Queenstown, Lake Tekapo, Christchurch

After we got back to our car on Friday from the overnight on Doubtful Sound we went on to Queenstown. Queenstown is the tourist hot spot of the South Island. In the winter season it is the epicenter of skiing in NZ and attractions visitors from all over the world. It is, however, beautiful all year long and quite busy as well. Queenstown was only about 1 hour from where we were staying in Wanaka but we never made it as we just didn’t feel like it. Because of this we decided to swing through on Friday night instead so we could see what all the fuss was about.

Following a 2-hour drive we arrived in Queenstown in the early afternoon. Compared to all of the cities we had been in over the last week or so Queenstown was very busy and quite large. I was driving and I would say it was a bit stressful, with tourists everywhere, pedestrians, cars, and no stoplights, only traffic circles. We proceeded to the iSite (information center) where they got us a hotel for the night, the Alexis motel. We rested there for a few hours and then went on a nice lake walk into town for dinner.

While in Queenstown we saw three people from our overnight on Doubtful Sound, Ya Ping (the nice old Chinese lady), and another couple who we never found out the names of. It was really funny though because as we were driving into Queenstown we saw Ya Ping just sitting on a bench on the side of the road. He daughter and husband were nowhere in sight and we were amazed that she had beat us back to Queenstown. It was great fun!

For dinner we ate a casual pizza place in town, Winnies. The food was good, the service was fine. I would eat there again but I wouldn’t highly recommend it if you were in town. After dinner we went for a little walk around town, although it was quite windy and chilly, ending at the casino, as my dad was interested in playing the poker machines. They didn’t end up having any poker machines but we all played one hand of blackjack. Well I played one hand and won $10. My parents and Elizabeth all lost, with my parents playing 2 hands and losing $20 between the two fo them. I really felt like the grand champion of that night. Plus that puts me ahead on gambling overall in NZ to date. I played one time in Auckland and lost $5. Now I am up $5 total. Nice! Leaving the casino we were cold and tired so we jumped in a cab back to our hotel where we watched a bit of the first LOTR and then went to bed.

Saturday morning my father and I went into town early to get to the post office when it first opened, as I needed to get road miles for my car. I’m sure I’ve explained this before but as a refresher, road miles are how I pay my diesel fuel taxes. When I buy diesel fuel at the petrol station there are no taxes on it. They do this because so many vehicles run on diesel fuel in NZ that don’t use the roads, such as boats, tractors, etc… that shouldn’t have to pay diesel taxes. Thus, diesel vehicles pay their diesel taxes separately, hence road miles. Anyways, as we were waiting for the post office to open we went to a little market in the city and bought some Afghan cookies, a very NZ thing that I had never had before, and they were delicious. We then returned to the hotel, got Elizabeth and my mother, and were off to breakfast at Vudu Caféand Larder where we had a wonderful breakfast and bought some delicious takeaway sandwiches for lunch later. After all this we got on the road, and headed for Lake Tekapo, our stopping place for the next evening, near where they have the largest dark sky reserve in the world, prefect for stargazing!

The trip to Lake Tekapo was just fine. The driving wasn’t too bad, we passed a few amazingly blue rivers (which we later found out are that amazing arctic blue color because of the minerals from the ice/glacier melt that feed them), had a nice picnic lunch near an interesting and unlabeled statue, and got to Lake Tekapo around when we expected we would. That, however, was when this time in Lake Tekapo took a turn for the worst.

A week ago maybe I told my parents I didn’t want to do all the planning for this trip and my mother said she would help from then on. She said she would find a place for us to stay in Lake Tekapo, and she did, TheGodley Hotel. I am very happy that she did this as I was getting a bit sick of having to look everything up and make all the decisions, but I am starting to think she chose The Godley Hotel, which we nicknamed The Ungodley, on purpose so she wouldn’t have to make any more decisions again.

When we first entered our rooms at The Ungodley Hotel we were overwhelmed by an unpleasant damp smell. Well that’s what me and Elizabeth had in out room, my father told me the smell in their room (which was different from the smell in mine & Elizabeth’s room) reminded him of roach killer from when he was a child. In addition to the smell, the rooms didn’t look like they’d been vacuumed in a while. I was very nervous to get into the beds (for bed bugs, which they thankfully didn’t have) and they only had one very flat pillow each. All this to say we tried to spend as little time in the rooms as possible. And to add to this, when I requested a room change because it smelled bad, the housekeeping lady who came to the door refused to come into the room but insisted it didn’t smell. Her supervisor did move Elizabeth and I to another room after explaining the bad smell in our previous room was because the carpets had recently been cleaned. I couldn’t believe this at all. Anyways, the entire hotel experience was terrible, except for the massive amount of entertainment value it has added to our trip through storytelling and joking about how terrible it was.

