I don't think it's really hit me yet, but yesterday morning I took a pregnancy test and it was positive!! The FAM book had said to wait until the 18th high temperature but I knew already what was going on. Wednesday was the 16th high temp day and I was 3 days late. I just wanted to know already and I'm glad I did it even though Toshi wanted to wait!
Pregnant! So I am currently I am in week 5 and waiting until week 12 to tell people (my trip to Seattle August 23rd) feels like forever but I know it's for the best. Too many possible things to go wrong between now and then. This is just better.
I have my first doctor's appointment on July 2nd and then we'll go from there.
As I said, I don't think it's fully hit me yet, but it's really really exciting!
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
TTC
And it continues. We are just about done with this current round and then we play the waiting game again. I have been temperature charting as well as trying to pay attention to my cervical fluid - fun huh? And still using the ovulation strips. I thought my temperature was going to peak this morning (because I thought I ovulated yesterday) but that does not appear to be the case so that means it continues. I really hope this works because that would just make everything better. If you count starting in February (which if this continues to be an issue we are!) then this is month 5 so it really hasn't been that long and since February and March were kind of just guessing it really hasn't been that long at all.
I've read two books - one recommended by Eiko about Fertility Awareness. The other is What to Expect Before You're Expecting. Now I think all this reading is driving me even crazier. I don't plan on reading anything more that I have read and I will just continue to do what I can - charting and playing the waiting game.
One of the things that one of the books talked about was finding out about fertility and pregnancies of relatives. I guess maybe I should ask mom how long it took to get the three of us! I know that Francine is unable to have kids but I don't know if that's her or her and Carl. I know that Grandmaman had a miscarriage at one point (between mom and Francine) but maybe I should get some more info so I have it when I go to the gynecologist next week. In a couple of weeks Toshi will go and get his physical and then he's got some things to ask about as well.
And it continues.
I've read two books - one recommended by Eiko about Fertility Awareness. The other is What to Expect Before You're Expecting. Now I think all this reading is driving me even crazier. I don't plan on reading anything more that I have read and I will just continue to do what I can - charting and playing the waiting game.
One of the things that one of the books talked about was finding out about fertility and pregnancies of relatives. I guess maybe I should ask mom how long it took to get the three of us! I know that Francine is unable to have kids but I don't know if that's her or her and Carl. I know that Grandmaman had a miscarriage at one point (between mom and Francine) but maybe I should get some more info so I have it when I go to the gynecologist next week. In a couple of weeks Toshi will go and get his physical and then he's got some things to ask about as well.
And it continues.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
January 22, 2012
20
Back to Queenstown
Overnight in Queenstown
21
Fly to Auckland
Drive around
Dinner at a really good Indian place
22
Up really early 5:30
Drive around
Ok, so I never got this last post done. I think that was because by this point, I was really really tired. It was an incredible 3 weeks but wow were we busy! I would LOVE to go back again and see all the things I know we missed. Shannon is there for a year (until October) and I know she'll have tips if we ever get the chance to go back.
January 19, 2012
17th
All we had planned for the 17th was a hike and so because of that we were able to sleep in (especially since we were going to be at the same hotel again, we didn’t have to worry about getting up and out!) It was really nice to get to sleep in, especially since I was still feeling crummy. After breakfast I decided that I’d like to see a doctor so we went downstairs, checked email (free wifi in the lobby!) and asked at the desk. The guy at the desk was very helpful and called for me so I could ask about an appointment. They had an appointment at 12:15 (it was currently 11:00) so we went back upstairs to watch some Lord of the Rings before heading out. The doctor was really nice and told me that nothing is wrong. She said my ears looked fine and there was just a little something on my throat that looked no good along with a canker sore, which is the reason that the right side of my throat hurts more. She said they could do a culture but it was likely to come back negative and even if it was positive it would be a couple of days before they knew for sure. She said pain killers and gargling would be good along with writing me a prescription for penicilian just in case things got worse. She said that I might have a little trouble flying but since it wasn’t an ear infection I should be just fine. (My ear still hurts a little bit. It seems to be getting better but very slowly).
After going to the doctor we headed out for a hike that Toshi had read about. Hikes here are funny because they tell you how long not how far. This was a three-hour return (meaning round trip) and it was pretty long so we figured pretty flat which it was. It was a bit on the long side but pretty flat so not too bad. It was warmer than I expected and we ended up drinking all 80oz of water that Toshi had in his Camelback.
After getting back to the hotel and changing in to clean clothes we vegged for a little while and then headed out for dinner. The place that we had looked into going was closed for dinner so we walked across the street to another place called the Ranch. The food was pretty good – I had chicken shnitzel, which was basically chicken katsu, it was tasty. I had chocolate mudpie for dessert and Toshi had weird cheesecake; mine was much better. We stopped at the bigger grocery store to get non-perishable things to take with us to Knobs Flat where there is no grocery store. They had to be all non-perishable because we were driving straight to Milford for our cruise and we weren’t going to check in until afterwards and things were going to be sitting in the car.
After dinner we finished watching Lord of the Rings. I like all the movies but I think Return of the King is my favorite partially because of my favorite line in the movie. At the very end when Aragorn has been crowned and he is walking through all the people, he gets to the hobbits and they bow to him. He says “my friends, you bow to no one.” He bows to the hobbits and everyone else follows him. Best part ever.
January 18th – We left Te Anau about 9:00 and drove straight to Milford Sound, which is just over a two-hour drive on some windy roads. Everywhere here is windy and goes up and down with all the mountains. Toshi wasn’t feeling so well so I did the first part of the driving and I did all but the last half hour or so. Toshi blamed me for his being sick although his is different than mine and seems to be lasting not nearly as long. We stopped at one viewpoint place along the way and that’s when Toshi took over the driving after we did a little 15 minute walk.
We arrived to Milford about 11:15 or so and got all checked in for the cruise. Since neither one of us was feeling great I was really glad that we had canceled our kayak trip and booked a cruise instead. We were able to relax on a big boat and the weather turned out to be gorgeous. Unlike Doubtful, Milford is much more easily accessible. You drive until the road ends and that’s where the boats load and then you are on the sound (fjord). We had paid for a cruise that involved lunch and that was served right when we got on the boat. Lunch was nothing fancy but was pretty tasty. The cruise got us out into the sound and then to the edge of where the Tasman Sea is. (We had done the same thing on the Doubtful cruise although on the Doubtful cruise the Tasman was pretty rocky and on Milford it wasn’t so much. It’s amazing what just a couple of days can do to the weather and the water!)
On the way back we stopped at the underwater discovery, which we had hoped was going to be really cool. It was ok but not nearly as neat as I had hoped for with viewing things underwater and such. We did learn about the fjords and the fresh water layer that sits on top of the salt-water and due to that there are some things that live in the salt-water at depths they would not normally live at. The fresh water on top creates a bit of a cloudy feeling on top and makes it darker than it would normally be down below.
One of my favorite parts of the cruise was on the way back when we stopped at one of the major waterfalls. Although there are hundreds of little waterfalls in the fjords, very few of them are permanent. We stopped by the biggest waterfall on the way back and they put the nose of the boat in the waterfall. I was on the top deck where I had spent about half the cruise, the other half I had spent on the middle deck inside, and I was happily sprayed by the waterfall, it was really cool.
After getting off the boat about 3:00 or so we headed back south along the Te Anau-Milford highway and back to Knobs Flat. It appears that basically the only things here are the hotel we are in, which are more like cabins as they aren’t serviced everyday, and some nearby campsites. There are no restaurants and there is no internet just the hotel and the road.
We did a lot of reading last night before we went to bed. Our evening ritual has been either reading or Lord of the Rings before going to sleep. Finally about 11:00 I convinced Toshi that we needed to sleep. We are both still sick and we had an early morning planned.
This morning, the 19th the alarm went off at 6:00. We had planned to get up, put hiking clothes on, stop by Mirror Lakes for some early morning pictures and then go on our hike. When we checked in our host had shown us the weather and it was supposed to get worse throughout the day so we wanted to do the hike early. Toshi got up and looked outside. It was dreary and gloomy and not picture worthy so we went back to sleep. He wanted to sleep and have no alarm but I know better, we would have slept all morning! I set the alarm for 8:00 and we snoozed until 9:00! We finally got out the door about 9:30 or shortly after and make the quick drive to the Divide, just about 20 minutes away.
The hike we were going to do was a Summit hike but was part of a track. There are lots of tracks here in New Zealand, luckily you don’t have to do the whole track to take advantage of the hikes themselves. Like our last one, this was a three-hour hike, but unlike our last one this one was short and steep. We knew we were going to get rained on and it was chilly outside so we planned the best we could. Layers and as much waterproof as we had which was unfortunately not much.
Although the hike was steep, overall it wasn’t too bad on the way up. It was steep but we took breaks and because it was so much up I was really warm and took off my fleece. We saw the turnoff for the hut where we had seen some people coming down from but we kept going up the hill. Then as we rounded a corner the trees went away and we were exposed to the elements. It was really windy and raining, and really windy. The wind was not fun. Also, my knee had been hurting on and off which was not making things any easier. I had my headphones on with my running music and that was helping a little bit but I was not a happy camper. I was doing my best but finally I just started crying. I tried to push through for as long as I could but I was not happy and Toshi saw that I was crying. We were so close I didn’t want to go back down before reaching the top so we pushed on. I was very grateful for my hiking boots keeping my feet dry and my hat, which was keeping a lot o the rain off my face. I realized it would have been good to have my fleece on but we were unprotected and I didn’t want to stop to put it on. We made it to the stop and turned right around and came back down. Because of the weather and the immense fog unfortunately we couldn’t see anything.
On the way back down we got to a little spot that had sheltered us from the wind on the way up and I stopped and put my fleece back on. Warm! We made it back down just fine and although my knee doesn’t like the down I was much happier once we were back under the cover of the trees. As we went down it got warmer which helped although by the time we realized that our pants were soaked. Again I was grateful for dry feet. Magic hiking boots they are!
We got back and hung up everything to dry by the heater and in the bathroom. I took a hot shower and managed to get the bathroom all wet since the showerhead sprays everywhere but the shower was great. We had some lunch and have been vegging ever since – about 4 hours or so now.
