REPEAT WARNING: Once again, this is not a sailing related entry. This, as well as future entires through April/May 2025, reflect our effort to capture our experiences while we explore Australia, New Zealand and other places in the southern hemisphere across the world from the country we call home 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 these entries. No offense will be taken. You were warned!
As we get ready to hit the “submit” button on this blog entry we do so with a heavy heart. It means that we have concluded our nearly 4 months on the South Island of New Zealand. Our noses would grow if we said it was all fun. We could have done without Jill fracturing her kneecap (and the subsequent 8 day hospital stay which included a surgical repair) but, of course, we would not have enjoyed our amazing extended stay if that did not happen. And amazing it was. We visited all the placed on our original itinerary (with bonus days added) as well as some wonderful places — such as Timaru, Oamaru, Geraldine, Dunedin and the Marlborough wine region — that were not part of our original plan. (In full disclosure, Timaru is mostly notable for its excellent hospital (which included an incredibly compassionate and professional staff) and the group of talented orthopedic surgeons who practice there. While it was definitely not part of our original itinerary, we will be forever grateful for the fabulous care Jill received there.)
We concluded our last blog entry when we were just arriving in Wanaka for our second extended stay. This time 16 days. We had many reasons for the return to Wanaka. First, we had really seen all we set out to see in the South Island (and then some as noted above) and were ready to be in one place for more than 3-4 days. Second, Jill had a relationship with a physiotherapist there and we wanted to get her knee working again. Third, we were looking forward to that guaranteed sunshine we had learned to expect in Wanaka — one of the driest locations on the planet. Forth, we loved our rental with its unobstructed million dollar views of the mountains. And, finally (and most importantly), we enjoyed the friendships we made during our first extended (5 week) visit and were ready to, once again, become locals in a place that had started to feel like home.
As they say, 4 out of 5 ain’t bad. We enjoyed staying put for over two weeks in a beautiful home, seeing friends and giving Jill and opportunity to work with her physiotherapist. (More on all of that below.) Unfortunately, and surprisingly, the sun was pretty much a bust. There is a thing called the inversion layer in Wanaka. Basically, it is a a thick layer of cloud that clings close to the ground. This inversion layer is caused when the normal temperature distribution of air – warm at the bottom, colder as you go up – becomes “inverted” or flipped upside down. This means you have a cold layer of air trapped at ground level, overlain by warm air. It creates a dense, fog-like, atmosphere and blocks almost all sunlight. It’s particularly common in the winter months (which we are experiencing now in New Zealand) because the sun is positioned at a lower angle and the days are shorter. That means the sun isn’t around long enough to warm up the air and burn off that cloud layer. The double whammy is that Wanaka is not exposed to the south so you don’t get that wind push that exposure would allow to move the clouds along. At any rate, the inversion layer is actually pretty cool to see when you drive up into the mountains. From above it literally looks like a solid carpet of the whitest fluffy cotton covering the valley. Our Instagram post about our final stay in Wanaka includes a picture of the inversion layer. We highly encourage everyone to take a look! While it is awesome to see, it does get old when you feel like you are living inside a cloud for 2 weeks. (The sun finally peaked at in Wanaka the day before our scheduled departure.) To replenish our sun deficit we took several car rides up the mountains and to places, like Queenstown with its expansive Southern exposure, where the inversion layer dissipates more quickly. It was wonderful to see the blue sky and get in more of those magnificent mountain views!
Inversion layer aside, we had a wonderful return stay in Wanaka. This stay included an abundance of social gatherings, in part the result of a visit from our friend Kristin of SV Rumpus. Kristin was the New Zealand friend who introduced us to Annabel, the owner of the Wanaka house we rented. We invited Kristin to spend some time with us in Wanaka so she could get in her annual ski fix. She joined us from July 13 through July 17. Though we are not skiing these days, along with Annabel’s parents (Janet and Robert), we met Kristin and Annabel up at the Cardrona Ski area for a tailgate lunch. We also hosted a pre-birthday celebration for Kristin (salad, pizza and some wonderful Central Otago Pinot Noirs) one evening. That led to us meeting Kristin’s friends, Lesley and Markus, who live in the area which then led to an invite to their house for dinner the following evening as well as a late afternoon get together at the Cork Bar to listen to their friends play some Irish Folk Music. Finally, there was our “Apres Ski” evening with Annabel at the Pembroke Wines & Spirits — a local wine shop that hosts wine and spirit tastings and offers a selections of wines by the glass — and the farewell wine and cheese evening we hosted for Annabel and her parents.
