Day 43: Rotorua to Napier
In Rotorua, we picked up a car for the next part of our journey. The Māori watercraft in the car rental area of the terminal was cool. A right-drive car was new to us both. And the views were amazing.
Our drive from Rotorua to Napier was a bit more interesting. At a waterfall overlook, we found a giant speed boat (that seats like a dozen) doing “donuts” near the massive waterfall. It was very loud from where we were, so I’m sure it’s deafening if you go on it.
We had another stop at a gallery and garden (and small store) called Lava Glass. His work is a little Chihuly-inspired. While smaller, this was a far better experience than that gallery was.
When he bought us tickets for the garden, I was still looking around the shop. I came back to the counter for him to tell me to wear a sticker. He “praised” me, so I said, “What? Like I’m four?” I forgot all about it. Then, when we were leaving, the woman who sold us our tickets stopped me to explain that the stickers help them know who paid and who didn’t. I said, “Oh. Sure. I understand. No worries.” It wasn’t until like an hour later that I realized what happened. I still feel bad that she thought my comment was directed at her or their process. It was honestly directed at him for his demeaning tone. Still, the garden and gallery were both great.
Since we had been to the Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in Idaho, we had to see the Craters of the Moon in New Zealand, too. This one was also quite interesting, but in a very different way. First, it’s active and producing steam. Second, the area uses it for geothermal power, where they return all water back to the earth making a minuscule impact on the land !
After this, the afternoon showers really came in, so we skipped the next waterfall during a downpour. Continuing along, though, we found a place that did “New York” pizza by the slice. They even had dessert (ice cream) pizza. Guess which one was for the kids.
After we checked into our hotel, we found an Italian place for dinner…where the wine glass was as big as my face!
We ran a couple of errands and then drove up to a viewpoint above the harbour. We also searched for a waterfall…and found a small garden but the fall was dried up.
Day 44: Wine
We spent most of the day on a wonderful wine tour. Though not a local and also new, our guide was fabulous. And, our group was only six. There are something like 200 wineries in the area, but we just couldn’t squeeze them all in. Our first was the winery that our guide works for. (They are both new, and he didn’t design the route, so it was pure coincidence that their shifts sync’d up.) Unfortunately, we didn’t get her as our wine host. No shade to the one we had; she was great. His wife did come greet our table, briefly. It was sweet.
Our group of three couples was two New Zealanders, us, and our new friends (from California). L&J were taking nearly the same path as us but partly in an opposite direction. Their Her biggest objective was to see as many of the Lord of the Rings sites as possible. I think they went to four that they told us about. We didn’t even know there were others besides Hobbiton, but that makes sense. They were great to hang out with.
The wineries were all fabulous, but they did tend to rush us. Each winery only let us have 30 minutes for taking plus about 5 for purchases and restroom breaks. So then we had to rush back to the van to hit the next winery. Fredricksburg TX and Napa/Sonoma CA could teach Napier NZ a thing or two about pace. While I admit, I was drinking “for two,” that’s not why I felt rushed. Shouldn’t they want us to linger just a touch longer and buy more wine and merch?
I didn’t want it all to end, but at least L&J were staying in our same hotel. So, at dropoff, we traded numbers and made plans to bump into each other on the ferry to the south island. We had tickets to the same one.
After a moment dropping off wine and shifting gears, we hit a nearby sports bar for dinner and crashed early…for 11 hours of sleep.
Day 45: Napier to Wellington
We awoke to a “flat” (that’s Kiwi for “dead”) battery. Yes, we checked; no, nothing was accidentally left on. Bizarre. The insurance we got was $56 USD, but the guy who came to jump the car would have charged $150 NZD / $84 USD. We were nervous about turning the car off in the small towns we were driving through, so we took turns getting takeaway lunch and then ate in the car. Then, we got gas and held our breath upon restart. The drive, though dreary and rainy, was very pretty.
As we pulled into Wellington, we passed the docks. There was a boat there so similar to ours that we did a double take. The Viking Orion and Seabourn Quest must have been designed by the same people.
Our hotel was older but had been redone. The tiny elevator was in the middle of the stair well and nearly as slow as taking the stairs. We were surprised to find a kitchenette and stacked laundry machines with detergent. We’ve been pretty good at keeping up with laundry, but this was nice.
