Traveling New Zealand Part I — April 9, 2024 through April 22, 2024 (subtitle: A surprise immersion in the New Zealand health care system at no extra cost or running with scissors is all good fun until somebody gets hurt!)

WARNING: Once again, this is not a sailing related entry. This, and probably the next, now indefinite, number of blog entries, reflect our effort to capture our experiences while we explored Australia, New Zealand and other places in the southern hemisphere by land with some air travel assists. We are metaphorically putting our memories in a bottle to savor on some future date. If you are not interested in reading an amateur attempt to document travel experiences you may wish to skip the next few entries. (Though this one has some interesting twists). No offense will be taken. You were warned!

We are not sure how to start this blog entry. The initial draft started with a cheery “We are loving our travels in New Zealand and they could not have gotten off to a better start.” That is still true depending on how you define “start.” Is that a few days, a week or somewhere in between? We guess we will keep you in a bit of suspense by starting at the beginning.

As you know from our last blog entry, we flew from Sydney, Australia to Christchurch, NZ on April 9. Due to an almost 2 hour flight delay, we didn’t land until about 3 PM. By the time we collected our luggage, got through customs and immigration and picked up our rental car we didn’t have much time to get to our first accommodation in Port Levy (on the east coast of the South Island about an hour south of Christchurch) in daylight. Daylight was important because we heard that roads in NZ could be rather narrow and windy, with nothing to separate you from the precipice that could be on either side of you as you corkscrewed around mountains. We discovered that what we had heard was quite accurate. More on that below.

We had a room booked in the Port Levy B & B owned and operated by Verity and Martin. Port Levy is a long, sheltered bay and settlement on Banks Peninsula in Canterbury, New Zealand. We arrived just as the dusky sky was turning into the dark night. Though we got a bit of a glimpse of what we would be treated to during our drive we didn’t fully appreciate our location until we woke up the next morning. With the B&B perched alone (no neighbors!) on a hillside overlooking the bay we were surrounded by mountains. A large picture window and sliding glass door gave us a fabulous view from our bed. The home was lovely too. We had the entire lower level with 2 bedrooms and a large private bath to ourselves. The main level included a great room with 2 walls of interconnected hinged windows that could be pushed totally open to extend the living area out to a large wrap around veranda. Our stay included a hearty breakfast and dinner (we had fabulous meals) which were served, weather permitting, on the veranda. There was also a hot tub available for our use on a stone patio with a pergola and outdoor kitchen. Finally, the home was filled with beautiful and colorful artwork from paintings to pottery, most created by Verity herself. On top of all of that (if it wasn’t enough), Verity and Martin were gracious hosts. They had been in the restaurant business in England (Verity ran a wine bar while Martin ran a full service restaurant) before moving to NZ (where Verity was born and raise) to start their B & B. Their experience in the hospitality business definitely showed. They paid attention to every detail — down to customizing their music playlist to their guests. (Based on our profile they had correctly guessed we would enjoy rock from the 70s & 80s which was softly playing in the background during the night of our first dinner.)

Like most of our accommodations, our B&B was fairly remote. The closest town was Lyttelton. To get there you had to drive about 35 minutes down narrow curvy roads to Diamond Harbour. There you would catch a small passenger only ferry to Lyttelton. Though Lyttelton was a really small town with just one main street it had a “laundromat” and we were getting low on clothes so we decided that a visit to town would be our first excursion in the area. We put laundromat in quotes because it was unlike anything we had ever experienced. It was outdoors located behind a wooden fence in a narrow space between two shops. When you entered this little alcove you saw 2 washers (one for small and one for large loads) and a dryer. The washers automatically dispensed biodegradable detergent so no need to add your own. It was incredibly clean and efficient. While waiting for our wash to go through the cycles we had time to explore town. It was beyond quaint, filled with small shops carrying locally made clothing, art and doodads as well as a plethora of cafes and restaurants. Jill was particularly taken by the “Shroom Room,” a tiny Vegetarian and Vegan restaurant with an impressive menu and the loviest staff. Though we both had filling breakfasts that morning (Jill had garlic mushrooms on toast while Zack devoured a full English breakfast), we found room to enjoy some of the Shroom Room’s offerings (tofu scramble for Jill and a raspberry muffin for Zack). Between the round trip drive, short ferry ride and leaving not an inch of Lyttelton unexplored, we had a full day. We didn’t return to our B&B until shortly before dinner.

