Last day in New Zealand

Kia Ora!




Leaving New Zealand will be difficult, I have met so many wonderful people who have shared their spirit, their smiles and their beautiful country with me.

I will not forget the tranquility I have experienced being in a country where most people's attitudes are "why worry?" and airport security is almost non existent. This is a different way of life for me and one I hope to take back with me to the States.

New Zealand seemed really far away before I left, but now I know it is just a plane ride away, and Air New Zealand sure makes it easy to get here www.airnewzealand.com.

Thanks to all who helped make this trip so memorable!

Northland to Auckland

I drove in the rain and a bit of hail from Omapere down the west coast and stopped at Matakohe to visit the Kauri Museum and learn about the logging of the bygone era. It was very interesting and had life size dioramas of men in action. Some of the models were climbing Kauri trees, some sawing them, and some digging for the petrified gum, which is like amber. Later, I found out from Colin Mcclean of the Westin Hotel, that the figure's faces were from actual people cast in wax, his grandfather being one of the men whose face was used for the museum. Small world. I continued the drive to Auckland, stopping at Sahara http://www.eatdrinkchill.co.nz/ for coffee. From the outside it said Bank of New Zealand but the 1912 building ceased being a bank in the 1990's and is now a weekend getaway for brunch and dinner. The interior has antique furnishings reminiscent of my grandmother's house, groovy music, large nude paintings on the walls and great New Zealand coffee. I felt totally safe driving alone and savored my last drive in New Zealand. Several hours later I arrived at the luxurious Westin Hotel, only one year old www.westin.com/auckland where I met Colin. Later, I enjoyed a Thai massage from the spa at the Westin, which specializes in Thai therapists. I was quite surprised when the petite massage therapist almost hurt me as she removed all the knots from by back!

Today I kicked back and enjoyed breakfast at the Q restaurant in the Westin Hotel. The interior is stunning, decorated with back lit onyx. In the afternoon, the weather cleared and I decided to go for a sail on one of the America's Cup boats in Waitemata Harbor, where the cup was sailed in 1999-2000 in Auckland. (New Zealand was defeated by the Swiss.) When I saw there were 10 men and only 2 gals I did get a little nervous, but despite the heavy wind which was touted as being the stuff the cup was sailed in, and the radical angle in which we sailed on, I had a blast! Two companies in Auckland offer the ride, www.explorenz.co.nz and www.sailnz.co.nz

Here is Hone, from Waka Taiamai Heritage tours.

The tour around the Bay of Islands included going through the hole in the rock.

From Paihia, I traveled about an hour in my rental car, (getting pretty good at driving on the left side now, may have trouble when I return to the States!) It took about an hour and a half to get to Hokianga Harbor and the Copthorne Hotel http://www.copthornehokianga.co.nz/ in Omapere. The hotel is lovely and overlooks the historic harbor, infamous for grounding hundreds of boats back in the day, due to a sand bar. After a rest, I checked in for the Footprints Waipoua Tour, http://www.footprintswaipoua.com/. Dressed in many layers including rain gear, I headed out with Taffety and Bill (English spellings of their Maori names), really Tawhiri and Wiremu! The pronunciation of wh is "f" and New Zealanders pronounce the "r" like a soft "t", so I hear Taffety. Our gang of 9 headed out in a van to drive up the steep and winding hill to the Kauri forest. The sky was dark and it began to rain, typical of a rain forest. We were all given head lamps and large umbrellas for our hour long trek in the forest to view Tane Matua and Te Matua Ngahere, 2,000 and 4,000 year old Kauri trees. These magnificent ancient beings were left behind during the milling of Kauri trees, back at the turn of the century (now banned and they are fiercely protected) presumably because they were just two big to cut down. The tour was spiritual and funny as T and B told us Maori stories and joked with us on the way to Te Matua Ngahere. When we arrived, we were all awestruck by its size, its circumference being 45 feet around. Taffety sang a song and we all paid our respect to the giant. The evening was magical for several reasons, but mostly having the opportunity to walk in the rain forest at night amid the presence of Bill and Taffety and the trees and nobody else!

Wellington and Northland

In the last few days I have traveling at the speed of light, having lots of great adventures despite the weather which has been cool and rainy. On July 3rd I left my hotel in Wellington, but not before getting a picture of me with Francois Steyn, the fly half for the South African Springboks rugby team and riding in the elevator with Percey Montgomery. Tonight I watched my first rugby game on TV in my hotel in Auckland and really enjoyed it, even though I had no idea what was happening. The game was an important one, with South Africa playing against The All Blacks from New Zealand, who won.

