny/shoulder pack that held our gloves and crampons. (…we’ll get to the crampons later) This news took us by surprise. Adam being the Eagle Scout had our bag stocked and ready for the event that we might have to stay on the Glacier. With us not being able to take it with us, we loaded some snacks, a flashlight (just in case), a cell phone, and Angela’s camera in our pockets and fanny pack. We were also equipped with waterproof boots, a waterproof jacket and waterproof pants. (noticed I say water proof – not water resistant).

Next, we geared up and were given the final go-ahead that the weather was cooperating. Next, our group started out on about a 10-15 minute trek through the rainforest to get to the loading site for the chopper. Angela and Adam stuck close together, excited about their adventure.

As we were sitting & waiting we were informed that we would be taking different helicopters to the glacier – we were going to be split up for the flight. The deer in headlights look came over Angela’s face. This was going to be her first helicopter flight and she wanted her Adam. Surprisingly, Angela was looking on the bright side and thought out loud, “well at least if one crashes one of us will still be alive.” (gotta love her positivity) We tried pleading – but it didn’t work.

Angela was in the first flight, Adam the 2nd. Good news is that Angela got to ride up front in the chopper with the pilot up to the mountain, which was pretty awesome. Adam had to ride in the back of his. (womp, womp, wompppp…)

^Starting to see the glacier up in the mountains.

^My view from the front seat of the helicopter.

^For perspective, the dark area in the center of the glacier is about 1.5x the height of the Eiffel Tower!

^Yeah, that’s a helicopter and a group of people standing up there if you look closely!

^Getting closer! We will land right to the right of that group of people crouched down.

^Here comes Adam!

^He’s alive!

^She’s alive! We’re 2 for 2!

So, Angela got to the Glacier first – it was about a 7-minute flight. Adam followed, arriving about 5 minutes later. Teamed up with our guide, Jordan, and 8 others, we were ready to start our hike…but before we headed out we needed to put on our crampons. These are the sharp, metal cleats that you clamp onto your boots. They worked perfectly. As you walked on the ice, they kept you from slipping. It’s a simple design that’s been used for ages. (Come on, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!)

^Creeping through the crevice! (this wasn’t easy…)

^Smile!

Per our tour guide company Franz Josef Glacier Guides, here are a few facts about Franz Josef Glacier:

–       New Zealand’s 4^th largest glacier (3100 glaciers are located in the Southern Alps)

–       Length: 10.5km = roughly 6.5 miles

–       Coverage: 35 sq km = roughly 8650 acres

–       Neve Elevation: 1900 – 2400 m = roughly 6230-7840 ft

–       Current Status: retreating (since 2008)

The 2+ hour tour was absolutely amazing. Again, we’ll just let the pictures do the talking – because words just can’t describe it. Its an experience that neither one of us will ever forget.

After the tour we made our way back to the heli-pad and trekked back through the rainforest to return our gear. Afterward, we headed across the street to check in to the Rainforest Retreat – our home for the night. With high expectations of checking into a tree house resort we were a little taken aback when we found out it was just a cabin with wood interior, elevated about 4 feet off the ground.

Angela was not happy (she was a monkey in her childhood and she was expecting a tree house… you know, one in the trees).  But, we had already stayed in so many amazing places, done so many amazing things. It was okay. We unpacked and decided to hit up the Glacier Hot Pools.

^Not my photo, but you get the idea!

Three different pools at different temperatures were surrounded in a green, lush surrounding. The place was a bit crowded for our taste but it was nice to sit back for a minute in the hot pools and relax. We even met a few blokes from Australia that seemed pretty cool!

Next, we decided to do a little bar hop. First, we stopped at the Snakebite Brewery for a beer (not much to report). Then, we hit up the The Landing. At the Landing we started out outside by the fireplace but had to find a place inside due to the biting bugs (little bastards). Inside, we found a place next to the bar at a couple of tables that were joined together. There were a few folks sitting in close proximity – this was about as close to the bar scene as we were going to get. We ordered our drinks and quickly made friends. We made our standard small talk, had a few more drinks, then decided if we were going to stay for dinner or move on.

