In March we had our first family visitors, Trey’s Parents. They arrived on a Tuesday morning with surprisingly little jetlag. Once here Trey met them at their hotel and took them on a brief walk around the city so that they could get their bearings. That night we had dinner with them at the Belgian Beer Café for a must-do New Zealand experience. You may be wondering what a restaurant named after Belgium has to do with New Zealand. Well it turns out that this restaurant’s specialty is green lipped mussels, a popular/unique New Zealand seafood. At the restaurant you can order the green lipped mussels by the kilogram (that is 2.2 pounds for the conversion-impaired folks) It is a meal in itself. Also mom started her two week long exploration of New Zealand wines that night, while dad had to wait until the next day to start his exploration of New Zealand beers since as the restaurant’s name implies they only serve Belgian beers. After dinner I they were starting to feel sleepy from all the traveling so they went back to their hotel to go to sleep.
The next day Trey worked only a half day and picked up his parents and met Jocelyn for lunch at a café near here work. After lunch Jocelyn gave us a brief tour of hairyLemon and then Trey took them to the University of Canterbury to give his parents a tour of his office and lab. After the work tours Trey took his parents to the Riccarton Bush. The Riccarton Bush is the only remaining native bush on the Canterbury plains so it is a good place to go to get a feel how New Zealand looked when the first European settlers arrived. The next stop after the bush was the Christchurch Gondola where we took a ride to the top of the port hills. This I think was my parent’s first chance to see the real New Zealand and I could tell already they were going to like the rest of their trip. That night we picked up some local beers and a bottle wine and got dinner takeaways from a fish and chips shop near by.
The next day they explored the botanical gardens and the Christchurch museum while Jocelyn and Trey were working. After work we met up with them at the Ellerslie International Flower show. This flower show is well worth going to. It is a huge display of gardens and flower arrangements that were set up in Hagley Park. Some of the highlights of the show were a garden that was a cross-section of New Zealand with native plants from different regional climates of New Zealand and a backyard display with a deck and lawn that resembled the waves in the ocean. The overall winner of the show and also by far our favorite display was completely made of fungus. It is hard to describe this garden and even the pictures below do not do it justice. After the flower show we took them over to Dux-de-Lux for dinner. The restaurant, serving only seafood and vegetarian dishes, was one of the first places we ate at after arriving in New Zealand and is still one of our favorites. It is also a very popular hangout in the summer, attracting people with its large outdoor eating area and its very own brewed beers. After dinner we all headed home to get some rest because the next day we wanted to get an early start on our 3-day weekend road trip.
Early the next day the four of us loaded up the car and started our road trip with the two hour drive to Hanmer Springs. Once there we had lunch and then checked into our hotel. We had splurged a little on this hotel but when we arrived we quickly realized that it was much nicer than we had expected. Each room had a large balcony looking out to the mountains and a large studio suite feel. The bathrooms were almost too much with an extremely large whirlpool tub and a two person shower featuring two overhead shower heads and eight side spraying jets. Although our plans were to go mountain biking, right after checking in we had to change plans because a storm blew in consisting of 15 min of hail and then another 3 hours of heavy rain. Welcome to New Zealand where it was bright and sunny just 5 minutes prior! We decided to wait out this storm in the hotel room since it was so luxurious and then go to the natural hot springs that Hanmer Springs is named for later. Right as we were leaving to go to the springs we noticed that the storm had left a heavy dusting of snow on the mountain tops surrounding the Hanmer hot springs. It is a good thing we did not try going mountain biking earlier or we may have gotten stuck in the snow storm on the mountain side. The snow topped mountains just added to the scenic nature of the area though. It was almost a picture perfect setting with the steam coming off the thermal hot pools and the snow capped mountains in the back ground. In a weird way, it could not have been any better!
After the hot pools we went back to the hotel to change and have dinner. The hotel restaurant proved to be very nice as well and as an extra bonus it was only us and one other table eating there. This restaurant kept to its New Zealand roots by using mostly local ingredients including olives and olive oil from the farm next door to their property. Trey’s parents liked the olive oil so much they ended up buying a bottle the next morning. After dinner we went to bed because Trey had once again decided that we needed to get on the road early the next morning but Jocelyn was ok with it because being there earlier meant more wine tasting!
