The next day Trey took Brian to work where he hung out in the student center studying most of the day for his fundamentals of engineering exam that he will have to take a few weeks after his trip. After work Trey met up with him there and they had a few drinks and played some pool before heading home to meet up with Jocelyn. For dinner we took Brian to our favorite sushi place down the street from our place.
Brian and us at our favorite sushi place
To our surprise Brian has gotten much more adventurous with food. When we first met him he basically only ate chicken parm, pizza and burgers, but at the sushi place he had no problem ordering sashimi (raw fish) and he seemed to enjoy it. After dinner we headed across the street to the casino to test our luck. We tried out the blackjack table first and did pretty well with Trey $90 up and Brian $10 up. Felling lucky Brian tried playing some three card poker and had a little more success winning another $20 before we left. It was getting late and some of us had to work the next day so we gave Brian a set of keys to our place so he could explore the town on his own while we slept.
The next couple days Brian explored the city and went up to the port hills in the gondola. Trey took Thursday off from work and he and Brian drove up to Kaikoura, one of the most beautiful places in New Zealand.
Driving to Kaikoura
Just on the car ride there he commented on how beautiful and relaxing everything was here. Once we got to Kaikoura we had lunch and then started out on a hike. This was the same hike that we took Trey’s parents on when they were here, but this time we planned ahead and checked the tide schedule so that we did not get stuck anywhere. The first part of the hike we saw many seals including one baby one that was playing in a tide pool, you can see the video below.
We then proceeded to hike along the coast seeing a large number of seals and sea birds. During the hike we had to keep a constant lookout because you never knew when there would be a seal sunbathing behind the next rock. It was very surprising how easy it is to not notice a seal laying out on the rocks.
The seals were everywhere
Views from the Kaikoura peninsula
These baby seals tried to follow us back to the car
After the hike we stopped at a fish shop to pick up some lobster, Kaikoura’s specialty, for dinner later that night. When got home Jocelyn had already had dinner cooking. About fifteen minutes later we were sitting down eating a great lobster pasta dish. We were both tired from the hike so we went to bed early knowing that we needed our rest for going out tomorrow night and for going to Queenstown for the weekend.
The next night Brian and Trey went over to Jocelyn’s work around 6pm to have a drink before heading out for the night. Jocelyn’s work had just finished having a cocktail making competition so most people had already had a few drinks making it easier to convince them to come out for the night.
Hanging at Hairy Lemon before going out
From her work we went to Malbas, which is not a bar Jocelyn and I normally hang out at but the bar had been clever and struck a deal with Burgers and Beers, a popular restaurant whose building was damaged in the earthquake, to serve their menu. At the bar we had some burgers and chips and then started to dance the night away. As you can see the dance floor was packed.
Jocelyn ripping up the dance floor
Around midnight Trey drove Jocelyn and some of her friends home and then went back to the bar to hang out with Brian and some of the other Lemon’s a little longer. By 2am it was time to call it a night because we wanted to get an early start tomorrow driving to Queenstown.
Brian and some of the Lemons
Trey woke everyone up early the next morning so that we could all get packed, showered and on the road by 9am. For once we even got on the road a little a head of schedule. The weather was nice and the drive was beautiful. Brian was amazed at the brilliant turquoise color of the glacier feed lake Tekapo and Pukaki.
Us at Lake Pukaki
Roughly 6 hours and 500km later we arrived in Queenstown. Our landlords had been nice enough to let us stay at their place in Queenstown for free so we gladly took them up on it. When we arrived we were surprised how nice of a place it was. We were expecting something nice but by no means were we expecting a three story house that had beautiful views of the lake and mountains. It was really a shame that we were just going to be here for 2 days.
Where we stayed in Queenstown
The Kitchen
The Master Bedroom with views of the lake and the mountains right outside the window
The view of the Remarkables from the house
Close up of the Remarkables
Once we got settled in Trey did not let us relax for long because he wanted to go to the gondola and luge before it started to rain.
View from top of the gondola
We headed out and were at the top of the mountain racing down the luge in no time. It was Brian’s first time on the luge and he was a little hesitant at first and it did not help that the second time he went down he had a luge where the breaks were failing, but by the third run he had the hang of it. The luge was made a little more challenging than when we were here in the summer because there was water from snow melt on some of the turns, which definitely made braking in the turns harder. Just as we were finishing our last run it started to rain so we headed back down the gondola.
