How to Visit New Zealand

"Don't leave town without seeing the country" was the advice I got from Shawn, one of the anesthetic technicians at the hospital.

Everywhere I've ever visited before coming here was about visiting the place - Paris, Miami, Hong Kong, the Greek Islands ... Even destinations that are renowned for their landscapes and vistas rather than their monuments and cafes still surround a place name such as Banff or Honolulu or Mykonos.

When planning your visit to New Zealand, with one significant exception, you should rent a car and as quickly as possible distance yourself from anything resembling civilization. If you come to New Zealand to visit the cities and towns, you'll be sorely disappointed.

To be brutally honest, there is only one city or town in New Zealand that will "wow" North American or European visitors. This is Queenstown which can't be missed. There are many nice places such as Napier, Wellington, Taupo, Nelson and unfortunately the former Christchurch, but there is unlikely to be anything there that you haven't seen before. You will enjoy your visit to them, but they don't have anything that you need to travel 15 000 km to see.

Don't forget that NZ only has 4 millions inhabitants of which 1/3 live in Auckland (which has all the appeal of Cleveland), so there a great many tiny places. And even more with no name at all.

In New Zealand, the magic is in the tiny places and the spots between the tiny places.

Highway 1 ... the traffic was craaazy!

The number one recommendation about visiting New Zealand is to get off the beaten track and take in the scenery.  Head out onto the country roads (well ... they're pretty well all country roads) and just look around. Go on a hike. Get out on the water.

The Baldrys on a hike next to Queen Charlotte Sound

In my final days here in New Zealand, I've been polling Kiwis about how to see the best of their country in a short period of time. One of the anesthetic registrars (Kiwi for anesthesia resident) Clare Smith put it most concisely in recommending that visitors rent a car and spend their time in New Zealand driving the circumference of the South Island. The South Island encompasses nearly 2/3 of New Zealand's total land mass but only 1/3 of the population. Realistically, you would have to spend a lot of hours on the road to accomplish this enjoyably in under two weeks, but the message is that you'll need to get out of town to see the greatness.

How does Canada compare to New Zealand? After all, Canada is well endowed in natural beauty. Most Kiwis are enamored with Canada whether they have visited or not.  I understand why. Our outlook on life is quite similar. Kiwis and Canadians are generally mild mannered and laid back. Our societies are both overshadowed somewhat by a much more populous neighbor. And while the US and Europe feature fantastic cities, Canada and New Zealand impress with raw natural beauty.

However, Canada is huge and New Zealand is quite small, so the impression is that every curve in the road promises to reveal some new wonder that will yet again urge me to suddenly pull over the car to take pictures despite the eye-rolling and whines of complaint from the other passengers in our car. With it's small population, the landscape is unspoilt and accessible. Outside of a 50km radius from the 3 major cities, highways are 2 lanes and undivided, so you simply don't go flying by at 120 km/hr.  New Zealand roads encourage you to take your time.

And it's well worth it.

This will likely be my last blog post from New Zealand. We have loved our time here and are sad to leave. I'll try to post from Bali, Singapore and Australia but bandwidth at hotels in this part of the world is generally quite limited and expensive, so uploading photos will be difficult.

The Baldry's Best & Worst of New Zealand

After reviewing our blog posts over the last few months and stapling our kids to the table for 15 minutes, here are our votes for the best things we've experienced in New Zealand.

Best Places To Visit

1. Queenstown. Hands down winner! An attractive town in a stunning setting. There are tons of great activities to do in and around town and a whole slew of excellent restaurant and bars where you can relive your adventures of the day. Invest in the flight across the Southern Alps to Milford Sound. It's worth it.
2. Wellington. A very hip and cool city with a good dose of culture, several great bar scenes and some fantastic restaurants.
3. Taupo. Adventure capital of the North Island, although a mere shadow of Queenstown. Great trout fishing and water activities.

Dishonorable mention: Wanganui, Rotorua

Best Activities

1. Skyline Luge, Rotorua. Popular vote from the kids. What better way to spend a school day afternoon than careening down a mountain at 60km/hr in a sled on wheels.
2. Shotover Jet, Queenstown. Awesome jetboating activity through the gorges of the Shotover River. Look for the red boat.
3. Splash Planet, Hastings. Not a particularly great water park, but was definitely at the right place at the right time.

