New Zealand, Part 6 : Things to try, eat and buy!

This is the last of a 6 part blog on a trip to New Zealand. Parts 1-5 are here, here, here, here and here.

It's a gorgeous country with plenty to do but what fun is a trip without eating, trying and buying local delights? This post has details of food and shopping experiences we had and some recommendations based on those.

Whittakers chocolate: Eat all you can, and bring us back some. We tried many, many flavors, the milk chocolate was by far and away our favorite. It's worth the hype, people. Yes, it's possible to source this locally in the US, but somehow it just doesn't taste the same. The taste of the holidays in paradise? Possibly.

Marmite: This was something the locals urged us to try. It's evidently made from yeast extract and is used as a spread/side for everything from toast to crackers and all baked goods. We tried it, and....um, let's just say it's likely an acquired taste? Not a fan.

L&P: This local favorite was one of my kids' favorite addictions. Sweetened soda - need I say more?

Hokey Pokey!: If the kids get to have a favorite, so does mom! This is basically honeycomb flavored ice cream, don't ask me why it's called that, but do eat it!

Kapiti ice cream: I cannot, cannot do a fair job of explaining this. Nothing, I repeat, nothing I say can do this justice. We ate at least 2-3 bars everyday, and sometimes started our day with this for breakfast (some of the flavors had orange or raspberries in them, so we figured that was healthy, ok?).  Yim!

Jaffas: Sweet candy. They just seemed like sugar coated chocolate balls to me, but they clearly have a cult following locally, so much so that there's an annual "Jaffa-race" in Dunedin! Worth the hype or not, was fun to try.

To bring back home:

Honey: Honey, glorious honey! NZ has some amazing varieties of honey, the most famous of which, of course, is the Manuka honey. I looked and looked and looked at every variety/brand/store of Manuka honey (heck, we even visited a honey harvesting farm), but man, the prices are steep. I finally gave in and bought us a tiny bottle of UMF 15 Manuka honey out of curiosity for all its purported health benefits, only to find that our local Costco(!!) has the exact same brand, certification and price. If you do feel like indulging in Manuka, do check the certification before you splurge.
Separately, I also picked up a few other bottles of flavored honey - ginger honey was our favorite!

Lanolin: This I do recommend: really rich, softening cream made from sheep's wool, excellent moisturizer for the winter. This is especially recommended for breastfeeding moms as nipple cream, but is wonderful for general skin care as well.

Mud packs: Rotorua mud seems to be a very popular thing for all skincare products from face washes to body soaps to cleansers. Makes for a good gift!

Merino wool: Sigh. Gorgeous, lightweight, super warm wool for a whole slew of woolen products. Completely un-itchy too. Why do I sigh? Price, people, price. If you can afford it, do splurge!

Jade jewelry: Every nook and cranny in NZ boasts of local Jade, apparently it's not the easiest to find authentic, high quality jade. Also, the locals believe that jade's medicinal/healing properties (mystic charm?) work their best when the product is gifted, rather than purchased for self. I bought a few for my niece and sister in law, and some small presents for friends. Again, the good stuff is quite expensive.

Paua jewelry: If jade is what you'd wear to the snooty cousin's upper west side wedding, Paua is what you'd wear to brunch with your girl gang. Light, wearable and inexpensive in versatile, vibrant colors - what's not to love?

New Zealand, Part 5 : South Island Highlights-2

This is part 5 of a 6 part blog on a trip to New Zealand. Parts 1-4 are here, here, here and here.

After all the adventuring in Queenstown, we drove into the sleepy town of Te Anau as a base for our trip to Milford Sound. Honestly, you could likely spend a good week or two just in the Fiordland area, but given that we didn't have that luxury, we did the next best things we could. We lucked out and had a large, lovely home to ourselves thanks to AirBnB, the town itself is a cozy mix of small restaurants, a tiny downtown area (more jade shopping abounds), and a casual, easy demeanor. Almost everyone we met was a tourist en route to Milford Sound as well, so we spent some time swapping stories about where we'd come from and what was next.

