The Temptations of Christchurch (Feb. 23 – 25)

Christchurch, our next destination, is a pretty big city, the largest in NZ’s South Island as a matter of fact. That’s good news for us, as in the larger cities we’ve usually been able to find a Couchsurfer to crash with for a few days. We got lucky again in Christchurch (or Chch, as it’s inevitably abbreviated here) as Tony, a signwriter in his late 30’s, agreed to put us up in his house over the weekend.

Cathedral Square in Christchurch

Tony was another great Couchsurfing host; he was happy to show us around the city, and we got together for several meals. On our first night at Tony’s, his mother and aunt stopped by for dinner and some Trivial Pursuit. Tony turned out to be a very good cook (a useful bachelor skill), and the game was good fun as well. His mother and aunt are two spunky ladies; their banter was unstoppable, and pretty funny to boot. In the end Tony’s mom ended up winning, though to be fair it’s tough for us Yanks to play the New Zealand version of the game when we don’t know much about famous cricketers, Australasian geography, or which NZ politician accused a US senator of having “uranium on his breath.” (Note: we now know that was David Longey, in case that comes up for you in the future)

Tony and his friend Carrie at our Kiwi barbecue

Still, good times, and Tony and I were up late that night going through my MP3 collection to put on his computer. He mentioned he was putting together a playlist for his upcoming birthday (we won’t say which one, but it’s a biggie…) so I hooked him up with a bunch of music. It felt good to be able to give something back to Tony for allowing us to crash his couch, even if your average copyright lawyer wouldn’t give it his blessing. Tony ended up spending several hours that weekend cataloguing and ripping his CDs to his computer; I’m afraid I may have created a bit of a monster there, hehe.

I suppose I should talk a bit about Chch. As its name implies, the city has an abundance of churches, seemingly on every other street corner, and was founded by the Canterbury Pilgrims. The city is centered around Cathedral Square, which is a really pretty city feature that also is a bit of a pain in the arse to drive around, especially with all the one-way streets in the city. Though on the positive side, we did end up seeing more of the city for that reason.

On our second day in the city, the weather remained crappy from the day before, so we decided to finally see the consummate New Zealand icon – the kiwi bird. We visited a small aquarium and kiwi house in the city center, where we were able to observe two female kiwis in their habitat. Kiwis are flightless, nocturnal, and live in burrows – this makes it very difficult to ever see kiwis in the wild. So for the price of NZ$14 each, we were able to cross the kiwi off our list of “must see” critters in New Zealand. We also took in the Art Gallery, and Becky got an excellent t-shirt featuring a Mickey Mouse/Maori painting from the gallery. We first saw the shirt in a magazine about New Zealand last year, and thought it was really cool, so we had to get to the gallery. Since it was at an art gallery, of course the price was a bit exorbitant, but Becky probably won’t end up buying herself any other NZ souvenir-type things, so I had to cajole her into buying one. I’m convinced she’ll thank me later.

I also ended up moving some product this weekend. A Chch restaurant had inquired about one of our ales, so I stopped by their establishment to discuss prices, promotions, and whatnot. The owner, Bruce, was a really enthusiastic guy, and we talked for awhile about their restaurant, NZ beers, and business; he’s energetic and a bit of an inspiration to talk to. He was also quite happy to recommend half a dozen other places that would probably be interested in Renaissance, and in a nice surprise, sent me back with a few extra NZ microbrews to try.

Andrew checking out the competitors - all in a day's work

I ended up stopping by one of the places he recommended that day, a wine and specialty beer store on the outskirts of town, and had a terrific meeting with the gents that owned the place. Long story short, they’ll also be carrying our products soon. Not a bad couple of hours for a neophyte Duff Man. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention that we got to The Twisted Hop, a great brewpub in Chch that does hand-pulled real ales – I now have the t-shirt to prove it. If you’re ever in Chch and you like beer, The Twisted Hop is a must-stop. After a busy day, we didn’t end up doing much that night, but we grabbed a couple of Hell pizzas with Tony and hung out at his place. We can highly recommend their Mordor pizza, but if someone tries to convince you to get extra chili peppers on a Mischief, make sure you have large quantities of beer around to put the fire out on your tongue.

Now that's what I call security!

On Sunday, the weather magically improved in Chch, so we checked out its famous Botanic Gardens. Owing to the country’s British heritage, Kiwis apparently love gardens. As far as gardens go, they were pretty nice, and were the right price, (i.e. free). Luckily, we were at the gardens while a Futuro exhibit was on. If you’ve been desperately searching for a house from the 70’s that people would mistake for a UFO, look no further. Though you might have trouble getting your hands on one, since they only produced about 100 in their brief history.

