Live the Live ™

More useless info I’ve learned in New Zealand…

The Southern Cross, made famous by Crosby, Stills and Nash in the song by the same, is really quite a thrill to see in the sky of the Southern Hemisphere, despite the fact that it is the smallest constellation, consisting of only four stars. It isn’t all that easy to find, at least for someone like me who has only been below the Equator once before during a trip to Tahiti with Kelly. And the fact that we had so much rain and cloud cover has meant that my first opportunity to see it was in Kaikoura, about halfway through our trip. Fortunately, I got to see it again on one of the clearest nights we had…our last night. I spotted it as I had a last look from our incredible balcony at the Canyons Lodge, with the sound of the Shotover River rushing far below, and the occasional sheep bleating in the wild grasses bordering the lodge property.

Casual. No word has been taken more to the extreme than in New Zealand. Not a single restaurant, except for one brand-new fancy lodge in Queenstown, has demanded a jacket for men at dinner. And that includes the swankiest restaurants, like the French Cafe in Auckland.
In fact, we were really surprised how most men showed up at dinner with ball caps, shorts, and t-shirts at really expensive restaurants. It was pretty strange.
But the weirdest thing of all is footwear–or should I say the lack of it. For the most part, everyone wore flip-flops, which is a phenomenon that happens in the US as well, which I have to say I totally do not understand. At best, you trip over them all the time.
But the really strange thing here is the bare foot people. Not many, but enough to really notice, we saw dozens of people walking city streets barefoot. Now, granted, they don’t throw trash around here…they’re pretty good about keeping their streets clean. But we saw a grown man at the aquarium in Auckland walking around barefoot. I have never seen that before in my life, and I’m totally blown away by it. This was not a poor person. This is someone who said, “Oh, the hell with shoes today.” Extremely bizarre.

More interesting street signs…a “yield” sign here says “give way.” But I’ve seen standard stops signs here.

Bungy was invented here in New Zealand, and AJ Hackett is the guy that gets most of the credit for it. His business has now become an empire of sorts, and if you’re crazy enough to do it, they’ve probably thought of it. The original bungy still happens at the Kawarau Bridge and to see it is pretty wild. But to bungy aficionados, this jump is too boring. So they’ve added the Ledge, literally a ledge that sticks out way high above Queenstown as you take the plunge….and the Ledge swing that makes you swing way the f— out. If that’s not enough, the Nevis jump over the Nevis River combines a 35 minute four-wheel-drive trip through crazy backroads before you get to this moving platform that takes you high over the river for a drop.
There’s also whitewater rafting, river jet boating, boogie boarding down a river…swinging, diving, jumping over anything. This is adrenalin junkie headquarters and it is an interesting group of people to watch…from a distance!

Just about every Kiwi restaurant will serve lamb, and why not? They are everywhere here. In fact the population of sheep in this country numbers around 45 million. That’s one person for every 11 sheep! That’s a lot of happy shepherds! Zealand is so lush with so much grassland everywhere you look, it makes sense that horses, cattle, sheep, even deer are pasture-raised here. The landscape is for the most part extremely steep and rocky. But it doesn’t stop any of these animals from grazing wherever they choose to. How they are rounded up when it’s time is beyond me, but what’s really amazing is that all of this seemingly wild territory is fenced in by someone. That’s a lot of work! And all of these critters pretty much stay out in their fields all day and night, because there are no natural predators here. Just about every animal in New Zealand today has been introduced from elsewhere, with the strictest controls. The only original New Zealand mammal is a variety of bat. Even man, in the form of the first Maori tribes, came here by large canoes from as far away as Hawaii.

National pride. Something we don’t see a lot of anymore in terms of local products in the United States. You will rarely, if ever, find a product here that’s made in some Asian factory. Everything is made here, with only a few exceptions where the products have come from Australia.
And that goes for beer, too. You might be able to find a Bud somewhere in this country, but other than the wide varieties of very good Kiwi beers, you’ll only find Heineken and Corona. (They like doing the lime in the beer thing here.)

