Prelude:
New Zealanders are made up of 75% Polynesians, 15% Maori and
15% Asians. So you do see a fair representation of both Chinese and Indians
here (they do make a third of the worlds population after all). However, they
all have similar characteristics. They are all extremely soft spoken and
polite, and quite unlike what we've come to expect from most foreigners. With
the exception of the Chinese though, as they are extra polite and usually make
up the working class running the stores across New Zealand. We ran into our
fair share of local Indians too, a cab driver in Rotorua, a bus driver and a
restaurant waiter in Queenstown, and even an air host! The one thing common to
all of them, they were as helpful as the Chinese store owners and so happy to
see us, converse in a bit of Hindi, and more than willing to help with
anything. So rare to see that much amicability amongst Indians.
Coming back to the characteristics of the Kiwis. They sleep
early (cities shut by 10pm), not fussed about their drink (just have one
popular beer to speak of, called Speights) or food (Kiwi cuisine is barely
visible, and when you do find it, it's just continental food in white sauce!)
or even how they look (barely any make up and just simple clothing), with the
only thing that interests them being outdoor activities.
Because a typical day out for a Kiwi involves cycling,
kayaking, skating, surfing, fishing, even hunting! The current duck hunting
season is to begin on April 31 and boy are they looking forward to it!
The Kiwis also seem to share really close bonds between
families here. There were so many instances of mom taking daughter skating, dad
taking son fishing, and parents taking kids (in one case, 5 of them!) for a
stroll in the park.
And they all drive Japanese cars. It's only Toyotas
(Premium), Mazdas (Masstige) and Nissans (Mass) that hog the roads here. No
European or American cars. So again, no fuss at all. Simple easy going people
who are just looking for that bright sunny day to step out and do something
with nature that's available in plenty for them. NZ does have a land area the
size of Maharashtra (300k sq km) with a population half of Mumbai (4.5 million),
situated right over the Pacific Ring of Fire, creating interesting landscape
like mountains, lakes, rivers, beaches and geothermal pools to interest them in
all of these activists.
So it did all add up to enough reason to make a visit to
this lovely country, for our first 2 week holiday in 5 years since our Honeymoon,
giving us an opportunity for many firsts:
·
First stay at a Motel
·
First stay at IBIS
·
First time fishing
·
First Sky dive
·
First time in a wet suit
·
First visit to a lighthouse
Travel Tips:
·
First things first: As soon as you get
off in NZ, buy 2 things. One, a travel adapter for phone, laptop etc as it’s
really hard to find the plugs that convert India to NZ standard in hotels and
B&Bs. Two, pick a local SIM. Gives you easy data and phone access whenever
you need it. And you will need it. A lot.
·
Places to see: Everyone will tell you to
do the Milford Sound cruise, Fergburger and Speights beer. They are all over
rated.
·
Renting cars: Definitely use the Rental
Cars App to get the best deals, but book with anybody else but East Coast
Rentals.
·
Renting bikes: Bikes in NZ mean cycles
and not Harley's. For the latter, you need to book well in advance as they are
in demand even in low season.
·
Accommodation: It's not Hotels or
B&Bs that work best, it's Motels, all across NZ. Cheap, private bathroom,
no pets, easy cooking and an undisturbed stay. The only flip side being they
are located on city outskirts making it a bad idea for places like Queenstown,
but works great in most other cities.
·
Weather: Forecasts are completely
inaccurate. Just like India. Just plan for the worst and hope for the best.
·
Food: Kiwi cuisine is really hard to
find. The pro is that you have access to enough international cuisine,
including Indian, con is that you struggle to get a flavour of the local
cuisine. And when you do, it starts with Fish and chips and ends with Pavlova,
that's about all there is.
·
Drink: Montieth (preferably on tap) for
Pilsner and Cider and Waipara for wine are the best options. Speights for beer
is the Kingfisher there and hard to miss as it may be the only option in some
of the smaller bars.
