Milford Sound…and I discover everyone in New Zealand isn’t sweet and polite

Monday, January 15, 2024. Queenstown and other places.

I’m not a morning person, so waking up early to make the Milford Sound tour departure time of 6:30 a.m. was tough. I had a troubled sleep, worried I wouldn’t wake up.

Was it worth getting up pre-dawn to see this amazing sunrise? NO.

The pickup was only a few blocks away, right on the lake, and we were one of the first there and got good seats near the front of the bus. The driver was a real character who grew up just a few towns away. She had a bad cold and coughed and sneezed continuously, which was unfortunate for us, as despite the odds we hadn’t gotten sick yet on this trip, and for her (not sure why she had to work).

She was one of the few actual New Zealand natives we got to spend time with, albeit in a passive way. She was polite and friendly when she did the tour-company-mandated descriptions of major landmarks, but off mic she swore and complained about every driver on the road and told stories of the trouble she got into in high school.

The four-hour drive to the sound was beautiful. First, along the lake, then passing through pastureland with sheep and cows.

We had a rest stop at a gas station/cafe in Teanu. I was hungry and got a terrible savory pastry that I literally spat out, and ate peanut M&Ms instead. On the plus side there were llamas in a field next to the gas station and the cafe sold llama food. I bought a couple bags and shared with my fellow tourists.

Leaving Teanu, we entered the amazing Fiordland National park. Lush, with many different types of native plants, tall mountains, dramatic peaks, glaciers, rushing blue rivers, lakes, waterfalls. You’d need a car to explore it properly.

Why is the water always so beautiful? Okay, here it has an amazing frame.

We made several photo stops, but the driver had put the fear of god into us about getting back to the bus in ten minutes or less or she’d leave us and we all did believe her, so it was rushed. I wanted to spend more time in each place and hike around and take it all in.

All the white lines on that mountain are waterfalls

Our bus driver was skilled at parking the giant bus in areas with small turnouts and/or very little parking. Most of the view spots were very popular and we had to pass some by as they were full. In one instance we may have been sticking out into the road a bit and she muttered about recently having gotten a ticket for doing just this. I appreciated that she really wanted us to see the good stuff, even if she might get in trouble.

The road led to the end of a glacial valley and someone, somehow, got funding to drill a tunnel through to the other side–which connects to Milford Sound. The tunnel is only one lane so we had to wait for everyone heading east to exit before we got our turn. It was a legit, carved-out-of-rock tunnel, and long and dark and very satisfying.

We emerged at the dead end of another valley, with another breathtaking view. The road from there was steep, with crazy hairpin turns, and made even scarier thanks to our insane driver. I know she does this tour four times a week and knows the road, but we went way too fast.

After driving for hours through peaceful wilderness, it was a shock to arrive at the dock and find a jammed parking lot and a maelstrom of tourists waiting to depart on one of the four boats. The bus driver warned us about flies and she wasn’t kidding. They were small and nasty and everywhere. I dowsed myself in bug spray and that did the trick, though it also kept R. away as it’s extremely toxic.

Our boat

We waited in a long line to board, and because we’d purchased the optional buffet lunch, were immediately directed to another line. The food was as bad as I expected but there wasn’t an alternative. Also horrible were the Chinese tour groups. I’d gotten used to everyone being so polite here I was taken aback. They didn’t merely ignore the line to the buffet, they physically pushed people aside to get to the food, and did the same to claim tables. I began to wonder about the culture in China. Maybe it’s a free-for-all and there are no lines? A bit of internet research seems to confirm this. Thank you to reddit:

“The communist revolution in China really engrained the mentality that “you need to assert yourself to get anything” because the rampant famine during Mao’s rule really meant that if you didn’t fight to get to the front of the food lines, you and your family weren’t eating. You have to remember that the communist revolution was only ~60 years ago. There’s a whole generation of people that are still alive today that learned that being polite meant you weren’t getting any government controlled resources (food, medicine, etc.) because they were so scarce. That survival mentality got passed onto the next generation so it became the norm in mainland China’s society.“

I wolfed down my lunch–mainly scalloped potatoes–as the boat had cast off and the voyage through the sound had begun. The chill wind gave me the opportunity to finally wear the compact down jacket I’d bought specifically for this trip. And…I probably could have done without it. It took up 15% of my suitcase and I only wore it once. I had vague ideas I’d be hiking in the alps and that never happened.

To give you a sense of scale, the small white dot to the left of center is another tour boat

Insert two-plus hours of me gaping at nature and running from one side of the boat to the other.

Milford sound was much greener than I’d expected, given the mountains we’d seen on the way here were bare. I got Kauai vibes with the lush vegetation and waterfalls. The scale was hard to comprehend in a way the made it not as awesome as it should have been. Does that make sense? I felt like I was looking at something a couple hundred feet high that was very close to me – and then I’d see one of the other boats and it’d be a small speck and my mind would go oooooohhhhh.

The sound isn’t huge. We got to the sea pretty quickly.

The bus ride back was again beautiful. The two people in the very front seats took a plane back ($487 each!!) so the driver offered R. and I their seats. Looking through the front windshield (in what was to me the driver’s seat) was amazing and frightening. I was on the left side and we were driving on the left side of the road and I was pretty sure we were going off the cliff.

We spent a mellow evening at the hotel as our eyes were full and we were all traveled out. The changing light over the lake is always enough entertainment. I like it here.

Another Gondola!

January 14, 2024. Queenstown, NZ.

