Happy Birthday to the Queen

When I was still in the states coming off a 6-weekend-in-a-row travel streak, Cam told me we had a public holiday for the Queens birthday coming up. My first reaction was "3 days off. I'm sleeping the whole time." My second reaction was, "Why are we celebrating the Queen's birthday?" It's rather confusing seeing as 1. It's not the Queens birthday, 2. We don't live in England, and 3. People who do live in England don't get a day off for the Queen's birthday. At any rate, a holiday is a holiday and despite my initial reaction, we gladly took a little trip to celebrate. Looking back on the weekend, if I had to use one word to describe it, it would be.... lovely :)

For the three day weekend, Cam and I decided to spend one night in Akaroa, a little town on the Banks Peninsula. I've been to Akaroa twice before - once on my first Saturday in New Zealand, and once as a brief stop after a hike. I hadn't done much either time, and kind of wrote it off as a pretty place to drive to and enjoy a meal at a cafe, but not that much more. Cam did some research and came up with a whole slew of ideas of things to do in Akaroa, so we thought it would be nice to spend a couple days there exploring.

Akaroa in October 2014 - Cloudy but still beautiful.

We spent Saturday in Christchurch, and on Sunday afternoon, we drove out to Akaroa to begin our adventure. The weather was stunning and the views going over to Akaroa were nicer than I had ever seen them before.

Perfect Day

It was only Cam's second time in Akaroa so I was really happy that we got really lucky with the weather. We got to Akaroa just in time to have a New Zealand Sauvingon Blanc and a cheese plate at my favorite little outdoor cafe (the same one I went to in October) and take in the winter warmth (14 degrees C!).

Cheese Plate for Two Please

Next stop on Cam's itinerary was a trip to the Giant's House -- named by a little girl looking up at it who said it was so big it must belong to a giant.

House behind us! Sun still shining :)

Contrary to that idea, it's owned and lived in by an (assumingly) whimsical lady who has devoted her life as an artist to maintaining the grounds and creating an entire garden of mosaic sculptures. The sculptures are huge! Often over six feet tall. Here are some of our favorites:

The Prince and Princess of Akaroa!

Too Sunny!

Since the sun was going down, it was time to go find our accommodation -- and you'll never guess what that accommodation was. To keep things interesting, we rented.... a treehouse! The treehouse was part of a series of private huts on the hills over Akaroa.

En Route to the Tree House!

The treehouse had a main room/bedroom - with a potbelly stove and an electric blanket for keeping warm! - and a balcony -  complete with a daybed for some afternoon cuddles.

View from the day bed

Basically, it was perfect and designed for peace and serenity. We drove in to town for a special dinner at The Little Bistro and then retired to our treehouse for stargazing and the best sleep either of us have had in a looong time.

Cozy by the fire

One more perk of our humble abode? A breakfast made just for us in the main hut in the morning.

Main Hut for Breakfast

The main hut was eccentric to say the least-- with random odds and ends all over the place. Our hostess showed us her newest artifact -- a brass horn from an old car -- then told us to find something to read while she made breakfast and left us to find a National Geographic magazine from 1980 (heaven for Cam!).

We said goodbye to our treehouse around noon and went in search of a penguin colony about 20 minutes past Akaroa on the Peninsula. We drove up a steep gravel road, while constantly wondering if my rental toyota corrolla would make it.

High up above Akaroa Harbour

Cam reassured me that if we got stuck a friendly farmer would help us out -- Thanks, Cam. We made it most of the way to the penguin colony when the road got really steep and our ability to get back out of it in the corrolla became more and more in question. We ended up turning around and taking a less steep route down the hill. (which unfortunately wouldn't take us to any penguins)

This is where things got interesting. We were driving down the road, through a farm (which apparently was not private properly) when all of sudden we were stopped by 5 giant BULLS on the road. Cam assured me they were most likely domesticated but that if they decided to charge us they would do serious damage to the car (and me - Cam would be fine). Thanks again, Cam.

You may not proceed.

Fortunately, these bulls were used to being herded so we just drove (read Cam drove while I screamed) slowly at them until they decided to run in the direction we were going.

