Too Many Cooks - No Such Thing

After paragliding over Queenstown (and landing on a school's rugby field - the kids didn't even notice) - we headed to Mt. Cook (Aoraki), the highest peak in New Zealand and where that intrepid beekeeper, Sir Edmund Hillary, trained before knocking off Everest.

Every road is a scenic road here, but this one was extra spectacular as we drove into the Southern Alps.  Burbly streams surrounded by acres and acres of lupins

And then Mt. Cook was in view, along Lake Pukaki, which is a brilliant shade of aqua, but opaque, both from the silt off the mountains.

Over the next day and a half, we got all sorts of views of this mountain...at dawn from our room::

Complete with rainbow:

From a helicopter:

From another mountain where the helicopter landed...

And we were fortunate to catch it reflected in a glassy Lake Pukaki as we drove to Christchurch

The New Zealand part of this trip is almost over...so sad.

Christina Screams Like A Girl

Capping off a few fantastic days in Queenstown, the Nevis Bungy - supposedly second-highest operating at 134 meters high over the Nevis River.   This was NOT the audio I was planning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPzvIPKWbCg

 

 

More about our other activities soon...  Unfortunately, our paragliding trip this afternoon is not possible due to wind conditions so we have to figure out something else to do...ATV tour? Horseback riding? Boogie boarding down a river?  Learning to fly and loop-the-loop an acrobatic 1930s biplane? Ziplining? Luging? The possibilities are endless around here.

I knew I shouldn't have had that big omelette this morning...

...since we spent the day hiking around the Franz Josef Glacier.  And when the guide tells you to hold your backpacks over your head and walk heel-toe as you squeeze through a crevasse that was slightly narrower than me.  I will definitely had bruised thighs, but at least they've been on ice most of today, to stop them from bruising...

Glowworms

We headed to the small town of Charleston, NZ, which used to be a gold mining boom town in the 1860s - the Glowworm Cave tour operates from there. We went to a clearing, andthe staff took their little train out of the garage.

We rode the train for about 10 minutes through incredible rain forest - then disembarked, got suited up in wet suits and other gear, and then hiked for about 15-20 minutes, including up 130 stairs to the cave entrance.  Along the way, we picked up huge inner tubes.  For a while, we explored the cave and formations, and then put our inner tubes in the cave river.  There were three of us plus the guide - we made our inner tubes into a chain, and floated backwards on our backs, looking above our heads to see an incredible display of glowworms on the ceiling and walls of the cave.  It was like seeing the Milky Way, or a ceiling covered in Christmas lights, while in the completely quiet and beautifully isolated environment of a cave.  Once out, we rode the tubes over some gentle whitewater down the river - the river was low, sowe got what ws described as a "river spanking."

Top Five

Top five mistakes while driving a right-side drive car:

5.  Reaching across your body with your right hand for the non-existent seat belt

4.  Banging your right hand against the door while reaching to shift into Park or Reverse

3.  Hugging (and sometimes driving off) the left side of the road rather than the center line on a two-lane highway

2.  Turning on the windshield wipers (left hand) whenever there's a need for a turn signal (right hand)

1.  Looking at the wrong mirrors when trying to back up in a parking lot.  With poles.

There are Worse Ways To Spend a Day....

....than riding around the beautiful sunny Marlborough, NZ countryside on bicycles, tasting wine all day.

We've heard that NZ is serious about trying to do something about drinking and driving (there is currently a proposal to make the legal alcohol limit 0.5), so we opted for wine touring by bicycle.  We were picked up in the morning, got outfitted, and conferred with the oeprator as to the best route and stops....and off we went!

We visited everything from powerhouses like Cloudy Bay (which brought the world's attention to NZ's Sauvignon Blanc) to small family-owned wineries, including one that grew just 6 acres, all planted, tended, and harvested by hand, and only producing Pinot Gris, and another with a French winemaker that only makes sparkling wine (we definitely enjoyed this - and were pleasantly surprised!).

