Penguin!!
The sheer HUGENESS of the Milford Sound. (Check out the white dot)
Showing posts with label south island. Show all posts
Showing posts with label south island. Show all posts
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Monday, May 31, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Best of Van Cuisine.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
I was awoken with a text message from mom saying they had gotten a call from US Bank saying my card had been suspended and that some of the charges had been declined due to the suspicious activity. Now, I had looked at my account last night, and my supposed pending items (that were first in line to be considered “declined” were things like the Maori tix, the Cave tix, our hotel in Sydney)….bad news.
I was less than a happy camper when I called, the bank said that it was the Emirates flights that had flagged it. Which is ridiculous, it’s an airline. Of all the options, that’s what gets it? Stupid.
Made it to the ferry with plenty time, and were told to get into the line with the van. Got in the line, and it looks like you sit in the car until its time to load. You can get out, but I have nothing to do outside the car!
Aboard the ferry, found a nice comfy spot, had some toast and banana for breakfast and Tim is heading outside, how, I don’t know, its FREEZING. I’m sure if I was properly dressed I might be ok, but I only have my light green jacket. However, I was slightly more prepared than last time and at least have on long sleeves and a hooded sweatshirt. Brr. And these rude people go outside or come back from inside, and leave the door open. Its like people, I know you aren’t sitting up here, so you don’t care. But its cold, shut the frickin door!
While planning our Sydney excursion, a german girl came in and exclaimed something to her friends and they all ran outside, so naturally, we all did too. There were dolphins swimming along the boat!
We hit Hastings at about 4, found the Rush Munroe ice cream gardens. Pretty much just an ice cream shop, that part was a let down, and then further a let down when I got passion fruit, and Tim got hokey pokey.
On the way to Napier we saw the sign for the pet barn that had kittens and puppies. A stop was a must! Napier Town center was too far away to walk to, from the camp that we picked so we drove into town and parked outside the Countdown grocery store. I saw the Mad Butcher shop next door and after our awful meat experience the night before, we decided to check that out. It was actually really cool. Small, but TONS of meat. Coolers and coolers of every type of meat in every different cut and various marinades. Including tripe and oxtail. Other organs too. But it was awesome. I wish we had one like that. We decided that we were going to stick with our plan on taco seasoned chicken with red peppers.
When we left the internet cafe, we saw downtown Napier just totally shut down for the night. At like 6:30pm. It’s a whole country thing! Nothing is open. Still outrageous. It was a beautiful night and we would have loved to just walk around looking at things.
After dinner, I made dessert using a can of strawberries with juice, simmered it with some more of my strawberry jelly that I had, a packet of citrus jelly, and then added a cut up banana into it. The banana was in too long (I didn’t realize how long it would take to reduce) and it broke down quite a bit, but in the end it was like soupy jam, but tasted awesome.
By 8:30 we were super bored. We were half an hour in to Astro Boy, but watching it in the kitchen on the laptop, unable to do anything else was just rather obnoxious. It was too early for bed, internet was expensive, nothing to do! We ended up getting ready for bed, setting up the van, and planning to finish the movie in the van, and not more than half an hour later, out like a light by 10:30!
I was awoken with a text message from mom saying they had gotten a call from US Bank saying my card had been suspended and that some of the charges had been declined due to the suspicious activity. Now, I had looked at my account last night, and my supposed pending items (that were first in line to be considered “declined” were things like the Maori tix, the Cave tix, our hotel in Sydney)….bad news.
I was less than a happy camper when I called, the bank said that it was the Emirates flights that had flagged it. Which is ridiculous, it’s an airline. Of all the options, that’s what gets it? Stupid.
Made it to the ferry with plenty time, and were told to get into the line with the van. Got in the line, and it looks like you sit in the car until its time to load. You can get out, but I have nothing to do outside the car!
Aboard the ferry, found a nice comfy spot, had some toast and banana for breakfast and Tim is heading outside, how, I don’t know, its FREEZING. I’m sure if I was properly dressed I might be ok, but I only have my light green jacket. However, I was slightly more prepared than last time and at least have on long sleeves and a hooded sweatshirt. Brr. And these rude people go outside or come back from inside, and leave the door open. Its like people, I know you aren’t sitting up here, so you don’t care. But its cold, shut the frickin door!
While planning our Sydney excursion, a german girl came in and exclaimed something to her friends and they all ran outside, so naturally, we all did too. There were dolphins swimming along the boat!
We hit Hastings at about 4, found the Rush Munroe ice cream gardens. Pretty much just an ice cream shop, that part was a let down, and then further a let down when I got passion fruit, and Tim got hokey pokey.
On the way to Napier we saw the sign for the pet barn that had kittens and puppies. A stop was a must! Napier Town center was too far away to walk to, from the camp that we picked so we drove into town and parked outside the Countdown grocery store. I saw the Mad Butcher shop next door and after our awful meat experience the night before, we decided to check that out. It was actually really cool. Small, but TONS of meat. Coolers and coolers of every type of meat in every different cut and various marinades. Including tripe and oxtail. Other organs too. But it was awesome. I wish we had one like that. We decided that we were going to stick with our plan on taco seasoned chicken with red peppers.
When we left the internet cafe, we saw downtown Napier just totally shut down for the night. At like 6:30pm. It’s a whole country thing! Nothing is open. Still outrageous. It was a beautiful night and we would have loved to just walk around looking at things. 