Despite our busy social calendar 😀, as a mentioned above, we found time for some roadtrips up the mountains (Cardrona for the lunch with Kristin and Annabel and Treble Cone just because) as well as a few hikes along local Hawea River and Lake. The hike along the Hawea River Track was particularly lovely due to the intense crystal turquoise blue color of the river and its sparsely developed riverbank with, of course, snow capped mountains off in the distance. (We posted some pics of the stunning river on the Instagram post of our final Wanaka stay and we choose a picture taken on our Hawea Lake hike as our feature photo for this blog entry.)
Finally, we found time for 2 more winery visits — one to Domaine-Thomas and one to Judge Rock. The Domaine-Thomas visit was lovely because Kristin and Annabel joined us. That gave us a reason to order a cheese platter and made the tasting more of an extended outing as we lingered in the tasting room for almost 2 hours. We particularly enjoyed their rosé wine which was more full-bodied than most — really a bottle you could drink at room temperature (in lieu of a red wine) in front of a fire — so, naturally, we went home with a bottle. As wonderful as the visit to Domaine-Thomas was though we’d have to place the visit to Judge Rock up in the top 3 of our collective cellar door experiences. We had decided to visit Judge Rock because it is a very small, family run, winery that also happened to produce award winning Pinot Noirs. To us that is the perfect combination.
Little did we really appreciate how small Judge Rock was. (Though maybe this statement on their website should have given us a clue: “We are so small we are almost invisible.”) On the website Judge Rock indicates that its cellar door is opened 7 days a week, 11 AM – 5 PM, no appointment necessary. Despite the published hours, we have learned that staffing is an issue in the off season, particularly for the small vineyards, so often cellar doors close and it is best to schedule an appointment. Fitting for a small winery, the Judge Rock website is pretty basic with no online booking so we sent several emails through their online contact form to arrange a visit. No response. Hearing no response, but being aware of their published hours, we decided to just stopped by one day. We had offered to drive Kristin to the Queenstown airport at the end of her visit and Judge Rock would be on our way back to Wanaka so why not pop by then? The first thing that struck us was the lack of any real signage after you turned off the main road into the winery. Just a very few small (blink and you miss them) cardboard signs with the word “tasting” and an arrow. We followed these signs as we winded our way around the vineyard and arrived at what appeared to be a modest home. We parked our car in the designated visitors’ spot and proceeded toward the house. Seeing a sliding door and no signage, we weren’t quite sure where to go. Fortunately, as we walked up to the patio we were greeted by Angela, one of the owners of Judge Rock. She clearly wasn’t expecting us and, though she informed us that the cellar door was by appointment only this time of year, she was happy to let us try some of their wines. She escorted us into her home, through the kitchen — which was in the middle of a renovation — and into her small adjacent dinning room where we were to do our tasting at her dining room table. Not surprisingly given that we were in Angela’s private home (and she was not expecting us), her dining room table looked like the typical family table that doubles as both a repository for mail and a staging area for things brought into the house from the car that just didn’t quite make it to their designated spot. Angela quickly cleared two places for us and with the help of Frankie — her cherubic blond 4 year old grandson she was babysitting that day — she served us a collection of their wines including a pet-nat (a naturally bubbly white wine), a blanc de noir, a rosé, a pinot noir and a vintage port. The wines, particularly (in our opinion) the blanc de noir and the vintage port, were exquisite, exceeding our expectations but living up to Judge Rock’s stellar reputation.