Next, we went ahead and filled/returned the rental car. We were in the middle of a walkable city center and just didn’t need it or want to pay for parking it. We found it funny that single office held Hertz/Thrifty (#FuckHertz), Budget, and a local brand. There was one employee and he’d just bounce from one counter to the next. I guess they are all trained to cover each other during slow times. It was pretty cool to see. No way American companies would ever allow that.
We wandered through the bar and restaurant area and found some interesting places–Awesome Sauce had pastas with sauces for just $12 NZD ($6.63 USD). We stopped at an Irish Pub for dinner and drinks.
While walking around, we found a fun Anime shop with a disturbing amount of body pillow covers. We then found the local “shot bar” that is popular with the college students. Since it was the break, we had the place mostly to ourselves.
Day 46: Wellington
“Breakfast” was included at our hotel. It was just coffee, juice, and toast. Since our room had a kitchenette, we grabbed bagels and cream cheese for the next day.
We ventured out to take the cable car up the hill to a viewpoint, found the warf, and had Cuban sandwiches for lunch. Later in the day, we found a Thai restaurant and enjoyed some of the city’s funky architecture on the walk there and back. We also spent a decent part of the evening worrying about the weather as several ferries had been canceled or delayed from the windy/stormy weather.
Day 47: Wellington to Picton
I guess it was my turn. We took a taxi from our hotel to the ferry dock. My phone fell out of my pocket while I was getting out. Luckily, there was enough traffic that the cab driver was still there. I knocked, he could see it, and all the WHEWs were had.
As soon as we got on the ferry, we grabbed a table for four and met up with L&J. It was a four-hour ride, so having buddies on board made it feel like nothing. This mattered because the weather was so bad and the views were so dull.
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Day 48: Picton to Christchurch
Picton was a nice break, but that’s all it was, so we were only there the one night. Our drive to Christchurch (for the first time there) had some pretty lookouts. We saw a whole bunch of mama seals resting and nursing on the rocks.
For dinner, we just didn’t want to venture very far and simply went to the hotel restaurant. Boy were we surprised in a few ways. First, their Tomahawk steak was only $99NZD (about $67USD). These steaks are about $350USD in the US! Second, the staff were as excited to serve it as I was to order it. Third, the presentation was amazing. The pictures do not do the size justice, but it takes up the space of two place settings. Yes, it was amazing.
Day 49: Christchurch to Aroaki (Mt Cook)
Our drive to Aroaki was another pretty one, but it was also another mostly cloudy day. The clouds did make for some dark-themed images, though. The last ones are a faux time lapse from our seats in the lounge while we waited for our time-slot for the dinner buffet (which was pretty bad). I made the indoor areas quite dark to exaggerate the effect of the clouds outside the window.
Day 50: Aroaki
Our Travel Agent is far more adventurous than we are…and doesn’t recognize the difference sometimes. (We fully nixed the thing where you wear harnesses and clip into a cable so you can walk up/over the supports of the Harbour Bridge in Sydney. yikes! no!) So, after reading about the excursion that gets up-close-and-personal with the Tasman glacier, we canceled it. You had to make this pretty steep hike down in about 20 minutes and scale a ladder to board. The boat ride would be very cold, and you would get very wet. Then, after the ride, you had to do it all in reverse in the same 20 minutes. That’s just absurd. No one does things uphill at the same pace they do downhill, especially when they are half frozen and soaking wet. It sounded like I’d get left behind on my best day. With a couple of nagging injuries, there was no way I could keep up. He didn’t want to do it, either. Oh, and the TA copy/pasted his middle names as our last name for this hotel, so the hotel checkin and dinners and stuff were all messed up.
Our next morning on the way to the mediocre breakfast buffet, we saw the group headed out. They all looked like marathon runners with the kind of gear you’d wear to scale Everest. No. Thank. You.
So, we decided to go to the point we learned about where you drive to a view point to see the glacier via a “short flat walk.” Well, that was not just an exaggeration, it was a full-on lie. It was already steep at the beginning. A guy coming down told us it was 360+ steps. I turned right around and took pictures around the trail head. He went up, though. Some of the steps were so big, I’d have to sit to come down them.
Since the previous night’s buffet dinner was bad, we went to the bar & grill for dinner. Everything was so family friendly…and there were zero adult spaces where you can genuinely get away from screaming/running children. I get that parks are for families, too. But why can’t there be just one tiny corner reserved for adults? There were plenty of people there without children, maybe even more than half.
(Finally, our the day we were leaving Arokai, the sky was blue with white puffy clouds. At least we were finally able to get some better pictures.)