After dinner, I made dessert using a can of strawberries with juice, simmered it with some more of my strawberry jelly that I had, a packet of citrus jelly, and then added a cut up banana into it. The banana was in too long (I didn’t realize how long it would take to reduce) and it broke down quite a bit, but in the end it was like soupy jam, but tasted awesome.
By 8:30 we were super bored. We were half an hour in to Astro Boy, but watching it in the kitchen on the laptop, unable to do anything else was just rather obnoxious. It was too early for bed, internet was expensive, nothing to do! We ended up getting ready for bed, setting up the van, and planning to finish the movie in the van, and not more than half an hour later, out like a light by 10:30!
Friday, May 14, 2010
April 20th! Glaciers and Pancake Rocks!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
-Got out of Wanaka a little after 7, the clouds were all around us near the ground, and when they weren’t, it was super foggy. I found it pretty, but I wasn’t the one driving through it.
-We made a bathroom stop and went into the café (smallest town yet, like three buildings and some houses) and they were super nice. They had no filtered coffee, but helped me out with figuring out what to order. No trim milk, but I had some of that and splenda in the car. It was like SUPER caffeine. For $4, it was tiny, but it was takeaway (that had added 50cents) so I at least got the lid, and it sent me through the roof. There was a German voice for at least half an hour. I was instantly awake.
-Now on to Fox Glacier! About half hour away, we came along the ocean beach, and for a good ¾ mile along the beach/road, there were rock pilings and branches all set up into designs and formations.
People had all formed these mini altar-esque things with them. A lot of the white rocks had been written on with peoples names and dates. If I had a marker, I would have done it. I could have spent a good hour just walking down the line looking at all the formations and writings on the rocks. It was very cool. There was a seagull that literally followed us down the line. He would sit on a rock very close to us, we would move down a few feet, he would fly down to right in front of us again.
-Fox Glacier was first, and the Access Road, and since you could actually see the glacier and the path to the glacier, we decided to make the trek. Big WIDE path of the glacier. An hour there and back. Climbed over rocks, crossed streams, up shaky paths. It would NEVER happen in the states. Never. Safety hazard waiting to happen. They were safe in the fact that we couldn’t get too close to it. On the way back took a mini side path to one of the melting streams and touched chunks of ice.
-After a very brief Franz Josef Glacier stop, we popped into a Four Square grocery store and I started to put our pita lunch together. Humus, spinach greens, red pepper from the night before’s salad, and deli ham. They were delicious. And then Tim had some more hummus with leftover broccoli and carrots while I had an orange. We each had two of the chocolate Afghan cookies.
-We made it to the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes right at high tide. We felt like we were walking through a corn field with the types of plant and height of the plant that was constantly surrounding us. The rocks themselves were pretty neat. The waves just beating down on them in high tide and seeing all the caves and crevices below the rocks was just as cool as the pancake effect itself. The formations were much bigger than I actually expected them to be. Not the rocks themselves, but there were lots of them in the area.
-A mini mouthwash at the store cost $9.
-Stayed the night in Wesport, at the camp we parked right next to the kitchen. There were two people in there already, so it was rather awkard to make out pita sandwiches, our broccoli/carrot/olive/hummus plate, and heat up the egg pie. They were at the table, so we had to go eat outside. It wasn’t freezing, but I would have rather ate inside.
-I was getting creative for dessert, so I made the apple and banana in a skillet, with the honey and peanut butter and then tim put his in a pita, and I scooped mine up with half a pita. It was seriously awesome.
-Spent time looking up hotels/hostels for our few days in Sydney before Mom arrived, Our biggest hurdle is the flight to Sydney right now. With our luggage the way it is, it just seems impossible. Impossible So we need to work on that tomorrow.
-Got out of Wanaka a little after 7, the clouds were all around us near the ground, and when they weren’t, it was super foggy. I found it pretty, but I wasn’t the one driving through it.
-We made a bathroom stop and went into the café (smallest town yet, like three buildings and some houses) and they were super nice. They had no filtered coffee, but helped me out with figuring out what to order. No trim milk, but I had some of that and splenda in the car. It was like SUPER caffeine. For $4, it was tiny, but it was takeaway (that had added 50cents) so I at least got the lid, and it sent me through the roof. There was a German voice for at least half an hour. I was instantly awake.
-Now on to Fox Glacier! About half hour away, we came along the ocean beach, and for a good ¾ mile along the beach/road, there were rock pilings and branches all set up into designs and formations.
People had all formed these mini altar-esque things with them. A lot of the white rocks had been written on with peoples names and dates. If I had a marker, I would have done it. I could have spent a good hour just walking down the line looking at all the formations and writings on the rocks. It was very cool. There was a seagull that literally followed us down the line. He would sit on a rock very close to us, we would move down a few feet, he would fly down to right in front of us again.
-Fox Glacier was first, and the Access Road, and since you could actually see the glacier and the path to the glacier, we decided to make the trek. Big WIDE path of the glacier. An hour there and back. Climbed over rocks, crossed streams, up shaky paths. It would NEVER happen in the states. Never. Safety hazard waiting to happen. They were safe in the fact that we couldn’t get too close to it. On the way back took a mini side path to one of the melting streams and touched chunks of ice.