We had rain early in the morning and when it let up I went for a walk on the same trail I’d taken last night. This time, everything was dewy and fresh and tiny streams and waterfalls gushed down the hillsides. Very pretty and fresh.

The entire shoreline of lake Wakatipu is covered with rocks like these. I was in seventh heaven.

Today was explore-the-town day. The place had a ski town vibe (sports stores, bars) because it is a ski town, with several nearby resorts. A staffer at our hotel declared it “not busy” at this time of year, but it sure looked busy to me.

First stop, the gondola. This one was very steep, and as usual overpriced. All trees beneath the cables had fallen or been felled, many remaining uncleared, and I saw evidence of ruined stairways. I read there’d been a landslide a few years ago. I’d done a deep dive last night trying to figure out what kind of rocks lined the lake and ended up on a technical paper about the geology of the area. Good, stable land had all been built on years ago, and as the town expanded with “pressure for residential expansion,” developers began building on unstable ground.

“The steep slopes surrounding the Queenstown area are predisposed to instability due to inherent weakness of the Otago Schist due to lithotype variation, foliation attitude, foliation shears, and rock mass discontinuities.”

Hmmmmm. I wondered if the trees, which had been planted by humans, might actually be destabilizing the hills with their roots.

The view up top was good though no real surprises. I’d gotten a sense of the place from the plane trip in, my hikes, and the view from our room.

Back on the ground, a surprise! Goats in a cemetery! I investigated later and discovered they have a problem with flocks(?) of wild goats.

This picture has it all. Historic cemetery, evidence of the landslide, and feral goats.

We had a late lunch at a really good tapas place, but oh my gosh, the wind. Blow the bread basket off the table level wind. What is up with the wind in New Zealand?

Tonight–early to bed as we have to get up at an un-vacationly-early time tomorrow for the Milford Sound tour (which I am really excited for.)

The farthest from home I’ve ever been

January 13th, 2024. Christchurch to Queenstown

The domestic terminal at the Christchurch airport is like going back in time in a good way. Anyone can walk right up to a gate without a security screening. No one asked for our ID. The planes pull up to the gates as if they were buses. “Total Eclipse of the Heart” was playing when we arrived.

We did have to scan our tickets to get through the gate and onto the tarmac (which we walked across to get to our propeller plane). So refreshing! We could have arrived 15 minutes before our flight.

The plane wasn’t full, so after the seat belt sign turned off I hopped across the aisle to get a better view of the mountains. To my surprise the terrain was bare of trees, with only yellow scrub grass and patches of agriculture. I pictured it being forested and thanked god we weren’t on a bus driving through all that for ten hours.

We touched down in a similarly formidable landscape, though with a suspiciously uniform placement of pine trees around town that terminated abruptly at a very specific altitude. I asked the cab driver that drove us to the hotel if the trees had been planted by people He said they had and that is was bare before, making things hard for the first settlers as there was no firewood.

The QT hotel where we are staying (same brand hotel we stayed in in Auckland) is great. Artsy. We have a room facing the lake and views for miles. By some miracle our room was ready at 12:30 when we arrived so we ditched our bags and walked to town for lunch.

This part of town is 1000% for tourists which is a bit of a disappointment. I wondered if the real town was somewhere else (yes it was), but only 16,000 people live here. I did a search for a town in California with 16k people (and no major tourist attractions) and Ukiah came up. We visited there recently and it has only a handful a restaurants, a few markets, some specialty retail, one nail salon, many empty storefronts. So whatever this is, I shouldn’t complain, as without the silly chocolate factory and overpriced harbor-front restaurants there would probably be a lot of nothing.

Afterwards I walked around Queenstown Gardens, a small peninsula with a pretty park, but gale force winds blew from every direction so I gave up and went back to the hotel and took a bath. Always a luxury since we don’t have a tub at home.

The sun doesn’t set until 9:30 here, so after my bath I went for a walk on a lakefront trail that morphed from a paved sidewalk on the side of the road to somewhat legit hiking on a small dirt path. Views were spectacular and ever-changing, with sun, clouds, shadows making the landscape look completely different every few minutes.

We had a snacky dinner at the hotel bar and watched the sun set…or more accurately watched it get dark. I like it here. It’s got that clutch your chest beauty every time I turn around.

Another windy city

January 12th, 2024. Still in Christchurch.

Turns out Christchurch has the 10th most turbulent airport IN THE WORLD. I’m feeling that today. We’re on the top floor (5th) of this hotel and the wind is whistling and moaning and blowing what sounds like metal trash cans around on the roof.

One of the reasons we chose this town was because they have a gondola. We love funiculars, gondolas, cogwheel railways, any type of strange conveyance. After breakfast we grabbed a cab and headed over.

The gondola here was a total rip off as far as cost. $40 NZ per person for what was at most a five minute ride. I shouldn’t be annoyed–the view up there was great. We could see a bay to the south and Christchurch sprawl to the north. People watching was good too, with one dorky dude with an expensive-looking camera rig taking photo after photo of his sexy, pouty posing girlfriend (I don’t know why I assumed they weren’t married. Come to think of it, who knows if it was even his girlfriend).

On a different day I’d have walked the meandering path back down to the visitor center but the wind was too nasty. On the cab ride back to the hotel we saw people on a path by the lagoon with one of those rental bikes where you normally sit side by side and pedal. In this case one person was pedaling and the other person was behind pushing as they tried to make headway against the wind.