Tours from Te Anau to Milford Sound are plentiful. We had a few considerations for ours: after all the driving we had done until now, we preferred an option that would drive us right out of Te Anau and back (so we wouldn't have to drive ourselves), we wanted something slow-paced - given the # of tourists flocking to Milford late December, we didn't want to be rushed in and out, and we wanted to check out the areas around Milford a bit, in spite of not driving. So we optimized for all of these and couldn't be happier. Pro tip #1: Keep in mind there are plenty tours that can drive you from Queenstown to Milford and back too, you don't really need to stay at Te Anau, but if at all you can, try to visit Milford from Te Anau. the drive from Queenstown is upwards of 4 hours one way, where as the drive from Te Anau was a little less than 2, so we got to spend plenty more time enjoying the place than on the road itself.

Day 13: The drive from Te Anau to Milford is incredibly pretty in itself. Our driver was a young NZ native, born and raised in Te Anau all his life and took us along some lovely routes slightly off the beaten path. Pro tip #2: If at all possible, plan your Milford Sound day after checking the weather. We had the extreme good fortune of crisp, bright sunshine rendering our excursion near perfect. I've heard from folks that on a wet, cloudy day the Sound takes on a different aura and beauty, but I've also heard several folks (especially those with young children) complain that the visit didn't really do much for them with overcast skies. The area does get about 6m of rain a year, so you'll have to really beat the odds to get a nice sunny day.  En route to Milford Sound, we stopped at different points of Mirror lake (gorgeous), Monkey creek, Knobs flat, the light, but lovely Chasm waterfall, the Homer tunnel and a few other spots where our guide would just point something out, someone would squeal and we'd promptly pull over for a stop. The entire drive is enjoyable - if you have the time to spend on it and good sunshine on your back. When we got to Milford, we spent maybe 10-15 mins walking around the area, and then hopped on our cruise. This is likely a big hit-or-miss experience as well. When we went, the waterfalls were several - some tall and delicate, some fierce and forceful, several seals bathing in the sun and a large family of dolphins playing so close to our boat. Other friends of ours that had visited told us the waterfalls were barely a trickle and that the overall visit was pleasant, but not spectacular. I suppose this has to do with how much recent rainfall there has been, but I'd be surprised if anyone came away feeling completely unmoved by what definitely feels like the end of the world.

One of the many lovely treks en route to Milford

On the Milford cruise

Beautiful mirror lake

Stopping at another waterfall/lake on the way

On the drive back, there's the Key Summit hike to do if you'd like, offering spectacular views of all of Fiordland but if you choose not to do that, there's several smaller hikes to do as well. We kept running into the little kea bird wherever we stopped, the children had a ton of fun chasing after them, and being regaled by our guide about the bird's many antics and skills. Side note: The Routeburn track was drooled over aplenty, and a note made to come back to later in life. Sigh, if only we had all the time for all the beauty in the world.

Day 14: For the last segment of our trip, we really wanted to spend significant time at Mt.Cook, but since almost all of our planning was very last minute, we couldn't make this happen as optimally as we would have liked. We ended up having to stay at Fairlie, which really isn't a terrible choice for visiting Mt.Cook, but you could likely do better. We spent most of the day driving from Te Anau to Fairlie, we took a long, scenic route driving right next to the ocean for a good stretch and stopping at the lovely city of Dunedin for lunch. I would have loved to spend more time in this historic city, the city center and the architecture there in were absolutely gorgeous. We drove into Fairlie pretty late, and settled into our BnB for the night. Warning: this really isn't a very large town at all, it's quite tiny with minimal options especially for vegetarians. There's one supermarket that was also closed by the time we got in, but luckily there was one tiny restaurant that was open and had some veggie options.

