Our New Zealand Honeymoon
2009.03.12, Thursday, Los Angeles – Auckland
Left LAX at 2030 PDT on Qantas flight no. 26, arrived Auckland (AKL) around 0515 local time on 14 March, crossing the International Date Line en route (I think we we missed Friday the 13th!).
2009.03.14, Saturday, Auckland – Christchurch
We collected luggage and a latte (for me) and walked from the international terminal to the domestic terminal along a very nice walk with trees, plants, and birdsong. The sun was rising during our walk. Hopped a Qantas flight at 0900 to Christchurch (CHC, population about 350,000), arriving around 1030. There, we picked up our trusty little red Toyota Corolla hatchback from Hertz and headed into town. First time driving a right-hand-drive vehicle. With the jet lag and sleep deprivation, it was quite a challenge. And, I hadn’t written down the address of our hotel – the Holiday Inn. Consequently, I drove around city center for a while, until Candace convinced me to find the address on my laptop, which we did. We checked in, and Candace immediately discovered she had forgotten the charger for her laptop, so we spent some time locating a Mac store. We walked from the hotel (Cashel & High St) over to Manchester, then down to Moorhouse, into a chemist shop (pharmacy) to get me some medication for the dry cough I developed on the international flight, then over to Colombo to cross the railroad tracks and onto Carlile to the store. There, Candace discovered that the charger would be about $150NZ (almost $100USD), which was a bit much, so she contemplated buying a new super deluxe laptop instead. This was driving me nuts, since we were supposed to be back at the hotel to try to call Jocelyn on Skype at 1500 (2000 MDT). By the time she finally decided to buy the damn charger, I decided to leave to walk back to the hotel. Once there, I collected my laptop and headed to a place called the Cyber Nutz Internet Café, which turned out to be a dark den of young computer game freaks open 24 hours a day. I paid $5NZD for one hour of time, connected and tried to call Joce on Skype, to no avail. Then I tried to buy some Skype credits so I could try calling her cell phone, but for some reason (still unknown) I couldn’t get Skype to get my credit card authorized. After an hour of futility, I retreated to the hotel, where Candace was waiting for me in our 11th floor deluxe accommodation.
I took some medicine and called James Degnan to make arrangements to meet him and his wife, Vanessa, for dinner. We opted to go to the Tap Room on Oxford Trace at 1800. We didn’t take a nap, although we were both pretty tired, in order to speed our adjustment to the local time. As 1800 drew near, Candace couldn’t keep her eyes open, so she catnapped for about 10 minutes, then we went downstairs to rendezvous with James and Vanessa. We decided to walk to the restaurant, which was only about three blocks away. The temperature was about 17C and there was a nice breeze blowing. At the restaurant, we decided to dine outdoors. Candace and I split a rack of lamb, which was quite tasty. James had a pizza, and Vanessa a three-meat hot-stone special. I ordered a Monteith’s beer sampler tree of 7 different varieties, since it was mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide, our bible for the trip. Everything was delicious, and we also had a boysenberry “pizza” for desert. Yum! We enjoyed conversing with James and Vanessa, then walked with them back to our hotel and finally, and mercifully, to bed.
2009.03.15, Sunday, Christchurch – Arthur’s Pass – Hokitika
We left Christchurch around 1100, after having a couple of pizza muffins that Candace had purchased the day before, thinking they were cherry. Not bad, actually, if a bit greasy. We loaded up the car and headed out across the agricultural plains on Highway 73 towards Arthur’s Pass. Lots of sheep, cattle, and horses, and all fields separated by large hedgerows (if there’s a bustle in yours, don’t be alarmed, now). Climbing out of the plains into the foothills, we stopped at Castle Station to stretch our legs. Neat rock formations!
From there we drove up into the mountains and on to Arthur’s Pass National Park. We stopped in the village and had a fabulous pepperoni pizza (also had sausage and jalapenos!) and a pint of Monteith’s, while sitting outdoors over Candys Creek. From there to the Park Visitor’s Center to collect a map and some souvenirs, then drove to the west end of the village and onto the Devil’s Punchbowl road to the trail parking area.
We hiked up to the falls – a relatively short, but steep, hike with 328 stair steps in each direction. The elevation gain was about 141 m (470 ft).The falls were spectacular!
After the hike, we drove up over Arthur’s Pass (elevation 920 m, or about 3,100 ft), then plunged down the 16% grade through the Otira Gorge and on to Hokitika on the west coast. We checked into a delightful cabin complex at the north end of town called the Shining Star.
Our duplex cabin was about 100 m from the beach with a view of the Tasman Sea. After unpacking, we decided to forego dinner and went for a walk along the beach to watch the sunset. Incredible!
After this magical experience, we had ice cream bars for dinner, then were looking at the information binder in the room and saw that there was a glow worm dell across the highway from where we were staying, so we grabbed a “torch” and headed out on foot. The sky was filled with southern hemisphere constellations. We found the walk to the dell and went in. Lo and behold, after about 30 m we saw all kinds of small glowing lights in the walls surrounding us. Too cool. We returned to our room. In Christchurch, Candace had found a delightful wine for us: Wyndham Estates, George Wyndham 2004 Shiraz. Nice rich, dark fruity flavor. From the label: “…intense ripe plum and berry fruit with hints of chocolate and eucalypt.” We opened it, drank, and…
2009.03.16, Monday, Hokitika – Fox Glacier – Haast
We eventually got up. (Actually, Candace had gotten up early, as usual, and worked grading midterm projects from the students in her “Analysis for Performance” class at UNM. Oh well.) After packing, I went to check us out and Candace took pictures of the farm animals at the hotel, including the cutest alpacas we’ve seen – to date.
Then we headed into Hokitika for breakfast at the Driftwood Café, then some souvenir shopping at one of the jade carving places. On our way to the grocery store, we noticed the Kiwi Museum, so we went in, saw eels, and two kiwis in a simulated night-time environment (they’re nocturnal). We couldn’t take pictures, but it was pretty neat. Candace also petted an adolescent eel.
From Hokitika we headed south on State Highway 6 toward Franz Joseph and Fox glaciers. From the coastal highway, we started to catch glimpses of snow-covered peaks just inland from us.