-After a very brief Franz Josef Glacier stop, we popped into a Four Square grocery store and I started to put our pita lunch together. Humus, spinach greens, red pepper from the night before’s salad, and deli ham. They were delicious. And then Tim had some more hummus with leftover broccoli and carrots while I had an orange. We each had two of the chocolate Afghan cookies.
-We made it to the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes right at high tide. We felt like we were walking through a corn field with the types of plant and height of the plant that was constantly surrounding us. The rocks themselves were pretty neat. The waves just beating down on them in high tide and seeing all the caves and crevices below the rocks was just as cool as the pancake effect itself. The formations were much bigger than I actually expected them to be. Not the rocks themselves, but there were lots of them in the area.
-A mini mouthwash at the store cost $9.
-Stayed the night in Wesport, at the camp we parked right next to the kitchen. There were two people in there already, so it was rather awkard to make out pita sandwiches, our broccoli/carrot/olive/hummus plate, and heat up the egg pie. They were at the table, so we had to go eat outside. It wasn’t freezing, but I would have rather ate inside.
-I was getting creative for dessert, so I made the apple and banana in a skillet, with the honey and peanut butter and then tim put his in a pita, and I scooped mine up with half a pita. It was seriously awesome.
-Spent time looking up hotels/hostels for our few days in Sydney before Mom arrived, Our biggest hurdle is the flight to Sydney right now. With our luggage the way it is, it just seems impossible. Impossible So we need to work on that tomorrow.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Black Wednesday: April 21st.
Preface: Near the end, I sound like a manic depressive, note the date, and check out facebook for current pictures and note how much happier I look!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
-There were Weka birds outside our car this morning, chirping away. We saw a lot of those yesterday, we thought they might be weird looking kiws at first, but saw a sign telling us we were stupid and they were Wekas. So we got ready, a little easier this morning than other mornings, not sure why. Maybe we are just getting used to it. Maybe it’s a little more methodic than it was originally, but we made our coffee in the kitchen and headed out.
-We pulled into Nelson, and the World of Wearable Arts/Collectable Cars Museum. It was smaller than I expected space wise, but had the same amount of stuff that I expected. The first room just had three ball gowns, one made entirely of wood, one made entirely out of copper tin things, and one involving an entire tea set on shelving as the bussle. Then there was a big show room, several were out in the room and stationary, but then 20 or so were on a constantly moving conveyor belt of mannequins, and then you read a card on your seat that talked about each one. I totally dug it, the materials were crazy, there were feathers and tea bags and car parts, and wood and ear plugs. Just very very strange. One looked like a brown big bird kiwi puffball. There was the South Pacific business suit with lots of sequins and craziness.
-The second half of the museum was the car collection. There was this crazy expensive luxury car that had real wood paneling and each back seat had a personal tv and the rear seats totally folded out like a lazy boy. That was pretty swank. They had a Delorian that Tim HAD to have his picture taken with.
-Nelson was like the Australia book jackpot. Of all the stores we had looked in so far, all they had was lonely planet for 60/70 bucks. This one had numerous brands, and those brands all cheaper. I gathered the best ones, and went outside to flag Tim into the store. We did our best logic and bought a small Lonely Planet Sydney book for $NZ28. That should at least last us the three days we spend there, and then we can look through Mom’s Australia book for the other cities.
-Lunch was a small bowl of nonfat cottage cheese, and a killer small bowl of fruit. It had mango, kiwi, grapes, pineapple, and canteloupe. Delicious and nutritious lunch. I miss healthy food.
-We started the drive leisurely to Picton, 3ish hours away. The weather stayed awesome and sunny with very few clouds, so we pulled off onto the shoulder pull offs a few times for pictures, listened to Tim’s ipod, it was actually a really nice drive. It’s just hard to fully enjoy how pretty and relaxing is. Its like, this is the most gorgeous place on earth, in the most beautiful weather, and we are stressing majorly about Australia and flights and getting our luggage to Sydney. Those stresses just overtake all that we should be enjoying, and its hard. We didn’t want it to be this way at all.
-Finally we had to say pause and go for a walk because we needed dinner groceries and it was getting dark soon. We walked down into Town Centre with this totally awesome little park right in front of the water to watch all the boats and ferries.
Green grass, nice beach, benches, playground. It was the perfect place, and all we could think about was luggage. We saw the big big ferry turn around into the dock, so that was somewhat interesting, it was like parking a Cadillac in a bathtub.
- Back at camp, Tim made more calls on luggage with no luck and looked up a bunch of things online. That is when I saw my bank account and had a breakdown. I can’t even go into it here because I will flip out again. And its not like I am even having a good time here. (for those reading this far, remember that this was April 21st when I wrote this…) We are cold every night, we sleep in a van, we eat crappy grocery food that is super unhealthy for us, but it’s the cheapest they have, and nothing is fun. Gas is ridiculous, everything costs more than we expected, all just to burn my savings. Ridiculous. I lost it. I sobbed in the van for at least half an hour. At least. No consolation. Can’t go home. Don’t want to stay here. Just trying to focus on being with mom in Australia, even if that means still spending more money. It will be fun, and involve hotels, and my mommy.