Outside of the awful hotel, Lake Tekapo wasn’t all that spectacular. The lake and mountains were amazing but the day was so windy and cold it wasn’t enjoyable to spend really anytime outside at all. Additionally, we looked into a star gazing tour but because of the weather it wasn’t promising it would happen. I was also really tired so in the end I’m glad we didn’t go. While enquiring about the stargazing tour, however, we met an American, Mikey, with whom we had a wonderful conversation and also got a great dinner recommendation for the only Japanese place in town, Kohan. The food there was delicious, we were very happy we met Mikey. During dinner we read the book 30 Second Astronomy that we had purchased back at the astronomy tour shop. We figured $25 for the book was much cheaper than the $360 it would have cost for all 4 of us to go on the tour that likely wouldn’t have happened anyways for the wind and clouds.

After dinner at the Japanese place we went back to The Ungodley, got into our beds, tried not to think about where we were, and I was soon fast asleep, not to wake up again until morning. Well that is except for the one moment I wandered out onto the deck, looked up at the sky, saw a few starts, and then went right back inside and right back to bed. The sky was pretty lit up, but cloudy as well, and I needed the sleep.

Sunday morning we got out of the hotel as fast as we could. The car as packed by 7 am and we were on the road shortly after that. We drove towards Darfield, a town about 45 minutes west of Christchurch, where we would be spending the next 2 nights. On the way we stopped a great café Eat in Farley, another great recommendation from Mikey. After breakfast we continued on towards Darfield, arriving there around 10:45 am. We were staying at the family home of one of mine & Elizabeth’s coworkers, Sarah. Sarah grew up in Darfield and we would be staying at her parent’s house, Sarah was flying down to meet us. We arrived at 10:45 but since Sarah had missed her flight from Auckland she did not arrive until around 12. We spent the in-between time having coffee with Sarah’s parents Jenny and Malcolm and her uncles Gordon and Richard, Jenny’s younger brothers. Gordon still runs the sheep farm that had been in the family for many generations. Richard is an engineer. Jenny, Sarah’s mother, is a teacher and Malcolm, Sarah’s father, is a retired police officer and current rowing instructor.

Upon Sarah’s arrival with her friend Steph, who she worked with in Italy, we all piled in the car and went out for lunch in town followed by a nice walk around town and ice cream cones from the local dairy. We then all headed out to the sheep farm where Sarah gave us a tour of the grounds and we got a chance to chat with Gordon and ask him some of our more technical questions.

Here’s a list of some of the things we learned on the farm:

-       Sheep need a grazing allowance of 5 sheep/acres

-       Sheep are susceptible to both internal and external diseases including worms, lice, foot problems, etc…

-       Sheep have 4 stomachs, just like cows.

-       Sheep can have 1, 2, or 3 lambs at a time.

-       Sheep eat kale

-       To replace the sheep that will be lost in a year, the number of lambs kept must be equal to 25% of their overall herd numbers.  (In comparison, the dairy farm I was on only to replace about 10% of their herd each year.)

-       Wool from different parts of the sheep is used for different things, carpets vs. sweaters

-       Shearing is not a profitable activity for the farmers but because domesticated sheep no longer shed their wool in the summer as wild sheep would, they must be sheared to keep them comfortable and the wool is sold anyways. This is all done at a loss to the farmer.

-       The market price for a lamb is roughly $80-$100 when sold for meat. Large adult sheep can fetch about $110-$120 and are sold when they are no longer adding value to the farm. Mutton, the meat you get from an adult sheep, is gaining popularity in other markets such as China, driving up the price for adult sheep.

-       The “working” life of a sheep is approximately 6 years.

-       Sheep live about 10 years.

-       We saw 2 dead sheep while we were there.

-       It’s better to be a sheep than a cow.

-       Dairy farming is much more profitable than sheep farming.

-       Docking and tailing are both terms for removing the tail from the sheep. This can be done in 2 ways, either cutting it off with a hot knife or placing a ring around the tail, cutting off blood flow causing it to die and fall off on it’s own. At Gordon’s farm they use the latter method.

That’s all I remember right now.