Good air and fertilizer makes the flowers grow tall in Christchurch

Tony also offered to take us for a spin in his 1971 Ford Fairlane, Shelly, on Sunday. With it being such a nice day, we were happy to have a local show us around, and so we headed off to Sumner, a great beach area outside of Chch where there were actually people on the beach! Seriously, that was probably about the third time that we’ve been on an NZ beach with more than a handful of people. We also got over to Lyttleton, a port town over the hills that was having a street festival, and then roared back through town before having a barbie back at Tony’s. All in all, a really good weekend in Chch, with good hospitality, good food, and even a spot of good weather. Cheers Tony!

Shelly is one flash car

Please Hanmer, Don’t Hurt ‘Em (Feb. 21 – 23)

Leaving Blenheim, we decided to head down the east coast of the country towards Christchurch. In the spirit of not rushing through the country, we stopped first in Kaikoura, which seems to be a major destination for most tourists coming through NZ, and based on the number of hostels found in such a small town, backpackers as well. As we left Blenheim, the dry hills and relentlessly sunny skies quickly gave way to a coast road shrouded in fog and bounded closely by a dark blue sea and steep green mountains.

"You lookin' at me?"

Kaikoura is a small, seasonal seaside resort town, and is a major center for whale and dolphin-watching tours. It also seems to be Crayfish Central in NZ, with heaps of stands and restaurants schlepping the little buggers at wildly expensive prices. A typical crayfish dinner runs about NZ$70 (equivalent to a $50 lobster dinner in the States), so yeah, we decided to skip that local delicacy. Like Paihia, another tourist trap-type town, we weren’t totally charmed by Kaikoura, especially since it was a bit gritty in places. Our backpackers there would probably be best described as South Pacific/Barton Fink style accommodations, with a screeching train running by several times a night right past our window. Other than that, it was marvelous!

Becky's attempt at an artistic photograph

It wasn’t all bad in Kaikoura though, as I got a chance to practice my selling techniques, and we did a cool shoreline walk outside of town. Re: selling beer, I approached a couple cafés that advertised ‘boutique beers’ and basically stopped in, found their bar managers, dropped off a few samples and information, and that was it. Having never really done cold calls before, I was a bit nervous on the first one, but it went pretty smoothly, so that seemed alright. The second went even better, so bully for me I suppose.

Andrew's attempt at an artistic photograph

As you can see from some of our pictures, great weather didn’t follow us from Blenheim, but we still made a go of it. As you can see, I’m wearing pants for the first time in weeks. Pants and a polo shirt was pretty much the only concession to professionalism I could make given my backpackers’ wardrobe. Even that outfit doesn’t look that great, since it’s been rolled up in my bag for a good six weeks now. Sorry, Brian and Andy, I’m trying to look like a pro, but it ain’t easy!

And you want to be my Renaissance Beer salesman?

Kaikoura, we headed southwest inland to Hanmer Springs. Leaving Kaikoura, it gets even more rural, even for NZ, which is saying something. Mountain highways with few cars on the road and even fewer visible houses were the rule along this stretch, though once we got to Hanmer, it was much more developed. Even with that, it was a picturesque and sleepy little town set in the mountains with not much happening. I soon found out why Becky was so keen to go to Hanmer: a hot springs park. If you could be addicted to lounging in hot water, she would absolutely have it. But since she’s a good sport about going to every little brewery in the country, I of course acquiesced, and so we went and had a good soak that evening. Navigating, after all, is tiring work, hehe.

Seal on the beach

An Unexpected Renaissance (Feb. 20-21)

So the last few days we’ve been making our way down the east coast of the S. Island. We left Andrew’s house in Nelson on Monday for Blenheim, a sunny town on the northeastern tip of the S. Island that’s basically in the country’s most famed wine region: Marlborough. Blenheim is a ridiculously sunny, dry, and flat town, with sets of brown, arid mountains looming in the distance. It feels a lot like many towns out west in the States, only it makes some serious wine and is much nearer to the beach.

Montana Brancott Winery

Unfortunately Becky and I are about the furthest things from wine connoisseurs, so we felt like Star Wars fans at Trekkie convention; we heard everyone tell us how good the wine is and what a choice place it is do to winery tours, but it wasn’t quite enough to convert us to drinking lots of Sauvignon Blanc, nor to wearing Spock ears. (Note: I realize the analogy was cheesy, but I spent 5 minutes thinking of it, so I was damn sure was going to go all the way with it.)

