Day 1- Jan 21 2009- Sydney to Christchurch
We took an early morning flight from Sydney to Christchurch. We flew Emirates for the first time...good airline. Picked up our rental SUV(Nissan X-Trail) and drove to Southern Comfort motel. NZ has a Qualmark rating for its accommodations. All our accommodations were 4 star +. We found that this motel, and later, all other places we stayed at, were excellent in terms of facilities and cleanliness.
Arya saw the pool and was desperate to go in for a swim. Later, tired from the journey and swim both she and I napped, while Harshal went out to do groceries for the next week....quite usual:) When he returned, it was time for us to go to Tamaki Heritage Village and Traditional Hangi we had booked. This was one of the best decisions we had made and pre-booked:)
The show was very good and gave a good insight and introduction to the history of NZ and the state of Maori as it changed since 1800's with European settlers and musket wars among tribes! Today, Maori remain a small minority in their own land. Some interesting words we learnt that evening- a) Musket- crude guns b) Utiara and Weetata (not sure of the spellings)- these were the main characters of the evening show in the recreated Maori village c) Hara mai - Hara mai- Come along...this was repeated by the story teller as we went from one scene to another.. d) Kiaora- Be healthy, and also used as a 'hi' or 'welcome' or general greeting in Maori. And we truly felt it too:) The dinner was good and they had made our entrees with special requests of vegetarian with no fish or mushrooms:)
We would highly recommend this activity to anybody traveling to Christchurch and interested in learning the history of the country…fun way.
Day 2- Jan 22 2009- Christchurch – Lake Tekapo (230 kms/ 3 hrs) - Mt Cook (102 kms/ 1 hr 15 min)
We started our drive early in the morning, with our lunch of dal and rice prepared in our pressure cooker! If I were to read this on someone else's travel description, I would probably laugh and also scratch my head as to why would they bother to take a pressure cooker along to NZ! There is no dearth of good restaurants to eat, so why bother? Well, as it turns out, our kiddo has a strong preference to desi food! In fact, she will eat food only if it has Indian spices in it!!! So here we were in a truly amazing place lugging around a pressure cooker for dal/rice, khichadi and the list goes on! We had our camping stove on hand, and made lunch stops where ever we wanted and most often they would be picnic tables with a view…A small advantage to be happy about.
Our first stop was in Rakaia, the salmon capital of NZ, where Arya too had her own drink- a fluffy and some marshmallows:) Needless to say, the huge fish they have in the lawn of their visitors center is a Salmon!
Then as she napped we traveled past Canterbury plains before we had our lunch and then on to Lake Tekapo. The first time you see a glacial water lake, it blows your mind out and I had to actually pinch myself to believe the color of the water!!! It was the most amazing sight of my life...the turquoise blue water and the pristine Church of Good Sheppard were just what all the travel books and blogs had said...and more!
At Lake Tekapo, Harshal got a last minute flight traversing Mt Cook and the glaciers of the West coast to get a bird’s eye view of these awesome sights. While he had a great time, Arya and I enjoyed a afternoon tea beside Lake Tekapo. We left Lake Tekapo and traveled past Lake Punika (also a glacial water lake) and reached yet another beautiful place....Mt Cook, which was our stop for the night.
The Chalet we had booked at the Hermitage property was great and had pristine snow capped mountain views:) That night we had soups and garlic bread from the Alpine restaurant!
Day 3- Jan 23 2009- Mt Cook to Queenstown (262 kms/ 3 hr 30 min)
We started our day with a trek to view the Tasman Glacier. Then we drove south past Cromwell, to Queenstown. Upon reaching Queenstown, we had a late lunch of Maggie noodles and went to Bob's peak in Gondola. Here we enjoyed a cheese platter with crackers and fruits as we watched others do the Luge ride with fabulous views of Lake Wakatipu. Later we strolled through the town and booked Shotover jet tour and Glow worm tours for the next day. Then had a leisurly walk back to our Garden Court Apartment for a dinner of khicadi and kadhi:)
Day 4- Jan 24 2009- Queenstown to Te Anau (190 kms/ 2 hr 45 min)
Today was a fun filled day. We left our apartment and walked to Lake Wakatipu for some photo ops. Then we drove to Shotover Jet HQ. Harshal and I were going to take turns with this activity. We were glad to see that the same turquoise blue water of the Shotover jet and the ride was as thrilling as it was described in the brochures! Interesting fact- Jet boats are designed to operate in as shallow as 4 inches of water and our guide Kelty kept us on the edge of our seats...literally, with his 360 degrees turns of the boat and speeding so close to the canyon walls that we could have actually touched them! We would highly recommend this activity!
We enjoyed our lunch- piping hot upma - overlooking the jet boats spin and speed in the river below. As expected, Arya napped as we started our drive to Te Anau. En route, we stopped for pictures at many places including some sheep and deer farms and were happy to check in to Campbell's by the Lake for 2 nights in Te Anau.