We stopped at Franz Joseph for petrol (gas up), and caught our first real look at Mt Tasman, adjacent to Mt Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand, at over 11,000 ft. We drove on to Fox Glacier, but first, headed a bit west to Lake Matheson for a magical hike around the lake through the rain forest.
While walking, we were surprised by a large bird – the size of a guinea hen, in a shrub overhead. Turns out, it was a New Zealand pigeon.
There were spectacular views of Mt Cook and Mt Tasman, but the peaks were becoming enshrouded in clouds. We got the best views of Mt Tasman.
From Lake Matheson, we drove up to the Fox Glacier access point and hiked up to within about 100 m of the glacier face. We saw that the glacier has receded several miles since 1750, with about half of the recession occurring since 1935.
After Fox Glacier, we drove on to Haast, a very small community (population 295 “Haastafarians”) at the southern-most end of Highway 6. We had decided to stay at a place called the “World Heritage Hotel,” which turned out to be a funky old motor hotel with tiny rooms and paper-thin walls, where a motorcycle club was convening. Egad.
We went to dinner at the only place that appeared to be open in the vicinity – something called the Grumpy Cow store and cafe. We had whitebait patties, a local specialty. They were actually pretty good. Then back to the hotel to blog.
So far, the weather has been magnificent, with almost no clouds, moderate breezes, if any, and daytime temperatures just under 20C. Another thing – the New Zealanders (Kiwis) have been extremely friendly and helpful. For example, when we were walking to find the Mac store in Christchurch, we had out the map and another pedestrian volunteered to help us with directions.
2009.03.17, Tuesday, Haast – Wanaka
Well, the World Heritage Hotel turned out to be not so bad. It was relatively quiet (we concluded that the bikers in New Zealand aren’t like many of the bikers in the US). The breakfast buffet was plentiful and good, and they had fresh-squeezed orange juice and pretty good coffee. After breakfast, we loaded the car and were on the road at 0930 (our earliest departure so far). Heading east up the Haast River, we were treated to views of mountain mist and craggy snow-covered peaks.
We also had our first encounter with the infamous sand flies. I had stopped to take some pictures and a pee. They swarmed into the car, so we broke out the insect repellent spray we had purchased in Hokitika and fumigated. They especially liked Candace’s Mac laptop, which she was using to grade student projects while we were driving.
The highway gradually climbed up toward Haast Pass, and we stopped to view Thunder Creek
and Fantail falls,
where there were hundreds of cairns constructed from the river stones. Some were quite intricate designs. Candace constructed one before we left.
After the pass, the rain forest ferns gave way to grasses and evergreens. We dropped down to Lake Wanaka, then over the isthmus to Lake Hawea
en route to the town of Wanaka.
Finally, we arrived at Wanaka at the southern end of Lake Wanaka, a 40-km (25-mile) long lake to the south of Mount Aspiring.
We found our lodging at a B&B called Alpine View Lodge.
Our hostess, Allison, was very helpful and the room very appealing. We unpacked and headed for the lake for a jet-boat ride down the Clutha River at 60+ kph (40 mph), doing 360-degree high-speed spins. Pretty exhilarating.
By now, the temperature had gotten up to 26° C (almost 80° F); of course, I had forgotten to bring along the sunblock, so I finished the trip a bit red-faced. Candace also sacrificed her special tie-dyed baseball cap to the river gods. Afterwards, we bought souvenirs and looked at the pictures they took while we were zipping around the lake and river. We also found a book on the filming of The Lord of the Rings, which was done all around New Zealand (“The Real Middle Earth”). One of the locations for Rivendell in the Misty Mountains was west of town, so we entered the GPS coordinates into my Garmin GPSMap 76, which we just happened to have along, and found the site. Now we have to rent the DVDs again to check out the location.
2009.03.18, Wednesday, Lake Wanaka – Queenstown – Lake Manapouri
We awoke to partly cloudy skies and a nor’wester breeze. A nice English breakfast was brought to our room at 0800. We had already packed up most of our things. We took off and headed south via Cardrona toward Queenstown. We climbed up to the top of the Crown Range Pass, whose road was first paved in 1953. The temperature had dropped considerably. Then we plunged down another steep grade (20%) to the Kawarau River valley, stopping at a couple of locations to take pictures.
We took a slight detour east back toward Cromwell to view the bungee jumping bridge (AJ Hackett)
on the beautiful Kawarau River,
then over to the Chard Farm winery for a tasting.
We bought a Chardonnay and a nice Pinot Noir that we plan to drink on the occasion of our first anniversary.
From the winery we headed to Arrowtown, an old gold mining town on the Arrow River. We went there to find a Lord of the Rings filming site, the Ford of Rivendell. In Candace’s book, there were GPS coordinates, so we entered them into the GPSMap 76 and navigated to the exact location along the river and took photos.
We then went into Queenstown, where we decided to do a special Nomad Safari trip to Glenorchy in a Range Rover, in spite of the rain that had started falling, to see various Lord of the Rings filming sites. The other couple who were scheduled to ride with us didn’t show up, so it was just Candace and me with our driver, Jackie, who was quite a character (she recited story lines from every movie Peter Jackson has ever made and commented on all aspects of Kiwi sociology). We drove around to the upper arm of Lake Wakatipu
and on through the small hamlet of Glenorchy (with the miniature library and church
– where we were invited to attend service) and on to Paradise (no kidding).
We walked into dense beech forests
and viewed magnificent panoramas of the surrounding mountains,
then pulled over for tea and cookies in the woods along the way.
Afterwards, back in Queenstown, we grabbed a couple of take-away hamburgers at FergBurgers (yummy) for our drive down to Lake Manapouri. We headed down Highway 6 along the base of the Remarkables, viewing a magnificent rainbow en route,
then cut over at Five Rivers toward Mossburn, where there was a wind farm run by Meridian Energy, and on to Route 94 westbound. 
Finally, we took the cutoff to Manapouri, arriving around sunset at the Manapouri Lakeview Motor Inn. The weather was still cloudy, cool, and breezy.