The next morning, after both Jocelyn and Trey’s mom proclaimed that the beds were the most comfortable beds they had ever slept on, we started the four hour drive to Marlborough wine country. We took the scenic inland route and although very scenic, it had a lot of twists and turns which I think made Trey’s mom and Jocelyn a little car sick. But this seemed to all go away as soon as we started to see vineyard after vineyard. We arrived at our first winery, Cloudy Bay, a little after noon. The significance of visiting Cloudy Bay is that as part of our wedding gift Trey’s Uncle Steve, Aunt Pam, Jon, and Emily had given us was one of their favorites bottles of wine, which was a Cloudy Bay sauvignon blanc. This was the first New Zealand wine we had tasted and greatly enjoyed well before we ever dreamed we would be living here. Here we tasted some wines starting with a glass of bubbly and moving through the selection of whites, reds, and dessert wines. Trey’s parents always made sure to ask what wines were available in the USA and we always asked what wines are available only at the cellar door (meaning ones you can only purchase at the winery). No one left this winery empty handed with Trey’s parents buying a bottle of bubbly and us buying a late harvest gewürztraminer dessert wine. Now it was off to the next winery, Allan Scott, which was directly across the street from Cloudy Bay. The Allen Scott tasting was a little bit busier than Cloudy Bay, but over all we were all a little less impressed with their wines. The main reason for coming to Allan Scott was to have lunch out in the garden. This lunch proved to be a good idea being a combination of perfect weather, a perfect setting and really good food. As an added bonus Allan Scott also brews Moa beer which Trey and his dad had with their lunch to change up the drinking a little bit from all the wine. After lunch we explored the garden but we didn’t want to waste too much time because we had many more wineries to see. The next stop was Highfield Estate winery – a boutique winery. Highfield might have been the most picturesque winery we visited. The main building is set at the top of a large hill and is outfitted with a four story tall look out tower where you have a great view of the whole valley. When we arrived we were directed to go up in the tower first. I think walking up the narrow stairs to the top and back down is how they weed out people who have already have tasted too much wine! After taking some pictures from the tower we went back down to the tasting room. The wine we tasted here was very impressive with Jocelyn and I leaving with two bottles, a pinot noir and riesling. On the recommendation of the lady leading the tasting at Highfield we decided that the next winery we would go to would be Seresin. Driving up to this winery you could already tell it was going to be different than the others. The driveway was long gravel road that let you around the main building to a tiny tasting room. This winery is completely organic and does the majority of it sales directly to consumers. They also produce their own olive oil as well. I believe this ended up being both Jocelyn’s and Robin’s favorite winery. They both liked the sauvignon blanc and the unoaked chardonnay. Jocelyn decided to get a bottle of each and we also bought a bottle of lime flavored olive oil. Trey’s mom had do be a little more discriminating remembering she has to fit whatever she buys in her suitcase for the flight home so she decided to taste the two wines again and get only the unoaked chardonnay.
It was now a little after 4pm so we decided we had time for one more winery and chose Saint Clair. This winery produces a few different lines including Saint Clair Reserve, Pioneer Block, Premium, and Vicar’s Choice (listed in order of quality). Two things that made this wine tasting very interesting was that guy leading the tasting was one of the farmers who worked at the winery and we were able to compare the same wines from the different lines. In the end I think we all came to the conclusion that we enjoyed the Pioneer Block wines the best. The interesting thing about the Pioneer Block wines is that that all the grapes to make the wine come from the same block of land. Each block of land has a number associated with it and this number will appear on the label of the wine. Therefore a Pioneer Block 18 Sauv might taste totally different than a Pioneer Block 19 Sauv. Also, if in a given year the grapes in a given block are not up to standard, that block will not have a bottle for that year with the grapes instead being used for the lower tiered premium and vicars choice lines. By now we were all wined out but before checking into our hotel we had to make one more stop at the local chocolate factory. We had a couple of free samples there to hold us over until dinner and then proceeded to our hotel. When we arrived at the hotel we quickly realized that is was not quite the quality that we had experienced in Hanmer Springs but that it would do for one night. With the day being March 13 we had booked reservations at a nice restaurant downtown for Trey’s birthday. Once we arrived I think we all wished a little that we were staying in the hotel that the restaurant was in instead of the one we were in. Dinner was good and Trey got to open up his presents which included some girls scout cookies all the way from the USA and a voucher from Jocelyn for a private cooking class and dinner in Akaroa. After dinner I think the quantity of wine we had drunk during the day started to kick in and we all were quite sleepy so we went back to the hotel.