Pharmacies here are like in Europe. You sort have to ask a person where something is, instead of just going to a well-marked CVS aisle and getting it yourself. These people act less like pharmacists, and more like snobs in lab coats. In some cases, you won’t find the equivalent of a US product. In other cases, like in pain relievers with codeine, you can get them easily without a prescription. And we like that.

Sports. Rugby and cricket. In fact the Rugby World Cup will be played here in 2011.

They call their money dollars (NZD), but the Queen of England is on the twenty. A bit confusing. Right now it is worth 70 cents to the US dollar, one of the few places in the world an American can really get a bang for the buck.

I did write a post yesterday…I just haven’t decided whether I want to publish it yet. Quite simply: I went whitewater rafting yesterday on the Shotover River and had one of the scariest experiences of my life…so much so, that I couldn’t honestly say I will ever go rafting again. Enough of that for now…I’ll make my decision later.

It’s Friday and I’m sitting in the car in front of the Gibbston Valley winery and cheesery with Ava snoozing in the back seat while Kelly goes inside to sample some cheese…something she hasn’t been able to do for much of this trip. I’m OK with missing out on the cheese, since I think I’ve eaten my weight in bread on this trip and have certainly not succeeded in my master plan of losing some weight here.

Speaking of that…we had a fantastic dinner last night at Wai, a restaurant on the waterfront of Queenstown that had gotten great reviews by many people, including Paula, our waitress back at the French Cafe in Auckland. (That seems so long ago now.)

It was the first time we’ve tried oysters in New Zealand, and they were very intense in flavor and quite minerally…unlike any oysters we’ve eaten back home. It was fun to try them, but a half-dozen between the two of us was enough. We also had some tasty quail, an unusual stuffed pasta with veggies dish, and even smoked eel…all very good. Unfortunately, the rain has continued, and our coveted waterfront seats offered no remarkable views of the Remarkables.

We had a nice last big breakfast at the lodge this morning. Andy, the proprietor, prepared his world famous eggs Benedict, and it’s safe to say that it was the best I’ve ever had by far. The bernaise sauce is his secret, and it is amazing!

We were happy to see the sun was out, though it was a bit windy. But we decided that our last full day in New Zealand should be spent on the road, so we headed for Glenorchy, a town about 48 km from Queenstown. Many stops on the way to Glenorchy, as well as the mountains and valleys around the town itself, were used in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. It really looks like Middle Earth, and you could picture the battle scenes fought on what are simply huge fields of grazing cattle and sheep now…with those incredible mountains in the background.

The paved road continued about 8 km past Glenorchy before it turned into a dirt road, and we decided not to go any further with our rental car. But what we saw was really quite mind-blowing.

Return trips here seem to go by so much faster than the initial trip there. We certainly make a lot of photo stops each way, but the unfamiliar road becomes a little more friendly on return trip, and we got back into the Queenstown area rather quickly.

We went past town and continued on to the Gibbston Valley, where I started writing today’s blog entry. Kelly enjoyed the cheese immensely, and we moved on to a vineyard that by all stretches of the imagination, should not succeed where it is: Chard Farm.
The property is located on a wedge of land that sits on top of a cliff, literally, over the river. The only way in and out of this property is a narrow dirt road that hugs the mountainside. There is no guard rail of any kind…pretty common in these parts of New Zealand…just a little plastic stick with a reflector on it to tell you you’re on the edge–in case the huge drop straight down to the river wasn’t enough.

The wines were wonderful, but thank God you don’t get huge samples, because the ride back out is the real challenge! We made it unscathed and headed for our dinner destination: Amisfield Winery.

It’s interesting: I don’t know why this is, but in New Zealand, we’ve found that the best restaurants are almost always located in wineries. We’ve had our share of non-winery feasts, and some of them have been excellent. But our best meals on this trip BY FAR have been in wineries: Herzog still at the top by a mile, but many others, like tonight’s wonderful meal at Amisfield, were great, too.