Dishonorable mention: Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World, Auckland,  Sharika Farm, Hawke's Bay

Best Beach

1. Waimarama Beach, Hawke's Bay. The nicest beach we have ever seen. Far enough away from the nearest town (45 minutes from Havelock North) to be unspoilt. So beautiful it could be on the set of a movie. Everyone enjoyed the surf.
2. Opunake Beach, Taranaki. Quiet black sand surf beach off the Surf Highway framed by volcanic cliffs on either side. There was more heat coming from the black sand than from the sun.
3. Porangahau Beach, Hawke's Bay. Great setting for a late fall stroll. Completely deserted.

Best Hotel

1. Lakeridge Condos, Queenstown. A 10 minute hike up the hill out of town, but with great views over the lake and super-luxurious.
2. Alpine Springs Motel, Hanmer Springs. With the Southern Alps as a backdrop, the sunset over the golf course was spectacular. Very luxurious and a 6 minute walk from the hot pools.
3. The Claremont, Martinborough. Spacious and luxurious although a little out of the way.

Dishonorable Mention: Southern Comfort Motel, Christchurch.

Best Restaurant

Mackenzie digging into a Fergburger

1. Flame Restaurant, Queenstown. The clear winner for the incredible ribs.
2. Fergburger, Queenstown. Heavenly gigantic custom made burgers according to your exact specifications. Apparently repeat visitors make a specific pilgrimage back to this place.
3. Izakaya Yatai, Palmerston North. Our local favorite. Atypical Japanese restaurant within walking distance from our house. We've been 6 times and will spend our last evening in New Zealand here.

Honorable Mention: Oh Calcutta, Parnell, Auckland, Istana Malaysia, Wellington
Dishonorable Mention: Every single Italian restaurant we tried, The Garlic Press, New Plymouth.

So that's the best and worst we've experienced in New Zealand among a very long list of activities, hotels and restaurants.

It was fun to reminisce about the places we've visited, but we're all starting to feel a little nervous about leaving in 10 days time. I think we all share the same feeling of excited anticipation at adventures to come and our Montreal homecoming, but are introspective about the journey's end.

Next Post: How to Visit New Zealand

The Beginning of The End

It's really starting to feel like we're in the home stretch now. Our cupboards are bare.

Cassandra's Closet

We've spent the last two weeks repairing and packing our crate. Although 1/3 of the crate was empty on the way here, we needed to pile all the family on top to get the cover on. Really hope the wine bottles didn't break!

Our crate leaves for Canada

The shipping company came to pick it up on Monday. I was shocked to find out it was 112kg heavier on the way home - souvenirs for all of you guys!

We posted our car on Trade Me, the NZ version of Craig's list, and it sold in under 72 hours. In return for a drop in price, the buyer agreed to let us keep it until the week we leave.

All of the utilities have sent their final bills. We've made reservations at all our favorite restaurants for one last visit. The guys from work are taking me out for a few drinks this Thursday. Gotta get me some Vitamin E.

Harrison and Kiwi buddies

Harrison had a sleepover last weekend with some new Kiwi friends. We got off relatively easy with 5 boys, a trip to the local go-karting joint, 9 litres of Mountain Dew and nearly 8 straight hours of the Family Guy. At the final hour, he is ambivalent about his return to Canada on account that he will miss his new girlfriend Zoe.

The real challenge comes this weekend when nine 8 year old girls invade our house for Cassandra's sleepover. The locals have applauded the advance planning it took to be on call at the hospital from Friday night to Monday morning. Trish however has managed to recruit another Mom to help with the bedlam.

And two weeks tonight, our suitcases will be packed and beside the door awaiting the 6am taxi pickup to the airport. The goodbye's to new friends and colleagues will be completed and our voyage home will be about to begin.

Martinborough & the Wairarapa

With just under 4 weeks left until we leave New Zealand, we set out on our last NZ excursion this past weekend to visit Wairarapa, the most southeast region of New Zealand's North Island.