·
Photographs: If you ever want a photo of
yourself taken, always ask a Chinese tourist. This is probably true for any
country now as they are the most prolific of tourists currently. And don't
worry about which Chinese tourist in particular. Just ask any of them. If they
are single, they will be pros at photography, and if they are in a group, they
will automatically point to the English speaking cum photographer member of the
group, who will always take the best of photos.
The Story:
April 8-9
For a change the trip started fairly uneventfully. Thanks to
the holiday on Friday, we had the opportunity to pack and complete all those
niggling last minute house chores that needed to be done. Got to the airport
with fingers crossed this time, as it was just under a month back when we made
this same trip and had to return back because our flight was via Australia and
we didn't have a transit visa. This time I booked a flight with only a single
stopover at Singapore thereby avoiding the need for the Australian transit
visa.
We crashed as soon as we entered the flight as it was a late
flight taking off at 11:30pm and completely missed out on the Singapore airline
food that was offered. Landed in Singapore 5 hours later for a quick
interchange to the next flight that was taking off within an hour of transit.
This one was Air New Zealand, and probably one of the best airlines we've ever
flown. Food was absolutely delicious, in-flight entertainment was HD quality
and digitally advanced, so much so that you could order the food and drink of
your choice right from the touch screen, and the seats came with leg test and
head rest, along with an option of going fully horizontal if there were fewer
passengers on board, which was really innovative.
We landed at Auckland 9 hours later when the local time was
11pm and took a bus to the nearby Hotel Ibis for the night. It was our first
time staying here, and true to what we've heard, the hotel provided just the
basic bed and bathroom for the one night stay and nothing more.
April 10
The shuttle from East Coast Rental came to pick me up and an
hour later, Geet and I were driving a Nissan Tiida sedan on our first ever
couple road trip, in probably the best country to get that done. We drove
Auckland to Roturua and hit our Motel Gwendolyn by noon. Now staying at a Motel
was something I've wanted to do since Elsie ma'am in 8th STD explained that a
Motel was just a Hotel you could drive into and park your car. True to that
definition, this was our very first Motel, and we did drive our car and park it
exactly one foot away from the door to our studio apartment.
After unpacking, we immediately hit Hell's Gate Sulphur Spa
where we decided to take our shower for the day, and the experience was very
similar to the Iceland Blue Lagoon, with the exception of the water smelling of
Sulphur, which for some reason was actually feeling extremely clean in spite of
that faint rotten egg smell that we created in chemistry lab back in NJS while
preparing Hydrogen Sulphide.
There were other things to do at Hell's Gate like the mud
bath and a walk around the thermal village, but given we just concluded a long
journey and were beginning to feel immensely dehydrated at this Spa, decided to
simply get back post out Sulphur Spa. Didn’t feel like we missed much, as this
was only a pale shade to the awesome Blue Lagoon we did in Iceland less than a
year back.
After changing into less smellier clothes, we hit a restaurant
called Cobb and Co where we successfully experimented with the local brand of
beer and cider called Montieth. Now the Apple Cider they make is the most
unusual. It's absolutely clear, like white wine, and tastes incredible too. We
then had the shrimp cocktail that could rival only the one from PF Chang's in
Dubai, with some of the freshest shrimps we’ve ever had. Followed that with a
pasta, because we figured the Kiwi cuisine, baring the Hangi, is not much to
talk about anyway.
April 11
Can’t say I had a good start to the day as the night was too
painful to get through. I couldn’t catch any sleep till 3am, as it was only 9pm
in India then, and kept randomly checking my phone and pacing about. Had to wake
up at 6am as well as we had the Hobbitton Tour starting at 8am. Geet and I
originally planned to leave the car behind and walk to the pick-up point about
a kilometer away, but were too late to do and decided to drive. Wasn’t a very
good idea, as finding parking space was difficult and we were still getting
used to the signs here that allowed parking only for a certain duration,
ranging from 15 minutes to 2 hours. However, we were parking longer than that
and so I had to hunt for a place with ‘free parking’. That came after a lot of
search and we made it to the bus just in the nick of time.
