Month: February 2021

One of the pleasures of visiting New Zealand was trying new foods. Here are some of our favorites.

Favorite dinners: fish & chips and meat pies

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When we didn't feel like cooking, we liked to order fish & chips at a takeaway store. We would place an order for two pieces of battered fish and share a scoop of chips (french fries). The takeaway stores offered a few varieties of fish, and since we had no idea what they were, we would just order the catch of the day.

We tried meat pies for quick and easy meals. We found them ready made in the deli section of the grocery store. Varieties included bacon and egg, steak and cheese, and mince and cheese.

Favorite beverage: L&P soda

We were introduced to L&P when we were offered a drink on the shuttle bus ride back from our Tongario Alpine Crossing hike. L&P is an abbreviation for “Lemon & Paeroa.” It tastes like Sprite, but has a more lemony and sweet flavor. We had wanted to buy bottled ice tea, which we found on the first day in Thames, but we never found it after that first day.

Favorite snacks: Mother Earth Baked Oaty Slices and Whittaker's Chocolate

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Mother Earth Baked Oaty Slices are snack bars that come in a variety of flavors. We liked the following (descriptions are copied from the website):

• Afghan Baked Oaty Slice: A soft, baked bar with the goodness of oats combined with yummy dark chocolate, cornflakes and walnuts
• Chocolate Orange Baked Oaty Slice: A soft, baked bar with the goodness of oats combined with real dark chocolate pieces and delicious orange pieces
• Chocolate Chip Baked Oaty Slice: A soft, baked bar with the goodness of oats combined chunks of real dark chocolate

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Whittaker's Chocolate comes in 250 gram slabs and a chunk or two was a great treat to snack on in the evening or in the car after coming back from a hike. Heinrich liked the Dark Chocolate and I liked the Rum and Raisin flavor.

Favorite desserts: steamy puds and ice cream

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We found Aunt Betty's Steamy Puds in the grocery store on our first day in New Zealand and continued to buy them throughout the trip. They are ready to eat after just 30 seconds in the microwave. They are soft sponge cakes topped with a sweet sauce. We tried the following flavors (descriptions copied from the website):

• Chocolate: a light sponge made from premium cocoa and smothered in a thick chocolate flavored sauce
• Golden Syrup: a light sponge smothered in a rich golden syrup sauce
• Strawberry Vanilla: a light vanilla sponge topped with real strawberry sauce

We tried the Tip Top orange chocolate chip ice cream at a food booth in Hahei, after we had visited Cathedral Cove on the hike back to our car. We bought it at the grocery store on a few occasions afterwards.

Worst food: Marmite

We got the pleasure of trying Marmite at one of the B & B places where it was served for breakfast. The taste is very strong and reminded us of dehydrated soy sauce. It is a food paste made of yeast extract combined with herbs and spices. It is usually eaten with bread or crackers and is supposed to be spread thinly and then layered with butter. It must be an acquired taste because we both found it to be inedible.

Although the primary language of New Zealand is English, it definitely has a different flavor (or flavour as it is spelled there) than in the United States. So to keep you from scratching your head and saying "huh?" if you go there to visit, I have compiled a list of some of the local phrases we encountered and had to learn their meanings while in New Zealand.

• A hike is a tramp.
• A trail is a track.
• The forest is the bush.
• A flashlight is a torch.
• Flip-flops are jandals.
• Swimwear are togs.
• Diapers are nappies.
• A cooler is a chilly bin.
• A shopping cart is a trolley.
• A shopping cart return area is a trolley park.
• Ketchup is tomato sauce.
• But tomato sauce is also tomato sauce. Go figure!
• A sweet potato is kumara.
• A red pepper is capsicum.
• Ground beef is minced.
• You go to a takeaway store to order take out food.
• A convenience store is a dairy.
• A city park is a domain.
• A parking lot is a car park.
• To yield is to give way.
• A turnout is a slow vehicle bay.
• A paved road is a sealed road.
• A gravel road is an unsealed road.
• A graded gravel road can also be called a metaled road.
• Gasoline is petrol.
• 91 petrol (unleaded) is dispensed from the green pump. Diesel is black. Don't confuse the two!