After out sheep farm tour we went to visit Richard and his family at their home where we saw horses, goats, calves, and chickens. Following all this excitement we returned home for a lamb dinner with the family. Sarah’s brother, Jamie, and his friend joined us after for a chat. Us girls we up late chatting despite our early morning the next day, making Monday a bit of a push for us all.

Monday was full on! We were out of the house before 7:30 on our way into Christchurch to have breakfast at the restaurant of on my guests up at Ortolana. The guest, Chris, whom I had in one night for dinner with his sister, owns a fabulous café in Christchurch called Hello Sunday. It was absolutely amazing, maybe the best place we’ve eaten here in NZ. Everyone’s breakfast was outstanding as were the coffees, pastries, and takeaway items we purchased to have later. On the way my car started overheating a bit, as the radiator’s condition is really beginning to deteriorate, so I wanted to let it cool for awhile while we sat at breakfast. Elizabeth, however, needed to be at the airport by 9:15, and since we didn’t even get to breakfast until 8:30 that was a bit problematic. We decided maybe she should go in a cab and upon asking Chris about cabs he offered to give her a ride. NZ is just such a wonderful place! She took him up on the offer and made it there on time and made it back to Auckland in on time and in good condition! Anyways, if any of you every end up in Christchurch, you should most definitely go to Hello Sunday for breakfast!

Without Elizabeth, my parents, Sarah, and I were on no specific schedule anymore. We sat at the restaurant enjoying ourselves for a while longer before heading out for a car tour of Christchurch. Again the day was cloudy and a bit windy so we weren’t super keen on doing all sorts of outdoor activities. We went into the CBD to walk around and see the earthquake destruction, still there over 3 years later. It really is amazing that so much of the CBD is still abandoned since that day in February 2011. They have, however, started rebuilding parts of the downtown area and one cool thing they have added is a container mall. The entire mall is built out of shipping containers. We went there, had a peak around in some of the stores, and then had lunch, Sarah eating at the Coq au Van which Steph (from yesterday)’s father owns, and I having a Gyro, which they call a Souvlaki down here.

After lunch we decided to go Punting on The Avon. What this means in American English is we rode in a boat like they have in Venice down a river here in Christchurch while a young man in appropriate dress propelled the boat with a long pole, pushing off the bottom. Before doing this I really thought it was going to be quite stupid, but I ended up really enjoying it. We purchased hot beverages, sat there under blankets, and had a wonderful and calm ride down stream through the botanical gardens.

From the punting we went off to the Gondola, which brings you high up a hill on the East side of Christchurch from where you can see over the entire city and beyond. It was not the most fabulous day for this as it was rather cloudy but the ride was still fun. We then proceeded home and made it back to Sarah’s parent’s house just before 5. A long day for a bunch of very tired ladies (Sarah and I). Relaxing time, homemade dinner, and then to sleep for us.

This morning we weren’t in quite as much of a rush as we only had a 4.5 hour drive to complete today. We got up a bit later, had a nice bowl of Muesli with Sarah’s family, wished Sarah a happy flight back to Auckland, and then headed off towards Kaikoura for lunch. I slept some of the way, as my dad is becoming an expert at this left side of the road driving, and I still fell as if I’m catching up from lost sleep from being at Sarah’s parent’s place. We made it into Kaikoura, had a rather mediocre Thai lunch, and then continued on north to try to make the ferry over to the North Island this evening. We stopped in Blenheim at the iSite for help with the ferry and accommodation for this evening.

Man, the iSites are absolutely fabulous – America should take a lesson from this! Most major, or minor, cities have an iSite where the employees are pretty much personal travel agents that charge no fees whatsoever. They know a lot about the area and can help book activities, accommodation, help with directions, trip planning. They are fabulous! We have used many of these, as we aren’t planning very far ahead, and have only had one bad experience. The people are usually more than happy to help, as they should be since this is their job!, and never make you feel rushed even if there is a large line waiting behind you. They are happy to call 10 different hotels looking for available accommodation; they are so knowledgeable on different tours and tour providers, restaurants, shops, whatever you need to know! Except for the unpleasant woman we had today in Kaikoura, we really can’t say enough great things about them!

After booking a ferry ticket for 6:45 pm this evening to cross over to the North Island, I am now sitting her on the ferry with maybe 30 minutes left. We will be getting off in Wellington, driving about 30 minutes NE towards the East Coast, will be staying in a Motel there and then continuing on to Napier tomorrow night. Will post pictures another time when I have better internet connection.

Side note, there is a man on our ferry ride with swastika tattoos on his face and neck. Scary!

With that, I’m signing off for the night.

Best!