New Zealand Chronicles Part 2

I'd like to introduce you to Anna, the woman in the picture above and owner of Alpine Views Farmstay and B&B in Ashburton, New Zealand. This was the next stop after Christchurch on my tour of New Zealand. The next pic was the view from my bedroom – can you imagine waking up to that view every morning? I guess if you live there the excitement fades but I thought that was so cool. Where I live in Canada, the view from my bedroom is of the neighbours garden – yeah, not nearly as majestic but I digress.

You wouldn't know it, but that picture of her was taken, oh, about five hours after we caught a very flustered/surprised Anna when we first arrived at the farmstay. Turns out, the previous guests just left and she hadn't cleaned the room, and there are only three bedrooms, and she was so sorry the room wasn't ready, and on and on. It was yet another odd NZ moment and in my head I was thinking "uh oh, maybe the farmstay wasn't such a great idea??" But honestly, after about half an hour of apologetic Anna, she totally relaxed and the two of us hopped in her car and drove up to Mount Somers (the mountain you see in the second picture) so I could partake in the walk to Sharplin Falls.

While on my hike through the forest, I couldn't help but notice that there weren't many insects, hardly any birds, a LOT of bees because the bark of some of trees are covered with a dark moss which I was told the bees love (I think they might be black beech trees but that could be wrong so don't quote me on that). But seriously, it was just so weirdly quiet. I mean New Zealand forests don't even have animals in it, isn't that weird/odd? The path was also washed out at one point so I had to be very careful and as you may note from previous entries, I'm not the best when it comes to navigating or walking paths (Iceland case in point). But I made it safely.







When I returned to the farm, Anna had made salmon for dinner and we had homemade Pavlova for dessert. Everything was VERY tasty. I also met her husband Ken (pronounced Keen in a Kiwi accent), and the three of us sat down and had a nice long chat about the farm (he's a sheep farmer) and the state and future of sheep farming in New Zealand.

Ken mentioned that although the demand for quality lamb products has been increasing around the world - particularly in countries such as India and China, lamb meat production is decreasing. Why? Because farmers are switching from sheep to deer meat production mostly - some say purely, for economic reasons, and the numbers back him up.

The numbers of sheep have been consistently dropping over the years. Currently it has dropped from 70,000 to 35,000 head, which is substantial when you think about it. The lamb meat (actually all meat, including beef and deer can be included in this as well) is of VERY good quality though. This is a country overall where you will not see the kind of industrialized farming that has become so prevalent in North America, particularly in the US. New Zealand farmers truly believe in healthy sustainable raising of all animals thus you will pay a lot more for the final product but it's worth it. Believe me; you can actually TASTE the difference. T'was a nice visit overall, but the road beckoned so the next day I was on my way to Queenstown and Milford Sound.

Next up: Queenstown, Milford Sound,helicopter rides and the haka!

New Zealand Chronicles: Part 1

Ok, so this is the official start of my New Zealand trip and subsequent postings! I will be spending two weeks here starting in the South Island and going to Christchurch, travelling further south to Queenstown with a few stops in between (Ashburton, Lake Tekapo), then back north through Milford Sound, Franz Josef, Greymouth and back to Christchurch. I then take the bus to Picton, cross by Ferry to the North Islands where I visit Wellington and head up north to Auckland. It is a pretty busy schedule - about 4000 km will be covered mostly by car, some by bus train and/or ferry and I will be accompanied by my driver and guide Sheriff Alex. Crazy eh? Yeah you can see why I'm calling the next bit of posts chronicles. The sad thing about this is that New Zealand signals that I'm just about at the end of a world trip that began last year – can you believe it?? I can't even process that yet.

At first when I signed up for this part of the trip I was booked to do the self driving tour. I thought to myself what a great way to save some money AND get a first hand glimpse of the countryside driving along; I can do what I want, stop where I want, you know, all that great road stuff. Turns out ditching that idea and getting myself a driver was the best change of plans ever. I mean it's not dangerous or anything but driving in New Zealand can be stressful when:

1. You don't know how to drive on the right hand side of the car and the opposite side of the road from the way we do it in Canada;
   
2. You're travelling alone and;
   
3. Although there are estimated times to reach certain destinations according to my itinerary, I knew that it would be way off since it would be just me driving and for reasons above I'd be driving much slower!
   