Afterwards, we collected our dirty laundry from the hotel (the situation was getting dire for me with clean and dirty clothes mixed together in my packing cubes – bleck) and walked a mile to a laundromat.

The laundromat was located at the end of New Regent street, a cute pedestrian mall built in the 1930’s. We put clothes in the washer, then had a touristy lunch (not great food but great setting). Afterwards I got a Thai massage (across from the laundromat!) while R. played on the internet and watched our clothes dry.

I had to hold my hat on during the walk back to the hotel and this is a tight, snug baseball cap I use for travel and have worn on a sailboat ride in the San Francisco Bay (very windy) with no problem. It was extremely unpleasant. I don’t understand how the wind works here because it would be strongly at our backs and five minutes later in our faces–on the same street. Maybe this explains the lack of wind turbines.

We were supposed to ride a bus 9+ hours to Queenstown tomorrow, and not in the larger seats I’d booked for us previously. I couldn’t imagine this trip, sitting hot in the sun squished next to R., waiting for a rest stop so I could pee, eating some weird sandwich from a stinky bakery, not being able to take good photos because of window glare. I begged R. to see how much a flight would be as I heard travel within NZ wasn’t too expensive.

It wasn’t–didn’t cost much more than the bus. Miraculously, past me had booked fully-refundable bus tickets so I cancelled the trip. WOOO! So much relief. Tomorrow we fly!

We had dinner in a decent Mexican restaurant and afterwards a drink at Boo’s. The host from open mic night was playing guitar accompanied by a singer. The clientele tonight was New Zealand in the summer–very bridesmaid with so much floral print.

Despite the wind we had a good day, and I looked forward to getting the heck out of here tomorrow.

Where I am underwhelmed by Christchurch

Because somewhere had to be our least favorite place on the trip

Jan. 11, 2024

I feel bad critiquing a place devastated by a 2011 earthquake, but as a tourist, the city has a suburban feel and few attractions. It may have been more interesting before. Buildings from all eras were destroyed–possibly much of the character as well. I don’t miss cathedrals (which always seem to get rebuilt) but the funky little stores and apartment buildings. Our guide on the train yesterday said many people moved out of the city after the quake, and as a result the highway infrastructure to surrounding towns improved. In the past it might have taken 45 minutes to get from ___ to Christchurch, now it takes only 15, so people could live further away and still work in the city.

I read a lot about the quake, curious as to why a quake smaller than the 1989 quake in San Francisco caused so much more damage. It’s complicated.

This probably didn’t fall over in the earthquake, but is a great example of New Zealand politeness.

Everything that follows is me recollecting things I read on the internet so don’t quote me. Christchurch is built on an alluvial plain, aka sediment washed down from mountains. Even a casual internet search will reveal hazards associated with building on this type of land. However, there hadn’t been an earthquake for hundreds of years and there were no known faults.

Here’s the part where things go wrong: developers built on swampland (streams and rivers run through the city) because – eager/greedy developers and cities ignore science under the pressure to expand. This is literally the plot of so many movies and books (and real life). Selling swampland or land in a floodplain or some other place that clearly should not be built upon. It will be fine! Don’t worry!

In September 2010, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake occurred 40km from Christchurch, which caused damage in the city but no one was killed. It did loosen things up though. The epicenter of the 6.3 “aftershock” (I learned that there is debate in the science community about what is considered an aftershock) in February 2011 was only 10km from Christchurch and at a shallow depth and this quake the ruined the city. 185 people were killed and there was extensive damage.

I learned a lot about liquefaction. “Liquefaction is a natural process where earthquake shaking increases the water pressure in the ground causing some soils to behave like a fluid, resulting in temporary loss of soil strength.” We have liquefaction zones here in San Francisco and I thought it meant only that the ground was unstable due to having been a creek in the distant past, or that it was coastal landfill. But liquefaction in a wet area is a whole other thing…really scary. After the September earthquake, people’s homes along the Avon/Otakaro river (the swamp) sank and water seeped in, but damage wasn’t too bad. During the February earthquake, weakened houses were destroyed, streets reverted to rivers, and entire neighborhoods officially declared red zones and all buildings required to be demolished. More than 8000 houses were eventually torn down. Initially, the government would only give settlements to people who had insurance…though many people who owned their homes outright did not have insurance. It took until 2018 for the government to pay uninsured people for the houses it required be torn down, even though some had minimal damage.

In addition to the red zone, there are empty lots all over the city where buildings were torn down but not rebuilt. You almost don’t notice them at first other than it’s odd to have so many parking lots where no parking is needed.

Enough history. I headed to the nearby botanical garden this morning. The day was unusually hot and windy, 20 degrees above normal according to my weather app and anecdotal evidence. A news crew hailed people kayaking on the river and asked them, “What do you think about this weather?” Someone mentioned it’s normally cloudy and windy and never like this.

Either the Avon or Otakaro river…battle between English and Maori happens on every sign

Highlights of the garden included finally finding out the name of the plant that I’d been seeing all over. I thought it was a Joshua tree. No, it’s a cabbage tree. Cordyline austalis. I also saw a very suspicious-looking redwood tree supposedly from California. I’ve never seen one like it. I enjoyed the conservatory which was meant to be a hot house but was actually cooler inside today.

I headed towards the CBD (central business district) to find a store that was supposed to have New Zealand arts and crafts. I was getting a bit panicky about souvenirs. I’ve got zero suitcase space and am struggling to find small unique things to bring home for friends and family. On the way I stumbled upon the Riverside Market. It’s a fun outdoor mall plus indoor food hall that’s very nicely done. I had sushi for lunch. The store I was searching for turned out to be a standard artsy gift store with only about 20% made-in-New-Zealand items. No luck.