Dinner will be pasta tonight and then tomorrow we head back to Queenstown for one night, plane to Auckland, staying there one night and then back to the states. It felt really long at the beginning but as we got going it’s felt so short. Soon back to reality – although my temporary reality won’t be so bad I don’t think.
All for now, last little bit in a couple of days but for now here’s an overall view of the trip.
The highlights:
Favorite activity: Blackwater rafting in Waitomo, swimming with the dolphins in Kaikoura
Favorite city: Wellington
Favorite town: Wanaka
Favorite place stayed: the B&B in Wanaka
Most difficult part of the trip: Hiking Fox Glacier
Favorite place: the Fjordland
Best weather day: Wineries in Blenheim, kayaking Abel Tasman
And then today I was thinking about this. When we went to see Jeffrey graduate from Interlochen they did what they called Blue Streak – a breakdown of the whole year one or two words at a time. I might have to add to it since I’m sure I’ll forget things along the way
SEA-SF, SF-LAX, delayed in LAX, meeting up with Toshi, LAX-AKL, rental car, driving on the opposite side of the road, windshield wipers vs turn signals, Happy New Year early, us asleep at 9:30pm, dreary days in Auckland, everything closed, everyone on vacation, drive to Waitomo, Waitomo Caves, abseling, blackwater rafting, cold water! zip line in the dark, glow worms, not really glow worms, climbing up through waterfalls, drive to Rotorua, mud bath and sulfur springs, drive to Taupo, walking on the beach in the rain, drive to Wellington, Wellington, feels like home, sunshine and windy, cable car, met Toshi’s online friends, ferry to the south island, drive to Blenheim, sunshine, wine tasting in the sunshine, a wine Toshi likes, buying a bottle, drive to Takaka, so far away from everything, first two night stay since Auckland, long windy dive to Kaiteriteri, kayaking Abel Tasman from Kaiteriteri, gorgeous day, hands hurt from kayaking, meeting up with Shannon and Brian for dinner in Montueka, drive back to Takaka, drive to Kaiteriteri, water taxi insanity day, storm, new hike, waiting for the tide, walking through a river, not a happy camper, hard to find the boat, shortcut, found the boat, WAVES, finally on land and dry, out for a run, drive to Kaikoura, yummy organic dinner, swimming with the dolphins, drive to Methven, hot air balloon, panic attack in the balloon, powered through, champagne breakfast in the field, drive to Punakaiki, stayed in a tree house, pancake rocks and blowholes, drive to Fox Glacier, rain, lots of rain, cottage for two nights, day on Fox Glacier, rain, more rain, 5.5 hours on the glacier, rock falls, walking back through rivers, soaking wet, incredible, sleeping in, sore throat, earache, everything still wet, drive to Wanaka, yummy food, fantastic B&B, jet boat, jet boat stops running, walking through fields, back to town, refund for unsuccessful boat trip, drive to Queenstown, cable car, luge above Queenstown, souvenirs, the Cow on Cow Lane for dinner, drive to Manapouri, early morning to cruise, Doubtful Sound all day, boat, met people from Seattle, bus, boat, bus, met people from California/Seattle, underground in the power plant, boat, massive, impressive, huge, incredible, fantastic day, stay in Te Anau, 3 hour hike around the lake, warm weather and sunshine, drive to Milford Sound, cruise, fantastic weather, drive to Knobs Flat, 3 hour hike in the rain,
All we had planned for the 17th was a hike and so because of that we were able to sleep in (especially since we were going to be at the same hotel again, we didn’t have to worry about getting up and out!) It was really nice to get to sleep in, especially since I was still feeling crummy. After breakfast I decided that I’d like to see a doctor so we went downstairs, checked email (free wifi in the lobby!) and asked at the desk. The guy at the desk was very helpful and called for me so I could ask about an appointment. They had an appointment at 12:15 (it was currently 11:00) so we went back upstairs to watch some Lord of the Rings before heading out. The doctor was really nice and told me that nothing is wrong. She said my ears looked fine and there was just a little something on my throat that looked no good along with a canker sore, which is the reason that the right side of my throat hurts more. She said they could do a culture but it was likely to come back negative and even if it was positive it would be a couple of days before they knew for sure. She said pain killers and gargling would be good along with writing me a prescription for penicilian just in case things got worse. She said that I might have a little trouble flying but since it wasn’t an ear infection I should be just fine. (My ear still hurts a little bit. It seems to be getting better but very slowly).
After going to the doctor we headed out for a hike that Toshi had read about. Hikes here are funny because they tell you how long not how far. This was a three-hour return (meaning round trip) and it was pretty long so we figured pretty flat which it was. It was a bit on the long side but pretty flat so not too bad. It was warmer than I expected and we ended up drinking all 80oz of water that Toshi had in his Camelback.
After getting back to the hotel and changing in to clean clothes we vegged for a little while and then headed out for dinner. The place that we had looked into going was closed for dinner so we walked across the street to another place called the Ranch. The food was pretty good – I had chicken shnitzel, which was basically chicken katsu, it was tasty. I had chocolate mudpie for dessert and Toshi had weird cheesecake; mine was much better. We stopped at the bigger grocery store to get non-perishable things to take with us to Knobs Flat where there is no grocery store. They had to be all non-perishable because we were driving straight to Milford for our cruise and we weren’t going to check in until afterwards and things were going to be sitting in the car.
After dinner we finished watching Lord of the Rings. I like all the movies but I think Return of the King is my favorite partially because of my favorite line in the movie. At the very end when Aragorn has been crowned and he is walking through all the people, he gets to the hobbits and they bow to him. He says “my friends, you bow to no one.” He bows to the hobbits and everyone else follows him. Best part ever.
January 18th – We left Te Anau about 9:00 and drove straight to Milford Sound, which is just over a two-hour drive on some windy roads. Everywhere here is windy and goes up and down with all the mountains. Toshi wasn’t feeling so well so I did the first part of the driving and I did all but the last half hour or so. Toshi blamed me for his being sick although his is different than mine and seems to be lasting not nearly as long. We stopped at one viewpoint place along the way and that’s when Toshi took over the driving after we did a little 15 minute walk.
We arrived to Milford about 11:15 or so and got all checked in for the cruise. Since neither one of us was feeling great I was really glad that we had canceled our kayak trip and booked a cruise instead. We were able to relax on a big boat and the weather turned out to be gorgeous. Unlike Doubtful, Milford is much more easily accessible. You drive until the road ends and that’s where the boats load and then you are on the sound (fjord). We had paid for a cruise that involved lunch and that was served right when we got on the boat. Lunch was nothing fancy but was pretty tasty. The cruise got us out into the sound and then to the edge of where the Tasman Sea is. (We had done the same thing on the Doubtful cruise although on the Doubtful cruise the Tasman was pretty rocky and on Milford it wasn’t so much. It’s amazing what just a couple of days can do to the weather and the water!)
On the way back we stopped at the underwater discovery, which we had hoped was going to be really cool. It was ok but not nearly as neat as I had hoped for with viewing things underwater and such. We did learn about the fjords and the fresh water layer that sits on top of the salt-water and due to that there are some things that live in the salt-water at depths they would not normally live at. The fresh water on top creates a bit of a cloudy feeling on top and makes it darker than it would normally be down below.
One of my favorite parts of the cruise was on the way back when we stopped at one of the major waterfalls. Although there are hundreds of little waterfalls in the fjords, very few of them are permanent. We stopped by the biggest waterfall on the way back and they put the nose of the boat in the waterfall. I was on the top deck where I had spent about half the cruise, the other half I had spent on the middle deck inside, and I was happily sprayed by the waterfall, it was really cool.
After getting off the boat about 3:00 or so we headed back south along the Te Anau-Milford highway and back to Knobs Flat. It appears that basically the only things here are the hotel we are in, which are more like cabins as they aren’t serviced everyday, and some nearby campsites. There are no restaurants and there is no internet just the hotel and the road.
We did a lot of reading last night before we went to bed. Our evening ritual has been either reading or Lord of the Rings before going to sleep. Finally about 11:00 I convinced Toshi that we needed to sleep. We are both still sick and we had an early morning planned.
This morning, the 19th the alarm went off at 6:00. We had planned to get up, put hiking clothes on, stop by Mirror Lakes for some early morning pictures and then go on our hike. When we checked in our host had shown us the weather and it was supposed to get worse throughout the day so we wanted to do the hike early. Toshi got up and looked outside. It was dreary and gloomy and not picture worthy so we went back to sleep. He wanted to sleep and have no alarm but I know better, we would have slept all morning! I set the alarm for 8:00 and we snoozed until 9:00! We finally got out the door about 9:30 or shortly after and make the quick drive to the Divide, just about 20 minutes away.
The hike we were going to do was a Summit hike but was part of a track. There are lots of tracks here in New Zealand, luckily you don’t have to do the whole track to take advantage of the hikes themselves. Like our last one, this was a three-hour hike, but unlike our last one this one was short and steep. We knew we were going to get rained on and it was chilly outside so we planned the best we could. Layers and as much waterproof as we had which was unfortunately not much.
Although the hike was steep, overall it wasn’t too bad on the way up. It was steep but we took breaks and because it was so much up I was really warm and took off my fleece. We saw the turnoff for the hut where we had seen some people coming down from but we kept going up the hill. Then as we rounded a corner the trees went away and we were exposed to the elements. It was really windy and raining, and really windy. The wind was not fun. Also, my knee had been hurting on and off which was not making things any easier. I had my headphones on with my running music and that was helping a little bit but I was not a happy camper. I was doing my best but finally I just started crying. I tried to push through for as long as I could but I was not happy and Toshi saw that I was crying. We were so close I didn’t want to go back down before reaching the top so we pushed on. I was very grateful for my hiking boots keeping my feet dry and my hat, which was keeping a lot o the rain off my face. I realized it would have been good to have my fleece on but we were unprotected and I didn’t want to stop to put it on. We made it to the stop and turned right around and came back down. Because of the weather and the immense fog unfortunately we couldn’t see anything.
On the way back down we got to a little spot that had sheltered us from the wind on the way up and I stopped and put my fleece back on. Warm! We made it back down just fine and although my knee doesn’t like the down I was much happier once we were back under the cover of the trees. As we went down it got warmer which helped although by the time we realized that our pants were soaked. Again I was grateful for dry feet. Magic hiking boots they are!
