pthomas156

TUESDAY 4/7 HOKATIKI TO WESTPORT

We were up at 6 and the sun doesn't rise til 7! Still raining a bit. By 7 the rain stopped but the clouds were close to the ground. We packed up. We were skipping the glaciers as we have done glaciers the past few years in Patagonia and Norway and we have already been to Mount Cook. Next stop will be Hokatiki for lunch perhaps. By 8 we can see a bit of blue sky peeking out at the mountain tops and when we leave at 8:30 it is sunny in Fox. Helicopter pilots are predicting clearing by 10:30. The road between Fox and Franz has two passes and several hairpins and it is lush, covered with rainforest ferns and fern trees. We stop at Franz Josef for gas and a little bread and cheese and then by the river bridge where everyone has stopped to take pix of the rushing milky gray river and the glaciers emerging from the clouds. Beautiful light at this hour. Then we're off. On the way to Hokatiki we pass many vintage mini Coopers doing the "Pork Pie charity Run", it says on each of them. By 12 we are in Hokatiki.

Hokatiki turned out to be much cooler than I imagined. I had thought it would be slick, but it's several streets of down-home businesses, lots of artists and jade shops, some historic buildings
and places to eat. But the best part is the beach. The access to it has "Hokatiki" written in driftwood in an arch. You pass through, and there is the wide beach, heavily littered with driftwood and possibly the remains of driftwood art projects concocted for the Driftwood Art Contest in January. Today it was very misty, and numerous people were strolling the beach, having fun on the driftwood, running around, taking photos. We walked all the way down to sunset point, which is the mouth of the river. In drier moments it's a great sunset beach apparently.

We headed back toward town and turned up Revell Street, the main drag which during Gold Rush days had 102 hotels wedged in there. Hard to imagine. Now some historic buildings remain. One is an art gallery where you can see how all those stones on the beach look when they're polished. Lots of wood and stone art. One particularly fun store is the book store where I bought 3 posters. I asked if they had a tube to put them in and they said they just happened to, and promptly charged me $7 for it. Nothing in NZ is free! We noticed that the guy running the place is the same guy we saw a bit earlier on a beach before Hokatiki who seems to have stopped there to close the gate to the side road. Funny confidence. He said he was checking on erosion from all the rain the night before. I am interested in buying the book "Luminairies" by an NZ author, which a sign announces that they have, but when I see how thick it is in paperback I rather guiltily think I'd rather read it on the iPad than carry it around.

We were in the mood for fish and chips, so we drove back to where we entered town to Porky's Takeout. The salesperson said Blue Cod was the special, Elephant fish was what they usually had, and her favorite was Rig fish. So I said let's have your favorite. A poster on the wall described all the different kinds of fish. Rig is caught in coastal waters in long nets 50 meters deep and is a firm texture (cod is medium firm). We got one order for two of us, which was plenty. It was truly delicious, all wrapped in newspaper, and we ate it at outdoor picnic tables. The tartar sauce was an extra $2.20. A sign said "sauces are not free. Dont hassle the staff." I'm telling you, nothing in NZ is free!

We left Hokatiki a couple of hours later and made occasional stops to view the wild beaches, but that wasn't always easy. Not a lot of beach access even tho the only road runs right down the coast. When we pulled into the busy area at the Pancake Rocks blowholes, we weren't expecting much since it was heading to low tide. But they are very cool, geologically, and the path accessing them is extremely well done, snaking around to best advantage. It was still fairly foggy and misty, but not raining at least. We stopped for a flat white at the cafes across the street, and then were off to Westport. I was glad I made a motel reservation that morning (when we had good internet connection) so we didn't have to worry about finding a place. The road north after the pancakes is one of the Great Roads Of the World, and it is stunning. Fortunately, the traffic all seemed to be going the other way and we could go as slow as we wanted. The limestone rock croppings in the water were dramatic. The sun made an occasional milky appearance and we stopped numerous times. Now that I've seen this, I would definitely have stayed on the water here somewhere, maybe the Punakiki Resort. You just want to spend time on this beach! However, probably in sunnier weather.