Hot and tired and needing to rest my feet while still seeing some sights, I caught bus number 2 to Sumner, a beach town the woman on the train implied was very far from Christchurch, but turned out to be only a few miles away and a quick ride on the bus because we didn’t have to stop often. There was no air conditioning on the bus so I moved to the back on the shady side.

I hate to post “meh” photos, but do want to document the place. Oh! There’s a cabbage tree!

The landscape around Sumner was NorCal-esque. Very dry, steep hills with bare dirt and dry grass, hillside homes with nicer vegetation around them. Not that pretty. On the beach, high surf churned up what might have been pretty-colored water. The light gray sand was covered in driftwood and people. Many people played in the ocean as well, despite the cold water and rough surf. The lifeguards on beach were earning their money, looking vigilantly in every direction and yelling and waving “No swimming” signs to people in the undertow area. 

The wind picked up and sandblasting me and everyone else, but everyone else seemed fine with it. I walked back to the street and waited in the sun for the bus home.

We had dinner at a highly-rated and delicious restaurant, The Goldfinch. The only sad thing was that it was their first night open after summer break and it was only us and one other couple in the whole place, so no fun people-watching or atmosphere.

Back at the hotel we struggled to set up some mood lighting so we could relax and watch TV. Not sure if I mentioned it but the lighting in the room was a nightmare. All on or all off, no dimmers. And all on was like a TV studio–blaring bright. We set up a small desk lamp in the corner and watched strange New Zealand public-access-esque shows in near darkness, happy to take a break from trying to find things to do.

North Island to South Island

Jan. 10, 2024, Wellington to Christchurch – A BIG DAY.

I was sorry leave Wellington, but as I keep reminding myself, this is an overview trip. Time to hop on the ferry and train and see new things. We had to wake up too early, but the sun rises too early so all we had to do was leave all the curtains open to wake naturally.

The ferry terminal felt more like an airport, with a row of check-in desks where they weighed our suitcases and even tagged them through to the train to Christchurch. A woman in line in front of me had the best tattoo – a woman face-planting into a cake. The art was simple but oh did it capture how I’ve been feeling at work lately!

The ferry, Kaitaki, was a huge car and truck ferry, nearly a cruise ship.

Unbeknownst to me, R. had booked upgraded tickets for the trip and we got access to a special lounge area that included breakfast. I was so happy to have food and drink and a safe-ish place to leave our packs while we ran around the boat. Being a city person, an uncomfortable part of travel is being separated from my belongings and having to trust they’ll be there when I get back and/or arrive somewhere. When we took the ferry to Moorea and handed our bags over to a guy who threw them onto a giant steel wagon, a big part of me thought, we’ll never see those again. Gradually though, I began to relax and trust the process, even though it’s a new one at every turn.

The ferry, like most of what we’ve experienced in New Zealand, was exceptionally neat and clean and comfortable. They even had a movie theater and a magic show for the kids. And, um, me. I spent most of the 3+ hours outdoors, walking back and forth from port to starboard (look at me using sailing terms) to see the views.

Which were amazing. Thankfully the sea was calm. A chart in the terminal indicated it could get very, very rough. The semi trucks onboard were lashed to the deck with huge chains.

When we got into the wooded channels of the south island, we saw many off-the-grid houses, clearly only accessible by boat. Pretty setting, but too remote for my taste. No Thai food, no pizza delivery.

We arrived at Picton, where we’d catch a train to Christchurch. The train…aka The Coastal Pacific Scenic Plus Experience. We’d been eagerly awaiting this journey! It was a bit of a splurge, but I felt like it would be a once-in-a-lifetime voyage and a really memorable and relaxing day.

Explore the unique cultural and culinary flavours of our Pacific coast as it glides by your window aboard our Coastal Pacific Scenic Plus dining experience. While you ease back and enjoy the seaside scenery and intimate views of Marlborough’s world-famous vineyards, we’ll be serving you a menu filled with freshly picked ingredients from the lands you pass through.

We’d hoped to take many trains around New Zealand but all the trains on the north island were offline over the holiday for track maintenance. We booked this one, and I was tempted by a trans-alpine journey, but you had to go to the coast and back in one day and it seemed like too much time in a seat (10+ hours) and too much of the same scenery. Plus $$.

Somehow we ended up being the last people off the boat and got to chit chat with the exiting crew. They directed us to the train station a few hundred yards up the road…a possibly historic building ruined by hosting a Subway sandwich chain at one end. We checked in and asked the woman if we should get lunch before boarding at 1:30, and she said oh no, they feed you well on that train. Woo-hoo!

That’s our ferry. I can’t explain the strange line of people heading into the sea.

The weather had been flip-flopping from gray and story to sunny all day, and for now it was sunny and hot. We wandered over to the beach/harbor and I left R. in the shade communing with seagulls and walked out onto the docks.

A woman near me screamed and pointed and there was a manta ray! She apologized for screaming and I assured her I was grateful.

I live in a city and don’t normally see manta rays swimming around. Nature!!

Half an hour later we boarded the train. The car was really nice, with huge windows and white table cloths. I was initially put off by the seating configuration–four seats (two on each side) facing a table…meaning we’d be knee to knee with strangers for the whole day, some of us sitting backwards. I really didn’t want to make small talk. I wanted to stare out the window and take it all in as I voyaged further south than I’d ever been in my life.