We decided to cashout and head to our next establishment, the Monsoon Bar. Like the rest, this was an order at the bar and be seated (no bar stools). So, we grabbed some pints and made our way to a table. The place was packed with groups of young travelers (looked like a big tour company) – and a few locals.  From what I can remember, the food was decent – nothing to write home about, but also nothing to complain about, either… and, the drinks were cold. After dinner, we made the short walk back to the “treehouse” and called it a night.

Saturday, December 2nd – Full Day #3 – The Jade Capital of New Zealand

Waking up and not wanting to leave, we decided to maximize our time in the wonderland called Barrytown and our AirBnB “the Motukiekie Beach Apartment”. Our check out time was 10:00am and we took full advantage of not having to get up and go.  After a good night’s rest we slowly rolled out of bed, opened our laptops and enjoyed the cool breeze and sounds of crashing waves of the Tasman Sea. It felt magical listening to nature’s music of the songbirds. The thriving gardens surrounding our AirBnB left much for the eyes to take in. Our senses were satisfied. We found bliss. It was just the two of us – and the world. So thankful.

At this point there wasn’t much opportunity to walk on the beach due to the breaking waters and high tide. The Green Lipped Mussel-filled, sandy paradise that was once our little slice of heaven was now submerged with water. It was amazing how much land was swallowed up by the tide. At this point we realized how lucky we were – grateful that we changed our plans and hurried to the beach to experience the low tide the day before.

Once it was time to leave, we packed up the car, washed dishes (Adam managed to break a wine glass in the dish cleaning, guess he’s too used to using a dishwasher…oops), left our thank you note (and apology letter with $$ to cover the broken glass), and made our way south.

This day we would travel just a short distance to Hokitika, about 1.5 hours. The drive hugged the coast most of the way. This made for a nice, scenic drive.

^The drive from Barrytown to Hokitika.

^We’re in the country!

Our destination was our AirBnB “Cosy Fantail Cottage” in Hokitika, NZ.  Hokitika is known for its Greenstone (Jade). We read that, if lucky, it could be found in the rocks that wash up on the beach. There were also many jade shops scattered in the downtown area where jade could be purchased.

^Fantail Cottage – Hokitika, West Coast, NZ

As we pulled into town we realized this stop was going to be quite different than our previous stops along the way. We were in a small town that looked like the merger of Panama City, FL and Milton, FL… (we’ll just leave it at that if you catch our drift) We were a little early for our 3pm check-in, so we hit the “downtown” to meander the jade shops and get a feel for the community. The first few shops we went to were your typical “high class” jewelry shops with fancy displays, pin lighting, and well-dressed sales people. Here, we learned a lot about Greenstone and the differences of the NZ stone compared with that found in other countries.

^Different types of greenstone.

 

^Greenstone symbolism.

At this point we realized that Angela maybe got a little too much sun yesterday (yes, we brought sunscreen but it was in the lost luggage that didn’t show up until last night, so…). In our quest to stay out of the sun and check out the local shops we stumbled upon a great, LOCAL stone shop called Bonz ‘n Stonz just on the outskirts of downtown that displayed a handful of local artists and didn’t put too much effort on the storefront. Angela felt like this was the place to do business.  Now, it is said that it is bad luck to buy jade (Greenstone) for your self. So, Adam bought an amazing necklace for Angela – he couldn’t have picked a better piece, not even if Angela herself had picked it out! 😉 This piece of Ponamu (Maori name for the local greenstone) is cut in a greenstone koru shape –a fluid circular shape or swirly you might say – symbolizing new life, growth, strength, and peace. It looks absolutely stunning on Angela (aw, thanks babe).

^First picture of Angela with her Ponamu.

After some shopping it was time to eat.  In our quest to find and decide on a good local place we stumbled on what looked to be the spot to eat. We made our order, grabbed a beer and took our seats outside the storefront under an umbrella for shade.

The inside had just filled up with a group of what looked like a German motorcycle touring club.  As we were waiting on our meal Adam was looking down on his phone when Angela was like… did you see that? Of course Adam didn’t see it but it became the excitement of the of the bar. It was a PIG. Yes, a PIG! After taking in the sights (and sounds!), what we think happened was that sometime earlier in the day a pig jumped out of the back of a truck and was wandering the local stores. After getting kicked our of the jewelry shop next to us, the pig ran into the restaurant. I guess it caused a good laugh inside and we’re assuming it ran straight through the kitchen and out the back because we never saw it again. A few minutes later a guy in a flannel shirt came looking for the pig. We’re not sure what happened but – just saying – a random piglet running into the restaurant made our lunch pretty exciting. This was about exciting as Hokitika would get. Actually, we were so UNDER-mesmerized that I don’t think we even pulled out the camera.

