Amy's Last Day

We took Zeke and his friends to kindy and then I brought Amy over to my yoga place where there is a massage therapist so that she could get a massage to try to help get rid of the kink in her neck that she had before getting on her plane. When we she was finished there, I picked her up and we went back up to Kelburn to get a couple of last minute things for her to take home and get a little lunch at one of the great cafes. We then stopped back home to get her stuff, and we left for the airport so that Amy could set off on her long trip home. It was really so cool that she came to visit us, and a great part of our memories we will have from this year. Slideshow from Amy's visit

Returning to Wellington

We woke up and unfortunately it was pretty drizzly. We went to the little cafe across from the Pancake Rocks walkway, had some breakfast and bought some cute t-shirts. It cleared up a bit and we went to see the Pancake Rocks and Blow Holes. They are really incredible, and since we got there around 9:30, high tide, we saw some water blowing up out of a couple of the blow holes. It is pretty cool the way the water shoots up. Then it started to rain and it was less cool, so we headed for the car. We drove up the coast, heading for the Westport airport. As we got close, we (or rather, I, as Amy was a bit nervous about time) decided to go to Cape Foulwind to see the fur seals. It was rather blustery there, but we saw them sweetly lying along the rocks. Amy took her requisite photo, and we ran back to the car to get out of the wet, windy weather and get to the airport.
So, we followed the signs to the airport, and then found ourselves at a dead end with a little house-type building in front of us - we looked at each other and wondered if this could be the right place. We got out of the car and walked into the little building, and to our amazement it really was the airport! It was hysterical - it truly looked like a barn or something, with the word Westport written on the roof - nothing about airport. Nevertheless, our 24 seater plane came in and we flew safely off to Wellington.
After a bit of a rigamaroll with finding Tony at the Wellington airport (don't ask - needless to say, it was his fault, but we won't go into that), we went back to our house here in Wellington. Amy and I went back into the city then for a little while, then came back to see the kids, and we all went out for dinner at our local pizza joint, Red Tomatoes. It was fun.

Day 3 on South Island - on Top of Franz Joseph!

Although we had been a bit uncertain about the weather last night since it was quite rainy, today was pretty nice, with just some clouds, so luckily we were able to do the helicpoter ride to the glacier. What an amazing day! The short flight up was very cool - getting to see the around the glacier from the helicopter. -Video Clip- Then it landed on it's square, flat little ice landing pad, and we all hopped out. We had been given special boots and socks (Amy had to wear 3 pairs in order for the smallest boots to fit her!) and were told to just keep walking away from the helicopter once we disembarked so as not to hang around it and lose a limb or anything. Our hunky, I mean helpful, guide, Tim, met us up there, and after getting us all sorted with these little ice-grip things that attached to the bottom of our boots, we were off! The truth is that we didn't go on a massive hike, but rather went around and through the area nearby where we were left off. Despite the fact that we didn't go far, each corner that we turned we saw new ice formations that were just breathtakingly beautiful. Tim told us all sorts of facts about glaciers, and what makes Franz Joseph and Fox glaciers different from most other glaciers in the world (ask Amy to tell you the synopsis). He then decided to take us through some tight little crevaces - I think in part for Amy's sake as she had stated earlier that she was a bit clostrophobic - I think he wanted her to feel that she had conquered that fear - which, by the way, she did. He used his ice pick to give us a few makeshift steps and then we basically had to shimmy ourselves up and through this little opening. It was very cool (literally and figuratively). The experience was truly awesome.
When we came down from the glacier we got a bit of lunch at Beaches in Franz Joseph centre, and then got into the car to start heading back up the coast to Punakaiki. We decided shortly out of Franz Joseph that Amy should take a turn at driving (to round out her kiwi experience), and about 4 minutes later decided that I should perhaps drive the rest of the way. All joking aside, Amy really did well, I was just a bit afraid that she was going to drive us off of the road whenever a car was coming toward us due to her overcompensating around wanting to make sure we didn't crash into the oncoming car. I appreciated that desire, but also didn't want to end up going into a ditch or off of a cliff, in that attempt. We were both glad that Amy did take a turn at driving though, as it added to our list of exciting adventures!
We got up to Punakaiki (also known as the Pancakes Rock area) and had a quiet night at our hotel, the Rocks, which sat right on the beach. We had a nice little dinner there and later went to sleep to the sound of the waves crashing. Slideshow

