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Our Air New Zealand flight 653 from Rotorua to Christchurch lasted approximately an hour and a quarter. Upon completing our journey over the Pacific Ocean, we had some impressive views as we rounded off over Pegasus Bay. Soon enough, we had landed in Christchurch and were off to collect our luggage. We did not have a transfer into the city previously arranged so we needed to seek this out upon our arrival. We were quite fortunate to find a driver right away with a good rate and efficient service. We were taken into the city and made our way to our hotel, the Hotel off the Square. I immediately fell in love with this property as it has everything that I enjoy in a property. It was simple and very European in nature, offering basic amenities is a very tasteful environment. I highly recommend the property to others and would stay there again in a heartbeat. | |
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We
spent our first late afternoon in the city exploring by means of the
Christchurch historic tramway system. It was a great way to have
an introduction to the city and get our bearings. That evening we
had some great Thai food in a restaurant called 'Ann's'. I had
really wanted to go back the next night but they were closed for the
remainder of our time in Christchurch given that the following evening
was a Sunday and then the day after that was a holiday - New Zealand's
Labour Day. We spent our evenings playing pool, something that I really came to enjoy in New Zealand for some reason. I used to play it some time ago but we managed to find a lot of bars in New Zealand that offered pool - many times free - so I enjoyed getting back into that. |
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Sunday,
October 22nd, 2006 This day was bit lower-key in nature. We spent the morning getting a quick bit to eat for breakfast and then went shopping for some clothes. We each bought a new shirt at Hallensteins in downtown Christchurch. We then spent the day exploring the city and the outskirts and eventually made our way to the Botanic Gardens. Upon returning to the hotel after this, we took a nap. This was not too much of an uncommon occurrence on this trip! That evening we
had dinner at a Mexican restaurant. It was interesting to be so
far from home and have food that is typically so common in the
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Given
that it was a holiday in New Zealand, we were a bit limited on the
number of options of things to do in the retail sector. For the
remainder of the day, we wanted to find something fun to do so we went
to Science Alive!
This is a museum where basic science and physics principles are put into
practice with hands on experiments. We spent a bit of time in the
interactive area where we each took turns experiencing the full effects
of earth's gravity on New Zealand's highest Vertical Slide. The
slide did not look that intimidating but when we sat on the edge of the
top of the slide, we thought differently! The slide starts off at
a very steep slope and it looks as if you're going to slide straight
down a wall. It was quite fun, however, given that we each went a
couple of times! After our fun there, we then played a round of glow-in-the-dark miniature golf in the Black Hole. Later that day after walking back into the city, we had dinner at the Loaded Hog. We found another location of this restaurant in Queenstown later on in our trip. |
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Tuesday,
October 24th, 2006 On the morning of the 24th (Tuesday), we prepared for a drive from Christchurch to Dunedin. We had breakfast at Denny's before heading out of the city proper. We then headed out for a long but scenic drive along the east coast of the South Island. This particular day and drive proved to be what was the best day in terms of experiencing some of the best scenery that New Zealand has to offer. We made several stops on our journey from Christchurch to Dunedin and they were all spectacular with photo opportunities abounding. |
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We made a stop at the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony but quickly learned that the penguins do not typically come out during the day. Sunset is the prime time for penguin viewing, apparently, as there is a daily attendance to view them. Given that we were on a relatively strict time schedule to keep driving on to Dunedin, we just looked around a bit and then proceeded. We did walk down the breakwater a bit and spotted a seal, which was quite cute! | |
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Our next stop was at the Moeraki Boulders. These boulders are perfectly round, grey, and of various sizes. They are scattered along the beach and make for fun photos. While we were walking along the beach, we spoke with some other tourists. Interestingly enough they were from Rotterdam, the Netherlands. We saw them a couple of times that day at various stops that we made on our way to Dunedin. | |
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There is some truly spectacular scenery along the drive between Christchurch and Dunedin. We stopped a few times to capture some photos and enjoy the site of the wonderfully blue water. | |
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By late
afternoon, we arrived into Dunedin. We could already tell just by
driving through the city and passing through the Octagon (focal point of
the city) that there would be some fantastic sites here. We
