Land of the long white cloud

From Helsinki, it was just a short hop (two 10 hour flights and a six hour layover) to New Zealand.  We met up with my parents in Christchurch and, after checking into our hotel, immediately showered off the travel stink (specific to sitting in a plane for 10+ hours).  For dinner we headed towards city center and found a great indian place with excellent food.

We left for the northern part of the South island in the morning, stopping in Kaikoura.  There is a seal colony down the road from city center and we were literally three feet from a living breathing seal.  We stopped at a takeaway fish and chips place in some little town and had incredible battered fish with wedges, wrapped in newspaper.

Once in Nelson, our intended destination, our plan was to take a wine tour on bikes.  Unfortunately it was 2 PM and the bike place we went to wasn't even open for the season.  With little time left before the vineyards closed, we decided to take a driving wine tour with Andy being our lovely designated driver.  This area is known for its Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir and we had lots of excellent tastings.

One vineyard even had a rugby goal set up and we tried our feet at a conversion kick (essentially a field goal in football).

After dinner Wayne and I headed out for a bar.  This night was the Rugby world cup final and it was New Zealand vs France.  We followed the crowd to an excellent bar, watched until half time then headed back to the motel where Andy and Mom had fallen asleep (Andy on the couch) before the game had even started.

The next day we headed up to Abel Tasman National Park.  Andy and I had hiked a couple hours of this trail the first time around in New Zealand, so this time we all took a water taxi farther up the trail, then hiked back, allowing us all to see more of the hike than could be achieved hiking in and out.

Since we were leaving at low tide, the water taxi had to drop us off several hundred feet from the dock, which was above water, leaving us to walk in knee high ocean until reaching the shore.  It was an excellent way to start the hike.  It took us about four hours to finish the hike and after 15km, we were exhausted.  Dinner time!

Did I mention that this day is a holiday in New Zealand? This severely limited our dinner options.  In a town with three restaurants open, the first place didn't have availability, the second place looked shady, and the third place was a kebab house, which we ate at.  Turns out they had excellent kebabs.

In the morning we had a long drive ahead of us, although we hadn't realized it would be our longest day on the road when we started out.  We passed through Buller's gorge to the west coast where we drove along the amazing coastline for a half hour then turned back inland to head into Arthur's Pass national park.  Our intent was to do a hike or two in the area before heading down to Methven (the tiny town of choice for sleep that night).

It just so happened that it was raining when we arrived in Arthur's Pass.  Nevertheless, we stopped at the Visitor's center to ask about short hikes, picked our poison and headed out to the path.  We put on our rain gear, stepped outside the car and was almost immediately drenched.  Within the first 200 feet of the trail there was a stream crossing which would have been absurdly easy if it hadn't been raining for hours.  By the time we tried to cross it, it was just deep enough to completely soak our shoes if we tried to cross with no helpful stepping stones to keep our feet dry.  Andy and I were the first to give up before Mom and Wayne came trudging back to the car, soaked and defeated.

Once we passed through Arthur's Pass and were on the other side of the mountain the sun came out and the clouds cleared off.  Our failed attempt at hiking in Arthur's Pass led us to want to complete a successful hike.  Thus we stopped at Cave Stream Path, a little trail off the side of the road with amazing scenery.  It is named due to the stream that passes into a cave for part of it's path.  People are allowed to climb up the stream, through the cave to the other side, but we didn't have the proper equipment to attempt it.

With one successful hike under our belts, we checked into our little apartment in Methven, ate at a cute little pizza place, and watched a ridiculous VHS tape of a documentary of New Zealand that made you want to run and hide from the crazy hillbilly people showcased.