Day 15:  We drove into Mt.Cook early morning from Fairlie, about a 2 hour drive from our B&B allowing for stops on the way. Pro tip #2: This is definitely one of those places you want to have printed maps for. GPS gave up really early on our car, and there's no spot of signal for you to be able your phone navigational apps. Print the maps, plan the time and set out accordingly. Lake Tekapo is a lovely side stop along the way and is great for bike rides around the lake (we sadly didn't have the time). Lake Pukaki is also really pretty and pleasant, but if you are hard pressed for time, go to one of these and then head on to Mt.Cook. It feels like a long, barren drive but get up there into the village and it's all worth it.  We stopped for lunch first, and then spent the next 2 hours going on small, easy hikes in this far removed paradise. Pro tip #3: If you can rent bikes in advance, do! The area is lovely for rides, but we were too late for them. In every direction, the Southern Alps scrape the sky, Aoraki gracefully beaming down upon mortals with a special benevolence. If there's one complaint I have about our trip, it is that we did not have enough time in this lovely area. Later in the afternoon, we went on a boat trip up to the Tasman glacier. First off, it's hard to believe there's a water body in the midst of this hilly terrain, but you walk 15 minutes and Lo and behold! There are many glaciers in this park, but Tasman is (likely) the largest. This was a huge, huge hit with the kids. While we were on the boat, a huge chunk of ice broke off from the main glacier and floated out towards us, and changed colors white -> light blue -> dark blue -> clear, and the kids got to pick up a piece of the glacier from the water and watch it change colors as we went. Truly a magnificent and simultaneously humbling experience - Mt.Tasman and Aoraki on either side, the giant glacier in the middle and watching nature do her thing amidst it all. Also an inherent theme of sadness knowing how global warming has so materially and obviously affected this part of the world, but at least a lovely educational and enjoyable experience for the little ones.

                                                                   
                                                                      Lovely short hikes up in the village

                                                  
                                                 A giant blob of ice chipped away from the glacier and floated up to us!

Day 16:   Another long driving/travel day. We drove back up to Christchurch, and took a plane to Wellington. Another city we'd have loved to spend time in, but couldn't spend beyond about 4-5 hours. Lovely waterfront, beautiful bike areas, gorgeous weather. We hung out by the water for a long time, the kids rode bikes, we ate more local ice cream and  then flew back into Auckland for the night.


Day 17 and 18:  We spent the next 2 days back in Auckland city, exploring local sights. Went to a surprisingly large and fun underground aquarium, visited large, expansive parks, went up the famous Auckland Sky tower , and ate a lot more cheese and ice cream. We flew out of Auckland on Day 19, stopped at Fiji for a night (so needs a dedicated, long trip!) and then came back home to SFO.

Some fun shopping and eating trips next!

New Zealand, Part 4 : South Island Highlights-1

 This is part 4 of a multi part blog on NZ. Earlier parts are here, here and here. We spent upwards of 10 days in the South, so this is in 2 parts: this entry is about the first few days in the South.

 After 5 days in the north island, we then prepared to tour the south. There are multiple options to get to the south - a flight from Auckland is perhaps the quickest, there are ferries from Wellington as well. We took the plane to Christchurch on day 5 of our trip, and spent the night there. We really didn't spend much time in the city at all, but seemed like a quiet, picturesque city - still recovering from the nasty 6.3 earthquake that caused significant harm in 2011.

Days 6 and 7: The TransAlpine train is a very popular route in the South Island. It's a picturesque way to get to Greymouth, which is a reasonable spot from which to set out to the many natural attractions in the south. The train criss crosses from the east (CHC) all the way to Greymouth in the west, going via the Canterbury Plains, slowly covering mountains and valleys along the way, with a nice stop at Arthur's Pass for a bit. Lunch (and plenty of Kapiti icecream!) available on the train, albeit at a premium. For us this was a spend of almost 1 full day (including the previous night stay at CHC), so I'd recommend you do this only if: a)you really want to experience the train, and b)aren't pressed for time. If you've traveled on other scenic train rides or even long, expansive road trips, you might give this a pass, and find much more efficient ways to get to your first destination in the south (ours was Franz glacier). If you are taking the train though, book well in advance, it is popular and sells out quickly. We took the train, rented our car at Greymouth and drove to the little town of Franz for the night. Along the way, we also stopped at the little town of Hokitika, which is incredibly popular for jewelry made from native jade. Worry not, there's good, authentic, certified jewelry available to suit every budget.

                                                              Lunch on the train

Day 8: Fox and Franz glaciers are two of the popular glaciers in the South island. Both of them still flow almost to sea level, and are pretty impressive in person. You could have a great debate on which of the two to visit if you were pressed for time, make either choice and end up with a wonderful experience; but we weren't pressed for time, so we visited both. We started our first visit at Fox Glacier. We chose not to do the expensive (although tempting!) helicopter rides that let you land on the glacier itself, but chose to walk up to the foot of the glacier.The hike itself was reasonably easy, the boys made it up there with minimal whining. It's impressive up close, but I wasn't particularly  blown away by it. It's a nice, gentle reminder of nature's power and patience, with the glacier calmly and quietly looming over all its visitors. We also then went out to Lake Matheson. This is a really nice, easy stroll around the lake and is only about 30 mins from Fox glacier. On a good, sunny day you'll find spectacular reflections of Mt.Cook in the lake, but even without it - it's a nice pleasant walk. You can do as much or as little as you'd like, but the entire thing is a loop that brings you back to the car park, if you're up for it. 2 hours-ish, flat almost all through. We wanted to do something light for the boys after the hike up Fox, and this was a great way to do it. We came back to our hotel in Franz for the night.