The bus driver was a friendly chap though. Said his name was
John, but spelt T-O-D if we were to write negative feedback about him at the
end of the trip. He kept us entertained through the journey telling us stories
of people who would come to Roturua to work at the Hobbit Store and use that
money to travel around New Zealand. Well, that would have been one way to make
that trip, but we’re Indians, and we slog the whole year through to get that 1
week that we occasionally (in my case, 5 years) stretch to 2 weeks to get that
travel break.
An hour of driving later, we reached the Hobbit setup on a
farm called Alexanders who had leased it out to Peter Jackson to film the 6
movies, and walked through the 37 Hobbit holes that were created here. These
were meant to be temporary, but a storm hit before the crew could dismantle
everything, and before they could return to finish the job, people showed so
much interest that the Alexanders decided to make a tour out of the place. Glad
they did that as its now one of the most popular tours to do in the North
Island, and something Geet and I completely enjoyed.
Frodo Baggins house with the note outside saying “No
Admittance, except on party business” to drinking Ginger Beer at the Dragon
Inn, it was a riot for us.
By noon, we were back at the city and wondering what to do
for the rest of the afternoon. Now the options were a visit to the Thermal
Village, maybe a massage at the Polynesian Spa, but rather than doing any of
the regular touristy things, we decided to check if there’s any way to go
fishing here. I did read that some of the local Kiwis go fish for their own
Trout as it isn’t legal to buy them here. So we hopped to a tourist center to
seek advice and they were totally clueless when we asked them about fishing.
Instead they tried selling the Thermal Village tour once again to us. But we
decided to persist and found a Tackle Store called Hammils who was selling fishing
and hunting equipment, and the guy there gave us a contact of 2 fisherman he
knew who do take people on fishing trips. I called them, one was luckily just
about to step out himself and offered to take us.
This turned out to be the best part of our North Island tour.
Geet and I picked fishing licenses for ourselves, and learnt the tricks of the
Troll Fishing trade, and most importantly, actually bagged 6 fish between us.
The first 2 went to Geet, and it came within 5 minutes of entering the water.
Even Jimmy and Glen who were taking us fishing were stunned with the luck she
had. Glen then changed my lure bait to the same colour as the one Geet had, and
my luck changed after that.
The strange thing about fishing in these parts were that you
couldn’t use live bait. You have to use bait that looked like the things the
fish here eat, and then move the bait at the right depth and at the right speed
to trick the fish into coming and taking a bite. So this involved a lot of technique
from all of us on board, and pretty soon I did get the hang of it, and managed
to bag the next 4. It was actually 5, but Glen let one go, as that was the
other strange thing in these parts; if the fish didn’t meet a certain length
limit, you were not allowed to capture them. Sort of like giving the young ones
a chance to survive.
The last of the strange things about fishing here was to
give a knock on the fish head and kill it the moment you bring it on board, and
not let it suffer too long. So it indeed were a lot of rules for us to
comprehend, combined with the rest of the techniques you need to use to reel
the fish in. You do it too fast and you could lose him, which actually happened
to the first one I got, and you run the same risk if you do it too slow as
well. You need to carefully fight with the fish when you get a ‘strike’,
letting him go when he wants, and reeling him in when he isn’t fighting. Well
it was an art we managed to pick up, and 3 hours later, we were back on shore
feeling super amazing about ourselves.
Jimmy and Glen were also super fun. Here were some of the
conversation excerpts:
·
Geet: How come there weren’t any other boats
around?
·
Glen: it’s because we are doing something
illegal here but its ok because Jimmy is the sheriff of Roturua (He was
obviously kidding and explained how it was the middle of a working day when people
would ideally not want to be out fishing)
·
Geet: How come I caught the fish so soon? Is
that normal?
·
Jimmy: We called and told them we were coming
and asked them to wait at that exact spot
·
Deep (when I hadn’t caught a fish for nearly
half hour by which time Geet bagged 2 easy ones): Jimmy, are you sure you asked
the fish to wait right here?
·
Jimmy: Yes, but we’ve them to meet you once you
are done with your coffee
·
Deep: So what kind of drink and food do people
in New Zealand have
·
Glen: Lion Red in the North Island and Speights
in the South Island, but Speights is now all over the place. Among food,
Smogarsborde is the term used for a buffet meal which is the most popular
dining out option for the locals, and a place called Lone Star is the best for
a good Kiwi meal.