Not that we aren’t trying to appreciate wine a bit more here. We’ve been trying to buy New Zealand wines every so often to drink with dinner, though I admit we’ve only bought the cheaper stuff, so maybe that’s part of the reason we haven’t had any religious wine experiences here so far? Although we did enjoy a bottle of Corban’s White Label Sauv Blanc, which was quite the deal at NZ$9 (less than US$7).

In the spirit of oenophilic exploration we even booked a tour at Montana Brancott, apparently one of NZ’s larger wineries, outside Blenheim. Our tour guide had to be one of the most preternaturally perky people we’ve ever seen; I do not have the personality to do that job, but good on her. As we toured the winery, we mused that it would be the kind of place that Miles, the main character in the film Sideways, would hate. We certainly didn’t hate the place, but didn’t like any of the wines in the tasting enough to buy a bottle. In any event, we felt that while in NZ we should tour a winery at some point, so we may now check it off our ‘life-experiences checklist.’ I’m only partially kidding.

In a more exciting (at least to me personally) side trip, we stopped by a brewery in Blenheim, Renaissance Brewing, which was actually just a few blocks from our hostel. We met the brewers, two brothers-in-law from San Diego who had each moved to NZ in the past several years. Andy, the head brewer, was a beermaker in California, and had also made wine in NZ, while Brian was formerly a mechanic before joining Andy to start their brewery. They actually bought an old, failed brewery, Marlborough Brewing, which was quite a small operation, but which tried to compete with the big boys…on price. You can probably guess how that went.

When they bought the brewery in September 2005, Andy got a look at the state of everything and was appalled at the way the previous brewers had made beer there, as they obviously didn’t know any better and had ended up with really crappy beer as a result. That and the hilariously misguided product strategy was pretty much the epitaph of Marlborough. Andy and Brian ended up spending months cleaning, repairing, and modifying equipment, and started bottling and kegging beer last year.

After talking with the guys for quite a bit, Becky and I did a tasting at the bar next door, and were really pretty impressed with the beer. Renaissance does an English Pale Ale, a Porter, and a Scotch Ale for bottling and sale. They also are producing an American Pale Ale and a Double IPA, but aren’t as quite as far along on production of them. We were especially impressed with their Scotch Ale, as it had lip-smacking flavor and a really rich body. Thinking about it right now makes me want one, mmm.

During our tasting, Brian asked what we were doing in NZ, and so we told him about our travel and work plans. After hearing about our backgrounds and our plans, he asked if we’d be interested in a flexible position introducing their beers to bars and stores along our travels, as they are a young brewery looking to get its product into many more locations. I thought it sounded like a great and fun idea, so before long we got Brian to give us a case of beer to give out as samples and some promotional material. I like the position as it’s flexible, will allow me to participate in something I really like, beer, and the beer is a product that is really easy to get behind, as it’s really damn good. Their even printing up business cards for me. Check back in a few months to see how I feel then I guess…

Loose Seals On Golden Bay (Feb. 17-19)

After sailing in Abel Tasman, we headed even farther north up to Golden Bay, a remote and relatively sparsely populated area that makes up the extreme northwest of the S. Island. From the Kiwis we’ve talked to, it seems to be inhabited mostly by hippies, alternative lifestylers, and others who are looking to get off the beaten path. We seem to be finding there are quite a few places in NZ where that’s true. Which makes sense, as NZ isn’t exactly on the most well-trod paths, globally speaking. But as so often happens, I digress.

View of Wharariki Beach

From our few days in Golden Bay, the alternativee lifestyler thing seems to ring true, as we stayed in a decidedly unusual, but very laid-back hostel between Takaka and Collingwood, Shambhala. A Belgian backpacker in Tauranga had recommended the place, and as we’ve been trying to incorporate fellow travelers’ advice into our plans, we decided to stop in. Shambhala is apparently another term for Shangri-La, and while I wouldn’t go that far in describing the place, it was pretty nice, with a wicked location set far off the highway just a minute away from the beach.

Shambhala Backpackers

As you might figure, the guy that runs the backpackers is a pretty big Buddhist devotee, offering yoga at the hostel and providing heaps of free Buddhist literature. We didn’t really go for all that, but we did find it interesting to stay someplace different. The vibe at Shambhala was pretty cool and many of the people were really friendly, and I think we got there at a good time, since most of the travelers seemed to have been there for several days and were getting along quite well. Everyone hung out, talked, drank, and went to the bar together, making it seem like a big party instead of an impersonal backpackers. A nice change.