And my favorite:

• Something that is cool or awesome is Sweet As!

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February 21, 2019

We got up at 6 AM, ate some of the remaining food for breakfast, and packed the rest of our luggage. The weather was mostly clear, and Heinrich told me to look outside. The just past full moon was in the center of a block of pink fluffy clouds. It was really pretty.

We walked over to the shared kitchen where there was a table for free items that people were leaving. We dropped off our chilly bin and ice blocks, remaining paper plates and silverware, pillows and condiments. Hopefully they will find a good home with someone. They served their purpose well for 35 days.

We found a BP gas station to use for the final fill close to the airport. But on the drive over, the gas gauge suddenly indicated it was full! So we skipped stopping at the gas station and I drove directly to the Ace Rental Car return. It was an easy 10-minute drive from the holiday park, although traffic was a bit slow due to the morning commuters. We did not have to go into the city at all.

The rental car return was very fast. The lady at the counter didn’t check anything and just asked us to leave the keys in the car. We boarded the shuttle bus to the airport. We weighed our checked bags and found we were still under the 23 kg limit, so we transferred more of the books and heavy items from our backpacks into the suitcases. There was a self service check in station where we scanned our passports and got the luggage tags to check through all of the way back to Denver. We still will need to pick up our bags in San Francisco to go through customs.

We went through security without any issues and had about two hours waiting at the gate before boarding. The Air New Zealand flight to Auckland was delayed about a half hour due to some bad weather and the flight route needed to be changed. Heinrich and I both had window seats in the same row across from each other: we were lucky to get them since I did not figure out how to get the Air New Zealand seat assignment selection online until 2 days prior. (I had to go through the Air New Zealand website and give them the confirmation number corresponding to that segment of the flight.)

I was sitting on the left side of the plane, and from there I took a video of the first ten minutes of the flight starting at take off. The plane took off to the south, so I was able to see the city of Christchurch, and then when the plane turned north I saw the interior of the South Island until we encountered clouds. The clouds finally cleared as we approached the north shore of the South Island. I was able to see the city of Nelson, the Abel Tasman area, Golden Bay, and Farewell Spit. As we crossed the sound the clouds rolled in again, and I saw nothing further until shortly before we landed in Auckland.

The weather in Auckland was gray and drizzly. As the plane descended below the cloud layer I was able to see the area just south of Auckland. The city came into view on the horizon and I briefly saw the sky tower.

We deplaned at the domestic terminal, which meant we had to exit security and walk over to the International terminal. After going through security a second time and passing through the customs entry area, we walked over to the Strata Lounge where Heinrich had a free pass for himself and a guest with his Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card. We spent the next hour there. There was a buffet of pasta dishes, salads and desserts. I had the lamb ragout and a couple of savory beef pies, and some fudge bars and a piece of cheesecake for dessert. I also tried some New Zealand pinot noir wine which was very tasty.

We walked over to the gate just as they were starting to board the plane. We had the same seats going back as we had coming out: two seats together at the back of the plane with the third seat missing so there was more room to spread out. I had the window seat and took a video of the first few minutes after take off. I was able to see the city of Auckland, but we ascended into the clouds quickly and lost the view.

We reached San Francisco on time and then had to go through customs. We both had global entry cards, but we got confused when an announcement was made on the plane that we could get through customs quickly by using the mobile passport program on our phones. So we entered all of the information into our smart phones, only to find out that was the wrong thing for us to do since it prevented us from using the global entry line which would have been faster. End result was we got in the wrong line and then had to get in the mobile passport line. Also annoying was that afterwards we had to go through security yet again to get to our flight to Denver. It was the full inspection since there was no TSA Precheck line. I had to wait for my backpack to get hand inspected since the bag of snacks brought from New Zealand did not pass the machine check.

