Filling in the blanks

---

Last time I wrote we had just left Wellington on a four hour ride to the South Island. We landed in a small port town called Pickin.

It decided to rain and looked like the forecast was due for rain, rain and some more rain. Which we were in luck just an hour outside of Pickin in the Marabough Valley Region, which just so happens to contain a large area of wine country. We spent the next two rainy days, tasting wines, exploring cellar doors, trying wines we have never heard of and loading up on 24 bottles to take back with us.

On day three on the eastside of the island and make our way toward Mt. Cook and some of the Glaciers. While leaving Marabourgh we stopped at one of the newer Vinards called Yealands. It was just beautiful. Situated on top of a cliff you could jump into the sea, and even see the North Island. As green as they can be, they put a TON of money into the grounds and operation. Solar, pigs, baby doll sheep, chickens, manmade marshes to help attract bird life and so much more. It was amazing to see the operation and grounds compared to the other.

As we were leaving the grounds we pulled over in to a picnic area to fill our camper with water. To which we met JR. JR is a kiwi that travels between the different vineyards to work. He ended up wanting to chat and after an hour later, being invited to his home, served a cup of tea, we walked away with three bags full of home grown veggies and a one of the kind Yealand wine that he was given but would not drink as he has been 20 plus years sober.

We headed south on highway 1 and made our way towards Christchurch and Mt. Cook.

Passing through Christchurch and 2 days later we arrived to Lake Tekapo. The lake itself is fed by glaciers and boasts colors of emerald blue in the middle and clear sapphire towards the beaches. You could stand on its rocky coast and pear down 10 or more feet into its depth. Almost like gazing through a pale blue emerald and looking through to the other side.

That same day we set pace toward Mt Cook and the Tasman glacier (one that fed Lake Tekapo). Stopping in a small town called Tiwizel we stopped to say hello to Whiskey the pig. She was a 3 yr old sow that was brought over in the 1800’s and now considered the native pig species to NZ there are only about 2000’s of them still on the islands. She happily accepted apples from us as we spoke to one of the workers of the farm. Picking up some Merrino Wool socks and Merrino wool yard as it is known to be the best type of wool in NZ. Also very expensive. This place was not too expensive, it was locally owned, the sheep were just on the other side of Mt. John for us to see and they made/sold their own products.

For lunch we drove up a steep curvy road to Mt. John. It is one of the tallest points in the Tiwizel Valley. Stopping up at the top and a short walk to a café that had one soild wall and then the other three and roof were made of glass for an epic view of Lake Pukaki, Twizel valley and Mt. Cook. I have to admit, it was there that I had the BEST cup of coffee, a view never to be forgot and a 35 min experience that everyone should be able to indulge in.

Leaving the café, we embarked to Mt. Cook, which if you don’t know was the mountain that was featured in the Lord of the Rings as Mt. Doom. Although not taller than a majority of Colorado peaks, what makes this a sight is to see the jagged, sharp and steep rise of the mountain.

Took a short hop and walk to the Tasman glacier and finished our drive in to spend our 11th night just outside of Queenstown in a town called Bendigo.

Checking the weather we decided to make a pit stop in Queenstown to plan our adventures, and drive on through Te Anau Downs to catch a ferry the next day to view Milford Sound.

I found out when we arrived the Milford Sound is one of the top 10 (number 8) wonders of the world. After taking our ferry through the sound, seeing some beautiful waterfalls and cool landscape, we both got off the ferry and thought, “It was pretty, but really…top 8?” On our walk back to the car we stopped at one of the informational boards, saw a picture and read why. Then we both were in understanding of why top 8.

To see this you have to catch the sound and hour after it rains, even if it’s still raining. As the terrain is steep and rocky and not much vegetation within an hour’s time…. You have a sound that is resounding with hundreds of water falls. If we only knew before we would have waited a day for the storm to see it. If you haven’t you MUST google some pictures to check out what I am talking about.

We headed further South to Manapouri, staying in a quaint cabin that offered a bed (WHOOOHOOO), a woodstove (there were some really cold night on the S. Island) and an amazing view of Lake Manapouri and its mountains in the background. Why Manapouri? It is the mouth to Doubtful sound which we were told was a must if we had time.

We took a ferry across Manapouri Lake, then a four wheel bus over a pass to arrive at a small docking area to take a ferry into Doubtful Sound. Milford topography bragged with black mountain faces, limited vegetation, waterfalls and very clear water. Doubtful offered pitch black waters, immense vegetation and is more than four times the size of Milford.

It is called Doubtful Sound, as when it was discovered by some explorers, although the wind would take them in to the sound, it was “doubtful” that the winds would be able to take them back out.