After enjoying another incredible breakfast, we were up and out by 9:30 AM on day 2. We decided to start a day with a visit to the village of Akaroa, mostly because it would take us along a beautiful scenic route for about 90 minutes. Our drive to Akaroa gave us our first real taste of NZ roads. Martin had warmed us before we left to look way ahead of us whenever possible to spot oncoming traffic and to be mindful of places along the side of the road where we may be able to pull off to allow cars to pass, keeping in mind (like on airplanes) the closest “exit” may be behind us. Still, we don’t think we fully appreciated that many of the roads — even those winding around mountains with a steep drop off on one side — were narrow single lanes without guardrails that could not accommodate two-way traffic. Treacherous is the word that springs to mind. We were so glad that we were blissfully unaware of this fact while our daughter participated in a junior year abroad program in the South Island and drove around in a van she purchased with other foreign students.

Suffice it to say that the ride to Akaroa, in and of itself, was an adventure. Adding to the excitement was our run in with a herd of cows. On our way to Akaroa we saw a sign pointing to Little Akaloa and decided to take a short detour to see what was there. It didn’t take us too long to figure out that Little Akaloa wasn’t really a town to we turned around to get back on the road to Akaroa. Before we got there though there was a woman pulled over to the side of the single lane road. She waved us down telling us that her cows — about 40 of them — were heading our way. She asked that we pull over to allow the cows to pass. Naturally, we pulled over as requested and no sooner had we done so when we see cows — seemingly on their own — walking down the road towards us. They politely got into a single file as they approached our car and passed us on our right. (Zack took a video of the entire procession! We were quite eye-to-eye with many of them staring at us through our windshield as they waited to merge in and pass our car.) Bringing up the rear of the herd we see a man, about our age, on a quad bike. We rolled down our window when he stopped to say thank you. From our brief initial exchange he could tell we were Americans which led to very civil conversation about the current state of USA politics. By the time he politely excused himself to catch up with his herd we learned that his name was Gavin Marshall. In additional to operating a farm, he runs a catering business and is an amateur photographer with a penchant for remote and authentic travel experiences. We exchanged email addresses and he promised to send us some information on Indonesia where he had recently visited. What a fun encounter!

We eventually made it to Akaroa though, as these things often are, it was more about the journey than the destination. Still, we enjoyed our brief walk around the town as well as excellent soy lattes before heading off for our next activity: a hike along the nearby Onawe Peninsula. The Onawe Peninsula is a short and narrow peninsula that juts out within Banks Peninsula. This hike entailed walking past highly textured and colorful tall (building sized) rocks along a rough rocky beach until you come to a narrow grassy pasture. After strolling down the grass path for a bit you reach a fork in the road and have the choice of continuing up the pasture path or walking up through the forest that runs along the shoreline. We decided to continue along the grassy path, figuring we would do the return trip via the wooded one. Either way, you ascend to the top of a rocky hill with the path spiraling as the hill got steeper towards the summit.

Once on top we had 360-degree views of the harbour and Banks Peninsula. Truly magnificent! After enjoying the view we started our descent and, as planned, chose the return path through the forest. At one point this path appeared to split in two with the major path continuing straight and a secondary arm circling back a bit before descending down a steep slope with steps made of rocks and a plastic line (for grabbing) running along the really vertiginous portions. We decided to take the secondary path that was basically a lower track, still deep within the forest, but closer to and running along the coastline. It was incredibly gorgeous and, along with the amazing views at the summit, it was the highlight of our hike. Much nicer than the walk up the narrow but open pasture. As we exited the forest and rejoined the grassy path we noticed that there was a “Danger” sign saying clearly “do not enter,” “unmaintained” and “slippery conditions.” The path didn’t seem dangerous at all to us and there was absolutely no signage warning us that we were entering an unsanctioned path when we veered off on the secondary track. Ooops! Of course, we are glad there wasn’t any signage because we would have missed one of the best parts of that hike.

Following our hike we decided to drive back to our B&B via Little River. After a brief stop in Little River where we toured the gallery and shared the most delicious vegan pie ever, we left town following another single lane road, this time through a dense and dark forest. It was a magical drive and we arrived back to our accommodation with just a little time to spare before dinner and very satisfied with our day.

After 3 nights and 2 days at the Port Levy B&B it was time to move on to Twizel, a town almost smack dab in the middle of the South Island giving us access to Lake Tekapo and Aoraki Mount Cook National Park with its centerpiece Mt Cook, NZ’s highest mountain. This area is known for is alpine landscape with snow-capped peaks and glaciers as well as some of the best stargazing in NZ.