                                                 Braving the walk up to Fox in cold weather

Day 9: One of the charms of being in small towns like Franz is the very small-townness. There really isn't much to do, the entire city is like a block and a half total (bu with an Indian restaurant, mind you), so we woke up late, strolled through the block and a half and hung out and chilled for most of the morning. For the afternoon, we took a guided tour to Franz glacier. Originally I wasn't thrilled about this - I didn't see what the fuss was, we could just as well have walked up ourselves. But on hindsight, this ended up being fun. The guide walked us through a small rainforest section before the glacier, helped taste some of the native ferns and herbs, and then walked us up close to the glacier - TOTALLY avoiding the pedestrian (sane?!) route, and walking up over the boulders and rocks themselves. This was definitely a high for the boys; felt mighty adventurous and the guide kept it very entertaining and informative with many a tale about the glacier and its history. Perk from going on the tour: we got to spend the evening in a hot geyser pool as well. The kids got to jump around from pools of one temperature to another, I must admit I enjoyed the feeling of bubbling warm water against my skin after all that hiking up and down.

                                                          Rainforest walk in Franz

                                                     Chilling at a waterfall at Franz glacier


Day 10: This was an all day of driving for us. We drove from Franz to Queenstown, via the Haast Pass and Wanaka. This is ~4-6 hours of total drive time, depending on how many stops you want to take along the way. Gorgeous, scenic drive - mountains and waterfalls aplenty. Every few miles or so, we'd pull up because we'd hear a waterfall and then go wandering to look for it. Totally serene, quiet, very very thinly (if at all) populated, and just gorgeous all around. We also stopped at Wanaka along the way. The famous Wanaka tree is here, as is Puzzling world. The town is very pretty, the Wanaka beach and tree are lovely, and the children enjoyed a break from all that nature and walking in spending a couple of hours goofing off at Puzzling world. Puzzling world is also a great place to pick up gifts for folks back home - they have a really good collection of puzzles and games using native imagery and local folklore. We also planned it such we'd be here for lunch, there's a really nice mix of restaurants to eat at, and a nice park to hang out after all that activity. We drove into Queenstown around 7:30pm, were greeted by bright sunshine and lovely, crisp weather and walked around exploring the little town. Keep in mind, the town center (along the river/bay) is tucked in a fair bit. You might walk right next street to it and miss it (we nearly did), so make sure you wander through and explore.

Puzzling World, Wanaka

                                                         The maze at Puzzling world

                                                                                         The Wanaka tree

Day 11: Queenstown is paradise for those that love good physical activity. Zipline tours, the restaurant at the top of the skyline offering an excellent view of the whole city, rafting tours, gondola rides, more huka jets, paragliding - the city has it all. Not to mention, the city is absolutely gorgeous with its mountains and rivers both blending right into each other, any of these adrenalin pumping activities is bound to be a phenomenal experience for the books. Each of them is fairly expensive though: the gondola rides are about $75 a pop, and things only go up from there. Try at least one of them, this is the town to do them in. The town center also has some fantastic ice-cream places and shopping - highly, highly recommend Patagonia chocolates and Mrs. Ferg Gelateria. Try a physical activity, come back and indulge, rinse and repeat. Mighty fun. The city is also very vibrant with street performers in the town center and tourists generally mulling about having a good time watching the gorgeous sunset over the river. Highly recommend a full day or two here, make sure you spend late evening in the town center.

Day 12: We loved the vibe and aura of Queenstown so much that we hung out most of the morning here again, trying this and that. Plenty of fun, eclectic shopping to do here too. I picked up a ton of gifts here for everyone - my 10 yo niece loves merchandise from this store called Smiggle, and I spent far too much time (and money!) at this lovely teaware store for my sister in law. Sadly, couldn't buy anything for ourselves, but boy, what a store! We finally managed to tear ourselves away from Queenstown, drove to its neighbor town called Arrowtown - which is another one-two block city, but with a distinct charm of its own. This is only about 20 minutes or so (IIRC) from Queenstown, but is a nice, calmer experience from the hustle bustle of Queenstown and has some fun, eclectic restaurants and stores too. After that, we drove down to Te Anau for the rest of our trip.

