Explorers of the World

We both slept really well, partly due to the fact that we haven’t been sleeping very well since we left Tahiti, and partly because we had a comfy bed.

It’s a nice campsite, and it has good facilities too – such as good communal showers.

At 8.30, we left for today’s special excursion. A helicopter trip to Fox Glacier. After a short helicopter ride, we would hike the glacier for a couple of hours and then fly back to town.

We had our safety briefing, and were fitted up with our gear (boots and jackets). And then the pilots made the call. We would not be going up, the clouds were too low and visibility was poor. Not what had been forecast.

We headed back to town, and tried to see if they could fit us in later today. There was a scramble as everyone was trying to do the same thing; some people elected to have the full refund instead. When it was our turn, we were told there was only one spot left at 11.50. We looked at each other. Andy really wanted to do the flight and glacier walking is one of my top activities of all time – Andy was so disappointed about not being able to do the Bora Bora scenic flight that I bowed out.

I got into the bus and walked the small trek to the glacier face. The 13-kilometre-long temperate maritime glacier is located in the Westland Tai Poutini National Park. Like other glaciers we’ve seen in recent years, it is receding. The valley is deep and we humans look insignificant against it. The sky looked heavy and I began to wonder whether any flights would go up today after all.

We got the bus back to town to pick up the rest of the group. There would be no flying today. Everyone’s feeling a bit low – the heli-hikers and the heli-climbers. These activities are not cheap and so a lot of commitment goes into making the booking. For most people, this is the chance of a lifetime. But obviously, cancelling the flights made sense. Safety first.

We got our money back, and then the bus took us to Lake Matheson. This is the most photographed lake in New Zealand. On a clear day, when the water is still, you can see perfect reflections of Mount Cook and the Southern Alps. Today wasn’t a clear day, but it was a nice walk to the jetty. And we stopped at the café for drinks and muffins.

Our next stop was the small settlement of Franz Josef . We’re travelling through glacier country and the Franz Josef glacier isn’t too far. We stopped for supplies – we bought a couple of soft drinks, fruit and a few beers.

We arrived in Ōkārito mid-afternoon. The campsite is near the beach. We took our bags and walked to our accommodation. A small building which used to be the Ōkārito school. It opened in 1892 and had an average attendance of 15 pupils. When it closed in 1946, it had a roll of four pupils. It was then converted to a Youth Hostel, and is now a hostel with dormitory style-bunk beds. As historically interesting as this was, something didn’t quite add up in my mind and I checked our spreadsheet. This wasn’t our accommodation for the night. We’d book a double room with shared facilities. We transferred to Fernbird Retreat. The house had three bedrooms and a kitchen/lounge area. We’re meant to share it but tonight, we’re the only people there. Yeah!

We picked the best room, dumped our bags and went for a walk.

We started with the Ōkārito Wetland Walk which starts just outside our house. We walked up to the start of the Ōkārito Trig Walk – a bit of elevation gave us an overview of the area. We followed this by a walk along the beach. To get to the beach, you have to cross an airfield. There is drift wood and fascinating stones scattered everywhere. There was no-one about. We watched as the river came in full flow into the sea – strong currents. I can see why we were advised not to go swimming.

We got back to the house for a little while. The downside of not camping is that you’re away from the group. We were told dinner would be forty minutes away, but Magan – our guide – came to get us as almost all the food had gone. Did we misjudge it that bad? We rushed to camp and got the last of the vegetarian chilli. Very tasty. A small meal’s not a bad thing, right?

We woke as it was getting light this morning, about 7:00, I had a reasonable night’s sleep in our tent, Florence hardly managed to sleep at all. Rather than numbers that are easily forgotten the tents all have celebrity names on them – we had a choice of Tom Cruise, Johann Sebastian Bach or Mick Jagger – I went for Mick. We walked back to the lakeside to see how it looked in the early morning; the sun was still behind the hills so everything had a cool blue tinge to it. I got talking to a local who was on his way out for a fishing trip. He told me about the few residences on the far side of the lake, they have no road access, everything has to come and go by boat. He also said it’s been a very cool summer so far, very different from the last few years.