Another bonus of Shambhala was that it was just about across the road from the Mussel Inn, a famous local bar that brews their own beer and has live music nearly every night. Their beer, particularly one called ‘Manuka’, named after a tree that thrives locally, was really pretty good, so I was alright with that. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I won’t find any really hoppy beers here on the order of an American-style IPA, which is probably a good idea since Kiwis seem to like their beer relatively subdued.

After our first night at the Mussel Inn, we decided to walk back to Shambhala rather than catch a ride with the rest of the group. Although it’s a 30 minute walk up the driveway (unpaved, of course), it allowed us to detour through a small glowworm path along the way. Glowworms are the larvae of a fungus gnat and can be seen in lots of caves and natural areas around New Zealand. Their luminescent organs produce a soft, greenish light in the dark. We had previously seen glowworms during the hangi in Rotorua, but these were nicer because they were free. It really is spectacular to be standing in a dark forest surrounded by thousands of tiny glowing lights.

On one day we stopped at Puponga Farm Park, a national park at the end of Farewell Spit. Farewell Spit is like a sandbar growing from the tip of the island stretching out into the sea more than 30km, with sands continually deposited from the sea. We did our usual few hours of walking around, finally getting to Wharariki beach. If you’re thinking, yet another windswept, lonely, gorgeous NZ beach, you would be right. What was especially cool about this beach was that we found a small pool with seal pups swimming around and playing just a few feet from us. You know that they’ll grow up to be big smelly penguin-eating seals, but when they’re small they’re cuter than puppies. Becky can now cross seals off the list of animals she has to see here, yay.

View of Farewell Spit

Andrew with the seal pups

Jean, more cute animal pictures for you!

Other cool things we saw in the area were Pupu Springs, home of the world’s clearest freshwater springs. It doesn’t show up well in pictures, but take it from me you could see right through the water there… We also visited Harwood’s Hole, which is pretty much what it sounds like, a huge hole in the ground. Unfortunately it required about a half-hour drive over unpaved roads (Sorry, Ron!) and we weren’t keen on getting too close to it to get a great picture. Although we figured why bother risking life and limb when it’s tough to say what a great picture of a hole would look like? Maybe we’ll have to read our newly-acquired Buddhist literature to get a good answer to such a question. Don’t worry, we’ll let you know if we receive any enlightenment on this topic. Until next time, grasshoppers.

Pupu Springs

Harwood's Hole

Abel Tasman National Park (Feb. 16-17)

Although I’ve spent many a summer season wearing flip-flops (jandals in NZ, btw), and many other seasons besides (you mean most people don’t consider flip-flops appropriate footwear after Thanksgiving in Vermont?), it had heretofore never proved detrimental to my personal health. Alas, as prescribed by Murphy’s Law, while in Wellington I finally suffered a flip-flop-related injury while walking to the beach.

Scenic overlook

To go into gory detail, I tripped on the sidewalk, jamming my toe into the ground and gashing out a good chunk of skin. Fortunately, we stumbled (literally) to a bakery that provided us with enough gauze and band aids to stop the bleeding. I think we probably should’ve gone to the ER, as it was a pretty sizable chunk, but ended up toughing it out, keeping my streak of never going to the ER alive.

Unfortunately, the backpackers’ life involves lots of walking, even when you’re backpacking by car. With the toe out of commission, we spent several days in Nelson convalescing, which involved lots of couch time (thank you, Andrew!) and visits to the numerous local breweries. Not a bad place to recuperate, I’d say. But with our Couchsurfing host Andrew leaving for the weekend, we decided it was time to resume our travels and see if I was up for some walking.

On Friday, we traveled to Abel Tasman National Park, located in the northwest tip of the South Island. On the map, it looks like it should be less than an hour from Nelson, but that doesn’t take into account the fact that you need to cross a pretty serious mountain range on the way, which easily takes 45 minutes itself. Like all NZ mountain roads, it’s steep and ridiculously winding. And as with all the mountain roads we’ve driven on this summer, we saw several bikers riding up, and we decided yet again that none of them looked like they were having a good time. To each his own, I suppose though…

The famed golden beaches of Abel Tasman

Although Abel Tasman is NZ’s smallest national park, it is proclaimed to be the “most beautiful” by all the locally produced travel brochures (go figure). We spent the evening at a backpackers next to the entrance of the park so that we’d be ready for an early hike in the morning. The Barn in Marahau is the first hostel we’ve stayed at that’s made any mention to the most feared of the backpacker parasites – the bed bug. A sign posted in our room said that all linens and towels were provided by the hostel (even the towels, what? Lots of hostels routinely charge a $2 fee to use a duvet for bedding) and asked us to keep any suspect bedding or packs out of the room. This sign led us to believe that the Barn must have recently been victim of a bed bug outbreak, which seriously makes my skin crawl. Andrew’s sister-in-law Shanna had a bed bug scare in her previous apartment, so we are all too familiar with all the grossness that entails.

