New Zealand Adventure

December and January 2019-2020

 

Wellington: Sunday, December 29th

We spent the day in Wellington, enjoying a city day for a change. Wellington was really cute, kind of like Toronto or San Francisco in places, and we loved the tunnel on the way in and everything about the little area where our hotel (another two-bedroom apartment) was located. We walked over to Olive's for breakfast, some excellent french toast and waffles and a tomato ricotta salad, and then to Te Papa, the big national museum. We thought of it as the entire Smithsonian, scaled down (for the size of New Zealand) into one building.

The museum had a life-sized sculpture/play area of a blue whale's heart and then some interactive color-themed exhibits in a children's area.

It also had a truly fantastic installation piece, two stories' worth of confetti suspended on clear strings from the ceiling, with fans blowing it around. Samantha and I sat and read a book about the artist for the longest time, and then went and did a scavenger hunt/activity book in some of the different galleries. We didn't have time to see all of the Maori historical exhibits downstairs, but I liked a modern "immigrants to New Zealand" exhibit with photography and spoke word by young immigrants from around the globe.

After Te Papa we stopped at Sixes and Sevens for some heavenly donuts, especially the passionfruit cream-filled donut, and grabbed some conveyor-belt sushi around the corner, and then drove a bit south of the city proper out to the Weta Cave for their studio tour. Weta was fantastic. You couldn't take pictures (they explained that that wasn't their rule, but rather was because in most cases, although they had made the objects, the objects themselves, or at least their copyright, belonged to the different production companies for the different films. Marcus had been reading The Lord of the Rings before we left, and we'd all seen The Fellowship of the Ring and about half of The Two Towers. That was enough to give Samantha a taste of everything, and she and Marcus loved the tour. (Helen slept through it, in its entirety, in my sling.)

Samantha kept asking questions like how did they make it look like Sauron's finger got cut off, or exactly how did that dwarf look so little, and the tour guide was happy to answer--he talked about how John Rhys Davies was actually the tallest person ever to play a dwarf, much taller than Aragorn, and about the tricks that they used. When he demonstrated the way they'd make their props, he used Samantha as his model for a dwarven helmet in two different states of completion, and she was thrilled, of course.

After Weta, we walked around the city again. Samantha got a kick out of the summer vacation, "back to school" school supplies sales that we saw around, and was sad that this store was closed, because she wanted to stock up on notebooks and sketchbooks. We went into a cafe and Marcus mostly ate pickles (they were closing, and refused to sell us actual food) and then we walked along the waterfront, admiring the sculptures and views.

We went to Frank Kitts Park and the girls loved the giant lighthouse slide. Two helicopters were landing just beyond the playground, and Marcus loved that.

We talked with an American diplomat to India who was here visiting a friend, and then was on her way to Fiji to visit another friend, and was sure she recognized me from way back (I don't think so, but it was a nice conversation anyway). Then we walked a bit further and talked with some crunchy folk using a slackline, and eventually walked pretty far out of our way and then back again to the base of the funicular railway up the hill.

The funicular from Lambton Quay was really a cable car, but we loved riding it, and at the top there was a large botanical gardens and another big playground, with more flying foxes. You can see how blindingly sunny it was, but the breeze kept it from being too hot. As we were walking back up from the playground to the top of the funicular in order to ride back down, I twisted my ankle somehow, just walking up a paved slope; it was nowheres near as bad as when I sprained it in Vietnam, and a tennis-ball-sized lump instantly appeared on my instep and I couldn't put weight on it at all, but it was uncomfortable.

We walked (and I limped) from the base of the funicular over to Ram's Crazy Dumplings for dinner, admiring the Welly Rainbow crossing on the way and the small playground in the pedestrianized street area. The dumplings were indeed crazy, with venison and other nice fillings, and we had other good dishes as well. Marcus was having an upset stomach, though, whether from the sushi he'd eaten earlier or just from sun/dehydration, and was clearly not feeling too well, so we made it an early night with baths and bed back at the hotel.

 

The Interislander and Picton: Monday, December 30th

On Monday we woke up early and had some Japanese breads for breakfast that we'd picked up at a bakery the evening before. We headed straight for the ferry, the Interislander to Picton on the South Island. It was a spectacular ferry ride--shorter than Alaska ferries, longer than the Provincetown ferry, but also more luxurious than both. It took about three and a half hours but there was a magic show, someone making balloon animals, a large playground, a designated family lounge, an over-18 lounge, and lots of good food for purchase—bacon and egg pie, sausage roll, freshly baked scones with jam and cream. Robert had another New Zealand coffee, complete with those silly-looking pink marshmallows that always seem to come with his coffees, and we loved taking turns on the observation deck, reading facts about seabirds and trying to identify some.

Samantha entered the kids' coloring competition but didn't win. We bought a postcard and a stamp from the shop on board and she wrote a card to Sarah and Sean, and then we mailed it right on the ferry--talk about one-stop shopping!

We had to return our rental car before we boarded the ferry, and that was a little bit of a hassle, to unpack all the children's rocks and shells and precious pieces of paper they had stored all over the car, and find spots for all our awkward please-don't-squish-them snacks, but we managed, and then when we got to Picton, I sent Marcus running ahead, and I hobbled over behind him (my ankle was better, but still clearly twisted/lightly sprained) to get the new rental car while Robert and Samantha and Helen waited for the checked bags. Our new car was just a tad smaller than the old one, but we soon got everything stashed back inside, and the children set about trying to restock the car with shelves and leaves and papers.

We drove half an hour south to the Omaka Aviation Heritage Museum--Robert and I love old planes. We just saw half the museum (you can buy tickets for either the WWI side or the WWII side or both). We chose WWII because we thought Marcus knew a bit more about it and it would be more fun. It was actually a great museum--though this picture (I took this one because this plane is for sale, or as the sign says, "looking for a new caretaker") doesn't show it, the museum was different than other aviation museums because it wasn't just a plane sitting there, but in most cases it was the plane in a Weta-made life-sized diorama, with figures and jungles and things around it. There was also an immersive experience about Stalingrad, complete with CGI and sound and special effects, as well as some compelling visual displays of statistics, and that was really impressive (Helen put her head down and slept through that, which was just as well).

Below, you see Marcus showing off the marshmallows in yet another cup of (Robert's) coffee, and the wide display of cabinet food at a typical stop.

We made a quick stop at a Countdown for fruit and pancakes and waffles, and also grabbed Singapore-style noodles at a friendly and adequate, if not amazing, place in Blenheim before driving another hour and a half to Dylan's Country Cottages on a lavender farm in Kaikoura (the name means Eat Shellfish, or Eat Crayfish, and we figured we'd do that at some point) where we'd be staying for a few nights.

We stopped to see seals by the side of the road, noticed the smoke and smog in the skies from the Australian fires, and drove past farms and braided river beds and ocean vistas. It was beautiful country, and our cottage was adorable. Everything smelled of lavender from the fields right outside. There was a bedroom upstairs and a living room/kitchen and spa bathroom downstairs, plus a barbeque outside that we sadly never got a chance to use. There were also some toys and games, which the kids found a treat.

At 6:45 we went into Kaikoura town proper for half-priced sushi from Sakim Bento. There were pretty thin pickings, as their half-price sale starts at 6:00 and they close at 7:00, but we got a massive, softball-sized onigiri with teriyaki shredded chicken inside, and the same chicken in a futo maki, all for $4.50 NZD. Robert walked over and got a piece of fish, an order of chips, some fried shrimp (prawns), and a mussel patty from Coppers Catch across the street and we ate outside on the Main Street--such a cute little town! After dinner we got ice cream at Poppy’s and turned in.

 

 

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Created: 1/6/2020. Last Modified: 1/6/2020.