We got back and hung up everything to dry by the heater and in the bathroom. I took a hot shower and managed to get the bathroom all wet since the showerhead sprays everywhere but the shower was great. We had some lunch and have been vegging ever since – about 4 hours or so now.
Dinner will be pasta tonight and then tomorrow we head back to Queenstown for one night, plane to Auckland, staying there one night and then back to the states. It felt really long at the beginning but as we got going it’s felt so short. Soon back to reality – although my temporary reality won’t be so bad I don’t think.
All for now, last little bit in a couple of days but for now here’s an overall view of the trip.
The highlights:
Favorite activity: Blackwater rafting in Waitomo, swimming with the dolphins in Kaikoura
Favorite city: Wellington
Favorite town: Wanaka
Favorite place stayed: the B&B in Wanaka
Most difficult part of the trip: Hiking Fox Glacier
Favorite place: the Fjordland
Best weather day: Wineries in Blenheim, kayaking Abel Tasman
And then today I was thinking about this. When we went to see Jeffrey graduate from Interlochen they did what they called Blue Streak – a breakdown of the whole year one or two words at a time. I might have to add to it since I’m sure I’ll forget things along the way
SEA-SF, SF-LAX, delayed in LAX, meeting up with Toshi, LAX-AKL, rental car, driving on the opposite side of the road, windshield wipers vs turn signals, Happy New Year early, us asleep at 9:30pm, dreary days in Auckland, everything closed, everyone on vacation, drive to Waitomo, Waitomo Caves, abseling, blackwater rafting, cold water! zip line in the dark, glow worms, not really glow worms, climbing up through waterfalls, drive to Rotorua, mud bath and sulfur springs, drive to Taupo, walking on the beach in the rain, drive to Wellington, Wellington, feels like home, sunshine and windy, cable car, met Toshi’s online friends, ferry to the south island, drive to Blenheim, sunshine, wine tasting in the sunshine, a wine Toshi likes, buying a bottle, drive to Takaka, so far away from everything, first two night stay since Auckland, long windy dive to Kaiteriteri, kayaking Abel Tasman from Kaiteriteri, gorgeous day, hands hurt from kayaking, meeting up with Shannon and Brian for dinner in Montueka, drive back to Takaka, drive to Kaiteriteri, water taxi insanity day, storm, new hike, waiting for the tide, walking through a river, not a happy camper, hard to find the boat, shortcut, found the boat, WAVES, finally on land and dry, out for a run, drive to Kaikoura, yummy organic dinner, swimming with the dolphins, drive to Methven, hot air balloon, panic attack in the balloon, powered through, champagne breakfast in the field, drive to Punakaiki, stayed in a tree house, pancake rocks and blowholes, drive to Fox Glacier, rain, lots of rain, cottage for two nights, day on Fox Glacier, rain, more rain, 5.5 hours on the glacier, rock falls, walking back through rivers, soaking wet, incredible, sleeping in, sore throat, earache, everything still wet, drive to Wanaka, yummy food, fantastic B&B, jet boat, jet boat stops running, walking through fields, back to town, refund for unsuccessful boat trip, drive to Queenstown, cable car, luge above Queenstown, souvenirs, the Cow on Cow Lane for dinner, drive to Manapouri, early morning to cruise, Doubtful Sound all day, boat, met people from Seattle, bus, boat, bus, met people from California/Seattle, underground in the power plant, boat, massive, impressive, huge, incredible, fantastic day, stay in Te Anau, 3 hour hike around the lake, warm weather and sunshine, drive to Milford Sound, cruise, fantastic weather, drive to Knobs Flat, 3 hour hike in the rain,
January 15th
The great thing about being in a B and B is getting a home-cooked meal and that we did! After getting up and realizing it was cold because I hadn’t latched the door and it had blown open in the middle of the night, we headed out into the living room and had some yummy breakfast. Eggs, bacon, tomatoes, toast, mushrooms, yogurt, cereal, juice. YUM! We headed out about 9:20, got all packed up and headed back towards town. We had last minute planned a jet boat trip for the morning. We figured it would be nice to get out and since we only had an hour drive to Queenstown we had plenty of time.
We met downtown and we were taken a bit out of town to the river and the speed boat. We were having a great time when about 30 minutes in to our speed boat ride the boat decided to do something horrible and we had to pull over. Then the adventure was how to get us to a point where we could be picked up by the van. The thing about New Zealand is that everywhere off the roads is farmland. So we were on the river and in the middle of someone’s farm. It was a matter of getting us over fences and across streams; quite the adventure. We finally made it out, got back on the bus and were taken back to town. We had to wait for the person in charge to come back with info so she could refund us so we got hot chocolate and cake while we were waiting.
Then we were off to Queenstown. We got ourselves all checked in, had a bit of downtime an then walked into town. Queenstown has about 11,000 people in it and town is still small enough to walk around quite easily. The first order of business was the gondola (at least for Toshi) and then Luge at the top. We did the combo package and did 5 rounds of the luge! I wasn’t sure I was going to really like it but as Toshi commented, it’s controlled fun and I get to decide how fast I go. I didn’t really like the gondola but I faced uphill or outwards and as long as I didn’t look down I was ok. The luging was really fun and by the end I was almost as fast as Toshi but still not quite.
We then walked back into town and found this great place called Cow for dinner. We had read about it in a guide book and it sounded liked awesome Italian food. It’s on Cow Lane, which is a tiny alley like street. It was easy to find since we knew where it was but if you didn’t you would never find it. In the evenings because it gets busy, they share tables, so we started out having a couple across from us but as they had gotten there before us and their food came not too long after we sat down, they weren’t there for most of our meal. I had broccoli blue cheese soup, which was tasty and then a veggie pizza with tomatoes, zucchini, onion and all kinds of good things on it. Tasty!
We headed back to the hotel, watched a little more Lord of the Rings and then went to bed.
January 16th we left Queenstown early, as we had to be in Manapouri at 9:10 for our Doubtful Sound cruise. The drive was about 2 hours long and we left about 7. The hard part was when we got stuck behind a slow truck on the hills and windy sections but otherwise it was ok. The cruise itself was all day. Due to the location of Doubtful sound you actually have to take a boat and bus to get there. The boat goes across the lake, the there is about 45 minutes on the bus to the second boat where you spend most of the day.
On our first boat we had some people from Seattle sitting across from us. We talked to them a bit and that was nice. The crew told us about the lake and what our day would look like. We had picked up lunch before leaving the dock – nice boxed lunches. We talked with people about cameras and one of the guys we had talked to had told us about kayaking the day before on Milford and how it was kayaking the day before. He said that he had been with his family (they were sitting behind us) the day before and it had been snowing. While it was beautiful he said it was really cold. I did not think that sounded like fun and after that Toshi and I started talking about canceling our kayaking day and doing another cruise instead.
After the bus we got on to the second boat. We were at a table by ourselves (6+ person tables) and near the front of the boat so we could see a good number of things. We went out on the front deck to take some pictures and overall just really enjoyed being in the Fjordland. We learned the difference between a fjord and a sound – a fjord is something that used to be a glacier. As the glacier melted the space was filled up with water. A sound is something that used to be a river but was carved out and has now become a sound. Doubtful and Milford are actually fjords but they were named as sounds and so they have just left them that way.
The second boat was really the amazing part because it’s when we were actually on the Fjord itself. We were around on the boat for about 3 hours and it was incredible to see the scale of everything. The mountains are huge and it just makes you feel so small and insignificant. It was cold and windy but we were able to go out on the deck and take some photos. Toshi was out there for much longer than I was – I was worried about getting blown over! I was wearing many layers of clothing and was still cold. I have a feeling it was partially from the cold and wind and partially because I was sick and my temperature gets all messed up when I’m sick.
After a good three hours on the fjord we go back on the bus to make the journey back. One the way back instead of just going straight to the last boat the bus driver took us on a detour through the power plant that is there. There is a big long tunnel that is 2km long and we can’t remember how deep. The bus driver took us in there and we got to go inside the power plant, although now it’s all controlled remotely and people don’t really work there anymore except to check on things.
On the bus we made friends with Rebecca and Alex – they were sitting in front of us and we were playing the kill the sand flies game. We were squashing as many as we could and they were everywhere! We got to talking with them which was nice. They are just a couple of years older than we are and they are living in California but Alex is from Seattle and went to Roosevelt! It was fun meeting someone from Seattle. He actually knew a couple of people at GHS because he went to Hebrew school with them through middle school. We spent most of the bus ride talking to them, Toshi to Alex and me with Rebecca. He is in school at Berkley and she is a naturopath focusing mostly on health and nutrition. They actually know some people out on Long Island who are doctors and one who does a lot of prenatal type things. I have Rebecca’s email address and the name of some people I should contact – they are in Roslyn.
We got off the bus and on to the last boat – Rebecca and Alex came to find us and we chatted with them some more which was nice and it made the last boat ride go really fast. Before we knew it, it was time to get off the last boat. It was about 4:30 or so by this point. It had been a long and fantastic day on the fjord.
After getting off the last boat in Manapouri we drove to Te Anau to check in to our hotel. I was excited by the idea of being in the same place for two days as it is really tiring moving hotels every night.
We got all checked in and went to the grocery store to get some food. (Later we found out there was a larger grocery store but the small one was across the street so we went there) We decided since I wasn’t feeling well and it was easy that we would get quick things to make at the hotel. Toshi got a pineapple and cheese sandwich (he said it was gross I told him, what did you expect?) and we had some noodles and some other things. Always an adventure when you don’t have real silverware and the only things you can make are things that use hot water since we had a hot water pot. But since we had a fridge we had been able to get breakfast type things – yogurt for me and cereal for Toshi. I also got some bananas and Toshi, of course, got OJ.
We had a quiet night in and continued our Lord of the Rings trend. Due to the length of the movies it was taking us two nights to watch each one (and ended up taking three to watch the last one)
We met downtown and we were taken a bit out of town to the river and the speed boat. We were having a great time when about 30 minutes in to our speed boat ride the boat decided to do something horrible and we had to pull over. Then the adventure was how to get us to a point where we could be picked up by the van. The thing about New Zealand is that everywhere off the roads is farmland. So we were on the river and in the middle of someone’s farm. It was a matter of getting us over fences and across streams; quite the adventure. We finally made it out, got back on the bus and were taken back to town. We had to wait for the person in charge to come back with info so she could refund us so we got hot chocolate and cake while we were waiting.
