Weekend in Rotorua

Friday Jan 11

Another flight! 9:30 AM flight. Left for the airport around 8. Checked in at a kiosk, dropped my bag on the belt, then walk over to the gate. That’s it. Not even a metal detector.

That afternoon, we went to Te Puia, where we took a tour of the nature reserve, saw the geyser and mud pools, and participated in Te Po, a cultural event much like a luau. There was storytelling, singing, dancing of the haka, and a buffet dinner. All in all, it was a pretty full day.

Geyser

Saturday Jan 12

FREE DAY! I finally got sleep in! Marshall and I had massage appointments at 12:30 at the Polynesian Spa. If you ever get the chance to go there, DO IT. We soaked in the natural hot pools beforehand and then relaxed with and Aix treatment. The Aix treatment begins with a body scrub, and then you get a massage while they rinse the scrub away with a shower right over the massage table. It’s extremely relaxing and fairly unique.

All three of us on the chairlift

At 6:00 PM, all 9 of us traversed the entire 5km to the Skyline Gondola for more luging! This gondola was less steep than in Queenstown, which made for a much more enjoyable 7 minutes. At the top, only 7 of us decided to actually luge, but Mom and Mike had a good time hanging out at the café and taking pictures. In Rotorua, the luge track is open until 10 PM for night luge! For the normal price of 3 luge rides, you get 5 luge rides in the DARK on a lighted course. The sun didn’t set until 8:45, and Nolan, Marshall, and I had booked a private spa back at the Polynesian for that time. So at 8:00 PM, after only TWO rides down the course, we split and went to the spa.

Except Mom had the car keys with her at the top of the hill.

After a minute of panic, Nolan hopped back into the gondola and raced (at 5mph) back up the hill, where Mom was waiting at the top with the keys in her hand. The operator told Nolan to stay in the gondola and just handed him the keys as he crawled by. We made it to the spa 5 minutes before our booking. Crisis averted.

The view from our deluxe spa

After our sunset dip (it was raining) we went back to the hill and they let us finish our luge rides in the dark. Everyone else had left by then and were probably all together enjoying a nice dinner and laughing at us for forgetting the keys.

Luging in the dark is AWESOME! The course featured colorful lights in the trees and there were way fewer people, so it was a really good time. We finished our last ride right at 10:00 PM and went to Burgerfuel for a late dinner.

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Not a Road Trip (MEANWHILE....)

Wednesday Jan 9

Team B Roll (as I am now calling them) left the hotel for the airport just as the A Team rolled out to Tekapo. Upon arrival in Christchurch at 11:00 AM, Marshall, Holly, and Mark went to the Antarctic Centre. They went for a ride in the Hägglund Explorer, pet a couple of cute huskies, saw some sweet penguins, and watched two 4D movies! The Hägglund Explorer is like an obstacle course over Antarctic terrain, and it was a blast (so they tell me). All of the penguins at the Antarctic Centre are rescues that cannot survive in the wild. One particular penguin had a little blue prosthetic foot.

In the afternoon, the gang made it to the hotel and immediately walked to dinner. They decided on Thai Orchid, but when they arrived, they were 20 minutes early. Luckily, the owner was there already and opened the place up for them, serving drinks until the cooks arrived.

Thursday Jan 10

Mark departed for his tour fairly early, and drove through the mountains to Mt. Potts High Country Station, the filming location for Edoras in Lord of the Rings. It featured nice landscapes and fun facts, and that’s all I really heard about it.

Pictured: Fiona's excellent photography. Not Pictured: Fiona

The rest of the B Roll went to Kaikoura via bus. Their bus driver, Fiona, was apparently the best bus driver in the entire world because when I finally met up with them after they returned, Fiona was the first person Marshall talked about. I asked about dolphins, he spoke about a bus driver. She was really great, though. She had really interesting information, not just about the contents of the tour but loads of information about New Zealand (she used to work for the government). She also took the group to cool little stops along the way that weren’t exactly part of the itinerary.