We pressed on as the fog grew more opaque. At 5:45 we turned onto the road to Cape Foulwind instead of the more direct road to Westport even tho it was quite misty. Immediately saw a farm full of deer staring at us and swamp hens crossing the road. Huge farms and lots of fog out to the lighthouse turnoff, so we took a pass and turned toward Westport at a little after 6. No west coast sunset for us -- again! We found our hotel, the Buller Bridge Motel, which is small and nice. The owner is an affable fellow who suggested The Town House for dinner and gave us free drink coupons. The unit was a typical motel unit with kitchen, very clean and nice for $130. For some reason, the bed linens have a Parisian theme, but we like them. We settled in and tried to download our email, but the connection was poor. We drove to the restaurant, way at the end of the main drag. In the gloomy, drizzly night, the town looked a little threadbare. Not much open in the evening. But The Townhouse was lit up and lively. We ordered salmon in parchment and the fish special jurnatd on pasta. Both delicious. Profit margin on the salmon must be pretty high as it's one slice on some scallions! House wine was good. We downloaded our email on their system, had a flat white and a dessert wine, and were at the hotel and in bed writing this at 10.

WEDNESDAY 4/8 ON TO ABEL TASMAN


Our drive northeast to Kaiteriteri near Abel Tasman National Park began with something new: a one-lane river bridge with a hairpin turn and no sight line. Thank goodness there was a traffic signal! But the next one-laner had no signal and it was almost as bad, tho it mostly had a sight line. The scenic road twists along the wide, brown Buller River with rainforest foliage hanging from the mountains and cliffs on either side. Clouds and mist hung low, but we could still see the river rushing along. Waterfalls spurted out. Is this what the Amazon is like, a jungle river? We had left about 10 because it was a drizzly day; we've learned that NZ sometimes takes a while to get going in the mornings, with all that burning off. Luckily, we are driving inland because the Westport coast was total pea soup. None of the trees here seem to be turning gold as they were in Queenstown. We were glad to get to Murchison at 11:45 because that whole road from Westport was mountain driving. Time for flat whites. Stopped at The Beechwood Cafe and split the $20 NZ plate of ribeye steak, chips and salad. Very tasty and just enough for both of us. On the road again by 12:45.

As we drove into Kaiteriteri, we saw a golden sand hill that reminded us of Roussillon, France. We rounded the corner and sure enough, the beaches were that same striking golden color. We found our motel, the Torlesse, which is just a bit out of the hubbub in Little Kaiteriteri. The owner was a real sweetheart and showed us everything in the very nice studio with a little balcony and a sea view. Maybe $145 NZ? We had to park a bit down from the door and she said a view is always worth the extra walk. So true! We could see the sea over the houses, although it didn't look like much in this gray day. We got organized and walked to the main beach. We tried to go via the picnic area at the bottom of the hill but it was cut off by the high tide at this time so we took the alternative stairs up and trail over. The rich color of the beach was awesome even in the gloom. One girl was out in the middle of the wide curving swath and she made quite a picture herself, alone out there.

The "nicer" restaurant that was open earlier when we passed by was now closed (5 pm). So we went to the only game in town for a beer and a wine; we sat outside under an umbrella in the rain because it was so hot in the packed restaurant, which was attached to the camper park. We listened to a young English guy talk on the phone to somebody at home. He had come by bus and he told his caller, "these roads are fookin' dangerous!" He was waiting for Trivia Night to start. All these foreign kids over here, making their way. Very brave. We walked back in the dark, me grateful for Chris's sense of direction. It was too wet to look to see if penguins might be coming into the beach as a sign indicated. Really, how can I be so blasé about penguins? Back at the motel, we drank wine and ate the stuff we had picked up earlier in Moteuka at the grocery store on the way here.

pthomas156

THURSDAY 4/9: EXPLORING THE NORTH THRU NELSON

Woke up to rain, which stopped by 8:30 and the day dried out a bit, but no sun to light up the lovely ocean water. We watched a hilarious version of the Today Show, after which all of daytime tv appears to be infomercials. By 11 we were in the car, driving around the estuary next to us, where we saw Pukeke hens and a heron. Stopped by the Wilson's kiosk on the waterfront to check on tomorrow's kayaking and they said today's had been cancelled because of rough water. Said if it's the same tomorrow we can switch to a cruise and walk. Chris had said today he was not interested in doing a wet forest walk! We took off for Moteuka, the bigger town nearby, where we had a flat white and great snack of pig ear, a pastry dipped in chocolate, at the European Bakery and picked up some 7-grain bread.