We were excited to have 2 full days in the area. With a 4 1/2 hour drive ahead of us to our next accommodation — while also allowing additional time for some stops — we left Port Levy just before 10 AM. It was a dreary day with a heavy mist and we were not looking forward to the road trip. But shortly after we departed, as if the weather god’s sensed our dismay, we spotted what can only be described as an intense rainbow between 2 mountains that served as bookends on the sides of bay. The intensity of the colors was so great that you could still see the rainbow even as it passed in front of the dark green forest down to the water. Yet the rainbow remained translucent enough to see the trees behind it as if someone had covered a portion of the mountain with a piece of stained glass. The low land that ran between the mountains along the bay had an open lower field along the beach, void of any trees or structures other than a small wooden white church with a red roof and a pint sized steeple. Higher up on the hillside above the quaint church was a single home nestled in the tree covered hillside just barely visible through the leaves. As we drove along the road the orientation of the rainbow shifted until the end of the rainbow furthest from us no longer ended at the base of the mountain but instead splashed onto the church as if the church was the pot of gold at its end. You could not have painted a more idyllic scene. We thought that we could never see a more magnificent rainbow but as we progressed on our drive away from the bay to a mountainous valley we spotted a complete rainbow forming a perfectly centered arch over one of the mountains as if someone placed a dome over it — like a glass cloche placed over the mountain to protect it from the cold and frost. In an effort to help us capture in words what we saw with our eyes we looked back at the photos we took as we typed this entry. We remain in awe. (We posted a few pics of the rainbows on our @sailingchefigata Instagram account so you can judge for yourselves.)

The remaining 4 hours of the journey to our next accommodation, MenardsNZ Ecosanctuary, were less awe inspiring. (Though we did stop at the famous Fairlie Bake Shop for lunch — as we were warned it was only “Fairlie” good). That was okay because our next home away from home was worth every moment of our long drive. The MenardsNZ Ecosanctuary is a single cottage located on a large property owned by the lovely Menard family, Amy and Jason. Like some of the places we stayed in Australia, it was a self-contained tiny house. The beautifully appointed cottage, built with sensitively to sustainability, is surrounded by glorious alpine views. And, in case we were sore from the challenging hikes we so enjoy, we could soothe our aching muscles in the private two person wood-fired hot tub filled with pure spring water, just off the back of the cottage. Truly we could have enjoyed our time in the area without ever leaving the comfort of the aptly named sanctuary. (In retrospect, that probably would have been a great idea but we will get to that soon.)

But, of course we left the comfort and safety of our sanctuary! For our first full day, April 13, we had two activities planned: a hike along the Hooker Valley tract followed by a stargazing experience sitting in observation craters near in Lake Takapō. The Hooker Valley Track was located in Mount Cook National Park. The relatively easy 6.8 mile track (round trip) with an elevation gain of only 650 feet, took us along the Hooker River, across four high, long and swaying (eeks!) suspension bridges as we crisscrossed the river and ended at the glacier lake featuring small icebergs that had broken off the Mueller Glacier at the lake’s far end. The vegetation around the track is open alpine tussock so it offered unobstructed views of the snowcapped mountains surrounding the wide valley floor. Even on a day that started out rainy and overcast, there were literally amazing photo opportunities at every turn. The Hooker Valley Track has been named one of the ‘best day walks in New Zealand’ and we could certainly see why! We posted pics from this hike on our @sailingchefigata Instagram account.

We finished our walk in a great mood at 3:50 PM — just shy of 3 hours from our start. We were planning on driving back to Twizel, about one hour away, for an early dinner in order to eat and get ourselves to our evening stargazing tour on time. The location of that tour was also about an hour drive from Twizel but in a different direction. We excited the trailhead with a plan! Unfortunately, our plan for that evening (as well as the near future) came to a screeching halt. (And, yes, there was actual screeching invoked!)

As we walked to our car over what was an otherwise smooth gravel road there were three pointy cone shaped rocks sticking out in the path. Not expecting them to be there Jill didn’t see the protrusions and her toe clipped one of the rocks with such great force that rather than being propelled forward she immediately dropped to her right knee, smashing it right on the tip of one of the stones. She could tell immediately that she had broken her knee cap. (The crunch she felt was unmistakable.) Zack helped her up and held her while she tried to put weight on her leg but she was unable to do so. With Zack’s help she hopped to the side of the path and laid on the ground.