Then we were off to Queenstown. We got ourselves all checked in, had a bit of downtime an then walked into town. Queenstown has about 11,000 people in it and town is still small enough to walk around quite easily. The first order of business was the gondola (at least for Toshi) and then Luge at the top. We did the combo package and did 5 rounds of the luge! I wasn’t sure I was going to really like it but as Toshi commented, it’s controlled fun and I get to decide how fast I go. I didn’t really like the gondola but I faced uphill or outwards and as long as I didn’t look down I was ok. The luging was really fun and by the end I was almost as fast as Toshi but still not quite.
We then walked back into town and found this great place called Cow for dinner. We had read about it in a guide book and it sounded liked awesome Italian food. It’s on Cow Lane, which is a tiny alley like street. It was easy to find since we knew where it was but if you didn’t you would never find it. In the evenings because it gets busy, they share tables, so we started out having a couple across from us but as they had gotten there before us and their food came not too long after we sat down, they weren’t there for most of our meal. I had broccoli blue cheese soup, which was tasty and then a veggie pizza with tomatoes, zucchini, onion and all kinds of good things on it. Tasty!
We headed back to the hotel, watched a little more Lord of the Rings and then went to bed.
January 16th we left Queenstown early, as we had to be in Manapouri at 9:10 for our Doubtful Sound cruise. The drive was about 2 hours long and we left about 7. The hard part was when we got stuck behind a slow truck on the hills and windy sections but otherwise it was ok. The cruise itself was all day. Due to the location of Doubtful sound you actually have to take a boat and bus to get there. The boat goes across the lake, the there is about 45 minutes on the bus to the second boat where you spend most of the day.
On our first boat we had some people from Seattle sitting across from us. We talked to them a bit and that was nice. The crew told us about the lake and what our day would look like. We had picked up lunch before leaving the dock – nice boxed lunches. We talked with people about cameras and one of the guys we had talked to had told us about kayaking the day before on Milford and how it was kayaking the day before. He said that he had been with his family (they were sitting behind us) the day before and it had been snowing. While it was beautiful he said it was really cold. I did not think that sounded like fun and after that Toshi and I started talking about canceling our kayaking day and doing another cruise instead.
After the bus we got on to the second boat. We were at a table by ourselves (6+ person tables) and near the front of the boat so we could see a good number of things. We went out on the front deck to take some pictures and overall just really enjoyed being in the Fjordland. We learned the difference between a fjord and a sound – a fjord is something that used to be a glacier. As the glacier melted the space was filled up with water. A sound is something that used to be a river but was carved out and has now become a sound. Doubtful and Milford are actually fjords but they were named as sounds and so they have just left them that way.
The second boat was really the amazing part because it’s when we were actually on the Fjord itself. We were around on the boat for about 3 hours and it was incredible to see the scale of everything. The mountains are huge and it just makes you feel so small and insignificant. It was cold and windy but we were able to go out on the deck and take some photos. Toshi was out there for much longer than I was – I was worried about getting blown over! I was wearing many layers of clothing and was still cold. I have a feeling it was partially from the cold and wind and partially because I was sick and my temperature gets all messed up when I’m sick.
After a good three hours on the fjord we go back on the bus to make the journey back. One the way back instead of just going straight to the last boat the bus driver took us on a detour through the power plant that is there. There is a big long tunnel that is 2km long and we can’t remember how deep. The bus driver took us in there and we got to go inside the power plant, although now it’s all controlled remotely and people don’t really work there anymore except to check on things.
On the bus we made friends with Rebecca and Alex – they were sitting in front of us and we were playing the kill the sand flies game. We were squashing as many as we could and they were everywhere! We got to talking with them which was nice. They are just a couple of years older than we are and they are living in California but Alex is from Seattle and went to Roosevelt! It was fun meeting someone from Seattle. He actually knew a couple of people at GHS because he went to Hebrew school with them through middle school. We spent most of the bus ride talking to them, Toshi to Alex and me with Rebecca. He is in school at Berkley and she is a naturopath focusing mostly on health and nutrition. They actually know some people out on Long Island who are doctors and one who does a lot of prenatal type things. I have Rebecca’s email address and the name of some people I should contact – they are in Roslyn.
We got off the bus and on to the last boat – Rebecca and Alex came to find us and we chatted with them some more which was nice and it made the last boat ride go really fast. Before we knew it, it was time to get off the last boat. It was about 4:30 or so by this point. It had been a long and fantastic day on the fjord.
After getting off the last boat in Manapouri we drove to Te Anau to check in to our hotel. I was excited by the idea of being in the same place for two days as it is really tiring moving hotels every night.
We got all checked in and went to the grocery store to get some food. (Later we found out there was a larger grocery store but the small one was across the street so we went there) We decided since I wasn’t feeling well and it was easy that we would get quick things to make at the hotel. Toshi got a pineapple and cheese sandwich (he said it was gross I told him, what did you expect?) and we had some noodles and some other things. Always an adventure when you don’t have real silverware and the only things you can make are things that use hot water since we had a hot water pot. But since we had a fridge we had been able to get breakfast type things – yogurt for me and cereal for Toshi. I also got some bananas and Toshi, of course, got OJ.
We had a quiet night in and continued our Lord of the Rings trend. Due to the length of the movies it was taking us two nights to watch each one (and ended up taking three to watch the last one)
Saturday January 14th, 2012
Thursday January 12 – after a very long day the day before we got up the next morning to find that it was raining again. I decided that because of that, I was ok with not going horseback riding, although I’m still a little frustrated about the reason that we couldn’t go (and in looking at other places, they all have the same weight restriction so Toshi is not able to go at all until he loses some weight – however, he really liked the ropes course and I may be able to convince him to try rock climbing which would be awesome.) We had a nice relaxing morning and left the Treehouse as late as we could which was nice. We went on a little hike nearby (just part of an hour long section – we just did a half hour out and a half hour back) and had an adventure trying to get to it. The start of the trail was in a working farm so when we entered we had to open and then close the gate. That was fine. The interesting part was the 6 horses that were on our path. Toshi tried to go around them but they started walking over to the car! At one point there were 4 or 5 horses around us, which was crazy. They were licking the car! Finally Toshi was able to backup a bit and go around them. On the way back they didn’t give us any trouble but what an adventure it was trying to get there!!
The hike we went on was good and short. It was a good amount of uphill, which is part of the reason we didn’t go any longer. It was raining on and off but overall it was a really nice little hike
After coming back from the hike we went to see the Pancake rocks and blowholes. They are literally the reason that people go to Punakaiki. The rocks were ok, they are goofy looking and cool, but the best thing is the blowholes. We were there about an hour and a half before high tide and it was really cool. Toshi took some crazy photos – I now realize I should have taken video but it’s so hard to know when it’s going to start! That was really fun.
After that we headed to the glaciers. It rained most of the drive down which was about 4 hours long. The town of Fox Glacier is small and Toshi said not nearly as nice as the Franz Josef glacier town but it was ok. We were staying in the cottage associated with a hostel. We had our own bathroom and then a shared kitchen with the other two couples that were staying there (they were sharing a bathroom). It was nice to be able to put some things in the fridge but then to have our own space. We aren’t much for common rooms and pretty much just kept to ourselves but the room was big and the bed was comfy which is really as much as you can ask for.
The next morning (the 13th) we got up to go on our all day glacier hike. I wore my hiking boots, wool socks, running shirts (sleeveless, purple with sleeves), blue fleece and my rain jacket along with my green pants. They gave us thick socks, overpants and I took an extra jacket just to be sure. Everyone else had wet feet but my boots are awesome and therefore I didn’t have wet feet until near the end of the day – but I’ll get there in a second….
There were 16 of us in the group and we were divided in half once we got to the car park of the glacier. Toshi and I along with 6 others went with Margaret and Rich. Margaret was our main leader and Rich was there just to help out. You start out the hiking by a 600 meter long section where you are not allowed to stop because of rock fall. What a great way to introduce you to the glacier right? So we did that and that include walking through two small rivers that were not even really ankle deep. Most people got wet feet there but not me! Thank you boots! Then you get to a good stopping point and you put on your crampons. You can’t walk on ice without them so we learned all about them. It’s a very weird feeling because you have ot pick up your feet extra far otherwise they touch the ground. We also got walking sticks with pokey things on the end to put in the ice to help us with our balance.
Shortly after getting on the ice we stopped so everyone could learn tricks for going up and down the ice. Down is really scary. Then the trek began. It was raining like crazy and I was glad for all the gear and that I had decided to get an extra jacket. It had started out warm but as soon as we got on the ice it was cold and windy. Nice to have all those extra layers! As we hiked up Margaret would stop and carve out sections to help us get up. Seemed good but as we went on farther it seemed to take her longer and longer and it was cold (I was ok but most were colder and wetter than I was). Everyone had wet feet and overall it was not the best. After much hiking up we stopped for lunch. Margaret had brought a tarp and we all got underneath it and sat on the edges. Some people changed their socks at lunch, I just changed my gloves since my socks were still dry! Overall not the greatest lunch experience but the real fun came after lunch.
(January 17th) After coming out of the tarp from lunch we found that we were fogged in. The fog was incredible and due to all the rain the rock falls were happening much more often. Richard who had gone up with us told Margaret that she needed to keep us moving because we were going to need to get down soon. Margaret wanted to get us to our highest point so we kept moving. We moved faster after lunch and soon we made it to the ice falls where we weren’t able to go any farther. We took some pictures up there with the glacier in the background and then it was time to hurry down. By this time there were only two groups left on the ice – us and the ice climbers. Although we had gone up that morning with 15 all day people, the other 7 had already turned around and gone down because they were cold and went. We were troopers! After making it to the top we were told that we were going to need to run down – not literally since that would be unsafe but as fast as we could. I was still pretty warm because I wasn’t as wet as most people and at this point I was only one still with dry feet. The way down was fast, we never stopped moving and Toshi was especially grateful since he was so cold and went. I at was grateful for the extra jacket as well as my awesome shoes that were keeping me dry.