Once Fiona brought them into Kaikoura, they finally reached Marshall’s most anticipated event: swimming with dolphins! Everyone got some glimpses, but Marshall was the one everyone wanted to be. After many attempts at talking to them and singing to attract the animals, he found the one song that brought not one, not two, but FIVE dolphins to swim alongside him. That song, friends, is the theme song to Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Everyone seemed to have a super time, and told us all about it over shawarma.

LATER THAT EVENING

Ladies night! We decided it was time to relax, crack open a bottle of wine, and pamper ourselves. Holly and I brought peel-off face masks and bubble masks, and we used tea bags provided by the hotel to de-puff our eyes. There's something about having an at-home (in New Zealand) spa night to bring out the giggles. I would highly recommend it.

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Road Trip! Part 2

Thursday Jan 10

I woke up at…. you guessed it! 6:30 AM. My alarm was set for 7, so I rolled over a bunch and pretended to keep sleeping until then. Not the greatest. We had the day to do whatever we wanted on our final leg of the road trip to Christchurch, so we took our time packing our bags and getting ready. We finally rolled out and stopped at our first tourist attraction of the day. This attraction, the Church of the Good Shepherd, was only HALF A MILE AWAY. We could see it from the restaurant the night before! Well, not really, because we weren’t seated near a window, but if we were, then we would! But we drove on up, walked over a cute footbridge so Nolan could take pictures of it, and then checked out the church.

Church of the Good Shepherd, Tekapo

The Church of the Good Shepherd was built in 1935 as a Catholic church (what whaaat!) and still functions as a church for interdenominational Christians. However, Mass is still celebrated there by the priest of the local parishes. Visitors are welcome to walk around the grounds but not go inside unless it was for worship. I was not going to miss the opportunity to use my Catholicism to my advantage, and also it’s never a bad idea to stop and pray for a bit. It was a tiny, yet beautiful, building, with a nice garden surrounding it and other grounds currently under construction.

Don't be fooled by the photo size.

Finally, we hit the road again! After an hour or so we stopped in Fairlie, at the suggestion of the hotel bartender, and had breakfast at the Fairlie Bakehouse. What a good suggestion! They had egg bakes and pastries and donuts and, my personal favorite, meat pies of all kinds. From Fiarlie, Nolan took the wheel again and we drove onward for a few hours until we were desperate for a bathroom break. After some wrong turns and differing directions from locals, we found a park with a public restroom. This wouldn’t ordinarily be a noteworthy side trip, except this part had a GIANT hamster wheel for people!! Naturally, I had to try it out. It was a little difficult to keep my balance, and stopping was a little interesting, but overall it was pretty neat.

 

We arrived in Christchurch around 2 PM. Mark was on his Edoras tour until 6, and the rest of the gang was swimming with dolphins until about 5:45. We decided to have a snack and a walk of the mall down the street before heading to Hagley Park. This park is HUGE. We spent about 2 hours there, but we only went to the botanical gardens, which comprise about a fifth of the whole thing. Oh, we also only walked around the southwest corner of the botanical gardens, so that might indicate how big this place is. Mom was in a really great place in her book, so Nolan and I left her on a bench somewhere and explored. By explored, I mean we looked carefully at the map, plotted a course, and then deviated from the course almost immediately. We found Mom again, took her phone, and then walked our route once more, this time taking  glamour shots in all the foliage.

Eventually, everyone returned from their excursions and we met up for shawarma for dinner.

Road Trip! Part 1

Wednesday Jan 9

Woke up at 6:30. This is definitely a trend. Packed all my bags and then walked down the hill with Mom and Nolan to pick up our rental car, a 2018 Toyota Corolla. I was elected to drive said Corolla up the treacherous hill back to the hotel to get our bags and say goodbye to the rest of the group. If you’ve been following my blog, you might remember that the last time I drove in New Zealand, I was in a high-speed car crash while turning into a gas station. Needless to say I was a little bit nervous terrified. By the time we drove the three blocks up the hill, I was SHAKING. But, I didn’t hit anything or anyone and nobody hit me (which was what I was worried about tbh) so Mom and Nolan both voted that I drive the car all the way out of Queenstown. Great.

 

We packed up the car and headed out. After 5 minutes, we stopped at Burger King for breakfast (even though I had already eaten) and then continued on our journey.

