Travel 2004, NEW ZEALAND!...
I've procrastinated on posting the travel log from last year long enough, so here it goes...
We left Antarctica on the first flight off the Ice at mainbody, and I believe the date was October 5th, 2004. We arrived in Christchurch in the early evening... Still, the process of getting through customs, collecting our bags and then getting to the Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) to drop all our issued gear off is a LONG ONE! Fortunately I've learned a few things in my time coming down here and was able to coach Heather on just how to expedite the process. We blazed all this, hopped into a cab and dropped off our luggage at the hotel, we usually stay at the Stonehurst, and went right to Sala Sala, our favorite sushi restaurant!
Here's a little map of downtown Christchurch which shows a bunch of our favorite locations to eat/drink at...
And here is a link to the MAP INDEX.
We spent about a week in Christchurch and ate and drank like royalty! Then we rented a car from Southern Car Rentals, which gave us a great deal, and we headed north up the coast to Kaikoura, another of our favorite New Zealand locations! We spent a few days there while Heather completed her open water diver certification and I did a dive refresher course at Dive Kaikoura, the best little dive shop in town!
From Kaikoura we headed further north to the Marlborough area, which is one of New Zealand many wine growing regions. We stayed at a little backpacker called Watson's Way which is run by Paul and Pat Watson and is SOOOO nice and friendly! This is in the tiny town of Renwick:
Renwick is at the heart of the Marlborough wine country and this allowed us to tour a number of vineyards in the area. We rented bikes from Watson's Way one day and rode to about 6 vineyards and then the next day hired a great guy, Barry of Barry's Wine Tours, and hit a number of other vineyards in the area.
Barry was absolutely GREAT and we had a blast with him as our guide...
From Renwick we headed north to an even tinier town of Havelock, which is a little port town noted as the green lip muscle capital! So, no stay in Havelock would be the same without a trip or two, or three to Mussel Boys restaurant!
While we were in Havelock, we stayed at the Rutheford Lodge, which is a cozy and quite little spot with a lovely husband and wife owner/operator. We booked a sea kayaking trip at the lodge and spent the day in the fabulous company of another owner/operator couple Juta and Ed and their tour company, Sounds Natural!
After a few days of stuffing ourselves with mussel's we packed up the car and went onto the West Coast area and specifically to Punakaiki where we stayed at the very fun and funky, Punakaiki Beach Hostel I had been here previously and really LOVED that this place was right on the ocean, close to the tourist area and sported a hot tub!
The "pancake rocks" tourist area is all about the amazing rock formations, blowholes and gorgeous ocean views!
From here we headed back to Christchurch via Arthur's Pass which is a great place to stay for the night, high in New Zealand's Southern Alps. Here we stayed the night at the Mountain House and enjoyed the company of a couple of blokes who were working in the area helping to groom a hiking trail, which are plentiful in this area!
And the next day we found ourselves back in Christchurch where we finished some final business with Raytheon for our returning contracts.
From Christchurch we flew on the first leg of our Star Alliance Round the World tickets to Auckland, New Zealand.
We went to Auckland to meet friends and to have our wedding ceremony! While Heather and I had already been legally married at the courthouse in Aspen, Colorado on August 15th of 2003, we never had time for a ceremony, so after a year in Antarctica we thought it would be appropriate to renew our vows in a more formal setting. Heather and I had previously had our first date in Auckland when she came to New Zealand after I had been on the Ice, so it seemed appropriate that we have our wedding here!
We had booked a wedding cruise with The Pride of Auckland, which is a sailboat charter company out of Auckland Harbour. We found them online and made the whole booking and arrangements through them.
They were even able to put us in touch with a lovely Justice of the Peace by the name of Wendy Overy, who performed the ceremony.
With her efforts, a great and very accommodating crew on the boat, fantastic weather and fantastic friends, I don't think we could have asked for a better day!
Heather was looking SMASHING!
and I wasn't looking too bad either...
We sailed for about an hour then found a gorgeous little cove and laid anchor for our ceremony...
We were joined by our friends, Christine and Anthony "Antz" Powell, Bija Sass, Elizabeth Morton, Zoe Vida, Paul Smotherman and Renee Magyar.
After the ceremony, we sailed back to Auckland and then loaded up cabs and headed to Tanuki, our favorite sushi place in Auckland.
"The Tanuki or badger is credited with magical and supernatural powers. In appearance he resembles a raccoon faced dog and folk tales telling of his exploits depicted him as mischievous and pleasure loving. He is said to appear on rainy moonless nights disguised as a Buddhist priest and exhibits an inordinate capacity for sake. Frequently he is portrayed in a priest hat, a straw raincoat bulging over a belly full of sake, with a wine bottle slung over his shoulder. Tanuki is often placed before shops as a figure of welcome."
I think everyone had a BLAST and we certainly ate and drank to match the festive occasion...
After Tanuki, we headed downtown in Auckland to a bar called Minus 5 and had quite a blast there. The entire bar is Ice and so the interior is all Ice tables and sculptures...
A few of our friends that joined us on our wedding cruise pitched in and got us a gift certificate to "The Den" which is an adult shop... they know us SOOO well!
While we were in Auckland we stayed at the Auckland Sheraton (now the Langham Hotel) and spent about a week exploring around the downtown area of Auckland.
After Auckland we flew to Sydney, Australia and spent a week in the Bondi Beach area... more on that soon!