2009.02.19, Thursday, Doubtful Sound
After breakfast at the Inn, we walked 20 minutes to Pearl 
Harbour for our Real Journeys tour to Doubtful Sound.
We got our boarding passes and box lunches; then we boarded the Manapouri catamaran flyer, which sped across the lake at 25 knots.
I went to the foredeck, but could barely remain standing in the considerable wind (coming from the west in the direction we were heading). It rained horizontally.
There were waterfalls. Lots of waterfalls.
We arrived at West Arm (there were also North Arm, South Arm and Hope Arm). At the dock, we disembarked, went into the visitor center, then boarded one of two tour buses for the trip up over Wilmot Pass and down to Deep Cove – the end of Doubtful Sound. Along the way, we saw more waterfalls emerging from under the clouds blanketing the surrounding
mountains. The driver talked about the road construction and about some of the wildlife. The road cost $4M in the ‘60s and took two years to build. The first European settlers brought over, among other things, rabbits. Since there were no natural predators, the rabbit population exploded and began wreaking havoc with the farms. The government tried to curb the population by bringing in, first, weasels, then stoats, a smaller and very nasty weasel. Well, the stoats didn’t go for the rabbits, but they began decimating the bird population. Now, they try to control the stoats through trapping, and we saw numerous trapping stations along the road. At Deep Cove we boarded our power catamaran for the excursion out toward the Tasman Sea. We saw hundreds of waterfalls. Because it had rained the night before, the water was coming down everywhere. The boat we were on was pretty deluxe. They had a coffee and tea bar (and wine and beer, too). I took over 240 pictures – mostly of different waterfalls. During the return, the rain mostly let up and the lighting changed. We cruised up into Crooked Arm and some other side arms of the Sound; we couldn’t go out into the Tasman because of the big swell due to the westerly winds. They pointed out that Doubtful was supposedly named by Captain Cook in 1773, who – despite his crew’s strong desire to go ashore – declared it a “doubtful harbor” with the strong prevailing westerly winds.
When we got back to Deep Cove, we took the bus back over to West Arm, where we entered a tunnel and drove down 200 meters deep in a 1.5-km-diameter spiral to the Manapouri power generating station. It was built – after first being proposed in 1904 – in the ‘60s. Instead of raising the level of the lake by 30 meters, as originally planned, they decided, because of the Kiwis’ hue and cry, to run the lake water down penstocks to a location 200 m below lake level to pass through turbines, then through a 10-km-long tail race to Deep Cove. The whole thing is quite an engineering feat; 16 men died during the two-year construction. The kicker, however, is that the purpose of the 800 megawatt generating station is not to power homes, but rather to power an “aluminium” smelter at Bluff, some 145 kilometers to the south. Only 15% of the output is pumped into the power grid.
After walking back to our hotel, we jumped into the car and drove the 20 km over to another lake town, Te Anau, on Lake Te Anau, where we ate at the Redcliff Café and Bar (recommended in our Lonely Planet guide). Candace sprang for hare, while I settled for the more mundane rack of lamb. Both were delicious, although the service was interminably slow. We finally returned to our room at the Manapouri Lakeview Inn for the night.
2009.03.20, Friday, Lake Manapouri – Queenstown
We decided to drive back through Te Anau to stop for breakfast, noticing that there was fresh snow on some of the surrounding mountaintops. In Te Anau we also stopped at one of the ubiquitous i-sites information booths to book our accommodations for the North Island. We had found our B&Bs in the “Charming” accommodations guide that Allison had given us. From there, we went to Mike’s Better Pies for delicious meat pies and a latte (for me). We also found a nice shop for souvenir shopping, so we didn’t leave until almost noon for Queenstown. 
We took a detour east of Te Anau to find the Fangorn Forest site in Lord of the Rings. With the aid of our GPS we found it in the middle of a dense red and silver beech forest. It was wonderful. Then, finally, on to Queenstown, passing fields containing some of the 40 million sheep (compared to 4 million humans) in New Zealand. We also saw numerous cattle and deer farms.
Now for the best part of the trip for Candace. Armed with our trusty Lord of the Rings book, we headed for the Kelvin Peninsula on Lake Wakatipu adjacent to the Kawarau River just outside of Queenstown, and up the hill to Deer Park Heights, where there were numerous LOR sites. We paid a $20NZ entry fee, then up and up the steep road toward the summit. Along the way, we stopped to buy feed for the animals that could be found there. Candace ventured out of the car and was quickly befriended by quite an assortment of animals, including deer, donkeys, ducks, peacocks, and even an aggressive piglet, who first bit her, then tried to climb into the car to make his getaway!
Oh yes, did I mention the alpacas and the deer? The views across the lake to Queenstown and its aerial tram were impressive.
We found several LOR sites, plus a North Korean prison (built for the film “The Rescue), surrounded by goats. We used the GPS to locate the exact positions and took lots of pictures. Again, the views from the summit were spectacular, with the Remarkables range to the east, the lake to the south, Queenstown to the west, and the Coronet range to the north!
On the way back down, we visited with the yaks (from inside the car!) and miniature horses.
We got into town as the sun began to set. Spotty rain was falling. We parked along the lakeside, saw a beautiful rainbow and walked back to Beach Street to find the Vudu Café.
We had some very nice food there (I had a hot smoked salmon platter, Candace eggplant moussaka), and I ordered a glass of “late harvest” Chardonnay. It turned out to be a very sweet dessert wine. Oh well. 
It was well after dark when we finally found our way up Gorge Road to Malagans Road and our homestay B&B at Willowby Downs, run by Pam and David (who was glued to the tely for a rugby match). This was a very quaint setting in the country and we had a room upstairs.
2009.03.21, Saturday, Queenstown – Hahei via Auckland
We arose, finished packing, visited with the alpacas who gave us kisses, then breakfasted with Pam in her very modern kitchen. She showed us the two wild migratory Paradise ducks that have been coming back to their homestead every year and now even come to the window and peck at it to be fed.