The next day we started our trip back to Christchurch, but decide to make a few stops around Kaikoura on the way. The first stop we made was at the Ohau seal colony, which is one of the largest breeding fur seal colonies around Kaikoura. We could see many adult and baby seals on the rocks about 50 feet below the roadside. The baby seals were all playing in shallow tidal pools along the coast while most of the adults preferred to just bask in the hot sun, only interrupting their rest to growl once in a while at another seal that passed by a little to close to their spot. The next stop was for lunch at a small roadside crayfish stand. Although they are called “crayfish’ in New Zealand they are what we know in the US as spiny lobster. Ironically they call what we know as crayfish, lobsters. The crayfish which had been already cooked were served whole and chilled – no utensils, just the fish and a few napkins. Although it was a fair amount of work to get all of the meat out of the shells it was well worth it because it was some of the best ‘crayfish’ we have had ever had.
Our last stop of the day was at the tip of the Kaikoura peninsula, arguably on of the most scenic places in New Zealand, where we planned on going on a short two hour hike. The hike started out very peaceful with the sun out, a nice breeze, and the view of seals playing in the water below. We walked along the top of the cliff from one side of the peninsula to the other. It was very interesting to see the contrast of the ocean, mountains and farmland all together. We also came across some of the fittest cows we have ever seen. These cows literally sprinted from the top of a hill to the bottom, a good 500 feet, faster than any of us could run. A big difference from the fat cows you see in the US! On the way back to the car we decided to hike along the bottom of the cliff at the edge of the ocean. From up above we had seen many people doing this so we thought it would be a good idea and give us different perspective of the scenery for the hike back. When we first reached the waterside Trey and his dad sprinted up a large mound called ‘sugarloaf’ in Whales Bay, boys will be boys. It is said that back in the day whale hunters would sit up here so that they could spot whales out in the ocean. Once to the top Trey’s dad had to quickly sit down in fear he may fall off the side because he had not realized how narrow the summit was and the wind had started to pick up considerably. After picking our way back down the ‘sugarloaf’ the four of us continued back to the car hiking on the path between the cliff and the ocean. As we were hiking we started to notice that the area between the cliff and the ocean was getting smaller and smaller because the tide was coming in. Of course we eventually reached a point where the tide had come in too far and now completely covered the once wide path. We paused here for a few moments but knowing that waiting would only make things worse we quickly found a way around by climbing up the cliff side a few feet. Upon hearing that it was just going to get worse the longer we took to get back to the car Trey’s mom kicked it in to high gear – becoming Super Woman before our very eyes - leaving the rest of us in the dust. Although the remaining portion of the path was getting quite narrow here it appeared like it would be passable the rest of the way to the parking lot. But we had forgotten that this is New Zealand and you should always expect the unexpected. We were now only 50 feet from the car park and the area between the cliff and the ocean that had once been well over 100 feet was now narrowed down to only 5. Normally this would not be a problem but right in front of us lying along those 5 feet was a rather large adult seal basking in the sun. We were stuck now because there would be no way to go back the way we came because of the height the tide had risen and none of us were wanting to take on the seal. Once again we looked for an alternative path higher up on the cliff. Luckily there was a small slanted shelf of rock that passed the seal about two feet above his head. We each jumped up to the shelf one by one with the seal just raising his head slightly each time to watch. Jocelyn had the most trouble because she slipped a little on some loose rocks which startled the seal a little causing him to lift about half of his body off the ground. I think this was a little too much energy for the seal to be exerting, so he quickly just flopped back down to the rock slab he was laying on. Good thing for us that seals are so fat and lazy. Jocelyn finished crossing the rest of the rock shelf, jumped down, and walked the last few feet to the parking lot. Once we reached the car we all let out a sigh of relief knowing that we were home free now. Jocelyn proclaimed that this hike felt like she was in the New Zealand version of Super Mario Brothers! We then hopped into the car and drove the remaining, uneventful, two hour back to Christchurch, arriving around dinner time. We ordered some pizza to eat while Trey’s parents switched around there luggage and prepared for their coach bus tour of the South Island that started early the next day.
For more pictures click here.