The nice thing about road trips is that you can go where you want to, when you want to, and you can take as many stops as you need. And since we were driving through the heart of New Zealand wine country, we made sure to stop at a nice place for lunch. Carrick Winery—a delightful little place in the Bannockburn area of Central Otago—was one such place. The grounds were GORGEOUS, the views STUNNING, and the wine DELICIOUS. Oh, they also grow olives and make their own olive oil.  For lunch we sampled the cheese board and bread with olive oil, accompanied by Chardonnay, Riesling, and Pinot Noir Rosé. We really enjoyed ourselves.

Lunch at Carrick Winery!

I will say, however, that although the olive oil is great, the olives themselves are not so much. They provide olives with the cheeseboard so I ate one. First, not a fan of all the really crunchy seeds. Ew. Second, it was SO SOUR I thought my tongue was going to burn right out of my mouth. I ate only half of an olive and called it good enough.

After Mom drove us out of wine country, we pulled to the side of the road so Nolan could give it a go. First trip out of the country and I’m already making him drive on the left side of the road! Watch out Daytona, because Nolan is a driving expert! But in all honesty, it was probably a little scary for him. I could ask him, but he’s sitting across the room from me right now and it’s just too much work.

Lake Pukaki

We booked it all the way to the Mt. Cook visitor’s center. We pulled into the parking lot at 4:30; the center closes at 5:00. Close one. It didn’t really matter though, as low clouds had come in and the mountain was completely hidden behind a thick layer of fog and rain. But Nolan got to drive over some neat one-lane bridges, and we did see lake Pukaki, which was the most beautiful color of blue I had ever seen in my life. The hue is caused by glacial flour, which is finely ground up sediment caused by millions of years of pressure and ice movement. However you think about it, it makes for some pretty water.

Mt. Cook? Somewhere in there.

We finally reached our destination for the night, the Peppers Bluewater Resort in Tekapo, around 7:00.  If you ever go to Tekapo (and you should!) get a dinner reservation early! We had to wait until 8:00 to eat, and by the time we did, we were famished. Without spending too much time reading the menu, we ordered what looked the best and waited. The waiter brought out utensils for us quite ceremoniously, which intrigued us as to what kind of establishment we entered. Then our food arrived, raw, on a burning hot stone for each of us. My stone had venison, beef, and lamb, and Nolan’s had 400g of beef. Mom made the mistake of ordering chicken, which meant she had to cook her food quite a bit longer than the rest of us. Regardless, she ate it all and didn’t seem to mind the taste.

Our hotel room, the pond, and the view of lake Tekapo

After dinner, Nolan had a nice long soak in the very large bathtub (sorry, no pictures) while Mom and I watched some TV. We went for a drink at the hotel bar, and hung out all evening. At around midnight, the clouds broke and we could see some stars, so Nolan and I walked down to the shore and went stargazing for a bit, but it was already so late and we were pretty tired, so we were back at the hotel by 1:00 AM, ready to sleep.

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I don't know what day it is anymore.

Monday? Jan 7

Nothing staves off jetlag like waking up at 6:30 AM to go on a day tour! Hooray! We spent 4 hours driving via motor coach to Milford Sound, where we boarded the Milford Mariner for a 2-hour tour of the fjord, because Milford Sound is a fjord, not a sound. After returning to land, we boarded our coach and made the long trek back to our hotel, arriving just after 8:00 PM. It’s not very exciting to talk about if I’m being honest, so I’ll let the breathtaking photos describe the day.

Hanging valleys are in no short supply in NZ

 

Yay for selfies!

Tuuuuuueeeesssdaaaaay? Jan 8

Finally, I get to return to my usual self and wake up after 7:00 AM! Except Marshall wanted breakfast at 6:30 so he woke me up then. Maybe this trip will turn me into a morning person...

We took another coach (for only about an hour) to Glenorchy. The ride was…a little dicey. The driver, Klaus, warned us that the gears were tricky on this particular coach, which we found out first hand while going up the steepest hill in the area. Klaus came through for us, though, and we only ended up rolling backwards a few meters.