Brian on the luge
By this time we were all very hungry so we decided to go straight to dinner at one of the local favorites The Cow. The Cow is a pizza and pasta place that is housed in a small stone building on Cow Lane where the cows were milked way back in the day.
The Cow
We had been recommended by just about everyone that this is the place to for good pizza in Queenstown and we were definitely not let down. The meals started with an oversized loaf of garlic bread which the three of us demolished in a few minutes. Since none of us had lunch we decided to order 3 large pizzas. Trey had the Vegetarian, Brian the Bolognaise, and Jocelyn the Pepperoni pizza. The overall consensus by the meat eaters was that the Bolognaise pizza was the best, but they were all good. Trey was the only one to finish his whole pizza so we had the other two wrapped up so that we could have them later. We then drove back to the place we were staying and we all took a power nap before heading out for the night. That night we went to World Bar, one of the many backpacker bars in Queenstown. To be honest World Bar is a very nasty place the whole place smelling like a mixture of BO and stale vomit but they do play good music which is hard to find in New Zealand. We hung out here for a few hours but the lack of sleep was starting to catch up so we decided to head home around 1:30 am to get some sleep.
The next morning Trey must have been feeling nice because he actually let everyone sleep in. He went out and bought some breakfast supplies and cooked bacon and omelets for everyone. After breakfast we took Brian to the Shotover Jet boat launch since this was one of our favorite things that we did in Queenstown last summer. The river was much higher than when we went making the ride a little choppier but Brian said it was a lot of fun and definitely worth going.
Brian representing on the Shotover
In the early afternoon we went to a wine tasting shop so that we could find a nice bottle of wine to leave for our landlords as a thank you. We ended up tasting a lot of wines and buying a bottle for the landlords and another for ourselves. Brian ended up buying a bottle of New Zealand port which was very delicious. After tasting the wines we headed back to the house and had some of the leftovers from the previous night for a very late lunch. We chilled out at the house for a little bit longer before heading back on the road to drive home. A little ways outside of Queenstown the serpentine belt our car snapped so we drove back to the house in Queenstown and decided to stay another night so that we could get the belt fixed Monday morning before driving home. We were lucky we were staying at someone’s house and not in a hotel making easy to just stay one more night at the last minute.
We wanted to keep with the saying and make lemonade out of lemons so we made sure not to waste this bonus night in Queenstown. We took a cab downtown and had dinner at Wai, which is a nice place right on the waterfront.
The is no shortage of scenic places in Queenstown
Brian had the duck, Jocelyn the beef and Trey the snapper. We were all very happy with our meals and decided to keep the night going by having a few drinks at the Bunker bar a few blocks over. We all very much liked this bar because it is on the roof of a building and there is a place outside where you can have a drink sitting around a warm fire while watching an old James Bond movie project onto the building next door.
Drinks at the Bunker
After a few drinks here Jocelyn headed home and Brian and Trey explored the town a little more. After checking out a few of the bars they ended up back at World Bar because it was the only place that had people and was not playing techno music.
The next morning we got the belt on the car replaced and then we started to drive home. We stopped at the place where Jocelyn did her bungy jump last January and watched some people jump. We tried to tempt Brian into jumping but to no avail so we continued on our journey.
'88 it was a great year - Brian and Trey got matching wristbands
On the way home we stopped at the Gibston Valley winery for a tour of their wine cave as well as a tasting. The wine cave was very cool but the rest of the tour was lacking and the wine was not as good as many of the ones we tasted the day before.
Gibston Winery
The Winecave
There was also a cheese place next door and after trying some of the cheese Brian ended up buying a blue cheese and Gouda. We then back tracked a little to have lunch and taste more wines at The Winehouse Kitchen. The restaurant had a nice outdoor seating area with great views of a nearby waterfall.
The food here was very good and a good way to end the trip. After lunch we headed back on the road for the long drive back to Christchurch. On the drive it was a particularly clear day so when we arrived at Lake Pukaki we were treated to a great view of Mt. Cook. By the time we got home it was already 10pm so we all went to bed.