R and A on South Island - Day 2

We got into Greymouth around 1 pm, and were greeted by a typical kiwi guy from whom we rented a car. We had a bit of lunch in the somewhat quaint, not-very-exciting town centre, and then headed off down Highway 6 for the glaciers. We stopped in Hokatika, which is known for jade, so Amy got some souvenirs there. It is a cute little town. We then continued on down the highway to Franz Joseph village. We stopped into the town to check things out, and then headed to our B&B, Westwood Lodge (not to be confused with the psychiatric institution, Westwood Lodge, outside of Boston!) It was a really lovely place, and we had a wonderful dinner there (including mushroom soup and venison, both of which I ate and enjoyed - a bit of a shocker to some of you who know me well). We met a couple of writers there from NYC (small world!) and two women from NZ Tourism who were there travelling with them. It was a nice evening, and we all planned to go on a heli-hike the next day on Franz Joseph Glacier if the weather was good.

Amy & Rachel's Getaway to the South Island -Day 1

Luckily there wasn't much fog at 6:50 am Monday morning, so our flight down to Christchurch got out easily. We picked up our bags and headed straight for a taxi to bring us to the train station (our flight got in at 7:40 and our train left at 8:15 - we arrived at the train station at 8:03). Our train trip, called the TranzAlpine, was amazing - tons of rolling hills and mountains, river gorges, and valleys (and of course the requisite hundreds of cows, sheep, and horses seen everywhere in NZ). The train goes from Christchurch on the east coast to Greymouth on the west coast. On Monday we took it half-way to a tiny little town called Arthur's Pass. It is a beautiful little place truly in the middle of nowhere, or rather, in the middle of a couple of huge mountains. The funny story here was that when we got off the train our bags were the only ones taken off (all of the other people were staying on the train to Greymouth). We asked the baggage guy how to get to the Middle South Hotel, where we were staying. He was very friendly, and before telling us where our hotel was, he first told us that there had been a storm the night before which made there be no power in the area and no hot water (I figured he had to be joking). He then pointed off into the distance a bit, explaining that over on the other side of the train tracks, through the tall grass were two (somewhat dilapitated) buildings - the blue one being the tourist office and the red one being the Middle South Hotel (this I believed as I could see nothing else around). So we both solemnly asked how we got over there, at which point he laughed and pointed in the other direction stating that there was a pedestrian walkway down to the main street of town where we would find the real tourist office, hotel, and even a couple of little restaurants and a convenience store - apparently this was a little display for us of kiwi humor. We were laughing so hard thinking about how gullible we had been ( I still swear that I never did believe the bit about the no power or hot water though Amy admits that she did). Luckily he took us for stupid Canadians instead of stupid Americans; however, he only thought so because we were friendly.
Despite our shaky start in Arthur's Pass, we had a great stay there. Monday afternoon we went on a very rigorous hike basically going straight up for an hour - ending in wonderful views of the whole area, and then back down. With so much time on our hands out in the wilderness we got into some great conversations...

Our hotel was fine, dinner okay (a bit of an issue with Amy ordering the fish and chips and them bringing out the fish of the day for her, and the waitress trying to blame Amy because she didn't want to get in trouble for serving F & C in the restaurant area instead of the bar area - mind you, they are mere steps apart), and the two of us began our three night tradition of sharing a bottle of wine (and possibly a before or after dinner drink) to fully get into the kiwi relaxation mode. On Tuesday morning we had breakfast and went on a much shorter and tamer hike (the other was actually defined as a "tramp" on the walking paths map). This one led to a beautiful waterfall, where the water looked like it was truly "falling" off of the rocks. We then got back on the train around 11 am and headed out to Greymouth.