We got a craft beer trail map from the I-site and pressed on to Mapua to have a go at the Golden Bear Brewery, but it was closed because the California owner went to the US for a few weeks. It was right at The Wharf, which was so busy we had to park in the little annex parking lot. It has a few restaurants and cafes right on a marina. We bought some smoked fish at a specialty smokehouse where they were also selling fish and chips. We toured half a dozen artsy-crafty galleries and shop that we quite liked, some original stuff. Our last stop was a hat store, selling both its locally made hats and all kinds of others, plus fascinators, very British. The sales lady was very fun and delighted that we lived in Miami Beach, which she thought sounded "fast." She knew her stock and we FINALLY found Chris a hat that we liked and was big enough for his head. We even got to pick between a Panama type and the more usual NZ with a brim and a ventilated top. Went with the latter for $90. Just perfect.

Next up was the little town of Stoke, where we tasted 5 beers for $10 at McCashins brewery on the main street. Eclectic cafe and tasting bar with free wifi where we tended to email while we sipped. Good Porter, Amber and Oatmeal Stout. The outside was draped in hops vines, picturesque. We decided to continue on and take a swing through Nelson, and ended up getting ATM money and some more wine at a liquor store there. Looked like a fun little town but we liked being out in Kaiteriteri in nature. Couldn't find anywhere that sold local cheese and couldn't remember where the cheesery was that we saw on the way in. Maybe Stoke? Stuck with Route 6 on the way back and didn't see it. Stopped in Mateuka at the New World grocery for cheese, ended up buying two teeny rib eyes, a fejoia fruit, some sheeps milk cheese, mocha tomatoes, Blackball salami from the west coast and a little butter. Big bucks! They were tasting wines and chicken tortellini in there. But we had a great dinner of ribeyes, tomatoes, cheese and Reisling. Watched Anzac show on Maori TV about war. Nice and cozy. This is the first down time we've had since we left the US, where we're just winging it. We've seen and done so much already it doesnt really matter what we do now.

When we came back to the motel, Chris went to the office to get more internet vouchers. The owner wanted to say hello to me; I was sitting in the car deleting photos. She's so nice. NZ is a nation of small business people, like RI. Each motel is owned by a real person who puts their stamp on it. Same for each B&B. Same for every plane and helicopter that whisks you off on adventure.


FRIDAY 4/10: A FINE PADDLE AND A FRIENDLY DINNER

We reported to the Wilson's stand at Abel Tasman at 9. It was quite a gray day, but the wind had died and it wasn't dangerous like yesterday so the trip was going. Chris changed into shorts and I brought along my quick-dry capris when we saw what others were wearing. Tim, our guide, said he doubted we'd get wet except for maybe a wet bottom. I had light tennis shoes and Chris had sandals. We could take a day pack and they gave us our $25 preordered lunches. We boarded one of the cruise boats with a lot of other people and sat inside since it was not gorgeous ( but dry, and that's what we needed). Frankly, Abel Tasman looks a lot like Maine when the sun isn't shining enough to turn the water turquoise and transparent. At Wilson's Aworoa Lodge Tim got us our kayaking gear (including paddling jackets since it looked like rain) and gave us some basic instruction. Then 8 of us piled into double kayaks and we were on our way.

We paddled almost a couple of hours, including out to two islands to see fur seals which Tim admitted basically looked like rocks in spite of his vocal efforts to get them to wake up. He told us about their breeding season and how the males have left now and the ladies are relaxing as much as they can with their older pups. Then he led us into a lagoon with a lovely sandy beach where we landed for lunch. Hilariously, he made us coffee and hot tea; I told him I'd like to be on his team on Survivor! We ate quickly so we could go way back into the lagoon where it got narrower until we could barely turn around. We saw a kingfisher and other birds. Then Tim sent us out two by two so it could seem like we were in the wilderness on our own and we could really hear the birds in the quiet. At one point, he tried to find us sting rays but it was high tide and too murky to see. After another hour or so we ended up back at the lodge at 3. The others were hiking for a couple of hours but we were taking the cruise boat back so we wouldn't have to drive over the Takaka hill in the dark. We're trying not to push it as much as we have been right down to the last minute for everything!

We drove over the mountain to Takaka at about 4 and were very glad we weren't doing it in the dark. Lots of hairpins and completely fogged in at the top. Got to Collingwood about 5:30 and found the Collingwood Park Motel. It was a one-room studio with sofa, table and chairs, little kitchen, right on Main Street, which is the only street. Just right. Alan, the owner, has a big world map where you put a pin for where you live. There were so many pins in there and it's only for 2015! He said we could use as much internet as we needed but he had to give it out in chunks.