Mt. Cook
The next day Trey and Jocelyn were back at work and Brian took advantage of the day by sleeping in and catching up on his sleep since he has 3 more weeks of traveling ahead of him. After work Brian cracked open the NZ port he bought in Queenstown and set out the cheese and crackers for a nice after work treat for us. That night we took him to one of our favorite "Kiwi style Mexican
place, Coyote bar for dinner and then out to the Bangalore Polo club for drinks afterwards. After a few drinks Brian went out to some more bars while Trey and Jocelyn went and got some sleep. The next night was Brian’s last in Christchurch so he and Trey went out for one last night out on the town. Being a Wednesday night there was not much going on but they somehow managed to stay out till 4am drinking and playing pool. The next day we drove Brian to the airport and said our final goodbyes. It was a good visit and I think we all had a lot of fun.
We already miss him but it was great to be able to share this amazing place with someone who has been there with us since the first night we met!
A week after the earthquake we were fortunate enough to have had a trip planned to Fiji. We could not WAIT to get out of Christchurch and escape the aftershocks. We had to wake up at 3:30am to get to the airport. Before the quake Trey thought he might have trouble getting Jocelyn up and out of bed at that time but post quake, Jocelyn could not have been happier to wake up and flee NZ. Even while we were at the gate waiting to board the plane, a fairly large aftershock struck. We finally got on the plane and it was probably the first time either of us had been relaxed in a week.
The flight was actually very turbulent but after experiencing a 7.1 earthquake and many aftershocks to be honest, it did not really phase us. When we finally landed in Fiji a short 4 hours later we easily got through customs – adding to our many passport stamps, collected our luggage and took a cab to the Denarau Marina where we had already purchased tickets for a 2 hour boat ride to our first hotel, Liku Liku, on Malolo Island.
The boat we took to Malolo Island
It was a great way to start the trip. The boat basically goes around and stops at a variety of resorts that are on tiny islands around the main island. There is music and a bar. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the only hiccup was that neither of us thought to put sunblock in our carry ons so we got a little burned. One of the first things we saw from the boat was a giant sea turtle so we knew it was going to be an awesome trip!
The way they work the boat is really seamless. When you check in they take your bags and ask you what hotel you are staying at. Then, they attach a tag with the name of that resort to your luggage. As they stop at the various islands, smaller boats come from those islands to the large boat. On one side, guys are throwing the luggage off the large boat into the small boat and on the other side they board the passengers.
People getting into a smaller boat to take them to their resort
The islands are so small that the big boat cannot possibly get up close enough to let people off. It was pretty awesome. Ours was one of the last stops. We hopped in the small boat with one other couple from Barcelona who spoke minimal English.
Jocelyn on the small boat
Liku Liku our home for the next 4 days
The driver of the boat explained to us the Fijian greeting and when we arrived at the dock to our resort there were men playing music and waiting to greet us, “BULA!”
Bula! The traditional Fiji greeting
We exited the small boat and another staff member was there waiting to welcome us with a special necklace to keep, a cold, wet, scented towel and a passionfruit iced tea with fresh mint. It was a perfect start on such a hot day. He walked us around and explained the resort and oriented us to our new surroundings. We had not eaten lunch yet so he also directed us to the restaurant where we ate while they set up our room with our luggage. There is only one restaurant at the resort and 2 bars – one indoor and one out on the pier where we arrived. The menu (except for breakfast changed daily so there were plenty of options)
Looking out at the bar on the water
The view from the bar on the water
The food at the resort was excellent and each meal was 4 courses with an amuse bouche, starter, main and dessert. The presentation was also lovely.
Every meal had a live band
Our first meal at Liku Liku
It was good to come to this island first because after the week of the quake, it was nice to be at a place where the food was included in our price so we were not even thinking about little details like that. They even mentioned when we checked in that they would accommodate and knew about Trey being pescetarian and Jocelyn being allergic to berries. After lunch they took us to our room in a golf cart. Even though it is not a large resort, it is very spread out. It is adults only and mostly couples so this increases the level of privacy having things so spread out. We walked into the room and they had set up the bed with a welcome message as well as leaving us each a resort branded sarong to keep.
