Marlborough wine, green-lipped mussels and heading to Christchurch

Again, I was excited about the wine regions in New Zealand and Marlborough is one of the largest wine producing areas in New Zealand. Also, we have been told is the "new world" wines first generated attention in the wine world.

We mapped out a course as best we could to include larger wineries we had heard about in the U.S as well as some smaller outfits to discover some new wines. Also, there are a lot of wineries in the region, and without having days in the area; it is impossible to try them all in a day. I was disappointed to find out the Kim Crawford does not have a "cellar Door" (wine tasting area at the winery) as that is the Sauvignon Blanc that my friends from the firm and I would have a glass of at the Palm.

We started off with Maui wines where there was a beautiful tasting room with stained oak wine barrel slots for the walls. We tried what is the typical selection of wines in this region which is a couple of Sauvignon Blancs a Gewürztraminer or Chardonnay or Pinot Gris and of course Pinot Noir.
We then headed to TWR where there was a tasting with the owners of the winery. It was a small sparse tasting room, but we had a great time chatting up the owners about their wine and wine making philosophy. We really enjoyed their Riesling "D". Neither Jim nor I generally drink Riesling as it is generally very sweet, but we were told that the more classic Riesling is actually not too sweet. We purchased a bottle of the Riesling to enjoy with our green-lipped mussels for dinner (more on that later).
From TWR we headed to Fromm Winery. This winery is different from the typical Marlborough winery as it focuses on red wines. They had a Syrah and Pinot Noir. The winemaker is from Switzerland and focuses on what he calls, "cassic European styles, and wines with an unpolished expression of vineyard, climate, vintage and people involved." We then stopped by Cloudy Bay. Cloudy Bay has a sleek tasting room with a view back to their ageing Chardonnay barrels.
Finally we headed to Allen Scott Winery. They have a fabulous looking restaurant and a bubbly lady pouring the tastings and answering a plethora of questions.
While in the tasting room, Jim noticed a picture of the Scott family and spied the father and son with.... beer? We found out that the son opened a brewery "Moa" down the road from the winery. While Jim likes wine, he is truly a beer connoisseur. So we had to seek out Moa. The brewery is named Moa after an extinct, flightless bird endemic to New Zealand that were about 12 feet in height.
We sat out on the front patio of Moa with a couple of locals talking about New Zealand and beer. The brew master came out to chat with us and we sampled the beer in different stages of brewing including some very hoppy beer before it gets "aged" in Chardonnay barrels from the winery.
After Moa, we found a beautiful place on the beach to camp. And we started to make green-lipped mussel dinner. To get to Marlborough from Nelson we went through Havelock, the self proclaimed "green lipped mussel capital off the world." As it is the capital, we had to try some and at the source they were a great deal.
We steamed them with a garlic white wine sauce with bread to soak up the sauce. They were delicious and maybe the best (and biggest) mussels either of us have ever had!
After Marlborough, we went into Christchurch. Though we did not stay long in the city, we had a nice afternoon wandering through the city center and had a nice lunch there. Christchurch, at least on a Saturday, is very mellow with people shopping, dining and running and biking on the bike paths through the many parks in town. We then made our way out to the Banks Peninsula where we camped for the night again right on the water. The following day we drove out to Akaroa. The drive was beautiful and the town of Akaroa is a quaint and friendly mix of French colonial and Maori culture.

The West Coast of New Zealand

After Mt. Cook and Mt Aspiring we headed for the coast and made our way up the famed West Coast of New Zealand.

Our first stop was in Haast where we stopped at a small cafe and tried a whitebait sandwich. Whitebaiting is quite popular here and the whitebait sandwich is one of those local foodstuffs we had to try. Whitebait are like fish larva and they are generally served up in a egg patty. The sandwich is just the patty on some white bread. It was good but mostly just tasted like an egg sandwich, so it was a bit disappointing. That's about all there was to do in Haast so we headed up the coast pretty quickly.



The first thing we noticed about the West Coast is the sandflies. Man, these little buggers are a nuisance! They are everywhere here and their bites are far more annoying to us than mosquitoes in that they itch like crazy for a long time. Over the course of our time in New Zealand we got a bit better at avoiding them, but they make some otherwise beautiful spots quite simply unbearable. We found a nice spot to camp on the beach that night and the one thing that makes the sandflies a bit easier for camping than mosquitoes is the fact that they go away after dark.

In the morning we made our way to the glacier country. First we went to Fox Glacier and hiked the short walk to face of the glacier then to the Franz Josef. They were very nice, but after the glaciers of Patagonia, these were a bit of a let down. There were massive crowds and many people get guided walks on the ice, but we opted not to do this as it was pretty expensive. The short walks were good for getting out of the van and stretching the legs and the cool thing about these glaciers is that they literally run down the valley through rainforest. The waterfalls of the valleys were quite impressive as well.


Many of the stops along the West Coast are quick little trails that run to the sights. We would stop do the quick walk and see the sights and be back in the van to move on pretty quickly. This meant that we spent far less time on the West Coast than we had initially anticipated. We saw the Pancake Rocks as well. All of these sights are quite spectacular though and we were glad to have made the trip.


Eventually we made our way up to the literal end of the road in Karamea. There we did the first leg of the Heaphy Track, another one of New Zealand's "Great Walks." This one starts at an estuary that was by far the worst place for sandflies we have been so we got moving quickly. The sandflies don't seem able to find you if you are moving, but stop for a second and they swarm. The trail was incredibly beautiful, winding through rainforest, over rivers and by waterfalls until you arrive at Scott's beach. The trail hugs the beach and then eventually heads back into the rainforest to the Heaphy Hut. We didn't make it that far, but we did enjoy about an hour on a gorgeous and totally unoccupied beach just watching the waves crash against the rocks.
That night we went up to an area near some limestone arches and caves and camped for the night. We ventured into both Box Canyon Cave and Crazy Paving Cave. Neither of these caves are very deep, but there are some beautiful glow worm displays to be seen inside.


As we camped, we had more visits from wekas. Wekas were common visitors to our campsites on the West Coast. Wekas are wood hens that are very curious and obviously are looking for us to give them some food. We, of course, didn't give them any, but that didn't stop them from approaching and even trying to climb into our van.


The next morning we hiked up to the limestone Oparara Arch for a quick look before leaving the West Coast for Nelson. We had hoped to do some sea kayaking in Abel Tasman, one of the most popular of New Zealand's National Parks, but we opted to save our money for sea kayaking in Doubtful Sound in Fiordland. Nelson was a very cool town that actually has "mostly fine" weather which was nice for a change. We wandered around town and pulled the trigger on a small iPod speaker as we were going a little nuts without music in the van. We went to the Founder’s Brewery that was a cool old place in a historic village in the park. We sat and tried their beers and then grabbed a two liter bottle to go. But don’t call it a “growler” as we do in the States. I’ll let you Google that one!


The West Coast was certainly beautiful and nice scenic drive for a few days!

Aoraki/Mt. Cook and Mt. Aspiring National Park

Our first stop was Wanaka and from there we had easy access to both Aoraki/Mt. Cook and Mt. Aspiring National Park. We headed to Mt. Cook first loving the new found freedom of "Sly," our campervan.

We used the cafe at the Mt Cook Village to purchase some Internet time to let our friends and family know they weren't going to be hearing from us quite as much in New Zealand due to expensive rates and limited access (one of the minuses of campervan life). Then we headed up to Tasman Glacier at the foot of Aoraki/Mt. Cook.


The hike was beautiful and the trail almost a highway, but it was very crowded. Tasman isn't the prettiest of glaciers as it is receding dramatically and is laden with sediment. Otherwise the peak was an extraordinary sight,a great half-day hike and not a bad place to soak your feet.

The next day we headed past Wanaka on a dirt road into Mt. Aspiring National Park and enjoyed one of our favorite day hikes in New Zealand: Rob Roy Glacier.

The hike itself was very nice, if short, through dramatic temperate rainforest. Once we got up a ways, though, the waterfalls started to come into view. The first one we saw poured off a high cliff and as the wind blew the water dissolved into mist. It was spectacular and photos just don't do it justice (so here's a photo).

A bit further up we realized this waterfall was just one of at least seven coming from the Rob Roy hanging glacier.

We reached the viewpoint, but once again it was a bit crowded so we headed down to the stream past where most ventured. The valley was not quite as spectacular from that vantage point but we took the opportunity the privacy presented to do a little glacial water skinny dipping. It was cold!

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We could glimpse Mt Aspiring at various points throughout the hike, but Rob Roy valley is really the highlight. Highly recommended!

Queenstown and our first winery of NZ (Chard Farm)

We arrived in Queenstown after 24 hours of traveling from Santiago Chile. We touched down and had a beautiful view of the Remarkables mountain range. We were exhausted from the travel but after checked into our hostel, we forced ourselves to walk around Queenstown and stay awake until 9 p.m. to avoid jet lag. Queenstown is a cute mountain town catering to the "extreme sports" junkies in the summer and skiing in the winter. While there are a myriad of things to do in Queenstown, we barely made it to 9 p.m before fatigue overtook us.
The next morning we picked up the campervan that we would be living in for the next five weeks! The van is our home while we are in New Zealand and the van we got is hilarious (as you can see from our earlier posts of the van). We heard about Wicked vans from our friends Kendall and Mike who had one of the vans in Australia. They are cheap and they all have slightly obnoxious paintings on the outside. We are lucky because we personally believe we have the best decorated of the vans we have seen. You can not get much funkier than a Sly and the Family Stone van (we have not seen a P-Funk van). Here are a few shots of the setup in the van (a few people have asked us about the setup)



After picking up the van we headed to a Wanaka, a small town next to aptly named Lake Wanaka. However, as we were heading out of Queenstown we stopped at the first of many wineries that we visited in New Zealand We saw the sign for Chard Farm across from the famous "bungy bridge" and stopped in. Chard Farm is in a stunning location with the Kawarau River on one side and the mountain on the other. It is a small winery and the owners are at the cellar door for an intimate and unpretentious tasting.
We started off with their bubbly "CO2" - 50% Pinot noir and 50% Chardonnay. It was nice and refreshing. Next we had their Swiftburn Sauvignon Blanc, then finally their famous Pinot Noirs. First the Finla Mor Pinot Noir that was rounded, fruity but not as earthy as their other two Pinots we tried (the Viper and the Tiger).
Jim was a big fan of the The Viper Pinot as it was dark and had deep earthy tones. We loved the winery and the owners and bought a bottle of the Sauvignon Blanc for later! We then continued to Wanaka.
Wanaka is where we really started to grasp the parking/camping situation. We had heard about the amazing camping facilities in New Zealand and knew there would be a cost to them but we had severe sticker shock! $30-$50 a night to park and use the showers! (some have kitchens and TV rooms, etc as well) Maybe we were a little naive to this but it was unanticipated and a blow to the budget! (especially when gas is 2-3 times as much as it is in the US). We started to look for DOC (Department of Conservation) campsites that are usually just toilets and at the most $5-$10 a person. We found a great spot near Wanaka in a small town called Luggate that is a private cricket pitch with really nice bathrooms, shower and a washing machine!

We have decided that simplicity (and low cost) is best and have been staying at simple campsites and making our own meals as we do have a traveling simple kitchen! It has been fun to try and come up with healthy and cost effective meals in one pot! And the campsites we have found have been in generally more spectacular settings than the "holiday parks" anyway. And this is how we have been living in New Zealand, and it has worked out great!

We Want To Take You Higher! -- New Zealand!

We landed in New Zealand a week ago and left Santiago, Chile just before the earthquake. It was crazy to hear about, but our friends in Chile are all fine, which is a huge relief. We are traveling around the South Island in a campervan, so unfortunately, blog posts will be few and far between for the next six weeks. We ARE writing them though and will update with a slew of posts when we are able to.

For the time being, here are a few pictures of our living accommodations for the six weeks here in New Zealand!

Horcón & Maitencillo - The beaches of Chile

For our last week in South America we decided to spend some time relaxing in a couple of Chilean beach towns just north of Valparaiso. We spent the weekend in Horcón, a small fishing village, and then up to Maitencillo to a more resorty beach town.

Horcón is a cool, funky little town that, like seemingly all Chilean beach towns, is jam packed full of Chileans on the weekends. We stayed in a nice little place right on the ocean and spent our days lounging on the beach in whatever available real estate we could squeeze into. The beach was certainly crowded, but we seemed to be the only gringos there.


The town is an interesting fishing village in that, at least on the weekends, the fishermen need to be in with their catch before the throngs descend on the beach. This is due to the fact that the small beach is used to bring the boats in after the catch and horses are brought down to help pull the boats from the water.

The food selection is limited, but just about everyone sells very tasty seafood empenadas. Probably not the healthiest of diets, but we ate a lot of them!

Things were seeming to calm down on Monday, but we decided to check out Maitencillo for a change of pace. Maintencillo is much bigger with a long stretches of white sand. We found a little place along the beach complete with a kitchenette. When the sun was out it was beautiful and the first day we had an amazing sunset from our cabana.

We had hoped to do some surfing here, but the water was very cold and board rental plus wet suit rental was a little beyond our budget. Instead we took some long walks down the beach in between the hours of laying on the beach and reading. On one of these walks we went to the fish market and picked up some clams. Leslie made a great white wine garlic sauce in our kitchenette and we enjoyed an extremely fresh clam dinner.

One final thing of note is the huge population of pelicans in this area of the coast.