"Take a picture of this! You're herding bulls!" - Cam

Occasionally they would turn around and look at us, or two of them would fight with eachother, but eventually we did make it to the end of the road and they found a far away patch of grass to graze.

Coming to find his friends

The end of the road proved to be not that exciting (and I just wanted to get away from the bulls), so we got in the car and headed back up.

There was just one more thing on Cam's list of things to do. He had heard about an interesting set of trails centered around a historic cemetery that had separate regions for the "roman catholic cemetery" and the "dissenters cemetery". I was a dragging my feet a bit due to being mentally exhausted after fearing death-by-bull-charge for so long, but the toyota corolla was smelling a little smoky from braking down the mountain for the same amount of time, so the corolla won and we let it rest while we walked around the trails. Surprisingly enough, this ended up being one of the best parts of the trip. We found an opening in the woods that took us out to the roots of a giant tree that had previously been cut down. The perfect place to sit down and take in day 2 of winter warmth.

My Happy Place

It was at this moment that I decided I loved Akaroa. It's so much more than a place you drive to for a cute cafe and a walk around -- it was stunningly beautiful and had given us the relaxing getaway from Christchurch that we were looking for. And the best part was once we got back in the car we were only 90 minutes from home :)

Except for a quick stop at our favourite pizza place (Cassels and Sons at the Tannery)

Happy Birthday to the Queen and thank you Cammy for the wonderful weekend in Akaroa. Another great trip in the books!

Until Boston, Jen and Keith

Wowee. After 26 hours of traveling from Christchurch NZ to New York City, I am on a 7 and a half hour bus ride to Pittsburgh. Steeler Country, here I come! And with all this traveling comes time to reflect on my past few weekends and time to write about it. :D

City of Champions (and bridges)!

Tongariro

We’ll start two weekends ago – my third consecutive weekend on the north island (can you tell I’m tired of flying already?)

Two weekends ago I did the Tongariro Crossing – or rather I went to the Tongariro Crossing Great Walk. As seems to keep happening, the weather was forecasted to be insanely bad for the day we planned to do the walk. But with plane tickets booked on a regular (non-3-day) weekend, we didn’t have any wiggle room. The track is 19k long in one direction and you need to take a shuttle back to the beginning when you finish the track. About 6 hours before our flight out of Christchurch, Jen got a call that our shuttle was cancelled and was told that we would be crazy to do the walk. Great. At that point the plan seemed pretty crazy, and I was exhausted after spending the last two weekends on the North Island, but it was my last trip with Jen and Keith (well adventure trip.. more on the real last trip later) so I had to go for it.

Thanks for all the adventures Jen and Keith! (Avalanche Peak)

We flew up to Wellington, drove five hours to National Park (yes that is the name of a place) and stayed in the YHA there – we had a really nice room for a hostel.  It absolutely POURED all night. As in I was woken up because it was raining so loudly outside. But we woke up to clear skies, with blue sky peeking through in the distance and a clear view of Mount Doom (apparently that’s not actually its real name ;) thanks Cam).

View of Mt Doom for most of the hike (Should've taken a photo in the am)

We went to the visitor center feeling pretty confident that we were going to do the walk, but the guide at the visitors center seemed to think we were crazy and unprepared. The funniest part was that the forecast predicted 19mm in an hour, twice in the course of the day—but it couldn’t predict which hours or where on the entire north island it was going to happen. We decided to do an abridged track (a 17k loop instead of 19k’s in one direction – no shuttle involved). The only thing I really wanted to see were the blue lakes on the Tongariro Crossing and we were told that the Tama Lakes on the abridged track were the same blue geothermal style so we could do the shortened walk and still get the same effect.

Abridged track even had great waterfalls!

Tama Lakes! Brilliantly Blue!

Loved this lake

My happy place - it was a little cold at the top

Mt Doom came out at the end!

We ended up finishing the 17k’s in 5 hours, saw the lakes, and ate PB&J’s on the top of a mountain one last time. The lakes didn’t disappoint and while we didn’t do what we set out to do we all felt satisfied with the experience. AND finishing at 2 pm meant we had plenty of time to drive back to Wellington in the daylight and get beers there with Jen’s grad school friends.