There are still many things I wish we could have done or visited. A short list would include:

• Tramping (Kiwi for Trekking) the Milford Track, a 3 day hike across the Southern Alps that represents itself as the "finest walk in the world"
• Tramping the Tongariro Crossing, a single day hike (it takes 11 hours) across the 3 volcanoes in the central North Island
• Basking on the fine beaches of the Coromandel Peninsula
• Exploring the Waitomo Caves, near Hamilton
• Touring Northland & Bay of Islands Regions

While the largest town in the area is Masterton, we chose to stay in Martinborough, a town well-known as a gourmet and wine destination. We had visited once before in February for the Martinborough fair but only stayed for a couple of hours.

Our apartment for the weekend

This weekend we stayed at the Claremont where each room is named after a grape varietal. To kick off the weekend on the right foot, we drove a short 15 minutes to the boutique town of Greytown for tapas at Salute!. Great food!

On Saturday, we grabbed a quick breakfast at Cafe Medici and then set off to explore Cape Palliser, the most southerly point of the North Island.

Even under gray mid-winter skies, NZ is a beautiful place. After staying at our cottage in Palmerston North for a few weeks, we start to lose sight of what's so great about NZ. Thirty minutes out of civilization and I find I can no longer suppress the urge to stop the car in the middle of the road (there's no traffic anyway) and get out to take a few pictures.

Surfing Palliser Bay

You'd be disappointed in New Zealand if you stuck to the cities and towns. The magic is in the small places.

Surf crashing on a nameless deserted black sand beach off Palliser Bay

We drove along Palliser Bay to the tiny Maori fishing village of Ngawi, a town with the remarkable claim of having more bulldozers than people. The bulldozers are used to pull the fishing boats &  trailers into and out of the ocean every day.

Cape Palliser and Ngawi

A couple of kilometers along the precarious gravel road past Ngawi, we found a large fur seal colony lounging in the grass a few feet off the side of the road.

 

At the end of the road, we found the Cape Palliser lighthouse.

Harrison and the girls trying to look excited about the climb.

There wasn't much interest in making the 252 step climb, but I swung the momentum by setting out alone - couldn't resist the photo op! Cassandra then Mackenzie then Harrison & Trish soon followed.

... can't breathe ...

The views from the top were fantastic!

Cook Strait

As we returned to Martinborough, the weather finally broke. We made a quick pit stop to pick some Tylenol for Harrison and a Pinot Noir for Trish and I. Since the wine store was next to the cheese store, I couldn't resist a little bit of Molly's cheddar. I asked the lady behind the counter if she was Molly. She answered flatly that Molly was the name of the cow whose milk was used to make the cheese. Oops.

I am far from a wine connoisseur, but have always been satisfied with my tendency to prefer wines in the $20 - $50 range. The Ata Rangi winery produces some of New Zealand's most available wines. This might not be a good thing, but figured I would drink as close to the source as possible. I broke my usual rule and bought Ata Rangi's signature wine, the 2009 Pinot Noir priced at $75 NZD ($60 Can).

WOW! It was fantastic! It may be one of the best wines I've ever tried and stood well on it's own as well as with Molly's cheddar and the lousy BBQ ribs we ordered in for supper.

So why travel to a hotel in order to stay in for dinner? Well, our weekend rental was more of an apartment so came with a kitchen and a dining room. The weather outside was cold and rainy, the fire in our apartment, nice and warm. Harrison was not feeling well. I was starting to feel pretty damn good with my Ata Rangi Pinot Noir. And yes, we had pay TV (Sky TV) and there was a ton of great movies slated for Saturday night.

I know what you're thinking. Lame. Another factor was that although Martinborough is gifted with many good restaurants, most of these are based on the vineyards and their menus feature delectable gourmet choices paired to the wines they produce. What's the problem then? Harrison, Cassandra and Mackenzie. NZ diners would probably not have a problem with kids intruding onto their gourmet experience, but my pocketbook would object to paying top dollar for food that the kids would instantly judge as "disgusting".

Paua Shell

On Sunday, we decided to celebrate Father's Day with some shopping. First, we picked up some trinkets at Paua World, a store that specializes in crafts made from the Paua Shell.