already figured that we could have used at least another night here as
well. We were only scheduled there for one evening. We
checked into our hotel, the Mercure
Hotel Dunedin, and then began a long walk throughout the city. Photographed to the left is First Church. The architecture style is that of Scottish-born Robert Lawson. The church is considered to be Lawson's greatest contribution to Dunedin's rich architectural heritage. There is plenty of beautiful architecture and scenery throughout the city and we eventually made our way down to the University of Otago. The university campus is beautiful and it brought back great memories of my having gone to college and strolling throughout the campus. One of the most prominent structures on the campus is the clock tower. After making our way back into the city from the university, we found a Chinese restaurant to have dinner. We had plans to go out that night but the bar we had selected is only open on weekends so we just hung out at the hotel. |
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Wednesday,
October 25th, 2006 On the morning of our departure from Dunedin, we paid a visit to the Dunedin Railway Station which was opened in 1906. It is considered to be one of New Zealand's finest historic buildings and one of the best examples of railway architecture. We took a peek into a Cadbury factory located along the waterfront as well. Tours are available of the factory but we decided to proceed with our day which would eventually take us to Queenstown that night. |
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Before leaving the area, however, we took a drive out to Larnach Castle on the Otago Peninsula. It is located nine miles from central Dunedin and was built between 1871 and 1885 for financier, businessman, and politician William J. Larnach. We took the Highcliff Road and that in and of itself provided sweeping views of the Dunedin harbour beneath. We wandered around the grounds of the castle and took some wonderful photos of the gardens. | |
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As we proceeded to return to the city of Dunedin to gain access to the highway once again, we made one more stop to Baldwin Street which is the steepest street in the World. Interestingly enough it is part of a modest, quiet neighborhood and occasionally I noticed residents walking up and down just to get a good workout. I walked down the street myself and then proceeded back up. It most certainly was a good workout! | |
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After
catching my breath from the walk up Baldwin Street we were finally off
to Queenstown, the adventure capital of the World. This was
probably the most interesting drive of our trip, with dramatic scenery
and fun stops. We drove just slightly south through Milton and
then proceeded northwest on highway eight. We made a brief stop in
Cromwell to have a fish luncheon and I picked up a bottle of nice New
Zealand wine. The drive to Queenstown was also punctuated with
numerous wineries and bed and breakfasts. The wines that I found to be my absolute favorite on this trip are also from this area, particularly Mount Difficulty and Bannockburn. Prior to arriving into Queenstown, we stopped for some photos at Roaring Meg. This was a wonderful stop which provided fantastic photo opportunities on the rocks and along the rapids. |
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We
stopped to see one of the original bungy sites at the Kawarau
Bridge. The jump is 141 feet and offers a wide variety of ways to
jump and even be immersed into the water. The jump operator, A.J.
Hackett, runs a wide number of other bungy sites throughout New
Zealand. We would be going to another of their sites later on in
the trip in Queenstown.
We checked into
our hotel, the Copthorne Hotel and Resort Queenstown Lakefront.
This property provided spectacular views of the surrounding area and
mountains of Queenstown. It is approximately a ten minute walk
into town so we often times did that when we did not have the rental
car. |
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Most Heard on the iPod & Radio, New Zealand, October 2006 Nothing in This World, Paris Hilton • My Love, Justin Timberlake Lips of An Angel, Hinder • Welcome to the Black Parade, Chemical Romance I Write the Sins Not Tragedies, Panic! at the Disco • In Your Arms, Hellogoodbye U + Ur Hand, P!nk • Chasing Cars, Snow Patrol Sexy Back, Justin Timberlake • Tell Me Baby, Red Hot Chili Peppers Get Up, Chamillionaire Listen HERE to The Edge, FM |
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Thursday, October 26th, 2006 It was an interesting sensation to wake up on this particular day and think that we would be going sky diving soon. I have always had sky diving on my 'life list' of things that I just had to do before I die. Well that day came much sooner than I would have ever expected and now was the time! Not to die ... to sky dive, rather. I was excited and scared all at the same time. We checked in at the nZone office in downtown Queenstown to get set up. After signing for the charge, we went into a briefing room where we would watch a preview DVD and be given an overview of what would be happening this day. Gradually as time ticked away, my heart rate was increasing rapidly. I purposely did not much of any breakfast that morning except for a coffee and a pastry. We decided to take the complete photo package which involved having our own photographer and we would receive an actual photo book, DVD, and CD of the photos. For this type of an