We left around 11:30 and drove to the Queenstown airport, where we boarded Qantas flight 2792 for Auckland at 1230. The flight was delayed – it seemed people were boarding continuously until almost 1300. We flew up to Auckland and arrived just before 1500. I spent most of the flight reading “Tokyo Station” by Martin Cruz Smith, one of my favorite authors. Candace graded midterm projects. In Auckland, we picked up our Hertz rental – upgraded at no cost to a red Toyota Camry. We took off for the Coromandel Peninsula. We left the main SH1 at Pokeno and headed to Thames, arriving at 1645. We went to the Old Thames Restaurant, recommended by our Lonely Planet guide. Alas, it didn’t open for dinner until 1700. However, as we were hovering outside, a beautiful blonde lass opened the door and said we could come in and have some wine while she opened the establishment. We talked with her for quite a while. It turned out that she is from Kent in England and has been traveling with her boyfriend for about a year. They stopped in Thames to earn some more money to continue their travels. Candace and I split our orders of lamb shank and salmon, which were both very tasty.
We learned from our waitress that our plan for driving to Hahei wouldn’t work very well, as the road was only gravel and quite treacherous, so we backtracked to the 25A and headed to the east coast via Tairua. We arrived at our destination – a very picturesque B&B run by Peter and Kay just before sunset. We checked in, then went for a very delightful walk down to Hahei Beach as the sun set.
2009.03.22, Sunday, Hahei – Paihia
I got up at 0655 so we could drive up to the Cathedral Cove car park for a hike to Cathedral Cove to watch the sunrise, expected circa 0715 according to Peter. We did the lovely hike through the Pururi forest, listening to the Tui bird calls. We met a beautiful young maiden carrying wildflowers. When I asked her what the flowers were for, she said they were for her wedding that would happen at the Cove. She was from Chile and her groom from Rotorura. She had family and friends over for a visit and they were going to surprise them with their spontaneous wedding. We encountered them a bit later after the 40-minute hike to the cove, with its cathedral-shaped cavern arch. We took their picture and chatted, then hiked back to the car. We then drove back to the B&B for breakfast. While I was taking pictures during our hike, a warning light came on saying there was no more room on the 16-GB memory card in the camera, so after our return, I deleted photos to make room for more. To my horror, I discovered that I had inadvertently deleted the previous evening’s photos as well as all I had taken that morning. I was pretty distraught. Candace suggested that I go back to the car park at the top of the hill to take some more pictures while she finished packing and settling our bill. I agreed, hoping it would salve the wound of my error.
The Coromandel was incredibly picturesque, as you can see, and we both decided we would have liked to spend more time there. We departed Hahei at nearly 1100, two hours later than we had planned, for the 7-hour drive back up through Auckland to the Bay of Islands in the Northland. LONG DRIVE through the North Island countryside that was quite reminiscent of Kent in England. We got to the Bay of Islands and Paihia at 1800, found our deluxe B&B accommodations at the Chalet Romantica and checked in to the “Romantic Room” at the top of the three-story villa.
We were greeted by the owners’ daughter, Nadine, who informed us that her father was out on the water in his 42-foot Catalina sailboat. After settling into our room and catching the sunset over the Bay of Islands from our balcony we had some wine and were so tired we decided to forego dinner.
2009.03.23, Monday, Paihia and Bay of Islands
We went to breakfast downstairs at 0830 with Inge, our hostess, and a nice couple from the UK who had been in New Zealand for 7 weeks. They had also just come up from the Coromandel and had stayed near where we stayed. We talked about children, university, Obama and US politics, and electrical power stations, as the UK gentleman had retired from a career in large international construction projects. I had hoped I could go out on Edi’s Catalina 42, but learned that he charged about $900NZ for a day sail. Instead, Inge booked me on a half day sail aboard Wild, a 52 ft blue water racing boat that won her division in the 1998 Sydney to Hobart race.
In the morning, after breakfast we went to the Waitangi reserve, where the first treaty between the English and Maori was signed in 1840. We watched a short cultural musical show with two Maori young men and one young woman. We were impressed by the musicality. Both Candace and I were invited up on stage to try some of the Maori dancing. I missed Candace’s performance, but she caught a couple of pictures of me. Waitangi was very pretty and we planned to return that night for an evening historical production.
The sailing trip on Wild was fantastic. The skipper, Tony, was a young man from Australia, and the crew, James, was a kid who looked all of 15 years old. Both had been raised around sailboats; in fact, Tony was born aboard his parents’ boat. We sailed out through the bay under mostly cloudy skies. Although headed upwind, we were making about 7 knots in a 7-kt true wind. For a short while, some bottle-nosed dolphins frolicked around us, and Tony pointed out a small blue penguin floating on his back about 50 meters from the boat. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a shot of the penguin, but I did of the dolphins.
We stopped at Otehei Beach, where Zane Grey once had a place and took a short walk up to the top of the hill there to view the surrounding Bay and islands. It was very beautiful.
Then we boarded, raised the large colorful gennaker sail off the bow sprit, and flew downwind back to Paihia. The wind had gotten up to between 10 and 14 knots, and we were making 10.5 kts. Not bad. It felt really good to be out on the water.The skies were beginning to clear, but still presented dazzling sights.
When we got back, I picked up a pizza at Frank’s across from the wharf, and walked back to the B&B, pausing a couple of times to take some pictures. Then, we ate our pizza, drank some very nice local Pinotage our hosts had put out for us, and watched the rest of the sunset from the balcony.
2009.03.24, Tuesday, Paihia – Auckland
Last day in New Zealand, sigh. We arose, breakfasted, loaded up the car, and drove up School Road to a nice track (trail) that
headed up through the forest to a lookout at the top of one of the hills. We enjoyed the short, 45-minute walk, then back down the road, saying good-bye to nice little tourist town of Paihia, and off on the long drive back to Auckland.
The entire trip was fantastic. We loved everything we saw and did, as well as the wonderful people we met. We logged about 1,500 kilometers (almost 1,000 miles) driving around the South Island, and over 800 km (500 mi) around the North Island. Next time, I’m hoping we have more time to just hang out at some of the places. I also hope we get a chance to see the north end of the South Island, the Marlborough Sounds, Nelson, and the Abel Tasman National Park, in particular. Candace and I were so impressed, we began talking about looking into a home swap with someone there for three or six months, so if you call and get a strange phone greeting you’ll know where we are.
