12/26/07 – Boxing Day
Today, Jenny and I went to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds to see an authentic Maori performance and then walk around to see a war canoe and the meeting house. It was a very cool performance. They did a lot of singing, and they played a game with wooden rods that they passed around, kind of like hot potato :) During some of the songs, the guys would make these faces, with their tongues sticking out and eyes really wide, to convey strength and hostility. The woman would shake their hands really fast, which represented the living and spirits coming together. They were all very good. Check out the pics:
In the afternoon, Paul, Jenny, and I went fishing. It was a little windy, so it was choppy, but we took Dramamine so we were okay. We went all the way out to where the bay meets the South Pacific Ocean, so there were some big Snapper out there. At first the fish kept taking the bait off of our lures without us knowing because the current was strong. Paul even caught a fish without realizing it! But we finally realized that they were biting as soon as our lines hit the bottom (which was 50 meters down) and we caught some good ones.
Jenny won by catching the biggest fish, but my big one wasn’t far behind. Jenny caught 2, one big one and one medium-small one. I caught 3 fish, one big one, one small one, and one tiny one that we threw back. Paul caught one fish that was medium-large. It was a lot of fun! A little windy, but not too bad.
When we got back to the wharf, our fisherman guide filleted the fish for us, but there was so much that we only took about half and gave the other half to an Australian guy who went with us but didn’t catch anything. We didn’t have much to cook the fish with, so we just sautéed it in butter. It was okay, so we didn’t eat all of it and gave the rest to the hotel owners. They were very thankful :)
The rest of the night we just chilled. Tomorrow we leave for Tauranga. Hopefully we will have good weather and be able to do a lot of activities. Can’t wait!
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Paihia Week #2 – Day #5
12/25/07 – Merry Christmas!
Today we woke up and had some yummy breakfast. Then I went down to Reception to find out from Deb what the local access number was for our calling card and she said that they were making white bait with their breakfast and said she would bring us up some leftovers. White bait is this small white fish that is long and skinny and swims upstream on a local river, sort of like salmon do. Apparently it’s a big delicacy and has increased in price significantly to ~$125 per kilogram! People even guard their section of the river with shotguns where they catch the white bait because it’s so lucrative and some sections of the river are better than others!
So Deb brought us some plain white bait that had been browned and also some fritters that had white bait in them. It wasn’t bad, but it was kind of weird, so we didn’t really eat them, but at least we tried something very Kiwi authentic!
After breakfast and talking to my parents, we watched a movie and eventually played some tennis. It rained pretty much all day, but that didn’t bother us since we were just being lazy. It was a great Christmas.
Today we woke up and had some yummy breakfast. Then I went down to Reception to find out from Deb what the local access number was for our calling card and she said that they were making white bait with their breakfast and said she would bring us up some leftovers. White bait is this small white fish that is long and skinny and swims upstream on a local river, sort of like salmon do. Apparently it’s a big delicacy and has increased in price significantly to ~$125 per kilogram! People even guard their section of the river with shotguns where they catch the white bait because it’s so lucrative and some sections of the river are better than others!
So Deb brought us some plain white bait that had been browned and also some fritters that had white bait in them. It wasn’t bad, but it was kind of weird, so we didn’t really eat them, but at least we tried something very Kiwi authentic!
After breakfast and talking to my parents, we watched a movie and eventually played some tennis. It rained pretty much all day, but that didn’t bother us since we were just being lazy. It was a great Christmas.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Paihia Week #2 – Day #3
12/24/07 – Christmas Eve Day!
Today we went on an all day trip to the west coast to go to the Waipoua Kauri Forest. The Kauri trees are like the redwood trees in California. They are very old and although they don’t grow to be as tall as redwoods (they only grow until they are taller than the second forest canopy), they are super wide. We went to see Tane Mahuta, which is the Maori god of the forest. He is 2,000 years old and so incredibly huge. He actually has an ecosystem up in his tree limbs. He is 51 meters tall and his branches are so huge, he has like 30 plants and trees growing out of him. He is the tallest Kauri tree in New Zealand, but not the oldest. The oldest one is Te Matua Ngahere, who is the Father of the Forest, but we didn’t get to see him because he is protected.