experience, it seemed worth the cost. Before we could think too much more about it, we were getting into a van with other adventurers to be driven out to the jump field. I pretty much just sat in the back of the van and was staring blankly ahead. A girl next to me received a phone call on her mobile telling her that she had just gotten a job she was hoping to get. She was thrilled about that and had the whole van talking about it. Granted, I was happy for her but it just was not what I had on my mind. After about twenty minutes of driving, we arrived at the jump site and filed out of the van. I was surprised that my knees and legs were even holding me up at this point. I made a quick restroom stop and could already hear outside the door that we were being called to jump. I thought I was going to pass out. We were introduced to our jump instructor and our photographer. The briefing was much more basic that I had expected. We got into extensive gear and harness and were told the basic necessities. We were told that once we were at the edge of the plane door, that we needed to keep our back arched and head back. I was the first one to board the plane which later meant that I would be the last one to jump. A few moments later, we were all crammed into the plane. We took off and I swear that my heart rate increased with every single foot that the plane ascended. As we approached 12,000 feet, I seriously thought that I was going to pass out. The instructor attempted to reassure me that this was a vested interest to survive with our jump and that he had done nearly 10,000 jumps. Most all of the instructors had some insane number of jumps under their belt. |
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I can
safely admit that all of the smiling I was going for the camera on the
way up were truly fake. Timothy was near the door and would be the
first one to jump. I wanted to take note of how long it took for
them to get prepared, be sitting at the edge of the plane door, and make
their way out of the plane. They inched over to the door and their
photographer was already outside of the plane hanging onto the side to
take video. I could assuredly proclaim at that point that that job
is very well down my list of great career moves! I could barely take note of how long they were at the door and I saw Timothy and his instructor just fly out of the door and they were on their way down. I think I was just white as a ghost at this point. A girl that jumped with us in our plane was the next to go. Same story : I barely blinked before they were just sucked out the door and falling to the ground. |
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We got
to the door and my life was just flashing before my eyes. I really
couldn't think of anything at this point other than making sure I was
doing what I was supposed to be doing. Even with that small of a
job, the instructor had to remind me to put my head back. The
feeling of sitting at the edge of the door, hearing the blast of the
plane's propeller, and seeing thousands of feet of air below you is
inexplicable. The photographer was encouraging me to smile for the camera but I think I was on the edge insanity. We rocked back and forth about two times to gain momentum and we were then out of the plane. . . . . . . |
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Interestingly
enough, the initial fear of death disappears almost
instantaneously. My mind shifted simply to experiencing the
sensation of falling, true falling. The time passes relatively
quickly during the free fall before the instructor activates the
shoot. At several moments throughout the free fall, my instructor
was tapping my shoulders to remind me to lift my head up. All I
could do was take in the feeling of falling and I think that I had bits
of cloud condensation going into my mouth. Staring straight down at the mountains, ground, and lake while dropping was just incredible. All the while, the photographer kept trying to coerce me into looking up at the camera and I think that I got just a couple of glances his way. |
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The
view is just priceless of my instructor just passing the time, checking
his height gauge, and preparing to activate the parachute while I was
staring down and dropping. The instructor activated the parachute and there was a slight jerk as we righted ourselves to be standing vertically. As the parachute filled with air, I got an incredible perspective of how fast we were falling when the photographer went shooting down past us. He needed to get down to the ground first to be able to photograph us as we landed. |
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I
rather enjoyed the parachute fall and was able to finally just enjoy the
amazing scenery and realize what I was actually doing. The landing
was quite simple. I was instructed to just keep my feet and legs
out in front of me and that he would pursue the landing. The feeling of touching down on the ground was interesting and I was just so pumped up with adrenaline that it was amazing. I think that the look on my face says it all in how happy I was to have accomplished this. After getting out of our gear, we were told that our photos would be ready by about 4:00PM. We were, of course, really anticipating seeing the photos and video of our first time sky diving. It truly was an incredible experience, I would do it again for sure, and recommend it to anyone! |
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That
evening, we enjoyed a wonderful buffet dinner at the Skyline