Left LAX at 2030 PDT on Qantas flight no. 26, arrived Auckland (AKL) around 0515 local time on 14 March, crossing the International Date Line en route (I think we we missed Friday the 13th!).
2009.03.14, Saturday, Auckland – Christchurch
We collected luggage and a latte (for me) and walked from the international terminal to the domestic terminal along a very nice walk with trees, plants, and birdsong. The sun was rising during our walk. Hopped a Qantas flight at 0900 to Christchurch (CHC, population about 350,000), arriving around 1030. There, we picked up our trusty little red Toyota Corolla hatchback from Hertz and headed into town. First time driving a right-hand-drive vehicle. With the jet lag and sleep deprivation, it was quite a challenge. And, I hadn’t written down the address of our hotel – the Holiday Inn. Consequently, I drove around city center for a while, until Candace convinced me to find the address on my laptop, which we did. We checked in, and Candace immediately discovered she had forgotten the charger for her laptop, so we spent some time locating a Mac store. We walked from the hotel (Cashel & High St) over to Manchester, then down to Moorhouse, into a chemist shop (pharmacy) to get me some medication for the dry cough I developed on the international flight, then over to Colombo to cross the railroad tracks and onto Carlile to the store. There, Candace discovered that the charger would be about $150NZ (almost $100USD), which was a bit much, so she contemplated buying a new super deluxe laptop instead. This was driving me nuts, since we were supposed to be back at the hotel to try to call Jocelyn on Skype at 1500 (2000 MDT). By the time she finally decided to buy the damn charger, I decided to leave to walk back to the hotel. Once there, I collected my laptop and headed to a place called the Cyber Nutz Internet Café, which turned out to be a dark den of young computer game freaks open 24 hours a day. I paid $5NZD for one hour of time, connected and tried to call Joce on Skype, to no avail. Then I tried to buy some Skype credits so I could try calling her cell phone, but for some reason (still unknown) I couldn’t get Skype to get my credit card authorized. After an hour of futility, I retreated to the hotel, where Candace was waiting for me in our 11th floor deluxe accommodation.
I took some medicine and called James Degnan to make arrangements to meet him and his wife, Vanessa, for dinner. We opted to go to the Tap Room on Oxford Trace at 1800. We didn’t take a nap, although we were both pretty tired, in order to speed our adjustment to the local time. As 1800 drew near, Candace couldn’t keep her eyes open, so she catnapped for about 10 minutes, then we went downstairs to rendezvous with James and Vanessa. We decided to walk to the restaurant, which was only about three blocks away. The temperature was about 17C and there was a nice breeze blowing. At the restaurant, we decided to dine outdoors. Candace and I split a rack of lamb, which was quite tasty. James had a pizza, and Vanessa a three-meat hot-stone special. I ordered a Monteith’s beer sampler tree of 7 different varieties, since it was mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide, our bible for the trip. Everything was delicious, and we also had a boysenberry “pizza” for desert. Yum! We enjoyed conversing with James and Vanessa, then walked with them back to our hotel and finally, and mercifully, to bed.2009.03.15, Sunday, Christchurch – Arthur’s Pass – Hokitika
We left Christchurch around 1100, after having a couple of pizza muffins that Candace had purchased the day before, thinking they were cherry. Not bad, actually, if a bit greasy. We loaded up the car and headed out across the agricultural plains on Highway 73 towards Arthur’s Pass. Lots of sheep, cattle, and horses, and all fields separated by large hedgerows (if there’s a bustle in yours, don’t be alarmed, now). Climbing out of the plains into the foothills, we stopped at Castle Station to stretch our legs. Neat rock formations!
From there we drove up into the mountains and on to Arthur’s Pass National Park. We stopped in the village and had a fabulous pepperoni pizza (also had sausage and jalapenos!) and a pint of Monteith’s, while sitting outdoors over Candys Creek. From there to the Park Visitor’s Center to collect a map and some souvenirs, then drove to the west end of the village and onto the Devil’s Punchbowl road to the trail parking area.
We hiked up to the falls – a relatively short, but steep, hike with 328 stair steps in each direction. The elevation gain was about 141 m (470 ft).The falls were spectacular!
After the hike, we drove up over Arthur’s Pass (elevation 920 m, or about 3,100 ft), then plunged down the 16% grade through the Otira Gorge and on to Hokitika on the west coast. We checked into a delightful cabin complex at the north end of town called the Shining Star.
Our duplex cabin was about 100 m from the beach with a view of the Tasman Sea. After unpacking, we decided to forego dinner and went for a walk along the beach to watch the sunset. Incredible!
After this magical experience, we had ice cream bars for dinner, then were looking at the information binder in the room and saw that there was a glow worm dell across the highway from where we were staying, so we grabbed a “torch” and headed out on foot. The sky was filled with southern hemisphere constellations. We found the walk to the dell and went in. Lo and behold, after about 30 m we saw all kinds of small glowing lights in the walls surrounding us. Too cool. We returned to our room. In Christchurch, Candace had found a delightful wine for us: Wyndham Estates, George Wyndham 2004 Shiraz. Nice rich, dark fruity flavor. From the label: “…intense ripe plum and berry fruit with hints of chocolate and eucalypt.” We opened it, drank, and…2009.03.16, Monday, Hokitika – Fox Glacier – Haast
We eventually got up. (Actually, Candace had gotten up early, as usual, and worked grading midterm projects from the students in her “Analysis for Performance” class at UNM. Oh well.) After packing, I went to check us out and Candace took pictures of the farm animals at the hotel, including the cutest alpacas we’ve seen – to date.
Then we headed into Hokitika for breakfast at the Driftwood Café, then some souvenir shopping at one of the jade carving places. On our way to the grocery store, we noticed the Kiwi Museum, so we went in, saw eels, and two kiwis in a simulated night-time environment (they’re nocturnal). We couldn’t take pictures, but it was pretty neat. Candace also petted an adolescent eel.
From Hokitika we headed south on State Highway 6 toward Franz Joseph and Fox glaciers. From the coastal highway, we started to catch glimpses of snow-covered peaks just inland from us.