Our immersion into the New Zealand health care system was immediate. With the help of a strong cell signal (thank you T Mobile — you are the best!!!) and Google, Zack learned that the NZ equivalent of 9-1-1 was 1-1-1. He quickly made contact with the mountain EMS patrol who were by Jill’s side within 30 minutes. The ambulance arrived within another 30 minutes. We were informed that the closest hospital with an x-ray machine was 3 hours away in Timaru. Given the distance, one ambulance would transport Jill about 2/3 the way there and a second ambulance would complete the job. Interestingly, one of the first things we were told by all the arriving medical personnel was that we shouldn’t worry about a thing: Jill’s medical care would be fully covered by the ACC. The ACC, which stands for the Accident Compensation Corporation, is a national no-fault system that covers all people, including visitors, who are injured in an accident in New Zealand. As a no-fault system, It doesn’t matter how the accident happened — whether caused by another’s negligence or your own clumsiness — you are covered. And It covers not just medical expenses but also incidental expenses like lost wages for people who must take a medical leave due to their injury. Everyone entering the country is assigned a national health identification number to access this system.

Jill arrived at the Timaru hospital by about 8:30 PM that evening. After getting her set up with a National Health ID number and an ACC claim number, she was taken to x-ray around 9 PM which confirmed a quite nasty compound fracture of the patella as well as a fracture in her right pinky. (No one seemed to be concerned with her pinky injury. Go figure!) She was fitted with an open half plaster cast that covered her leg from high on the thigh to the ankle. (“Half” because the plaster was only on the part of the cast that covered the back of her leg with a thick gauze like material wrapped around the entire leg. This was to immobilize Jill’s leg while accommodating additional swelling.) Jill was also admitted to the hospital. Jill needed surgery and could not be discharged until that occurred. We both thought that was overkill until we realized that it took 2 people just to take Jill to the toilet — one person to hold her leg out straight and a second to wheel her in. Not something one person could easily handle. The plan was to perform the surgery later in the week as the swelling in Jill’s knee went down. We should add that if you have to remain in the hospital, Jill got a premier spot. She was placed in a corner room and, while she had 3 roommates (privacy curtains separated us), the room was quite large and her bed was in the far corner next to 2 walls of windows. We called it the “corner suite.” When her bed was raised she had view of the mountains and sea!

Zack was kept very busy throughout this process. Given the late hour, he stayed in a hotel near the hospital that first night. All of our belongings though were back in Twizel, 3 hours away. So the next day he drove back there and stayed the night to avoid the 6 hour round trip in a single day. Coincidentally, our next accommodation, Valley Views Glamping, was about half way between Twizel and Timaru. Valley Views Glamping was located in remote Waitaki Valley. They have 6 geodesic domes on the property that served as their lodging accommodations. For those not familiar, a geodesic dome is a self-supporting structure made up of interlocking hexagons or triangles. These are strong shapes that connect together to form a highly stable half-sphere. They also look very futuristic and cool. The dome we were assigned to was about 18 feet in diameter with a large bay window in front and stunning views of the valley below as well as the mountains beyond. It included a comfy king-sized bed and a small log burner. It did not include an en-suite bathroom — for that you had to brave the elements (in the dark of night) or walk up a hill to the mess hall. Given its relative proximity to the hospital we decided that it made sense for Zack to take advantage of the 2 nights accommodations we had booked there and then relocate close to the hospital after that. In addition to staying in a fun quirky place (vs. a cookie cutter economy hotel room), it gave Zack the opportunity to participate in the private half-day “Sole to Soul Walking Farm Tour” we had scheduled with the owners the first full day of our stay. The walk entailed a hike through the host’s beautiful private property with stops along the way for centering and reflection. While Zack does not generally favor forced stops with breathing exercises he found, under the particular circumstances, that it really helped him to relax. It provided brief periods of well-deserved calm during the storm and he was grateful for those moments. As you can imagine, Zack had been running on a lot of adrenaline from that first 1-1-1 call through all the logistics he needed to manage on his own.