I waited anxiously to see who our traveling companions would be. At the moment there were only eight other people in the car that could easily hold 60, and then, with a jerk, the train pulled out of the station. It was just us! We had the whole car to ourselves!

A serious, meticulously made up woman in a black skirt, black shirt, and jaunty black and white scarf (the uniform of the train staff) welcomed us, I asked where the rest of the passengers were, and she explained that this was the first day they’d run one of the fancy cars on this route so people didn’t know about it yet. I’d lucked onto it. Two more women in uniform came into the car and she introduced them. One would be in charge of our dining and the other was…our server? Not quite sure, but she was down to earth and funny, like she’d rather sneak out for a smoke with us than go on about the pinot grigio. The serious woman awkwardly recited a Maori greeting of some sort. Hard to imagine there was a traditional blessing for tourists on a wine train.

The first leg of the trip was through Marlborough wine country. The vines were huge and very leafy compared to what I’m used to seeing in Napa and Sonoma. More water? Beyond, rolling golden hills in the “kind of like California but not really” way things often are here.

The wine and dine part of the trip was fine but not amazing. The serious woman asked for our feedback as they weren’t quite sure how to handle dining for this portion of trip, from 1:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. They assumed we’d eaten lunch, however coming from the ferry we hadn’t, and I was starving. Our first snack, half an hour in, was two mussels, two pieces of beef on tiny toast, and a scoop of sorbet, and a wine-tasting flight of four barely-filled glasses. Fortunately the fun server was happy to top up on our favorites, and I became a bit tipsy and forgot I was starving.

My favorite part of the trip was the open-air train car. Loud, noisy, windy–amazing. It felt like breaking the rules to be able to hang out there and I couldn’t believe it wasn’t packed at every moment. From here I could finally get some good photos without window glare.

The train headed east, up and over hills, and we were on the coast, zipping by long lonely stretches of deserted black sand beaches littered with driftwood. This is the hard part, passing all this by and being intrigued and not being able to stop and explore.

The highway ran alongside us most of the way, so it would be possible to explore all this by car or camper, as many Kiwi’s seemed to be doing.

Beach ferns!

The weather turned gray and windy and we headed inland to a landscape of rolling hills and farms and SHEEP. I took up residence on the other side of the car in an empty seat and tried to get a good video of massive quantities of sheep, preferably running away from the train. It was tough because we were moving quickly, so I had to anticipate where sheep might be and start the video in advance. Here’s a decent one:

Many sheep in New Zealand. I am pleased. New Zealand cliche – confirmed.

I expected a surprise reveal, another landscape change, but after passing through sparsely-populated suburbs we arrived in Christchurch. It wasn’t what I expected. A low-rise city on a flat plain, the mountains distant and invisible thanks to cloud cover.

The short cab ride to our hotel didn’t improve my opinion of the place. I don’t know what to compare it to. It had a suburban vibe, things felt dispersed like there wasn’t a core. It’s not fair to critique the place as many historic buildings and whole neighborhoods were destroyed in the catastrophic series of earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 (which I will talk more about later), so it wasn’t what it once was.

Our hotel was just okay. I think they thought they were a boutique hotel but no. The walls of our room were mostly blank. One print. The lighting was awful–all on or all off. All on being interrogation-level with no dimmers. We set up the desk lamp strategically so we could have some mood lighting without going blind.

We weren’t hungry after our snack and wine day so we didn’t bother with dinner. By some freaking miracle there was a club, Boo’s Whiskey Bar, two blocks away that promised live music. They had an open mic night and great cocktails. The place wasn’t crowded, and the guitar-playing MC opened the night by detailing how he knew everyone there but us.

I was so happy to finally be around actual real New Zealand people doing normal things in the town where they lived. This felt like a first as, aside from bus riding, we’ve been in tourist situations. It was a good end to a crazy day of so much travel and so many new things to see!

Windy Wellington

Jan. 9th, 2024

I like Wellington and can’t put my finger on why. I immediately felt comfortable when we arrived, like oh this is a city and I get it in a way I never got Auckland. Auckland seemed like a sprawling confusing jumble and not cohesive. I feel guilty about making a snap judgement, like if I only spent a little more time and went to such and such a neighborhood I’d be in love. Still, I felt a constant sense of no there there, which isn’t fair, especially with everyone being away on holiday.

Anyway, Wellington has flyers for bands and events stuck all over things. People have nose rings and colored hair. A crazy old punk rocker was playing guitar and yelling a song consisting almost entirely of profanities. I’m not sure why that made me laugh.

The downtown feels like a downtown with fun stores I want to shop in.

The neighborhoods run up the sides of hills, with stairways and paths everywhere. Is it just the hills making me feel at home? Honestly though, this place makes San Francisco look flat. These hills are steep! Our Uber driver said people compare this place to SF, but if anything it’s more like portions of Marin/Sausalito with a small downtown core of high rises. Much more open and green space. What’s interesting is the transition from dense downtown to single family homes is – no transition. You just cross a street.

The wind, as promised, was uncomfortably strong in certain areas. We had lame bagels a few blocks from the hotel this morning and I had to hold on to the plastic basket to keep it from blowing away. First destination: a cable car/funicular, which didn’t feel like it traveled far but when we got off we were suddenly hundreds of feet above the city.