After consulting with Alan, we went to the Mussel Inn for dinner, about 12 minutes down the road, and basically dined with the three nice folks from Christchurch sitting next to us. The couple owns a family bach with her siblings in Paripari Beach that they're renovating. We discussed our mutual justice systems, Christchurch's earthquakes, kids' propensities for tattoos. The other guy, a contractor, said he was in NYC last year and was amazed he could go outside at 11 pm and there were still people on the streets everywhere and places to eat were still open. We closed the place down with them at 10, and they invited us to drop by the next day. The inn has been owned by the same people for the past 23 years, they said, and the menu has never changed. They make their own very good varieties of beer, including Captain Cooker. It's part farmhouse and part hippie restaurant. We drove the very dark road home by about 10:30.

annhig

One of Chris's favorite books is The Restaurant At the End of the Universe and now he would get to eat in a real one, at the end of the only road on the West Coast of NZ.>>

brill - hitch hikers rule!

we did this route the opposite way round about 2 years ago so it's fun reading what you thought about it. we did that 'wet forest walk", BTW, but it wasn't wet. Still not the most fun I've had as we felt [like you on Mount Discovery] that we had to keep going in order to meet up with the boat at the right time. it turned out that we had plenty of lee-way, but you never know the first time, do you?

pthomas156

Annhig, you are right about the first time! I guess that's the gap that trip reports can fill in a bit. I wish it had been sunnier for us in Abel Tasman on the water; I never saw it the way all the photos look turquoise online. It really did look way more like New England than I desired! But NZ is so outdoors-oriented that everybody has a different trip depending on the weather.

pthomas156

SATURDAY 4/11: EXPLORING COLLINGWOOD

It dawned gloomy. We took our time getting up, eating cheese and bread and smoked fish for breakfast. We were on the road to Wharariki beach at 10. It's a ways out to the point where the Wharariki beach is one way and Farewell Spit is the other. The farms on the way are incredibly green. On the small road to the beach we were stopped by a young couple herding their cows down the road from one pasture to another. He was walking in front with a big stick that looked like a bow from a bow and arrow, the width of the road. She was in back on a gator or something. We were able to pull off the road so they could get by. Next we saw a bit of road kill that I thought looked like a hedgehog, so I went back and checked. Sure enough, a tiny guy, dead and perfectly intact. Nobody mentions hedgehogs here.

We parked at the beach parking lot and then were confused about which trail to take as we looked at a big tourist sign. One was 20 minutes, the other an hour. We took the hour one, and it started to drizzle. It runs along an old grass track, and then seems to disappear into farm land. Typical of NZ trails; one sign, and then nothing! We finally figured out that we were supposed to follow some red signposts, go over some stairs, cut through a sheep pasture, and then go over more stairs into woods. We could hear the ocean but it was a trial figuring out how to get there. It opened onto a beautiful beach with gigantic rock formations and big caves, and out in the sea, a big stone arch. Unfortunately it was too close to high tide to be able to get around the rocks to the other part of the beach, so we went back the way we came. Still drizzling, and a rather nerve-wracking descent to the beach on what looked like lava flows hardened above rock-filled ground. Interesting geology. The pastures on the way back were pretty soggy, and so were our feet by the time we got back to the car. Then we looked at the map in the lot again and realized we should have taken the 20-minute walk, which would have accessed the bigger portion of the beach at high tide. Damn. But we were too wet to do that trail too.

We drove back to the hotel and changed into dryer clothes and ate some lunch in the room, along with a fortifying glass of Rabbit Ridge Pinot Gris. Yum. Suddenly, at about 4, the sun came out! What a shock. We put on dry shoes and went out to walk around town. Not much there of course, and what was there was mostly closed. We walked along the beach road but the tide was too high to go out on the beach. So we got flat whites and got into the car to see what interesting side roads we could find.

We turned down a couple and saw a good rainbow. The weather was continuing to clear. By 5 we had turned down Milnthorpe Quay which ended in a great beach walk that would have come out in Collingwood if we kept walking. By this time the shallow, fast-moving tide had already receded a lot. We saw a woman doing tai chi or something out on a point of sand. Other people were starting to come out into the sun with dogs, etc., found some great scallop and whelk shells, saw oystercatchers, enjoyed the light. Met some campervan folks who had brought their chairs out onto the beach for 5 pm cocktails. They were joking about being retired and said their favorite story was telling people they were going for a SCAN: senior citizens afternoon nap!