Rest of South island in the next post here!

New Zealand, Part 3 : North Island highlights

This is part 3 of a multi part blog on NZ. Earlier parts are here and here.

We have family in the North Island, so we traveled with them wherever they took us :) We spent our 1st day in the country checking out Auckland and hanging out at some really nice beaches, and set out to travel through the north the next morning. The 4.5 day itinerary there included a fair bit of north island natural wonders, some Maori history and an equal measure of kid friendly fun.

Day 1: Auckland to Taupo: We left Auckland early AM(~9ish) and headed towards Taupo. Stopped for lunch at the beautiful Hamilton Gardens (great lunch stop, plus easily worthy of an hour for strolling through) and ended up at the Waitamo glowworm caves. Here you walk about 15-20 minutes deep inside the cave with a Maori tour guide who talks through the stalactite/stalagmite formations, and then take a ~7-10 minute boat ride where you see thousands of glow worms on the cave ceilings. Feels pretty short overall, but a fascinating experience. The boat ride is in pitch darkness so the glow worms aren’t disturbed, the boatmen use ropes tied to the cave walls to help them navigate. Eerie, powerful, natural, and beautiful. A few different options for the tours, the cost for the cave tour + boat ride we did was about ~$100 USD pp. I highly recommend doing this. After this, we drove further to Lake Taupo, stopped for a brief sighting of the lake, and settled in for the night at Taupo. Pictures are not allowed/possible within the glowworm cave, so here's a fake one for you - I assure you this does no justice to the real one.

                                                               Simulated picture of the glowworm experience

Stepping out from the glowworm cave boat ride

Day 2: Taupo and Rotorua highlights: We started the morning with the Huka Jet. This is a reasonable speed jet boat ride, where they take you through the erstwhile Huka river, leading up close to the Huka falls. There’s definitely a mild commercial feel to this experience, although the falls themselves are quite pretty. The jet was a nice 30 min thrill ride for the kids, with the driver doing a few 360’ spins in the water. Both my kids kept hollering for more and more spins, and the very pleasant driver kept obliging (and I held on tighter and tighter to the seat). The falls weren’t terribly huge when we went, but definitely a pleasant experience overall. Small hikes in the vicinity to explore the region a bit, and if you’re up for it, you can walk up to the place where the Lake Taupo control gate bridge controls the level of the Waikato River - feels similar to watching dam gates open. The Waikato is the longest river in NZ at ~250 miles, its confluence with Lake Taupo feeds the falls - you do get quite a sense of the majesty of the river from up here. Cost: ~$100 USD pp. 

We took a break for lunch - choosing to eat lakeside admiring the quiet calm and serenity of Lake Taupo , and then headed to the Orakei Korako geothermal park. A truly unique NZ experience - bubbling mud pools, gushing geysers, a multitude of colors amongst all the formations and a strong, strong scent of sulphur through it all. Plenty of flexibility here on how much of the park you want to see, we ended up walking through most of it - about 2 hours. It was incredibly hot though (being a hydro thermal power station), and we really felt the need to hydrate ourselves multiple times over - make sure you carry plenty water if you are doing this. Another unique aspect of this park was the thermal Ruatapu cave. The cave extends quite a distance down to a hot pool at the bottom (It had a fancy name which now escapes me). It's apparently one of the few caves in the world located in a geothermal field. Access to the pool at the bottom of the cave itself was unfortunately not allowed, but there’s a decent viewing platform that provides a safe location for viewing. 

This was an interesting tour, but there are several other geothermal attractions in the neighborhood that may be more awe inducing if you were up for it. Hellsgate, in particular, came up a lot, as did Waimangu. I’d probably trade Orakei Korako in favor of any of the other ones if I could do it over. Cost of the tour: $25 USD pp. 