The flight from San Francisco to Denver was on time. I had the window seat, and the first part of the flight was cloud free until we reached the middle of Nevada. I had great views of the Sierras and Mono Lake. There was a lot of snow in the mountains, more than I had ever seen before from the air.

The remainder of the flight was cloudy. We touched down in Denver to cold and drizzly weather. We claimed our baggage without incident and called my son Kevin, who was waiting for us in the cell phone lot. It was great to see Kevin and be able to relax while he drove us home.

What a wonderful trip. I can’t wait to go back, but it will be a couple of years before we can do so. It has been fun replaying all of the videos and photos from the trip. So many great memories.

February 21, 2019

We woke up to cloudy skies. We took our time checking out of the room since I did not have much planned for the day other than get to Christchurch (estimated 2 hours 20 minutes drive time) and then get ready to leave for home.

We stopped at the Caltex station to fill up on gas, and then we drove to a lookout on the Kaikoura Peninsula. Low clouds over the mountains blocked most of the view. We’ll have to come back there again in the future.

Then we drove to South Bay in hopes of seeing the dolphins again. Alas, they were not there. We drove back to the Kaikoura Peninsula to the Point Kean viewpoint. It was low tide, and we could see some fur seals lying on the rocks in the distance. The only good view of them was with binoculars. True to what the lady had told us at the I-site the day before, the seals were not very active. The viewpoint was better for looking at the mountains in the distance. At that time the clouds were beginning to clear and I was able to get some decent views. There was also a nice trail that went along the top of the peninsula and led to some great viewpoints of other bays. I walked it for a little way before turning around. Another hike to save for the future.

We left Kaikoura and headed south. Heinrich drove to Gore Bay, which is on a nice little detour road from SH 1. There we found a picnic table along the beach and had lunch. I walked along the beach for a little bit. The sand was dark brown with a lot of gravel, but it was a pretty spot with the Cathedral cliffs in the distance.

I took over driving and drove up the steep road from the beach to the Cathedrals, which resembled the badlands in their formations. There was a nice view of Gore Bay and the beach in the background. There was no trail to walk around the cliffs, so this was just a short stop for the view.

I drove further south to the outskirts of Christchurch, where we checked into our room at the 219 On Johns Holiday Park. We had a chalet cabin with a private bathroom and kitchenette, and air conditioning! It had turned into a nice warm sunny afternoon, so the air conditioning was much appreciated. The cabin had a second bedroom that we used as a packing area to get ready for the plane flights home.

We pulled everything out of the car and repacked the luggage as best as we could. We may have to shuffle items around after we get to the airport and weigh the luggage.

After packing we had some free time and decided to visit The Groynes park that was only a couple of kilometers from the cabin. It was a nice place to walk around. We viewed some ducks on a lake and a river with a weir. There was a swinging bridge over the lake outlet. This was a final goodbye to swinging bridges, one way bridges, and the New Zealand forest.

Afterwards we drove to the Z gas station for one last fill up. I paid part in cash and the rest by credit card to get rid of the remaining New Zealand money. Unfortunately after we left the gas station we discovered we did not get a good fill. We will need to visit a gas station one more time the next morning before turning in the car to top off the tank.

Back at the cabin we had ham and cheese sandwiches and salad for dinner, steamy puds and Whittier’s chocolate for dessert. We were hoping to finish off the remaining food items as much as possible to avoid having to throw things out.

I spent the evening uploading pictures to Facebook and writing blog posts.

February 20, 2019

The itinerary for today was to take a whale watch cruise in the morning and then explore Kaikoura and a few surrounding areas in the afternoon. We woke up to a cloudy day. We were able to sleep in and have a leisurely breakfast since our whale watch cruise check in time did not start until 10:00.