We had a Maori guide who took us through the forest and told us of all the history. When we were at Tane Mahuta he did some prayers and singing in the Maori language. They are very spiritual. They have gods for many things, like god of the forest, god of the land, and so on, so they pray and sing a lot when they are there to say greetings to the god.
After the forest, we went to overlook the Hokianga harbour, which feeds out to the Tasman Sea. It was absolutely beautiful. On the other side of the harbour were huge sand dunes, which apparently were once in another location. At one point, there was a huge natural explosion of some sort that blew the sand dunes to the harbour. You can actually body surf down the dunes into the water, but we didn’t have time for that.
Then we ate lunch in the tiny town by the harbour, Opononi, at a little café that has really good burgers. Paul and I had a fish burger, and it was the best fish sandwich I’ve ever had! It had heaps (all the kiwis and ozzies always use the word “heaps”, like we use the word “tons”) of fish and just a little breading, and the tartare sauce was really good too. YUM!
In the town, there is a status of Opo the dolphin, who was a wild dolphin that came into the Hokianga harbour in the summer of 1955 and became so tame that kids could swim with him. He ended up dying in the winter of 1956, but before then, people would come from all over to see him. He would find bottles at the bottom of the harbour and bring them up and play with them. Dolphins are so crazy smart and playful! There was some controversy about his death. Some thought that some fishermen killed him with a little explosive that they used for catching fish because he was eating their fish. So sad.
After lunch, we drove to a car ferry so that we could drive back to Paihia on a different route to learn more history. Our driver knew so much history, but of course, I can hardly remember any of it! I have such a bad memory for those kinds of things. But we did go to this town where we saw the oldest bridge in New Zealand. It was so funny. It was about 6 feet wide and just went over a creek. It had a frame of rocks, but most of it was dirt and grass. Too funny.
There was a mother (Graces) and 2 kids (Gabby and Hester) with us on the tour, and the little girl Hester was so cute! She kept hugging me and Jenny and holding our hands. I totally want a little girl! Anyway, they made the trip more fun because they were really excited about everything.
When we got back to Paihia, we just took it easy because we were so tired from the tour. After eating a small dinner in the apartment (I was still full from lunch!), Jenny and I went down to the Village Green to listen to them sing Christmas Carols. It was a kind of strange, but fun too. One guy came out and did a rap about Jesus Christ. It actually wasn’t bad, but definitely a little strange. Then we watched Love Actually on tv and went to bed. It was a good day.
Check out our pics for the day:
Today we went on an all day trip to the west coast to go to the Waipoua Kauri Forest. The Kauri trees are like the redwood trees in California. They are very old and although they don’t grow to be as tall as redwoods (they only grow until they are taller than the second forest canopy), they are super wide. We went to see Tane Mahuta, which is the Maori god of the forest. He is 2,000 years old and so incredibly huge. He actually has an ecosystem up in his tree limbs. He is 51 meters tall and his branches are so huge, he has like 30 plants and trees growing out of him. He is the tallest Kauri tree in New Zealand, but not the oldest. The oldest one is Te Matua Ngahere, who is the Father of the Forest, but we didn’t get to see him because he is protected.
We had a Maori guide who took us through the forest and told us of all the history. When we were at Tane Mahuta he did some prayers and singing in the Maori language. They are very spiritual. They have gods for many things, like god of the forest, god of the land, and so on, so they pray and sing a lot when they are there to say greetings to the god.
After the forest, we went to overlook the Hokianga harbour, which feeds out to the Tasman Sea. It was absolutely beautiful. On the other side of the harbour were huge sand dunes, which apparently were once in another location. At one point, there was a huge natural explosion of some sort that blew the sand dunes to the harbour. You can actually body surf down the dunes into the water, but we didn’t have time for that.