In Glenorchy we changed into the gear provided, which included a wetsuit without sleeves, the hottest and most uncomfortable plastic bag of a jacket, and a life vest that was far too big to stay on my body if I fell into the water. It all turned out okay once we boarded the jet boat, though. What a blast! Tight turns, high speeds, spinning in circles as we flew on the top of the waters of the Dart River made for some crazy hair and even crazier laughs and cheers. 

Our canoe was the best.

After what felt like 5 minutes, but was more likely an hour, we arrived at the site of our next adventure: funyaks. What are funyaks you ask? Well, reader, funyaks are inflatable canoes that take teams of 2-3 people downriver gently, without much paddling (unless you were my boat or any of the boats in our group without a guide). But Catherine, why are they called funyaks instead of fanoes? I have no idea, reader. I’m not sure the Kiwis know the difference between a kayak and a canoe, because they definitely kept calling our canoes kayaks. Oh, well.

Most everybody else. Not pictured: Mark

A very cool cavern we paddled through

We returned to the hotel around 5ish. Despite wearing sunscreen (ALL DAY EVERYDAY), quite a few of us were a little pink, and a couple even more so. That NZ sun does not quit. It did not help that we kept falling out of our boat every time we needed to find shore.

Mmmmm.....ramen.

We ate dinner at Hikari, a Japanese restaurant, which was pretty good, and then for dessert we visited Cookie Time, a magical place that serves raw (RAW!) cookie dough like ice cream in a cup, and makes milkshakes and also serves baked cookies. It was super yummy, but also don’t get two scoops of anything because it’s just TOO. MUCH. I went to bed happy and fed, ready for whatever tomorrow had in store for me.

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No jetlag for me!

January 4, 2019

I arose before the crack of dawn to the dulcet tones of my mother pounding on the front door. Apparently, leaving by 9am means arriving to my house at 7:15. Ugh.  At around 8:15, Holly arrived and we loaded up the car. Not to eager to jump into international mode, we had breakfast at Shari’s just before crossing the border into Canada. But Catherine, you ask, didn’t you go to New Zealand? Why, yes I did. As ridiculous as it may seem, the best course of action for us was to drive to Vancouver and fly to Auckland direct. No TSA? No problem.

Lake Wakatipu, the site of Queenstown

Our 14-hour flight was fine.  We played some musical chairs with the assistance of the gate agent, but eventually I was actually sitting with Marshall, and mom got her aisle seat. Thankfully Marshall and I were close to the bathrooms, because I did not want jet lag so I drank enough water to fill a bathtub.

Dinner was interesting. They served me beef. I had no choice; the chicken ran out rows and rows ahead of me. I honestly do not remember how it tasted, only that I ate it incredibly fast and very sloppily. You see, during the first meal service the plane hit some rough skies. The poor man a few rows away had apple juice he tried desperately to keep from spilling everywhere. He did not succeed. Beverage service was suspended just as the cart was to the row in front of me, and I am glad for that.  I do not possess the skills even of Apple Juice Man. There would have been no hope for me. But, we made it through and I managed to sleep a couple hours before rising to breakfast, which also included a side of severe turbulence.

The gondola was steep. Very steep.

We landed at 6:00 AM (on Sunday; yay IDL!) in Auckland and waited around until our 9:00AM flight. You know how layovers go.

By noon, we were finally at our hotel in Queenstown, the Heartland Hotel. Its cute Swiss-style chalets were reserved for 6 of us. Adorable triangles with West facing, floor-to-ceiling windows had such nice views of the lawn and the evening sun. Unfortunately there was no air conditioning, so they were also boiling hot late into the evening. The other 3 stayed in a room in the main hotel. I never asked if they had air conditioning.

The first afternoon in Queenstown was spent at leisure, and most people found their own things to do. Marshall, Nolan, Mike, and I had pre-booked tickets on the gondola and the luge rides. The luge rides were so. much. FUN! They’re not luges, but rather a go-kart/pushcart/toboggan hybrid. Also the tracks were miniature roads. Basically, it’s downhill Mario Kart and it’s awesome.

At the top of the chairlift, ready for ride #2. Slowing down at the end of ride #2

The evening was spent having a casual dinner and going to bed early.

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