We stopped at Franz Joseph for petrol (gas up), and caught our first real look at Mt Tasman, adjacent to Mt Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand, at over 11,000 ft. We drove on to Fox Glacier, but first, headed a bit west to Lake Matheson for a magical hike around the lake through the rain forest.
While walking, we were surprised by a large bird – the size of a guinea hen, in a shrub overhead. Turns out, it was a New Zealand pigeon.
There were spectacular views of Mt Cook and Mt Tasman, but the peaks were becoming enshrouded in clouds. We got the best views of Mt Tasman.
From Lake Matheson, we drove up to the Fox Glacier access point and hiked up to within about 100 m of the glacier face. We saw that the glacier has receded several miles since 1750, with about half of the recession occurring since 1935.
After Fox Glacier, we drove on to Haast, a very small community (population 295 “Haastafarians”) at the southern-most end of Highway 6. We had decided to stay at a place called the “World Heritage Hotel,” which turned out to be a funky old motor hotel with tiny rooms and paper-thin walls, where a motorcycle club was convening. Egad.
We went to dinner at the only place that appeared to be open in the vicinity – something called the Grumpy Cow store and cafe. We had whitebait patties, a local specialty. They were actually pretty good. Then back to the hotel to blog.So far, the weather has been magnificent, with almost no clouds, moderate breezes, if any, and daytime temperatures just under 20C. Another thing – the New Zealanders (Kiwis) have been extremely friendly and helpful. For example, when we were walking to find the Mac store in Christchurch, we had out the map and another pedestrian volunteered to help us with directions.
2009.03.17, Tuesday, Haast – Wanaka
Well, the World Heritage Hotel turned out to be not so bad. It was relatively quiet (we concluded that the bikers in New Zealand aren’t like many of the bikers in the US). The breakfast buffet was plentiful and good, and they had fresh-squeezed orange juice and pretty good coffee. After breakfast, we loaded the car and were on the road at 0930 (our earliest departure so far). Heading east up the Haast River, we were treated to views of mountain mist and craggy snow-covered peaks.
We also had our first encounter with the infamous sand flies. I had stopped to take some pictures and a pee. They swarmed into the car, so we broke out the insect repellent spray we had purchased in Hokitika and fumigated. They especially liked Candace’s Mac laptop, which she was using to grade student projects while we were driving.The highway gradually climbed up toward Haast Pass, and we stopped to view Thunder Creek
and Fantail falls,
where there were hundreds of cairns constructed from the river stones. Some were quite intricate designs. Candace constructed one before we left.After the pass, the rain forest ferns gave way to grasses and evergreens. We dropped down to Lake Wanaka, then over the isthmus to Lake Hawea
en route to the town of Wanaka.
Finally, we arrived at Wanaka at the southern end of Lake Wanaka, a 40-km (25-mile) long lake to the south of Mount Aspiring.
We found our lodging at a B&B called Alpine View Lodge.
Our hostess, Allison, was very helpful and the room very appealing. We unpacked and headed for the lake for a jet-boat ride down the Clutha River at 60+ kph (40 mph), doing 360-degree high-speed spins. Pretty exhilarating.
By now, the temperature had gotten up to 26° C (almost 80° F); of course, I had forgotten to bring along the sunblock, so I finished the trip a bit red-faced. Candace also sacrificed her special tie-dyed baseball cap to the river gods. Afterwards, we bought souvenirs and looked at the pictures they took while we were zipping around the lake and river. We also found a book on the filming of The Lord of the Rings, which was done all around New Zealand (“The Real Middle Earth”). One of the locations for Rivendell in the Misty Mountains was west of town, so we entered the GPS coordinates into my Garmin GPSMap 76, which we just happened to have along, and found the site. Now we have to rent the DVDs again to check out the location.
2009.03.18, Wednesday, Lake Wanaka – Queenstown – Lake Manapouri
We awoke to partly cloudy skies and a nor’wester breeze. A nice English breakfast was brought to our room at 0800. We had already packed up most of our things. We took off and headed south via Cardrona toward Queenstown. We climbed up to the top of the Crown Range Pass, whose road was first paved in 1953. The temperature had dropped considerably. Then we plunged down another steep grade (20%) to the Kawarau River valley, stopping at a couple of locations to take pictures.
We took a slight detour east back toward Cromwell to view the bungee jumping bridge (AJ Hackett)
on the beautiful Kawarau River,
then over to the Chard Farm winery for a tasting.
We bought a Chardonnay and a nice Pinot Noir that we plan to drink on the occasion of our first anniversary.
From the winery we headed to Arrowtown, an old gold mining town on the Arrow River. We went there to find a Lord of the Rings filming site, the Ford of Rivendell. In Candace’s book, there were GPS coordinates, so we entered them into the GPSMap 76 and navigated to the exact location along the river and took photos.
We then went into Queenstown, where we decided to do a special Nomad Safari trip to Glenorchy in a Range Rover, in spite of the rain that had started falling, to see various Lord of the Rings filming sites. The other couple who were scheduled to ride with us didn’t show up, so it was just Candace and me with our driver, Jackie, who was quite a character (she recited story lines from every movie Peter Jackson has ever made and commented on all aspects of Kiwi sociology). We drove around to the upper arm of Lake Wakatipu
and on through the small hamlet of Glenorchy (with the miniature library and church
– where we were invited to attend service) and on to Paradise (no kidding).We walked into dense beech forests
and viewed magnificent panoramas of the surrounding mountains,
then pulled over for tea and cookies in the woods along the way.
Afterwards, back in Queenstown, we grabbed a couple of take-away hamburgers at FergBurgers (yummy) for our drive down to Lake Manapouri. We headed down Highway 6 along the base of the Remarkables, viewing a magnificent rainbow en route,
then cut over at Five Rivers toward Mossburn, where there was a wind farm run by Meridian Energy, and on to Route 94 westbound. 
Finally, we took the cutoff to Manapouri, arriving around sunset at the Manapouri Lakeview Motor Inn. The weather was still cloudy, cool, and breezy.2009.02.19, Thursday, Doubtful Sound
After breakfast at the Inn, we walked 20 minutes to Pearl 
Harbour for our Real Journeys tour to Doubtful Sound.