We left Antarctica on the first flight off the Ice at mainbody, and I believe the date was October 5th, 2004. We arrived in Christchurch in the early evening... Still, the process of getting through customs, collecting our bags and then getting to the Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) to drop all our issued gear off is a LONG ONE! Fortunately I've learned a few things in my time coming down here and was able to coach Heather on just how to expedite the process. We blazed all this, hopped into a cab and dropped off our luggage at the hotel, we usually stay at the Stonehurst, and went right to Sala Sala, our favorite sushi restaurant!
Here's a little map of downtown Christchurch which shows a bunch of our favorite locations to eat/drink at...
And here is a link to the MAP INDEX.We spent about a week in Christchurch and ate and drank like royalty! Then we rented a car from Southern Car Rentals, which gave us a great deal, and we headed north up the coast to Kaikoura, another of our favorite New Zealand locations! We spent a few days there while Heather completed her open water diver certification and I did a dive refresher course at Dive Kaikoura, the best little dive shop in town!
From Kaikoura we headed further north to the Marlborough area, which is one of New Zealand many wine growing regions. We stayed at a little backpacker called Watson's Way which is run by Paul and Pat Watson and is SOOOO nice and friendly! This is in the tiny town of Renwick:
Renwick is at the heart of the Marlborough wine country and this allowed us to tour a number of vineyards in the area. We rented bikes from Watson's Way one day and rode to about 6 vineyards and then the next day hired a great guy, Barry of Barry's Wine Tours, and hit a number of other vineyards in the area.
Barry was absolutely GREAT and we had a blast with him as our guide...
From Renwick we headed north to an even tinier town of Havelock, which is a little port town noted as the green lip muscle capital! So, no stay in Havelock would be the same without a trip or two, or three to Mussel Boys restaurant!
While we were in Havelock, we stayed at the Rutheford Lodge, which is a cozy and quite little spot with a lovely husband and wife owner/operator. We booked a sea kayaking trip at the lodge and spent the day in the fabulous company of another owner/operator couple Juta and Ed and their tour company, Sounds Natural!
After a few days of stuffing ourselves with mussel's we packed up the car and went onto the West Coast area and specifically to Punakaiki where we stayed at the very fun and funky, Punakaiki Beach Hostel I had been here previously and really LOVED that this place was right on the ocean, close to the tourist area and sported a hot tub!
The "pancake rocks" tourist area is all about the amazing rock formations, blowholes and gorgeous ocean views!
From here we headed back to Christchurch via Arthur's Pass which is a great place to stay for the night, high in New Zealand's Southern Alps. Here we stayed the night at the Mountain House and enjoyed the company of a couple of blokes who were working in the area helping to groom a hiking trail, which are plentiful in this area!
And the next day we found ourselves back in Christchurch where we finished some final business with Raytheon for our returning contracts.
From Christchurch we flew on the first leg of our Star Alliance Round the World tickets to Auckland, New Zealand.
We went to Auckland to meet friends and to have our wedding ceremony! While Heather and I had already been legally married at the courthouse in Aspen, Colorado on August 15th of 2003, we never had time for a ceremony, so after a year in Antarctica we thought it would be appropriate to renew our vows in a more formal setting. Heather and I had previously had our first date in Auckland when she came to New Zealand after I had been on the Ice, so it seemed appropriate that we have our wedding here!
We had booked a wedding cruise with The Pride of Auckland, which is a sailboat charter company out of Auckland Harbour. We found them online and made the whole booking and arrangements through them.
They were even able to put us in touch with a lovely Justice of the Peace by the name of Wendy Overy, who performed the ceremony.
With her efforts, a great and very accommodating crew on the boat, fantastic weather and fantastic friends, I don't think we could have asked for a better day!
Heather was looking SMASHING!
and I wasn't looking too bad either...
We sailed for about an hour then found a gorgeous little cove and laid anchor for our ceremony...
We were joined by our friends, Christine and Anthony "Antz" Powell, Bija Sass, Elizabeth Morton, Zoe Vida, Paul Smotherman and Renee Magyar.
After the ceremony, we sailed back to Auckland and then loaded up cabs and headed to Tanuki, our favorite sushi place in Auckland.
"The Tanuki or badger is credited with magical and supernatural powers. In appearance he resembles a raccoon faced dog and folk tales telling of his exploits depicted him as mischievous and pleasure loving. He is said to appear on rainy moonless nights disguised as a Buddhist priest and exhibits an inordinate capacity for sake. Frequently he is portrayed in a priest hat, a straw raincoat bulging over a belly full of sake, with a wine bottle slung over his shoulder. Tanuki is often placed before shops as a figure of welcome."
I think everyone had a BLAST and we certainly ate and drank to match the festive occasion...
After Tanuki, we headed downtown in Auckland to a bar called Minus 5 and had quite a blast there. The entire bar is Ice and so the interior is all Ice tables and sculptures...
A few of our friends that joined us on our wedding cruise pitched in and got us a gift certificate to "The Den" which is an adult shop... they know us SOOO well!
While we were in Auckland we stayed at the Auckland Sheraton (now the Langham Hotel) and spent about a week exploring around the downtown area of Auckland.
After Auckland we flew to Sydney, Australia and spent a week in the Bondi Beach area... more on that soon!
posted by Heather & Pauli at 7:03 PM
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