We stopped for a light lunch - this is your brain....and this is your brain on wine!

Seven hours of riding and sipping go by quickly, even in a horrible headwind (at the end of the day, naturally), and the thrill, if you can call it that, of riding along state highways (yes, 100kph) with virtually no shoulder (to be fair, people in the area seem very accustomed to cyclists on the road and whiz by giving you a pretty wide berth).  We experienced this from the other side of the coin today, as we drove for hours, trying just to keep our car within the lane of the two-lane highway with no shoulders, and then coming upon cyclists!

Then back to our hotel in Blenheim, the D'Urville.  Which used to be an early 1900s bank, which is now converted with about 10 rooms.  Apparently, we're so precious that our room (and several others in the area) have two doors - the door to the room, and a 6" thick vault door!  Apparently our rooms all fed into what was the central vault.

It's a gorgeous hotel, and great room - each one is different, and the historic building is fantastic!

Day 2: Dolphins and Scenery

If you have to be somewhere at 5:30am, it's probably best to do that when you're jet-lagged and your internal clock is all screwed up anyway.

This morning, while the sky was getting pink, ready for sunrise, we were at Dolphin Encounter, getting equipped and briefed for our swim.  Clad in wetsuits, we boarded a boat and went in search of pods of wild dolphins along the coast.  When we spotted one, the guides waited to see how they behaved - were they interested in the boat at all? Or did they act as if they didn't want to be disturbed.  We waited, in all our snorkeling gear, in the back of the boat, poised to slip off quietly, sitting mostly in the cold water, which was at about 53 degrees.

When we found a pod that wanted to play, off we went, shocking our systems with the cold.  Did I MENTION that the water was 53 degrees?  Within moments, my face felt like a block of ice, and I couldn't feel my fingers (apparently, they save the gloves for when they go in the winter, when the water is in the 40s). What the hell were we doing?  Then the dolphins came around and we forgot everything else.

Now, these dolphins are completely wild.  There is nothing done to feed them or train them or otherwise entice them to hang around the boats or swimmers. It's their choice, which is wonderful.  It's up to us to make it entertaining enough for them to stick around.  We were instructed that we can help this along by swimming along with them in whatever configurations they try, diving down, making eye contact, and singing or making other interesting noises.  We must have made for interesting sights and sounds, about 20 people swimming in circles while whistling and singing (one person hummed the Star Spangled Banner). 

What fun!  I had several playing with me at once, while I swam as fast as I can, zig-zagging and in circles while trying to emit high-pitched calls and whistles.  (Boy, I'm out of shape, aerobically - that was exhausting).  Ken dove down to follow one and ended up with one below him and one arcing above him.  The water was murky, so you never saw dolphins until they were right alongside, above, near, or under you.

After about 20-30minutes they got bored and we went back to the boat.  We found another group, and swam with them for a while, same experience.  At this point, though, I couldn't feel my toes, and it was definitely time for the on-board hot shower and changing into warm clothing. Fifty. Three. Degrees. Have I mentioned that? We spent more time just observing from the boat - mothers with babies, and other groups showing off, leaping and somersaulting out of the water, or running alongside the boat at top speed.

After a lovely lovely lovely long hot shower, and hot breakfast, we started to thaw out (did I mention that the water was 12 degrees Celcius; about 285 degrees Kelvin), and after a stop at the used book store in town (of course), headed north to Blenheim.

It's a picture perfect day - not a cloud in the sky, the ocean is a beautiful milky aqua. Rugged coastline, winding hilly roads perfect for a Porsche, which apparently Hertz doesn't rent.  Mountains in the background, vineyards and fields.  Pulled over whenever possible (this is harder than it would seem - roads here don't have much shoulder, and there isn't a "scenic viewpoint" turnoff every few miles like in the US.  Apparently scenery is much taken for granted, and rightly so.) to admire the view or look at seal colonies.

Just another day in New Zealand!