So after a fun afternoon fishing, we got to our room, and
now our clothes now not only smelled of Sulphur from the spa the previous day,
but of fish as well. So we first decided to wash all of them in order to
survive the rest of the trip here, and use the fancy heating pipes the
bathrooms came with in order to dry them up fast and wrapped up the night with
a meal from Lone Star where we had Prawn Cutlet with Rice (seemed like a Thai
dish as it wasn’t really a cutlet and just like Tempura Prawn which they call
cutlet here) and Dixie Chicken (seemed Continental this time as it was Pasta in
white sauce) and this was pretty much the Kiwi cuisine that we wanted to
experience.
On the way back, we called for a cab and surprised to find
an Indian driver who was studying here and running a few hours with the cab at
night to make some money on the side. He was just one of the many Indians we
were to encounter on the trip.
April 12
It was a day of travel as we started off from Roturua in the
morning and made it to Auckland exactly at 1pm when it was the scheduled time
to return the car, and took the Jetstar flight to Christchurch were we were to
now begin the longer edition of the trip, in the South Island of NZ.
In Christchurch this time, we first ran into a Chinese bus
driver who was again really helpful in taking his time and explaining the exact
way for us to get to our Motel, and a Chinese couple at the Motel after that,
who were running the place and helping us out with directions to the Super
Market and booking a shuttle for us for the next day to help us collect Car #2
for the trip.
We wrapped up the day by cooking some food (Cup o Maggi
Noodle and Rosemary Lamb sausages that I’ve heard were good here) in the fully
functional kitchen that was to our disposal, washing it down with Corona beer
that was cheaper than what you find in India.
April 13
The date was Lucky #13 and I was to go Skydiving today! I
had butterflies all the way through the drive south from Christchurch to
Ashburton, in a Nissan Tiida once again, till we made it to the Flight Hanger
where we were welcomed by a guy who made the funniest sky dive action to us
indicating we were definitely at the right place.
I chose the 9000ft option here as the lady at the counter
said there really isn’t much difference between the 9000ft and the 12000ft,
while the 15000ft was actually more for sport enthusiasts. It was at least
higher than the 6000ft option that was available and already costing a bomb, so
I decided to go with it.
Wayne was my tandem jumper who helped me suit up and took me
along in the tiny Cessna. When we reached the height we were to jump off, I
could see the vast fields of the Cantebury plains below me, marked with the
Pacific Ocean on one side and the mountain range on the other, with the highest
peak of the range, Mount Cook, being clearly visible to us. The view however,
was not the biggest of my concerns at that point, it was actually my shoes when
I put my legs out as I was suddenly wondering if the lace is tied on strong
else the thing would just go flying with no way to find it below us. That worry
too was short-lived as before I knew it, Wayne pushes me out of the flight.
The next 6 seconds to be precise were just phenomenal. It
was free flight where the toughest thing was to just keep your mouth closed
from all that wind brushing against you while posing for the camera in front.
The fall then comes to an abrupt halt when the parachute is opened and then
it’s just a peaceful glide down. Wayne did a few circular rifts to entertain me
while we were up there and it was all a lot of fun as long as I didn’t look
directly below. There was the height and there was the fear of my shoe falling
off, so I would just keep looking yonder and make the most of the few seconds
you’re made to feel like a bird.
On the way back from Ashburton, we found a place called
Jimmy’s Hot Pies and I was sold the moment the lady there mentioned there’s a
hot meat pie just out of the oven. I just had to try on a pie that’s apparently
the next most popular thing here after Fish and Chips and Sausages. So I did
get one of them while Geet ordered an omelet. We both completely enjoyed our
meal and continued our journey towards Christchurch. On the way we encountered
some traffic, and noticed that it was because there was a house being moved. An
actual house! We figured that houses here were built at a different place and
sort of just transported to where you want to place them. It was just an
incredible sight to see.
Since we still had the entire second half of the day with
us, we decided to push on further north from Christchurch and hit a famous
winery here called Waipara. Here Geet and I got our education on wine this
time.