Amy Jean Comes to Town

What a great visit we had with Amy. She arrived here on Friday morning right on-time and we went back to our place where there was a "Wellcom" sign waiting for her. Amy settled in and took her necessary "I've been on a plane for way too many hours and I feel disguisting" shower. (She opened up her suitcase and pulled out some beloved Junior Mints for me and New Yorkers for Tony. She also showed me what she brought for my kids, but that is another story for a bit later.)
We then went into the center of Wellington to walk around a bit, have lunch at a very old Wellington establishment, Caffe L'Fare, which serves up these delicious mochas in a bowl to go with your food. We then stopped at Zeke's preschool to pick up him and his friend, William, both of whom excitedly greeted Amy and showed her around.
We relaxed around the house in the afternoon, just popping into Kelburn for a little treat with the kids. We sat around smelling the challah cooking while Amy gave out the gifts to the three kids. For those of you who don't know about "Webkins" - only give them to your children if you have an extra computer for them to take over. From the moment that Amy gave the kids their little stuffed animal "webkins" and told them how they can go on the computer to register and adopt them and then do heaps of other stuff (eg. play games to win money to buy their pets things like beds, treadmills, etc.), we barely saw them they were so busy on the computer. This was all well and good until at approximately 5:45 am Saturday morning the kids came into our room to get help from Tony to get back to their webkins site. They were from that point on deemed "webkins addicts."
A bit later that morning (around 7 am) Amy and I left to go for a run down along Oriental Bay which is nice and flat and goes around the bay with the hills going up around in every direction.
We came back and got ready to drop the kids at my friend, Kerrie's house so that Tony, Amy and I could take the cable car down to the train station to go out on our wine tour for the day. The train was not exactly beautiful, but it got us out to the Wairarapa Valley where we were met by a great tour guide named Les. We went directly to our first vineyard called Tirohana where we tried some delicious Pinot Noirs (Amy bought a bottle of the Award Winning 2005 Pinot, while Tony and I bought a bottle of the 2004, which is described in their brochure as "cheeky and precocious"), and a really yummy 2005 dessert wine (had to buy a bottle of that too). The man Ray, who owns the vineyard, and his son-in-law, Toby showed us around and told us about the wines - they were great, and Ray was a real character.
We then went to one of the smallest vineyards in Martinborough, Muirlea Rise, where the son of the owner, Sean, who basically runs the show now, gave us our tour and wine tastings. He too was a very funny guy, and told us that one of the wines we tried was called "Mareth," named after his two grandmothers - Mary and Ethel. He explained that Mary is dead, so any earthy tones we tasted were from her, and that Ethel is 95 and starting to lose it a bit, so any feelings we have of forgetfulness or woosiness after drinking the wine were from her. We of course had to each buy a bottle of the "Mareth," which actually was a combination of different kinds of grapes so didn't fall easily into one wine category.
The other two vineyards we went to were bigger and much less personal/interesting, but had some decent wines, and were quite pretty. In the middle of the tour we had lunch at a cafe in the Martinborough Square where we shared plates of food with our fellow tourists and had more wine to taste. It was a sweet little cafe with a little shop next to it that had some cute clothes ( a little bonus to the day trip, though Tony did not appreciate it quite as much as Amy and I did).
We took our train ride back to Wellington, picked up the kids from friends and took in some Indian food for dinner.
Sunday we hung around Wellington - Amy saw the tiny temple where I dropped the girls off for Sunday school on our way to an interesting Astanga Yoga class with my friend Kerrie. After class we unfortunately only had time for a cup of coffee and light breakfast since we had to pick the girls back up. Amy loved the cafe on Cuba Street, and we wished that we had had more time there. In the afternoon we went back into town and just wandered around shops, went to the grocery store, then got a bit wet and cold and headed back home for a while. After helping Tony out a bit with the kids, and getting organized for the few days we would be away, Amy and I went out for a girls night with my friends Kerrie and Sam. We had dinner at Chow, one of our Wellington favorite restaurants. We had a great time, but didn't stay out too late since the next morning Amy and I would be off on an early flight to the south island.