At 6 the sun was setting and we headed back to the hotel, paid the bill for tomorrow since we were going to be leaving at 5:30 am, and Alan told us to put all our stuff in the car and then leave the car at the motel. I looked at the map he has in the office with pins for all the places guests had come from this year. Lots of Australia, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, and US. And of course the UK and Ireland. Collingwood doesn't get tour buses, so he's more likely to get guests from countries where people travel independently, which he says is not true of Italy or Spain. He speculates they feel their English isn't good enough for independent travel.

We repacked the car, and then went to dinner at the Collingwood Tavern, which was the only place open. Had roast mutton (very flavorful) and lamb liver (interesting, Chris said). Peach and black boy crumble for dessert with ice cream and whipped cream. About $60. Our waitress/the manager was at least our age and said she'd moved here from Christchurch after the earthquakes. Not so much because of the earthquakes but because they have property here. When they sell it, they'll move back because her daughters are there. But she says when a door bangs or something like that, she jumps because she's afraid it's an earthquake. Her daughter said there'd been a rolling 3.5 last week. There are web sites listing all the shaking and quaking that goes on in NZ. There is a 2 or 3 point shake virtually every day!


SUNDAY 4/12: SPECTACULAR FAREWELL SPIT, THEN NELSON

Woke up at 5:30 to not only to start our 6:15 Farewell Spit Ecotour but to pack the car. Of course we had stayed up late the night before repacking, trying to round up our souvenirs and gifts. Ate a little breakfast from the fridge, and we walked over to the ecotour office across the street. The weather forecast had said rain so it was a big surprise when the clouds began to lift for a sunrise once we'd piled into a quite high-off-the-ground bus.

Kirsten our guide introduced himself and he would prove to be the most charming Kiwi we met in a month in this land of charming people. Part poet, part philosopher, part comedian, he clearly loves to show people the countryside that he worships. The tour, while wonderful, wouldn't have been nearly as entertaining without him (I hope his company rewards him appropriately; you can't just go out and hire a person like this.) We drove down to a parking area near the spit parking area where we collected more people until the bus that seats 35 was nearly full. This was the first day since Monday that they had been able to run the tour because of the timing of the tides. They need to be able to operate the bus on either side of low tide to get the six-hour tour in. Low tide was at 9:30 this day.

Anyone can hike onto this narrow sandy spit for the first 4 kilometers; after that, you need a permit, and these folks are the only licensed tour operators. After we had driven a bit down the wide, wide sand, the sun broke out and I asked Kirsten if we could stop for a few photos while the light was good. He said sure, and everybody piled out into the beautiful sunshine. It made for wonderful photos with dramatic clouds. Several people told me they were grateful that I asked, and I had known people wanted out because I could hear them taking photos thru the windows, which were nicely clean. Kirsten was happy too, and soon stopped for another photo opportunity around a big driftwood tree. By now the weather had completely cleared! We were very lucky. Kirsten continued to point out birds such as pied oystercatchers, and when we happened upon our first seal, he stopped to let us photographers out. We saw a lot of lone seals taking naps in the sun.

Eventually we stopped at the big orange lighthouse near the far end. Kirsten dropped us off at the lighthouse and then drove over to one of the three former keepers houses and made coffee and tea and brought out muffins and cookies; there's also a toilet there. Kirsten said we weren't allowed to go up the lighthouse, but once he headed to the house some of us did. Beautiful views of course.

After we'd all had tea and relaxed in the sun and listened to Kirsten answer questions (the tide goes out about six km, which is how whales get stranded on the inner beach. He said they put out a distress call and then others come to help them and get stranded too), I asked if those of us who wanted to could walk out to the beach and get picked up there. He said that's fine, so about a dozen of us headed out. This was the best yet, because the wind near the ground had picked up and was blowing the sand in lines at our feet. It was otherworldly out there. Kirsten picked us up and eventually we stopped at a huge sand dune area, where the tour is allowed to let people climb. We all climbed up high into this moonscape, this desert landscape, and ran or slid down or just marveled at the beauty. Wind was still blowing on the ground. We were running late, but we still stopped at the beginning of the spit to see fossils in the cliffs. By now we'd been out six hours, and we still had one more stop. Kirsten let off those guests who were being picked up at the parking lot and then took the rest of out to see a rock arch off Wharariki Beach that is off another spit parking lot. This appeared to be the other end of the beach we were on yesterday when we couldn't get around because of high tide!