-It was 7:15 before we made dinner, and following the events of the day, it was an epic fail. The chicken was the worst chicken tim has ever even seen. It was 65% fat, and the actual meat was awful. We tried skilleting it, adding the veggies and butter and salt and pepper (just to make it edible) but I had about two bites of chicken, some of the veggies, and olives. The saving grace was that Tim got Uncle Bens thai rice for himself, you just microwave it, but there was enough for us both. Total savior. It didn’t help that there was a group of Germans in the kitchen making an AMAZING smelling dinner. Then they watched How I Met Your Mother. We wanted to get away from them, so we went to the tv lounge to be online and eat our chocolate cake roll thing, but it was so cold in there that we ended up back in the kitchen in the back corner, which ended up ok.
-He tried to book our flight to Sydney on Emirates, even switching over to the camp computers that were hardwired in, but it kept showing up as an error. It was annoying, cause we really need to get those tickets booked before its too late.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
-There were Weka birds outside our car this morning, chirping away. We saw a lot of those yesterday, we thought they might be weird looking kiws at first, but saw a sign telling us we were stupid and they were Wekas. So we got ready, a little easier this morning than other mornings, not sure why. Maybe we are just getting used to it. Maybe it’s a little more methodic than it was originally, but we made our coffee in the kitchen and headed out.
-We pulled into Nelson, and the World of Wearable Arts/Collectable Cars Museum. It was smaller than I expected space wise, but had the same amount of stuff that I expected. The first room just had three ball gowns, one made entirely of wood, one made entirely out of copper tin things, and one involving an entire tea set on shelving as the bussle. Then there was a big show room, several were out in the room and stationary, but then 20 or so were on a constantly moving conveyor belt of mannequins, and then you read a card on your seat that talked about each one. I totally dug it, the materials were crazy, there were feathers and tea bags and car parts, and wood and ear plugs. Just very very strange. One looked like a brown big bird kiwi puffball. There was the South Pacific business suit with lots of sequins and craziness.
-The second half of the museum was the car collection. There was this crazy expensive luxury car that had real wood paneling and each back seat had a personal tv and the rear seats totally folded out like a lazy boy. That was pretty swank. They had a Delorian that Tim HAD to have his picture taken with.
-Nelson was like the Australia book jackpot. Of all the stores we had looked in so far, all they had was lonely planet for 60/70 bucks. This one had numerous brands, and those brands all cheaper. I gathered the best ones, and went outside to flag Tim into the store. We did our best logic and bought a small Lonely Planet Sydney book for $NZ28. That should at least last us the three days we spend there, and then we can look through Mom’s Australia book for the other cities.
-Lunch was a small bowl of nonfat cottage cheese, and a killer small bowl of fruit. It had mango, kiwi, grapes, pineapple, and canteloupe. Delicious and nutritious lunch. I miss healthy food.
-We started the drive leisurely to Picton, 3ish hours away. The weather stayed awesome and sunny with very few clouds, so we pulled off onto the shoulder pull offs a few times for pictures, listened to Tim’s ipod, it was actually a really nice drive. It’s just hard to fully enjoy how pretty and relaxing is. Its like, this is the most gorgeous place on earth, in the most beautiful weather, and we are stressing majorly about Australia and flights and getting our luggage to Sydney. Those stresses just overtake all that we should be enjoying, and its hard. We didn’t want it to be this way at all.
-Finally we had to say pause and go for a walk because we needed dinner groceries and it was getting dark soon. We walked down into Town Centre with this totally awesome little park right in front of the water to watch all the boats and ferries.
Green grass, nice beach, benches, playground. It was the perfect place, and all we could think about was luggage. We saw the big big ferry turn around into the dock, so that was somewhat interesting, it was like parking a Cadillac in a bathtub.
- Back at camp, Tim made more calls on luggage with no luck and looked up a bunch of things online. That is when I saw my bank account and had a breakdown. I can’t even go into it here because I will flip out again. And its not like I am even having a good time here. (for those reading this far, remember that this was April 21st when I wrote this…) We are cold every night, we sleep in a van, we eat crappy grocery food that is super unhealthy for us, but it’s the cheapest they have, and nothing is fun. Gas is ridiculous, everything costs more than we expected, all just to burn my savings. Ridiculous. I lost it. I sobbed in the van for at least half an hour. At least. No consolation. Can’t go home. Don’t want to stay here. Just trying to focus on being with mom in Australia, even if that means still spending more money. It will be fun, and involve hotels, and my mommy.
-It was 7:15 before we made dinner, and following the events of the day, it was an epic fail. The chicken was the worst chicken tim has ever even seen. It was 65% fat, and the actual meat was awful. We tried skilleting it, adding the veggies and butter and salt and pepper (just to make it edible) but I had about two bites of chicken, some of the veggies, and olives. The saving grace was that Tim got Uncle Bens thai rice for himself, you just microwave it, but there was enough for us both. Total savior. It didn’t help that there was a group of Germans in the kitchen making an AMAZING smelling dinner. Then they watched How I Met Your Mother. We wanted to get away from them, so we went to the tv lounge to be online and eat our chocolate cake roll thing, but it was so cold in there that we ended up back in the kitchen in the back corner, which ended up ok.
-He tried to book our flight to Sydney on Emirates, even switching over to the camp computers that were hardwired in, but it kept showing up as an error. It was annoying, cause we really need to get those tickets booked before its too late.