We made it down off the ice and soon were to the point of taking off our crampons. We were told we needed to take them off as soon as possible so we could get down quickly. We carried them in our hands until there was a safe spot to put them in our backpacks. We then got to the place where we could safely put them away and we did. Margaret told us that the rock falls were bad and because of the rain it was really loud. She asked us to stay close and take off our hoods so we could hear her in case she told us to run. The biggest challenge was getting back over the rivers that we had come through earlier in the day. They were much worse due to all the rain. We had to take a detour for one so that we could go through a place that was not so wide. Margaret, Richard and one of the other guides got across the rivers and helped us across them – it reminded me of walking in the caves, the current was so strong! I was glad for their help. Because of the two rivers I finally had wet feet. I had made it the whole day until then but the first river was nearly to my knees and the second was past my knees so there was no hope.
We finally made it back to the parking lot and there was a bus waiting for us! What a day!! Our guides were pretty proud of us for making it all that way and for being the only group to make it all day long. It was exhausting but amazing too. It made Toshi realize that maybe it’s time to retire his orange jacket.
When we got back to the cottage we hung up our stuff and turned the space heater on to try and dry everything as quickly as possible. Unfortunately Toshi only brought his orange jacket, fleece and long sleeve jersey as his only long sleeve layers and they were all soaked. His jacket was sort of dry enough a couple of hours later for us to venture out for dinner.
We had dinner at a nice place in town although our waiter was not the best and forgot my soup byt one of the other waitresses fixed it. The soup was pumpkin and was tasty. I also had pasta, which was big and I had the leftovers for breakfast the next morning.
January 14th – We slept in which was much needed. We both woke up with sore throats and tired after the previous very long day. We turned the space heater back on to let things dry. We decided we didn’t need to do anything but lounge around for a while.
After checking out we drove the 3.5 hours to Wanaka. I did some of the driving, which Toshi really appreciated. I think I did a good 2 hours of the driving :-) The first order of business was lunch. We had lunch at a place recommended in one of the guide books and although the service was a bit slow (expected from the book) the food was tasty and we sat outside. The funny thing was that people were walking around in shorts and t-shirts but although it was sunny it was windy and not very warm! After lunch we stopped at the iSite because the GPS couldn’t find the address I put in for our B and B. Turns out I had written down Baker road instead of Barker road – oops, not a mistake I would expect to make! After getting that all squared away we headed out of town and up into the hills where our B and B was.
We drove up the driveway and got there be greeted by the husband of the house – Phil? – who was sitting in the garage. We went and knocked on the door and… ? …. Showed us inside. There were two bedrooms but since we were the only boarders for the night we got to pick rooms and chose downstairs because that meant no lugging luggage upstairs. Toshi was tired so we laid down for a bit and I read while he napped. We then headed in for dinner. Nothing really sounded good to me, we had a large and late lunch, but we ended up getting kabab sandwiches and sitting on the beach. Not a bad dinner if I do say so myself! After hanging out with the ducks a bit on the beach we headed back out of town and back to our home for the night. We watched some Lord of the Rings and went to bed.
After coming back from the hike we went to see the Pancake rocks and blowholes. They are literally the reason that people go to Punakaiki. The rocks were ok, they are goofy looking and cool, but the best thing is the blowholes. We were there about an hour and a half before high tide and it was really cool. Toshi took some crazy photos – I now realize I should have taken video but it’s so hard to know when it’s going to start! That was really fun.
After that we headed to the glaciers. It rained most of the drive down which was about 4 hours long. The town of Fox Glacier is small and Toshi said not nearly as nice as the Franz Josef glacier town but it was ok. We were staying in the cottage associated with a hostel. We had our own bathroom and then a shared kitchen with the other two couples that were staying there (they were sharing a bathroom). It was nice to be able to put some things in the fridge but then to have our own space. We aren’t much for common rooms and pretty much just kept to ourselves but the room was big and the bed was comfy which is really as much as you can ask for.
The next morning (the 13th) we got up to go on our all day glacier hike. I wore my hiking boots, wool socks, running shirts (sleeveless, purple with sleeves), blue fleece and my rain jacket along with my green pants. They gave us thick socks, overpants and I took an extra jacket just to be sure. Everyone else had wet feet but my boots are awesome and therefore I didn’t have wet feet until near the end of the day – but I’ll get there in a second….
There were 16 of us in the group and we were divided in half once we got to the car park of the glacier. Toshi and I along with 6 others went with Margaret and Rich. Margaret was our main leader and Rich was there just to help out. You start out the hiking by a 600 meter long section where you are not allowed to stop because of rock fall. What a great way to introduce you to the glacier right? So we did that and that include walking through two small rivers that were not even really ankle deep. Most people got wet feet there but not me! Thank you boots! Then you get to a good stopping point and you put on your crampons. You can’t walk on ice without them so we learned all about them. It’s a very weird feeling because you have ot pick up your feet extra far otherwise they touch the ground. We also got walking sticks with pokey things on the end to put in the ice to help us with our balance.
Shortly after getting on the ice we stopped so everyone could learn tricks for going up and down the ice. Down is really scary. Then the trek began. It was raining like crazy and I was glad for all the gear and that I had decided to get an extra jacket. It had started out warm but as soon as we got on the ice it was cold and windy. Nice to have all those extra layers! As we hiked up Margaret would stop and carve out sections to help us get up. Seemed good but as we went on farther it seemed to take her longer and longer and it was cold (I was ok but most were colder and wetter than I was). Everyone had wet feet and overall it was not the best. After much hiking up we stopped for lunch. Margaret had brought a tarp and we all got underneath it and sat on the edges. Some people changed their socks at lunch, I just changed my gloves since my socks were still dry! Overall not the greatest lunch experience but the real fun came after lunch.
(January 17th) After coming out of the tarp from lunch we found that we were fogged in. The fog was incredible and due to all the rain the rock falls were happening much more often. Richard who had gone up with us told Margaret that she needed to keep us moving because we were going to need to get down soon. Margaret wanted to get us to our highest point so we kept moving. We moved faster after lunch and soon we made it to the ice falls where we weren’t able to go any farther. We took some pictures up there with the glacier in the background and then it was time to hurry down. By this time there were only two groups left on the ice – us and the ice climbers. Although we had gone up that morning with 15 all day people, the other 7 had already turned around and gone down because they were cold and went. We were troopers! After making it to the top we were told that we were going to need to run down – not literally since that would be unsafe but as fast as we could. I was still pretty warm because I wasn’t as wet as most people and at this point I was only one still with dry feet. The way down was fast, we never stopped moving and Toshi was especially grateful since he was so cold and went. I at was grateful for the extra jacket as well as my awesome shoes that were keeping me dry.
We made it down off the ice and soon were to the point of taking off our crampons. We were told we needed to take them off as soon as possible so we could get down quickly. We carried them in our hands until there was a safe spot to put them in our backpacks. We then got to the place where we could safely put them away and we did. Margaret told us that the rock falls were bad and because of the rain it was really loud. She asked us to stay close and take off our hoods so we could hear her in case she told us to run. The biggest challenge was getting back over the rivers that we had come through earlier in the day. They were much worse due to all the rain. We had to take a detour for one so that we could go through a place that was not so wide. Margaret, Richard and one of the other guides got across the rivers and helped us across them – it reminded me of walking in the caves, the current was so strong! I was glad for their help. Because of the two rivers I finally had wet feet. I had made it the whole day until then but the first river was nearly to my knees and the second was past my knees so there was no hope.
We finally made it back to the parking lot and there was a bus waiting for us! What a day!! Our guides were pretty proud of us for making it all that way and for being the only group to make it all day long. It was exhausting but amazing too. It made Toshi realize that maybe it’s time to retire his orange jacket.
When we got back to the cottage we hung up our stuff and turned the space heater on to try and dry everything as quickly as possible. Unfortunately Toshi only brought his orange jacket, fleece and long sleeve jersey as his only long sleeve layers and they were all soaked. His jacket was sort of dry enough a couple of hours later for us to venture out for dinner.
We had dinner at a nice place in town although our waiter was not the best and forgot my soup byt one of the other waitresses fixed it. The soup was pumpkin and was tasty. I also had pasta, which was big and I had the leftovers for breakfast the next morning.
January 14th – We slept in which was much needed. We both woke up with sore throats and tired after the previous very long day. We turned the space heater back on to let things dry. We decided we didn’t need to do anything but lounge around for a while.
After checking out we drove the 3.5 hours to Wanaka. I did some of the driving, which Toshi really appreciated. I think I did a good 2 hours of the driving :-) The first order of business was lunch. We had lunch at a place recommended in one of the guide books and although the service was a bit slow (expected from the book) the food was tasty and we sat outside. The funny thing was that people were walking around in shorts and t-shirts but although it was sunny it was windy and not very warm! After lunch we stopped at the iSite because the GPS couldn’t find the address I put in for our B and B. Turns out I had written down Baker road instead of Barker road – oops, not a mistake I would expect to make! After getting that all squared away we headed out of town and up into the hills where our B and B was.
We drove up the driveway and got there be greeted by the husband of the house – Phil? – who was sitting in the garage. We went and knocked on the door and… ? …. Showed us inside. There were two bedrooms but since we were the only boarders for the night we got to pick rooms and chose downstairs because that meant no lugging luggage upstairs. Toshi was tired so we laid down for a bit and I read while he napped. We then headed in for dinner. Nothing really sounded good to me, we had a large and late lunch, but we ended up getting kabab sandwiches and sitting on the beach. Not a bad dinner if I do say so myself! After hanging out with the ducks a bit on the beach we headed back out of town and back to our home for the night. We watched some Lord of the Rings and went to bed.
Wednesday January 11, 2012
Monday January 9th I got up and went for a short run before we checked out. I just ran through town about 20 minutes but my pace was fast and other than the humidity I felt pretty good. Just about 10:00 we checked out of our Takaka hotel and for the last time drove down that horrible windy road. Toshi did basically all of the driving that morning as he’s been doing. We got to Kaikoura in the afternoon and got ourselves checked into the Andara lodge, which was just a bit out of town. We headed in for dinner at an all local all organic place – it was tasty!
I went to bed that night excited and nervous about the dolphin swim the next morning.
Tuesday we got up and got ready for the dolphin swim. We had decided on the 8:30 tour, which was much better than the 5:30 one would have been. To be on the safe side I took a Dramamine before we got on the boat.
They gave us all of our gear and a little briefing on what the morning would look like. We got put in wet suits and I was glad that this time it fit better – really snug actually which was great.