Then we ate lunch in the tiny town by the harbour, Opononi, at a little café that has really good burgers. Paul and I had a fish burger, and it was the best fish sandwich I’ve ever had! It had heaps (all the kiwis and ozzies always use the word “heaps”, like we use the word “tons”) of fish and just a little breading, and the tartare sauce was really good too. YUM!
In the town, there is a status of Opo the dolphin, who was a wild dolphin that came into the Hokianga harbour in the summer of 1955 and became so tame that kids could swim with him. He ended up dying in the winter of 1956, but before then, people would come from all over to see him. He would find bottles at the bottom of the harbour and bring them up and play with them. Dolphins are so crazy smart and playful! There was some controversy about his death. Some thought that some fishermen killed him with a little explosive that they used for catching fish because he was eating their fish. So sad.
After lunch, we drove to a car ferry so that we could drive back to Paihia on a different route to learn more history. Our driver knew so much history, but of course, I can hardly remember any of it! I have such a bad memory for those kinds of things. But we did go to this town where we saw the oldest bridge in New Zealand. It was so funny. It was about 6 feet wide and just went over a creek. It had a frame of rocks, but most of it was dirt and grass. Too funny.
There was a mother (Graces) and 2 kids (Gabby and Hester) with us on the tour, and the little girl Hester was so cute! She kept hugging me and Jenny and holding our hands. I totally want a little girl! Anyway, they made the trip more fun because they were really excited about everything.
When we got back to Paihia, we just took it easy because we were so tired from the tour. After eating a small dinner in the apartment (I was still full from lunch!), Jenny and I went down to the Village Green to listen to them sing Christmas Carols. It was a kind of strange, but fun too. One guy came out and did a rap about Jesus Christ. It actually wasn’t bad, but definitely a little strange. Then we watched Love Actually on tv and went to bed. It was a good day.
Check out our pics for the day:
Paihia Week #2 – Day #2
12/23/07
Today, Jenny and I went down to the wharf to find out about different activities we could book. She wanted to find out about tours to the Kawiti glow-worm caves in Waiomio and the Waipoua Kauri (pronounced Cody) forest, which is on the west coast (we are on the east coast, but it only takes about 2 hours to get to the east coast because we are at a narrow point of the north island). We found out that there were no tours to the glow-worm caves, but we could rent a car and drive down there easily. So we called one of the car rental places and it was just this woman who lives in Paihia. The car was at the airport, so she came to pick us up and take us to get it. On the way to the airport, we saw 2 wineries, so we decided to go to one of them (Marsden) on the way from the airport to the caves.
I decided that I would drive (instead of Paul, since he drove the whole time in Ireland) and it was really weird driving on the left side of the road. Luckily, the roads here are much wider and nicer than the roads in Ireland, so it wasn’t too bad. Also, it was just weird to drive in general since I haven’t driven a car in 2.5 months! So we stopped in the Marsden winery and tried a few whites but only one red. We ended up getting a Pinot Gris for me and Jenny, a Sauvignon Blanc for Paul (which has a taste of capsicum, which is red bell pepper, in it and that was too weird for me and Jenny), and 2 bottles of the Syrah. YUM! It was really beautiful there and we wanted to come back that evening for dinner, but they only do dinner on Saturday night. So sad. So Jenny and Paul had a glass of wine (I didn’t have one since I was driving) and we walked around the vineyard a little.
Here are some pics at the winery (the plant at the end was actually in the woods at the glow-worm cave):
After the winery, we drove to Waiomio to go to the glow-worm caves. Apparently, one of the towns we passed through, Kawakawa, has these famous toilets in the street that are all different shapes and made of all recyclable material (some European built them), but we couldn’t find them, so we didn’t get to see them. Oh well.
When we got to the glow-worm caves, we realized it’s just a little family operation, so one of the sons of the family were taking us on the tour through the caves. He is a descendent of a Maori tribe that found a woman in there hiding from her husband over a thousand years ago and they have inhabited the land around the cave since then.
The glow-worm caves were really cool. These worms are super tiny, like the size of a sewing needle, and just the tip of them glows. The glow comes from the oxidation of their poop! How funny is that?!? (or am I just juvenile for thinking that glowing poop is funny? :)) The glow is used to attract insects, like flies and mosquitoes, to the glow-worm’s web, which is just a few web strings that hang down vertically, but it is sticky like a spider web, so when the insect gets caught in the web, the worm just pulls up the web and eats the insect. Weird.
Our guide said that we were only viewing 30% of the glow-worms during the day, and at night 100% of the glow-worms come out and you don’t even need a lantern to go through the cave because the glow-worms completely light it up! Too bad we couldn’t see that. They aren’t open at night, so only their family gets to see it.
There are some stalactites hanging down from the ceiling of the cave that are limestone and are still growing (unfortunately some people have broken some of them off :( so sad) and if you touch the ones that are still growing, the oil on your hands could stop it from growing.
After the cave, we drove back to Paihia and did some grocery shopping and then went back to the apartment and just chilled out. Then we went to dinner and watched a movie afterwards. We are such lazy bums. We pass out early every night :)
Look how pretty it is now!
Today, Jenny and I went down to the wharf to find out about different activities we could book. She wanted to find out about tours to the Kawiti glow-worm caves in Waiomio and the Waipoua Kauri (pronounced Cody) forest, which is on the west coast (we are on the east coast, but it only takes about 2 hours to get to the east coast because we are at a narrow point of the north island). We found out that there were no tours to the glow-worm caves, but we could rent a car and drive down there easily. So we called one of the car rental places and it was just this woman who lives in Paihia. The car was at the airport, so she came to pick us up and take us to get it. On the way to the airport, we saw 2 wineries, so we decided to go to one of them (Marsden) on the way from the airport to the caves.
I decided that I would drive (instead of Paul, since he drove the whole time in Ireland) and it was really weird driving on the left side of the road. Luckily, the roads here are much wider and nicer than the roads in Ireland, so it wasn’t too bad. Also, it was just weird to drive in general since I haven’t driven a car in 2.5 months! So we stopped in the Marsden winery and tried a few whites but only one red. We ended up getting a Pinot Gris for me and Jenny, a Sauvignon Blanc for Paul (which has a taste of capsicum, which is red bell pepper, in it and that was too weird for me and Jenny), and 2 bottles of the Syrah. YUM! It was really beautiful there and we wanted to come back that evening for dinner, but they only do dinner on Saturday night. So sad. So Jenny and Paul had a glass of wine (I didn’t have one since I was driving) and we walked around the vineyard a little.
Here are some pics at the winery (the plant at the end was actually in the woods at the glow-worm cave):
After the winery, we drove to Waiomio to go to the glow-worm caves. Apparently, one of the towns we passed through, Kawakawa, has these famous toilets in the street that are all different shapes and made of all recyclable material (some European built them), but we couldn’t find them, so we didn’t get to see them. Oh well.
When we got to the glow-worm caves, we realized it’s just a little family operation, so one of the sons of the family were taking us on the tour through the caves. He is a descendent of a Maori tribe that found a woman in there hiding from her husband over a thousand years ago and they have inhabited the land around the cave since then.
The glow-worm caves were really cool. These worms are super tiny, like the size of a sewing needle, and just the tip of them glows. The glow comes from the oxidation of their poop! How funny is that?!? (or am I just juvenile for thinking that glowing poop is funny? :)) The glow is used to attract insects, like flies and mosquitoes, to the glow-worm’s web, which is just a few web strings that hang down vertically, but it is sticky like a spider web, so when the insect gets caught in the web, the worm just pulls up the web and eats the insect. Weird.
Our guide said that we were only viewing 30% of the glow-worms during the day, and at night 100% of the glow-worms come out and you don’t even need a lantern to go through the cave because the glow-worms completely light it up! Too bad we couldn’t see that. They aren’t open at night, so only their family gets to see it.
There are some stalactites hanging down from the ceiling of the cave that are limestone and are still growing (unfortunately some people have broken some of them off :( so sad) and if you touch the ones that are still growing, the oil on your hands could stop it from growing.
After the cave, we drove back to Paihia and did some grocery shopping and then went back to the apartment and just chilled out. Then we went to dinner and watched a movie afterwards. We are such lazy bums. We pass out early every night :)
Look how pretty it is now!
Paihia Week #2 – Day #1
12/22/07
Today Jenny got here! YAY! We are so excited to have her here. And the weather has really improved too, so it’s going to be a great last 2 weeks. Even though she had been traveling for 24 hours, she was ready to go, so we decided to go get some lunch at a café downtown and then go on a cruise where they take you to see dolphins and then go to the Hole In the Rock (Paul didn’t feel like going so Jenny and I just went).
It was a beautiful sunny day (don’t worry, I put on sunscreen :)) with a little bit of a strong wind, so it was a little choppy out there. I was a little nervous about getting sick (after the whole scuba diving trip craziness) but I ended up being fine. On the way out of the bay, they showed us different islands in the Bay of Islands. There are about 120 islands in the bay, one of which Captain Cook from England set his first anchor at when he was discovering New Zealand after discovering Australia previously.
Everything was really beautiful. Finally we got out to an area where they were seeing a dolphin pod (which is a group of dolphins traveling together). Usually these pods only have about 12-15 dolphins, but this pod had about 50 dolphins! They said that the pod would probably break up in a few days since they usually don’t travel with that many together, but today we got the benefit of having all those dolphins around us. And we were so lucky because the trip that had gone out this morning didn’t see any dolphins!
Dolphins are obviously very smart, and they can tell the difference between boats because of the noise the motor makes, so they get used to the boats that go out there. However, the company we went with (Kings) had just bought the boat we were on, so the dolphins were really curious about it because they had never heard it before. So they were swimming all around our boat! It was so cool! They were doing jumps, sometimes just regular jumps and sometimes they were jumping backwards or sideways, and sometimes 2 of them did several jumps in a row together, even the mommies and babies! These are wild dolphins but they were doing tricks like they had been taught them in Sea World! Amazing. They are just so naturally playful.
They even had some really young babies with them that were so cute. The babies actually have 2 mothers swimming with them, one of which is an Auntie dolphin that takes care of the baby when the mother has to go off to find food. And these dolphins were really big, like 10 feet long! And a couple of the babies were only about 3 feet long. They were too cute.
When the boat started moving faster, the dolphins would get into the boats wake, really close to the boats propellers, and ride the water that was funneling into the middle of the boat, so they were just being pulled along. They absolutely loved it! When we really started getting some speed, a whole bunch of them came into the wake, and they were doing big jumps! It was so cool! Unfortunately, Jenny’s camera had run out of batteries by that time, but I don’t think it would be possible to capture that anyway. Too bad we didn’t have a video camera.
Anyway, after we left the dolphins, we went to the Hole In the Rock, which is a big island rock at the edge of the bay (which feeds into the South Pacific Ocean). On a calm day, the boat could go through the middle of the hole, but today there was a lot of white water in there. A small boat went in and was really being knocked around, even on the other side of the rock, so we were glad we didn’t go through there. The hole was made from the ocean waves pounding against the rock because the rock is really hard but it’s brittle, so it can break off easily. There is another hole that is forming in the other side of the rock, and they said it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a complete hole.
On the way back to the wharf, we saw some other pretty islands, but the dolphins were definitely the highlight. That night we went out to dinner and then just hung out and took it easy. Tomorrow we will plan the rest of our week here. YAY!
Here are the pictures we took on the boat tour:
Today Jenny got here! YAY! We are so excited to have her here. And the weather has really improved too, so it’s going to be a great last 2 weeks. Even though she had been traveling for 24 hours, she was ready to go, so we decided to go get some lunch at a café downtown and then go on a cruise where they take you to see dolphins and then go to the Hole In the Rock (Paul didn’t feel like going so Jenny and I just went).
It was a beautiful sunny day (don’t worry, I put on sunscreen :)) with a little bit of a strong wind, so it was a little choppy out there. I was a little nervous about getting sick (after the whole scuba diving trip craziness) but I ended up being fine. On the way out of the bay, they showed us different islands in the Bay of Islands. There are about 120 islands in the bay, one of which Captain Cook from England set his first anchor at when he was discovering New Zealand after discovering Australia previously.
Everything was really beautiful. Finally we got out to an area where they were seeing a dolphin pod (which is a group of dolphins traveling together). Usually these pods only have about 12-15 dolphins, but this pod had about 50 dolphins! They said that the pod would probably break up in a few days since they usually don’t travel with that many together, but today we got the benefit of having all those dolphins around us. And we were so lucky because the trip that had gone out this morning didn’t see any dolphins!
Dolphins are obviously very smart, and they can tell the difference between boats because of the noise the motor makes, so they get used to the boats that go out there. However, the company we went with (Kings) had just bought the boat we were on, so the dolphins were really curious about it because they had never heard it before. So they were swimming all around our boat! It was so cool! They were doing jumps, sometimes just regular jumps and sometimes they were jumping backwards or sideways, and sometimes 2 of them did several jumps in a row together, even the mommies and babies! These are wild dolphins but they were doing tricks like they had been taught them in Sea World! Amazing. They are just so naturally playful.
They even had some really young babies with them that were so cute. The babies actually have 2 mothers swimming with them, one of which is an Auntie dolphin that takes care of the baby when the mother has to go off to find food. And these dolphins were really big, like 10 feet long! And a couple of the babies were only about 3 feet long. They were too cute.
When the boat started moving faster, the dolphins would get into the boats wake, really close to the boats propellers, and ride the water that was funneling into the middle of the boat, so they were just being pulled along. They absolutely loved it! When we really started getting some speed, a whole bunch of them came into the wake, and they were doing big jumps! It was so cool! Unfortunately, Jenny’s camera had run out of batteries by that time, but I don’t think it would be possible to capture that anyway. Too bad we didn’t have a video camera.
Anyway, after we left the dolphins, we went to the Hole In the Rock, which is a big island rock at the edge of the bay (which feeds into the South Pacific Ocean). On a calm day, the boat could go through the middle of the hole, but today there was a lot of white water in there. A small boat went in and was really being knocked around, even on the other side of the rock, so we were glad we didn’t go through there. The hole was made from the ocean waves pounding against the rock because the rock is really hard but it’s brittle, so it can break off easily. There is another hole that is forming in the other side of the rock, and they said it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a complete hole.
On the way back to the wharf, we saw some other pretty islands, but the dolphins were definitely the highlight. That night we went out to dinner and then just hung out and took it easy. Tomorrow we will plan the rest of our week here. YAY!
Here are the pictures we took on the boat tour:
Friday, December 21, 2007
Paihia Week #1
12/14/07 – 12/21/07
When we flew into the Kerikeri airport (which is the biggest airport close to Paihia), we couldn’t believe it was actually smaller than the Airlie Beach airport had been! I mean, it was ridiculous. It was one airstrip and one small building with a baggage claim sign outside of the back of the building where they drove our luggage up to us on the luggage cart so we could take it off. I know the Airlie Beach airport didn’t have a baggage claim either, but this was even smaller and funnier.
Luckily, there was a shuttle waiting outside that we took to our apartment in Paihia. It was about a 25 minute drive and our shuttle driver and his wife talked to us about the things we could do in Paihia. We got to the motel and checked in and found our apartment to be very nice.
There are tennis courts across the street that we can use and our motel provides us with rackets and balls for free, so that is nice! We ended up playing tennis about 3 times this week and we actually did better than we thought we would since we haven’t played in about 6 years. One of the days we had to play with this couple staying in our motel because all the courts except for 1 were being used and we were both going to the courts at the same time. The lady was in her 40s and the guy was 50 and they were awful! At one point the guy ran up to the net to hit a ball and totally slid on the sand (there is sand on the court) and scraped his knee bad. We were hoping that would cause them to quit, but he couldn’t act like a wuss, so they kept “playing”. Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore and we quit. It just wasn’t fun because they were so bad!
Other than tennis, we didn’t really do anything except take a bike ride because the weather was so bad, and also because we were waiting for my sister to come into town before we did the major fun stuff. But finally, Thursday ended up being a beautiful day, so we rented kayaks and paddled around the bay of islands. I gotta tell you, kayaking takes a LOT of upper body strength, which I don’t have much of, so it was tough. But we took a break at one point on a secluded beach and reminded us of the Corona commercial because our kayaks were chillin’ on the shore and we were sitting on the beach eating and drinking. We took pictures of it, but they are on a disposable camera because our camera won’t turn on :( so we can’t upload them until we get home and get them developed and then scan them. Totally sucks. But my sister is bringing her digital camera, so we will have pictures of the stuff we do with her, thankfully.
Anyway, after we ate on the beach, we walked down the beach (all 75 yards of it) and picked up pretty stones. Finally we got back in the kayaks (after I got my tank top completely soaked in the water trying to wash sand off my butt, and of course I got even more sand in it!) and started back to the shore. It was a long way! But we made it.
That night we realized how sunburned we had gotten. We have been so careful this entire trip, and then we totally forget to put on sunblock in the one place that doesn’t have an ozone layer above it! Can you believe that?!? Apparently New Zealand is so close to the South Pole, which doesn’t have an ozone layer, that it doesn’t have an ozone layer either, so the sun is much stronger. But of course the weather is so cool that you can’t even tell! It was in the upper 60s when we were kayaking, so you just can’t tell how badly you are getting burned. Needless to say, it’s Saturday and we are still in pain :) Oh well. You live and learn. And now we have aloe and sunblock! At least it’s cool enough that we can cover up our burns and still be comfortable.
So today my sister is coming into town and she is going to keep us very busy, which is good since we haven’t done much this week. We promise to post to the blog more often now and post pictures too. I just uploaded the winery tour pictures to the winery tour blog, so that’s something :)
When we flew into the Kerikeri airport (which is the biggest airport close to Paihia), we couldn’t believe it was actually smaller than the Airlie Beach airport had been! I mean, it was ridiculous. It was one airstrip and one small building with a baggage claim sign outside of the back of the building where they drove our luggage up to us on the luggage cart so we could take it off. I know the Airlie Beach airport didn’t have a baggage claim either, but this was even smaller and funnier.
Luckily, there was a shuttle waiting outside that we took to our apartment in Paihia. It was about a 25 minute drive and our shuttle driver and his wife talked to us about the things we could do in Paihia. We got to the motel and checked in and found our apartment to be very nice.
There are tennis courts across the street that we can use and our motel provides us with rackets and balls for free, so that is nice! We ended up playing tennis about 3 times this week and we actually did better than we thought we would since we haven’t played in about 6 years. One of the days we had to play with this couple staying in our motel because all the courts except for 1 were being used and we were both going to the courts at the same time. The lady was in her 40s and the guy was 50 and they were awful! At one point the guy ran up to the net to hit a ball and totally slid on the sand (there is sand on the court) and scraped his knee bad. We were hoping that would cause them to quit, but he couldn’t act like a wuss, so they kept “playing”. Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore and we quit. It just wasn’t fun because they were so bad!
Other than tennis, we didn’t really do anything except take a bike ride because the weather was so bad, and also because we were waiting for my sister to come into town before we did the major fun stuff. But finally, Thursday ended up being a beautiful day, so we rented kayaks and paddled around the bay of islands. I gotta tell you, kayaking takes a LOT of upper body strength, which I don’t have much of, so it was tough. But we took a break at one point on a secluded beach and reminded us of the Corona commercial because our kayaks were chillin’ on the shore and we were sitting on the beach eating and drinking. We took pictures of it, but they are on a disposable camera because our camera won’t turn on :( so we can’t upload them until we get home and get them developed and then scan them. Totally sucks. But my sister is bringing her digital camera, so we will have pictures of the stuff we do with her, thankfully.
Anyway, after we ate on the beach, we walked down the beach (all 75 yards of it) and picked up pretty stones. Finally we got back in the kayaks (after I got my tank top completely soaked in the water trying to wash sand off my butt, and of course I got even more sand in it!) and started back to the shore. It was a long way! But we made it.
That night we realized how sunburned we had gotten. We have been so careful this entire trip, and then we totally forget to put on sunblock in the one place that doesn’t have an ozone layer above it! Can you believe that?!? Apparently New Zealand is so close to the South Pole, which doesn’t have an ozone layer, that it doesn’t have an ozone layer either, so the sun is much stronger. But of course the weather is so cool that you can’t even tell! It was in the upper 60s when we were kayaking, so you just can’t tell how badly you are getting burned. Needless to say, it’s Saturday and we are still in pain :) Oh well. You live and learn. And now we have aloe and sunblock! At least it’s cool enough that we can cover up our burns and still be comfortable.
So today my sister is coming into town and she is going to keep us very busy, which is good since we haven’t done much this week. We promise to post to the blog more often now and post pictures too. I just uploaded the winery tour pictures to the winery tour blog, so that’s something :)
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Queenstown Day #7
12/11/07
Today we went on a wine tasting tour. It was awesome. We were actually the only people on the tour, so we got really personalized service. Our wine tour guide was from England and moved here around 4 years ago. We were supposed to go to only 4 wineries, but she ended up taking us to an additional winery. The region around Queenstown grows mainly Pinot Noir grapes because it really likes the extreme cold conditions. It's also really known for growing the Pinot Gris grapes too.
The first winery we went to was called Peregrine, after a type of falcon, and we got 3 bottles from there! Our first stop! We got a 2007 Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, and a 2006 Rose. Typically Paul and I don't really like those types because the ones we have tried are usually not flavorful enough and are too acidic, but these were excellent.
At the next winery, Carrick, we got a 2006 Chardonnay that was really good. The next winery wasn't very good though. We really wanted to get a good Pinot Noir, but theirs were very dry and not very flavorful. But the next winery, which was not on the original schedule, had an awesome 2006 Pinot Noir. The winery was called Rockburn, and the girl working at the counter was actually from Michigan! We didn't get any wine at the last winery, but we had plenty with 6 bottles! All of which we have to drink before we fly to Paihia because we are already at our baggage weight limit :) But I don't think we'll have any trouble drinking it. They actually have some BYO (Bring Your Own alcohol) restaurants here, so we are going to take wine when we eat out.
I hope Paihia and Tauranga have good wine too! YUM!
Check out our winery pictures.
And here is a picture of the paragliders outside our hotel, our hotel at night, and Queenstown at dusk:
Today we went on a wine tasting tour. It was awesome. We were actually the only people on the tour, so we got really personalized service. Our wine tour guide was from England and moved here around 4 years ago. We were supposed to go to only 4 wineries, but she ended up taking us to an additional winery. The region around Queenstown grows mainly Pinot Noir grapes because it really likes the extreme cold conditions. It's also really known for growing the Pinot Gris grapes too.
The first winery we went to was called Peregrine, after a type of falcon, and we got 3 bottles from there! Our first stop! We got a 2007 Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, and a 2006 Rose. Typically Paul and I don't really like those types because the ones we have tried are usually not flavorful enough and are too acidic, but these were excellent.
At the next winery, Carrick, we got a 2006 Chardonnay that was really good. The next winery wasn't very good though. We really wanted to get a good Pinot Noir, but theirs were very dry and not very flavorful. But the next winery, which was not on the original schedule, had an awesome 2006 Pinot Noir. The winery was called Rockburn, and the girl working at the counter was actually from Michigan! We didn't get any wine at the last winery, but we had plenty with 6 bottles! All of which we have to drink before we fly to Paihia because we are already at our baggage weight limit :) But I don't think we'll have any trouble drinking it. They actually have some BYO (Bring Your Own alcohol) restaurants here, so we are going to take wine when we eat out.
I hope Paihia and Tauranga have good wine too! YUM!
Check out our winery pictures.
And here is a picture of the paragliders outside our hotel, our hotel at night, and Queenstown at dusk:
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