Day 6 - New Zealand

Today we had a morning flight down to Queenstown so  I got up extra early to walk around to see how the area has improved from the earthquake since I was last here in 2012. Unfortunately the sun was not up yet. In 2012 the Cathedral Square area was all behind fences. This time you can walk into Cathedral Square. Only the individual buildings with damage are fenced off. This includes the actual Cathedral that they still have not official decided if it can be repaired or needs to be completely torn down.

 

 

 

 

 

 At 8:45am our flight left Christchurch. When we arrived in Queenstown a hour and 10 minutes later, it was raining. This did not stop us from enjoying our activities for the day.

First stop was lunch at Millbrook Resort. We enjoyed a classic Kiwi BBQ lunch. We were not however able to the site inspection because of the rain. I actually golfed at this resort my first trip to Queenstown and new Zealand back in 2001. This is a 5 star, 4 seasons resort.

At 2pm we were picked up by Nomad Safaris in their Range Rover 4 x 4 vehicles. First part of this tour was driving along a river bed, as you can see. We then had about 30 minutes in the small town of Arrowtown to shop. I purchased some post cards and stamps. Then we did  a short version of their Skipper Canyon drive. Nomad Safaris offers small, personalized tours into NZ back country. They also offer Quad Bike tours.

 

 

 

 

 

At 5:30pm they dropped us off at our hotel, the Hilton Queenstown Resort where we checked in for 2 nights. The first time I would be sleeping in the same bed for more than 1 night. We had some time to relax before the buses came to take us around the lake into the town of Queenstown for shopping and dinner.  I went to the Cow for pizza and beer. This rustic restaurant is literally in a cow shed. They were not prepared for so many of us showing up at the same time. Had to wait an hour to be seated but enjoyed the bar until a table opened up. Others went to Fergburger, considered by some to be the best burger joint on the planet. The only problem is very limited seating. Worse than the Cow. It is my understanding that there is always a line here. They say don’t b put off by the line, it will be worth the wait There are over 150 restaurants, bars and cafes to choice from.

Last bus back to the Hilton was 10:30pm which was OK since had to get up for the trade show the next day.

New Zeland - Day 5

A day we actually got to sleep in. Hanmer Springs is known for its thermal pools. At 9am we made our way over for a tour of the facility and then had time to enjoy the fourteen open air pools. Set in a natural landscape, surrounded by forests and mountains, a natural place to unwind. At 11am we went down the block and had lunch at Malabar Restaurant.

 The other activity for this area is jet boating on the Waiau River. You jet through narrow gorges, white water rapids and braided shallows. Much more open river then the Shotover  Jet in Queenstown but still a thrill doing the 360 degree spins made famous by the jet boat invented in New Zealand! Being Fall it was a bit cold with the wind chill but still enjoyable.

We then drove about 90 minutes towards Christchurch. We stop at the Ke Tae Maori Cultural Center. When we first arrived we walked around the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve. We then had a guided Kiwi and bird Tour. Following that we took part in an interactive Cultural Experience based in the natural surroundings of Willowbank. We moved into a concert arena and learned first hand waiata (love songs) poi & haka. Then we enjoyed the 4 course meal with a contemporary take on Hangi cooked mains.

 

 

 

 

 

We then continued into the city of Christchurch and checked into the Hotel Montreal. Overlooking Cramner Square and situated on the edge of the tranquil Hagley Park, this is Christchurch’s newest luxury boutique hotel.

Day 4 in New Zealand is all about sea mammals

Another early morning but it was worth it. Today we drove about 90 minutes south and east to come out along the coast of the south island. Being a California girl, I love seeing the ocean. The route we drove was similar to the Trans Pacific Coastal train that goes from Picton to Christchurch.

 

Around 9:45am we arrived at the Ohau Stream and being fall, we saw the seal pup nursery at the base of the waterfall. A little further down the road we stop at a place to see some of the adult seals.

 

 

 

 

 

An hour later we stopped at the Café Encounter in Kaikoura for lunch. This is a fully licensed café providing the perfect setting for inside and outside dining opposite the beach. We had time (about 45 minutes)  after brunch to walk along the one block main street of  Kaikoura to shop. I purchased ice cream (but not the Hokey Pokey favor).

12:30pm we made our way to the Whale Watch Kaikoura office. Every whale watch tour is a unique experience and the sightings vary. Giant Sperm Whales are the stars of this cruise and year round. This company guarantees that if you do not see a whale, they will refund 80% of the fare. We saw three different sperm whales while we were out on our 3 hour cruise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also saw Dusky Dolphins but they were harder to get a picture of.  

4:30pm we were back on the bus and we headed inland for the next two hours. On our way to the Heritage Hanmer Springs hotel to spend the one night, we enjoyed a beautiful sky at sunset.