Types of White Wines:
·
Sovignon Blanc: Fruity flavoured wine. Some even
with strong essence of a particular fruit, like Guava for instance
·
Chardonnay: This is the oak flavoured type of
wine. Tastes very close to whiskey in fact
·
Reisling: This the wine right in between. Not
too sweet and not too oaky and sour either. Just in between, and usually the
popular choice among non wine drinkers
Types of Red Wines:
·
Pinot Gris: The heavy on the tougue and rich
mouthfeel type of wines
·
Pinot Noir: Usually the classic red wine.
Prefered choice with a meal
·
Rose: The light and easy going red wine. Usually
sipped on a hot summer day
After the interesting tasting session, we started our drive
back to Christchurch and passed some virgin beaches on the way. Leithfield was
first and Waikuku was the next. These were beaches that didn’t have a single
person in the water. Just vast stretches of the sand and water going about
their chores unperturbed.
April 14
After starting the day before 8am every single day since we
got to NZ, this was the first day we could afford to start slow. We took our
time and finally left home only by 11am and drove East this time to Akoroa.
This was a small French town on the coastline offering cruises where you can
“swim with the dolphins”. We reached well in time for the cruise beginning at
2pm, which gave us enough photo opportunities in the quaint little town, and
soon I was suited up in first time ever in a ‘wet suit’ and boarded the
BlackCat cruise. Geet was the only one on board just viewing the dolphins and
not swimming with them, as there was a minimum swimming know-how required
before jumping into the ocean.
The wet suit is buoyant and keeps you afloat, but getting
used to it, especially in the choppy ocean waters can be a bit tricky. It took
me until my third dive to figure my exact way with the suit and I was able to
enjoy the dolphin sighting a lot better. However, staying too long in the water
was still a struggle as it was far too cold. The overall experience was not the
best you could get as it’s not like the Dolphins will actually come up to you.
They are in the wild after all, and just tend to swim by out of curiosity.
What I was most impressed with was the way these things were
marketed. They say things like “you get to see the Hectors Dolphin, which is
the smallest and the rarest in the world” which make you really want to do the
activity, only to realize it was not such a big deal after all. All through NZ
I figured this was something they did really well. “See the world’s rarest
penguins”, “Visit the only castle of NZ”, and even “Meet the worlds naughtiest
fly”! They somehow figure a way to get you to spend on an activity, and we were
thankfully being frugal, as we realized that some of these activities, like the
Lanarch Castle for instance, may be the only castle of NZ, but is honestly
nothing more than just a big bungalow!
Anyway, post the swimming with dolphins, we continued taking
a lot of photos with an amazing backdrop of a lighthouse that Akoroa offered,
till we drove back to Christchurch.
After two nights of eating at home, we decided to step out,
but realized the city shuts by 10pm itself. The realization came as a bit of a
disappointment, not only because we were still hungry, but because the message
was delivered by a cranky Indian at an Indian restaurant called Coriander that
we decided to try out as it was rated #1 on Tripadvisor and happened to be
walking distance from our house. But this guy there was saying things like
Christchurch is not like India where people stay late and cause trouble at
night. I actually asked him how he does he not like Indians when he himself is
one, and more importantly, actually making money out of selling Indian food!
Didn’t really have an answer for that and I was feeling terrible about having
placed an order already with him. It was indeed good chicken biryani and
chicken curry that lasted the next few days for us, especially through a scary
night we faced the next day, but at that moment, killed our appetite. Thankfully
he was the only sour experience, the rest of the Indians we met here were
really great.
April 15
I made breakfast with the rest of the food that I’d
purchased from the supermarket the day we landed at Christchurch and headed out
for our journey south towards Dunedin. We ate on the way, took plenty of photo
stops and finally made it to the Moeraki beach where we saw the famous Moeraki
boulders. 
The place was filled with Chinese tourists taking funny
photos of themselves. So much so that I found one boulder that was a little
cracked and where we can enter a little, and one Chinese saw me do that, and
immediately he landed up there with all of this friends, taking photos in the
exact same pose. It was really hilarious to watch them in action. They are such
a committed lot. Find good spot, take photo, find another spot, repeat.