We then headed to our hotel in Rotorua, with a brief stopover at the lake and playground where the kids got to burn off some energy. We also stopped at Rotorua’s famous Lady Jane's ice cream where we more than sufficiently made up for all the walking we had done earlier. Highly recommend the ice cream here - multitude of flavors, and mind boggling options for making your own sundaes. I have to admit, I really, really had trouble picking just one, so I nudged all the little ones into sharing theirs with me :)

Day 3: Rotorua highlights. This morning, we headed bright and early to Rotorua’s famous luge. Think of this as a scooter ride (similar to what kids do), but seated at ground level. There are 3 courses that take you through different levels of twists and turns down a mountain slope, and then you come back up on a ski lift. Rinse and repeat. The kids enjoyed this tremendously, it was quite an effort to rip them from this and move on to the next activity. I was mildly apprehensive at first (so easy to lose control and go crashing into a tree!), but on subsequent runs this ended up being quite fun. We also felt brave enough to go on 2 beginner rounds, and 1 intermediate - spectacular views of the lake/hill side if you can convince yourself to be brave enough and take your eyes off the road. Cost: variable, ~$35 USD pp for 3 rides.

Next up was an agrofarm, about an hour away. An operational farm of about 350 acres, this was a nice break from the adrenalin high of the morning. We took a tractor ride through through the farm - driving through fruit orchards and sipping kiwi juice, and saw several ostriches, sheep, cattle, sheep, deer, sheep, llamas, sheep, ostrich, sheep, pigs, sheep, alpaca, ducks, and did i mention, sheep? Seriously, tons of sheep, amongst other animals - all in an utterly natural home setting for the animals. The farm itself is massive, and seeing these animals at home in this setting was a humbling experience (and a true taste of what was to come in the South). We also got to get off the tractor and feed them all - expect lots of high pitched squealing for this part if you are traveling with kids. (Err, I might have done a fair bit of that squealing myself too) Following this, we did a farm show at the same farm, where we got a demo of sheep shearing, and an intro to the 19+ types of sheep at the farm - I really wasn’t kidding about all that sheep! Mild, relaxing fun, about 2-3 hours worth of time. Cost: ~$50 USD pp.

We wound down the day with a visit to a nature park. We got to tour through a gallery to see the iconic kiwi birds of NZ, see other rare/unique birds of NZ and feed fish. There were 3 kiwis in the nocturnally set up gallery, and it took us a good 10 minutes to spot them all. The beautiful and intelligent kea bird was one of my favorites, but overall quite fun to see the diversity of animals and birds we don't normally get to see in typical zoos. They also had several tuataras - a lizard reptile, one of the last remains from the dinosaur family. Yours truly, of course, saw most of this with 1.5 eyes closed in fear, but highly recommend this for kids, especially since you might not get to see such creatures anywhere else. The park also has a mild roller coaster that splashes in the water, and several play zones in the park for little ones to burn off all the ice creams from earlier in the day. 

Cost: variable, $25 USD pp for entry, additional activities extra.

Day 4:  Maori village and geysers. We started Day 4 with a visit to a Maori village at Whakarewarewa. This was another of my favorite experiences in the North. Here you get to experience a rather authentic, functional Maori village, where the residents predominantly use the natural geothermal resources around them for most daily needs. Very easy for something like this to feel orchestrated and/or commercial, but this really didn't. The entire experience was very natural - with a formal invite into the Maori home by very traditionally dressed Maori men and women, some excellent narration about life back in the day, and a performance - starting with soulful Maori songs and dances, culminating in the famously high energy Haka. Totally enjoyable. 

The traditional haka dance performed by the Maoris

Our kids got to do the haka too!

Whakarewarewa is also unique because it houses several impressive geothermal features within the park area. We took a long, relaxed walk through the village, where we saw several Maori huts, how they hung up meat to dry for days/months (!!), their communal baths and cooking stations, all beautifully interspersed with incredible geysers and bubbling mud pools. The Pohutu geyser (apparently meaning "big splash") in particular was spell binding - shooting up a height of a 100ft or more consistently, non-stop. I kept thinking it would take a break for a bit and come back up, but on and on and on it went - pretty awesome. The mudpools are fascinating in their own way too - thick, gooey, dark mud that keeps bubbling, I half expected some giant prehistoric creature to make a sudden appearance from its depths. Thankfully, no such drama and all was well :) Cost: Variable, ~35USD pp for 2 experiences.

The impressively incessant Pohutu geyser

Touring the Maori hut

After 4 days of exciting and enriching experiences, we then got back in the car and headed back to Auckland.