We wandered through charming neighborhoods with cute houses. I don’t want to be disloyal but the vegetation is so lush and the views so dramatic – it’s prettier than San Francisco in many places! Blah! I feel like that about New Zealand in general – a prettier California. Like the best day in spring everywhere. I’m not going to sell my house and move here because of that. I never wanted to live in the country and I like my cultural amenities, but it definitely tones down my “California is the best place in the world” rhetoric.

We had a lame lunch at a pub in downtown. Tourist bad luck/starving needed to eat. We walked a few blocks to the Parliament (Wellington is the capital city) where I’d hoped we could take a tour, but they were sold out for the day. The building is odd. I appreciate wanting to do something different but it doesn’t quite work for me.

I walked along the waterfront on my way back to the hotel and was captivated by teens playing in the water in what looked like an industrial area. People don’t jump in the water in San Francisco in the downtown like this. I guess you could, although I suspect the water is warmer here. Embarrassed to admit I never touched it.

Oh and in exciting news – I saw a jellyfish. First big one I’ve seen in the wild.

Next stop, Weta Workshop. I’ll let them speak for themselves here before I go on a rant.

Wētā Workshop has catapulted onto the world stage, thanks in part, to the creation of sets, costumes, armour, weapons, creatures, miniatures and more for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. From the sweeping landscapes of Middle-earth to the lush forests of Pandora in the movie Avatar, we’ve since gone on to design imaginary worlds for many more blockbuster films and TV shows. But don’t take our word for it, visit us, and experience our magic for yourself.

Blah blah blah. I was excited because my guide book said they had sets from their remake of Thunderbirds, originally a 1960’s sci fi series filmed with puppets and elaborate sets. I love this series so much, and the book said you could sit in a full-size plane.

We arrived early and the Uber driver pointed out a bus and said they’d be using that to drive us all around. Nope. We waited for the tour in the gift shop, which had lots of nice things if you were into Lord of the Rings paraphernalia – and some people really were. I was happy to find a display of a few Thunderbirds models, though they were haphazardly thrown in a case with models from other shows and a couple of orange juicers. ??

Our tour guide gathered our group (about 20 people) and admonished us that we were not allowed to take any photos due to laws/secrecy/contracts/etc. which made the tour sound promising. She herded us into room one, where we (awkwardly standing) watched a movie about the founding of Weta. Then she herded into another small room where we (awkwardly standing) watched a movie about how they make rubbery faces to make people look like vampires or whatever, and there were samples of the process lining the room. From there we went into a small room full of swords and other Lord of the Rings props, which we weren’t allowed to touch or photograph…except gosh darn it we looked like such responsible people it might be okay to pass around one sword.

Here we learned that a big part of their business now is making reproductions, and there was a small window into an actual workshop, possibly a blacksmith shop, and another small window into a room with a CnC machine slowly cutting a rhino out of a foam material. That was as close as we got to the workshops. Grrrrrrrrr.

Finally, we went into a room with full-sized costumes that actors wore in movies. That interested me as there were sci fi outfits from movies I’d seen and the guide had information about the difficulty of getting in and out of them.

The tour ended in a room where the guide promoted a clay-like model-making material called Pal Tiya people in Weta developed that you can form on top of tinfoil and it literally turns to stone and can be used outdoors. I sigh as I write about it because yes I’m interested but, really? This has what to do with the tour? We were encouraged to make a sculpture out of tinfoil or use some props and take a selfie against a green screen and choose a background. My hopes rose for a moment, thinking I could hold up a real sword with a flaming volcano from Mordor, but no. The props were not from the rooms we’d just visited. Maybe they tried that and people stole everything, because, people. All there was was some lame ass capes and such like you’d have in a selfie booth at a Halloween party. Sad.

We asked if we could leave, and did, and not through the gift shop. Such a disappointment but this did feel like a checkbox we needed to check while in Wellington.

Maybe the only real part of Weta Workshop we saw, while waiting for our Uber

We had dinner at Kisa, a well-rated middle-eastern restaurant near our hotel and it was delicious. Today was another day full of so many new sights and experiences, my mind is again blown. So happy to be here, doing all this. : )

Taupo to Wellington, by bus

January 8, 2024

I really liked The Gables motel. The room would make the perfect tiny cabin, probably not too expensive to build. I used a measuring app on my phone and sketched out all the dimensions for future reference.

R. called a cab to take our bags to the bus stop (we had a few hours before it arrived but had to get out of the room) and I took a walk along the lake shore to the harbor at the mouth of the river. Everyone bustling around hopping on boats for excursions made me wish we’d done one, but you can’t do everything. I popped into the Taupo museum. Small but nicely done, it was all about geology and logging, with one room dedicated to Māori artifacts. Many pictures of the town throughout its short history. I don’t know why people idealize the past. The past always seems to be a dirty mud pit hellhole. Taupo used to be considered the dustiest city in New Zealand due to all the pumice in the soil – ground down by wagons etc. on unpaved roads.

The bus ride today was great thanks to constantly changing landscapes. We drove along Lake Taupo for the first half hour, passing lakeside settlements. The houses in new developments on the outskirts of the town were cool modern design with metal roofs I liked.

Why is the lake so blue and clear? Such beautiful colors.

After leaving the lake we came into an area of pine forest with distant volcano views.

The forest disappeared and we were surrounded by low scrub on what I presume is an ancient lava flow.

This transitioned to rolling green hills and finally – sheep! I was promised sheep and they finally appeared.

Sorry not a great picture. That’s the one frustration with riding the bus. So much to see and no way to stop and take photos.

We stopped for a lunch/pee break at 2:30 in Taihape, “the gumboot capital of the world.”