We walked over to the I-site where I bought a magnet and asked the lady at the desk about road conditions to Ohau Point, which was a spot 25 km north of Kaikoura that contained a fur seal colony. She said there were a few areas of road construction, but nothing too bad and the drive would take about 25 minutes. She also said that Ohau Point was a much better place to view fur seals than the closer Point Kean since Ohau Point was a breeding colony with lots of pups. Point Kean was the equivalent of a retirement community where the adult seals came in to sleep on the rocks.

We took the 10-minute walk to the Whale Watch Kaikoura building. We were still early so we spent some time walking along the beach. This beach was pure gravel and there was not much interesting to view. We checked in for the boat cruise promptly at 10:00 and were told to wait another half hour before reporting to the safety briefing room at 10:30. I was not thrilled about the long drawn out check in process, and I think it was designed to maximize people’s time to view all of the overpriced souvenirs and buy things.

A passenger train arrived at the train station that was next door to the Whale Watch Kaikoura headquarters. The last car was open deck, and I was able to talk to a few of the passengers while they were waiting to move on. They said they were enjoying the ride, but the train went very slowly. I would think that is good for viewing all of the scenery. We took videos of the train as it left the station.

We were in the briefing room promptly at 10:30. After the safety briefing we boarded a bus that took us to the South Bay where we got on the boat.
The weather for the boat cruise was partly cloudy with light winds. We had been warned that there was a south swell on the water, so there might be potential for getting sea sick. The waves did not bother me or Heinrich, but a few people on the boat did get sick, and I felt sorry for them because they looked utterly miserable.

The boat stopped at an area where we were able to see a few dozen dusky dolphins from the boat deck. We could see their backs arcing in and out of the water as they swam around the boat. Just as we were instructed to go back inside to take our seats for the next part of the trip, the dolphins started jumping and twirling out of the water! I was not able to get any pictures, but it was great seeing them up close.

The boat stopped for our first sighting of a sperm whale. It stayed on the surface of the water for about 10 minutes before diving back down, when we were able to see its beautiful tail. I did manage to capture its tail on video. I had my sunglasses on which made it harder for me to see what I was filming on the cell phone screen. Many times I just pointed the camera and hoped I was capturing something.

The boat moved to another position where we hoped to see a whale, but it did not surface. Later in the tour we got to see one more sperm whale. This one stayed on the surface for about 15 minutes before diving down, and I got better videos since I remembered to remove my sunglasses.

The tour had advertised one or two whale sightings per trip, and we got two so I was happy. Considering the whales are on the surface for only about 10 minutes followed by 45 minutes to an hour when they are down, I thought that the boat crew did a great job locating the whales for us to see.

The return trip to the dock was uneventful. On the bus ride I looked out the window and saw another group of dusky dolphins jumping and twirling offshore! We noted the location, walked back to our car and drove out to the South Bay where we had several minutes of fun watching the jumping dolphins. I was able to get videos of them using the camera zoom.

Afterwards Heinrich drove us north to Ohau Point to see the fur seals. The drive was a bit slow due to the road construction and took about 30 minutes. There were indeed many fur seals and their pups playing in the water and sunning themselves on the rocks, and they were close enough to watch and get good videos.

We drove back to Kaikoura and walked back into town to the Coopers Catch restaurant to order some fish and chips, coleslaw and drinks for dinner. We had planned to eat at the table at the restaurant but did not realize we were getting takeaway food that came in a big paper wrap with no plates. So we walked back to the lodge and ate outside on the picnic table.

After dinner I took a walk along the wharf to a city park and spent time there viewing some whale bone sculptures. Later in the evening there was a full moon, and after it rose above a low cloud bank it made a beautiful reflection in the sea water.

February 19, 2019

We wanted to get a very early start since it was a 5-hour drive to Kaikoura. But we woke up to gray skies. The clouds were very low and threatening rain. So we took more time to check out and left at about 7:15 AM.