After lunch, we were still a little early so we went to find a pub….go Team AA!  Here we finally found a place that actually had bar stools (here they don’t have seats at the bar…it’s designed so that you go up to the bar to get a drink and then go back to your table); this is not something in which we are accustomed.  But we managed to have a pint of local brew and stay out of the sun. Once the pint was done it was time to check in.

We were at a cute little house in a neighborhood that what looked to be a standard neighbor -“hood”.  Fully equipped with your questionable sidewalk-walkers as well as your crying, parentless kid across the street. It was a far different scene than in Barrytown.  At this point, Angela was exhausted and needed some aloe vera for her back. By the way, the reason the sun is so powerful and damaging here is because there is a hole in the ozone layer – ultimately there is no ozone so it’s very dangerous. This burn seemed more painful than your typical Florida burn but maybe it was just the imagination. It didn’t really visually APPEAR to be so bad.

So, Adam was off to the grocery store for some aloe gel… and maybe a 12 pack of local brew – hahaha, yesss. After navigating the roads all on his own, he managed to make it to the store and back with no major accidents. Once back, we got the first slathering of aloe on and we hit the front porch for some beers and WiFi. It was time to take a moment and relax.

Now that the sun wasn’t at its peak and Angela had a little relief for her back, we hit the beach to try our luck in finding Ponamu. Angela quickly became lost in the rocks – she was on a mission. Adam, he now an idea what he was looking for after his mini-education sessions at the jade shops – so he began to aimlessly wander the beach and pick up a stone here and there (but mostly just wandering). After about an hour or so of hunting and sanding down rocks with our piece of sandpaper, we finally decided on a rock to take with us. (could be jade, might be something else – but this was our piece).

^Well-known symbol of Hokitika, on the beach. (not my photo!)

We headed back into town for a sunset beer and then dinner at a local sports bar.  Again, no seats at the bar but we found a high top table with a REAL dartboard. Of course we had to play a few games while eating our dinner (nothing to give much detail here – it was just your typical bar food – so sad).

Now that the games were done, and the food was gone (and maybe a few empty pint glasses) it was time to head back. As the night was setting in we remembered that there was a “glow worm dell” about 3 blocks from our AirBnB. Even though we ready to call it a night, we couldn’t miss our first chance to see the famous “glowworms.”  After about a 10-minute walk in which we hoped was safe, we found ourselves taking a small path to witness the glowworms. It was pretty cool (we’ll get into more details later when we hit the “impressive” caves but it was a nice intro to the worms.

At this point we were exhausted and it was time for bed.

Friday, December 1st – Wrapping up Day #2 (this was our longest day in NZ, for sure!)

Alright! Fast forward and we have arrived at our beach house on Motukiekie Beach, nested just north of Greymouth.

^Looking up above our beach house; that’s a massive rock!!

^Previous collection of driftwood along the shore…

^Check out this view from the back deck of our beach house!

^Out our back door, lots o’ green – herbs and flowers!

We were glad we made it in time to enjoy the beach during the 3 hour window outside of the low tide. Per tide tables low tide was at 3:33pm. (Thanks to our AirBnB host Kees for the heads up!) At any time of day the beach toward the north can be walked but only during low tide can you walk south all the way to 10 Mile Creek (and we’re not talking Pensacola, folks!). We began on our trek knowing time was of the essence…but then, OUCH! little bloody buggars (actually, sand flies…but if you felt the chomp from one of these you’d be cursing too). I thought dangit! The host had suggested we bring bug spray but we left it back up at the beach house. I looked at Adam, thinking “go get it.” He hesitated but ended up walking back. Usually he’s the only one between the two of us that is bothered by bugs but today I was too. I guess it’s different on the other side of the world! We were both SO GLAD he turned back. It took a few minutes away from our time on the beach but I’m pretty sure the little sand flies could have turned paradise into hell.

^Starting out on our walk.

As we walked along the shore the scenery changed, we saw sea caves, all kinds of different rocks and driftwood, birds. Part of the walk we had to balance and hop from rock to rock. At other times we would walk through the black sand, it was so fine and a little mushy in places. Much different than the pure white sands we have back home.

