Our day began with ambitious plans; we were going to hire a private plane to fly us to Milford Sound then get on a boat cruise. Unfortunately, the pilot called to tell us that the weather was to rainy in Milford to make the trip. We switched to plan B and started the day with a drive to Deer Park Heights. This park is where Lord of the Rings filmed some scenes for the second movie: the Two Towers. Of course, there were amazing spectacular views of the mountains, lakes and city nestled below.6781

This park also features feeding stations where you can buy tins of food to feed to the various animals: horses, llamas, goats, sheep, deer, yaks, chickens, etc. The kids had a great time watching dad feed the animals; they were too scared to come out and pet them 🙁

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Our second stop was the Queenstown Gondola. Once again, the view was marvelous. We took some snapshots. Bart refused to ride the luge, once again, so we headed back down to head off to our next stop.

Our third stop was a 1/2 hour drive to Arrowhead. This tiny town at the base of the valley features few shops but one unique bakery. We had an order of gingerbread cookies, carrot cake and custard with the most delicious hot chocolate over at the Arrohead bakery. We stopped by an old Chinese Settlement and saw how the chinese gold miners lived in relatively poor conditions. After Arrowhead, the kids took a rest back at the apartment while I went to take some more snapshots of the landscape. I must say that we’ve seen the most unusual skies here in Queenstown. Sunrise and Sunsets turn the sky, lake and mountains pink and purple with a beautiful variances in between. I took some long exposures and I hope the colors are captured well.

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After the kids rested up, we headed to a bar called Celsius -5. It is a bar made entirely of ice that features some rather tasty drinks. The kids had a blast touching the various ice sculptures and tasting the fruity drinks. We finished the evening by heading for dinner at a “mexican” restaurant called Sombreros. The food was “different”. I didn’t think it was possible to remove flavor from rice, but the Kiwis here managed to do just that. The “fajitas” I ordered tasted more like carne guisada than fajitas. The “chips” are what we would consider Sam’s Club round chip big box special. The only “true” tasting mexican food here was a giant tortilla smothered in garlic butter. Dinner cost around $70 NZD + tip so we were somewhat disappointed. We are planning on taking our Milford sound flight tomorrow but it looks like we might get rained out here in Queenstown. Hopefully it will snow tomorrow or Monday as well.

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We dropped off our car rental at the Christchurch airport and boarded our flight to Queenstown. We ran into the same flight attendents we’d had in our other flights so it’s a small world here in NZ. After we picked up our car in Queenstown we headed over to our hotel/apartment. I must say that the view from our room is spectacular! I must also say this is by far the best place we’ve stayed during our trip. I’m planning on posting a hotel review after our trip so you’ll learn more later…

After getting settled, we headed down to the Queenstown town centre. Queenstown is a small alpine-like village with a population of 16,000. The shops in downtown primarily consist of cafe’s, booking agencies, restaurants and touristy things. The most amazing thing is that the center is right next to the bay with features a beautiful lake enclosed by mountain ranges.6883

At the town centre, we picked up some groceries to try to make some home cooked meals. Eating out here is expensive and too often tasteless…..

We had a pretty good spagetti dinner accompanied by two tantilizing bottles of wine from Canterbury House. A merlot and a sauvingon. Delicious!

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Our first stop this morning after breakfast was the Science Alive museum. Primarily geared towards kids, the museum features a large sized chess board where Bart and I duelled it out for dominance. Lisa had fun with the science exhibits as Bart tackled the rock climbing wall.

5796 The musuem also was featuring hubble telescope photos so that was pretty cool. Our second stop was the International Antartic Centre.  We had a great time riding the fast moving snowmobile and seeing the exhibits. We sat in a real life snow room and experienced an antartic blizzard for five minutes. It was literally a blast!

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After a quick lunch at Mickey D’s and a quick stop over at the hotel for some rest we headed out to the Willobank Reserve to watch Ko Tane – a traditional Maori performance. The Maori culture has very unique song, dance and facial expressions. The show engages the audience so Marge, Bart and I took turns dancing, singing and making facial expressions. We headed back to our hotel for our last day in Christchurch. We fly to Queenstown tomorrow.

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We darted off our hotel with the intention of having some fun for us and the kids. We headed straight for Hamner Springs. Known for their geothermally heated pools, we drove up there as fast as we could. The drive took about 2 hours but was well worth it. We had a quick breakfast at a charming little cafe. The charming price tag was about $54 NZD for breakfast! We then sprinted into the hot springs. The place is marvelous. We started with a private pool (very hot) for ourselves and the kids to unwind. After our 1/2 hour was up we headed to some of the other pools. Very hot pools, stinky (sulfur) pools, small pools, kids waterslide and playland pools, and such.7373

Everyone had a great time. While the kids played, I snuck away for a quick 1/2 massage at the spa. After spending most of the day here, we picked up some souveniers and headed back to Christchurch. Along the drive back, we stopped at a couple of vineyards and sampled some wine. We stopped at Canterbury House Winery and Pegasus Way Vineyard. We picked up four bottles (two at each) of some very tasty wine. We ended the day with dinner at a place called Vic & Whales. The food was ok (nothing spectacular) but that’s how most of the food here has been. Everything is quite expensive. Dinner for four tonight was $100 NZD.7339

