South Island Journey continued!

Aoraki / Mt. Cook
We weren't sure about the weather so we forfeited our idea of hiking up to the
Mueller Hut to spend a couple of nights over xmas and opted for valley hiking up
the Hooker Glacier. The 24th was a lovely day with a mix of sun and cloud. I took
advantage of the morning sun and went for a run with unbelievable views all
around me. We mobilized ourselves for a day of being outdoors ad after being
out for 5 hours of hiking, we all found ourselves left with a little bit of extra heat
on our faces and arms. We went up the valley next to the Hooker to see the foot
of the Tasman Glacier and get a different view of Aoraki/Mt. Cook. Great walking
trails up to the lake where you can do some glacier kayaking if you pre‐back at the lodge. For more info on Mt. Cook go to www.mtcook.com

We drove back to the Hooker Glacier and 'tramped' up to the head of the glacier. A wonderful easy trek suitable for any hiker, including kids who don't like to hike!

We had some yummy French toast and real maple syrup for xmas breakfast and then packed up and headed for the coast. We were going to Dunedin for Boxing Day and needed to find a place over Xmas so we opted for Oamaru. A coastal town with lots of history, but completely shut down on Xmas Day, except we noticed, for granny lunches and special family outings. People warned us that everything would be closed so make sure you have your food and whatever you need. They were right. We pulled into a motel we’d pre-booked and unloaded our stuff. It was spacious with a great kitchen so we hung out watched a lot of rugby, made enchiladas and then had some fresh cinnamon buns especially prepared by none other than the Chief Guide himself at midnight. Yes, they take a long time to make, but worth it!! One of Oamaru’s claim to fame are the tiny yellow eyed penguins. They make their way in at dusk so we went down to the harbour where they come in. Within the last decade or so, a visitor center has been built with walkways where you can go in and be sure of seeing the little flappers come up out of the sea for only 60NZD per family. We opted to hang outside along the road and watch them come out of the water & find their way to their babies. We saw about 18 or so around 10:00pm. It was pretty hard to see them in the dark with only a dim streetlight outlining their waddle as they came up from the water, crossed the road and disappeared into the bushes behind us. Pretty cool though to see them as I’ve never seen penguins in the wild (so to speak) before!

Moeraki to Dunedin

On Boxing Day the weather was threatening rain and overcast with wind. We packed up and headed down hwy 1 with our first pit stop at Moeraki where the famous Moeraki boulders are.
These round boulders are said to be around 65million years old. They look pretty cool just sitting alone on the beach. We had some photo opps here and then headed up the steep staircase to the café. Amazingly it was open on a holiday, but they make a point everywhere in NZ of putting on a surcharge during holidays. At this point I didn’t care about the surcharge and ordered a well worth it cappuccino! See picture above! Only about another hour to Dunedin we drove through high overcast skies South to the Otago Peninsula. Even with all the cloud cover it was easy to see how gorgeous the countryside was with green rolling sheep dotted hills all around us. Before dropping down into Dunedin the road takes you up to the top of a hill for a view that was obscured with a mixture of fog, cloud, and rain. We dropped down into Dunedin and landed at our friends very warm and welcoming home. Lucky for us, this was our only day of rain and wind and we got to spend it cozied up catching up with Anna and getting to know Corran, her husband and his son and family. A lot of cooking, champagne, and Spheights-NZ beer followed for the rest of the day and evening.

We were lucky to wake up to some sun poking through the cloud and the hope of a clearer day. We decided to take a drive out along the Otago Peninsula with a pit stop in Portobello for some refreshments and then head out to the tip where the royal albatross center is. www.albatross.org.nz

The Otago Peninsula is one gorgeous area with the Otago Harbour on one side and the ocean on the other. Just a beautiful spot on the Earth to be! We followed a narrow winding road up and down the hills taking in the views, passing Larnach Castle and then heading down to Portobello, a seaside town where we sat outside in the sun enjoying that amazing micro brewed NZ beer. It must be good for you-all organic and just hops and barley! We then drove out to Taiaroa Head where the Albatross Colony is in search of giant flying birds. It was a breezy day out and we were fortunate to see a bunch of them playing above us taking advantage of the wind. Geoff managed to get a couple of stunning pictures capturing the full wing span of 3m.