While serving us our tastings, we learned that the vineyard is owned by Angela and her husband Paul. They only grow their organically certified grapes on 4 hectares (equivalent to just under 10 acres) — all of which is Pinot Noir grapes save for a half a hectare of St Laurent grapes. While we were tasting wine, Frankie was entertaining himself with the legos Angela had set out on the floor nearby to redirect and occupy him. Of course, he brought his lego car right over to the table to join in on the conversation where it had an unfortunate collision with a bottle of wine. (Someone ran a stop sign — we aren’t sure if it was the bottle or the lego car.) Miraculously, the securely sealed bottle toppled, narrowly missing the stemware, but did not break. Angela, the consummate grandmother, remained very calm and simply redirected Frankie so that the lego car was no longer racing around the table. In part because we truly loved the vintage port (in a word, incredible), and in part because we could not have written a more delightful script for a mom and pop cellar door experience, we purchased a bottle of the port. We also bought a bottle of the Blanc de Noir reasoning that it would be the perfect bottle to take with us when we visit Kristin and Rupp in Auckland — not that we really need an excuse to buy a delightfully playful white wine while supporting this small but mighty family winery.
In between social events, Jill visited her physiotherapist, Bri. As we mentioned in our last post, Jill’s knee didn’t get the memo that it was supposed to bend so we thought it would be a good idea to get Jill started on therapy. Bri did wonders. Jill could only bend her right knee to a 45 degree angle when we showed up in Wanaka. By the time we left Jill was able to flex to her knee 70 degrees. Huge! Of course, you all know Jill. She was a very compliant patient. She worked that knee at every possible opportunity, diligently going through her assigned reps. We were very happy with Jill’s progress. Aside from the comfort of seeing Jill steadily improve, with the additional bend she was able to graduate to the front passenger seat of the car. (For the last 13 weeks she had been riding in the back seat with her legs across the entire row.) A thrilling milestone in her recovery though not an entirely welcome one for Zack who was then subjected to many more frequent warnings to slow down.
We are grateful to Annabel for connecting Jill with Bri during our first Wanaka visit. We can’t bring up Annabel’s name again without a brief but fascinating tangent. We believe we had mentioned in a previous entry that Annabel is an athlete. From many Pinot Noir fueled conversations with her we knew that she was a Stand Up Paddleboard champion and that she suffered many sport related injuries in the past including some rather severe injuries suffered when she inadvertently skied off a cliff. (She actually met Bri through her own rehab.) Perhaps because she suffers from “Tall Poppy” syndrome (it’s a thing in New Zealand — Goggle it) and is rather modest, we did not fully appreciate Annabel’s degree of athleticism and accomplishments. Like the “wee” detail that she was the world’s number one stand up paddleboarder for five consecutive years and, but for one unfortunate accident, she would have been an Olympic skier! (BTW, “wee” is our favorite New Zealand word. One that is somehow used in every conversation you have with a Kiwi.) Annabel is one of those rare highly driven individuals who bring new meaning to the phrase “I get knocked down, I get up again.” She is a true inspiration. You can — and should — read more about out Annabel here (https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2020/09/running-on-empty-annabel-anderson-sup/) and here (https://www.mensjournal.com/adventure/annabel-anderson-the-kiwi-queen).
We left Wanaka on July 23, the day of Jill’s return visit to Timaru hospital. We were cautiously optimistic she would receive good news and our optimism was not misplaced. While Jill’s knee is not 100% healed, it’s close enough that her knee was liberated from the brace. Importantly, based on the doctor’s review of the X-ray and his physical exam he believes that the limited motion in Jill’s knee is the result of scar tissue and, with intense therapy (consistent with what she’s been doing), it will improve over time. She still can’t engage in high impact or high risk activities (e.g., no jumping off boats to catch lines 😀) until her bone is fully healed but, other than that, she can pretty much go about her life, at least as her partially stiff knee allows. Of course, while Jill’s knee has been steadily improving Zack’s arthritic knee has been acting up so she gifted Zack her leg brace. We are quite a pair as we limp down the street together.