I thought ok I didn't fly all this way to stress myself out right? Right. So anyway enough with the justifications and on with the tour!

Short story: Before I was to arrive in Christchurch, at the hotel in Sydney I was chatting with a bartender who happened to be from New Zealand (who else would it be?) and he ended up showing me some before and after shots on his iphone of Christchurch after the February 22^nd earthquake. The pictures were devastating, sad and quite frankly depressing and I was silently thanking Meg at Global Basecamps that she didn't book me there longer than a day! Even the hotel I was originally supposed to stay at was not in any shape to handle guests (when I arrived my guide told me the building would be knocked down along with hundreds of others in the CBD) so I was switched to somewhere new at the last minute. Thank you for doing that guys, I knew it was hard work considering that almost every motel and hotel in the city was completely booked up due to residents staying there who lost their home in the quake.
Below are some pics taken around Christchurch - they don't show even a little bit of the disaster but I think you get the point.



Can I just say that the airport in Christchurch was a total trip? And when I say trip I mean it was just such an unexpectedly brain foggy moment it made me think ok I'm in for an odd time here. Now let me make this clear to all: if you are coming or plan on coming to New Zealand, make sure that you have NO fruits, veggies or any plants on your person, at all. NONE!!! They are deadly serious about that stuff and will check you, your luggage, purses, what have you. They have sniffer dogs and they use them. The dogs are cute and all but it's disconcerting seeing them at work sniffing everyone's luggage. Your thinking to yourself, hmm I wonder if it can smell the apple I had in there three days ago, surely I ate it didn't I? I can understand the overzealousness to protect NZ's fragile eco system but it was still a bit weird to see, particularly after being in countries around the world where they really should have had sniffer dogs in action – mind you who's to say they didn't behind the scenes? Ok digressing there. At least they were polite to everyone about it.

After that experience, I was met at the airport by Sheriff (pronounced share –eef) and after introductions we went for coffee and talked about the itinerary for the next two weeks. At that point I was too excited to be there and didn't make any changes to the plans but I know me and I know it was coming. After that he drove me around Christchurch and, well, some parts were untouched thank God by the quake but the parts of the city that were? Totally ruined or destroyed and it was heartbreaking to see.

One uncomfortable night later (woke up briefly mid morning to bed and windows shaking - aftershocks are still occurring in the city), Sheriff picked me up at 7am and we were off to the farm for my farmstay with Ken and Anna in an area called Ashburton.

Next up in the chronicles: The oddness continues; my farmstay visit and trip to Queenstown.

Australia! C’est fini

As mentioned in the previous post, my trip to Alice Springs was cancelled partly due to weather, and partly due to a few other tourists changing their minds about visiting Alice Springs (due to the weather) and cancelling, therefore, the Outback tour company I was originally booked with wouldn't do the tour, and wanted me to switch to someone else. I wasn't going to do that so fine, no trip to the outback thus no worries as they say here. That was a long explanation, but I previously wrote blah, blah, blah, as an explanation about this in the last post so I figured that it really warranted an actual explanation.
So thanks to the cancelled event, I spent a few extra days in Melbourne and I wasn't complaining about that! C'mon, I've been travelling for a while now, and believe me I've learned a thing or two about cancellations/changes/what have you, and I understand that these things happen so what would be the point of complaining? It's just wasted breath and energy. Yeah, it would have been nice to at least see a little bit of the outback though. Oh well, I had another adventure waiting for me.
I hopped on the plane (at 6:15am - ugh, can I just say that early flights are hell?), and made my way north to Cairns (pronounced "cans" dontchaknow) for a couple of days.