On the coastal track at Abel Tasman

On a happier note, Abel Tasman does feature one of NZ’s “Great Walks”, tramps (Kiwi for “hikes”) that are usually three to five days long and involve stays in the various huts along the trail. While many people do a combination of hiking and kayaking in Abel Tasman, we opted to walk the first 12 km of the trail and sail back to the park entrance. The walk was gentle enough that I was able to wear flip-flops (I know what you’re thinking … she’s still wearing flip-flops after the catastrophe? But they’re necessary as I’m still unable to wear close-toed shoes).

Our sailboat

The walk afforded some pretty views of the secluded golden beaches, and the sailing trip was good fun. Our captain took us on a three hour tour of the coast (really, the good vantage point for exploring Abel Tasman), including the seal colony at Pinnacle Island (they were sleeping) and Split Apple Rock (significant rock formation in Maori culture). Sailing really was a great option for seeing the park. Although most people choose to kayak, I always try to avoid kayaking whenever possible (sorry, Mom! But you should definitely kayak when you come to visit us…).

In dire need of a hair covering

Split Apple Rock

Sunshine and Laughs in Nelson (Feb. 13-15)

Having been in NZ about a month by now, all we keep hearing from people, whether they’re Kiwis or foreigners, is that we need to get to the South Island, as that’s where all the good stuff, especially scenery, is located. In our experience, we have to say that the North Island has hardly been an ordeal, nor hard on the eyes. However, given that the S. Island is given to colder temperatures than the N. Island is in the coming months, and there are certain things you can do there only in summer and fall, we gotta admit that it makes sense to get there sooner rather than later. Though we’ll be in NZ until December, NZ seems to get a relatively late summer, so this will be the only true summer we’ll get here. Best to live it up while you can.

In that spirit, we took the Interislander ferry from Wellington to Picton. Though the ferry takes you from the N. to S. Island, it’s actually an east to west trip, as Wellington is located a bit north of Picton. That blew our minds, briefly; you are encouraged to look it up as well. In rough weather, the crossing can be among the roughest in the world, but on the day we made the trip, it was “flat as”, and we had a smooth ride. It’s a neat ride, as the ferry approaches Picton through a narrow channel between some of the thousands of islands that make up the Marlborough Sounds region of the S. Island. Unfortunately, Becky had the camera that day, so no pictures. Perhaps on our way back.

After a quick visit to tiny Picton, we were on our way to Nelson, home of our next Couchsurfing host, Andrew, who came recommended to us by our last Couchsurfer, George. Andrew is quite a remarkable guy himself, as he is part Maori, and has had a host of interesting and varied jobs over the past few decades. As the first person we’ve really conversed with who was part Maori, we’ve had some interesting chats with him too. It’s been a really good Couchsurfing experience, meeting someone who comes from a different cultural background.

Our host, Andrew

From our conversations with him, we’ve gathered that he’s been a policeman, carver of Maori artifacts, security consultant, and now works as a student advisor at an institute in Nelson. It’s quite a resume, and he’s a really interesting guy to talk to. You can tell that he’s a really thoughtful person who’s given thought to his beliefs and what he says. There’s a bit of intensity to him too, but he’s a really good-natured guy who’s also generous, as he couldn’t have been nicer in sharing his house with us and allowing us to come and go as we needed. He even offered to let us use his house over the weekend while he was away in Christchurch, but we had already booked a sailing trip in Abel Tasman, or we would’ve probably taken the offer. After a bunch of weeks of travel, it’s really nice to be able to stay at one place for awhile, especially if you can do it without having to stay in a hostel. Thus we dig the Couchsurfing and wwoofing.

The Christchurch Cathedral in Nelson

A funny thing in Nelson has been that we’ve again managed to run into Suzanne, a Danish Couchsurfer who was surfing Matt and Stu’s couch in Whangarei in the Northland at the same time we were several weeks ago. We were also in Paihia at the same time and ran into her there, and apparently she was at the same hostel in Rotorua at about the same time we were there, but we didn’t see her there somehow. We didn’t really plan to run into her all these times, NZ Couchsurfing just isn’t a huge world, I guess. We’ve spent a bunch of time with her, and have gotten on with her quite well, and she took us to her laughing yoga session at a house in Nelson one night.