Geet and I took a short break here with a pint of beer each,
and continued on our way to Dunedin. Here we met Alax and Greg, a gay couple
renting out a room in their house, which was to be our first ever Airbnb
experience together. It was actually quite peaceful as they had a really nice
house and allowed us to access everything in it barring their own room.
We spent only a short time there as we wanted to head out
and see the city given we were driving out to Queenstown the next day, and
landed up at the Speights brewery which we learnt to our surprise was the place
where this now popular NZ beer originated. So we were right at the heart of the
brewery, tasting all the different variants they had on offer with a game of
SuperRugby in the background.
April 16
While the original plan was to start the drive to Queenstown
early, I figured that there is a way to see the penguins at a place called the
Penguin Place here, but that would only be in the evening as that is when the
penguins return home from their day of fishing. However, we could still finish
it by 5:30pm and then make it to Queenstown by 9:30pm which is not too late. So
we decided to go with it.
Spent the day in Dunedin seeing the one Church and Railway
Station that’s famous here, and were thankfully offered a free sighting of an
army parade that was happening on that day, and soon made it to the Penguin
Place to catch a glimpse of the rare Yellow eyed Penguin, also known as the
Hoiho given the kind of sound that they make, through a ride across the
shoreline that was easily the best of the road trips in all of NZ.
Now seeing a penguin is something I’ve been wanting to do
ever since I saw Surfs Up and Happy Feet. But to get to see them as if they
turned straight out from Madagascar was truly exceptional. So our tour guide
was telling us how there are only about 600 of these Penguins left and this
particular beach has about 10 of them, and if we are lucky we would get to see
a couple returning from the beach, and the best sighting so far for them has
been 4 penguins walking back together. So that best sighting was replicated the
day we were there, and we actually saw 4 of them peacefully come out of the
beach one by one, as if they’ve completed a hard day of work in the waters, and
amble cutely back to their little house on the shore.
Once the tour was over, Geet and I left in a rush as we
needed to head back to our room and collect the food we left behind, which was
a good thing as it was the only dinner we had for the night, and started
towards Queenstown. Geet asked me to check on the fuel and I noticed the tank
was half full, which should ideally be sufficient for the entire journey even
if need be, and decided to fill after I got some daylight driving done. This
turned out to be a big mistake, as the car was on Sports mode which I didn’t
notice till the fuel indicator went off right in the middle of nowhere at about
8pm in the pitch dark for us.
I stopped the car and decided to flag one of the passing
cars to seek advice. Thankfully a lady stopped for us, and told us that there
was a town coming up called Alexandra 40kms ahead or a town called Roxberg
20kms behind where we could find fuel. 40kms may be a bit of a stretch given we
didn’t know how to shift to Eco from Sports mode in the car, so we decided to
reverse and go to Roxberg behind.
We managed to reach Roxberg and found the fuel station the
lady told us about and successfully filled fuel to get us on our way through.
Here we encountered a completely drunk guy on the road who actually started
jumping on our car and even chasing after us when I decided to move ahead and
away from him. It was a really freaky experience especially since he had a car
full of his drunk friends, and we were only too glad that it happened after we
had already filled fuel.
We didn’t want to stop after that, and decided to open the
food, which was the Biryani from Coriander we bought at Christchurch and also
went back to the Dunedin house to pick up since we had forgotten it there, and
this saved us for the night. We just ate on the way and finally made it to our
B&B in Queenstown by 10:30pm when our hosts were almost asleep.
April 17
Russ and Hannah were not the best of hosts here as they
seemed completely uninterested in helping us with anything. It was the first
day of our trip where we couldn’t make coffee first thing in the morning as we
couldn’t figure our way around the kitchen and just decided to step out instead
and begin our day directly.
We hit a restaurant called Fergburger first that came highly
recommended and had a perennial queue outside it, be it morning, afternoon, or
evening. We anyway decided to wait in line and get the famous burgers from
here. Geet got the Bombay Chicken and I picked the Classic Fergburger, and instead
of the morning coffee, decided to directly get some Cider and Beer on tap.