Apparently the rumour in Cairns was that Prince William mused about spending his honeymoon there. First thought after hearing that rumour? Yeah, right. Second thought: why would he? I mean it's nice enough and all, but the very idea of royalty honeymooning in Cairns? Cmon - who are you kidding? But I digress. The main reason why I went to Cairns was not to hear alleged royalty hearsay, but to go to see the Great Barrier Reefs - a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It's supposed to be visually stunning, and I was planning to sign up to do some underwater snorkelling, as it's supposed to be the best way to get a really close view of it. Now you will note that I 've said 'supposed' a few times in that last paragraph. You see, I wish that I could tell you that my plans actually happened, but it all failed spectacularly. Here's the story.

I bought my cruise and reef tour day pass by some very skeptical ticket agents, whom warned beg=fore i bought anything to literally abandon the ship - so to speak, as the weather was not the best for sailing. I noted their concern, and truth be told I did find myself glancing skywards a bit more than usual after my conversation with them, but still, I soldiered on. I walked to the dock, waited in a short line and eventually boarded. After a choppy start, we made our way to the first of two stops on the trek. We stopped at a place called Green Island (Please take a peek at the pictures above- you'll note that with the second picture, it shows the departure from the Cairns port – take particular notice of the colour of the the sky in both pics). At the Green Island docks, we thankfully manage to remove a huge group of very, very, incredibly annoying passengers/tourists (so annoying that I swear your dear sweet Grandmother would actually want to resort to physical violence to shut them up!!) thankfully disembarked. Now since I've been in Cairns the weather hasn't been the best: windy, sort of rainy, not nice but it was warm at least but note another word: 'windy'. So the really irritating passengers got off at the Green Island port stop and the rest of us (Id say all in all there were about twenty of us out of hundred left) set off for the reefs and that's where trouble really began.

Now I've previously stated that I was warned before I even got on the cruise by the ground staff about sailing conditions. It was very windy out on the ocean, and the water was quite choppy and perhaps I may want to cancel? I didn't/couldn't cancel because I only had a very short time to visit Cairns on my schedule, and this was my one and only chance to see the reefs. I should have listened because oh my freakin' God it was truly awful out on the water and it got worse the minute we started on our way to the Reefs from Green Island. Holy Mother I do not like an angry ocean. It is not pretty (or safe) at all. Picture huge, huge waves smashing against the boat and no land mass visible - at all. Picture a boat going up than dropping down like a roller coaster ride as it crests a wave and plunges down the other side. Picture your heart in your stomach, your stomach in your mouth, hands gripping the cruse chairs for dear life just praying you'll make it out of this nightmare alive. The waves were just so f*cking huge. It was SERIOUSLY scary.

After about five minutes (but felt like an hour) of being chucked around like child playing with a toy ship in the bathtub, the captain then announced over the pa system that we were turning back to Cairns because it was just too dangerous to continue. "Uh, d'u -, ya think??" Holy crap have I never been so relieved to hear a loudspeaker announcement in my life!! We hightailed it back to Green Island where the passengers then had the option of either going back to Cairns or staying on the island. Yeah, I wasn't about to stay on that island with those tourists from hell, so I got on the next ship back to Cairns - which actually turned out to be fun thanks to a few passengers/tourists I met and water drenching all of us on the poop deck. I got off the boat and made my way to a quiet spot for a very nice bite to eat and a much needed gin and tonic to calm the post-sea jitters.

You know, as I think about it, that was a real damn shame about missing my chance to actualy see the reefs. The staff back at the hotel told me the crap weather was a good excuse for me to come back to Cairns and even hang out at the hotel (the staff seemed to like me a lot), but, umm, I can't really see myself returning but yeah, we'll see. So that was my time in Cairns. I told you it was a short but very memorable stay (three days, two nights). The next day I was on my way back to Sydney to catch the plane for New Zealand.

And this pretty much ends my postings about Aussieland.

So now that my time in Aussie land has come to an end, I have to add a few things about my visit that may have been missed:

1. If you get a chance and just happen to be in Sydney, stay at least one night at the Shangri La Hotel Sydney or even just visit it, pop up to the top floor to visit the bar - you will NOT be sorry. If you do stay there, request or ask at reception for an opera house and Sydney bridge view room; it's spectacular. Also, be sure to pop up to the 36^th floor and go to Blu Bar for a drink or two. It's the worth price of a drink for the incredible views of the harbour and downtown Sydney.
   