Monday, May 10, 2010
April 19th.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Alarm went off at 5:17, as planned. And as much as I didn’t want to get out from the warm covers, it was nowhere near the torture as the morning before. It’s almost easier getting up that early over around 7/8. We both were wide awake almost instantly. And it was still pitch black. The darkness is all the time. From 6pm to almost 7am. Its depressing. Like WAY depressing.
The darkness started lifting and we could see the beginning of the mountains around us as we drove to the Milford Sound. It was really cool. We went into the Homer Tunnel. Which looked regular at first, but it was about a lane and a half wide, so you didn’t know what to do if you came across a car (little did we know that it turns into a one lane at 7am (but it was early than that) and that eventually the lights turn on via solar power, but while we were in it, it was pitch black and curvy. Super creepy and nerve wracking. We came out on the other side and the mountains that surrounded us were completely undescribably. They were huge. They looked huge, and then you saw a tree or something only a tiny way up and realized they were about 10 times the size you actually thought they were. It was insane. And they were gorgeous. Clouds and fog hung low. Streams trickled down from places you couldn’t even see the beginning of, we saw places that we knew we would want to stop at, but kept driving so we were sure to make the boat on time. The mountains were covered by clouds, it was so weird and eerie, like full sized clouds had come down and were chilling in the valleys of the Mountains, it wasn’t mist, they were actual clouds. Strange.
We boarded the RV Sinbad. Breakfast was served free with the morning trip (love the free food). We ate pretty quickly, and made our way to the front of the ferry, where we stood the whole way out to the ocean. We passed a large rock with three seals, two adults and one baby, which was super cute since the baby kept squirming like it couldn’t get comfortable on the hard rock. Our captain was quite amusing, making fun of the Aussies, and making comments like, “Lets turn this girl around…and the boat as well…” We passed a waterfall that looked dinky and small, but were told that it was THREE TIMES the size of Niagra Falls.
It was just ridiculous, the size and majesticness of the mountains were unbelievable. We would be out, and you would see a tiny tiny fleck of white in the background, looking like a duck almost, and then you would realize as it got closer very slowly, that it was a full size passenger ferry. Just immense. There were waterfalls that started so high up, that they never hit the water below, they had turned into mist and blown away before it even hit the water. There were ledges, not tops of mountains, but just ledges that were 800m above us. I took a million pictures, and every single one of them looked like a photograph.
Fjord Facts: The Milford Sound isn’t really a sound, it’s a Fjord, some moron just named it a Sound before realizing it was really a fjord.
And.
There are numerous earthquakes in the Sound a year (oh, and). And that every 150 years, there are catastrophic earthquakes, and that they are about 150 years overdue for another one.
We slowly worked our way back to the Homer Tunnel, stopping at the Chasm along the way, and then back to Te Anau.
Got gas outside of Queenstown, drove through, just to see what its like. Very Vail like, at the base of the mountains, but 85% of all the stores and businesses were either nature/outdoor or crazy sports related. It was clear what the town made its money on, but it was a very cute town, looked decently cheap, and like the town would be very easy to live and work in. The trees were more fall-like than anywhere else. All leaves were gorgeous yellows and reds.
After Arrowtown, we then had a massive debate about how far to try and make it. We had been in the car for 10+ hours already, and Fox/Franz Glaciers were another whole 5 hours away, and I just did not want to be in the car anymore. But really, it was still super early (4ish) and there is no reason to get closer to the glaciers while we have nothing else to do. Tim wanted to make it there, but I just ugh. I had totally hit the wall. Decide to drive just to get it done since we wouldn’t be doing anything at the campsite anyway. Start the drive, by the time we enter Wanaka an hour later, we had lost our minds which including singing songs about how much it sucked to the tune of Christmas carols.
Wanaka Bella Vista to the rescue! Topped off with a preroasted chicken and salad from New World, all rolled up in an orange chocolate muffin to share. That right there made the night a total success, but it got even more productive when we spent the next several hours going through every single brochure, and planning the entire rest of the time in the South Island and the rest of our time with the stupid Spaceship.
Alarm went off at 5:17, as planned. And as much as I didn’t want to get out from the warm covers, it was nowhere near the torture as the morning before. It’s almost easier getting up that early over around 7/8. We both were wide awake almost instantly. And it was still pitch black. The darkness is all the time. From 6pm to almost 7am. Its depressing. Like WAY depressing.
The darkness started lifting and we could see the beginning of the mountains around us as we drove to the Milford Sound. It was really cool. We went into the Homer Tunnel. Which looked regular at first, but it was about a lane and a half wide, so you didn’t know what to do if you came across a car (little did we know that it turns into a one lane at 7am (but it was early than that) and that eventually the lights turn on via solar power, but while we were in it, it was pitch black and curvy. Super creepy and nerve wracking. We came out on the other side and the mountains that surrounded us were completely undescribably. They were huge. They looked huge, and then you saw a tree or something only a tiny way up and realized they were about 10 times the size you actually thought they were. It was insane. And they were gorgeous. Clouds and fog hung low. Streams trickled down from places you couldn’t even see the beginning of, we saw places that we knew we would want to stop at, but kept driving so we were sure to make the boat on time. The mountains were covered by clouds, it was so weird and eerie, like full sized clouds had come down and were chilling in the valleys of the Mountains, it wasn’t mist, they were actual clouds. Strange.
