Poon and Kaka

We went from the small townships of Fox Glacier and Franz Joseph to the smaller roadside community of Punakaiki on November 23rd for a few days. Punakaiki is famous for the odd "pancake rocks" that have formed from the limestone cliffs that are positioned right on the edge of the raucous Tasman Sea. These sedimentary rocks were once under water and are actually comprised of mudstone and limestone...as rain and waves have been wearing away at the cliffs, the mudstone has been eroding faster than the limestone, resulting in the remaining rocks to resemble stacked flapjacks. All of this erosion and active geological activity has also created numerous "blowholes" and underground caves throughout the Punakaiki formations, which results in streams of water being shot up into the air at various points around the cliffs.  Why isn't this a wonder of the world?! While we didn't necessarily need to stay overnight in this micro community, we had fun exploring the town, patronizing the lone coffeeshop four times in less than 48 hours, and hiking the cliffs in the area.

"You May Find Yourself / Chillin' in a Limestone Cliff" - Talking Heads

Mad Scientist Alberto, Summoning the Power of the Tasman Sea

We also wanted to note that the majority of all travelers here in New Zealand are German. While there were lots of Canadians in the UK, and lots of Aussies and Brits in SE Asia, the Germans are dominating the NZ backpacker scene. Whenever we enter a new hostel or get on a bus we point at people and play "German, Or No German".
 

Now for our NZ beer review. For such a small country, they sure have a thriving craft beer industry. In addition, many of the breweries are here on the South Island. 

Invercargill - We tried the Stanley Green Pale and the Wasp Honey Pilsner. A small family business, with brewers that love experimenting with hops.

Monteiths - The Okanagan Springs of New Zealand...a brewery with craft roots that has expanded and can now be found in almost every bar here. We hated their Radler, but their Celtic Red is wonderful and drinkable.

Tui - The national beer of New Zealand and incorrectly described as an IPA. This ruby red, low alcohol (4%) amber ale is cheap and flavourful. I wish Molson Canadian tasted like this!

Steinlager - Another one of the country's big breweries and a primary sponsor of the All Blacks. Extremely average lager, similar to Kokanee or Tiger.

Speights - Proudly southern and small, this Dunedin-based brewery produces beer that is light and hoppy. Even their Distinction Ale and Stout contain a bit too much of a citrusy finish, but their Gold Medal Ale is refreshing and loved by all Kiwis. We drank at the brewery's taproom!

MOA - An expensive, boutique brewery based here in the south that bottles brews with names such as noir (chocolate porter) and breakfast (raspberry wheat). Great, but pricy. Only available in bottle.

The Birthday Girl

Hey y'all! I was in Fox Glacier, New Zealand for my 24th birthday, as some of you may know. Here's a super duper quick re-cap of the awesomeness. Fox Glacier is a teeny tiny town on the West Coast of New Zealand and it is literally only one gas station, three cafes, and a couple of youth hostels. As the name suggests, there is a big glacier just outside of the town and Al and I paid to do the whole day hike on this icy bugger for my birthday. Luckily my day in the sun was...well...in the sun, hehe. NZ is probably the rainiest place on earth (besides Vancouver) and yet I totally lucked out. We got hooked up with all the gear and rolled out to the thing about half past nine. We got to walk through the adjoining rain forest and saw some cool plants and such. We walked about as far up the glacier as humanly possible and got stopped by some pretty big glacial high rises (the final ice fall of the glacier) but got to explore some killer crevasses and ice tunnels. The whole six hours were awesome though, and I even had my group/guide sing happy birthday to me with my birthday hat on! Anyway when we got back to the hostel I did many shots of beer and did some shots of tequila while eating my pizza dinner. This was quickly followed by my face getting shoved in my birthday mud cake! Though this was a surprise, my dream was to eat the cake with my hands and thankfully this soon followed. Al and the hostel crew really made it a goody and here are some pics to prove it! Good times.

chillin in a crevasse

 

the whole-day crew

Roughin' the Remarkable Routeburn

On November 17th, we returned from our excellent 4-day, 3-night stint on the Routeburn Track, just North-West of Queenstown. Ill break our awesome adventure down for ya:

Day 1: We took the 4 hour bus ride from Queenstown to the trailhead at The Divide. Fresh faced and bushy tailed, Al and I headed to our first accommodation at Lake Howden. Most of the hike this day was through the woods and we were pretty lucky to have the sun shining for the two hours we were hiking. It was just as we got the the first cabin that the rain came in through the mountains and rain on our parade. We held off on hiking to the Key Summit for the next morning and decided instead after the rain ceased to walk around the mountain surrounding Lake Howden.