We got our boarding passes and box lunches; then we boarded the Manapouri catamaran flyer, which sped across the lake at 25 knots.
I went to the foredeck, but could barely remain standing in the considerable wind (coming from the west in the direction we were heading). It rained horizontally.There were waterfalls. Lots of waterfalls.
We arrived at West Arm (there were also North Arm, South Arm and Hope Arm). At the dock, we disembarked, went into the visitor center, then boarded one of two tour buses for the trip up over Wilmot Pass and down to Deep Cove – the end of Doubtful Sound. Along the way, we saw more waterfalls emerging from under the clouds blanketing the surrounding
mountains. The driver talked about the road construction and about some of the wildlife. The road cost $4M in the ‘60s and took two years to build. The first European settlers brought over, among other things, rabbits. Since there were no natural predators, the rabbit population exploded and began wreaking havoc with the farms. The government tried to curb the population by bringing in, first, weasels, then stoats, a smaller and very nasty weasel. Well, the stoats didn’t go for the rabbits, but they began decimating the bird population. Now, they try to control the stoats through trapping, and we saw numerous trapping stations along the road. At Deep Cove we boarded our power catamaran for the excursion out toward the Tasman Sea. We saw hundreds of waterfalls. Because it had rained the night before, the water was coming down everywhere. The boat we were on was pretty deluxe. They had a coffee and tea bar (and wine and beer, too). I took over 240 pictures – mostly of different waterfalls. During the return, the rain mostly let up and the lighting changed. We cruised up into Crooked Arm and some other side arms of the Sound; we couldn’t go out into the Tasman because of the big swell due to the westerly winds. They pointed out that Doubtful was supposedly named by Captain Cook in 1773, who – despite his crew’s strong desire to go ashore – declared it a “doubtful harbor” with the strong prevailing westerly winds.
When we got back to Deep Cove, we took the bus back over to West Arm, where we entered a tunnel and drove down 200 meters deep in a 1.5-km-diameter spiral to the Manapouri power generating station. It was built – after first being proposed in 1904 – in the ‘60s. Instead of raising the level of the lake by 30 meters, as originally planned, they decided, because of the Kiwis’ hue and cry, to run the lake water down penstocks to a location 200 m below lake level to pass through turbines, then through a 10-km-long tail race to Deep Cove. The whole thing is quite an engineering feat; 16 men died during the two-year construction. The kicker, however, is that the purpose of the 800 megawatt generating station is not to power homes, but rather to power an “aluminium” smelter at Bluff, some 145 kilometers to the south. Only 15% of the output is pumped into the power grid.
After walking back to our hotel, we jumped into the car and drove the 20 km over to another lake town, Te Anau, on Lake Te Anau, where we ate at the Redcliff Café and Bar (recommended in our Lonely Planet guide). Candace sprang for hare, while I settled for the more mundane rack of lamb. Both were delicious, although the service was interminably slow. We finally returned to our room at the Manapouri Lakeview Inn for the night.
2009.03.20, Friday, Lake Manapouri – Queenstown
We decided to drive back through Te Anau to stop for breakfast, noticing that there was fresh snow on some of the surrounding mountaintops. In Te Anau we also stopped at one of the ubiquitous i-sites information booths to book our accommodations for the North Island. We had found our B&Bs in the “Charming” accommodations guide that Allison had given us. From there, we went to Mike’s Better Pies for delicious meat pies and a latte (for me). We also found a nice shop for souvenir shopping, so we didn’t leave until almost noon for Queenstown. 
We took a detour east of Te Anau to find the Fangorn Forest site in Lord of the Rings. With the aid of our GPS we found it in the middle of a dense red and silver beech forest. It was wonderful. Then, finally, on to Queenstown, passing fields containing some of the 40 million sheep (compared to 4 million humans) in New Zealand. We also saw numerous cattle and deer farms.
Now for the best part of the trip for Candace. Armed with our trusty Lord of the Rings book, we headed for the Kelvin Peninsula on Lake Wakatipu adjacent to the Kawarau River just outside of Queenstown, and up the hill to Deer Park Heights, where there were numerous LOR sites. We paid a $20NZ entry fee, then up and up the steep road toward the summit. Along the way, we stopped to buy feed for the animals that could be found there. Candace ventured out of the car and was quickly befriended by quite an assortment of animals, including deer, donkeys, ducks, peacocks, and even an aggressive piglet, who first bit her, then tried to climb into the car to make his getaway!
Oh yes, did I mention the alpacas and the deer? The views across the lake to Queenstown and its aerial tram were impressive.
We found several LOR sites, plus a North Korean prison (built for the film “The Rescue), surrounded by goats. We used the GPS to locate the exact positions and took lots of pictures. Again, the views from the summit were spectacular, with the Remarkables range to the east, the lake to the south, Queenstown to the west, and the Coronet range to the north!
On the way back down, we visited with the yaks (from inside the car!) and miniature horses.
We got into town as the sun began to set. Spotty rain was falling. We parked along the lakeside, saw a beautiful rainbow and walked back to Beach Street to find the Vudu Café.
We had some very nice food there (I had a hot smoked salmon platter, Candace eggplant moussaka), and I ordered a glass of “late harvest” Chardonnay. It turned out to be a very sweet dessert wine. Oh well. 
It was well after dark when we finally found our way up Gorge Road to Malagans Road and our homestay B&B at Willowby Downs, run by Pam and David (who was glued to the tely for a rugby match). This was a very quaint setting in the country and we had a room upstairs.2009.03.21, Saturday, Queenstown – Hahei via Auckland
We arose, finished packing, visited with the alpacas who gave us kisses, then breakfasted with Pam in her very modern kitchen. She showed us the two wild migratory Paradise ducks that have been coming back to their homestead every year and now even come to the window and peck at it to be fed.We left around 11:30 and drove to the Queenstown airport, where we boarded Qantas flight 2792 for Auckland at 1230. The flight was delayed – it seemed people were boarding continuously until almost 1300. We flew up to Auckland and arrived just before 1500. I spent most of the flight reading “Tokyo Station” by Martin Cruz Smith, one of my favorite authors. Candace graded midterm projects. In Auckland, we picked up our Hertz rental – upgraded at no cost to a red Toyota Camry. We took off for the Coromandel Peninsula. We left the main SH1 at Pokeno and headed to Thames, arriving at 1645. We went to the Old Thames Restaurant, recommended by our Lonely Planet guide. Alas, it didn’t open for dinner until 1700. However, as we were hovering outside, a beautiful blonde lass opened the door and said we could come in and have some wine while she opened the establishment. We talked with her for quite a while. It turned out that she is from Kent in England and has been traveling with her boyfriend for about a year. They stopped in Thames to earn some more money to continue their travels. Candace and I split our orders of lamb shank and salmon, which were both very tasty.