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We started our day with a trip downtown to Cathedral Square. We boarded the tram and set off to visit the city sites. Our first stop was the Avon River for a beautiful tranquil punt along the river with lovely fauna and weeping willows.5939 5950

Similar to San Antonio, Christchurch has a river running through the center of town. The river guide was most informative on the socio-economic policies of the New Zealand government, the mass migration of Kiwis to Australia, the mass migration of wealthy Asians into New Zealand and the general state of the country. He also let us know that he would be relocateing to the UK in four weeks. Our second stop was the Art Centre, various shops inside the centre sell just about everything; we had the good fortune of encountering a shop that offered to ship all our purchases back to the US so we loaded up on various items unique to New Zealand; hopefully they’ll be there when we get back. After the Art Centre, we walked over to the Botanical Gardens – this place was absolutely marvelous and included a play area for the kids. There is a school nearby the gardens and we stopped by to check out the school and see the ongoing rugby games. Very interesting. Our next tram stop was Regent street. This Spanish deco street had many shops and cafes and we had the most delicious Chai Coffee, (Green Tea mixed with coffee), apple danish, and cookies. After browsing various shops, we headed back on the tram back to Cathedral Square. There are various entertainers that amuse the public as well as a large life-size chess board in the plaza. Bart insisted on playing chess with the chess masters but we pryed him away from the scene.

After the public performer finished his show, we headed out for a scenic drive into the mountains. From above, you can see the Christchurch city nestled in the valley below and locked in by the pacific ocean to the east. Spectacular photos to be posted some time.6171

After our sunset drive, we headed for dinner at a place called Palazzo’s. This restaurant specializes in Italian/New Zealand cuisine. I had lobster and Marge had salmon while the kids refused to eat so dinner only cost $150 NZD. I must make mention of a sexy little wine that kept undressing me the whole evening at the restaurant. She was a Chardonnay from StoneLeigh vineyard in the Marlbourough region and she seduced me with her unique aroma and spicy flavor; she accompanied our delightful seafood very well. Of course, we then had to take the kids to eat some KFC because that’s just about the only thing they like eating these days. Finsihed the long day with dessert nearby the plaza.

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Our day began horribly…first as we checked out of our hotel, Capital One declined our charge; this has been the second time during our trip that Capital One “fraud” department has been overzealous in questiong charges. We were ticked because we’ve now called them about 4 times (at our expense) to tell them charges are good. Nevertheles, American Express saved the day. Second…the weather was brutal. Cold winds gusted at about 40 – 60 mph and were accompanied by pea sized hail that pelted us hard. It felt like we were being blasted by a shotgun. Our 40 minute flight from Wellington to Christchurch was uneventful.

After getting our car rental in Christchuch, we headed to the hotel, unfortunately our room wasn’t ready and checkin wasn’t until 2 p.m. so we headed for the Christchurch Gondola. A spectacular 360 view of the bays, ocean, city and mountainside heightened our spirits. We had a long lunch at the summit and Bart enjoyed smashing ice outside in the blistering cold ledges. After a quick checkin at our hotel, we headed off to the downtown plaza. We took a tour of Christhchurch Cathedral (beautiful) and the surrounding plaza;5930

stopped and had coffee, where else but StarBucks (they’re everywhere here). We ended the evening with dinner at the Rivewview Buffet Restaurant. We finally got to sample all of New Zealand’s cuisine in its near entirety and I will say this about the food: it is mostly bland and boring. The one thing lacking in the food here for both grocery bought food, restaurant cooked meals and such is FLAVOR! On the plus side, the homebrewed beer here is great! The kids are doing great and late last night we finished the night by going to the heated pool – yes it really was heated but mostly “warm” rather than “hot.” More adventures tomorrow.

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We experienced our first full rainy day, the only thing I can compare it to is the fall weather in Seattle. It became wet and dreary all day long but we still managed to get in some good sites. Every day up to today had clear blue skies and fair weather. We started our day visiting Old St. Paul’s Church, the US Marine Corps and US Ambassador had been here the week before to commemerate some sort of event so we saw the American Flag and Marine Corps flag hanging inside the church. I took some marvelous shots (I will post in a day or two) of the stain glass windows and beautiful church. 5397
It was then on to Te Papa Museum. Bart and I rode the “Time Warp” inside and he had a blast. We spend about 3 hours here learning about Maori, Kiwi, Malasyian and Polynesian culture amongst other things. We had lunch at a so-so seafood place called Fisherman’s Table. After lunch, we headed over to the Parliment Building -the country’s capital building. We got a tour of the House of Representatives and were given a New Zealand civic’s overview by the tour guide. Of course, I had the inclination to start a discussion regarding the Labour parties views vs. the National Parties views and how improvement could be made by following a few simple suggestions but that’s goes off into a political tangent…..