Beautiful drive back to Wellington

And after our 9 am flight back to Christchurch on Sunday I had plenty of time to sleep after such a crazy weekend. Phew.

#TTinQT2015

The following weekend (Weekend 4 in a row of traveling) we went to Queenstown! My favorite!

I <3 you Queenstown

The “we” in this case is pretty much everyone I know in New Zealand. It was Jen and Keith’s last weekend in the country and we had a 3-day weekend for Anzac Day. For their last weekend, Keith decided that he wanted to run the Routeburn (a 30-ish k Great Walk that normally takes 2-3 days to walk and goes over the saddle of a mountain) I did the walk with Jen and Keith and two other coworkers in November (see thispost), and now Keith was going to run it.

Just to give you a feel of the terrain on Keith's race

Jen and Keith last time we did the Routeburn

Jen had the idea to get a bach (kiwi for holiday/beach/lake/vacation house) and invite all of our coworker-friends for the three day weekend. Significant others were included so somehow I convinced Cam that he really did want to drive 6 hours with me for a day and a half in QT.

The weather on the way to Queenstown was gorgeous! I loved the whole drive – and Cam drove so that helped.

Once we got there we hung out with everyone at the house with an amazing view! The colors in Queenstown were amazing this weekend. I had been twice before, in spring and summer, and I have to say that autumn was hands down my favorite. Could not get over those orange trees.

ORANGE

View from the bach!

Sunday was our main day in Queenstown and of course it was pouring when we woke up. Cam and I took a gamble and decided to go up the gondola anyway in hopes that some of the activities would open up if it ever stopped raining. The gondola is one of the main tourist attractions in Queenstown and  takes you up to a hill overlooking all of Queenstown, and somehow I had never done it before.

Queenstown from the top of the Gondola

It was rainy so we took some photos :)

Once you’re at the top you can walk down, do a zip line course at the top, bungy jump or do the luge. Cam and I really wanted to do the luge, but they close it when it rains, so we were a bit disappointed. But once we were up there walking around, it cleared up, and rainbows started appearing, and they opened the luge!!

Ready to go!

Luge Course!!

We did a few rounds of real life Mario kart and then got a text that Jen and friends were going to Arrowtown, wine tasting, and bungy jumping, so we got in a gondola down the mountain to catch up with the fun.

Arrowtown, I love you too (p.s. ORANGE!)

The whole day I just could not get over the colors. Arrowtown was stunning – I must say it looks a bit like western PA in the fall. The bungy jump location was also beautiful!

So beautiful

The water wasn’t as nice a color as when I did it in December, but the trees looked amazing. Two of Jen’s grad school friends did the bungy (I think they loved it) and it was so fun to watch .. and not be jumping. Then we went back the bach for a group barbeque.

Monday we got up did a little more wandering around Queenstown and then drove six hours back to Christchurch in the ridiculous pouring rain. Ugh.

Final morning - View from our room (!!) Nice house, Jen

And then two days later I left for NY! So excited for my two weeks at home with all my friends and then back to NZ for a bit more time down under.

And this is the new puppy I came home to. Sophie!!!

Til our next adventure,

E

Exploring the North

While I still have a number of places I want to go on the South Island, Cam and I spent the last two weekends exploring the North Island. Cam's from the North Island so not too much was new for him, but aside from a short trip to Auckland last year, these trips were all uncharted territory for me.

Wellington

For New Zealand's four-day Easter Weekend, Cam and I headed up to Wellington. Wellington is known for its craft-beer-and-cafe culture (two things I love), so I was excited to see it for myself.

We spent our first morning walking by the water front and exploring the national Te Papa museum. The museum has everything from a giant squid to the Treaty of Waitangi, so we kept ourselves entertained for a pretty long time.

Signing the guestbook at the Te Papa museum

The next part of the trip was a little treat from Cam. After watching some cricket while New Zealand was hosting the Cricket World Cup,  I decided I wanted to learn a bit about rugby. I had told Cam this, and two days before the trip, I got a text from an unknown number saying "Click here to download your tickets for the Hurricanes match on April 3rd." Followed quickly by, "Surprise! :)" from Cam. Cam had purchased tickets to go with two of his friends to a Wellington Hurricanes rugby game! So after a bit more exploring of Wellington and grabbing a beer with our friends, we went to the game.