We boarded the RV Sinbad. Breakfast was served free with the morning trip (love the free food). We ate pretty quickly, and made our way to the front of the ferry, where we stood the whole way out to the ocean. We passed a large rock with three seals, two adults and one baby, which was super cute since the baby kept squirming like it couldn’t get comfortable on the hard rock. Our captain was quite amusing, making fun of the Aussies, and making comments like, “Lets turn this girl around…and the boat as well…” We passed a waterfall that looked dinky and small, but were told that it was THREE TIMES the size of Niagra Falls.
It was just ridiculous, the size and majesticness of the mountains were unbelievable. We would be out, and you would see a tiny tiny fleck of white in the background, looking like a duck almost, and then you would realize as it got closer very slowly, that it was a full size passenger ferry. Just immense. There were waterfalls that started so high up, that they never hit the water below, they had turned into mist and blown away before it even hit the water. There were ledges, not tops of mountains, but just ledges that were 800m above us. I took a million pictures, and every single one of them looked like a photograph.
Fjord Facts: The Milford Sound isn’t really a sound, it’s a Fjord, some moron just named it a Sound before realizing it was really a fjord.
And.
There are numerous earthquakes in the Sound a year (oh, and). And that every 150 years, there are catastrophic earthquakes, and that they are about 150 years overdue for another one.
We slowly worked our way back to the Homer Tunnel, stopping at the Chasm along the way, and then back to Te Anau.
Got gas outside of Queenstown, drove through, just to see what its like. Very Vail like, at the base of the mountains, but 85% of all the stores and businesses were either nature/outdoor or crazy sports related. It was clear what the town made its money on, but it was a very cute town, looked decently cheap, and like the town would be very easy to live and work in. The trees were more fall-like than anywhere else. All leaves were gorgeous yellows and reds.
After Arrowtown, we then had a massive debate about how far to try and make it. We had been in the car for 10+ hours already, and Fox/Franz Glaciers were another whole 5 hours away, and I just did not want to be in the car anymore. But really, it was still super early (4ish) and there is no reason to get closer to the glaciers while we have nothing else to do. Tim wanted to make it there, but I just ugh. I had totally hit the wall. Decide to drive just to get it done since we wouldn’t be doing anything at the campsite anyway. Start the drive, by the time we enter Wanaka an hour later, we had lost our minds which including singing songs about how much it sucked to the tune of Christmas carols.
Wanaka Bella Vista to the rescue! Topped off with a preroasted chicken and salad from New World, all rolled up in an orange chocolate muffin to share. That right there made the night a total success, but it got even more productive when we spent the next several hours going through every single brochure, and planning the entire rest of the time in the South Island and the rest of our time with the stupid Spaceship.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Sunday, April 18th, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
-Going to the bathroom at 3:30 in the morning at a campground with super sketchy people around in weird camper vans (albeit just like ours) is beyond scary and I thought I would have a heart attack tearing back to the van.
-Can I just say that no bathroom should shut all the shower doors and stall doors at night, so you can see that no one is trying to kill you?!
-The night was so cold that I woke up with the blanket 100% over my head, and I am totally one of those people that cannot stand anything even touching my face when I sleep, let alone all the way over my head…
-We started at the Dunedin (Duh-Nee-Din) Railway Station first, really pretty, but not much to do.
-The Cadbury Factory tour is the most awesome thing on the planet for chocolate lovers. EVER. Chocolate waterfall, cups of warm chocolate straight from the machines to eat with a spoon, and handing out free candy left and right. Just the smell of the place could wake me from a coma.
-We learned that white chocolate is only cocoa butter, milk and sugar. So that was somewhat disturbing.
-I got to do the 45 minute Cadbury chocolate tour, so the next on the agenda was the 90 minute Speights Brewery tour. It was actually really cool since it is one of the last Gravity Breweries in existence. There were only two other people on the tour, so the end “tasting” session turned into, “Here’s the taps, here’s the glasses, go for it” Sidenote: This is the definite upside to touring in the off season, the tours are virtually dead and you get better service and its generally a lot funner.
-Skipped out on Larnach Castle. I don’t need to see some random dude’s house for $50.
-More Subway goodness (shocker).
-Jaffa’s need to come to the United States. This needs to happen, anyone in favor of chocolate and orange flavor combined, join us in this conquest.
-New Zealand farms deer. This seems very strange to me. Why would you want to farm them?
-Looks like we should be hitting the Te Anau campsite a little after 6:30. Its strangely still a bit light, I mean, don’t get me wrong, its still dark, but the gloomy clouds that have been around all day still seem to be reflecting a tiny bit of light. Maybe that can hold out….wishful thinking.
-Te Anau was a small but quaint town, the first store we went to, was a huge debate. We were in that store for at least 45 minutes trying to figure out what to do for dinner. I was feeling so crappy not having any vegetables or protein in my body. I wanted eggs or chicken, but Tim wasn’t feeling the chicken or cooking, but I didn’t want to eat plain spinach for my entire dinner. It was a big mess.
-Next stop, gas station to fill up before heading to Milford Sound in the morning, since there is no gas stations between the two towns. And even the word “town” I use lightly. We went into the Real Journeys office, (they are sure open late (8:30). We debated about whether or not to spend the money (100 each) on the cruise. But Tim really wanted to see the Sound, and other from the one end at a parking lot, there is no real way to see it unless on a cruise. So we booked one for early the next morning.