Enjoying some time at Andrew's with Suzanne

Laughing yoga is an interesting experience. Following the maxim that laughter is the best
medicine and that preventive medicine is better, laughing yoga practitioners basically make themselves laugh in large groups in a variety of exercises. It’s a bit odd, especially at first, but once people get into the swing of it, the ‘fake laughter’ tends to make you actually laugh, and it kind of goes from there. We did it for about a half hour, and as Suzanne would say, it was good fun. Like most yoga, it did make us feel better afterwards, and although I probably wouldn’t do it on a regular basis, it was an interesting experience. According to Suzanne, Denmark has a number of laughing clubs, and that she started one in Greenland for several months when she was there. I couldn’t possibly make this kind of thing up.

As for Nelson, we’ve really liked it here. It’s a good-sized town with a nice downtown area of shops and restaurants, is on the beach, has a good energy, and most importantly, seems to be the small brewery capital of NZ! Seriously, we’ve seen more microbreweries in Nelson than anywhere on the N. Island. Not sure what it is that attracts the microbrew-types here, but there must be something, as we visited several small brewery operations while we’ve been here. One of the original NZ microbreweries, MacCashin’s (now known as Mac’s) started in Nelson, so perhaps that explains it.

Enjoying a beer at Founder's Brewery

Our favorite was Lighthouse Brewery, where Dick, the owner/brewer/one-man show poured us several pints gratis on Friday morning, the day we left Nelson to visit Golden Bay and Farewell Spit. Probably the coolest part of Lighthouse was the small vehicle that Dick equips with kegs for festivals and such, pulling up to his site and dispensing beers from the trunk. Even better, I was able to score a pint glass, so all was right in the world that day. With bellies full of beer, we pulled out of Nelson, bound northward.

The "wee" van at Lighthouse Brewery

Weekend in Windy Welly (Feb. 10–12)

Wellington, NZ’s capital, is located on a somewhat J-shaped peninsula of land dangling from the southernmost reaches of the North Island into the Cook Strait. It’s a hilly and windy city, and compared to Auckland it is relatively compact, as it’s hemmed in by mountains and the sea, thus preventing the typical urban sprawl. We found Wellington to be a fun and cosmopolitan city though, with tons of cafés, bars, and cultural activities (we even managed to make it to a museum!). Luckily, after our Courchsurfing drought of the past few weeks, we were fortunate to find a place to Couchsurf in Wellington.

The view from George's, at the top of Mount Victoria

Our host was George, a former California dude who’s been living and working in Wellington for about the past six years. To show what a small world it is, George has relatives in Lititz, PA, and was telling us about this great ice cream shop in the woods near there that his aunt and uncle took him to when he visited them a few years ago. He was shocked when we recognized it as the Jigger Shop in Mt. Gretna, where Becky’s mom and sister live. It’s funny to go halfway around the world and run into someone who’s been to your little neck of the woods.

Cheesecake with George

George works at WETA as a rotoscoper doing special effects in movies and moved down to NZ to work on the Lord of the Rings films. He loved the lifestyle there so much that he hasn’t left, and doesn’t intend to, as he’ll probably apply for citizenship sometime soon. Having been in the smog and traffic of LA recently, we can certainly understand the appeal of the quality of life in Wellington. Especially as he lives near the top of Mt. Victoria, which affords terrific views of the city. Indeed, he lives about a block from the lookout on top of the mountain.

An interesting home in Wellington, constructed with shipping containers

What can we say about George but “wow!”, as we were amazed by his hospitality and energy. George is in his early 40’s, but you’d never know it to talk to him, as he has the enthusiasm of a kid, which we mean in the best possible way. He’s an interesting guy, having moved to NZ from California, working at McMurdo Base in Antarctica in the past, starting a few web businesses, and currently preparing for a trip back to the States to visit national parks and shoot nature footage. In his house, George put us up on a bed which has been set up semi-permanently in his living room right now. He’s only been doing Couchsurfing for a few months, but already has hosted a dozen people. We’d say he seems to be pretty much unstoppable, and we’re looking forward to spending more time with him on our way back through Wellington some day.

As an aside, we would like to reiterate our continued gratitude to CouchSurfing. What a tremendous website! Each host that we’ve stayed with has been an exceptional human being. We’re actually kind of sad that with all our gushing we haven’t managed to convince a single friend or family member to sign up. For shame. (Excepting my sister Marie, although I don’t believe she’s used it at all since she signed up.)