 

New Zealand trip - Day 3

Woke up this morning to see the beautiful view of the harbor from my room window, too bad no time to sit and enjoy it. Another full day of activities but much more laid back. We went on the 8:45am Interisland ferry to cross to the south island. This takes about 3 hours, plenty of time to relax. We were lucky and had a pretty smooth crossing. The last hour is when you want to be outside as you cruise between the islands of the Queen Charlotte Sound. This is called “one of the most beautiful ferry rides in the world”.

 The particular vessel we were on is the largest of their 3 ships. They are replacing the smallest one with a new vessel. The company will be announcing the name next week. The vessel will go into service in July. When this happens, all three vessels will have the Premier lounge, with complimentary food and free wifi.  If not in the Premier Lounge, you can pay for food and wifi (via an access card). Having done both the standard passage seat and the Premier lounge, I recommend paying the extra fee.

Once on the south island, we made our way south towards Blenheim and the Brancott Estate Heritage Centre for lunch and wine tasting. It is a rough job but someone has to do it. Brancott (formerly Montana) is the largest winery in New Zealand. They are the first to plant and create the world's first Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc wine.

Next stop was at the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre currently featuring Sir Peter Jackson’s own WW I aircraft and artefacts, known as the Knights of the Sky. Rare memorabilia is on display, worthy of any national collection and ranges from beautifully crafted “trench art” through to personal items belonging to the famous Red Baron himself.

After our 1 hour guided tour, we move back up to the town of Picton. Here we enjoyed more wine and the local green shell mussels, onboard the MV Odyssea vessel.  The green shell mussels are the second largest industry of this region, behind the wine industry. The seafood Odyssea cruise featured Regal salmon and Tio Point oysters complimented with Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Great way to experience the picturesque scenery of this area. These vessels can also be chartered for overnight stays.  

Dinner this evening was at our hotel, the Park Regis Picton. The hotel was nice but the elevator was not position conveniently to the lobby. Most walked their luggage up or down 8 to 10 stairs to get to the room.

Day 2 New Zealand

This morning we left Auckland and flew down to Wellington. I knew Wellington has high winds and had heard flying in or out of Wellington could be frightening but we had a somewhat easy landing. Unfortunately the plane did depart Auckland late and therefore we arrived late, putting us behind schedule. I had been in Wellington in 2001 but all we really did was go to a lookout point and then to the hotel to spend one night. This trip we actually had a lot to do although some of the activities time was shorten compared to what was intended.

First stop was at the Weta Workshp. Since we were behind schedule we did not go into the Weta Cave (gift shop and mini museum) as the general public would do. An added bonus was we went to the main office conference room while waiting to get our tickets for the workshop tour and in there were the 5 Oscars they have won. We had the tour for a behind the scenes glimpse but you are not allowed to take pictures. I knew of Weta because of their work on the Lord of the Rings trilogy but I did not realize they worked on so many other movies such as Avatar and King Kong with Jack Black. When we were there, the only person working on a project was an artist doing drawings. The guided tours start every 30 minutes from 10am to 5pm. Tours take approximately 30 to 40 minutes with a maximum of 20 people per tour.  

Our lunch stop was at CoCo at the Roxy. This is one of Wellington’s original suburban cinemas that has been completely rebuilt to feature two luxurious state-of-the-art cinemas, a café/restaurant (open for brunch, lunch and dinner) and cocktail lounge that revives the style of the 20s & 30s ears. The art deco faced of the 1928 building has been retained.

Next we were off to Te Papa. This is the country’s national museum, where you can explore the great stories of this fascinating land and the people who live here. This is the largest museum of Maori treasures. We had a short tour of the main museum that is free but then we had the Taonga Ma-ori (behind the scene) tour. They have more Moari items stored then what they actually display in the museum. Here their team members have learned how to manage and care for the Maori treasures in culturally appropriate ways. 

Our final activity of the day was going to Zealandia just before 5pm for a night tour. This is a bird sanctuary of 500 hectagons enclosed to keep the inside animal’s predictors out. This time taking pictures was allowed but without using a flash. My camera does not take night shots, therefore I do not have the proof I saw a kiwi in the wild but I did. Our guide said the Kiwi was named Flip Flop because they originally thought it was a male due to the size but they later learned it was a female. 

Dinner was at Floriditas, set in the midst of Wellington’s iconic Cuba Street. Then at 10pm we finally checked into the Copthorne hotel Wellington Oriental Bay for a good night sleep.

Day 1 of 2015 New Zealand trip

To keep my Kiwi Specialist status with the tourist board, I must go to New Zealand at least every 5 years. So guess where I am now. In order to see as much as possible in a week, this trip has us moving about every 24 hours to a new city or area.