-We were quite annoyed about a lot of different things, and now we had to lug all of the cooking equipment and food and such to the cold camp kitchen to cook, at like 8pm. We were just miserable. Had to wash everything first, no towels, just gross. But we scrambled our 6 egg whites (using butterpacket since we had no spray) with broccoli, and put cheese on top. But at least we got free breakfast on the boat that next morning! That was a definite plus!!!
-Went back to the van, to put everything away and get settled for the night. It felt like it was raining at first, but it was more of a heavy mist, not as bad, but still. Just one more thing, AND it was pitch black. With one of three lights working in the back of the van. Pretty miserable. At least it was 12 degrees warmer than the night before!
-Going to the bathroom at 3:30 in the morning at a campground with super sketchy people around in weird camper vans (albeit just like ours) is beyond scary and I thought I would have a heart attack tearing back to the van.
-Can I just say that no bathroom should shut all the shower doors and stall doors at night, so you can see that no one is trying to kill you?!
-The night was so cold that I woke up with the blanket 100% over my head, and I am totally one of those people that cannot stand anything even touching my face when I sleep, let alone all the way over my head…
-We started at the Dunedin (Duh-Nee-Din) Railway Station first, really pretty, but not much to do.
-The Cadbury Factory tour is the most awesome thing on the planet for chocolate lovers. EVER. Chocolate waterfall, cups of warm chocolate straight from the machines to eat with a spoon, and handing out free candy left and right. Just the smell of the place could wake me from a coma.
-We learned that white chocolate is only cocoa butter, milk and sugar. So that was somewhat disturbing.
-I got to do the 45 minute Cadbury chocolate tour, so the next on the agenda was the 90 minute Speights Brewery tour. It was actually really cool since it is one of the last Gravity Breweries in existence. There were only two other people on the tour, so the end “tasting” session turned into, “Here’s the taps, here’s the glasses, go for it” Sidenote: This is the definite upside to touring in the off season, the tours are virtually dead and you get better service and its generally a lot funner.
-Skipped out on Larnach Castle. I don’t need to see some random dude’s house for $50.
-More Subway goodness (shocker).
-Jaffa’s need to come to the United States. This needs to happen, anyone in favor of chocolate and orange flavor combined, join us in this conquest.
-New Zealand farms deer. This seems very strange to me. Why would you want to farm them?
-Looks like we should be hitting the Te Anau campsite a little after 6:30. Its strangely still a bit light, I mean, don’t get me wrong, its still dark, but the gloomy clouds that have been around all day still seem to be reflecting a tiny bit of light. Maybe that can hold out….wishful thinking.
-Te Anau was a small but quaint town, the first store we went to, was a huge debate. We were in that store for at least 45 minutes trying to figure out what to do for dinner. I was feeling so crappy not having any vegetables or protein in my body. I wanted eggs or chicken, but Tim wasn’t feeling the chicken or cooking, but I didn’t want to eat plain spinach for my entire dinner. It was a big mess.
-Next stop, gas station to fill up before heading to Milford Sound in the morning, since there is no gas stations between the two towns. And even the word “town” I use lightly. We went into the Real Journeys office, (they are sure open late (8:30). We debated about whether or not to spend the money (100 each) on the cruise. But Tim really wanted to see the Sound, and other from the one end at a parking lot, there is no real way to see it unless on a cruise. So we booked one for early the next morning.
-We were quite annoyed about a lot of different things, and now we had to lug all of the cooking equipment and food and such to the cold camp kitchen to cook, at like 8pm. We were just miserable. Had to wash everything first, no towels, just gross. But we scrambled our 6 egg whites (using butterpacket since we had no spray) with broccoli, and put cheese on top. But at least we got free breakfast on the boat that next morning! That was a definite plus!!!
-Went back to the van, to put everything away and get settled for the night. It felt like it was raining at first, but it was more of a heavy mist, not as bad, but still. Just one more thing, AND it was pitch black. With one of three lights working in the back of the van. Pretty miserable. At least it was 12 degrees warmer than the night before!
Thursday, May 6, 2010
April 17th: Spaceship Saga Begins.
This is Milford. He is our Kiwi. He is no Myla/Nessa/Olivia substitute, but he doesnt puke in the carpet either!
Saturday, April 17, 2010
-Days are just better that start with a workout
-Until you pick up your Spaceship Campervan and end up sobbing in misery. It is very much not as advertised. He spent a lot of time showing us how to use the “features” but its really a mini van with shit welded to it. Not thrilled. It is skuzzy and dirty. There are crumbs still from the last people just sitting on the bench….the “cooler” fits about two water bottles, and that’s all. No microwave, only a gas cooker that has to be used outside. Just miserable and decrepit. (And that was just the things we saw immediately, the end list of crap is LONG)
-But we did find a sweet market that had awesome food and produce (fresh figs!!). Went in and was super pleased. There were stations after stations of awesome. Breads, meats, veggies, meats, dips, prepared foods, desserts, everything. I would have killed to be able to shop from there every Saturday, it was fantastic. And everything was cheap and looked great. Then we sampled some humus and actually got some to go with our carrots. Had KILLER hot chocolate sample spoon. If it probably wasn’t 1000 calories, I would have totally bought a mug. Bought small, but perfect looking galas from this super cute couple. They jammed as many apples as humanly possible into the bag. 5 bucks for probably 10+ apples. Bought a ciabatta, chocolate chip bagel, and a roll for Tim. The chocolate chip bagel was followed by Tim's quote, "It's like a chocolate chip cookie and bread had sex...."