It was “trust the chef” night, so we basically let him do all the work, and our meal consisted of incredibly inventive and refreshing salads, perfectly cooked lamb, delicious pan-sauteed salmon, wonderful desserts, and wines that matched. I didn’t do the wines, but Kelly did, and I got to take a sip from each. My only complaint, which is a common one with me in this country, is there was no liquor of any kind. I understand that this is wine country and all that, but even when there is a bar, the selection is pretty lame. I suppose I am totally in the minority one this one.

So now Ava and I are in a supermarket parking lot while Kelly does a quick shop for things we will need for tomorrow’s flights back home. We’ve had an amazing time here…often tiring and stressful…but also unforgettable. We are definitely ready to go home…but it’s going to be a long journey to get there!

Seems like the closer it’s getting to the end of our vacation, the faster the time is going!

It’s Wednesday morning. My lovely wife is asleep next to me and my lovely daughter is totally happy snoozing away in her own bed in her own room just across the hall here at the Canyons Lodge.

Ava is great about that…rarely does she ever complain about the bed she sleeps in while we’re on the road. In fact, the most important factor to her is whether the next hotel room will have a bath or not! She’s not a fan of showers, and she loves splashing around in the tub for a long time. Fortunately for her, our lodge room has a massive bathroom with a tub that stands in the very middle of the room, facing the amazing valley below. I’m sure it was designed this way for more romantic purposes (or a future Cialis commercial) but Ava doesn’t really care. A couple of toys, a little bubble bath, and she’s one happy girl.

Later in the day now. Despite cloudy skies and a bit of rain here and there, we decided to head out of town into the Gibbston Valley and a bit beyond to the towns of Cromwell and Bannockburn, all know for their many wineries.

We hoped to have lunch at Mt Difficulty (an awesome name for a winery!) but they were booked solid for the day. So we just did the wine tasting. But…they were nice enough to call the other winery known for it’s tasty food: Craddick, and secured a reservation–literally the last table of the day–for us.

Craddick’s food was really great: New Zealand green mussels and clams, a vine-smoked duck with quinoa, and smoked beef in an Asian style sauce with Asian veggies…a total change of pace from the lamb-heavy, salmon-heavy menus every other restaurant around here seems to have. Kelly enjoyed a couple of glasses of Craddick’s wines. I stuck with cappuccino for the winding 50km drive back to Queenstown.

We had a little bit of extra time before our lunch at Craddick, so we visited the nearby town of Cromwell. Kelly checked out the old town, while I took off with Ava and took care of exciting chores like getting gas for the car.

We also had a chance to sip a few wines at Felton winery, where they offered two Pinot noirs and two reislings…all very good.

The whole area here is crazy…huge mountains, winding roads, sheer cliffs, rivers cutting through it all, and somehow on these ledges, they plant grapevines. It’s insane…but the wine is great!

So we’re back at the lodge right now, chilling out a bit. Ava’s singing in the tub and I am sipping on a 42 Below martini. Kelly’s loading in a few pix of our crazy helicopter ride on her computer, so that’s coming soon.

It’s raining, so we’ve decided to stay in the lodge tonight and just chill. We’ve secured the menu from a Japanese restaurant in town, so we’re going to get some take-out and bring it here for a cozy night at the lodge.

The forecast for the next two days is similar…perhaps some sun, but chances of showers. Kelly and Ava will do a little shopping tomorrow morning while I go whitewater rafting on the Shotover River. I’ll meet them back here after lunch.

By the way, with the way the weather has changed, we are extremely lucky we took the helicopter ride to Milford Sound yesterday. The only rides in and out of the Sound with this rainy weather is by bus…and it’s 6 or 7 hours each way. If you look at a map, you’ll see that Milford Sound is really not far as the crow (or helicopter) flies, but the roads go way around, and that’s why it takes so long.

There’s another couple in our lodge…they arrived yesterday…and they’re doing that crazy all-day bus ride today. No thanks!