So it actually turned out to be a pretty good start to the
morning, which progressed to an even better day as we started our drive towards
Arrowtown but ended up at Lake Hayes which comes en route, that turned out be
an amazing lake that nobody told us to visit.
After a fun day walking around in the park and coming across
just a handful of locals taking their kids cycling or rowing here, we got back
pretty impressed that we chanced upon a place with not a single other tourist,
especially the Chinese J
Towards the evening we got back to Queenstown and took a
stroll around Marine Parade trying to figure which restaurant to hit. We first
went to a Japanese place called Teppan Sake where I had 2 rounds of Sake which
I had in the absolute authentic way the drink is had. In a sort of a
Dabra-Tumbler where the alcohol would overflow out of the tumbler and into the
dabra. Just a typical Chennai Saravana Bhavan coffee moment!
Then we hit a South East Asian restaurant called Madam Woo
that seemed to be a big hit with the locals here as it was jam packed. We
managed to get a table for 2 and ordered Wantons and Malaysian Noodle and for a
break from beer and wine, decided to go with the standard JD and Coke following
the Sake from earlier.
April 18
The day began very early yet again as it was the Milford
Sound day cruise that was planned. This time it was Bruce the bus driver doing
the entertaining on the Real Journey bus, which was a uniquely designed bus
where the seats moved sideways and the ceiling was made of glass to help see
the beautiful surroundings as we make our way to the cruise. The journey indeed
turned out to be better than the cruise as there were some really cool sights
along the way.
There was something called the Mirror Lake which had still
waters on which you could see the reflection of the mountains nearby, then
there was creek with waters so clear you could drink from it, and finally a
long tunnel through the mountain that was nearly a 100 years old.
Along the way Bruce was telling us how it actually rains 200
days of the year here and we just happened to be lucky that it was one of those
rare bright sunny days. For that matter, the entire forecast which predicted
rains throughout our trip was wrong, and instead, presented us with bright
sunny days on just about every single day.
The cruise by itself was nothing too great to speak of. We
had done the Halong bay cruise earlier and felt that was far better than the
sights we were seeing here. There were some nice waterfalls and some sightings
of seals on the way, but that was about it.
Once we got back, we decided to hit a Thai place this time
as Geet was in the mood, and found one called My Thai where there was an Indian
waiter who was super glad to help us out. He offered us the Veg Menu but we
asked him for the best fish dish. So he brought us Salmon in Yellow Curry, and
this turned out to be the best of the Thai curry’s I’ve had as the salmon was just
amazing. As you slice into it, instead of the white you normally expect fish to
look like, you see pink. The entire presentation and dish was pure pleasure.
April 19
The day had arrived for my biggest activity of the trip; I
was doing the bungy today, and it happened to be the biggest in NZ, the Nevis
Bungy, 134mts. I decided to go out on my own as it was an early start and
wasn’t sure if spectators were allowed, which I later figured were for $50
extra.
The guy at the counter weighed me and I was surprised to
hear I gained 2 kilos since the time I got to NZ. Then a guy in the bus was asking
if we have ever done bungy or swing before, and I recounted my experience so
far
·
Bungy – Palace Grounds, Bangalore, 75mts (what
were we thinking!)
·
Swing – Last Resort, Nepal, 160mts
·
Sky Dive – Christchurh, 9000ft
·
Bungy – Nevis, Queenstown, 134mts
The last one I was determined to do until I actually got
padded up and reached the point of no return. It was just too freaky at that
point. I was looking down and the drop was nerve-wrecking. The guy behind me
gave the count, and I didn’t jump off. I just couldn’t. He then kept saying,
don’t look down, just look ahead and just go on the count as it would only get
harder the longer I stay there. So the next countdown he gave, I just let
everything go and took the leap.. and the rest cannot be explained in words.