They then put us on busses that took us to the boats. Our guy in charge was a guy named Owen who gave us the Maori welcome with a Scottish accent. We got out on the water and started hunting for dolphins. It took probably a good 45 minutes or more for us to find them and then it was time to get in the water. Due to the issues I had swimming on the Great Barrier Reef, I was worried about this but I was hoping that my excitement about the dolphins would outweigh my nervousness. Luckily, due to the shape of the ocean floor, it’s really, really deep. Therefore you can’t see the bottom – it’s also much more cloudy than on the reef. So, I had no issues! The first time off the boat it was a bit cold and I had to figure out exactly where I wanted my snorkel, but all issues were gone when I had dolphins swimming underneath me. They told us to make noise and do things to interest the dolphins. Dolphins are smart and they want to be entertained during their play time so the more you do, the more likely they are to stay with you. So we all were making silly noises through our snorkels, which was tough to do all the time! After being out for a little bit the horn would blow and we would get back on. We would all sit at the back of the boat and our driver, Colin, would follow the dolphins, using the horn to tell us when it was ok to get off again. After the first time it was easy and each time it was the same.
The third time we got off the boat I swam to the right and almost immediately a dolphin swam over to me. Determined to keep him/her close by I started swimming in circles with him. He would swim one way and I would try and keep up with him, then he would change and I would change or the other way around. I would guess that for a good solid 30 seconds or more I had my own dolphin to play with! I wish that I had been able to dive – I didn’t try and dive but because of our really heavy duty wetsuits I knew I wouldn’t be able to.
We got to swim with the dolphins 4 times. It was so much fun. Toshi thought it was really tiring but I think I was having too much fun to be tired. After the last time we got back on the boat and got to use the hot water hose, it was so warm! We then had hot chocolate and ginger biscuits. Tasty. I’m not sure how Toshi feels about it but I loved it and thought it was incredible. I was really proud of myself for not freaking out and having a great time. Dolphins! Somewhere I have a New Zealand shotglass that I bought in the gift shop afterwards.
After swimming with the dolphins we got some lunch in town and then headed to Methven. The drive is about 4.5 hours or so, maybe longer, so I drove the first bit, as long as I could. It was a pretty uneventful drive overall. We got all checked in to our Methven hotel and went out and had Thai food for dinner.
Today was a long and crazy day filled with lots of things. We got up at 4:45 and we were out the door at 5:15 to be there before 5:30. There were 6 other people with us, two of them were on time and the other four came together and were over 10 minutes late. We got in the bus and headed out. We stopped along the way for the guys to release a little balloon to figure out what the winds were doing and from there pick where they wanted to launch us. We got to the field and then we all helped get the balloon ready. It takes quite a while to get a balloon ready! The balloon is huge 210,000 cubic feet! It gets unrolled and then fans start to get it going until you can put hot air in. We all helped. Then finally we were ready to go.
Toshi and I were in part of the basket together. I did ok for about the first 15 minutes and then things slowly went downhill. I got freaked out and started to silently cry. There was nothing I could do to stop it. Our guide, Marvyn, was asking everyone how they were. I tried to say ok but it didn’t work… I was no ok. He gave me a candy to eat and told me things to focus on. I got a little better and then finally I started to enjoy it. The hard thing about a panic attack like that – because of my fear of heights – there is nothing that I can do about it. It just happens. Before I calmed down Martyn asked if he wanted me to bring the balloon down, I told him no. No matter how bad things were for me, I was not going to ruin the ride for the other 7 people in the balloon. I don’t think my pictures are great but I do have pictures from way up high!
We landed in a field, helped put the balloon away and then had champagne breakfast. Even though it was terrifying at first, it ended up being really fun once I got used to it.
Because it was really early when we got done – about 9:30/10:00 Toshi and I had some extra time. I mentioned the Adrenalin Park in Christchurch. We were about an hour from Christchurch so we decided to go see if we could find it. We went looking for an iSite – tourism place but had a hard time finding one. Driving around Christchurch was interesting because whole blocks are closed off from falling buildings. At first it didn’t seem like there was anything wrong with the city but the more we looked the more we saw. Finally we called and got the iSite. We then went and got the address.
We got to there, had our little brifing and were ready to go. They have 6 levels – each gets more difficult and higher off the ground. The first one I was fine with – not high really and simple tasks. I went first and kept Toshi behind me. Each pathway starts and ends on the ground. So you get done with 1, get down and go find the start of 2. There were some scary things on 2 that I’m pretty amazed that I managed to do. The first is walking on one wire, with one on either side and clipped in to one above. But it’s going slightly uphill and there are spots where you have to step over things. The other was the barrels. I tried to crawl headfirst and when that didn’t work, Toshi called to have someone come get me. Someone heard and passed along the information that I should go on my back and pull myself along the cord I was attached to – awesome. Although I made it through 2 I decided after that I was done. The first half of 3 looked ok but after that things were too high off the ground and tasks were such that you would have to look down to figure out where to put your foot. Toshi however did 3 and 4 before deciding not that it was too hard, just that he was tired – we didn’t have any water or anything with us.
We got some lunch, which turned out to be in a small town where nothing was open except Subway and headed to Punakaiki. We got all checked in here, had some dinner, walked a little and then I called about horseback riding. I convinced Toshi to give it a try since we drove past a place on the way to checking in for our hotel. I was all excited because I love horseback riding. I called, they had a ride tomorrow, there were spots open but Toshi weighs too much. The weight limit is 95 kg and he weighs 105. He doesn’t seem to think that the weight he put on is too much but I do. He put on 25 pounds. Had it not been for those 25 pounds, he would be able to go riding! Just barely but still! Kgx2.2=lbs. So he would have been just about exactly 95kg. So I’m a bit frustrated because I really wanted to go. He told me I could go without him but that seems silly. It would be different if he had something he wanted to do that I didn’t – like mountain biking – and we had planned to do them separately so we could each do our own thing but this is different. He doesn’t know what he’d do.
I think we are going to hike instead. We shall see.
It’s not 11:00 and we’ve been up since 4:45 – it’s time for bed.
I went to bed that night excited and nervous about the dolphin swim the next morning.
Tuesday we got up and got ready for the dolphin swim. We had decided on the 8:30 tour, which was much better than the 5:30 one would have been. To be on the safe side I took a Dramamine before we got on the boat.
They gave us all of our gear and a little briefing on what the morning would look like. We got put in wet suits and I was glad that this time it fit better – really snug actually which was great.
They then put us on busses that took us to the boats. Our guy in charge was a guy named Owen who gave us the Maori welcome with a Scottish accent. We got out on the water and started hunting for dolphins. It took probably a good 45 minutes or more for us to find them and then it was time to get in the water. Due to the issues I had swimming on the Great Barrier Reef, I was worried about this but I was hoping that my excitement about the dolphins would outweigh my nervousness. Luckily, due to the shape of the ocean floor, it’s really, really deep. Therefore you can’t see the bottom – it’s also much more cloudy than on the reef. So, I had no issues! The first time off the boat it was a bit cold and I had to figure out exactly where I wanted my snorkel, but all issues were gone when I had dolphins swimming underneath me. They told us to make noise and do things to interest the dolphins. Dolphins are smart and they want to be entertained during their play time so the more you do, the more likely they are to stay with you. So we all were making silly noises through our snorkels, which was tough to do all the time! After being out for a little bit the horn would blow and we would get back on. We would all sit at the back of the boat and our driver, Colin, would follow the dolphins, using the horn to tell us when it was ok to get off again. After the first time it was easy and each time it was the same.
The third time we got off the boat I swam to the right and almost immediately a dolphin swam over to me. Determined to keep him/her close by I started swimming in circles with him. He would swim one way and I would try and keep up with him, then he would change and I would change or the other way around. I would guess that for a good solid 30 seconds or more I had my own dolphin to play with! I wish that I had been able to dive – I didn’t try and dive but because of our really heavy duty wetsuits I knew I wouldn’t be able to.
We got to swim with the dolphins 4 times. It was so much fun. Toshi thought it was really tiring but I think I was having too much fun to be tired. After the last time we got back on the boat and got to use the hot water hose, it was so warm! We then had hot chocolate and ginger biscuits. Tasty. I’m not sure how Toshi feels about it but I loved it and thought it was incredible. I was really proud of myself for not freaking out and having a great time. Dolphins! Somewhere I have a New Zealand shotglass that I bought in the gift shop afterwards.
After swimming with the dolphins we got some lunch in town and then headed to Methven. The drive is about 4.5 hours or so, maybe longer, so I drove the first bit, as long as I could. It was a pretty uneventful drive overall. We got all checked in to our Methven hotel and went out and had Thai food for dinner.
Today was a long and crazy day filled with lots of things. We got up at 4:45 and we were out the door at 5:15 to be there before 5:30. There were 6 other people with us, two of them were on time and the other four came together and were over 10 minutes late. We got in the bus and headed out. We stopped along the way for the guys to release a little balloon to figure out what the winds were doing and from there pick where they wanted to launch us. We got to the field and then we all helped get the balloon ready. It takes quite a while to get a balloon ready! The balloon is huge 210,000 cubic feet! It gets unrolled and then fans start to get it going until you can put hot air in. We all helped. Then finally we were ready to go.
Toshi and I were in part of the basket together. I did ok for about the first 15 minutes and then things slowly went downhill. I got freaked out and started to silently cry. There was nothing I could do to stop it. Our guide, Marvyn, was asking everyone how they were. I tried to say ok but it didn’t work… I was no ok. He gave me a candy to eat and told me things to focus on. I got a little better and then finally I started to enjoy it. The hard thing about a panic attack like that – because of my fear of heights – there is nothing that I can do about it. It just happens. Before I calmed down Martyn asked if he wanted me to bring the balloon down, I told him no. No matter how bad things were for me, I was not going to ruin the ride for the other 7 people in the balloon. I don’t think my pictures are great but I do have pictures from way up high!
We landed in a field, helped put the balloon away and then had champagne breakfast. Even though it was terrifying at first, it ended up being really fun once I got used to it.
Because it was really early when we got done – about 9:30/10:00 Toshi and I had some extra time. I mentioned the Adrenalin Park in Christchurch. We were about an hour from Christchurch so we decided to go see if we could find it. We went looking for an iSite – tourism place but had a hard time finding one. Driving around Christchurch was interesting because whole blocks are closed off from falling buildings. At first it didn’t seem like there was anything wrong with the city but the more we looked the more we saw. Finally we called and got the iSite. We then went and got the address.