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We finished the evening early today and with good reason, we have to pack for our flight from Wellington to Christchurch. We leave early tomorrow morning and have found out something dreadful! Air New Zealand has draconian weight rules regarding luggage. Each person is allocated 20 kg (44 lbs) and we’ve been purchasing many items over the past few days and now we’re worried we’ll be heavily penalized if we are way over. The cost is $5/kg over the limit; we’re trying to get rid of any excess items we can do without for the remainder of the trip. The problem will increase as we acquire more stuff and have to fly from Christchurch to Queenstown then from Queenstown back to Auckland then finally back to the US. We’ll try to check in later but it may be a day or two before we post and blogs or photos.

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After breakfast we headed over to Queen’s Wharf to take a ferry over to Matiu/Somes Island. The island is a wildlife sanctuary with unique fauna and animal life. The view from the top, like almost everywhere else, was breathtaking.

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We had a snack picnic at the summit on the old gun turrets silos. Afterward, we proceeded back down to take a return ferry to Wellington. We searched for a while to eat at a unique restaurant that everyone could enjoy but after 10 restaurants and no agreement from anywhere we ended up eating horribly; I’ll spare you the details…After a quick lunch, we took a cable car from downtown vertically up a hill to reach the upper area of the city. Once again, photo opportunities of breathtaking views were made available. At the summit, we visited the Cable Car Musuem then proceeded to the Botanical Gardens. The Gardens have an Observatory called Carter’s Observatory. We got a chance to look through the telescope at the sun to see some solar flares and sunspots.5361

After taking a quick astronomy class with one of the instructures, we headed out to tour the gardens. The plant and tree life here is phenominal. Strange trees and plants seem to grow everywhere and there are areas of the gardens that are so dense, sunlight nearly disappears even though there’s broad daylight out. The kids had fun at a playland within the gardens. We finshed the day by heading over to the hotel and relaxed in the sauna and jacuzzi. The pool was too cold (unheated) to swim in.5385

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We left lake Taupo around 9:00 a.m. to drive down to Wellington. We stopped at a small charming town about half way down called Levine. The kids had to eat at McDonalds and as we drove through the small center of town looking at all the charming little shops; I couldn’t help but comment to Marge that a single Wal-mart would destroy this cities charm, the small shops, and the uniqueness of this city. I hope they don’t ever open one here.

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The whole drive down from Lake Taupo to Wellington was truly scenic. Many rustic farms with green pastuers, valleys and hills sprinkled with sheep and cows throughout. We arrived at our hotel around 3:00 p.m. The hotel we’re staying at is the most neo-modern we’ve ever encountered. Internet access here has been surperb and I’ll hopefully post some more pictures later tonight (there is a fully functional PC here so no more hacks). We took a quick walk around downtown and over to the boardwalk where we took some scenic shots. We visited a few shops and picked up some foodstuffs (groceries) and headed back to our hotel for dinner.

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Our day started at 9:00 a.m. with a fishing trip scheduled 30 minutes prior. We wanted to take the kids fishing but had neglected to pre-book anything. We were getting worried after our second call had no availability and some fisherman wouldn’t take kids under 10. Luckily, we were referred to Gus Te Moana by one of the fisherman and we were so grateful to meet him. He offered to take our whole family out in his boat and let us fish for some trout. We came to find out that Gus is the only Maori in the entire Lake Taupo region to own his own charter. He not only was kind and friendly but also gave us a tour of some local Maori landmarks within the lake. I don’t have enough kind words to say about Gus. You can book a charter here http://www.temoanatroutfishingtaupo.co.nz. I did bag a single trout which weighed in at about 20 lbs or so….well maybe it was 10 lbs. In either event, 4 people dined on taht fish and it was very filling.

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After our fishing expedition, we made a quick stop at Artiatia Dam – what’s so special about a dam? Every 4 hours, the floodgates are opened and millions of gallons of water pour down to the riverbed below. The whole process was fascinating and thrilling and the surrounding enviornment was inspiring.

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After the Dam, we went to check out Huka Waterfall. This particular waterfall was amazing not for it’s height but for the volume of water that passes through such a narrow rocky channel. Of course, words won’t do it justice but photos should do the trick; unfortunately computing access is limited and the photos I take are rather large so it’s been burdensome to upload some photos. I hope to have better luck in Wellington.

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After the Huka waterfall, we headed out to The Craters of the Moon – this is a valley composed of hydrothermal vents which vent steam throughout the day (and night). The landscape appears what I would imagine the moon to look like. There are large craters everywhere and the ground is rather unstable. It is truly an alien landscape with steam stacks floating into the air in an eerie dance between the hell below and the serenity of the heaven above.

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Our next stop was a quick tour of the Honey Hive. This place has the most amazing mix of honeys I’ve ever tasted. Different bees, different honeys, different tastes! We purchased a set of honey for the return trip along with some unusual products which we’ll hand out as gifts (hopefully 😉 ).

After our long day, we took advantage of the resort anemities and while Marge went in for a massage, I took the kids over the the private jacuzzis where we had a blast talking about the events of the day and our plans for the future.

Our day ended with Marge’s excellent cooking wizardry. With limited spices, the chef extraordinaire whipped up the most delectable trout (drowned in butter) and was accompanied by the most pretentious Savignon Blanc from New Zealand’s Villa Maria vintage 2005!

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