On New Year's Day, we flew to NZ on Pacific Blue, one of those flights that even sells water becuase the flights are so cheap. I had to carefully dig out my purse from in front of Mike's feet (we switched seats so he didn't have to be in the middle), grab my purse, and then try to put everything back in front of hiim, all without waking him up. Guess where this is going.
Woah, Jucy rentals is tres disorganized. We booked our "campa" ..how many months ago? Yet The Boy had to wait for three hours to get the van. He showed up and THEN they said "ok! we'll clean that for you now." ..wh.at? Well, New Zealanders are supposed to be laid back. I guess this is the island vibe.
On the 2nd, we picked up the van and then went down to the CBD. I'd met this really nice British girl who now lives in Christchurch on the Plane and she told us a bunch of things to do. Walk through the city, she said.Go to the Cathedral, go to the Arts Centre Market, go to Dux De Lux for the salad bar, go to the art gallery. So we walked through the CBD. It didn't take long.. we actually walked the length three times through the day, but only made it into a bit of the Botanic Garden...
We went first to the information booth (crazy helpful) to book our Kotane Experience at the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve, then to Dux de Lux for lunch (salad bar was good, I had part of a bbq seafood pizza as well and it was tasty!), then to the Art Gallery (where I saw the most beautiful still life with green grapes on it I just wanted to pluck and eat right there), back to the infobooth because I was sure I had dropped my wallet on the plane and asked the girl to call the airport for me (see what i mean about crazy helpful?), then to the Cathedral (there were parts of it that were barred because of the earthquake but we were still able to get in and see the swastikas in the tile decoration), to the Botanic Garden (beautiful! Not as extensive as the Sydney Botanic Garden, but still much more beautiful than.. say.. Confederation Park... The Boy saw Maple Corner on the map so we went to see if Canadian maples can thrive in this climate - they were Japanese maples), back to the airport to pick up my wallet (thank GOODNESS!) and then to the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve.
We first did the Maori cultural welcome where we learned how to say "Hi, how are you, be well" (Kia Ora) and "that is magnificent" (Ka Poi) and I danced a poi dance and The Boy danced haka. It was really fun! We ate dinner (lamb and kiwi for him, smoked chicken salad for me) and then we went on a Willowbank tour and saw the kiwi (they turn the lights down during the day so visitors can see them but turn the lights on at night so they know to go to sleep) and eel (they stuck their heads out of the water to be fed. GROSS) and other NZ birds and animals. I fed a deer!
After that, we followed the WB receptionist's instructions to a car park nearby. We played with the van and organized (sort of) the inside. It will be a hassle to have to take it apart and build it up every day, but acommodations are cheaper this way. Sleeping wasn't actually even that bad. We both got cold at night, but not cold enough to use the comforter provided.
Yesterday, we started off for the south by going to Lyttelton. Plane Girl told us that we could hike up the top and then go down to Lyttleton. Plane Girl totally misled us. It was a long, narrow, windy and dangerous road and it was crazy sweaty out but if an old man could do it, heck, we should have too. In any case, we took the extremely expensive gondola up, had breakfast, looked around, and then made the most of our return trip back down.
After Lyttleton, we set out on SH1 and stopped at a grocery store to pick up lunch supplies, and then went across the street to this gorgeous park that hit the ocean to eat our picnic. The Boy and I had never had a picnic before! It was great. Maybe not as romantic as I'd expected, but still fun. Back on the road, we played Meu and Nigh but added Baa and Alpacaaaaaa. Lots of sheep everywhere! and itn much much much larger proportions (population, not size).
We arrived in Oamaru and tried to stay for the evening for the two penguin viewings (had to pay to see the little blue penguins in the conservatory, but the yellow-eyed penguins would have been free, but we'd have had to stay until late. The deciding factor was that Dick Smith (the electronics store) didn't carry a very necessary camera chanrger (The Boy accidentally left his in Surfer's Paradise) so we went to Dunedin.
Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula was an emotional rollercoaster. First, we we sad because everything was closed by the time we got there. Stupid public holiday. Then, we were happy because we went to Velvet Burger for dinner (I had lamb and The Boy had venison - it was like the New Zealand version of The Works), walked around the city, and found a bachelorette from Canada. Next, we were sad because the yellow-eyed penguin conservation centre was closed. THEN we were somewhat relieved when we found a motor park nearby. Next we were elated because the motor park receptionist told us about the blue penguin return in another hour. We drove back out around the peninsula, past Penguin Place and out to the furthest point and hung out there until it got really dark and we saw REAL little blue penguins come in on rafts (groups of penguins), climb out of the water, waddle up some rocks, and RIGHT PAST US! We were literally less than a meter from them. And when it was still light out, we were able to see the CUTEST little penguin chicks in a burrow. There was a goh goh penguin and he was guarding the mui mui penguin and it was 100% adorable.
We returned to Penguin Place this morning and it was completely worth it. I'm not completely shocked that the price went up $20 in the 10 years since our guidebook was published, but 100% of the proceeds go to funding the conservation project, so it was easy to justify. AND WE SAW REAL YELLOW-EYED PENGUIN CHICKS LESS THAN A FOOT AWAY FROM US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they were crazy cute and fluffy and twice the size of the adult little blue penguins. weird! We also saw a number of fur seals really close too!
We left Dunedin after picking up a camera charger and stopped in Gore to check out an NZ McDonalds (The Boy wanted to see if they had a Kiwi Burger on the menu -- they don't but (a) they call their XXxxx a Boss Burger and (b) they don't blend their McFlurries, it was just a sundae with maltesers). Playing neigh, moo, baa is starting to get tiring. We added "hey, DEER!" to the mix, but seriously, they're EVERYWHERE. At least we figured out that the venison is local.
In Te Anau we had more pizza and venison at an italian restaurant that made their own pasta. Then we took a cruise on Lake Te Ana-au and went to this glow-worm cave on the other side of the lake. It was really fantastic. We ducked under low hanging areas and the cave opened up to these crazy carved caverns with little teeny tiny green dots on the ceiling... GLOW WORMS! You get to see all these amazing waterfalls and LITERALLY crystalline pools of water and then you get into a sketchy boat and you go through pitch black caves lit up only by the glowy green of the gnat larvae. It was really, REALLY cool.
We're back at the campsite now. While the kids were up, the tv has been on Disney. The last kid just went to sleep so The Boy got up IMMEDIATELY and grabbed the remote. I think he was suffering a little. It's nice to finally just sit down and chill for a bit, even though we've been driving (and I've been passengering), it's made for some long days.
A german mother and two young children (under 14) just came in carrying two beers each and a large bottle of vodka. They seemed to be upset that The Boy and I were in here, and left immediately. What just happened!??!!
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