My blog posts are running about two months behind, but hopefully the stories start to warm you up as we go from spring to summer down under! In mid-September we ventured to the south island of New Zealand and all three of us had a blast. We really lucked out as early spring weather there could have gone any way, but it was warm and sunny the entire time. In fact, the rain forest had a drought for 8 days - bad for the rain forest, but great for us! As a summary of our time there, below is a Top 10 list:
10. MAJOR CAR BEHAVIOR IMPROVEMENT (not Nate...)
Many of you know that our child has been awful in the car since birth. She screamed the whole way home from the hospital at 24 hours old and continued to scream in the car for most of the next 16 months. We haven't let this stop us from doing things, but it certainly made us want to wear ear plugs every time we drove more than 10 minutes! Our NZ trip included a flight, long train ride, and then 2-3 hours of driving a day. We were a bit nervous about this going in, but all of the sudden, something clicked and Isla realized that the car could take her amazing places! She was ecstatic the entire trip and only got a bit freaked when this cheeky kea tried to peck its way into the car.
9. HOKEY POKEY
Along the glacier hike, (see #5 below) the guide was making conversation with a few of us and mentioned that his all time favorite ice cream flavor was called "hokey pokey." Being a pretty big ice cream fan, I asked him what exactly this meant. He told me that is was a vanilla base with caramel swirls and honeycomb crispy bits in it and that is was a "New Zealand tradition." OMG. I couldn't wait to get the heck off the glacier that is melting at a rapid pace and may be gone in 20 years so that I could try this piece of culinary genius! I then made a bit of a fool of myself when he added, "Ashley...just make sure you don't skimp when you get this ice cream. Get Tip Top," to which I replied, "Oh don't worry, I always dip my cones in chocolate!" He stared at me for a minute and then informed me that Tip Top was a brand of ice cream and not the "choc top" I was referring to that McDonalds regularly serves in Australia. Oops. I got hokey pokey ice cream twice that week and a couple times since returning home. It is quite special! Thank you, glacier guide, George!
8. REALIZING WE ARE TOO OLD FOR BEER GARDENS IN WANAKA
Wanaka is a much more chill, quieter version of Queenstown, but both are jam packed with adrenaline junkies who jump out of planes, off cliffs, bike/ski/snowboard down mountains, and just about any other crazy sport you could think up. We rolled into our bed and breakfast in Wanaka and started looking for a place for dinner. It was a beautiful evening so we opted for the place with the best outside seating and view of the lake that looked to have great beer on tap. As we settled in and were told, "sorry mates, no high chairs here!" we looked around at the crowd and realized Nate should have probably ridden a skateboard in and had a longer than work-appropriate beard, and I should have been in a romper with the bottom of my ass cheeks out if we were actually going to fit in. We actually watched one guy skateboard in on his non-broken leg while the fully casted other leg dangled and he used his crutches to help push him along. The food and beers we ordered were delicious and we definitely enjoyed the people watching! Mostly, we just glanced up at each other and decided we were unfortunately getting old. Following Wanaka, we went searching for elves and fairies while driving on this road...
7. SEAL ABOARD!
We did an overnight boat trip on the Milford Sound. I understand this place is usually swarming with tourists and tons of boats, but since we went out on the first overnight sail of the season and no other tours had started operating yet, we had the entire, pristine fiord to ourselves (along with 50ish other boat guests). I guess the wildlife had not yet adjusted to boats being all around for the season yet and assumed the boat was just a big rock - after eating dinner, we looked down onto the stern of the boat to see that a seal had hopped aboard and decided to hang out for a while. Isla still talks about this - quite a defining moment in her toddlerhood so far!
6. LAKES AS MIRRORS & SUSPENSION BRIDGES
That description says it all! With so many crystal clear lakes and so many snow-capped peaks, it wasn't very hard to just look down into some water and see a mirror image of the surrounding mountains. And as if seeing this from a walking path wasn't enough, some of the neatest mountains and waterways are easily viewed from suspension bridges. I had always just assumed there was some photo-shopped amazing suspension bridge cropped just right in all the New Zealand brochures, but heaps of them really do exist! Isla loved the crap out of everything we did, but among her favorite experiences was throwing rocks into water from "up high." We threw rocks for hours every day. And what's more fun than throwing rocks from land? You guessed it - throwing rocks from bridges!
5. HELICOPTERS & CRAMPONS
We knew going into making a reservation for a heli-hike on the glacier, you have about a 50/50 shot of your trip actually going as the weather changes so rapidly. We booked far ahead that I would do the trip of our first day in Franz Josef and Nate would go the second day. My trip went. Sadly, Nate's did not. But it's just another reason to go back to NZ again now! The trip is very cool - helicopter ride up to the glacier and you actually land on the ice. You hop out, strap on your crampons and hike through some crazy ice formations. When the hike is over, you helicopter back to the a little rainforest landing pad (and if you are me, frantically start scouring town for Tip Top Hokey Pokey ice cream!)
4. A ROOM ON A BOAT MADE FOR HOBBITS
I mentioned our boat ride, complete with wildlife aboard. The boat gets 2 highlights within the top 10 as it was just such a neat experience. We had a water-view cabin and everything in it was just...precious. Teeny sink, teeny shower, teeny beds. Isla thought the room was made for her. We all slept soundly aboard the Milford Mariner!
3. TRANZ-ALPINE BUBBLES AND KISSES
The first leg of our journey was taking the TranzAlpine train from Christchurch over to Greymouth (on the west coast). It's a 5 hour train ride with lots of "Lord of the Rings" views. The train departs at 9am, so naturally, the bar opens at 9:30am. People take the food car and bar pretty seriously on their holidays and it is most economical to buy bottles of wine and sparkling. This ride is ranked one of the top train rides in the world and it did not disappoint. There is a "viewing car" in the very front of the train that you can walk up to anytime and it has no windows, but rather is completely open so you have unobstructed views. We walked up and down a lot and noticed one crowd of very enthusiastic individuals all dressed up in costumes and fully taking advantage of the train bar. As we got off the train and were walking over to our rental car, all the women in this group ran over to say goodbye to us (well, at least to the cutest one of the 3 of us...). They chatted for a few minutes and then all proceeded to kiss Isla goodbye. She was covered in lipstick and a bit confused, but we just went with it.
2. EATING A LOCAL DELICACY...JUST DON'T LOOK THEM IN THE EYE!
I read about whitebait prior to leaving for our trip and had earmarked the page in the book that described a hut called "Curly's" where you are supposed to stop for a whitebait patty. Given that it was a patty, I was thinking this would be similar to a salmon burger...wrong! Whitebait look like tiny little white worms with 2 big black eyes. In the middle of beautiful nowhere, we spotted the spray-painted sign for Curly's and pulled into a dirt drive that took us down a long hill, past the cow that looked more like Mufasa from the Lion King than a cow and then past a chained dog that, surprisingly, also looked just like Mufasa. We found the wooden hut and waited for someone to come out. A hugely tall and very friendly guy stepped into the hut and asked us "how many?" We got one patty to split and then we saw it - a bucket full of these tiny creatures mixed with a little bit of egg. He fried up the patty and put it on one slice of white buttered bread. I promptly asked if he could give me one more slice of bread to cover the patty as I was struggling with them looking at me. "No, no, no, "he said, "that would ruin the flavor! Just go ahead and try it." It was surprisingly decent, but I had look away as I ate it. Nate ordered another patty as a side at dinner later on that night.
1. SUMMITING MOUNTAINS WHILE NAPPING
One of us took an amazing nap. The other two of us got an amazing arm workout.
