Monthly Archives: February 2011

 We are touring the Marlborough wine country – at the north end of the South Island. NZ’s famous for its ‘young’ Sauvignon Blanc and now we are discovering that although they are still relatively new to wine making, they are also producing some quite fine Chardonnays and older ‘oaked’ Sauvignon Blanc. One of our favorite vineyards has been Cloudy Bay, which is very large, and today we discovered Seresin – a very small organic vineyard, both have wines available in Ont. We then went off to a green mussel farm – a boat tour of the Marlborough sounds that included a glass of wine and fresh steamed mussels eaten with the fingers right in the bay where they are harvested. Weather continues to be wonderful, sunny overhead with clouds at the horizon and turquoise waters.

Wed Feb 23 – Martinborough NZ – North Island

We arrived at our hotel yesterday afternoon to discover the small town quite distressed by the earthquake in Christchurch several hundred km to our south. 

We are currently near the south end of the North Island.  Christchurch is somewhat near the north end of the South Island,  and really not that far away, however we did not feel the earthquake. Needless to say we have been affected by how much this event has had on a small country of 4 million.  Most people here seem really deeply impacted. 

From the press here, we have gathered that Christchurch is not the place to be and they will need a lot more time to fix things up.  I assume the press there has all the details so I won’t elaborate – but the City does seem to be very heavily damaged.  Had the quake happened a few weeks later, we would have been right in heavy damage zone, since we planned on staying directly across from the church that was so heavily damaged.

People here are quite kind; yet they are stoic and life goes on.   

We will be proceeding south to Wellington, crossing over to the South Island in a few days,  going  past Christchurch which is  on the east side of the island while we plan to head down the west side.  So, initially we will not be directly impacted by the quake but Christchurch was our intended departure point back to Auckland in mid March so likely will need to make changes as the trip progresses.

As for our vacation, the country is beautiful and we are enjoying it a lot.  Chris and I have both caught colds and that has slowed us down a bit.   Perhaps we are just getting on, but today – after a wine tour and a tour of olive groves, we just read the papers and stayed in our room which is really quite lovely, as is the town of Marinborough.

The next week will be spent in the wine districts – soaking up the various Sauvignon blanc which have been our NZ wines of choice.  The weather continues to be good, the windows of our hotel are all open and we have a gentle warm breeze and we are in a farming valley surrounded by brown and green mountains. The town is small and sleepy and a dog barks in the distance.

 I have hit the 2000 mark on photo shots and have been slowed down by the weight of the equipment, my cold and the fact that we are moving a lot every other day or so.  Since this is not a photo trip, a lot of shots have passed us by while we just enjoyed looking the country side – and that’s ok.

Hope all is well with everyone back home

Jeff and Chris

Weather in New Zealand continues to be fabulous – mid 20s with refreshing sea breezes, bright days with cloud cover off in the distance, but sunny overhead.

We are ‘tramping’ (day hiking) the North island, making our way from Aukland to the ‘Northland’ (Paihia) followed by a return to Aukland and a swing around the Coromandel Peninsula and then into the central thermal area around Rotorua. Next we are off to the east coast at Napier, an art deco town, and the wine region of Martinborough before visiting the capital of Wellington and heading to the South Island for a trip down the west coast.  Nothing eventful to report so far.  

The people are friendly, but its like living in a time bubble – going back to the 50s.  Most things are more expensive down here, with NZ wines being priced almost the same as at the LCBO.  We found a rather larger wine store yesterday and did a bit of a tasting and stocked up.

Accommodation has varied a lot.  The first 3 places were quite nice – well above average fully self-contained suites including a kitchen, one very high end, all with laundry facilities. Then we explored the other end of the spectrum with a motel that catered to bus loads of oriental tourists and facilities reminiscent of the Timmins Holiday Inn circa. 1950.

The past couple of days we have been travelling through the North Island’s “thermal area” at Rotorua and Taupo: geysers, bubbling, mud pool, brightly colored lakes with a gentle whiff of sulphur in the air (sometimes not so gentle).

The scenery is magnificent, especially the misty mountain ranges over the ocean (yes it really is Lord of the Rings country) and also the many varieties of trees and ferns. The giant kauri trees (picture with Chris standing in front of one) are a sight to behold and the kauri museum was fascinating: it included single, unknotted slabs of kauri wood 20’ wide and 50’ long – plus the chain saws and milling equipment needed to handle such wood.   We are slowly learning the names of the native and introduced birdlife: pukakos, fantails, black swans etc. There are lots of cattle but, so far, surprisingly few sheep.

Internet is not hard to find, but its expensive, as is many things here and forget trying to keep something like an iPhone happy, download limits are very small.  Quality of service is great but you do pay for it.

Will post again in a week or sooner.

Jeff and Chris