Then it was back to the vineyards, particularly Ata Rangi, to buy some wine to bring home. I ended up purchasing another bottle of the 2009 Pinot Noir. The good news is that my palate didn't lie. Most wine critics rate it either a 96 or 97. The bad news is that the same wine critics estimate that it will be at it's best in 5 years.

Castle Point on a nice day. Our day was much worse.

On the way home, I wanted to take a 2 hour detour to Castle Point, but once again the heavens opened and Trish and the kids helped me to realize that a rugged coastline, a cool lighthouse and spectacular beach would all suck in the pouring rain.

So I kept driving back to Palmerston North and wondered when our next New Zealand adventure would present itself.

With 4 weeks to go, we're now fully focused on coming home to Canada. This idea dominates our thoughts with all the things we need to take care of before we leave on July 16 and the excitement at seeing friends and family and sleeping in our own beds, swimming in our pool and playing with our toys.

Tune in again soon for our opinions on the Best of New Zealand and my advice on How to Plan Your Visit to New Zealand.

Fiji!

Bula! (Fijian for Hello!)

Fiji's Coral Coast

How many North Americans have been to Fiji? Judging from my own circle, very few. Even less have been to the other South Pacific islands like Tonga, Vanuatu or the Cook Islands.

5:45 am in the Baldry household

So as part of our New Zealand experience, on May 22 we decided to take a break from the fall weather in Palmerston North and fly 3 hours north to Fiji, the most developed and well known of the South Pacific islands, for a week in paradise.

Girls are ready!

We flew to Auckland and then onto Nadi, the second largest city on the largest Fijian island of Viti Levu. Our resort, Outrigger on the Lagooon, was a family-oriented resort on the Coral Coast near the town of Sigatoka about half-way between Nadi and the capital city of Suva.

Harrison finds something at the duty-free store

Fiji is a popular vacation destination for Australian & Kiwi tourists traveling on package deals, similar to Mexico and Caribbean destinations for North Americans. As such, quite a few people at work had been to Fiji. I initially expected Fiji to be similar to Hawaii - both are volcanic islands in the tropical pacific ocean. I didn't expect Waikiki or Maui, but rather the smaller Hawaiian communities that we saw on Kauai. The people at work told me to expect a more "third world" experience outside the resorts.

I was expecting the Fijians to be Polynesian like Hawaiians or the Maori for that matter. However, the indigenous Fijians look like they could be African: tall, round faces, afro-textured hair. The other significant ethnic group (35% of the population) is the Fijian Indians who were initially brought to Fiji by English colonists to work sugar cane fields in the 19th century. There is considerable friction between the two groups as the indigenous Fijians feel that the Indians are "taking over".  Migration patterns seem to suggest that the Fijian Indians have got the message and this population is on a steep decline.

Harrison at the Sigatoka Market

We didn't spend much time outside the resort, but what little I saw of Fiji would seem to agree with the comments I'd received at work. I found the stark difference between lush luxurious resorts and the extreme poverty in many of the towns that we drove through on our way to the resort similar to what I had seen previously on trips to Cuba, the Dominican Republic or Mexico's Mayan Riviera.

A family bure, our pad for the week

Our resort was beautiful. The grounds were impeccable. I rarely saw anyone cleaning anything which made me think that a lot happened at night. Because we were staying in a larger room, we qualified to have a personal butler or talai service. Harrison had visions of ordering one french fry at a time and then sending them back if the ketchup was not applied just right. It didn't work out to be that special and I'm not sure I would have paid any extra money for it if wasn't complimentary. Zac (anglicized from something much less pronounceable) and Salote were available from 4:00pm onwards and would appear close to 5:00pm with a glass of champagne for Trish and I and soft drinks for the kids as well as some snacks to hold us off until supper. After returning from supper, we would find our bed turned down with flowers spread over the bedspread and some kind of liqueur and tart (baked good not floozy) on our table. Nice touch.

This was very much a pool resort. The scene around the pool was fun for kids with lots of protected areas for small kids and tons of complimentary toys to play with. The resort animators were excellent. There was no swim up bar, but there were waiters & waitresses everywhere.