^That’s a girl on a mission: Mission Mussels

^Thumbs up!? No waaayyy…

We had our eyes out for mussels. Our AirBnB host left us a note saying that we may be able to harvest them at low tide – the limit was 50 mussels. At first we thought we wouldn’t be able to find enough, then GOLDMINE!

^One of several sea caves we passed.

^Got a random person on the beach to take our picture…there weren’t many!

^Inside a sea cave; look how all the different rocks have been compressed together.

^Looking from the outside in of a sea cave. Yup, the sea was up in here not too many hours before and would be back in here after not too long. Amazing.

^The coastline just keeps coming and coming…we could have walked forever.

^I believe above rock called “Chief’s Head”…looked like a head from almost any angle. Kinda cool!

^So many brilliant colors and textures to take in!

^I kinda wanted to take all these rocks home…

 

We were so overwhelmed with the size of our surroundings…talk about feeling small. Look at these next two pictures to give you maybe a glimpse of the awesomeness of it all!

^The world at his fingertips…

^Yup! I spy Angela!!

Check this out! …this next one is for our Fishing Forum Friends. So, New Zealand is known for its green-lipped mussels. This particular beach is home to these delicious creatures. We were able to grab our limit of 50 while on our hike (Angela took the lead and carried the bag of mussels the entire hike. Adam had the backpack with the camera and a few beers). Teamwork!! Once we got back from our stroll on the beach, Adam cleaned and boiled these little creatures. As soon as they were out of the pot, both members of Team AA devoured these little delicacies.

^This is the beginnings of the green-lipped mussels; little babies all clumped up together!

^Adam cleaning the mussels before cooking.

^A work in progress; let’s see how this turns out!

^Beautiful! New Zealand Green-lipped mussels.

 

But wait, the day ain’t over yet! On a last minute whim, we decided to get back into the car and drive about 30 minutes north toward Punakaiki, to go catch the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes that are famous in this neck of the woods.

^The rainforest-feeling path down to the pancake rocks.

^New Zealand palm trees are pretty neat looking.

^The Blowholes

^Pancake Rocks – Punakaiki, West Coast, NZ

^Looks at all those pancakes!

^Bridge crossing over blowholes. Since we made it out here near low tide the explosion of water crashing up into the rocks wasn’t as great as it would have been at high tide, but was still awesome!

After making our way through the path leadingto the thunderous waves breaking upon the towering rock formations that resembled something like stacked pancakes, we stumbled upon the Pancake Rock Cafe.

^Pancake Rocks Cafe – Punakaiki, West Coast, NZ

This was what one might call a hippie hang out (not to be confused with a hipster cafe). This place was giving off the organic mindset, local vibe. So, we decided to grab a beer, order a pizza to go (people here love them some pizza), and listen to the live music. In the middle of a set, a local boy (maybe 10 or 11) decide to grab the mic and do a little card magic. It was entertaining to say the least.

After the magic show, we had a few minutes to run back out to the Pancake Rocks to catch the sunset. If you’ve never seen the sunset off the coast of New Zealand, we’d suggest you put it on your list.

Once the sun went down we headed about a mile more north to grab a bottle of wine and head home. Back at the beach house, we listened to the waves breaking on the shore and against the rocks, drank our wine and caught up on our blog. It’s was a very packed day.  Then…Oh, what’s that? We look out the sliding glass door and see something that wasn’t there before – it’s small, squarish and dark green in color.  Could it be, could it possibly be?

^IT IS! It really is – our lost bag somehow found its way to our back porch!!!!  Hip-hip hooray !!!!

^Last views before the sun sinks from our beach house.

Check back for our next drive and adventure in Hokitika – the Jade Capital of New Zealand!