Heinrich drove to Lake Brunner. We wanted to hike to Carew Creek Falls, but there was a 4 km dirt road to get to the trail head and it was raining, so we decided to skip the hike. Instead we drove to the town of Moana along the lakeshore. We stopped at a park and hoped the weather would clear. The clouds were so low that we were only able to see the bottom of the lakeshore and none of the surrounding mountains. This was supposed to be a good viewing spot for the Southern Alps. Not today.

We stayed in the park to eat breakfast. We checked the weather forecast, and it was predicted to stay rainy all day there. Since the forecast for Kaikoura was much better (partly cloudy) we decided to move on.

We stopped in the town of Reefton to fill up on gas at the Mobil station. There the attendant gave me a free Mobil card that was good for a 6 cent per liter discount when spending at least $40. I wish I had known about this card earlier in the trip.

I took over driving. Next stop was a waterfall hike near the Maruia Hot Springs resort. I had found this hike listed in Roadtrippers and in the Campermate app. I did not know the name of the waterfall but later found out that the locals referred to it as Five Mile Creek Falls. There was no sign for it along the road, and there was a small area to pull off the road and park the car. There was a blue arrow on a tree that pointed to the trail head. It was a wonderful 15-minute hike through a lush forest to reach a 50-meter high waterfall. Impressive! The trail was a bit narrow and overgrown, and there were two stream crossings due to bridges being washed out, but it was no big deal since we were able to hop rocks. The hike was definitely worth the time.

The road up and down Lewis Pass was a much gentler grade than Arthur’s Pass. The scenery was not as rugged, but I thought it was very pretty with forests dotting the hills. We stopped at the summit to take the 20-minute alpine nature loop hike. The summit was only 864 meters altitude (2,835 feet) and we were still below tree line. The summit vegetation consisted of beech trees, mosses, and grasses. By this time the weather was clearing and only partly cloudy, so we had some nice views of the surrounding mountains.

At the pass we also took the Tarn Walk which was a 1-minute stroll to an alpine tarn with lovely views.

To get to Kaikoura we decided to take the inland route 70 through the town of Waiau. There were many one lane bridges on that road, and a really long one just before reaching Waiau that had 2 passing bays. I ended up having to use the first passing bay on the bridge to avoid oncoming traffic (a truck). A car and a campervan were following me, and the car behind me was able to pull into the passing bay, but the campervan had nowhere to go so he stopped parallel to me on the far right side of the lane. The truck was just barely able to squeeze by both of us. It was a little scary. I don’t understand why these long one-lane bridges were built when they don’t have clear sight lines all the way to the other side. It seems like a ripe spot for lots of accidents.

After passing through Waiau we took a shortcut road to get back to the main state highway 1. There was a twisty section of paved road that climbed to the top of a hill where there was a nice view. We stopped there for lunch.

Heinrich took over driving the rest of the way to Kaikoura. After we reached state highway 1 we encountered road construction and small delays. This was the part of the country where much road rebuilding was needed after the earthquake in 2016. Fortunately all of the roads are open now, but they go down to one lane where the repair work continues.

Near Kaikoura the road passed by close to the ocean where we saw many pretty bay areas but no wildlife. We checked in at the Dolphin Lodge which was located at the top of the hill overlooking the town and the ocean. We had reserved a room for two nights. It had a private bathroom, and there was a shared kitchen down the hallway.

After getting settled we decided to drive to the New World supermarket at the end of town to pick up some dinner food and a few lunch supplies for our final few days. We prepared a spaghetti dinner and salad in the kitchen. We ate dinner outside on the picnic table where there was a nice view of the ocean and surrounding mountains. The resident cat came to investigate. It was very friendly. I had to keep it from climbing onto the table.

After dinner we strolled down the hill and looked at the shops and restaurants in town. We found a fish and chips place that had reasonable prices, and we made a note of it for tomorrow. We found the Whale Watch Kaikoura building and browsed the gift shop, but I found nothing of interest. We walked back to our room, and I spent the evening reading and posting photos to Facebook.