11:00am. Here's Brother John with our medicine.

The beach was a bit disappointing, although it's possible that this was just related to the timing of our visit as apparently 2 weeks before the beach had been closed because it had been badly damaged during a few rough storms. The resort is located along Fiji's Coral Coast, so the beach is made up of bits of coral that have broken off from the coral reef offshore. It's a little rough to walk on and there weren't many people that spent their days on the beach.

Paradise

There was a coral reef about 200m offshore which meant that there were no appreciable waves to frolic in, but it did make for excellent snorkeling. I went out every day with Harrison and once with Cassandra. We saw beautiful purple starfish, sea cucumbers, eels, and no less than 100 different fish. And the water was about 80 F.  Sweet!

Best shell find ever. This was about the size of a watermelon.

Don't get the wrong idea though. There are many resorts on Fiji's outlying islands, usually the ones advertising beach weddings, that have icing sugar beaches worthy of the cover of travel brochures. However, getting there can mean a lengthy (4 hours) ferry ride and many resorts are adults only.

Everyone enjoying the pool in Fiji

The weather during our week was typical of most tropical islands that I have visited - warm and volatile. The temperature never went below 26C even at night. Of the 6 full days we spent in Fiji, 2 were flawless, 1 was wet and the others were a mix of sun and cloud.

Lunchtime spot

It was easy to recognize that the resort catered to families. The clientele was at least 98% Australian. The resort had lots of activities organized in the evening to teach you about Fijian culture as well as some fun stuff for the kids.

Kava ceremony

The first night we attended a Kava ceremony. Kava is a drink made up of the ground roots of a local plant mixed in a large bowl, like the one in the picture above. It really does taste like muddy water, but has local anesthetic properties (my tongue went numb) and if you drink too much, "it'll lay you back". After some incantations, we (kids too!) all had to take turns drinking from the same bowl. And, you've got to chug it back all at once; this is not a sipping drink. Trish tried to take hers in a few ladylike sips, but was strongly chastised by the ceremony leader.

There were two racing nights where 10 captured crabs (on Tuesday) and 10 toads (on Thursday) were placed in the middle of a circular platform. There was an extensive auction process where people wagered up to $125 Fijian dollars ($70 Can) to "buy" a crab/toad. If your beast was one of the first 3 to crawl or hop off the platform, you could take home between $250 - $350. The crabs were fun, but the action was much funnier with the toads as this pile of amphibian suddenly exploded off the platform and into the crowds, scattering bodies and spilling drinks everywhere. Retreating adults tripped over squealing kids crouched to catch the bounding toads.

Of course, all our kids were then infatuated with returning from supper every night to then spend an hour braving the bugs to catch toads lurking in the well manicured gardens around the resort. Harrison took a night or two to build up his confidence, but proudly caught 17 "big ones" on our last night in Fiji.

Fijian fire walking tribe

We also went to see a show where some members of a distant Fijian tribe walked across stones that had been sitting in a raging fire for some 6 hours. Apparently this tradition is steeped in Fijian mythology. It sounded cool, but was kind of long and drawn out and they ran out of beer. I also suspected that it was a hoax.

Despite the less than optimal weather, our vacation still earned enthusiastic reviews from all of us. Through all our travels, Harrison has maintained that his favorite destination is our habitual spring break spot in Mexico's Mayan Riviera. In his mind, our trip to Fiji earned itself a new spot atop the list of favorite vacations. The resort, the Fijian people, the snorkeling, the cocktails ... were all enough to make Fiji a special place to visit.

A couple more pics:

Quiet indulgence

Fijian night at the buffet

Ahh ... this is where Fiji water comes from.

Cassandra with an Australian friend

More Australian friends

At the time of this writing, we have 40 days left in New Zealand. Although, we have one last weekend away in the Wairarapa & Martinborough region just north of Wellington, our focus now is on packing up and coming home. I went to the hardware store today to buy tape and bubble wrap and have started to hassle the shipping company to get things organized. As much as looking forward to our return to Canada, we are all looking forward to our whirlwind tour of Singapore, Bali and Australia.