-I like the South Island a lot better. The roads are much better, wider, nicer, and the landscape, while a lot like Iowa, is also more interesting. No hills to make me want to puke, at least along the coast that we are driving along. More cute towns to look at too. More sizable than the North Island, but nothing huge.
-We pulled into the Oamaru I site and stopped in, and they closed the door right behind us. Thankfully we somewhat got our Penguin question answered. It was either go to the Free Beach where you may see one yellow eyed penguin around 4:30 (it was 4) OR pay $44, wait til 5:15 for a production of Blue Penguins at 6 where you see 60 some from an ampitheater with lights and a narration. We choose to go now, and free. Within minutes of arrival, I heard a honking from the cliff below, looked down, and BAM. Penguin about 15 feet down. Chilling.
-The drive from the Penguins to the Moertaki Boulders was gorgeous. Right at magic hour, we followed right along the beach, through rolling hills with sheep pastures on one side, glowing sky, mountains in the back, and the beach besides us. It was perfect and calming. Totally juxtaposed with our background music of Kevin Smith being vulgar as normal.
-We got to the boulders, slightly disappointing since I was expecting much bigger rocks. There were more than I expected, just a lot smaller. So strange though, perfect spheres. I guess the biggest one was the size I expected them all to be. Cool to look at, very curious as to how they are like that, especially the ones that have the weird rock looking like they were broken once and glued together, but its rock…..they all have cracks in them, and some of them have shattered apart, so I wonder how much longer they will last. Or if there is more.
-We turned around the mountain to Dunedin, and I was not expecting a city quite so huge. Later we learned that there is a major university there, but nonetheless, we kept turning around the mountain and there was more and more city everywhere you looked. Lights galore! We ate our Hell pizza and went back to the camp, got internet, and arranged the car and bedding, but it was super obnoxious and cold and complicated.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
-Days are just better that start with a workout
-Until you pick up your Spaceship Campervan and end up sobbing in misery. It is very much not as advertised. He spent a lot of time showing us how to use the “features” but its really a mini van with shit welded to it. Not thrilled. It is skuzzy and dirty. There are crumbs still from the last people just sitting on the bench….the “cooler” fits about two water bottles, and that’s all. No microwave, only a gas cooker that has to be used outside. Just miserable and decrepit. (And that was just the things we saw immediately, the end list of crap is LONG)
-But we did find a sweet market that had awesome food and produce (fresh figs!!). Went in and was super pleased. There were stations after stations of awesome. Breads, meats, veggies, meats, dips, prepared foods, desserts, everything. I would have killed to be able to shop from there every Saturday, it was fantastic. And everything was cheap and looked great. Then we sampled some humus and actually got some to go with our carrots. Had KILLER hot chocolate sample spoon. If it probably wasn’t 1000 calories, I would have totally bought a mug. Bought small, but perfect looking galas from this super cute couple. They jammed as many apples as humanly possible into the bag. 5 bucks for probably 10+ apples. Bought a ciabatta, chocolate chip bagel, and a roll for Tim. The chocolate chip bagel was followed by Tim's quote, "It's like a chocolate chip cookie and bread had sex...."
-I like the South Island a lot better. The roads are much better, wider, nicer, and the landscape, while a lot like Iowa, is also more interesting. No hills to make me want to puke, at least along the coast that we are driving along. More cute towns to look at too. More sizable than the North Island, but nothing huge.
-We pulled into the Oamaru I site and stopped in, and they closed the door right behind us. Thankfully we somewhat got our Penguin question answered. It was either go to the Free Beach where you may see one yellow eyed penguin around 4:30 (it was 4) OR pay $44, wait til 5:15 for a production of Blue Penguins at 6 where you see 60 some from an ampitheater with lights and a narration. We choose to go now, and free. Within minutes of arrival, I heard a honking from the cliff below, looked down, and BAM. Penguin about 15 feet down. Chilling.
-The drive from the Penguins to the Moertaki Boulders was gorgeous. Right at magic hour, we followed right along the beach, through rolling hills with sheep pastures on one side, glowing sky, mountains in the back, and the beach besides us. It was perfect and calming. Totally juxtaposed with our background music of Kevin Smith being vulgar as normal.
-We got to the boulders, slightly disappointing since I was expecting much bigger rocks. There were more than I expected, just a lot smaller. So strange though, perfect spheres. I guess the biggest one was the size I expected them all to be. Cool to look at, very curious as to how they are like that, especially the ones that have the weird rock looking like they were broken once and glued together, but its rock…..they all have cracks in them, and some of them have shattered apart, so I wonder how much longer they will last. Or if there is more.
-We turned around the mountain to Dunedin, and I was not expecting a city quite so huge. Later we learned that there is a major university there, but nonetheless, we kept turning around the mountain and there was more and more city everywhere you looked. Lights galore! We ate our Hell pizza and went back to the camp, got internet, and arranged the car and bedding, but it was super obnoxious and cold and complicated.
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