I left LAX on Monday night on an Air New Zealand non-stop flight to Auckland. We must have been on a fairly new plane because everything looked fresh and worked. I skipped the midnight dinner in favor of sleep. I do not sleep well on planes but lucky for me the plane was not full and there was more room to spread out. I did however enjoy a movie (The Theory of Everything) on my individual screen in the seat and breakfast before landing to a nice day for fall.

After checking in to the Langham Hotel, we were taken over to the SkyCity center where we enjoyed a yum ch style lunch at Jade Dragon. This is a very beautifully designed Asian ambience restaurant. They have two private restaurants and intimate booth seating. Then down to the Harbour and we did the American Cup sailing. In a previous trip to Auckland I had done a sailing trip of the harbor but have decided I like the America’s Cup vessel better. You actually get to help with cranking up the sails. Then it was back to the Langham hotel for our one night. It was a beautiful day out on the water.  It was also a lot of fun to experience the boat as it lend into the water.

The Langham hotel has 411 rooms and suites with a 5 star rating. It is within easy walking distance of parks, shopping, cafes and restaurants but I think it is a bit of a long walk down to the harbor. The only place I walked to was a bank to convert US dollars to New Zealand money. This evening we enjoyed dinner from the Eight Restaurant. Enjoy as many sumptuous courses as you like from eight delicious cuisines, freshly prepared to order. At this restaurant you can enjoy as many sumptuous courses as you like (buffet style) from eight delicious cuisines. I personally enjoyed the seafood bar with all the shrimp and crab legs. There is also Asian, Indian and American, to name a few.

 



Fiji - days 6 & 7

I woke in time for the sunrise but at this point I have decided sunsets are more spectacular. I will continue to wake up early this trip to have both sunrise & sunset on my Pinterest board, but on future trips, I will sleep in.

7am the Fiji Princess headed out of the bay and headed southward. We watched the small islands we pasted while eating breakfast.  Since we were unable to do our village dinner visit, at 9am we stopped at the Yasawa Island High School on Naviti Island for a tour. It is amazing that they did not have one computer. Not even for the teachers!

        

After lunch onboard, a marine biologist joined us and talk to us about the marine life, coral reef and conservation efforts that the Vinaka Fiji have been doing I the Yasawas. We went in our tender boats to the reef of Drawaqa Island. This was the best snorkeling I did this trip. My husband has an underwater camera but I did not think to ask to use it when I took off without him. Around 4 o’clock I had another first time experience and that was swimming with large magnificent Manta Rays. When I jumped off the little tender boat, one was swimming right towards me! I was lucky to jump off the right side of the boat since some people later said they never saw them. I did not follow that mantra ray but swam towards the group of people from our cruise to follow another one for a  while. It was a great experience before heading back to the ship.                                   

                                                                                                                                                        

Our last dinner was supposed to be on the upper deck but once again because of high tide winds, we ate are has dinner together inside.  After dinner we had our International guest show. Everybody represented their country with a song or skit or poem. There was another couple from Florida and the four of us sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”. It was a fun night and great way to end the cruise activites.

Day 7

I took my last sunrise onboard the Fiji Princess ship but since it had rained it was hard to find the sun.  At 10am we were docking in Port Denarau to disembark. Since we had some time, we walked around the shops in this port area and then stopped in the Hard Rock for a soda. Late morning we took a taxi to the airport and checked in for our 2pm small aircraft flight back to the Yasawa Islands. Our 35 minute flight was a little bumpy but we landed on the grass air strip just fine.

 



There was another couple on the plane that were checking into the resort, along with two employees returning to work. I do not believe there are any paved roads on this island. The road between the airstrip and resort was a little bumpy also and Erin, the owner who had come out to the airstrip to meet us, said they maintain it on their own. She tries to get the government to do some work on it but they just fly over and say it looks good to them. If they drove it, they might have a different opinion. Not sure how a dirt road looks from the air, if you can even see the pot holes.

Once you arrive at the resort (it was about a 10 minute drive), you are greeted by staff singing a welcome song. You sit in the reception area as you handle the paperwork. You are then walked by a staff member to your bure. We had sub zero, furthest from the lobby but closest to the beach.

 

We had requested a small snack (since we missed lunch) be delivered to our bure. We sat in our deck chairs both clicking away as we watched the sunset over the ocean. We were the last people to arrive for dinner in the open aire restaurant. When there are only 26 guess you are aware of this.  Even with a late (8pm) dinner, we were in bed by 10pm.

Fiji - day 5 onboard Blue Lagoon Fiji Princess

 

I woke up in time to take my sunrise photographs. We were still at Nanuya Lailai Island with our ship still tied up to the coconut  tree.