We got to there, had our little brifing and were ready to go. They have 6 levels – each gets more difficult and higher off the ground. The first one I was fine with – not high really and simple tasks. I went first and kept Toshi behind me. Each pathway starts and ends on the ground. So you get done with 1, get down and go find the start of 2. There were some scary things on 2 that I’m pretty amazed that I managed to do. The first is walking on one wire, with one on either side and clipped in to one above. But it’s going slightly uphill and there are spots where you have to step over things. The other was the barrels. I tried to crawl headfirst and when that didn’t work, Toshi called to have someone come get me. Someone heard and passed along the information that I should go on my back and pull myself along the cord I was attached to – awesome. Although I made it through 2 I decided after that I was done. The first half of 3 looked ok but after that things were too high off the ground and tasks were such that you would have to look down to figure out where to put your foot. Toshi however did 3 and 4 before deciding not that it was too hard, just that he was tired – we didn’t have any water or anything with us.
We got some lunch, which turned out to be in a small town where nothing was open except Subway and headed to Punakaiki. We got all checked in here, had some dinner, walked a little and then I called about horseback riding. I convinced Toshi to give it a try since we drove past a place on the way to checking in for our hotel. I was all excited because I love horseback riding. I called, they had a ride tomorrow, there were spots open but Toshi weighs too much. The weight limit is 95 kg and he weighs 105. He doesn’t seem to think that the weight he put on is too much but I do. He put on 25 pounds. Had it not been for those 25 pounds, he would be able to go riding! Just barely but still! Kgx2.2=lbs. So he would have been just about exactly 95kg. So I’m a bit frustrated because I really wanted to go. He told me I could go without him but that seems silly. It would be different if he had something he wanted to do that I didn’t – like mountain biking – and we had planned to do them separately so we could each do our own thing but this is different. He doesn’t know what he’d do.
I think we are going to hike instead. We shall see.
It’s not 11:00 and we’ve been up since 4:45 – it’s time for bed.
Sunday January 8, 2012
Friday morning we got up in Blenheim, went for a short run and then headed out. We stopped by this little café and had breakfast. I had French toast and wow was it good! There must have been some cinnamon and nutmeg in the batter or something. Tasty! We then made the drive to Abel Tasman. At the time that I booked our hotel, I had no idea where things left from for Abel Tasman. It turns out, everything gets booked from the other end. We are just about an hour from where all the tours started. We realized this on our way here as we drove past the sign for Kaiteriteri and then drove to our hotel in Takaka. Not only is it far but the reason that it takes so long is because the road is up and down a mountain. The road is steep and incredibly windy.
After checking in to the hotel we drove north-west up on the north end of the south island. We drove up quite a while and got to where there is a spit. Toshi wanted to do this off-road vehicle thing but because of the tides it only goes ones a day and we missed it. So instead we just walked out and back a little bit. We came back in to town and stopped at a pizza place for dinner.
Saturday morning we got up around 6. We had to be down in Kaiteriteri by 8:30 and with me driving (since we were making 2 round trips I told Toshi I would take 2 of them) we weren’t sure exactly how long it was going to take. We left just before 7:00 and it took just over an hour. We brought with us what we needed and went to the beach to meet with our team. They call everything team here – each person leading the group always says, ok team or let’s go team, or great work team. Our leader for the day was Tank. He got us all checked in and on our ferry (water taxi) to take us to the beach where our kayaks were. The problem? We got there and there were no kayaks. So, we waited. Then he finally got in touch with someone. We had one double and needed three more doubles and a single. The guy came and brought one single. So we waited some more. Although we got to that beach about 9 or shortly thereafter, which is when we were supposed to, it was nearly 11:30 by the time we got in the kayaks. We still did the whole thing just later in the day.
We saw seals. Lots of seals and one was showing off in the water and I got it on video! Toshi got a little frustrated with me because I get tired and I stop paddling. Totally understandable. We paddled around a while and then stopped for some lunch on one of the beaches. We did some more kayaking and got back around 6:30 instead of 4:30. We checked in for our ferry the next day, called Shannon and figured out dinner plans and changed in to dry clothes.
We met Shannon and Brian for dinner. We went to a Thai place in Motueka, not too far from Kaiteriteri and close enough for them – they were coming from Nelson I think and were headed to Ruby Bay to stay with some people they know. It was so fun to see them! And at one point Shan pointed out, it seems so weird we are in NZ, it feels like we are back home! We talked about Christmas and what they had been up to. They asked what we had been up to and what our plans were for the rest of the trip. It was really fun to get to see them since it had been a while and since they are here for a year (yesterday was their three month New Zealand anniversary) I’m not sure when I’ll get to see them again. They are talking about spending a year in Australia after they get done here although Shannon says that she really misses Christmas back home. We parted from them and headed back to the hotel.
This morning we got up about 6:30 and headed out about 7:30. We had to be there about 8:45. It took about an hour to get there again. I was worried along the way about the day in general. Yesterday when we had checked in they told us that there was a chance we weren’t going to be able to go because of the possibly horrible weather. We got there and things seemed fine. We got on the boat and found out that because of the predicted afternoon weather they weren’t going to be able to take us all the way up to our planned spot because our pickup spot they weren’t going to be able to get to. So they dropped us at Totranui. He told us where needed to go and about the place we were going to need to cross at low tide. He made it sound like not a big deal but it actually was…. We hiked for a while, stopped for lunch and hiked some more. The path is well marked so that wasn’t an issue. When we got to the place we were going to have to wait for low tide there were others there. We all waited together. Finally some people decided they wanted to go. The sign said 2 hours before and after low tide. It wasn’t even 2 hours yet so the rest of us waited. At about 2:15 Toshi decided we needed to go because our boat was coming at 3:15. We started waking and it was pretty gross. Our flip-flops (jandals in Kiwi) were getting stuck. I walked as long as I could in bare feet but it was too much after a while and I had put them back on. It was deep in some spots – up to my knees, not the best. I was not happy about it and honestly, it sucked. We finally made it across, cleaned off our feet and put on our hiking boots. We started walking and eventually found a sign telling us that our destination was 20 minutes away. Our boat was coming in 10. So we walked fast and Toshi found what looked like a cut through. It wasn’t necessarily going to be far enough but it would get us back to the beach (since the path had taken us away from the beach) in hopes we would see our boat. We popped out and Toshi saw a boat. Thank goodness! Good timing on our part. Our guy was out looking for us. He was the one that had dropped us off so he knew who to be looking for.
We got on the boat and he warned us it was going to be rough and that maybe we shouldn’t sit up front, however since I have a slight motion sickness issue I wanted to. HUGE MISTAKE. It was insane and we were getting tossed all over the place. So the first stop we made, Toshi and I moved back. Far enough for it to be a little less crazy but not so far back that we got wet. We picked up a lot of people along the way and it was really slow going and finally probably an hour later than normal, we made it back to Kaiteriteri. It was not a fun boat ride at all and I was incredible grateful when it was over.
We stopped and had some Indian food on the way back in Motueka and then came home to relax.
Tomorrow we drive to Kaikoura where the following morning we will swim with the dolphins in the ocean!
After checking in to the hotel we drove north-west up on the north end of the south island. We drove up quite a while and got to where there is a spit. Toshi wanted to do this off-road vehicle thing but because of the tides it only goes ones a day and we missed it. So instead we just walked out and back a little bit. We came back in to town and stopped at a pizza place for dinner.
Saturday morning we got up around 6. We had to be down in Kaiteriteri by 8:30 and with me driving (since we were making 2 round trips I told Toshi I would take 2 of them) we weren’t sure exactly how long it was going to take. We left just before 7:00 and it took just over an hour. We brought with us what we needed and went to the beach to meet with our team. They call everything team here – each person leading the group always says, ok team or let’s go team, or great work team. Our leader for the day was Tank. He got us all checked in and on our ferry (water taxi) to take us to the beach where our kayaks were. The problem? We got there and there were no kayaks. So, we waited. Then he finally got in touch with someone. We had one double and needed three more doubles and a single. The guy came and brought one single. So we waited some more. Although we got to that beach about 9 or shortly thereafter, which is when we were supposed to, it was nearly 11:30 by the time we got in the kayaks. We still did the whole thing just later in the day.
We saw seals. Lots of seals and one was showing off in the water and I got it on video! Toshi got a little frustrated with me because I get tired and I stop paddling. Totally understandable. We paddled around a while and then stopped for some lunch on one of the beaches. We did some more kayaking and got back around 6:30 instead of 4:30. We checked in for our ferry the next day, called Shannon and figured out dinner plans and changed in to dry clothes.
We met Shannon and Brian for dinner. We went to a Thai place in Motueka, not too far from Kaiteriteri and close enough for them – they were coming from Nelson I think and were headed to Ruby Bay to stay with some people they know. It was so fun to see them! And at one point Shan pointed out, it seems so weird we are in NZ, it feels like we are back home! We talked about Christmas and what they had been up to. They asked what we had been up to and what our plans were for the rest of the trip. It was really fun to get to see them since it had been a while and since they are here for a year (yesterday was their three month New Zealand anniversary) I’m not sure when I’ll get to see them again. They are talking about spending a year in Australia after they get done here although Shannon says that she really misses Christmas back home. We parted from them and headed back to the hotel.
This morning we got up about 6:30 and headed out about 7:30. We had to be there about 8:45. It took about an hour to get there again. I was worried along the way about the day in general. Yesterday when we had checked in they told us that there was a chance we weren’t going to be able to go because of the possibly horrible weather. We got there and things seemed fine. We got on the boat and found out that because of the predicted afternoon weather they weren’t going to be able to take us all the way up to our planned spot because our pickup spot they weren’t going to be able to get to. So they dropped us at Totranui. He told us where needed to go and about the place we were going to need to cross at low tide. He made it sound like not a big deal but it actually was…. We hiked for a while, stopped for lunch and hiked some more. The path is well marked so that wasn’t an issue. When we got to the place we were going to have to wait for low tide there were others there. We all waited together. Finally some people decided they wanted to go. The sign said 2 hours before and after low tide. It wasn’t even 2 hours yet so the rest of us waited. At about 2:15 Toshi decided we needed to go because our boat was coming at 3:15. We started waking and it was pretty gross. Our flip-flops (jandals in Kiwi) were getting stuck. I walked as long as I could in bare feet but it was too much after a while and I had put them back on. It was deep in some spots – up to my knees, not the best. I was not happy about it and honestly, it sucked. We finally made it across, cleaned off our feet and put on our hiking boots. We started walking and eventually found a sign telling us that our destination was 20 minutes away. Our boat was coming in 10. So we walked fast and Toshi found what looked like a cut through. It wasn’t necessarily going to be far enough but it would get us back to the beach (since the path had taken us away from the beach) in hopes we would see our boat. We popped out and Toshi saw a boat. Thank goodness! Good timing on our part. Our guy was out looking for us. He was the one that had dropped us off so he knew who to be looking for.