On our first full day in Wellington, we followed George around as he helped a friend shoot some scenes of a documentary, and then he took us out for brunch at a great café, Chocolate Fish, right on the water. We also checked out George’s workplace, and he showed us a little of how they create the movie magic at WETA. We’d say more…but the security guard made us sign confidentiality agreements and sometimes it’s fun to hold out on you guys, hehe. We apparently inspired George to do some serious cooking, as we made chili, penne arrabiata, and most importantly, cheesecake this past weekend. George claims it wasn’t one of his best attempts, but we thought it was really pretty good (and has inspired Becky to master the skill of cheesecake-making). George’s friends were also really great, and one of them, Jen, a Michigan transplant who also works at WETA, barbecued for us at her house on the waterfront on Sunday night, a beautiful location worth every dollar in rent.

Filming the documentary, Malcolm and George

Other things we did in Wellington…Well we did all the typical touristy things, riding the cable car, going to the national museum, Te Papa, seeing NZ’s unusual government building, the Beehive, and of course, visiting Mac’s, the local brewery. We packed a lot into just a few days in Wellington, but we had a blast, thanks in no small part to George, who went way above the call in the hospitality he showed us. Gracias George, hope we cross paths again.

The Beehive in Wellington

Riding the cable car

Drinks at Mac's

Wewenttothelongestplacename (February 9)

At the request of our second most prolific blog commenter, Shanna, we have visited the site of the world’s longest place name. They have recently upgraded the sign so it is now captured completely on one long signpost (before it had to be broken down into four lines to fit on to a much smaller sign). See, there’s a good reason we ask for comments!

The hill of Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuaki is very small and located conveniently in the middle of nowhere, also known as the Wairarapa region. It means something frightfully long and convoluted, so if you like, look it up. We mostly went for the novelty of seeing such a long word, but there’s an interesting Maori story behind the name.

To expedite the visit, we spent the night at a lovely farmstay in Wanstead called Lochlea Farmstay. The room was private, comfortable, and very cozy. It’s impressive the quality of accommodation that you receive here for very little money (approximately NZ$40, or US$28) – as long as you are willing to share kitchen and bathroom facilities. The farm hosts and guests were all very friendly, which made for an enjoyable stay. I (Becky) have really been enjoying the country living since we’ve arrived in New Zealand and am continually blown away by the beauty of the landscape (something the locals seem to take almost for granted). We only stayed at Lochlea for one night, but I could have stayed for days.

The view from Lochlea Farmstay

From Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuaki (thank you, cut and paste!) we headed to Tui’s Brewery. The drive was fairly entertaining, as we passed hardly a single car (you could describe the route as “The Sticks”) but did have to avoid a cow in the middle of the road, several lambs, and a hawk feasting on a roadkill opossum. Tui’s is a pretty lame beer (Andrew describes it as inoffensive) in the grand scheme of things, but he still required some much-needed beer swag from the Tui’s store. Despite his efforts, dragging me into innumerable souvenir stores all over the North Island, he has found almost no suitable souvenirs (he has a discerning eye for these things) to date. Happily, he emerged victorious today with a t-shirt and beer cozy (although unwilling to buy the pack of 6 Tui’s mugs). We also had a long conversation with a gentleman from Erie, PA at the brewery. He’s been traveling the country with his father and was eager to hear about our travels.

We did spend a lot of time driving today, which might have been a bad choice as it was a really hot and sunny day, or translated into Kiwi: “A real scorcha, mate!” We traveled to the southern most point of the North Island, which seemed only fitting after our trip to Cape Reinga, to visit Cape Palliser and its lighthouse. Two hundred fifty stairs up to the top was worth the brilliant view and the cooling ocean breezes. It was too hazy today to see to the South Island, but we will be seeing it for ourselves on Tuesday anyway. We also went in search of a seals at a nearby seal colony, but they must have also been on holiday as they were nowhere to be found. A short hike to the Punagirua Pinnacles (made up fact: they were Sigmund Freud’s favorite NZ attraction) through a dry stream bed provided views of some interesting rock formations but also more time in the heat of the day. We found the pool at the hotel to be clearly the best way to end a day like this.

View from the bottom of the lighthouse

Andrew on the stairs

An interesting fence lined with buoys

Tractors used to put the boats in the water

The Pinnacles

Tomorrow on to Wellington, where hopefully we have lined up accommodations with a couchsurfer.

Cruising Through Hawke’s Bay (Feb. 7-8)

We’re currently making our way through Hawke’s Bay, a sunny region of New Zealand famed for its fruit and wine production. In summer, backpackers descend on Hawke’s Bay to pick apples, kiwifruit, and sometimes winery work. The majority appears to be picking apples though, as most fields we’ve driven by are apple orchards with trees busting with red fruit.