 Why are we holding hands at Lake Howden?

Day 2: Woke up early to sunshine! What a relief it was to not see rain falling as we headed off to hike the 918m up to the Summit. We had a spectacular view of Hollyford Valley and Mount Aspiring National Park and after singin' a little Stevie Winwood headed off to the second hut. Most of the day was spent climbin through the forest and after about 5km walked up to an enormous, dramatic waterfall called Earland Falls. It was definitely the largest waterfall Alex and I had ever seen and even though there were multiple "Do Not Stop" signs up, we decided to stop, drink some glacier water and eat some lunch hehe. The rest of the day was spent walking along the side of a valley and enjoying the mountainous scenery. We walked through what looked to be a fruitless orchard and shortly after came to our second stop, Mckenzie Hut. It was about 20 degrees Celsius when we arrived so we went for a short walk to the "Split Rock" (a 5 meter high rock, split in half) around the backside of Lake Mckenzie. It got cold, so we went to bed early.

 

Day 3: This was the longy and coldy. It was about 12km to the next cabin but not raining when we parted Mckenzie...luckily. We went straight up for a couple Kilometres and it slowly got colder, snowier and sketchier (about half way up we all had to walk separately so that if the rock/ice blocks fell, they would only kill 1 person at a time). We got up and over the top of this first snowy bank and made it about a km along the mountain ridge before the rain came in. It came in quick and hard and though the view was awesome from the side of the mountain, it was getting very cold as we started to get near the top of 3700 foot peak. Thankfully, there was a shelter at the bottom of Harris Saddle because the temperature dropped at least a couple degrees and we were walking through fairly thick snow. We found out only a few days before the day of the hike that we were to take a helicopter over the Saddle due to major avalanche warnings and it was sure an exhilarating one minute ride. Alex was not a huge fan since the wind was blowing us left and right as we landed on the other side on the danger zone. We were freezing and wet but only had to walk another 2 kms to our final destination at Routeburn Falls hut and enjoyed the scene of the gushing waterfall as we crawled into the cabin and into bed.

Posing all of the time. Doucheland Falls.

 

Braving the snowy switchback on Day 3

Day 4: Eazy peazy. Woke up to sunshine and walked the rest of the way down to the beautiful valley floor. Snapped some pictures of the adjoining mountain tops and then took some lunch at a nearby river bend. We took our sweet time walking to the Routeburn Road end and finished a little tired but jovial and proud of our efforts.

DONE! 

Scotland of the South

We arrived in New Zealand one week ago and the country has already made an indelible impression. We arrived in Christchurch knowing about the earthquake that killed 181 people on February 22 of this year, as well the numerous aftershocks, but we were not prepared for the level of destruction that the town has endured. The strange thing about the damage is that it is essentially limited to the city centre, which has now been portentously dubbed "The Red Zone". One of the more disturbing things that we saw on our walk to our hostel was a nine-storey hotel that was still standing but was completely empty. Much of the glass was still intact, curtains were blowing out of some of the windows, and there were still plants in the lobby...it looked post-apocalyptic, like a building out of The Road or 28 Days Later. As you can imagine, the town was quiet and was a far cry from the picturesque tourist spot we were expecting to see. However, we made the best of it: we went to a farmers market at Riccarton House, explored the lush botanical gardens, and drank craft beer at one of the best pubs (Pomeroy's) we have found to date.

Post-Apocalyptic Row Houses in Dunedin

We bussed south to Dunedin on November 7th and were instantly struck by the similarities between this New Zealand university town and the Scottish cities of Edinburgh and Stirling. From the topography and climate to the Victorian architecture and city planning, Dunedin (which is Gaelic for Edinburgh) is like a lip-smacking scoop of Haggis in the southern hemisphere. One of Kate's primary goals (and life dreams) on this trip was to visit the Dunedin Cadbury Factory, and the tour was worth the $18 entrance fee. Not only did we see a chocolate waterfall and sample fresh, liquid milk chocolate from the source, we were also given eight candy bars each! We burned some of these delicious calories on a walk to the world's steepest residential street. Baldwin Street is about four kilometers outside of Dunedin and has made it into the Guinness Book for its 1 : 2.86 (35%) slope. I was an idiot and ran up the hill, without warming up first. It was a LOT harder than it looked. The following day, we took a bus to Otago Peninsula, which continues out to sea from Dunedin. This area is famous for its albatross and penguins, which we failed to see. We did go hiking to find them, but the rain and cold forced us to return to the city for some beer from Speight's Brewery and some pretzles. 