With our final return visit to Timaru behind us we decided to make the most of our last 6 days on the South Island before catching the ferry to the North Island. We planned to visit Abel Tasman National Park on the northeastern tip of the South Island, not too far from where we had to pick up the ferry in Picton. It would have been quite a drive to get there from Timaru so we did the trip in two days. These days were mostly about getting from point A to point B in a civilized fashion so they weren’t particularly notable with one exception. As we looked at breaking up the trip we decided to spend the second night in Blenheim. We had stayed near there during our 6 nights in the Marlborough wine region so we knew that there were lots good hotel and restaurant options. When we had Sarah and Clinton over for wine during our stay at Vintner’s Retreat and mentioned that we would be passing through the area again they asked if we would join them for dinner on our way back through. Having enjoyed their company (and being incredibly flattered that these millennials wanted to have anything to do with us) we gladly accepted. (For those having a hard time keeping up with who’s who in Jill and Zack’s epic New Zealand adventure, Sarah was the cellar door host at Nautilus Winery. After a one-on-one cellar door experience we ended up inviting Sarah and her new husband, Clinton, over for wine and cheese one evening. Spending time and developing relationships with various locals has been one of the highlights of our New Zealand experiences.). At any rate, we meet Sarah and Clinton for dinner in Blenheim while passing through and had a thoroughly delightful evening. Most of it was spent discussing USA political developments because there had been so many in the short time since we last saw them (e.g., Biden’s debate debacle, the SCOTUS decision on presidential immunity, the Trump assassination attempt and Biden stepping down as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president and his endorsement of Kamala Harris). Needless to say there was no shortage of things to talk about and, like most Kiwis with whom we have had any sort of extended conversation, other more substantive issues aside, they are incredulous that we almost held an election between two white males who would both be octogenarians at the ended of their elected term. They don’t understand how a country like the USA doesn’t have a dynamic pool of up and coming leaders who can capture the nomination.
With our two day roadtrip from Timaru coming to an end, we arrived in Kaiteriteri, the gateway to Abel Tasman National park, on July 25. We enjoyed a delightful 4 night/3 night stay that was the perfect final hurrah to our South Island visit before crossing the Cook Strait on the ferry to the North Island. For our first full day we visited the lovely town of Takaka where Jill quickly proclaimed she “found her people.” Takaka is a delightful speck of a village filled with art galleries, local knick knack and clothing stores and restaurants featuring a plethora of natural and organic foods. The vegan options were plentiful. The welcoming locals were a diverse group of young and old Kiwis with an eclectic mix of clothing and hairstyles. Anything goes in Takaka! After taking in the town we went on two separate nearby hikes. The first was the hike to Pu Pu Springs. These springs are New Zealand’s largest freshwater springs and the largest cold water springs in the southern hemisphere. What was particularly notable was the clarity of the water which is not surprising given the natural filtering that occurs prior to the water’s powerful emergence from the spring at 14,000 liters of water per second. (Yes, that’s 3698 gallons per second!) The New Zealand National Institute for Water and Atmosphere measured the water clarity and found it to be as close to optically pure as possible with only the water beneath Antartica’s near-frozen Wendell Sea optically purer. The result is a spring of the most beautiful crystal clear but vibrant blue water imaginable that allows you to clearly see the intricate details of the sand and smooth rocks that cover the river bed as well as the bursts of several different shades of bright green and yellow from the underwater plant life. Though the man feature of the hike is the beautiful water, the hike itself through a dense moss and fern filled forest was pretty spectacular. (We posted a few pics of the clear spring water in our Abel Tasman Instagram post.)