As soon as we began driving back to Collingwood, it clouded up and began to rain. Unbelievable timing. We left Kirsten back in town at 1:30 with many thanks for a great day and dashed for a flat white and to pick up the car at the motel. I got the directions for Harris Hill Cottages online, and then we downloaded our email and we were off. Chris ate a leftover quiche from our kayak lunch the day before. Before we got to Takaka the rain stopped, and we popped in for an ice cream cone. Then we drove back over the hairpin road over the mountain. It was clearing up nicely and was a completely different trip than the one we'd made in pea-soup fog on Friday. Beautiful views everywhere. We stopped in Moteuka at the I-site for a last tshirt run. I heard groups of kids in there trying to plan their next adventures and I realized I was actually glad to be going home now and not having to do any more planning!

By 4:45 we were at the entrance to Harris Hill; it's just a little outside of Nelson. At the foot of this huge hill are rather normal suburban houses. But the road goes up and up, narrow, twisting and no guard rails of course, until the very top, which is where our lodging at Sue's farm is. Astounding views! We had made a mistake by not stopping to get a beer for Chris because he said he wasn't up for going out to dinner and having a beer then having to negotiate that road in the dark. (Friday night when we were in Collingwood, he had pointed out that sometimes he likes to stay in bigger towns where we can just walk to dinner and he can have a couple of beers and not worry about driving, like back to the Mussel Inn. So we did eat in town on Saturday. But I had no idea this B&B would be like this!).

Sue, who was delightfully welcoming and had upgraded us to the City Lights 2-bedroom cottage, assured Chris that no one had driven off the road yet! But instead of going out to find dinner, we ended up just staying there since sunset was only an hour away and it would be a shame to miss it on our only night here. We fashioned a meal from our leftover food of pate and crackers and apples and my favorite Rabbit Ridge Pinot Gris. I walked around and took pix of the great views over Nelson and Tasman Bay (no boats out even tho we'd passed a huge marina full of sailboats). I also visited the two ponies and all the sheep and goats grazing all over Sue's steep terrain. No wonder Indiancouples from the Fodor forums had raved about this place. It would be the perfect several-day stay on longer summer days when you could do day trips and then come back here and cook and watch the sunset. The clouds completely filled in over the hour, so we got no sunset, but after our lucky weather on the spit we weren't complaining. We watched some TV (Friends reruns, the news shows) and I kept falling asleep because of our early morning so I went to bed. Chris was on the free wifi. Long fabulous day!

annhig

But NZ is so outdoors-oriented that everybody has a different trip depending on the weather.>>

you're not kidding. mainly we were pretty lucky, with the only wet weather being round Napier, and very windy weather in Wellington [which i suspect is not unusual]. The bit that was most spoilt by weather was our trip to Doubtful Sound- the day and started well with lovely bight blue skies which held all the way through the boat trip to the end of the sound but then it clouded over and the boat trip round the Sound took place in stygian gloom.

but given we were there for about 17 days, 3 poor ones wasn't a bad ratio!

pthomas156

MONDAY 4/13: FROM NELSON TO THE AIRPORT TO AUCKLAND

Woke up to a cold snap. The mountains across the bay suddenly had snow on them. But it was clear as glass and we could see forever, right from bed. We made coffee and tea and ate the last of our bread and pate and peanut butter for breakfast. We repacked everything into our regular suitcases and our new little tiger bag. Barely fit! Took lots of pix of amazing view, including the unusual Boulder Beach that snakes across the harbor. It was low tide and so it was really obvious. Such interesting tides to watch. We noted that this cottage provides a few herbs, tin foil, etc, helpful to travelers. It's a really good setup.