Win for the Hurricanes!

Saturday morning, we went to Zealandia. Zealandia is a nature reserve on the hills around Wellington, surrounded by a fence that prevents all predators from coming in to the area. This way the animals who are native to New Zealand can live the way they did before the British settlers and other groups brought over predators. As a result, you can see many animals that are extinct on the mainland just by walking along the pathways here.

Casual pukeko spotting - endangered except at Zealandia!

We had a really fun time walking around and seeing all the animals. To list a few highlights:
- I saw a lizard dating back to the age of the dinosaurs
- I got really scared of a "monster chicken" - more commonly known as a Pukeko
- I learned what the song of the Tui sounds like

Sunday was Easter - the day devoted to eating chocolate and other sweet things. Cam had the idea to go to Sweet Mama's kitchen, where they make chicken waffles and DELICIOUS milkshakes - so that's exactly what we got.

We also went to the grocery store to buy eachother Kiwi easter treats. I made sure we got Reeses pieces :D

We were feeling good and full with just enough time to go to church. After church and a call to the US to wish my parents a happy Easter we took the cable car to the top of the hills over Wellington.

We got so lucky with warm and low wind weather so we walked around the botanical gardens and basked in the sunlight.

After heading down the hill, we had time to relax by the water for a bit - and then it was time to fly home.

Not a bad place to end the weekend.

Hamilton and Auckland

This last weekend wasn't a three day weekend, but to celebrate Cam's birthday we decided to make it one. We decided to go to Hamilton for Saturday and Sunday to see Cam's dad and then spend Monday in Auckland to celebrate his birthday.

Cam and his step mom's pup

Hamilton is the 4th biggest city in the country after Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch. It also happens to be very close to Matamata, the home of Hobbiton and the wee little town where my favorite kiwi grew up.

We flew to Hamilton on Sautrday and we were so lucky because the weather was BEAUTIFUL. We spent the afternoon eating lunch in the backyard, walking the path along the Waikato river, and exploring the Hamilton Botanical Gardens, voted the 2014 Garden of the Year (an international award!). The gardens were centered around a circular area with openings in to each garden. It's impossible to see through the opening to the garden ahead until you're directly in front of the ideal view, which makes each garden surprising and wonderful. They had a Japanese garden, Indian garden, Italian Renaissance garden, and even an Alice in Wonderland garden.

Italian Renaissance Garden

Alice in Wonderland?

We finished the day with a delicious dinner with Cam's parents and a few cocktails on our own. As Cam told me, contrary to popular opinion, Hamilton is a real city and it had a good selection is really interesting bars - almost on par with Wellington ;)

On Monday we hopped on an early bus to Auckland and started our next adventure.

Pretty Pretty Auckland

I think I must be getting used to New Zealand because my reaction to Auckland last time was extremely different to the one I had this weekend. This weekend, Auckland was a bustling city and Cam and I were both commenting on how many things there were to look at in the big city --- lord help me when I land in New York City in two weeks. We really enjoyed the food in Auckland and between sudden downpours, we really enjoyed the waterfront.

Obviously I loved the bridges

Since Cam's birthday was Tuesday and we wouldn't be together past 7 am, we celebrated Monday night. Unfortunately the restaurant he wanted to go to recently had a fire and was closed.. so we wandered to the  Sky Tower and discovered that admission to the bar on the 53rd floor was free.

View from the bottom

We took an elevator up to the highest floor of any building in New Zealand and took in the views over a couple glasses of wine.

Cam needs to work on his selfie abilities. 

That's better. Sleepy Cam

And unfortunately Tuesday morning, it was time for me to go home.

Snow on the Southern Alps on my way home. Winter is here.

It was an amazing two weekends on the North Island and I'm so grateful my favorite Kiwi showed me the lay of the land up there. I'm heading back this weekend for a hike with my coworkers and hopefully Cam and I will be going back a few more times before I leave this beautiful country. Thank you so much and happy birthday, Cammy!