We learned from our waitress that our plan for driving to Hahei wouldn’t work very well, as the road was only gravel and quite treacherous, so we backtracked to the 25A and headed to the east coast via Tairua. We arrived at our destination – a very picturesque B&B run by Peter and Kay just before sunset. We checked in, then went for a very delightful walk down to Hahei Beach as the sun set.2009.03.22, Sunday, Hahei – Paihia
I got up at 0655 so we could drive up to the Cathedral Cove car park for a hike to Cathedral Cove to watch the sunrise, expected circa 0715 according to Peter. We did the lovely hike through the Pururi forest, listening to the Tui bird calls. We met a beautiful young maiden carrying wildflowers. When I asked her what the flowers were for, she said they were for her wedding that would happen at the Cove. She was from Chile and her groom from Rotorura. She had family and friends over for a visit and they were going to surprise them with their spontaneous wedding. We encountered them a bit later after the 40-minute hike to the cove, with its cathedral-shaped cavern arch. We took their picture and chatted, then hiked back to the car. We then drove back to the B&B for breakfast. While I was taking pictures during our hike, a warning light came on saying there was no more room on the 16-GB memory card in the camera, so after our return, I deleted photos to make room for more. To my horror, I discovered that I had inadvertently deleted the previous evening’s photos as well as all I had taken that morning. I was pretty distraught. Candace suggested that I go back to the car park at the top of the hill to take some more pictures while she finished packing and settling our bill. I agreed, hoping it would salve the wound of my error.
The Coromandel was incredibly picturesque, as you can see, and we both decided we would have liked to spend more time there. We departed Hahei at nearly 1100, two hours later than we had planned, for the 7-hour drive back up through Auckland to the Bay of Islands in the Northland. LONG DRIVE through the North Island countryside that was quite reminiscent of Kent in England. We got to the Bay of Islands and Paihia at 1800, found our deluxe B&B accommodations at the Chalet Romantica and checked in to the “Romantic Room” at the top of the three-story villa.
We were greeted by the owners’ daughter, Nadine, who informed us that her father was out on the water in his 42-foot Catalina sailboat. After settling into our room and catching the sunset over the Bay of Islands from our balcony we had some wine and were so tired we decided to forego dinner.2009.03.23, Monday, Paihia and Bay of Islands
We went to breakfast downstairs at 0830 with Inge, our hostess, and a nice couple from the UK who had been in New Zealand for 7 weeks. They had also just come up from the Coromandel and had stayed near where we stayed. We talked about children, university, Obama and US politics, and electrical power stations, as the UK gentleman had retired from a career in large international construction projects. I had hoped I could go out on Edi’s Catalina 42, but learned that he charged about $900NZ for a day sail. Instead, Inge booked me on a half day sail aboard Wild, a 52 ft blue water racing boat that won her division in the 1998 Sydney to Hobart race.
In the morning, after breakfast we went to the Waitangi reserve, where the first treaty between the English and Maori was signed in 1840. We watched a short cultural musical show with two Maori young men and one young woman. We were impressed by the musicality. Both Candace and I were invited up on stage to try some of the Maori dancing. I missed Candace’s performance, but she caught a couple of pictures of me. Waitangi was very pretty and we planned to return that night for an evening historical production.
The sailing trip on Wild was fantastic. The skipper, Tony, was a young man from Australia, and the crew, James, was a kid who looked all of 15 years old. Both had been raised around sailboats; in fact, Tony was born aboard his parents’ boat. We sailed out through the bay under mostly cloudy skies. Although headed upwind, we were making about 7 knots in a 7-kt true wind. For a short while, some bottle-nosed dolphins frolicked around us, and Tony pointed out a small blue penguin floating on his back about 50 meters from the boat. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a shot of the penguin, but I did of the dolphins.
We stopped at Otehei Beach, where Zane Grey once had a place and took a short walk up to the top of the hill there to view the surrounding Bay and islands. It was very beautiful.
Then we boarded, raised the large colorful gennaker sail off the bow sprit, and flew downwind back to Paihia. The wind had gotten up to between 10 and 14 knots, and we were making 10.5 kts. Not bad. It felt really good to be out on the water.The skies were beginning to clear, but still presented dazzling sights.When we got back, I picked up a pizza at Frank’s across from the wharf, and walked back to the B&B, pausing a couple of times to take some pictures. Then, we ate our pizza, drank some very nice local Pinotage our hosts had put out for us, and watched the rest of the sunset from the balcony.
2009.03.24, Tuesday, Paihia – Auckland
Last day in New Zealand, sigh. We arose, breakfasted, loaded up the car, and drove up School Road to a nice track (trail) that
headed up through the forest to a lookout at the top of one of the hills. We enjoyed the short, 45-minute walk, then back down the road, saying good-bye to nice little tourist town of Paihia, and off on the long drive back to Auckland.
The entire trip was fantastic. We loved everything we saw and did, as well as the wonderful people we met. We logged about 1,500 kilometers (almost 1,000 miles) driving around the South Island, and over 800 km (500 mi) around the North Island. Next time, I’m hoping we have more time to just hang out at some of the places. I also hope we get a chance to see the north end of the South Island, the Marlborough Sounds, Nelson, and the Abel Tasman National Park, in particular. Candace and I were so impressed, we began talking about looking into a home swap with someone there for three or six months, so if you call and get a strange phone greeting you’ll know where we are.
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