Prior to heading out to the Peninsula, we drove into Dunedin and had a short walk around the main area of town. Lovely old stone buildings, markets and cafes. We visited the All Black’s store and got our share of rugby clothing and paraphernalia. We walked around the Otago University campus, a small and quaint area with original buildings still being used and the very first dental school still there where Corran’s mother went to school-the 1st woman dentist in NZ and where he went to dental school.

Corran built this small airplane and was kind enough to take us one at a time up for a short flight. I imagined flying all over the South and North Island as an easy and quick way to get from place to place. Another delicious dinner and then off to bed a bit earlier as we were in for our longest travel day the next morning up to Golden Bay at the tip of the South Island.

Here are some links to a couple of albums. I can't seem to upload pictures here.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=148981&id=732157679&l=f3b90d8cb0
This is the Hong Kong album.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=148971&id=732157679&l=72e088e33d
New Zealand album 1.

South Island ~ New Zealand

HONG KONG layover en route to down under -
We left Shanghai December 19th with a stopover in Hong Kong for a couple of nights. Stayed at YESin SPACE SOHO a cozy hostel tucked away in Kowloon conveniently located between two metro stops-Olympic and Mon Kok. This hostel passes our families critical eye and meets our comfort and hassle free expectations especially for finding something in HK around 100$US per night for 4 adults. You can book directly online with www.hostelworld.com or check out their website at www.yesinspace.com A great little ‘boutique’ hostel!

Two days pre xmas in HK was perfect for us, enough time to enjoy all the cream I could possibly want in my coffee’s and time to take in the beautiful outdoor and indoor xmas decorations everywhere in the city. They really go overboard!
For my 4th trip to HK, I finally managed to get up to the Big Buddha on Lantau Island. We took the gondola up and walked around the monastery and up to the Buddha himself. A beautiful, peaceful area despite the hoards of tourists.

We boarded our Cathay Pacific flight on Dec. 22nd at 8:00am bound for Auckland. A long, but pleasant flight of just over 10 hours landed us in Auckland around 1:00pm. Clearing customs here was a different experience. Although everything went smoothly, officials look for and ask about everything you are bringing into their country. If you plan on visiting, don’t plan on bringing in any food with you-they did let our homemade xmas cake through and chocolate bars-but many other food items are not allowed in.

South Island~

We had lots of time to wait for our connecting flight with Air New Zealand to Christchurch at 6:00pm. We hung out at the airport eating and sleeping until flight time. Arrived in Christchurch at 8:00pm and arranged to have a van meet us and take us to our hostel-Around The World Backpackers, a decent place to spend the night. Most hostels are around 25NZD per person with a shared bathroom. I have the stay I loved all the beds in NZ wherever we stayed. They love the ‘softer’ bed with nice sheets. A basic comfort which seemed so obvious to me before coming to China where the norm is a flat hard bed with hard pillows and sheets not worth talking about. NZ was a luxury in this area! We made our way to DuxDelux restaurant recommended to us by a friend from school. Delicious pizzas and beers on tap including a ginger beer which was yummy & quite different.

Dec.23rd we went to retrieve our rental 8 passenger minivan from About New Zealand rental cars, also known as Apex Rentals. There are a number of rental agencies in NZ and it’s hard to know if one is better over the other. If you want a funky looking van all painted up you should go with Escape or Wild. We saw lots of Jucy rentals as well which looked decent. Our van was 115NZD per day which we thought was kind of expensive for the quality-it was a little used to say the least, but it ran fine and we had no troubles with it. Later a friend told me that this is not unusual for NZ rentals. Most rentals are not new vehicles. Gas all over both islands was pretty steady at 1.65L. NZD.

eNZed bound for Xmas 09

Another fabulous trip has been had, this time in the land 'down under.' December 22nd 09 to January 4th 2010 we cruised around the South and North Islands in our mini van. Managed to run up 3200kms and a 3.5 hour ferry ride across Queen Charlotte Strait from Picton to Wellington. Photos and journal diary to follow...