We’re on a mission to get to the South Island and see the sights there before late fall (around May) when the weather there turns too cold, so we’ve decided not to pick fruit around here at the moment. Plus, there doesn’t seem to be too much happening in Hawke’s Bay, either, so that doesn’t help much. Napier, in particular, was a bit of a disappointment. Billed as one of the world’s foremost Art Deco cities, Napier does indeed have a number of Art Deco buildings and other flourishes, but is otherwise rather unremarkable. Napier does have a top-notch marketing campaign, as it’s certainly built up a reputation as a must-stop in NZ.

Expecting to see a city full of Art Deco like South Beach in Miami, we were bummed to find a somewhat gritty, industrial city in which the overlook at the town’s bluffs gave a terrific and encompassing view of the city’s…shipping port. The ocean does give the city a nice setting, but unfortunately you can’t swim there as the strong currents and rip tides make it too dangerous. To be fair, we were in town mid-week, and it is supposed to be much more happening on the weekend. We stayed at a backpackers in town that was full of long-term fruit-picking backpackers, many of whom were camping in the sprawling hostel’s backyard. The hostel was a bit run-down and also felt a bit like an old-person’s house, a funny combination for a house full of 20-somethings.

McDeco Style

"Beam me up!" says Andrew in Napier

Napier’s sister city is Hastings, just 19km down the road, and based on what we’d read in our guidebooks, we figured there wouldn’t be much going on there. We were quite surprised to find it to be a nicer, cleaner city than Napier. If I were picking fruit, I’d much rather stay in Hastings than Napier, but luckily we didn’t have to stay. Someday soon we’ll have to do something to earn money though…

Spanish mission style architecture in Hastings

At times like this it makes it difficult to trust the guidebooks like Lonely Planet and Let’s Go, as their portrayals of towns and activities seem to resemble the copy from the local chambers of commerce as opposed impartial descriptions with a bent towards budget travel. We won’t be throwing them out anytime soon, as they have a lot of useful info, including maps, but we’d never use them as our sole references.

On the bright side, we’ve met many cool people, both Kiwis and other backpackers, who have recommended various places to stay and things to do. It would seem that as usual, word-of-mouth is the best place to get the lowdown.

Crossing Tongariro on Waitangi (Feb. 6)

As we noted yesterday, we decided to do the Tongariro Crossing today, Waitangi Day. Waitangi Day is a national holiday in NZ, so what better way to do celebrate than by doing a quintessential NZ hike? We woke at 5:15 AM to catch our 6:00 shuttle to the park, and were on the trail by 6:45. There were very few other hikers on the trail at that time, which was great, as it felt like we had the place to ourselves for much of our hike. We must have had the favor of the weather gods, as the weather couldn’t have been better for our hike. Oftentimes the Crossing is covered by clouds early in the morning, but our entire day was clear and sunny: perfect for hiking.

As for the Crossing, the first half of the hike is terrific, with a few short but steep ascents, walks across volcanic craters, brightly colored lakes, and other cool geological features I’ve never seen before. One of the optional summits from the Crossing is Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings, a pretty steep and difficult hike (lots of loose rock), and one we skipped, which we later came to regret.

Highlights of the trip for us were the Emerald Lakes, Red Crater, and just walking through the South Crater, as it’s absolutely barren, full of volcanic rock and sand, and feels more like a moonscape than most places on Earth. The second half of the hike, a long, gradual descent through a mountain pass and then through a forest, is much less exciting, and really doesn’t link to the more spectacular part of the Crossing very well. It’s not a bad hike, per se, but is a bit anticlimactic after hiking through volcanic craters.

The Tongariro Crossing is 17km (~10.4mi), and most guides say it takes about 8 hours to cross. However, as we started to pass other hikers up the first steep area of the trail, we started to have doubts it would take that long. By the time we reached the Emerald Lakes, we knew we’d be done much more quickly. Normally that isn’t a problem, but as the earliest shuttle wouldn’t arrive until 3 PM, we tried to stop and enjoy the views as much as possible. Even dawdling immensely by our standards, we still got back to the carpark by 1 PM, where we sat and sunned with a ton of other hikers awaiting their buses. Happily, that was the most people we saw all day.

So far, Tongariro probably rates as the most spectacular thing we’ve seen in the North Island. Cape Reinga was nice, but getting out to do a hike, especially when you’re nearly alone in the park, is great, and the scenery was absolutely unearthly. In hindsight, we wished we’d tried to do Mt. Doom, but maybe we’ll just have to visit on our way back up the North Island later this year… In sum, if you’re fit and on the North Island, go cross the Tongariro!