The big highlights of Doubtful was seal island, we drank water right from a waterfall and stopped in an arm of the sound, untouched by man, turned off the engine made everyone be silent and just listened to what nature sounds like.

Moving forward to Day 15, adventures in Queenstown!

Known as the adventure capital of the world, it is also considered a sister city to Aspen. Beautiful, expensive and offering a balance of nature/life.

We started our day by taking the Shotover Water Ride. To sum it up, take drift car racing and take out the car and had a big boat (which it really is just a giant water jet ski). Filled with 75 km per hour, sharp turns and 360 turns. It sounds much scarier than it really is. We had a good time, but we both agreed that drift car racing is much more thrilling and mechanically challenging.

We bussed back to town to then load up for our paragliding adventure! I know I posted up a quick photo of it, but it dare scratches how much fun it was. For those who may not know, paragliding is where you have a shoot/sail that you then run off a mountain side, catch air and “soar” like a bird down to the ground. After gliding past trees, mountain sides we landed gracefully after having a bit of fun by a few tricks.

After landing we asked, being the adventure capital, what was the most dangerous/injury causing excursion? Can you guess? I’ll tell you a bit later to let you think about it. Keep in mind, there is bungy jumping, sky diving, parasailing, wind boarding, etc. If it is a sport or involves water, land, air or snow it is here.

Day 16 we drove back towards the North Island on the other side of the Aoraki Range (which houses Mt. Cook), we were going to try to see Franz Josef Glacier, but it was too rainy and cloudy to go.

Day 17 we stopped in the largest town on the west side of the South island, Greymouth. We had just planned to stop in walk around and head up further north to stay, but tis the beauty of vacations.

At lunch time we went to a brewery call Monteithes (sp?) we got a little tour, sat by the fire place to finish our tasters. Just as we were just about finished a guy walked up to the fire, tossed on a bit of wood and would you have it, we struck up a conversation.

Daniel is his name, and what turned into a brewery tasting turned into hours of conversation, free beers at the brewery and invite to visit his home when got back to the North island (you better believe we are going to take him up on that). I forgot to mention, Daniel is a distribution rep for all of NZ for Heineken, which owns several small breweries as well. He travels a lot, but loves his job, has a beautiful wife, lovely home and 3 kids with 1 on the way. Daniel then took us with him the rest of the night to get a really taste of local New Zealanders.

Greymouth made its existence due to mining. Lots of miners are still there today making a honest wage, but there is a treat to cancel one of the train lines which would put half the townies out of jobs.

Daniel took us to a little pub, which just happened to be packed with folks, as it was trivia night! We were adopted onto one of the teams and enjoyed free beers all night, the best cordon blue I’ve had, wonderful conversations with locals and laughter till our belly’s hurt.

The other funny thing that happened (sorry mom and dad!) someone asked about pot here in CO as it is now legal. To which I began talking about, explaining strains, how they have it to a science and how most pot has been bred to have many thc crystals etc. To which a drunk miner over hear, started laughing and stated, “you don’t know weed! You’ll have to see some good ol’ NZ Greymouth!” To which he trotted to his car and brought back to very large nuggets of pot. The bar keep yelled at him and told him to take it outside.

Day 19, we stayed in Golden Bay after a tiresome day of taking a water taxi and then kayaking back. We enjoyed a lunch of pbj and beer while watching the low tide go out. Golden Bay has TONS of cockle shells that you dig out of the sand and can eat. We found a few just to find them, and tossed them back so they could see another day.

On day 20 we drove to the Farewell Spit. We took a short 20 min walk that started off in green grassy hills walks stairs over a fence through dense trees, crossed another stair/fence and walked over sand dunes to a beautiful beach with towering rock formations. We also discovered a cove that had at least 13 or more 4 month old seal pups playing with one another in the water as the tide rolled in. We were maybe 20 ft away and they paid no mind to us. It was so fun to watch them surfing the tide as it came in and out. Chasing each other and just having fun.

We saw a bird sanctuary walked over some black dunes to the sea and ended our day with a lovely walk Waikoropupu Springs. It was really neat. To give you an idea of how clear the water is, bottle water is around 80 m of clearness, the springs is at 65 m. You could see all the life moving about as if you were standing next to a large glass wall of an aquarium. The other part about this is that the spring and river were fed from a underground aquafer. So in lake area, you would see what look like rolling water at the top, which was water coming up from underground to feed the lake and river. The water itself, comes from rain a top the mountain range near-by. Flows down through the ground to the aquafer.

We are now on Day 20 headed into night 21, on a ferry back to Wellington for us to go explore tomorrow.

Hope you all are well. Miss you and wish you were here!





Did you guess yet? Its horseback riding. Since a lot of Asians and Chinese visit and few have seen or been around, they tend to fall off frequently during the ride, walk underneath or in front of them while the horse is walking.

---