Friday, December 1^st – Day #2

Our eyes opened around 6am – we were in a glass box of emotion; oh wait, I mean a glass tiny house. We continued to live in a dream. Waking up in the PurePod was like nothing we have ever arose to before. The full glass surrounding, the glass ceiling, the glass walls, the glass floor…it was something words just can’t describe. As we managed to pull ourselves out of the -oh so comfortable bed- our first task was breakfast. As Angela was going over the daily itinerary, Adam was doing his norm – getting breakfast (pre-provided in the PurePod) together. First on the list was coffee for Angela. It’s a good thing Adam learned how to use a French press in Nashville while we had full access to YouTube instructional videos – we have seen no electric coffee pot since we arrived in NZ. In our small fridge we had locally produced yogurt. Beneath the yogurt in a small glass jar was a thick layer of South Island, Akaroa honey. With Adam not being a yogurt-eater, Angela had this all to herself. The yogurt was topped off with a fresh berry compote. Adam used the remaining berry compote as spread on the Ciabatta bread that was left from our afternoon wine and cheese plate. Adam also devoured the blubbery muffin that must have been home baked. After breakfast we had to pack up and hike out with a little pep in our step. Today we had to drive to the West Coast city of Barrytown, just north of Greymouth.

The drive across the Island was just over 4hrs (non-stop). We had planned to sleep in a bit but received a message from our AirBnB hosts for our Barrytown stay. They were letting us know that the day we were coming in the low tide was at 3:33pm. Within about an hour and a half on either side of low tide we would be able to walk south along the beach. At other times we would not be able to due to the rise of water, the beach would be submersed. Since this was not just your typical walk on the beach we decided to head out early to ensure we could indulge in the entirety of the beauty of Motukiekie Beach. So, we hit the road just after 7am. Not long into our drive and we began to see the Southern Alps in the distance. We knew within hours we would be transcending them, how exciting!!

Oh, and by the way, at this point our luggage was still lost so this meant flip-flops for the both of us. The drive took us through the New Zealand Alpine Mountain Range. We drove through lush green mountains, saw mountains covered with yellow flowers, passed blue lakes, and even crossed through snow-covered mountain peaks – all the colors just popped. It was truly an incredible drive – breathtaking. The highways here are not like the ones in the states. These are 2 lane roads that are winding around mountains with hardly any straight stretches – actually none. In other words, this wasn’t your Pensacola to Tallahassee drive. The bridges in New Zealand are only one lane. This means you have to pay attention to the signs to see if the right of way is yours or that of oncoming traffic. Keep in mind there were big rigs out there too. We might have almost crapped our pants a time or two. I guess it kind of felt like playing chicken – when you hadn’t signed up.

After about an hour or so of driving we were ready for a pee/picture break. Once we got our fill of photos taken and our pee drained (I’m leaving this description only because Adam described it this way and I think it’s terrible; I mean, I just said “crapped our pants” so it’ll be okay). From here, we had about another hour and a half to go.

As navigator, Angela tells Adam to pull off in a small town, unbeknownst to him what we were about to do. He plans events for a living and was (and is) loving the fact that I’ve taken the reigns on this one. So, we park and embark on a hike. We were in Arthur’s Pass National Park at the Devils Punchbowl.

^Breaking the rules! Yeah

We hit the trailhead and hiked through the woods, over some bridges and up and down multiple sets of stairs (240 stairs each way to be exact) finally arriving to The Devils Punchbowl Falls. The Punchbowl is the bottom of this enormous (131 meter – that’s 430 ft for us Americans), breathtaking waterfall. Needless to say, it was spectacular.

^Getting closer to the falls

^Adam playing with rocks

^Adam’s rock art

^Looking down from above; look how clear and blue the water is… it’s hard to capture but looks oh so refreshing in person!

Back in the car and we were on our way, jelly-legged and all (remember we just did that in flip-flops). After a little over an hour drive we met the NZ West Coast. Shortly thereafter, we arrived in the town of Greymouth. FYI: Greymouth is the largest town in the West Coast region in the south island of NZ. It’s located at the mouth at the Grey River on a narrow coastal plain close to the foot of the Southern Alps.

We were both getting hungry (and maybe a little thirsty too). After a little research, Angela found us a place that met both our needs, the Monteith’s Brewery. Here, Angela ordered the pork belly – Asian spiced, topped with a rich sticky tomato & chili jam, house jus & topped with a crisp wonton. Adam went with the venison sliders – these were South Island Denver leg medallions rolled in a MBC juniper berry spice rub, with caramelized onion jam & gourmet lettuce served in three locally baked buns. For the beverage, Angela chose the Barber Larger, and Adam the Pilsner. We enjoyed the environment of the brewery as well as the eats and the brews. We give the Monteith’s Brewery a big thumbs up.