After having a dinner of pulao-dal, we went into the town for our Glow Worm tour. This is a highly recommended activity as well. The tour begins with a cruise over South Fiord to the Glow Worm caves. These caves are about 12,000 years old, which is young in geological terms and that also means the stalactites and stalagmites are just beginning to form. A film explains the life cycle of the glowworms and as the tour begins, we can actually see the fishing nets of these worms and later in the glow worm grotto, we sat in a boat and saw the many shining bright glowworms in the cave....A truly Celestine experience...underground!
The cruise back to town was fun and Arya was acting funny and making strange sounds! Everybody around us also had fun watching Arya's tactics.
Day 5 - Jan 25 2009- Te Anau- Milford Sound - Te Anau (121 kms/2hrs- one way)
The previous day, overtaken by some ambitious thinking, we had booked a 9am Milford Sound Scenic cruise. As it turned out, this was again one of the best decisions of the trip.
We started our day at the break of daylight. We were the only car on the road all the way to Milford, Arya slept peacefully all the way, and we saw some of the most beautiful sights along the way as the sun was just beginning to rise in the horizon! Once past Homer Tunnel, the weather changed to wet and cold and we were glad we had brought along warm clothes. We had however, forgotten to take insect repellent and the infinite flies reminded us of our folly till we boarded our cruise. We had a complimentary breakfast on this cruise and we enjoyed Milford sound with some buttered croissants, fruit and hot coffee.
Along the way we enjoyed the many waterfalls and saw lazy seals on a rock. Milford Sound was described by Rudyard Kipling as 'the eighth wonder of the world' and I think the description come pretty close to the reality!
Arya napped again as we left Milford and headed back to Te Anau. She had a blast on the cruise ship and the trip tired her and the weather made her doze off quicker than I thought! When we awoke we had reached a nice spot near Te Anau Downs- a place where the the great Milford Track starts.
After lunch, we did a small return trek to Mistletoe Lake. Very cute lake and the calm water displayed lovely reflections of the trees around the lake. Arya had a great time! From here it was a short drive back to Te Anau. The stash of books and toys for Arya- a good 10 kgs of it- was helpful when she was awake and we were on the road! During this time of the year, darkness falls around 9:30pm in New Zealand. And unlike Aussies, the Kiwis tend to keep their shops open till about 9pm as well. So we made the best use of this and went shopping in Te Anau and then, found a park for Arya to run around and have fun. We know that a tired toddler sleeps quickly and peacefully!
The view from our lake front suite was splendid and we enjoyed the romantic sunsets from our patio in Te Anau!
Day 6 - Jan 26 2009- Te Anau - Lake Wanaka (273kms/3hrs 25min) - Haast (145 kms/ 2 hrs)
We left early this morning and this time around, Arya actually woke up with us at 5am! We thought it would be a disaster to start our drive, but she dozed off as soon as we started. We had a long drive today. The first two hours or so, till we reached Queenstown, was retracing the road already traveled. However, even the second time around, the vistas wowed us! There were lots of sheep along the way, grazing away early morning. Somebody told us a statistic that is easily believable- there are 7 times sheep than humans in New Zealand!
We did not go into Queestown today but drove past it to Lake Wanaka. En route, we made a quick stop at Kuwarau Bridge Bungy- the home to the very first commercial bungy jump site. We saw a short film on Bungy jumping and how AJ Hackett brought it to fame by jumping all over NZ and then from Eiffel tower in Paris!
From here, it was about an hour or two to Lake Wanaka- yet another beautiful lake. Piping hot ‘batata bhaji’ and home made ‘lasun chutney’ with bread was lunch of the day- right beside Lake Wanaka, where Arya enjoyed the seagulls and ducks and we enjoyed the view!
After lunch, we planned on going to an attraction called Puzzling World. Arya tried to solve a puzzle or two. The four rooms – hologram room, following faces room, gravity defying room and David/Goliath room, were amazing. They used the technique of the last room in making of Lord of the Rings to show dwarfs and giants. Later we tried our luck in the giant maze and were intrigued by the Roman toilets.
After saying bye-bye to the Puzzling world, we left for Haast- our stop for the night. It was Arya’s afternoon nap time and we enjoyed the drive till Haast pass and clicked many a pictures till then. Haast pass was lush green and Arya awoke just in time for a short walk across a bridge to enjoy the greenery of Haast pass.