2. I did mention the The laneways in Melbourne in the previous post but I have to repeat myself. They are a must-see if you visit. They are not that difficult to find or navigate but this is where talking to the locals can help you find the great book stores or art galleries or even better, the bars, pubs and restaurants!
   
3. Do the tours. I know some are hokey but the ones I signed up for were pretty cool. Melbourne Private Tours operates the culinary one but they do loads of others. The Ocean Drive/12 Apostles Tour was organized through Australian Luxury Escapes and to be clear neither one of them forced me to tell you that; I just happen to think they were both worth it!
   
4. Oh and if you can, get out to Alice Springs or visit some part of the outback and please do me a favour? Will you tell me about it since I missed it?? Thanks!
   
    

I'm really going to miss Australia though 'sigh'. Moving on though right?

Next up: The New Zealand Chronicles

Australia! Part 2

So from Sydney I flew down to Melbourne. Originally I was to fly to Alice Springs but bad weather combined with other dramas led to cancellations and blah blah blah so I ended up extending my time in Melbourne and I'm glad I did. So what can I say about Melbourne? Well, I know it's Toronto official twin city which at first made sense because as I was being driven into the city from the airport you honestly couldn't tell the difference between the two based on the scenery outside: same type of highway leading from the airport to the downtown core; same big box stores; same suburbany houses. It's only when you get into the CBD you start to notice the differences. The pictures above are cases in point: while one highlights the buildings next to a recently redesigned water/river front (Toronto is still working on theirs), the other picture shows the unique and famous Melbourne city laneways which is a must-see for anyone who goes to visit there. The longer I was in the city the more I began to wonder and ask myself why exactly are they twinned again? Honestly, Toronto has much more in common with corporate, suit and tie Sydney than mellow down to earth Melbourne. Oh well.

I loved my time in Melbourne I must say. Unlike my time in Sydney I was back to being on my own which meant a lot of different tours and walking around. With two of the tours I managed to spend some time outside the city – one being a culinary tour in the beautiful Mornington Peninsula which is situated about forty or so minutes away from Melbourne and is a hotbed for local food and wine production. That day was spent in a fantastic haze of food, wine and cooking and food talk (Chef and I could not stop babbling about food and to be honest I love that hence the reason I took the tour in the first place). We visited farms specifically a goat farm where I got to sample various and delicious types of goat cheese. We went to a winery where I proceeded to drink I have no idea how many "samples" . We also took a detour to take a look at Chefs new project: bee hives . So I strapped on the white protective suit and mesh hat and ventured with him through farmland to visit the bees. That was so cool and nope no pics of me in the white suit - oh wait yes there are but Josh has them and I really don't need to know how ridiculous I looked but it kept me from being bitten and that's what matters!! It all culminated in a fantastic lunch prepared by Chef Jason, with almost all ingredients made and/or bought locally - even the seafood was caught fresh that morning by the local fishermen as you'll see in the shots! Seriously, this was one of the best days I ve had on this entire trip! The following day was scheduled to be a full day: 8 am to 6 pm – I was warned by my guide to be prepared for a very long day but thank God it turned out to be totally worth it. We drove along the coast and made a special trip to view the 12 Apostles (which is a collection of huge but separate rock formations along the Victoria coastline and I know how it sounds but you have to see it to understand just how incredibly impressive and absolutely beautiful it is – oh and there were twelve formations once but now it's down to eight), Loch Ard Gorge and viewings of Koalas and parrots in the wild. Both tours were amazing (special shout outs to Josh and Chef Jason on Day 1 Tour and Bruce for Day 2!!)
Now on to the pics!

Mornington Culinary Tour









12 Apostles and Loch Ard Gorge Trip/Ocean drive and the Koalas







A little more of Melbourne


Next up Australia – le finale