We saw a note on our car to leave payment in the cottage because no one was home right now. We were so used to using credit cards at b&bs I had forgotten this one was cash only. I wasn't even sure how much it was, but I found an old email that said $155 plus a 20 percent up charge for a single night. So we had to drive down the hairpin road back to Nelson to the ATM. When
we drove back up with the cash we found that Rachel, Sue's daughter, who helps manages everything, had arrived, and we gave her $175. She is so terribly nice, typical Kiwi! She said they've owned the farm for ages, she has four sibs and they were all brought up there. Her two brothers work on a commercial fishing boat (factory) and go as far as Antarctic waters for 6-8 weeks at a time, so her dad who is 74 runs the farm with the girls' help. He was gathering the sheep this morning for dipping, I think she said. She said it never freezes there, just a little frost on the grass sometimes, but nothing to bother the palms etc. She pointed out the historic baches on the Boulder beach in the bay and said the owners can only fix them minimally and when they collapse they're gone, by council order. She thinks it's a shame. You can walk out there all along, but it's miles and the footing is tricky. Looks cool tho for those with more time than we had here.

We made our way back down the hairpins again and of course now had nothing to do until our flight at 3:30. We looked for a cafe for a flat white and found one with a parking lot where I could sort out the shells and rocks I collected in the past month. I'm thinking I don't have to take them all! On the day we have a flight we don't seem to be able to do anything useful, especially since it was sprinkling. Then went to the little Apex car rental place nearby where the office person simply drove us in our car to the airport and dropped us off. The thing I appreciate a lot about NZ is the feeling that everybody will do everything to make sure you get what you need or where you want to go. It's as tho it's their job to make sure you're ok in their country, but they also take care of their fellow countrymen.

At the airport we had to pay $60 NZ for our extra bag. What a lot for a few hundred miles of air space to Auckland. Then we had to kill some time there, fortunately over Middle Earth Chardonnay and Nelson Airport's free hour of wifi. The propellor plane, which we entered after absolutely no security precautions at all (!), left on time providing a lovely view of both the snow-covered mountains and the end of Farewell Spit.

It was raining and blowing like crazy in Auckland. We paid $6 each to ride the yellow shuttle to the airport hotels. The Holiday Inn Airport was efficient and modern but oddly had no elevator. We had to drag our stuff up 11 steps to the second floor. Staff was very nice and told us we'd need a 3:30 am wake up call for the 4 am shuttle to the airport to be there at 4:30, two hours before our flight to LA. We dropped our bags and went down to the restaurant (tho the cafe looked good too) for our farewell dinner. Chris had the $41 NZ buffet; I had the scotch fillet. Both yummy, accompanied by a bottle of Settlers Hill Pinot Gris $38.

On our last night of vacation, we like to evaluate it. What did we think of NZ and our trip?

We concluded that while you can find a lot of what New Zealand offers in other places -- glaciers, beautiful countryside, vineyards, magnificent harbors -- the whole package together in these two islands is what's impressive. And the NZ culture is so welcoming and easy, perhaps, we thought, from being an island in isolation. Then it's sprinkled with all the quirky stuff: The emphasis on WWI, the land that looks like Hobbits live there, the struggle to save the birds, the inclusion of the Maori culture, the desire to be just plain nice. Chris said his favorite place was Mt Cook; mine was the Otago Peninsula. We both liked Queenstown; we both would have skipped Arrowtown. And we both loved going to Farewell Spit.


TUESDAY 4/14: GOODBYE NZ, HELLO AMERICA

We were waiting for the shuttle bus promptly at 4 am. The driver came into the hotel lobby and helped me buy the tickets from the machine. These kind Kiwis! At the airport, we were a little early again; we had no gate and the international area we had to go to wasn't even open. I shopped around for a sheepskin but they didn't have much to offer. Bought another tshirt and a fantail bird bowl for sushi soy sauce. The plane left promptly but took over three hours to get to Sydney, and we're just going to fly right back the same way. Waste of six hours, but the frequent flyer tix were free on Qantas! We didn't have much time in Sydney but I managed to scoop up a sheepskin. On the plane I watched an Australian movie called Water Diviner where Russell Crowe goes to Turkey a few years after Gallipoli to try to find where his sons died. Then I watched Wild. Both movies were a fitting end to a great trip!

jodmaree

Thank you so much for your informative and entertaining recount of your trip. My husband and I will have 3 weeks with our 11 year old twins in December. As you can imagine, we are planning a little differently for a family and will have a motorhome. Your comments have still given me new information on some locations (and will happily skip Arrowtown if time is tight).

tripplanner001

Thanks again so much for sharing your experiences with us. I only got as far as the Auckland region during my visit to NZ two years ago and hope to get back soon. The information you provided has given me some good ideas.