"IS this heaven?!"

After exhausting Dunedin, we headed for Queenstown, the outdoor activity Mecca of New Zealand. We had heard some negative opinions about Queenstown from fellow backpackers, due to its reputation as a tourist hub and its skibum quality of life, but the town's location at the base of the Remarkables Mountain Range and position on Wakatipu Lake make it undeniably breathtaking. Our first mission in Queenstown involved jumping from the first bungee jump ever...at Kawarau Bridge. We did this for my 30th Birthday, after eating an awesome breakfast of eggs benny and ham-banana pancakes (it stayed down, fortunately). The jump was scarier than I thought it would be, but Kate loved it. It just seems so unnatural to fling your body off of a tiny ledge 150 feet above the ground! The rest of my birthday was fun as well. I had a wonderful lamb dinner at Vknow (which included a free birthday beer) and Kate supplied unlimited candy and coffee throughout the day. A new decade!     

The Flowery Fleurieu Peninsula

The past couple weeks have been jam packed with Australian goodness. In an attempt to suckle every last drop from South Australia's teet, we've been on a pie, beer and wine rampage. Not to mention the very Australian sites we've explored. Dan's uncle, Steve, was very generous and invited us up to his new cottage for the weekend in Victor Harbour on the Fleurieu Peninsula. After cruising on the beach in Steve's Jeep (pic seen below) with the waves crashing along side us we needed a break from the cold and went back to try (and fail) the Centurion. The next day we roamed around Victor Harbour and saw some adorable adjacent towns. Port Elliot was Alex's favorite as it was tiny and unpopulated, as he likes it, but mine was probably Horseshoe Bay (yes, there's another Horseshoe Bay) where we got a couple hours of fishing in. On our way out of Victor we scored our 3rd Ned Kelly pie, walked around Granite Island and watched dolphins frolic along the coast. 

Goolwa Beach with Steve on the Fleurieu

We finally got to Barossa Valley! Our dreams came true semi-last minute only 3 days before we were leaving Adelaide. Some of the biggies that we hit up were Penfolds, Jacob's Creek and Grant Burge...and at the last minute got to Torbreck, a little German winery with some fine Shiraz. Over the past month we have both come to the conclusion that we generally dislike Cabernet Sauvignon due to it's dry, less fruity, nature. Shiraz has become our new fave and we've sampled over two dozen from around the region since we've been here (quick shout out to Joy, who inspired me to hop on the Shiraz train!). 


Quick mention of our Halloween extravaganza which was not really an extravaganza whatsoever. We did, however, dress up with a jason mask, some bunny ears, and some fake blood. They don't seem to celebrate all-hallows-eve here but just walking to and from Paranormal Activity 3 over 7 horns honked in our honor! Needless to say we both consumed a whole bag of chocolate bars even though it was about 23 degrees outside.


We've ended our journey in Adelaide with a couple classics. One being the infamous Vili's Pie Floater. For those of you who do not know what this is it consists of a beef pie, pea soup and ketchup. I was not a huge fan and Alex is insistent that it would boom in the prairies of Canada due to its hardy nature but otherwise is unnecessary. Our 4th and final Ned Kelly was from Dulwich Bakery (pronounced Dul-ich) and was very good but still just couldn't beat the eggy goodness of Becks Bakery which came out on top. If you didn't think we could get much more South Australian, on our last day of work at Vili's, we mustered up the courage to go talk to Vili himself who was sitting having coffee. Not only did he greet us warmly but gave us signed Vili's caps for free to take on our journey through New Zealand. What a great way to end our journey here in Adelaide, Australia!

Watch Out! It's Bunnicula! It's Halloween!

SHOULD We Eat This Pie Floater?

The renovations at our relatives' place that we helped prep are plugging along. It is fairly disturbing to see a room that one was lounging in a few weeks ago being destroyed and replaced with an open, dirt-floored space. Fortunately for us and our relatives, they have a second house so are able to escape the chaos. Here is a super short video of the carnage, which is an update to the video posted in our Oct 20th blog entry: