Nelson

On the way into town we were greeted by a gang of kite surfers zipping around the bay –a sweet sight indeed.

After a few hours of windy roads and sunny skies, we headed directly to “Free House” in Nelson. A converted church has been thoroughly upgraded to… you guessed it –a brewpub! Yesssss! This is our favorite Church… ever! They had a variety of tasty brews –we decided on a perfect wheat beer and slurped them down directly (we were so thirsty from the long drive and needed some quenching).

Free House

Following that little respite, we headed off to do some window shopping at the surf shops and little hippy joints (bead store, anyone?) around town. Well, guess what we found? A little brewery… with a pub… who would have guessed? This place is called “Sprig and Fern” and wasn’t uncovered in any of the extensive research we had done on beer in this country. We tasted everything and they had great beers (All of which are brewed at their own private brewery close by). Joh had the fern dark (toasty, caramelly, tasty) and CBird had the strikingly deep purple three berry cider (apple, blackberry, strawbeery and boysenberry juices –all local). We smoked some tasty Cuban cigars (who knew?) and chilled out for a while. We met an agreesive local kiwi couple that were less than positive towards tourists, but that’s another story for another day.

Sprig & Fern

After a great Nelson beer recon adventure (there are two other breweries there that we had to skip –one named ‘Wizard Monkey”), we proceeded to the hotel to make dinner...

Arthur’s Pass, ski resorts and Castle Rocks

Wild, windy, curvy, wet crossing over Arthur’s pass across the South Island Alps towards the west Coast. We saw hundreds dozens of waterfalls, some following the traditional downward path and others blown vertically up -blown by the wind at their departure from the mountains (see picture –it was wild). Crazy weather and wild sights, including a major river piped over the road into an overhead waterfall on the opposite side. We had some major flooding on the roads, too.

Castle Rocks

Arthur's Pass-Dangery!!!

Punakaiki

We stayed in the cutest, most romantic place to date –a jungle hut called “The Hideaway” at Te Nikau resort a few short and jungly steps from a private beach. 

"The Hideaway" at Te Nikau Resort

This place is very close to the Pancake rocks and blowholes and a sweet cavern we were surprised to find on the side of the road.

Pancake Rocks

Mini Pancake Rock

This place is also home to (F’ing aggreesive) Weka Bird. Like a cross between a chicken, a hawk and a crow that cannot fly. They want your food… and your toes, and will eat the rubber off your car –wild beasts, those.

Weka Bird

The Tasman sea was in a wild frenzy the whole time we were here but it was b-e-a-u-tiful!

On the way to the private beach

The private beach

There were two huge spiders outside our cabin -as big as the meaty part of your hand. Joh even thought they were a bit much and closed the window to avoid any potential conflict with these masters of the bush.

It looks small here, but it was NOT!!

Akaroa

Onuku Farm Hostel

The Stargazer & Mr. Steve 

The Stargazer at Onuku farm –Cbird had this place skoped out from even before we started planning this trip. They have these sweet, tiny cabins with a part of the roof made of plexiglass so you can look out at the stars at night. Perched at the edge of the resort on a hillside, we shared this retreat with a nice sheep we named Steve, or whatever… there was a big old sheep there with us pretty much the whole time guarding our hut either way. He was sweet and let us pet him. He would not, however, allow CBird to ride him. Kinda lame, Steve.

Sweet Steve

On the way in we saw a stoat cross the road… kinda like a tiny, skinny weasel that eats birds and eggs (not native –brought from Europe for their fur). We had some “meh” cod fish and chips on the pier on the way in… Raglan Fish and Chips rule the roost so far.

"Meh" Fush n' Chups

Wild peacocks roost in the trees here. Lotsa Germans everywhere (just like everywhere else in this country) –some even living kinda permanently at the hostel. CUTE farm and GREAT location overlooking the bay.

Early am getting ready to get our "hike-on" to get some muscles! 

We woke up around eight and headed out to catch the low tide at the muscle beds in a rocky bay a short hike (a few miles) down a private track on the farm. The muscle beds were down a treacherous cliff a few hundred meters down from the main track. CBird provided heaps of entertainment by basically falling down the steepest part aided by the rope hung from a tree to help in descending the cliffs –quite fun all around (she made it out with only a few scratches and a bruised ego). We found the most magnificent, tastiest, green lip muscles we have ever laid eyes on. 

Millions of muscles!!

We ate them for lunch with a white wine butter sauce and lemons and had enough left over to save a batch for later.

Beautiful 

Two TINY crabs we found inside our muscles

That was tasty!

The Weather here started windy and rainy and ended windy and rainy –we had some nice weather the rest of the time, though! We chilled down here… No phone, no internet… a few naps and hikes. 

Our stay at Onuku was pretty relaxing overall with nice people all around.

ChristChurch

We pulled into the “Jailhouse Accomodations” and were a little skeptical due to the dodgy part of town we were in. As we went inside, pleasant surprises added up to a great experience –one of the best hostels to date! We had a tiny room in an old cell and it was a great starting point for our adventures.

Jailhouse Accommodations 

Jail-tastic

Once we check in, we made a beeline for Dux D’Lux brewery (home of the Tom Cat ginger beer previously mentioned with glowing praise). We proceeded to sample all their offerings and are sad to report that the ginger beer is the only one we really cared for… onward for further research into the ChCh beer world!

Joh tasting some sweet beerz @ Dux D'Lux

Next, we proceeded to the “Twisted Hop” where CBird had the honey wheat beer and Joh had a “strong ale”. They are taxed by alcohol percentage here, so stronger beers are significantly more pricey and less common. Both of these beers were good but not up to our NorCal standards (How lucky are we to live in the center of the beer universe?), a common theme.

@ Twisted Hop

For dinner we went to Chinwag Eathai –Joh had a whole Gurnard fried with a spicy sauce and Cbird had the Squid with ginger on a bed of fresh green beens. We started the meal with a delicious hot and sour soup with (a) Prawn and a fresh lettuce wrap with toasted coconut, sesame seeds, lemongrass and spices (You would love this one, BT–even with the coconut!). All of our food was fantastic but eclipsed by the Monsoon Poon adventure a few nights before.

The ceiling inside Chinwag Eathai

Hot and sour soup

Joh's WHOLE Gurnard...yipes! 

Squid w/ginger over fresh green beans...nom...nom...nom...

Poor, poor Mr. Gurnard...:(

The next morning we met with some immigration and employment advisors… basically it breaks down like this: $25-30k to immigrate and take a job making $50-70k a year… so… we’re coming back to the USA… for now…

We split outta there pretty quick-like and headed to another Asian meal (we are in “pan-asia”, after all). This time, we opted for Vietnamese food in a little “Chinatown” looking strip mall on the edge of town where all the Asians were actually eating. It was awesomez! We drank a 22 of the Tom Cat we happened to have in the car (chilling) and had fresh spring rolls, vegetarian pho (Yum!) and veggie tofu stir fry with rice -all for under $30!

We may not have mentioned before but most mains here are around $30, leading to most meals being $100 plus when you consider several $10 beers on the tab.

Later that night, after a wee nap and shower, we headed out to “Beertopia –Nirvana for beer lovers”. With hopes high to finally discover the elusive delicious Kiwi beerverage, we were not disappointed. We’ll do another post on just beer when this is all said and done (we still have some exploring to do). Memorable brewers included “8 Wire”, “Three Boys”, “Invercargill”, “Pink Elephant” and “Mike’s Organic” (again). We sat with some interesting Kiwis and changed their beer paradigm by sharing some CA brews we had brought with us. One of the best quotes was “This is a real revelation in beer, man!” Noted…

The following morning we got up bright and early (we really had not had that much to drink the night before, shockingly enough) and headed out to explore ChCh and the surrounding area via our sweet ride, Matilda. We found a kite boarding expo that was closing up shop due to lack of wind –we still got to check out some sweet kites, a kite driven buggy and even kids working on their sweet moves.

Across the way was the most interesting store… a warehouse, really… full of recycled clothing. Each piece was two dollars. We poked around and quickly realized everything was worth about 20 cents each. Off we went to the next adventure.

$2 Clothes Warehouse!

And quite and adventure it was… We drove up into the mountains overlooking the city. Wild roads, aggressive drivers and no guard rails lead us to some of the most breath-taking views of our trip so far… surfing beaches, secluded bays with yachts in them, fields of sheep and para-sailers overhead made for quite a satisfactory photo session. Very nice! We headed back down, careful not to careen off the cliff, to explore the surfing beach and had a fun time watching surfers and paddle boarders doing their thing.

Views of the coves around ChristChurch

Overlooking a suburb of ChristChurch

ChristChurch surf beach

On the way back, we stopped by a “bottle shop” we had skoped out on the way out. This was a “revelation in beer” and spirits! Pictures tell a thousand words, but basically it’s bulk beer and liquor sold by the two liter bottle from taps. Every kind… and all pretty good! We opted for a dry (high proof) cider from local apples and “Big John”, a 7.8% dark ale. We drank the cider up within a few hours and put the beer in the chilly bin for later.

BULK BEER!!

BULK SPIRITS!

We cooked dinner at the hostel (noodle stir-fry with tofu from “Chinatown”) and then headed out to “Pomeroys Olde  Brewery Inn” for some more libations. We met mister Pomeroy who toured us around some of his favorite NZ brews, including a bottle of super-hard to find “Yeastie Boys” Dark Black for the road. We haven’t tried that yet, but it looks promising! We had a very fun time and Pomeroy’s is clearly a NZ beer aficionado’s playground. We loved it and shared a North Coast Brother Thelonius with him (that was hard to part with after all these miles together!) –best beer place to date.

@ Pomeroy's

Kaikoura (means “eat Crayfish” –their version of a lobster- in Maori)

We stayed at Dusky Lodge in this tiny ocean side town on the rustic rocky east coast of the northern part of the South Island.

A Crayfish caught by a fisherman @ our hostel.

We purchased some fresh-caught shark and cooked that up with some “silver beet” greens with some NZ Camembert cheese melted on top (tasty!). A little pasta (with veggie sauce) on the side rounded off our tasty meal. 

Joh's tasty noms...

Other than that, not much to report from “Eat crayfish” town.

For the record, the crayfish are $75 and no, we didn’t buy one…

InterIslander Ferry (Wellington to Picton)

We drove our sweet ride up onto the ferry after a short queue in the lot on the quay (shore/dock thingy). It was a little wild driving up the ramp and parking but it turned out alright and we go sorted out and headed upstairs to the lounge pretty quickly. It’s basically like a tiny cruise ship with stuff in the middle instead of rooms and lots of seating for people on one floor and the roof. The 3+ hours passed quickly writing the last installment of this blog :).

New Zealand Impressions- a continuous post...

• A lot of American cars here. (Holden and Ford–also fancy Nissan's, etc…)
• The Audi R8 is NZ’s supercar-I want one so bad!! (c-bird)We’ve seen several…
• People drive SUPER fast and pass you for no obvious reason at way over the speed limit.
• People are extremely friendly.
• Tons of birds everywhere!
• We have not seen this mysterious Kiwi creature but have heard one while tenting-it-up.
• The people of NZ really love sweet things. (Coffee, desserts, fruits, etc.)
• Sheep, cows and goats are everywhere!
• The peeps of NZ are very proud of NZ and have cute, somewhat aggressive marketing.
•  They have a lot of RTD (ready-to-drink) cocktails and shots here. We sampled some at a liquor store and they were freaking nastay-sweeter than your mom.
• Cars (not trucks) pull trailers here. 98/100 cars here have hitches on them. Legit trailers, too –like horse trailers and such.
• There are TONS of possums and porcupines…alive and road-kill. Mostly road-kill that we’ve seen-I’m thinking Zealanders swerve to hit them. They dislike them VERY much,” pest-y little creatures” they call them! (I think they are adorable. c-bird)
• There are tourist traps EVERYWHERE. People’s houses have signs advertising crafts, every corner has some adventure or product for sale –more charming than it sounds…
• It’s been difficult to find a bar that will make a dirty martini-NO OLIVE JUICE! 
• Men that work on the road crews restoring the roads wear the tiniest shorts we have ever seen on a dude. One day I had the privilege of seeing a bit too much as we passed a man in short, short shorts bending over. Lucky me-yucko! (c-bird)
• There are a bazillion round-a-bouts here!
• Iced coffee is not your choice of coffee poured/shaken over ice. It is ice cream, one shot of coffee, cream, and chocolate sauce drizzled over the top. Woah! I almost got in that billion-calorie trap the other day. I explained what iced coffee is in the states and the girl was SOOO confused. We ended up making my coffee together. Step by step. (c-bird)