It was a nice-looking town nestled in rolling hills, but the shopping area along the highway wasn’t great. We walked as far as we could in the 20-minute break, but never found cute.

I will soon go on a rant about the ugly awning/overhang culture here. These are by no means the ugliest though the whole shopping area was very unappealing.

After this the landscape widened out to what I’d characterize as the Central Valley in California but prettier and greener with more interesting mountains to the east and west. Farms and small towns.

The driver had to take a detour so instead of continuing down Highway 1, we detoured to Highway 59 and got to drive along the Tasman sea! A new sea for me! I was a bit awestruck. It’s a big deal to see a new sea.

I was struggling to stay awake given I was sitting on the west side of the bus and the sun had been beating in on me for hours, so Wellington caught me by surprise. I blinked and suddenly we driving along a bay surrounded by steep mountains, the city perched on them. After passing through an industrial port area our terminus was the train station.

Our talkative cab driver told us that kids were on summer break through the end of the month, and many businesses and offices were still closed – as we’d surmised from our experiences.

We checked into our very cool hotel, the Naumi. Our room is great! That’s the problem with travel. Half of me wishes I could just hang out and take baths and enjoy the room, but we’ve got to explore the city.

The hotel is located on Cuba Street, on of two streets in the entire city my guide book called out as being “hip.” When only two streets are hip in a whole city I get nervous, but Cuba street was nice with many historic buildings, but now we need to talk about the awnings. It’s time.

Every shopping district we’ve been to  in New Zealand has awful awnings tacked on to otherwise beautiful buildings sometime in the last 40 years at seemingly the lowest cost possible. I don’t know how much it rains here (okay I looked it up – 50 inches) but wow…way to make a pretty street look like burning man.

We popped into a restaurant for a drink, then had dinner at Ombra, a highly-rated restaurant we didn’t think we’d be able to get into without a reservation, but it was after 8 and beginning to clear out.

Prices are fine here (San Francisco equivalent or a bit cheaper) once you do the math. $1 NZ is 66 cents U.S., so I’ve been doing sloppy math trying to divide everything into thirds.

This was another epic day, with literal twists and turns. This vacation is…picture me doing explosions with my hands.

The bluest water–everywhere.

Jan. 7, 2024, Taupo, New Zealand (North Island)

Epic day today! I went out early to walk a mile to the nearest market get eggs and bread since we’ve got a tiny kitchen and I could cook for maybe the only time on the trip. It was cool, 56 degrees, which felt nice. En route (walking along the lake) I came across an outdoor food and crafts market getting set up. Despite having no room in my suitcase I bought a small owl sculpture made of scrap metal and a painting of birds on a delicate piece of thin porcelain that is probably the worst thing possible to buy given all jostling of the upcoming travel – but it was the perfect gift for my mom. (Note from future me: It survived.)

I also got fresh homemade cinnamon buns from a food truck–right out of the pan. The small supermarket, a few blocks away, looked depressingly like a gas station market from the outside but was well-stocked and I got eggs and snacks.

Lake Taupo, Taupo volcano in the distance. It’s active.

I took a quick dip in our hot tub before breakfast. It was the perfect temperature and I gather it’s hot springs water and not chlorinated, as it was a cement pool with no complicated plumbing. The fully-enclosed outdoor shed isn’t the nicest place to spend time. Concrete block walls and plastic ceiling…I wish they’d left the roof open to the sky, especially for stargazing.

First adventure was getting a cab to Wairakei hot springs. Though this is a decent-sized town there are few cabs and according to the woman that picked us up from the bus stop, only three Uber drivers. We got a recommendation from the hotel owner, called a taxi, and waited 20 minutes. Eh, it’s all good sitting outside staring at the lake. We are in full vacation mode and in no big hurry.

The hot springs were only a few miles out of town, right next to a geothermal power plant (just like the Blue Lagoon in Iceland). While the small, milky-blue pools surrounded by nature were enjoyable, they didn’t live up to the hype. The hype being the one photo I saw in my guide book.

In real life it was like floating around in a milky swimming pool with not enough shade and many opportunities to break a toe. The four pools, each warmer than the next, had multiple entry points with slippery cement stairs descending into the water, but you couldn’t see the stairs (which ranged in width from one to three feet and were different heights) because the water was milky. Everyone was suffering and guests were yelling out warnings to their friends. “No, no, there’s one more – you aren’t all the way down yet.” I began to walk in a sideways shuffle to protect my toes. The stairs were everywhere.

After while it wasn’t that relaxing to sit in a hot pool in the hot sun in the middle of the day with nothing much to look at except other tourists so we agreed to move on.

In the changing room, a princess was taking her sweet time in THE ONLY SHOWER while a polite woman and I waited. Eventually I yelled to the person, “Is there only one shower in there?” The flustered woman/princess replied, “I’m just rinsing my hair. I didn’t realize anyone was waiting.” Really? It’s a freaking hot springs with 100 people and this is the only shower. Sigh. Shame on the venue for only one shower.

By some miracle we got an Uber from the hot springs to Huka Falls in under 15 minutes. The falls are more of a cascade or rapids: it’s a narrowing of a river that creates a beautiful blue tangle of water.

The bridge over the river was both a boon and an eyesore, as yes it allowed me to take nice photos but also ruined the natural feeling.

We wandered down a path to look for views of the river before the falls and I discovered the trail we were on led back to town–a mere 49-minute walk along the river. R. doesn’t love hiking but this seemed totally doable.