^Monteith’s Brewery – Greymouth, NZ

With full stomachs we headed to our next AirBnB, the Motukiekie Beach Apartment, which overlooks the West Coast beach of 12 mile. As mentioned earlier, we had to make it here with enough time to walk the beach before low tide switched to high tide. (it’s a tidal beach; we’re hoping the pictures will speak for themselves)

Check back in to see our picture journey of our walk on Motukiekie Beach!!

Thursday Nov. 30, 2017

Hi! Oh man, we’ve been so busy! …keeping up with the blog has definitely been more difficult to manage than we had anticipated. First off, we thought the universal converter we bought wasn’t working (actually the 2^nd one we bought). After talking with some locals, we realized that we could turn the metal pieces of the plug creating the correct adaptor. We had tried turning them before but I guess we weren’t doing it the right way. Anyway! Because of that our batteries have been running low or dead. AND, the whole idea that I (Angela) would type the blogs up while on the road – uh, yeah right. The roads are all over the place. Most of my energy on our long drive yesterday was focused on not getting motion sickness. We’ll blog about that later… for now, we’ll continue with the 2^nd half of our 1^st full day in NZ…

 

^Our first two nights were spent in the Banks Peninsula, a short drive from Christchurch

After our drive down from the sheep farm, we headed toward Little River. This was a pretty short drive, only about an hour. (Little River and Akaroa are both on the Banks Peninsula – see above in image southeast from Christchurch) On the way, we stopped in at the Hilltop Tavern. We noticed this little wood-fired pizza joint on our initial drive into Akaroa. We hoped to stop in at a later time as the view here – well, it was along the same lines as everything else so far. It just made any worries melt away. THIS… it’s one of the reasons why I need to push myself to get away, to explore, and to experience. It really helps to put things, to put life into perspective. Yes, the stresses of the day-to-day…work, responsibilities, hard decisions…they’re stressful, but there’s so much more to life and this is such a wonderful reminder to just be like a duck and let it roll right off. It’s not worth it to let life slip away. If you’re not happy, make a change. Your life depends on it.

^On the road back down from the sheep farm, there were several times I would yell out to Adam, “Stop the car!” …so many amazing photo ops. And, yes, that was my side of the car. 😉

^Look above, if you look closely you can see the cruise ship we had watched cruise into the harbor earlier in the day!

^View from the Hilltop Tavern

^Sheep just chillin’ outside the Hilltop Tavern (yes, they are EVERYWHERE)

Okay, so after some delicious pizza we were on our way to the long awaited Little River PurePod. Following the directions, we drove off the main road onto a seldom-traveled dirt road. Fairly quickly we located the “carpark. We were to hike from this lot up to the Pod. We were the only vehicle in the lot. We got out and gathered our belongings. It was about a 10-minute hike up so we had packed go-bags earlier in the day. Our car looked like an off-road machine at this point. When we closed the trunk a big POOF! of dirt went flying.

We started our hike up to the PurePod. The trail was similar to the roads… tight, winding and steep. I was out of breath, heart pounding by the time we reached the top. It was quite warm (saying this in my head I feel the New Zealander way of speaking getting into my head – I *quite* like the way they do so) and I was glistening in the sun. The trail opened up into wide and green farmland – the views were vast. As we took in the surroundings we saw cattle, sheep, and even spotted a rabbit during our stay. The birds are always plentiful.

The PurePod was closed up but unlocked. As far as crime goes in these parts – we hadn’t seen a sign of it. Out here, it was just us – well, and the farm animals. The inside of the PurePod was hot. There was no air-conditioning. We slid open all the doors and the place essentially became a platform with a plush bed out in the middle of the rolling hills. It cooled off rather quick as the breeze was nice.

We grabbed a beer and started to explore. We walked around taking pictures, basically frolicking in the abyss. We climbed over fences we were not to cross (we read the Visitor’s Guide after our explorations, oops!). We came back and set some lounger chairs out in the tall grass and grabbed a bottle of red wine, Cabernet Sauvignon to be exact. From the fridge we grabbed some of the local cheeses, olives, crackers, and ciabatta bread that was left for us and we made a plate to go along with our wine. We sat and enjoyed each other’s company, chatting about life – simply watching the sun move further down toward the horizon. The moon began to rise. It was bright & beautiful coming up over the mountainous hills.