Day 5: A bit of Auckland city. We had a flight this evening to Christchurch to begin our tour of the South island, so wanted to keep this day fairly light. We caught up on laundry and sundry chores, and then took a public bus to tour a bit of Auckland coastline. The city is beautiful - being one of the largest urban areas in NZ, it's fairly densely populated, has a nice 'city' feel with it's variety of stores, restaurants and suchlike, but being situated on an isthmus, it has a glorious coastline that's just spectacular to walk alongside. Several tens of boats out sailing, a mild breeze all along, and warm, blue waters on one side of the street for as far as you can see. Near magical. We went to an underground aquarium, which I was pleasantly surprised by the size of - looked quite small from outside, but a really interesting mix of animals within - penguins, manta rays, sharks et al. We then went to another park (the city has several lovely parks), hung out as the kids tried some long, long ziplines, got freshly churned ice cream from a food truck and took several deep breaths enjoying the beauty of the city. Late evening, we took a plane to Christchurch, where our gracious AirBnb host picked us up from the airport, drove us to dinner, and all around set our expectations on just how lovely the people down south were going to be.

South island details next.

New Zealand, Part 2 : Overall itinerary

       
        This is part-2 of a multi-part blog on our travel to NZ. Part 1 is here.     

         So, the country itself is fairly small. Total square footage across both islands is about 2/3rds the square footage of the state of CA. Let that sink in a bit. That said, you can’t expect to cover too much distance too quickly (see previous post on speed limits, for one). Our research led us to split our time 1:2 across the North and South islands, I’d say this is perhaps roughly the right ratio. We spent 17 days in the country total: 5 in the north, and ~12ish in the south (including travel days etc.). That felt a reasonable length of time for a first trip. We did have to compromise on a few things we originally thought we’d have time for, but that’s likely true of any first time trip to a new country.

We started with an initial list of things we wanted to see and do, and quickly had to whittle that down:

• Beaches  - we’ve seen some of the best of these around the world, and in CA.
• Glaciers
• Rainforests/waterfalls
• Hobbiton/LOTR  - the kids are not familiar enough with it to enjoy
• Geothermal areas
• Rivers and lakes (NZ has several gorgeous ones)
• Coastline  - CA residents, so can skip, yada yada...
• Mountain ranges
• Wineries -  Not big wine drinkers, plus there's Napa etc...

Couple that with a few NZ staples, we ended up with the below.

• Day 1:     Arrive at AKL, settle down, explore local sights and beaches.
• Day 2:     Drive AKL -> Taupo. Night at Taupo.
• Day 3:     Taupo highlights. Night at Rotorua
• Day 4:     Rotorua highlights. Night at Rotorua.
• Day 5:     Rotorua highlights. Drive back to AKL, night at AKL.
• Day 6:     AKL city in the AM, fly out to Christchurch in PM. Night at CHC
• Day 7:     TranzAlpine train to Greymouth. Pick up car, drive to Franz. Night at                            Franz.
• Day 8:      Lake Matheson, Fox Glacier. Night at Franz.
• Day 9:      Franz Josef glacier, rainforest walk. Night at Franz.
• Day 10:    Drive from Franz -> Haast Pass -> Wanaka -> Queenstown. Night at                             Queenstown.
• Day 11:    Queenstown.
• Day 12:    Queenstown -> Te Anau. Night at Te Anau.
• Day 13:    Te Anau -> Milford Sound. Night at Te Anau.
• Day 14:    Te Anau -> Dunedin -> Fairlie. Night at Fairlie.
• Day 15:    Lake Tekapo, Lake Pukaki, Mt. Cook. Night at Fairlie
• Day 16:    Fairlie -> Christchurch. Fly back to AKL via Wellington. Night at                                     Auckland.
• Day 17:    AKL city. Night at Auckland.
• Day 18:    Fly AKL -> SFO via Fiji (An extra night at Fiji!)

Details on each of these in subsequent posts. North Island details are here.

New Zealand, Dec 2017. Part 1: Practical matters

             We just got back from an excellent 2.5 week trip to New Zealand and have been raving about it to anyone who’ll listen. Given that it’s been a good few weeks and the raving hasn’t subsided, I figured I should write things down a bit: both for potential future travelers, as well as posterity for ourselves. So here goes.