Our second hike took us to Wainui Falls. To get there from Pu Pu Springs we had to travel along a quintessential narrow New Zealand road that hugs the coastline and takes you through a series of hairpin turns as you transverse from one bay to the other with a large expanse of water on your one side and a tall wall of dense foliage in autumn colors on the other. As always, the drive to our destination was every bit a part of the adventure as the ultimate activity we were traveling to to experience. The Wainui Falls hike was a relatively short 2.1 miles in total but did include a fair amount of gentle climbing that slowed both of us wounded warriors down. Despite the inevitable knee pain, the hike was worth it. To reach the falls you meander through a gorgeous forests with native trees and ferns along a wide crystal clear river with small stone beaches as well as large granite blocks. To get to the falls you have to cross a narrow, long and very bouncy suspension bridge that, though entirely safe, adds an element of perceived danger to the walk. We love these bridges though Jill is always happy when she successfully gets to the other side. The fall is 66 feet high with water exiting from what looks like a hole in the hillside with great force. No slight trickle of water here. At the base of the fall there’s a large swimming hole (which is probably fantastic in the summer months) that narrows as the water flows downriver in a series of small drops. So picturesque with wonderful photo ops at every turn! (We posted select pics from the Wainui Falls hike in our Abel Tasman Instagram post.)
After 2 fabulous hikes we returned back to our B&B just in time to enjoy the hot tub, shower and go to dinner. Dinner was at the nearby Riwaka Hotel which deserves a special shout out. The restaurant very deceptively appears to be a simple beer and burger joint. The unpretentious appearance belies the fact that the restaurant serves the most delicious freshly prepared meals ever including a selection of mouth watering vegan options. It was so good we ended up eating there 2 nights with Jill enjoying the best tofu burger she’s ever eaten (breaded and lightly sautéed tofu on a house-made whole grain seeded bun topped with smashed avocado, cabbage, tomato, lettuce and vegan sriracha mayo) on the first night and a pesto mushroom roti on the second night while Zack enjoyed a beef burger night one and BBQ ribs night two. And we haven’t even mentioned the twice cooked fries or Asian coleslaw. YUM!!!!!)
For our second full day in the area we arranged a full day cruise around Abel Tasman Park with a drop off at one of the beaches along the route so that we could hike along a loop trail for a few hours before getting picked up later in the afternoon. We got lucky with a 60 degree blue sky day that allowed us to really enjoy our excursion. The contours of the bays and beaches around the park were spectacular and we were treated to several great wildlife sightings including a large pod of bottlenose dolphins who swam along side of us for quite a while entertaining us with their high leaps out of the water and a herd of baby fur seals that playfully frolicked among the rocks with the exuberance of the young! After nearly 3 hours we were dropped off at Anchorage Beach where we hiked a 2.5 mile loop trail that crossed the headland over to an adjacent bay giving us many wonderful commanding views of the rocky cost and sandy beaches. We enjoyed a light picnic lunch along the way and explored two separate beaches during our journey, stopping to sit on large driftwood logs to soak in the sunshine on the glorious day. Just as the sun was beginning to descend behind the hills and the temperature started to drop our boat reappeared and took us back to Kaiteriteri. Another really spectacular day. (We also posted some pics from our cruise and beach hike in our Abel Tasman Instagram post.)
Unfortunately, day 3 we weren’t quite as lucky. Though it wasn’t pouring rain, it was definitely wet and colder with a near constant drizzle in the morning. With the weather less conducive to a stroll through the National Park, we chose to visit a nearby town, Mapua, replete with lots of galleries and shops. Definitely not as authentic as Takaka but still lovely. With the weather improved in the afternoon we stopped along the waterfront to walk a portion of the track that follows the shoreline all the way to the next town, Motueka. We only had time to walk a small portion of the track because we had a lot of packing to do to get ready for our ferry crossing the next day but we very much enjoyed what was to be our last South Island coastal hike.
The next morning (July 29) it was up and out early to catch the ferry in Picton (a 3 hour trip from our B&B in Kaiteriteri) to take us to Wellington in the North Island. We are currently settled in at our hotel following dinner and excited to now explore the North Island where we will spend the next 11 days. We will write about all of our North Island adventures — in the glorious detail you have come to expect, if not fully appreciate — on or around August 9 when we fly back to Australia after exactly 4 months in New Zealand.
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