From Wellington I took 2 planes to Keri Keri in the north of the north island, called..........Northland! I met Hone from Waka Taiamai Heritage, www.taiamaitours.co.nz who gave me a greater understanding of Maori ways. He is an incredible person with a real passion to teach people about his people. His grandson is only 9 and recited their lineage from 500 years ago in their tribal tongue while Hone translated. One of the highlights was when Hone told me all about the constellations according to Maori lore as compared with the way we learned it. The southern hemisphere sky is really amazing and we had a good clear night for stargazing. I enjoyed my time with Hone and his family and recommend his tour when you travel up north. I also did a dolphin discovery tour www.explorenz.co.nz and was willing to swim with the dolphins in the 50 degree water, but we did not see any! The tour of the Bay of Islands, with 144 islands, was worth it, even without seeing the dolphins.

Kaikoura pictures

Sighting a Sperm Whale from the air.

Hapuku Lodge looking out towards the Pacific and the nursery of baby seals on State Hwy 1

Kaikoura to Wellington

I left beautiful Kaikoura early in the morning and drove along the coast north to Blenheim to catch another small plane, (about 20 seats) across the channel to the North Island. The countryside changed from dramatic coast to hills and winding roads, sometimes 180 degree turns to farm country and then to vineyards. The Marlborough Blenheim area is famous for their wines. The airport had one gate and no security. When I went to return the key, there was no one at the Budget rental desk. The girl at the cafe said just pick up the phone as they are having morning tea. I rang and she told me to put the keys in the slot and leave the GPS on the counter! I am definitely not in the US anymore! I flew into the small airport of Wellington, met by Raewyn Tan from Wellington Tourism (www.wellingtonnz.com). We were dropped off on Cuba Street, an artsy part of town for lunch and a famous New Zealand coffee. The city was invigorating. I am told it has the most restaurants and cafes per capita of any other city in the world. I went on a tour of the city with guide Nathan to get the history and orientation of this beautiful city on the Tasman Sea (www.wellingtonrover.co.nz). We went straight to Mt. Victoria to get a panoramic view. The city has hills and earthquakes like San Francisco and many of the older houses in Newtown (the oldest part of the city!) remind me of there. We drove by the Weta studio (home to the amazing animations and model making of movies like "Lord of The Rings"and Island Bay. I am now off to dinner with my aunt from Vermont's friend's daughter who is studying to be a veterinarian here in NZ.

June 30th

The Hapuku Lodge is truly a honeymooner's paradise, and walking the grounds refreshes one's spirit as the Kaikoura mountains which are snow covered appear close by to the West and the roaring Pacific Ocean to the East. I am still on the South Island, two hours drive north of Christchurch. Because of the rain yesterday and the rough seas today, my whale watch cruise is cancelled. (http://www.whalewatch.co.nz/) I met with Lisa from PR and she told me that 95% of all boat trips see whales, as the harbor is a "bachelor pad" for Sperm Whales and there are 6 local residents due to the great amount of plankton available here. If you don't see a whale there is an 80% refund! Although I was disappointed in not going out on the boat, I managed to secure a seat on a seven seater plane to view the whales from above. The twenty five minute flight was successful as I spotted two large sperm whales. I must admit it (http://www.wingsoverwhales.co.nz/) I did feel a little sick as the two 20 something pilots really went for it, going quite close to the sea!
After the flight I hopped in my rental car and headed north to view a seal nursery above Kaikoura on State Hwy 1. I asked a highway worker if I could park on the side and although he called me a "Goddamn Yank" in a friendly sort of way, guided me to the spot with hundreds of baby seals and a few mamas. It was fantastic, and they were very curious of me as well. The seals are overabundant in Kaikoura, with no real predators, as they are protected from humans.
The next part of my adventure entailed driving to Glenstrae Farms for a 4 WD bike tour (http://www.4wheeladventures.co.nz/) . I told Sam back in Tourism New Zealand that this did not sound like something I would like. Again, he encouraged me to "have a go" and am I glad I did. Learning the quad bike was easy and I felt like a New Zealand farmer as we traversed the amazing farmland which is a total of 1600 acres right on the ocean! The land was dotted with sheep and black Angus cows. The sheep ran when they heard us coming, the cows just stared us as if to say, "go ahead and try to make me move!" The tour included going up and down some fairly steep hills and along beautiful cliffs and ended up by the hut for afternoon tea. By the end, I was cruising at up to speeds of 40 km! I was proud of myself and wished my nephew Johnny could have been here, but he will have to wait until he is 16 years old.