Restaurant. We took a gondola ride up to the Skyline facility
and had some time before dinner started. We looked in the gift
shop and also down at the 'Ledge' bungy site. We were speculating
on doing this later on in the week. It seemed like we could do
just about anything now that we had sky dived! After dinner, we stopped off to play pool as we had been doing a bit of while in New Zealand. I was gradually improving my game as time went on. |
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Friday,
October 27th, 2006 We had an early wake-up on this day as we needed to get aboard a motor coach to go to the Milford Sound in Fiordland National Park with Real Journeys. I knew that it would probably provide some spectacular scenery and I had heard just so much about it. I did not, however, look forward to the long coach ride. The total advertised tour time was 6:55am to 7:30pm. Only about two hours of that time was scheduled to be aboard the vessel in Milford Sound. We made a couple of stops to get a snack and use the restroom. I brought a book with me, 'A Million Little Pieces' by James Frey, and read a lot of it on the coach. |
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The
weather was not all the best for our sailing as it was cold and
raining. As we moved closer to open seas, we began to roll and bit
and Timothy was not feeling all that good. Despite the pouring
rain, I managed to get outside and take some photos. Admittedly,
it was beautiful scenery but just hampered a bit by the cold and rain. After the sailing, it was time to get back aboard the coach for the long journey to Queenstown. It was nice to get back into town and head out to have dinner. We had just one more full day in Queenstown after this evening. I was already a bit melancholy by that fact as I had come to really like the city and found it to be my favorite overall. |
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Saturday,
October 28th, 2006
On this day, we
were on our way to Puzzling
World in Wanaka. There are two ways possible to drive there
from Queenstown and we decided to try the shorter route. We took
the Crown Prince Road which involved a lot of steep climbs and hairpin
turns. We had a smaller, older vehicle on this day so it was quite
an interesting drive. |
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I'm
really not riding a chair for the physically challenged in this photo,
it is part of the angled room ... really! It looks like the chair is
actually climbing uphill but when I sat in the chair, it was actually
going downhill toward the other end. Another illusion was typically of what I've read in psychology class. With certain effects such as the checkered floor, it appears as if visitors start off as giants, walk to the other corner, and shrink. There was a time elapsed video where we could watch ourselves in the room afterwards on a television. We spent probably a good hour in the human maze. There are four towers in four corners and the goal was to climb up each of the towers. They encourage visitors to find the towers in a particular order but I wound up just being happy that I found them all. There were then photo opportunities outdoors where we could create our own effects with the props that were available. I can't really say that we've done anything quite like that before! |
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Later
in the day we took the gondola again and this time we took a couple of luge
rides. We started off with an intermediate course and then
progressed to a more difficult one. After the luge rides, we decided to give the 'Ledge' bungy experience a try. Those who know me fairly well know that I just am not able to get myself to jump off of anything head first. I can't do it in a pool and I was not about to do it off of a ledge. That is why I signed up for the bungy 'swing'. This involved being in a harness, pulling a switch, and falling down and over the mountainside and over the city skyline. It was exhilarating and a great time. I purchased the DVD of that as well but did not get any still shot photos. Timothy wound up not doing the bungy jump. Timothy had some technical questions which he always likes answered. The staff was eager to get the jump completed and would really not take the time to cover it in great detail. |
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I
could see both sides of it and they offered for him to do the jump a few
times and finally had to move on to the next person who was
waiting. I stood at the jump site and watched her run off, do a
somersault, and fall below over the trees. It was then my turn and
the staff member and I moved over to where I would do the bungy
swing. |
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It was
wonderful to walk around and experience any number of wines that I
wished. I chatted with some others who were doing it as well and
we were comparing notes as to the ones that we liked. By far, my
all-time favorite wine there (and overall) is the Mt. Difficulty
shiraz. I can very well see myself ordering some of this online
for home delivery. It will be well worth the shipping cost. We had dinner afterwards at the Loaded Hog. We had had dinner at this restaurant while in Christchurch so we knew what to expect. It was a nice evening to wind down and reflect back upon the two weeks that we had experienced in New Zealand. The next morning, we were to be heading out for the long journey back to Seattle. |
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We
arrived to the Queenstown airport and the status of our flight read,