Once I got back, I walked to Thrifty to pick up Car #3. This
time it was the Toyota Aurion. I was done with the Nissan Tiida and longed for
a better car to drive and managed to find a good deal with this one and so
hired the most premium car I’ve ever driven. 6 cylinder engine, cruise control,
break assists, the works. Picked Geet up, gave her the Turkish kabab (similar
to Shawarma) I’d got for her as I knew she’d be hungry and waiting and started
off on our journey towards Lake Pukaki.
Loads of photos stops later, we made it to the lake exactly
in time for sunset, and saw a beautiful view of the lake with Mount Cook in the
background. After spending some time lost in the scenery, we drove to a nearby
town called Twizel where I had booked a room for the night. Hit a nearby pub
(probably the only one in town) called Razza where we had Fish and Chips yet
again, but decided it’s going to be the last one of the trip, and also engaged
in some interesting conversation with some fellow tourists from Burma.
It was really surprising to hear how much about Indian food
and movies they were aware of, and were saying Indians and Indian restaurants
are all over the place in Burma. Well, shouldn’t be surprising us any further,
and we had a good talk late into the night (about 9pm that is) and called it shut-eye
in our tiny shed of a room.
April 20
After checking out, we drove towards Lake Wanaka, the most
popular of lakes in the region, and quite understandably so. It was almost a
mini Queenstown with loads of nice hangouts, however with the big difference
being the phenomenal Lake Wanaka with the Autumn trees in the background. I was
expecting a lot of tourists here, but thankfully it was a day that once again
favoured us, and Geet and I sat in front of the lake having the Waipara wine we
had purchased from the winery in Christchurch earlier, giving us that perfect
buzz on a beautiful day.
On the way back, we actually find a “bra farm”. In the sense
that there was actually a string of interesting bars lined up around the fence
of the bar. Was an usual sight to see.
April 21
We had come to the last day of our trip in the South Island
as we had a flight leaving to Auckland the next day morning. It also happened
to be the first day of the famous Arrowtown Autumn festival. So our plan was
pretty clear, especially since we could not get to go to Arrowtown earlier,
which seemed to be perfect now in hindsight.
We hit the beautiful town which was almost entirely painted
with the stunning colours of the Autumn trees. We chanced upon a medieval
photography booth as well and Geet could obviously not resist. So we took
photos of ourselves posing fabulously, ate at a Thai restaurant called Arrow
Thai, and drove back to Queenstown just in time for our final activity of the
trip; the Gandola ride to the top of the mountain where we would first catch
the Haka show, followed by dinner at the Stratosfare restaurant. The night
couldn’t have been better either, as it was under a Full Moon, making the
entire view absolutely stunning.
The Haka show turned out really great as they even gave us a
chance to learn a few steps and dance with them. The dinner was even better,
with a vast spread of everything from Sushi to Steak to Khaw Suey. We could
have honestly not asked for a better end to the trip.
April 22
Flew in to Auckland, the city where 1.5mn of the 4.5mn
population of NZ live, a place that actually looked like a proper city for a
change and checked into our last room and last B&B for the trip. The plan
was to head out and see the city, but we were both too tired and the house too
inviting for us to want anything apart from cook the leftover food from the
shopping I did way back in Christchurch. So we did exactly that and caught some
shut eye till our host Dawn came in by the evening.
We then spent the rest of the evening chatting with her and
exchanging cultural notes, before heading out and having dinner at a place I
barely recall as I was downing a whiskey that Dawn offered called ‘Bullet’
which really did shoot through my head leaving me with very little knowledge of
what transpired the rest of the evening.
April 23
We checked out early and planned to loaf around Auckland
before our flight at midnight, and were thankfully accompanied by Geet’s
friends who drove down from Hamilton to spend the day with us. They took us to
a Mexican restaurant, then shopping at a mart where they introduced us to some
local popular dishes like the Manuka Honey, Pineapple candys and most
importantly, the famous NZ frozen yogurt.
After they left, Geet and I spent some time near the wharf
where there was actually an area for people to play a few games, and we tried
our hand out at some TT where she was enjoying making me run around picking the
ball she kept smashing past me. We then walked back slowly buying things from
various shops for people back home and finally hit the airport where we spent
the last of our NZ Dollars on the duty free alcohol, bringing us to the end of
yet another awesome trip.