After breakfast our activity today consisted of a 1 hour 40 minute guided walk, up over the island to the other side. Of course I was taking pictures along the way.

 

While we ate lunch onboard, we started sailing north some more. 1 ½ hours later we arrived at our new destination Sawa-I-Lau caves, or more commonly known as the Blue Lagoon Cave since the Brooke Shield’s movie was filmed here. This was the first time I had ever been in a water cave. We were guided into two caverns, although it is believed to have about 100.

Tonight we were suppose to visit the village of Tamasua but because of the high tide winds, we just stayed put for the night. After dinner, the 1949 Jean Simmons version of the movie Blue Lagoon was shown but because I was now determined to wake up for all sunrises, I did not stay awake to watch.

Fiji - day 3 & 4

Early to bed, early to rise. We enjoyed breakfast outside on a deck at the Radisson Blu resort prior to checking out (quick 24 hour stay) and taking a taxi to the Port. Walked around the shops and stopped in at the Hard Rock. Around noon we boarded a catamaran to take us out to the Fiji Princess currently docked out in the Sacred Islands. This trip took about two hours but we were already socializing with another couple from Tampa, Florida and drinking champagne. We arrived at our ship around 2pm. Could have changed into our swimsuits and gone to shore but we decided to stay onboard and explore the ship. It is a small ship so not too much to explore. I happened to be on deck with my camera at sunset and started to click away. My husband had fallen asleep while reading. Therefore I went off to dinner alone. I happened to join a group of 8 or 9 travel writers. By 9:30pm, I too was asleep.

Another early morning but I managed to sleep in until 6am. Since I had the sunset the day before, I headed out of the cabin in hunt for the sunrise. 

While we were eating breakfast the ship was moving north. Around 9:30am we were tied up to a Coconut tree at Nanuya Lailai Island.  You could jump off the back of the vessel but we took the tender ashore. We staked out our beach chairs and made our way to the water to snorkel. The crew took some people out on a boat to feed fish while the people in the water (like us) got to be swarmed by the fish. We then moved over to a small reef. After the BBQ lunch on the beach, there was a basket waving and coconut demonstration. We went onboard early to freshen up before going back to the beach for our Lovo dinner (similar to a Hawaiian Laua or New Zealand Hangi). Of course I have now decided to take sunsets and sunrises to post on Pinterest and therefore when we got back on the beach my camera was clicking away as the sunset. After our Lovo dinner, a local village came to provide a dance show. Back onboard around 9 or 9:30pm.

Fiji 2014 - day 1 & 2

It was my first time in the Bradley terminal since they added all the shopping area. Our Fiji Airways flight was on time taking off (11:30pm). Although they serve dinner shortly after takeoff, I was already half way to sleep. Since the plane was full and my husband always gets the window, it was nice to have an aisle seat instead of the middle between people. I actually slept well. Wake up just before breakfast was served.

Since we were too early for a room, we walked around the Radisson Blu and took pictures. Here are a few:

 

At 8am when the activities desk opened, we set up a tee time at the Denaru Golf Course. Shortly after we learned a room was ready for us (8:30am).  We were able to freshen up before walking over to the course. We went our as a twosome. The course had more water than you can see from the road. I was thinking it was going to be too easy a course but it had just enough challenge.

After our 18 holes, we had lunch and a beer.  Having been awake since 3am and having a little exercise playing golf, I did everything I could to stay awake until 7:30pm.

Celebrity Solstice - Day 5 - Skagway
Even though this was my third time in Skagway, it is such a cute little town and once again we took pictures of the buildings/town.

 

On our first Alaska cruise in 2002, it was mid September and although beautiful scenery, there was not the snow on the mountains that I had expected. Therefore since this cruise was earlier in the year, we took the White Pass train trip again. This time there was snow but unfortunately it was an overcast day. Guess I will have to try one more time for the snow and the beautiful day to get better pictures.

Forgot to mention, one of the highlights was seeing a brown bear in the wild....

I was having too much fun while on board the Celebrity Solstice (and I admit the internet was slow), so I did not write a post beyond day 3. Day 4 was cruising through Tracey Arm Fjord and although we did not have the best of weather, it was good enough to get pretty far into it. They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words so here are a few thousand....

 

Later that day we stopped in Juneau and although it rain (and rained hard), we still went to the Gold Rush Dogs musher camp. This was one of the most enjoyable shore excursions I have done in Alaska. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the seaplane over glaciers and salmon bake on my first time in Juneau but that was in 2002. Seeing over 100 dogs, each with their own doghouse and seeing how much they actually enjoy running, was a memory I will keep. Ending the day in the kennel with the newest dog (5 weeks old) was my highlight. Here are two pictures....