"suspended'. Given the low fog levels, they were not sure if
our jet would be able to arrive. I was getting pretty nervous
about this because if we could not get out of Queenstown in a timely
fashion, we may very well have missed our connecting flight heading to
Los Angeles. Luckily the plane made it in okay and we flew back up
to the North Island into Auckland. Being a civil aviation fan, Auckland was a true playground for me. I took photos of some aircraft that I really never get to see such as those of LAN Chile (A340), Aerolineas Argentinas (A340), Emirates (777 & A340), and Air New Zealand (747-400 & 777). I also found a kiosk to get a deep tissue massage so I was really in heaven at this point! I figured that it would do some good for the long flight in economy class to LAX. |
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I
admittedly was very spoiled from the flight over having had business
class. I was also feeling pretty bitter that we now had to go
economy. I rationalized to myself, however, that I could now
compare to the classes of service. |
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It was
finally our turn to board. We queued up and got to the check-in
scanner. Timothy went first and the system had an error. The
gate agent reported that Timothy apparently had 'checked in'
already. Well since this was impossible, it must have meant that
our seats had been occupied by someone else already. She spoke
with the customer service manager and he re-printed boarding cards for
us. Lo and behold, I could overhear that we were in row number FIVE. The day instantly seemed to turn around and brighten up for us incredibly. We did not get the upper deck but I was okay with that as I wanted to experience the main deck this time to compare. |
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We were
just one row before the forward boarding door. I could tell that
this jet had not been retro-fitted with the new 'Skybeds' but I wasn't
thinking that I would be sleeping much on the flight back. I did
wind up sleeping quite a bit on the return flight home and uncomfortably
slept sideways in a fetal position. The 'Skybeds' truly spoiled
us and created a great night of sleep for the flight south. We enjoyed champagne after boarding and soon enough, the customer service manager was closing the door. We backed out and then heard an announcement that we needed to pick up some modified manifest so we moved forward again to the gate. The door opened once more, the staff retrieved the print out, and then closed the door again. All the while, we were perusing the dinner and breakfast menus. Our flight attendant for the business class section was impeccable and I wish that I could have remembered her name so that I could submit a letter of commendation. |
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The
cabin again had the 'mood lighting' but it was not nearly as radiant and
efficient as the jet that we flew coming over. The entrée choices
on this flight included chicken cacciatore, beef filet, and olive
crusted snapper. The wine selection was wonderful and since I had
now come to love many of the southern hemisphere wines, their wine list
really fit the bill. I watched the movie, 'The Devil Wears Prada' and also a comedy showtime feature with Dame Edna. Both were great! Qantas also featured a concert performance for the month of October with Kylie Minogue. There is usually a song or two that I take well to on international flights that I seek out when I get home. On this particular flight it was 'See the World' by artist Gomez. It was a good flight overall but, as I mentioned, I was a bit achy after sleeping on my side in a seat that did not recline fully. |
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Upon arriving to LAX, we needed to power our engines outside of the gate bay and then be towed in. This is a rule for all aircraft at LAX, apparently. We disembarked the jet by means of the second door versus the one just behind us. Soon we were going through customs and immigration. It was a rude awakening dealing with all of the Homeland Security initiatives and less-than-friendly agents after having been in a country with such pleasant and welcoming residents. Oddly enough, we passed beneath three framed photos of George Bush through this whole process as well. I was wondering, "do we really all need to be reminded?" I had never seen such displays at other airports. We had a lengthy wait in Los Angeles before our next flight to Seattle. We flew aboard Alaska Airlines flight 115 aboard an MD-80. We had a rambunctious child behind us as well so it was just what we needed to polish off a long day of flying. CONCLUSION As I mentioned in
the introduction if you had asked me over a year ago, I would not have
had New Zealand on my top five - or even top ten - list of places to
travel. It certainly was not that I did not want to go but I had
just not put the thought into it. I would have selected any number
of other cities in the Pacific region before New Zealand. In
retrospect, I am just thrilled and feel privileged that we had this
opportunity. New Zealand is a country of abounding beauty and
adventure. I pursued and completed adventurous feats that I would
have never imagined. They were all extremely positive for me and
really enhanced my courage and self esteem. I learned more about a
culture that I really did not know too much about and discovered some
fantastic new wines that I hope to enjoy for a long time to come. |
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