The path to the villas
Our welcome greeting in the room
There are 3 types of rooms and the resort is pretty much the only thing on the island so it feels completely isolated. All rooms are beachfront and the entire resort is surrounded by a marine reserve. All the rooms are luxurious but the one we had was between the standard and the overwater bungalows that had a deck with a day bed and a private plunge pool. The pool was small and had jets but was about 5 feet deep so it was definitely more than a Jacuzzi. We were literally steps from the sand and the lagoon and our bed faced in that direction so it was lovely to wake up to the each morning.
The plunge pool
Our day bed
All rooms have 2 vanity areas with sinks, etc. as well as an indoor and an outdoor shower. Jocelyn has learned now that we have been on so many tropical holidays that her hands down favorite thing is outdoor showers! Jocelyn was also pretty excited to learn that when they come to make up the room each day, they also bring fresh baked cookies and fill up the cookie jar in the room. She took full advantage of those daily!
As soon as we got situated in our room we threw on our bathing suits and quickly jumped into the plunge pool since it was so hot. Every day in Fiji was at least 85-90 degrees but the Fijian sun made it feel about a million times hotter. It was nice to be able to just go out on our porch and get the benefits of a pool, a day bed and the beach/lagoon. Plus, this holiday we were smart and brought our own liquor and wine so we enjoyed that as well as we relaxed. The overwater bungalows looked nice but we were glad we chose the room we did since the overwater ones were pretty much as far away as you could get from everything and the Fijian tides are quite drastic. At times the overwater bungalows were not over water at all.
Overwater bungalows
We walked right off our porch down to the water at low tide and Trey keenly spotted a small sting ray!! It was amazing.
Be careful of stingrays
We like the sunsets
The next day we went to the restaurant for breakfast. We enjoyed our a la carte meals but were a little bit disappointed by the breakfast at the resort and were not sure if we could have enjoyed it for more than 4 days since the menu did not change. They did offer some buffet options though such as fresh fruit (and a juicer to make fresh juice if you wished) as well as breads and muffins that were quite delicious. And of course, green coconuts with straws to drink the water! Later we ventured to the resort pool as opposed to staying on our deck. It was a complex design and they had cool water with lemons poolside to enjoy.
The main pool
There were always a few other people at the pool and sometimes the staff brought around fruit which was very refreshing. It was not long though before we went to the hut at the resort to claim our snorkeling equipment for the stay. It is great because they give it to you in a shoulder bag with your room number on it so you do not have to go retrieve it new every day. We took the bag and walked right down to the end of the pier and jumped off into the crystal blue water!
We cannot say enough about the snorkeling in Fiji. It is said to be one of the best places in the world and we could not argue with that after our experience. We thought Aitutaki was amazing but this tops it. It was literally like being immersed in a tropical fish tank with as many fish as you could imagine. The colours are far more brilliant than we can describe. Trey was pretty excited when he “found Nemo,” a little clownfish who looked up at him just like the one in the movie! We also were fortunate enough to spot an octopus which apparently is quite rare and of course more blue starfish than we could count! The fish were huge and swimming amongst them was truly unreal. It was good that Jocelyn had practice in Rarotonga and Aitutaki because it helped her to enjoy the snorkeling in Fiji more since she had gotten over many of her fears and felt more independent out in the water to venture out on her own.
Days all sort of blend together in Fiji which really helped us put the earthquake out of our minds.
Did I mention we liked the sunsets
Some other notable things in Fiji was the fact that one evening there was a traditional meal at the restaurant for everyone to enjoy where the menu consisted of an Indo-Fijian smorgasbord and staff singing traditional Fijian music. One thing that we did not realize going to Fiji is how many Indian people/influence there was. Indians had been employed for a long time on the European ships trading in India and the East Indies. Many of the early voyages to the Pacific either started or terminated in India, and many of these ships were wrecked in the uncharted waters of the South Pacific. Indians were basically indentured labourers and brought with them their traditions and other ethnic influences which remain a huge part of Fiji today. The meal was a lot of traditional Indian flavours of course but mixed with tropical fruits like guava and paw paw and seafood like mud crab. Jocelyn discovered that this might be a type of Indian food she actually enjoys and is determined to look for some yummy recipes!
The staff signing traditional songs
Indo-Fijian mudcrab
Before dinner most evenings we stopped by the bar right out on the pier to have a cocktail and look at the stars. It was completely relaxing.