We put our tent down with a bit of help from our neighbours and had our first camping breakfast. There was a good selection of bread, cereal, jam etc. There was also an area for making our sandwiches for lunchtime, again nothing luxurious but plenty to keep us going. We went back to the lake for a final look before departing, the sun was now reaching the hills on the far side. Hardly anyone was there.

Some of our fellow travellers have rented bikes for the trip. Each day they have the option of a number of rides instead of travelling on the bus. An intrepid few left half an hour before us ready for a rendez-vous at a café 15km down the road. We haven’t had a bad coffee in New Zealand yet and the flat whites there were as good as any.

First proper stop was the Blue Pools. At the confluence of two glacial rivers, there are a couple of deep pools; the colour of the water is an intense turquoise. I didn’t go in but it’s supposed to be very cold – not surprising if it’s fresh off the glaciers.

Next stop was described as an easy walk to viewpoint over the Haast Pass. ‘Easy’ is of course relative and this was a bit of a struggle to the top of quite a steep climb but worth it for the view from the top. Across the valley, the green covered hilltops towered above us, further to the north the Southern Alps have snow on top all year round.

We had quite a long distance to cover so a lot of today was spent driving. The scenery was big all the way, high hills and broad rivers, mostly empty at this time of year.

We stopped at Thunder Creek Falls – these high single-cascade falls drop down the sheer side of the gorge into another deep blue glacial river.

Our last stop was at Ship Cove; this was named after the mysterious appearance of a wreck here in 1845. There were no records of a ship of its type sinking in the area – it was eventually found to have been a British ship on its maiden voyage from Liverpool to Melbourne that sank only a few miles short of its destination. Somehow a lot of the wreckage floated across the Tasman sea and ended up there.

We stopped 50km short of our campsite for the evening to let three keen cyclists off to cycle the rest of the route, rather them than us!

We were on cooking duty tonight, a lot of chopping, peeling and stirring. It’s no culinary masterpiece and there’s only just enough to feed everybody but hopefully no one will be hungry afterwards.

Tonight we have a cabin, no en-suite but it has a roof and a bed so that’s a good step up from last night.

Breakfast in bed this morning. Andy went out to get croissants and coffee.

We pottered about and then got the 10:30 water taxi to Queenstown. We got there at 11.15 and had just over three hours to ourselves.

Queenstown is exactly what you’d expect it to be – a town full of companies selling all sorts of outdoor activities; lots of outdoor clothing shops, bars and restaurants.

The very first thing we did was to both get haircuts – much needed. After that, we shopped for essentials – a new hard drive, a camera strap, flip flops for Andy and the most amazingly fleecy North Face trousers for me (not so much a necessity this one, more like a treat).

We had lunch at Rehab – natural and healthy food – with equally healthy smoothies.

At 14:30, we were at the meeting point… ready to meet our tour leader. For the next four weeks, we’re travelling with Flying Kiwi. The group was extremely welcoming as we boarded the bus.

Our first stop was at Countdown – the main supermarket brand in NZ. And then we were on our way.

An hour into our journey, we stopped at Jackson Orchards – a fruit and vegetable place. This was partly a convenience stop but the real star of the show was ice-cream made from real fruit. Hmmm…. Yummy.

The next stop was at the Hāwea Lake look out. Wow. If that’s a taste of things to come, we’re in for a real treat. The scenery’s so big, it was difficult to take it all in. Driving along the lake, we could have made many more photo stops as the view kept changing.

Only one kilometre separates Lake Hāwea and Lake Wanaka; this is referred to as the Neck.

We arrived at Boundary Creek – our campsite for the night. We’ve only got two nights camping (we’ve upgraded wherever possible) and tonight is one of them. This is a bush camp. No electricity and no showers… and plenty of sandflies. Andy and I tried to put our tent up (we’re so out of practice) and one of our new travel companions took pity on us and gave us a hand. And once we’d settled in, we wandered down to the beach.

So so pretty.

The light’s extremely clear. Stony beach. Driftwood on the shore. Shadows on the hills opposite us. The colours of the sky reflecting in the water. The creek.

We stayed there until we got called up for dinner. There’s a rota in place for cooking and washing up.

We decided to turn in early tonight and walked back to our tent. Andy spotted the Southern Cross in the sky. We think this is our first ever spotting of it. As soon as we got settled, I needed to get up again. Such a faff. But with no light pollution whatsoever, I got treated to the most fantastic star show ever.

From the Hilton to a bush camp.

No need to rush this morning. We had time for a leisurely start with a coffee and a bagel from Best Ugly Bagel – nice coffee and a very good bagel, we both had avocado, tomato and cream cheese. The weather today was back to what we were told is standard Wellington – grey, cool and drizzly.

We took a few pictures of street art and then were banging on the door of the Te Papa, the National Museum, when it opened at 10:00. It could take a whole day to see everything, we only had an hour today, we’ll have more time on our next visit to Wellington in a couple of weeks. We concentrated on the Art floor as this was nicely self-contained. New Zealand had little history of art before 1800 so the chronology began with European art from 1500-1800 which we gave a wide berth too. There were some interesting pictures from the first half of the 20th Century by New Zealand artists who had studied in Europe, picked up influences from what was happening there and then brought them back and gave them a local flavour. This was repeated in the sixties when a few Maori artists trained in London and brought Minimalism back with them. The best works for me however were a series of twelve pieces by New Zealand and Australian artists who were asked to produce work based on their impressions of Gallipoli. This still looms large in the history of both countries and all the works were powerful in different ways; some took a global view of the bloodshed, some looked at the impact on an individual, often a relative.

Time caught up with us and we rushed back to the hotel, grabbed our bags and got a taxi to the airport for our flight to Queenstown. Everything ran smoothly, you can check-in at 12:30 and board at 12:45 for a 13:00 departure. As we took off, we were soon in the clouds and didn’t see any of the Cook Straights that separate the North and South Islands. The sky cleared about an hour into the flight and we had good views of hilly landscapes, unfortunately we could only just glimpse Mount Cook on the other side of the plane. The approach to Queenstown takes a twisty route between the hills which look very close on both sides.

When we left the airport, the sunshine was dazzling, the sky is deep blue and it feels like you can see forever. Our hotel was a short taxi ride away. We quickly settled in and went for a walk beside Lake Wakatipu. The sun was hot although the air was cooler, the lake is a deep blue colour, all the colours seem to be turned up to 11. We passed a miniature library next to the path, you’re encouraged to read and exchange the books.

We returned to the hotel for a swim in the pool and shared a pizza and a salad with a couple of glasses of wine. The last few days have been very rushed. Today it felt like we’d finally arrived in New Zealand.

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A late alarm this morning, which we needed. We walked to the railway station (which is also where the Intercity bus dropped us off last night) hoping to find good coffee and breakfast along the way. At 9am, nothing was open so we settled for coffee and sandwiches from the station’s café.

We got the 9:55 train to Featherston (the only service there today) from platform nine and the 205 connecting bus service to Martinborough. [The train on platform eight was all stations to Johnsonville].

Out initial itinerary was to spend some time at the railway museum in Featherston – they have one locomotive there – and then get a taxi to Greytown, a pretty historical town, before getting yet another taxi to Martinborough. After spending the afternoon wine tasting, we’d get the 19:52 train back to Wellington.

But all our research went out of the window when the taxi companies told us they were booked out for the day, and we found out from our bus driver to Martinborough that the train back to Wellington was at 17.26, and that our connecting bus was at 16.55.

So we adapted – not a concept that I’m familiar with – and opted to spend the day making the most of Martinborough’s vineyards. Having that extra time gave us the chance to try more vineyards, in addition to the four we’d earmarked.

Martinborough is a pretty little town, and all the vineyards are within walking distance.

We started off on our vinous adventure. The weather conditions were perfect – a clear sunny day to explore the wines of Wairarapa.

Our first stop was Margrain Vineyard, where we had lunch in a beautiful setting, next to the vineyard. We shared a glass of Pinot Gris (which we’d both like to like but it’s not working out for us) and Chardonnay (which was lovely). The food was very good – simple but fresh ingredients.

We were very excited about out second destination – Ata Rangi. We’ve tried a couple of wines back home (available at Theatre of Wine). They are gaining quite a reputation for their wine, but sadly we found them to be quite formal and cold. Out of the five wines we tried, the Chardonnay was the only one we really liked. We looked at each other in disbelief… we’d been looking forward to this visit.

The next place, just five minutes away, looked good on paper too: ‘I would go as far to say Kai & Marion make some of the most profound Pinot Noir on this planet” (source: The Wandering Palate). We knew nothing about Schubert Wines, and we’re now converts to all their wines. We liked the five we tried. There were only four of us there at the time so the tasting was a lot more relaxed and chatty. The good news is that someone in Richmond imports their wines to the UK.

Our next destination was Haythornthwaite, a small boutique family owned vineyard. Out of the six wines we tried, the dry Gewurztraminer was our joint favourite. A complex wine, which was perfect for our sunny afternoon!

Having visited all the vineyards we’d wanted to try, and having quite a bit of spare time due to our change of plans, we hopped across the road to Vynfields, where they make certified organic award-winning wines. The setting is gorgeous with vines right outside an historic house (I could see myself living there). We shared a flight of wines. We tried the classic Riesling, the sparkling Riesling, the Pinot Noir, a Mad Rooster – made from an unknown local grape – and a Pinot Rosé. We really enjoyed the first four (not listed in the order tasted). On the down side, this was probably the most impersonal tasting of them all but we got lovely seats outside looking out on the vineyards and the hills behind.

We made it to the Martinborough Vineyard just as they were closing and begged them to let us in. This place had been recommended to us by Trevor at Moana Park. We enjoyed the Chardonnay (which recently got 97 out of 100 from an acclaimed critic), the 2014 Pinot Noir, the 2013 Pinot Noir Home Block (a bottle of which we have with us now) and the Syrah Viognier. The Late Harvest Riesling however was not to our taste.

We walked back towards Martinborough, and had about 10 minutes spare before we were due to get our bus back to Featherston. We popped in a couple of shops selling lovely things that have no purpose whatsoever.

We kept well hydrated during the day, and the walks in between the vineries were a little sobering.

This is by far the best thing we’ve done in New Zealand so far, and the Featherston Railway Museum and Greytown have now gone on the list for our next visit.

Back in Wellington, we walked along the waterfront, which is slowly being re-developed with trendy bars and restaurants. We made our way back to Cuba Street where we ate at Aunty Mena’s, a vegetarian Malaysian noodle house; we had cheap, cheerful and very tasty curries.

We were back in our hotel room quite early, which gave us time to catch up with paperwork and research our next destination.

An early start this morning to try and see the best of Napier before we leave at lunchtime. We started with a walk around our cottage’s neighbourhood on the top of the hill overlooking the centre of town. A lot of the houses are large wooden plantation style with verandahs along the fronts and sides. They look very light, spacious and attractive. The morning was sunny and warm, things are looking up!

The 1931 earthquake and the fires that started in the immediate aftermath destroyed almost every building in the town centre. The city was quickly rebuilt, almost all the new buildings were in the new style of the time – Art Deco. This makes the town centre unique in its consistency of styles of architecture, even subsequent changes to buildings and new buildings are in the same style and almost indistinguishable from the originals. Some buildings have been altered during their lives but have now been restored to the original design. In a few cases, the builders are still in business and the moulds for the plasterwork used in construction are still around and were used again for recent refurbishments.

I have to say that Art Deco isn’t entirely to my taste but some of the buildings have interesting stories behind them and the details are relevant to the original owners and usages.

Our cottage had a leaflet offering a self-guided walk around the significant buildings – about 40 of them within an easily walkable area.

We ticked off about half of them before stopping for breakfast – about 19 too late for me! Florence had scrambled eggs on sourdough, I had a vegetarian panini, both washed down with flat whites and a bona and berry smoothy for me – all very tasty.

The cultural centre of the town MGT – Museum, Gallery, Theatre – looked worth a visit but we’re too short on time. We crossed to the seafront, it has an Art Deco promenade and bandstand and a short contemporary pier which stretches out over the waves. The earthquake changed the shape of the beach, it now falls away very quickly from the shore so what would normally be good waves for surfing break 10 feet from the black sand. A few miles along the coast we could see Cape Kidnapper’s, home to largest mainland Gannet colony in the world – unfortunately this will have to wait for our next visit too.

One building was owned by a German chiropodist, the decoration had a German flag and one end, waves, then a New Zealand flag at the other. The Town Theatre is almost entirely the way it was when it was built, a new entrance has been added to the side to accommodate more visitors. Some of the designs are based on Mayan patterns that we’ve seen in Central America.

We picked up our bags form the cottage and headed to the bus station. There’s a print on the cottage porch about the original owner Mr Colenso, and a picture of one of his sons which makes it clear why he was shunned by the local religious community; he has very Maori features – his mother was Mrs Colenso’s maid.

Our afternoon was spent on a bus from Napier to Wellington, 387km and about 5.5 hours. The journey passes through the outskirts of Napier and round Hawke’s Bay to Hastings then on through the arable land we saw yesterday. The landscape is gently rolling, very green and pastoral. We’d been told before we came to expect something like Britain in the 1950s. There are certainly elements of this in the smaller towns but there are two big differences – there is a lot of space and not many people so everyone has plenty off room, no need for terraces of houses, lots of bungalows. There are also no buildings that are old by European standards, 150 years is considered a historical rarity.

We stopped in Palmerston North for a break for the driver. We should have been there for 20 minutes but as we were about to leave he spotted a flat tyre, this took an hour to fix. A few miles out of Palmerston North, we saw a sign advising a Historical Site 200m on the right – there was no more information, just an empty field. A few minutes later, on the edge of Shannon, we passed Owlcatraz – kiwis do like a pun.

We arrived in Wellington about 8pm, it was a short walk to our hotel, 5 minutes to leave things in the room and we hit the town. Cuba Street is supposed to be Hipster Central in Wellington but it’s quite subdued for a Friday night. The first place we tried was already closed. Ended up in Loretta, we could have been in Shoreditch – craft beer, sourdough pizzas, imaginative salads. We didn’t have the pizzas this time but the beer and salads were good.

If you’re from New Zealand, you may want to look away now.

I’m sure it’s nothing serious, but right now New Zealand is not grabbing me. I do appreciate that we’ve only just got here and it’s probably the frustration and tiredness talking.

But hey, where’s all the colour gone? We spent the day in a muted world. This was a bit of a shock as was the temperature. Jeans are here to stay I fear, and a fleecy top came out as well.

The day started early and combined with a late night (the laundry took hours to do), we were both feeling a bit grumpy – especially me. We weighed our bags to make sure that they’d pass Air New Zealand’s strict luggage policy following yesterday’s bag turnover.

We took a shuttle to the domestic airport, checked in and had great bagels (the ingredients were the freshest) and superb coffee.

The flight to Napier was uneventful and our private shuttle was there to meet us – they had kindly agreed to switch the booking we had for the previous night. We arrived at the cottage, put our bags down and got ready to go.

I guess the stress had been building up and it exploded with a massive headache about twenty minutes before our pick up arrived for our Hawke’s Bay Wine Tasting tour. Again, I must mention that the company were very accommodating and switched us to a half day, with a refund for the difference from the full tour we’d booked. I think this is what’s been eating me up – it didn’t have to be this way. When we agreed to swap to an early flight out of Tahiti, we failed to revise our itinerary. Had we done this, we would have asked Air New Zealand to put us back on our original flight to Napier last night and we would have had our two nights in the cottage and the full wine tasting tour today. Argh!

We drove through Hawke’s Bay and fields of pumpkins, chillies, kiwis, onions, corn and apple and pear trees, and a sign for a coffin making club.