Haast visitors center was open and we saw a film on the local flora and fauna and then made our way to World Heritage Hotel in Haast. To our surprise there was no kitchen here and only a tea/coffee machine that was supposed to be kitchenette. A bit disappointed by the regular hotel room and were surprised to see how small a regular hotel room is compared to the self-catering apartments we had been renting so far! Arya really had no place to go and toddle around. We decided to have dinner at the café in our hotel- decent food but the service was extremely slow. There is pretty much nothing to do in Haast and people use this as a stop-over place only. We did just that and retired early that night. Day 7 - Jan 27 2009- Haast – Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers (145kms/2 hrs)- Greymouth (177 kms/ 2 hrs 15 min)We had our buffet breakfast before we checked out and then drove to our first stop- Fox Glacier. It was very cold here and we had to wear our warm jackets and Arya wore mittens and hat as well. She was perched on Harshal’s shoulders this time too and we walked to a spot from where we had a great view of the glacier. The landscape here was very rugged but the stones and rocks very pretty.
About five kms from Fox glacier is Lake Matheson. This lake supposedly has the best reflections of Mt Cook on clear days. Since that day it was not so clear- we decided to turn around as soon as we saw the lake. It was a nice walk through bushes and the lake looked good too.
We had worked up an appetite after two short treks and decided to have lunch at Matheson Café. I was not too keen because I had decided to eat at another restaurant in Franz Josef. I must admit, there are times when I thank God that Harshal wants it his way. Matheson Café had the best pizza I have ever eaten in my life and a fabulous view to accompany it.
We enjoyed the lunch and then drove about half an hour north to Franz Josef Glacier. Here, one could walk to the face of the glacier. We did not go all the way since we had seen face of a glacier earlier in Alaska. But I bet, the walk would have been rewarding for those who chose to go. We turned around midway after getting satisfactory view of the glacier face because it was getting close to Arya’s afternoon nap.
After traveling with Arya on many trips –long and short- the past year, we have realized that if we can maintain her sleep and eating schedules and plan our trip around it, she is a great travel companion!
We grabbed a mocha in Franz Josef and started our drive to Greymouth. With Arya asleep in the back seat, we enjoyed how the scenery changed as we left the mountains behind and then drove past stretch of flat road! As we got closer to Greymouth, the road runs just beside the Tasman sea.
We did not stop in Hotikaka and went directly to Greymouth. I fixed dinner while Arya and Harshal had fun in the playground. Our stay at Charles Court Motel was enjoyable one!
Day 8 - Jan 28 2009- Greymouth- Christchurch (258 kms/ 3 hrs 15 min)
We started the day by jumps on the trampoline and swings and slides in our motel. We had planned on driving about 60kms north to Punakaki before heading back to Christchurch visa Arthur’s pass.
At Punakaki, we loved the pancake rock formations and the blow holes were spurting water in full vigor and since it was bright and sunny, a lovely rainbow was formed each time they blew! The trek to the rock formations was nice and I managed to capture some of the blow hole displays on video. Arya loved the place and went ‘whoosh’ each time the wave came in to spray water in air! If you hear pancake rocks and say pancake rocks multiple times, you are bound to think about pancakes. A little café from across the street was cashing in on this unusual name attraction- they claim to sell best pancakes. Of course, we greedily ate them and also had some fries and drinks with it and called it a brunch. We thought since we had the last drive of the vacation, it would be good to have Arya nap till lunchtime. Little did we know that she was going to nap all the way through to Christchurch.
Arthur’s pass was extraordinary and just splendid. The photos don’t do justice to the vistas. It is no surprise that Lord of the Rings movie used many of the spots along Arthur’s pass for filming. The drive was excellent!
When Arya finally woke up, we were mere 30 kms from Christchurch and really hungry. So we decided to stop at a park and enjoy our last picnic lunch. We found a perfect spot where Arya played around and we sat and enjoyed yet another home-cooked desi meal.
We checked in, for the second time, in Southern Comfort motel. We had a strange feeling of coming back home! That night we spent time packing and re-packing our bags (and weighing them to make sure they were within limit) as the next day was the last day of the lovely vacation.
Day 9 - Jan 29 2009- Christchurch – Sydney
We checked out rather leisurely and decided to make Southern Encounter and Kiwi House as our first stop. Strangely, this place is located in the heart of Christchurch- Cathedral Square- where you can eat a bagel, buy souvenirs and watch the endangered kiwi, all under one roof! It is a cute bird and its ways are quite typical of humans- when we visited, early morning, the male was going around fetching food and the female was fast asleep!In Cathedral square, we had fun watching some street performers over yet another bowl of fries. We had a lot of these in New Zealand. Punting on the Avon was on my list of to-dos but we dropped it for no particular reason. We instead spent some time in Christchurch Contemporary Art gallery- I understood a sculpture of seal balancing objects on its nose, but a bunch of televisions and strange pegs in a corner of a room, was beyond me! Arya had fun scaling up and down the colorful staircase. We drove through Hagley park before returning our car at the airport.
We were surely sad to bid farewell to the surreal beauty, magnificent lakes and rivers, awe-inspiring snow capped mountains, sheep dotted on hills and on vast farmlands and much more- a beautiful country of New Zealand!