Before dinner drinks
We really did not want to leave but the time had come to go to the next place on Denarau Island and check out the main island. We did not leave until around 4pm though so we lounged around all day, swimming in the pool, in the lagoon, etc. We made our way down to the pier and the gentlemen who sang to us upon our arrival were there to sing farewell. We hopped onto the little boat to get to the larger boat and off we went. It was another 2 hours until we got back to Denarau and the timing was perfect because right before we got to Denarau we were able to watch the sunset over the water.
We got off the boat, collected our luggage and took a big coach bus to the Hilton resort where we were staying. It was definitely a much different feel than Liku Liku. The Hilton is quite large and more like a traditional resort we are used to with multiple restaurants, bars and shops. There is an Asian inspired restaurant, a grill type restaurant, a coffee/pastry shop as well as a frozen yogurt stand. We also realized it was our first holiday at a non-adults only place which was interesting. When we checked in we had a funny experience since we booked the holiday so far in advance. The woman confirmed that we had booked the Romance Package including a bottle of champagne, a spa bath drawn and a private dinner on the beach. We both sort of looked at each other like, “ummm…that sort of sounds familiar? But not really.” It had been so long that we forgot we booked it!! It was a nice treat.
We arrived so late that the first night we just ordered room service and watched tv. Our room was in a good location though since it was 3 buildings over from the adults pool and restaurants. The room was on the ground floor overlooking the water. We did have a small porch and 2 loungers in back as well as a hammock. Even though it was more traditional hotel style, it was not as loud as we thought it could be especially with children.
Looking out from our room at the Hilton
The next morning we went to the grill type restaurant, Nuku, for a buffet breakfast that was also included in our package. They had an omelette station which we loved as well as pancakes, fruit, potatoes, and many other options. We were surprised that we loved the breakfast so much here but we really did. Jocelyn also enjoyed that they included sparkling wine in the cost at breakfast!
The days pretty much all went the same at the Hilton – buffet breakfast, grab a lounger at the pool, order some drinks and snacks at the pool, go back and shower and get ready for dinner. It was lovely.
Drinks on the beach
One thing that we did not love is that even though there were plenty of kids pools and just one adult pool, the adult pool almost always had kids in it. It was definitely a different vibe than any other holiday we have gone on but we felt like we had to experience the main island. One day we did venture out to see the other resorts on Denarau but in the end felt the Hilton was in fact the best fit for us. Another thing that was a bit disappointing on Denarau was the fact that you don’t really see people going in the water. It is pretty murky and the sand is so dark and fine – not great for swimming and definitely not snorkeling so other than laying out by the pool there did not seem to be a whole lot to do. It was just a shame to be that close to the ocean and not truly be able to enjoy it like we have other places.
On our second to last evening we did our private dinner on the beach. It was reminiscent of our honeymoon and now we have done 3 dinners on the beach so it may very well be our “thing”. The food was lovely and it was nice to hear the waves practically at our feet. We could hear the music playing from the main restaurant and at the end of our meal Jocelyn invited Trey to dance with her on the beach. It was a great moment.
Dinner on the beach
How romantic!
On our last night we decided to go check out Denarau Marina where we had caught the boat since there were a good amount of shops and restaurants there. Jocelyn found a sun hat that she fell in love with and of course we had to pick up another magnet to add to our growing collection from the places we’ve been.
Check out my new hat
We also bought a traditional Fijian cannibal fork – don’t worry – it is just decorative! LOL We wound up eating at the Hard Rock Café since we felt like being away from home it would be nice to have American food. We were mostly disappointed with the experience except that Trey enjoyed some nachos that he felt reminded him more of home than any other nachos we’ve had in the past 1.5 years and our waiter was convinced that Jocelyn was famous which made Jocelyn quite happy. Jocelyn also got a shot glass to add to her collection since she collected those from each Hard Rock Café she visited when she lived in UK/Europe.
Mmmm American food
Drinks at the marina
The next day was another full day. Even though we had to check out, the hotel kindly locked up our bags and we lounged out by the pool all day. They did not have facilities to shower in but when we asked at the front, they actually were kind enough to allow us to use a room in their spa to shower and change so we would not be all nasty for the plane ride home.
We arrived home on Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon we went to the airport to pick up Brian. I am sure you are starting to get a sense of why we have not been able to get around to posting blogs!
To see the rest of our pictures click here.