(See "Iced Coffee" description-YIKES!)

Wellington

Wellington-Nomad Hostel

While in Wellington (for our 2-day stay) we stayed at the Nomad Hostel. It was fantastic. They have a bar (“Blade”) attached to the hostel that has 2-4-1 drinks for hostel dwellers-Nomad’s is a “dry” hostel. YEAH RIGHT!

The city definitely has an issue with parking. If you actually find a parking spot, it is very expensive. The bus transportation is five times as expensive as Auckland! Totally rip-off-y! Our parking cost $63 for two days in a “less expensive” parking garage.

Joh, of course found some sweet street art!

We finally found some fantastic food in the city!

The first night we ate at Monsoon Poon (a Thai-Indian infused restaurant). Joh ordered a red-curry fish and prawns dish and I ordered a green-curry veggie dish with prawns! They both were fantastic, and spicy as hell! YUM, YUM! We also saw the entire crew of guys from the Whale Wars show on TV- “The Sea Sheppard’s.”

Looking out over Monsoon Poon

Blurry picture of the El Capitan of the Sea Shepard.

We went to Zealandia (New Zealand’s ultimate nature experience) and had a great time hiking around all day in the misty rain. They have some of the rarest, most remarkable wildlife on the planet in their Sanctuary Valley. We saw a bunch of birds, baby birdies, a few Tuataras (a chameleon-esque creature that they believe was around when dinosaurs roamed the earth) and a Weta (a huge cricket/grasshopper/cockroach type guy/lady that is vegetarian, a gentleman/woman AND is also the size of a MOUSE)! I also met one of my new favorite birds there- a “Kaka”…a huge parrot! (c-bird)

Beautiful view of Zelandia's reservoir. 

Beautiful flower-it looks like a petite orchid.

Rainy!

YOWCH!

The "Kaka"-(one of my new favorite birds)

Suspension bridge.

Beautiful foggy view from the rain forest floor. 

The last night we ate at a quaint little restaurant/café right next to our hostel, “F.inc.” It was the best meal we’ve have had in a long time. It was fantastic and so perfect. It was “BYO” night, so we brought a bottle of sparking Oyster Bay Brut sparkling sauv blanc from Marlborough and a bottle of Belgian beer we had brought from the US –tasty treats! For appetizers we ordered tea smoked fish on crisped French bread and sea salt potato wedges with garlic mustard aioli. Joh had the fish special- a tasty fresh fish wrapped in prosciutto with a reconstructed mustard potato salad as well as steamed veggies (including pea shoots –the plant!). I had the linguine with garlic infused olive oil, organic honey feta, bok choy and the tastiest giant green olives I have ever had the pleasure of being acquainted with. The desserts were too fine to pass up. We picked the chocolate torte with lemon & vanilla infused cream and orange zest. YUM! We went back to our room and had some much needed food coma zzz’s.

B.Y.O. night at Finc.

Joh enjoying his "Inferno" beer from Lost Abbey-that we brought from the states.

Tea-smoked fish w/ crisped French bread.

Sea-salt potato wedges with garlic mustard aioli.

Our deeelishus main courses.

 Chocolate torte with lemon & vanilla infused cream and orange zest

Oh yes, we found a place that served dirty martinis. A $19 dirty martini! It was so good….. Epic Armegeddon at D4 –tasty but expensive ($13 for 500 Ml).