We got on the boat and he warned us it was going to be rough and that maybe we shouldn’t sit up front, however since I have a slight motion sickness issue I wanted to. HUGE MISTAKE. It was insane and we were getting tossed all over the place. So the first stop we made, Toshi and I moved back. Far enough for it to be a little less crazy but not so far back that we got wet. We picked up a lot of people along the way and it was really slow going and finally probably an hour later than normal, we made it back to Kaiteriteri. It was not a fun boat ride at all and I was incredible grateful when it was over.
We stopped and had some Indian food on the way back in Motueka and then came home to relax.
Tomorrow we drive to Kaikoura where the following morning we will swim with the dolphins in the ocean!
January 6th
2:05PM
Frustrated. It’s really hard booking a trip when you don’t know where things are or how long it’s going to take to do things. I booked a couple of Abel Tasman things but it turns out that we are located on the wrong side of the park. There is a really windy and long mountain-type road to get us out of where we are staying and it takes a good hour to hour and a half to do it. We are supposed to be in Kaiteriteri at 8:30am tomorrow for kayaking and 9am the next day for a water taxi and hike. It’s a long way to go, not distance wise but driving time since the road takes so long to drive.
Toshi wants to cancel the day after tomorrow and figure out something else to do. I’m frustrated because I didn’t know when I booked and I suppose I should have booked the activities first. I hope that other things don’t end up being this way too…
Frustrated. It’s really hard booking a trip when you don’t know where things are or how long it’s going to take to do things. I booked a couple of Abel Tasman things but it turns out that we are located on the wrong side of the park. There is a really windy and long mountain-type road to get us out of where we are staying and it takes a good hour to hour and a half to do it. We are supposed to be in Kaiteriteri at 8:30am tomorrow for kayaking and 9am the next day for a water taxi and hike. It’s a long way to go, not distance wise but driving time since the road takes so long to drive.
Toshi wants to cancel the day after tomorrow and figure out something else to do. I’m frustrated because I didn’t know when I booked and I suppose I should have booked the activities first. I hope that other things don’t end up being this way too…
Thursday January 5th
Tuesday January 3
Ok so I’m behind on writing! We are now in Blenheim, our first stop on the south island but a lot has happened since I wrote on the 3rd.
The morning of the 3rd we left Rotorua and drove to Whaka Thermal Village. The whole name is much longer than that but I can’t remember it all right now. We walked around the living village with a guide, saw a Maori cultural performance and had lunch, tasty. It was interesting to see a village built on a thermal site.
After lunch we went to Hell’s Gate, which is a spa of sorts. We went and checked in and were given a map of the thermal park. We walked all around – about 45-60 minutes or so and even though there were clouds, we both got a bit sunburned; Toshi on his face and me on the tops of my feet since I was wearing flip flops. After doing our walk we were shown to our mud bath where we were for 20 minutes. It’s a very strange feeling being in mud, but Toshi and I painted all over each other and that was kind of fun. The worst part was once we got out of the mudbath that we had to take a cold shower before going into the hot springs. Our mud bath was not as hot as we would have liked but the cold shower was still very very cold. After we got mostly clean we went into the hot springs and that was fantastic. We only stayed in there 20-30 minutes because it’s so hot. It was a wonderfully refreshing day after the hard work of the caves the day before.
After getting done with all that we drove to Taupo – only about an hour and a half south of Rotorua. We got checked into the hotel and vegged for a little while since we were tired from the hot springs. We went out to get some dinner in town and did some walking around until it started to rain, we then went back to the hotel.
Wednesday January 4th we made the drive to Wellington. The drive was just about 5 hours and Toshi did it all. So far I have not had to do any driving at all! It’s been pretty amazing actually. I’ve really enjoyed not having to drive but definitely would be able to if needed.
We got to Wellington and met David for lunch. David is a friend of Toshi’s from ridemonkey.com. We did some walking around with David, went up the funicular, got some lunch and then he gave us a driving tour of the south shore. Wellington is beautiful and even driving into it, it felt like driving into Seattle, only newer and with more people out and about. Everyone was out walking since the weather was nice – a little windy but overall gorgeous. By the time we got done walking around I was rather toasty!
We went and checked in at our airbnb about 4:00 and then decided we needed to veg a bit. The sun had taken a lot out of us and Toshi took a nap. About 7:30 we got up, headed back down into down and met Nick and his wife for dinner. Nick is another friend of Toshi’s from ridemonkey. We had some great Cambodian food, which was very much like Thai and Indian sort of combined. Curry, but also things like Roti and peanut encrusted beef. We went and got gelato with the, headed back to where we were staying and crashed.
Wednesday January 5
I can’t believe this is still today. I can’t believe that this morning was when we got up and left Wellington. We got up about 6, showered, got ready and headed out just before 7. We got to the ferry in plenty of time and then waited to be put on. The ferry, since it has to go in the ocean, is HUGE. Nothing like the little ferries that they use in Washington. Incredible really. This one had 10 decks! The ferry ride itself is 3 hours long and most of the time we just spent reading.
After getting off the ferry we drove to Blenheim where we are staying tonight. We stopped and got a little lunch and then came to the hotel. We were going to check in after our wine tour but one of the owners was just getting in from a bike ride and checked us all in. About 1:30 we got picked up from our wine tour that we got dropped off after about 5:00. We went to 5 wineries and Toshi was a good sport about all of it. Sometimes he tasted, sometimes he just tasted from my glass but he even found one he liked enough that we bought a bottle! So at some point we will have a wonderful bottle of wine to open up and enjoy; a semi-sweet Reisling.
It is so much warmer here on the south island that it was up north and everyone has warned us that when you go to Abel Tasman (where we are headed next) so make sure you have lots of sunscreen and bug spray. The burn time down here is 15-20 minutes so we are going to be good about the sunscreen.
Tomorrow we drive to Takaka where we will actually spend three nights – finally! And will get to explore Abel Tasman.
Incredible and we are still only 6 days in!
The morning of the 3rd we left Rotorua and drove to Whaka Thermal Village. The whole name is much longer than that but I can’t remember it all right now. We walked around the living village with a guide, saw a Maori cultural performance and had lunch, tasty. It was interesting to see a village built on a thermal site.
After lunch we went to Hell’s Gate, which is a spa of sorts. We went and checked in and were given a map of the thermal park. We walked all around – about 45-60 minutes or so and even though there were clouds, we both got a bit sunburned; Toshi on his face and me on the tops of my feet since I was wearing flip flops. After doing our walk we were shown to our mud bath where we were for 20 minutes. It’s a very strange feeling being in mud, but Toshi and I painted all over each other and that was kind of fun. The worst part was once we got out of the mudbath that we had to take a cold shower before going into the hot springs. Our mud bath was not as hot as we would have liked but the cold shower was still very very cold. After we got mostly clean we went into the hot springs and that was fantastic. We only stayed in there 20-30 minutes because it’s so hot. It was a wonderfully refreshing day after the hard work of the caves the day before.
After getting done with all that we drove to Taupo – only about an hour and a half south of Rotorua. We got checked into the hotel and vegged for a little while since we were tired from the hot springs. We went out to get some dinner in town and did some walking around until it started to rain, we then went back to the hotel.
Wednesday January 4th we made the drive to Wellington. The drive was just about 5 hours and Toshi did it all. So far I have not had to do any driving at all! It’s been pretty amazing actually. I’ve really enjoyed not having to drive but definitely would be able to if needed.
We got to Wellington and met David for lunch. David is a friend of Toshi’s from ridemonkey.com. We did some walking around with David, went up the funicular, got some lunch and then he gave us a driving tour of the south shore. Wellington is beautiful and even driving into it, it felt like driving into Seattle, only newer and with more people out and about. Everyone was out walking since the weather was nice – a little windy but overall gorgeous. By the time we got done walking around I was rather toasty!
We went and checked in at our airbnb about 4:00 and then decided we needed to veg a bit. The sun had taken a lot out of us and Toshi took a nap. About 7:30 we got up, headed back down into down and met Nick and his wife for dinner. Nick is another friend of Toshi’s from ridemonkey. We had some great Cambodian food, which was very much like Thai and Indian sort of combined. Curry, but also things like Roti and peanut encrusted beef. We went and got gelato with the, headed back to where we were staying and crashed.
Wednesday January 5
I can’t believe this is still today. I can’t believe that this morning was when we got up and left Wellington. We got up about 6, showered, got ready and headed out just before 7. We got to the ferry in plenty of time and then waited to be put on. The ferry, since it has to go in the ocean, is HUGE. Nothing like the little ferries that they use in Washington. Incredible really. This one had 10 decks! The ferry ride itself is 3 hours long and most of the time we just spent reading.
After getting off the ferry we drove to Blenheim where we are staying tonight. We stopped and got a little lunch and then came to the hotel. We were going to check in after our wine tour but one of the owners was just getting in from a bike ride and checked us all in. About 1:30 we got picked up from our wine tour that we got dropped off after about 5:00. We went to 5 wineries and Toshi was a good sport about all of it. Sometimes he tasted, sometimes he just tasted from my glass but he even found one he liked enough that we bought a bottle! So at some point we will have a wonderful bottle of wine to open up and enjoy; a semi-sweet Reisling.
It is so much warmer here on the south island that it was up north and everyone has warned us that when you go to Abel Tasman (where we are headed next) so make sure you have lots of sunscreen and bug spray. The burn time down here is 15-20 minutes so we are going to be good about the sunscreen.
Tomorrow we drive to Takaka where we will actually spend three nights – finally! And will get to explore Abel Tasman.
Incredible and we are still only 6 days in!
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