Meanwhile, back at the hospital, the doctors continued to monitor Jill’s leg and performed a CT scan to better visualize the break to development a plan of attack. Jill’s patella was fractured into about 8 pieces but the top 2/3 was intact so the surgical team, lead by Dr. Frank Wurmitzer, were quite confident they could successfully wire the pieces back together. On Thursday morning (April 18), after 5 days in the hospital, Jill had the surgery and the doctors reported that it went very well. (We should add that we were very fortunate that the South Island of New Zealand is the epicenter of New Zealand’s adventure travel with lots of intense hiking, mountaineering, bungee jumping and the like. It is no coincidence that the South Island is filled with competent and highly experienced orthopedic trauma surgeons. They are from all over the world and relocate to the South Island for both the quality of practice and life. While we didn’t get to pick Jill’s surgeon — it’s not like the states where you might shop around for the surgeon who has done the most patella reconstructions — but we were beyond pleased that Dr. Wurmitzer was assigned to Jill’s case.) After a few days in the hospital post op, and mastering crutches, Jill was discharged on Sunday, April 21 in a full leg brace. (We posted a pic of this impressive piece of goods on our @sailingchefigata Instagram site.) The discharge instructions include a 2 week follow as well as a 6 week follow up when, fingers crossed, they will remove Jill’s brace. After that Jill starts rehab for a TBD period of time. Jill has always told our kids they should put 110% effort into everything they did and she tried to set an example. She should have been more precise and said, instead, that anything worth doing is worth doing 110% because her patella brake was clearly not worth doing. Sometimes you need to be careful what you wish for and sometimes you have to be careful what you say! Words matter. (Oops!)

All of this means that our sail to Indonesia is off the table. To do that trip we needed to start sailing up the Queensland coast at the end of May and Jill will still be in her full leg brace then. And, of course, we had a lot to do to get the boat ready for that challenging journey — final boat work to supervise, things to buy, transiting the boat to another marina for annual haul out and bottom paint — and we had booked tickets to fly back from New Zealand to Australia on May 12 to give us 3 working weeks to accomplish our long list of to-dos. With Jill unable to live on the Che Figata and much less sail her, none of those things were going to happen.

But back to a positive note, we’ve got a great plan B. We still plan to re-join the World ARC on the sail back from Australia to the Caribbean in September 2025. That has not changed. We will extend our stay in New Zealand to allow Jill to heal here and, importantly, to spend more time in this beautiful country. Our travel agent, Travel Essence, has been incredibly helpful in re-arranging our trip. Long hikes and bungee jumping are out but there is still much to see — winery tours now top our list! (Some may have questioned why that wasn’t our focus to begin with.) With Jill fast becoming a demon on crutches, why not extend our visit now that we don’t have to rush back to Australia. Our plans are a bit fluid at the moment but we will probably stay in New Zealand for about 2 months. We will return to Australia to visit Che Figata in the June/July time frame and, at that time, will probably tour some of the places in Australia that got scratched off the list when we had to shorten our original tour. Finally, we still plan to take advantage of being in this part of the world through September 2025 to spend extended time in SE Asia. We already have several plans in the works with friends from home and friends we met on our circumnavigation. We remain genuinely excited by what we can do — which is so much — vs. what we cannot do. In the scheme of things it’s a speck.

Before we sign off, a final few words about the New Zealand medical system. We already mentioned that Jill was covered under the ACC. Even though everyone went out of their way to tell us about the system and, particularly, that it covered most costs related to the accident, we were still astonished when Jill was discharged from an 8 day hospital stay, after complex knee surgery (open reduction and internal fixation), without a bill. Zero balance! And no one ever asked for a credit card. Of course, she was given detailed discharge instructions and prescriptions which were filled (all eight of them) at no cost. All of this was on top of exceptional care. We are so grateful. Jill is a health care geek and while she would have preferred to experience the immersion into New Zealand’s health care with a more mundane injury (really, a clean fracture to the tibia would have been quite sufficient), she did enjoy learning about the ACC, the dual public and private system and seeing, first-hand, how the foundation of the system (and its financing) has so many impacts across the health care continuum, including how medical practices operate. Jill could write copious amounts about what she learned and is looking forward to sharing her experiences with her friends and former colleagues, many of whom are still in the health care field. For that, you will have to arrange a call. Jill looks forward to it.

We will sign off for now but will periodically post updates as we travel around the Southern hemisphere on the other side of the world. Again, we do this mostly for us to preserve our memories — the good and, as you can see, the bad — and for the small handful of friends and family that seem to like to keep up with our travels (or just like to torture themselves with our dribble). Until then, take care, be well and try not to trip on sharp pointy objects. It doesn’t end well.