The walk was beautiful and amazing and one of the highlights of the trip. I was beside myself with happiness, though I did get tired and hot and we ran out of water. I was IN New Zealand. All the way in! Unusual trees and foliage. Exotic birds. Tiny waterfalls. No insects. The trail was near the Waikato river but rose and fell, alternating between tall trees and ferns and tantalizing river views. R was not happy when it turned out the hike wasn’t 49 minutes but more like 100, but he was a good sport and acknowledged that it was worth it.

We exited the trail as soon as we could at Otumkeke thermal park, closest place to a road, and called an Uber back to town. We had a very late lunch at a really good Indian Nepalese place. Not because we were starving. It was good. We had lamb momos because, New Zealand.

We walked the mile back to the motel despite being tired because it was very beautiful walking along the lake and the lakeshore was full of happy people laughing and swimming and doing summer things.

We relaxed on the front porch of our hotel room (aka the walkway in front of the parking lot) and watched the sun set. It was even more amazing tonight, and I ran across the dangerous road to get lakeside photos. Such a great day and a great night.

Heading south on the north island

Jan. 6, 2024, Auckland to Taupo.

My mosquito bites are mostly healed! Yay! The mosquitos on Moorea and Tahiti were those tiny nasty ones you can barely see and after a week living mostly outdoors, my legs were pretty eaten up.

I headed to a bakery to get us breakfast but of course it was closed for the holiday. Checkout time from the hotel was early at 10 a.m. (We ran into this a lot in New Zealand. 10 a.m.? What the heck!), so we packed up and headed to the bus station. We’d decided to take buses and trains around the country as we didn’t feel comfortable driving on the other side of the road. I was 100% sure in a stressful situation my muscle memory would take over and I’d turn the wrong way and kill someone. Our bus wasn’t until 12:30, so we figured we’d get something to eat and mill around. We had a good deli lunch underneath the Sky Tower, watching people fake bungee jump. The Sky Tower is a Space Needle-esque structure that I never got a great photo of. The fake part of the bungee jumping was that the people were lowered down between two metal cables in a rapid but controlled way. I went for a walk afterwards but got caught in a downpour and had to hurry back.

A rest stop a few hours into the trip

Our destination today was Lake Taupo…chosen by me as a good-looking lake in a geothermal area halfway between Auckland and Wellington. The bus driver was so New Zealand. I love the accent. Everyone here seems very nice and polite. Yesterday I scooted my chair in at the cafe to make more room for a man walking by and he assured me I didn’t need to do that. R. had his seat in the bus all the way reclined, blocking the door to the luggage storage compartment, and the bus driver protested that R. didn’t need to put his chair up as he struggled to squeeze through the door he could barely open. Can you imagine a driver in the U.S. not simply yelling at R. to get out of the way?

The bus ride was fun and relaxing. The view for the first few hours reminded me of driving up 101 to Calistoga in the spring. Lots of rolling hills, green fields, farms, and cows. Very few sheep which disappointed me. “More sheep than people” I always heard, but maybe they are further south. The only bummer about riding the bus was no chance to stop and take good photos.

We stopped for a lunch break around 2:30. Thankfully I’d gotten us sandwiches in Auckland as the eateries in this town resembled gas station mini-marts. I thought I might get a snack for later but the shops were hot and stuffy and didn’t smell great and all the food was pre-made and plastic wrapped. I’d been getting the sense that New Zealand was casually prosperous based on the towns we’d rolled through, but stopping and taking a closer look gave me a different perspective. Down and out people lounging in front of the bakery. The flip side of the block that fronted the highway had many empty storefronts. Glad I took that walk. It’s easy for a tourist to mislabel a place a paradise thanks to our unnatural point of view.

As we got closer to Taupo the landscape changed to a uniform pine forest – and a type of pine I’ve not seen before. Plus much evidence of logging with a preference for brutal clear cutting on fairly steep hillsides that looked like it wouldn’t be good for the soil.

I was shocked when we arrived in Taupo. To explain – I tried not to over-research this trip in order to preserve the element of surprise. I mostly read the Lonely Planet guidebook and dived deeper on the internet when necessary (buses and hotels). I thought this lake was in the middle of nowhere with a tiny town with three restaurants and a few hotels. Oooooo no! It’s a big big town with at least a half a square mile downtown, hotel after hotel on the waterfront, houses everywhere stretching back into the hills, chain stores, MacDonalds, traffic, hordes of vacationers. Okay not hordes. It’s busy but not crazy.

Our motel is adorable, little A frame rooms (only 15 total) with high ceilings, a living room with kitchenette and separate bedroom and SUPRISE our own hot tub in an enclosed area in the back. The front desk guy was so nice – this is a family run place and they live here. The cookies in the room were made by his wife. He teased us about probably wanting to know where the ice machine is because we were American and the only ones to care about that. Yes we love ice! Ice is great! I’ve got a soft spot for motels

At sunset nearly everyone was sitting outside their rooms, eating or drinking and looking at the lake. Felt homey and nice. Many families and kids…very much the motel vibe with our front yard being the parking lot and people driving in and out.

We walked a few blocks to dinner. The menu was all burgers and fish and chips, standard pub fare with one curry offered. I got that and it was great. We stopped by a liquor store and got cocktail makings and sat on our front porch watching the sun set FOREVER. There was still a hint of it at 10pm. We turned on the TV afterwards – first time all vacation – because I was hoping to see some New Zealand ads for products I hadn’t heard of. I saw a few but got tired and went to bed.