This travelogue is in 6 parts(!): this first post practical matters pertaining to a vacation in NZ, overall itinerary here, North Island details here, South Island details here and here, and some shopping do's and dont's here.

Practical matters first:

• Weather: By virtue of being deep in the southern hemisphere, NZ’s seasons are the inverse of North America’s. We traveled mid Dec to early Jan, which is peak summer for the Kiwis. Sunlight abounds well until about 10:30pm (depending on where in the country you are), and temperatures are mostly CA-springlike. There’s a fair bit of variability in temperature across different parts of the country though, specifically in the South Island, so you’ll need a minimum of a light jacket or two to feel comfortable. We also encountered occasional, sudden showers (apparently typical for the region), so a couple of travel umbrellas or ponchos are worthwhile.


• Entry: If you’re a citizen of the USA, entry is a breeze. Visas are issued upon arrival; immigration, visa, baggage were all done for us in a matter of minutes when we landed at Auckland. The only caveat: you want to be very careful with what you bring into the country. The Kiwis are extremely careful about what they let in, for both ecological and economic reasons - you’ll have questionnaires to fill out, interviews to do, baggage examined and a sniffer dog sniffing out violating items. Err on the side of declaring everything you’ve got, it’ll help you avoid rather painful fines. Especially avoid: any dairy products (fresh or frozen/dried), honey or other animal products, dried fruit - even the preserved variety. A good source is here.


• Currency: NZ dollar, about 0.7 of the USD. Frankly, this won’t matter - every nook and cranny of a store accepts international credit cards. We loaded up our cards on to the iWatch and didn’t need to whip out the wallet even once. We got some NZD on the very last day of the trip just so we could see what the currency looked like.
  


• Cost: This is an expensive country. Expect to spend at least as much as you would in a typical, cosmopolitan US city for most daily/essential matters. For more remote touristy locations, add 10-20% more. Gifts/souvenirs are expensive - I’ll cover this in a later post.
  


• Driving: We rented a car for our entire trip in the South (we had family in the north), and drove from one end of the island to the other. Keep in mind you’ll be driving on the left - this takes some getting used to. Speed limits here are very, very strict. Clearly posted, they vary from 50km/hour to 100km/hour tops. There is tolerance for up to 2-3 kms beyond the posted limit maybe, but not more. Definitely not like in the US where you might cruise at 90 in an 80 mph zone. Officers are aplenty and are quick to flag you down and fine you hard. Most highways also take you through smallish towns, expect the speed limit to go 100 - 50 - 70 - 100 within a 3 km stretch. Most highways are also single lane most of the way with occasional, brief 2 lane stretches, so prepare to be driving much slower than you might be used to.
  


• Connectivity: I had international roaming on my phone, the husband took a local SIM card on his - both work fine. Connectivity is great in large cities and towns, but expect that entire large swaths of the remote interior will have no Internet whatsoever. We had a GPS in our rented car, and backed it up with paper printouts of routes. Came in handy, when we were traveling to one of the more remote areas - did not have Internet, and the GPS gave up too. Also keep in mind that there’s far more sheep in the country than humans, so having backups for directions isn’t a bad thing - especially coz’ just as cute as the sheep are, they don’t really help with directions. (More on sheep later).
  


• Temperature: I alluded to temperature earlier, but I’ll reinforce here. It changes quickly, and  even though it feels springlike and pleasant, it burns your skin pretty quick in the summer. Our younger son did a fairly hasty job of dabbing on the sunscreen, and paid the price with stinging burns on his face and ears. They are not fun, so layer up on the protection. The NZ skies also have some of the largest gaps in the ozone layer, so make sure you stock up on sunscreen. I also found sunscreen more expensive locally, so carry it from home if you can.
  


• Food: Decent number of options, pretty good quality. NZ’s dairy is pretty darned famous, we simply couldn’t get enough of their milk, cream, butter and ice cream. Fruit was plentiful and fresh - we ate several every day. We didn’t try very much NZ cuisine itself, but found that at least Indian and Thai food were fairly consistently available at most places. They are both expensive - Thai, in particular was 1.5x to 2x what we are used to paying in CA, but decent portion sizes and plenty vegetarian options.
  


• Units: Former British territory, so all units are in the metric system: kms, liters etc. This also took some getting used to on the road, and in stores.

That’s it for this section! Itinerary is next and is here!