Kaikoura

June 29th was a travel day, as I left Queenstown and flew to Christchurch in the morning. Getting on the plane was so easy as of yet, there is no security lines to go through when you fly domestically. I arrived in Christchurch and rented a car with a GPS ( seriously directionally challenged!) and headed out for Kaikoura. The road was wet and slippery as I drove in the rain on the left side of the road for the first time since I lived in Australia which was 20 years ago! The hard part was every time I went to signal I turned the windshield wipers on! and vice a versa! I just kept repeating the mantra "Keep Left".  The drivers in New Zealand really go fast and on a single lane highway with cars coming at me from the right side, I was a bit intimidated. I was told it is an offence to hold people up, so you need to signal and pull over if you don't go the speed limit of 100 km on the highway. As I drove, I passed many wineries it reminded me of Sonoma Valley. When I got close to Kaikoura, the road went alongside of the Pacific ocean and the waves and rocks were spectacular!  

My Maori tour (www.maoritours.co.nz) was cancelled due to the weather but I met with proprietors Maurice and Heather for coffee and they took me out to a Maori pa site which is a fortress and told me about the history of Maurice's tribe (named after Maurice Chevalier!) and 

the customs of the Maori family which totally reminded me of my Italian culture. It is really unbelievable how similiar we all are.

I drove to my tree house at Hapuku Lodge (www.hapukulodge.com) and was blown away by the setting amidst snow covered mountains ( it is winter here) lush bush vegetation, an olive grove and the turquoise ocean. This place is truly paradise! My room is an open plan layout with king size bed, jacuzzi tub and sitting room with fireplace. Last night I awoke in the middle of the night and went out on my deck overlooking the Pacific and was astounded by the amount of stars in the Southern Hemisphere. 

Day 2 in Queenstown

The morning started with a beautiful breakfast at Brown's Boutique Hotel (http://www.brownshotel.co.nz/) with hosts Gillian and Donald. There hospitality truly makes me feel like I am staying with my New Zealand relatives.

Great day fording rivers and checking out the film locations of Lord of The Rings and The Waterhorse with Gunthar from Wilderness Safaris (http://www.wilderness-safaris.co.nz/) and Hazel from Destination Queenstown. The winding drive along Lake Wakatipi with views of majestic snow covered mountains was unbelievably scenic. The description of the safari including fording rivers, and that we did as Gunthar thought that would be quicker than waiting for hundreds of sheep to get out of the way!


My hosts, Sarah Keenan and Carly Mulqueen of Tourism New Zealand thought I needed a little extra adrenaline rush today, so they advised that we all go over to take a ride on The Shotover Jet, which is a speed boat that does crazy thinks in less than 1 foot of water. We all screamed as the boat shot through the Shotover River Canyon, coming very close to rock faces and turning 360 degrees just for the fun of it!

The Queenstown Winterfest www.winterfestival.co.nz was starting the day I arrived and their are many activities happening in the town. For our evening entertainment, we watched a cabaret singer telling The Marlene Dietrich Story through the songs of Edith Piaf and Cole Porter. It was a relaxing end to a thrilling day.

June 28th

The ride from JFK to LA was a breeze, and thanks to Johnnyjet and Air New Zealand I was able to rest in the Koru lounge before the 12 hour flight to Auckland. The lounge had a shower, drinks and fresh snacks but more importantly, it was a very relaxing place to rest. Matt from Air New Zealand escorted me to the gate and told me I was upgraded to the top deck in business class! Wow, my seat actually turned into a completely flat bed, complete with duvet and linen pillow. I slept for 7 hours and really enjoyed "my nook". The service was incredible and I couldn't believe how delicious the clear yellow pea soup with fresh vegetables and sourdough bread was before I went off to lala land. In the morning I enjoyed looking out the small window looking at the different constellations in the Southern Hemisphere. I was actually sad when I had to leave!

Clearing customs in Auckland went smoothly and I walked the brisk ten minute walk to domestic instead of taking the shuttle. Then I checked my bag, had a bowl of Asian noodles with Air New Zealand flight attendant Kiersten Cathalls and waited until the flight to Queenstown. The flight was a little over an hour and I slept. Flying over the land of "The Lord of The Rings" was really trippy. The scenery was like nothing I had ever seen. The snow capped mountains looked like the hills of Tahiti and were a dark green at the bottom. A silver turquoise river intertwined.

I am staying at a lovely hotel called Brown's Boutique Hotel and the owners could not be nicer. My room overlooks the Remarkables Mountains. I walked down to the Sofitel and had a lavish spa treatment and steam bath. Carly and Sarah from Pure New Zealand met me for the opening night of the Queenstown Winterfest. Imagine I leave summer in the US and arrive just for the beginning of winter in New Zealand. The rock bands and fireworks were a royal welcome! More about the festival tonight.

JFK TO LAX TO NEW ZEALAND!

Look who I ran into today at JFK?! My family (including Johnny Jet!). They were arriving from Erie, PA on jetBlue so they came by the American terminal (8) to say goodbye.

This picture is of me and my siblings, Frankie, Carol and Johnnyjet in Switzerland.

The long plane ride

Looking forward to New Zealand and wondering about the ride there.