As the sun began to set, we noticed we could see a body of water from the backside of the Pod. Through the break in the bush we were able to watch the sunset. We grilled steaks on the Weber grill – local beef handpicked for us. Dinner was delicious.

After we filled up with dinner and finished the bottle of wine, we headed off to bed to sleep under the stars in our glass house. A truly amazing night.

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Thursday Nov. 30, 2017

5am we were up. The birds were singing so loudly. We had planned on sleeping in longer as we were still very jetlagged, but once awake there was no going back. We didn’t want to miss a thing. It’s hard to go to sleep when there’s so much more to explore, to see.

Listen below to hear the birds of Akaroa from our studio window:

The days are long here. In Akaroa, currently the sun rises at 5:41am, the sun sets at 8:54pm. We opened the curtains and cracked the windows to an amazing view from our Coastal Retreat. Surrounded by green mountains, we watched a cruise ship slowly pulling in. The sounds of birds were all around us making the morning entirely peaceful.

We did have one issue. Adam managed to blow a fuse the night before while trying to plug our “universal” adapter into another adapter because the “universal” one wouldn’t fit into the New Zealand plug. Last night, this wasn’t much of a concern as we were too tired to care. Come morning, Angela’s coffee couldn’t be made due to the blown circuit. Shame on Adam!

After we spent the first few hours enjoying the view, posting pictures of the AirBnB on Instagram and typing our first blog on the patio, we decided to hit the town for a little breakfast. Angela wanted to do a little window-shopping at the Fire and Ice store as well as check out the one of a kind Blue Pearls farmed in the bay. Adam, on the other hand, was extremely patient but after looking at one too many stones/crystals/pearls he decided it was time for a well-deserved pre-noon beer. After all, we are on vacation.

By sitting down having a beer, he hoped this would give us time to actually post our first blog as well as import the pictures while utilizing a 30-minute WiFi connection. It all started out great. We got the blog posted but as we were importing the pictures, the crowd from the cruise ship began to storm the restaurant and take up all the bandwidth. We’re pretty sure the retirees each took a turn Facetiming every single person they knew. Angela’s patience began to wane. Needless to say, we quickly decided to abort mission, to leave the bar (so no cell phones ended up in the bay) and make our way out of town before we were able to finish the blog post. (…to those who were waiting, sorry for the delay)

Our first stop/excursion of our trip was the to the Akaroa Farm Tours, a sheep farm located on Paua Bay. Embarking on our journey, Angela navigated us down a one-lane dirt road on the side of a mountain. We were driving through the clouds (not the fog, but ACTUAL clouds that were bellowing over the mountain tops). After a few pit stops to take pictures and one “relief” stop – Adam couldn’t wait to have his first encounter with the wilderness, haha – we arrived at the farm. We were the first ones to get there…not knowing if anyone else would show up. The great thing about being the a little early is that we got the opportunity to have a little one-on-one with the owner of the farm, Murray. We were also able to capture the authenticity of the farm during this time. After a few minutes (and after saying hey to the sheep dogs) we were joined by 3 vanloads of “Cruisers” (happy, happy, joy, joy…).

So, the tour started with the owner/4^th generation farmer (his family actually were some of the first white people to occupy the area) giving us a history lesson of the Island, the farming, and a little family history as well. This was actually surprisingly entertaining as well as informative. Next, we witnessed his daughter-in-law shear a sheep. This was a BIG sheep, about 70 kilos. (not sure how much that is in pounds but it was a beast). If you never watched a sheep get sheared, it’s extremely physical and somewhat alarming. (AKA: Angela was traumatized. She is infatuated with sheep.) BUT, that’s the only way the job can be done.

After the shearing we had a demonstration of the dogs and their herding techniques. This was AWESOME!!! These dogs were not only smart and on point, they were extremely fast. Next, we all went to the main house for coffee/tea/and homemade scones. The main house was surrounded by a plentiful flower garden and had views overlooking the valley and bay. I can’t see this view ever getting old. After the social engagement, all the vans and “cruisers” left – leaving us solo with the family (we were the only tourists that actually drove in).

Angela, in talking with the daughter-in-law, was offered a meet-and-greet with the baby lambs on site. Angela was in HEAVEN with this unique one-on-one time with the baby lambs.

^if you look closely you can see there are sheep way up there; gives you an idea of how massive these hills are…