We visited three wineries, and they were very different.

We started off with Vidal Estate, an international winery where we tasted nine wines (four whites and five red) and yet we were in and out in no time. The Riesling and the Syrah (2011) got our votes but the winery didn’t do much for us. We felt rushed and part of a conveyor belt.

Our second winery was Alpha Domus. Quite trendy, and friendly. We tasted six wines, and the Chardonnay and Noble Selection both got ticks.

And then we went to Moana Park. An unfortunate health issue a few years back led the owner to develop a range of pretty unique wines, he developed an allergy to wines (!) and consequently, the wines are now natural – and vegetarian – with no preservatives or sulphur. We tried seven wines, and our winners were the Chardonnay, the Pinot Gris and the Pinot Noir. We liked the Pinot Noir so much that a case may well be on its way home 🙂

We asked to be dropped off in town. Napier’s claim to fame is that the whole town was rebuilt in 1930s Art Deco architecture following the 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake. It sits on the eastern coast of the North Island.

We walked the streets for an hour or so. It felt like walking in a film set.

And then we were lucky enough to (briefly) see a team rehearsing for the Te Matatini National Kapa Haka Festival 2017 which is currently taking place in Hastings, just down the road from here.

We popped to the supermarket to get dinner and then walked up the hill, which looks worse than it is thankfully.

The cottage is lovely, and incredibly historical. The Historic Colenso Cottage is named after William Colenso, a Cornish Christian missionary to New Zealand, and also a printer, botanist, explorer and politician. It’s a pretty building on top of the hill, and it’s beautifully decorated. It’s comfy and homely. Mr Colenso came up with today’s title by the way.

So this is it. We’re back on track with our itinerary. It’s just a shame that all the disruption affected the things we were most looking forward to – our stay in Devonport, spending two nights in this cottage and today’s full wine tour. Andy’s urging me to let go.

We have a tasty dinner at home this evening. Sitting down with a glass of wine and fresh ingredients from New Zealand.

Things are already looking up.

00:45 alarm this morning; the last revellers were still enjoying themselves in the hotel bar. Quick shower, finished packing and we were soon on our way to the airport. We were near the front of the queue but behind about half of the Samoa U17 football squad who’d been playing in a tournament in Tahiti. It seems that footballers haircuts are global too. The departure lounge felt like a very different airport to the check-in area, lots of designer brands in the duty free store. It might have been 1:30 in the morning but it was still very warm and humid. We boarded about 4:20, finally on our way.

Breakfast was served soon after take off, strange timing. We managed about three hours sleep before the lights were put on for the descent to Auckland. There are electronic passport gates for UK citizens, it took me no time to get in. Florence unfortunately had to join the rest of the world queue which took about 30 minutes.

Our boots weren’t clean enough for the bio-security checks so we had to walk through some disinfectant then we were in. First stop was a coffee shop, we’ve both missed flat whites since we left London; this was the perfect opportunity to get one.

The next few hours were spent re-acquainting ourselves with the box that we’d sent from home before we left and exchanging our warm weather clothes for things more appropriate to the New Zealand climate. The box was repacked and is ready to return to England. (Thanks for all your help JG 🙂 )

We checked into our hotel, made a few more last minute itinerary changes and were finally in the city centre by 4pm – 3 hours to see Auckland before it got dark. Nice sunny day but much cooler than we’re used to.

Lonely Planet has a walk around the central area so we did most of that. The Civic theatre is an incredible old building, no surface is left undecorated – there are elephants and hindu gods everywhere. New Zealand was the first country in the world to grant women the vote – in 1893 – this is commemorated in a mural. We didn’t have time for the gallery today but the Auckland Art Museum is top of our list for our full day in the city at the end of the trip. There are a number of interesting old Victorian era buildings near the City Centre, one was briefly the governors residence before the capital moved to Wellington.

Randomly, we came across a pole-vault competition in a shopping centre.

The early start was catching up with us so went for an early dinner at a Lebanese restaurant – Beirut – recommended by Lonely Planet. The food was really good, the best meal we’ve had since we left Mexico.