Wednesday, Feb. 16 Franz Josef Glacier to Nelson (yawn)
Today could be summed up in a manner similar to Caesar’s Gallic Wars: We came, we saw, we went to bed (or something like that.) We are making our way back to Auckland driving up the west coast of both islands. We did see more gorgeous scenery, but not the spectacular type we have come to expect.
We ate lunch in Greymouth (not a disease - the town sits at the mouth of the Grey River, which isn’t grey. Grey does describe the town, however, a very industrial town, the only one we have really seen in our journey thus far. We had just about decided we would have to eat at McDonalds, when we finally spotted an interesting tavern, Speight’s Gold Medal Ale Tavern. Speight’s Ale is the Budweiser of New Zealand, only it tastes much better. As usual in this country (which we dearly love, don’t get me wrong!) I had to virtually stand up and wave my arms to get service. But the seafood chowder was delicious!
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| Speight's Gold Medal Ale Pub |
Otherwise it wss five hours of driving through seaside, mountains, riverside, and farm country. Driving on these two lane roads (with one lane bridges) reminds me of what a pilot friend of mine said about flying: “Hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.” Part of the terror this day was getting to our heritage house stay on the top of the mountain overlooking Nelson and Tasman Bay. Up a twisting single lane road about two inches wider than our tires. And of course we met someone coming down! So we backed up until we could pull into someone’s driveway so the other party could pass. But the view from this aerie was wonderful!
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| View of Nelson from our bedroom window |
Dinner at Ford’s Restaurant downtown featuring a delightful grouper and a Sauvignon Blanc from Nelson, which is in the Marlborough region famous for this varietal. Of course, to get to dinner, we had to drive down the road and back up again. I made sure we got back before dark!
Thursday and Friday, Feb. 17-18 - Nelson to Plymouth, then to Auckland for flight
From Nelson we were up early to get to the ferry back to the North Island, then up to New Plymouth as a convenient stopping-off point on the way back to Auckland. Once again, the scenery on the drive was quite striking, or at least Karen told me it was, because I was doing the white knuckle thing steering around the mountain curves and taking our lives in our hands passing double trailer trucks. Glad to be done with the driving now, which was about 2500 miles (my rough calculation of the 4000 + kilometers on the odometer. Best of all, I delivered the car back to Avis with both car and occupants intact!
One interesting feature of New Plymouth is a walking bridge over a river near the seashore which is a real work of art. It looks like the skeleton of a whale and if you stand at the south end and look back north, it frames Mt. Taranaki (Mt. Egmont), a very impressive dormant volcano which is an almost perfectly symmetrical cone. I’ve included a picture, but the mountain is barely visible because it was partially obscured by clouds.
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| Walking bridge in New Plymouth with Mt. Taranaki in the background. |
New Zealand - Some observations and reflections
New Zealand is a wonderful place to visit and I think would be a great place to live. We have visited many wonderful places, but we would not choose to live there. (I always say that Cleveland is a great place to live, but I wouldn’t want to visit there!)
The People: We were there for two weeks and with one minor exception, everyone we met was friendly and genuinely interested in us. I’ve joked about the restaurant service being slow, but the servers were always friendly and smiling. Everyplace we stayed the hostess took great pains to help us make the most of our time there. I mention the lone exception, because it was fairly humorous. At a gas station, I asked where the “restroom” was. The imperious reply was, “We don’t have any rooms where you can rest. However, we do have a toilet you can use.” At first I thought he was joking with me - he wasn’t! But never mind him - the other 4 million people were great!
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| A few of our newly found Kiwi friends at Waitangi |
The Scenery: All in all, some of the best scenery in the world. I described in the Milford Sound post the magnificence of the Southern Alps, particularly in the Sound itself. The South Island is one spectacular view after another. The North Island is less spectacular, for the most part, but I compare it with Tuscany in Italy. Around every bend there is another vista where I would say, “Look at that! Isn’t that beautiful!” Like Tuscany, that was only when I could take my eyes off the road. I wanted to visit Hobbiton, the site where the Shire was constructed for “Lord of the Rings” and will soon be used again for “The Hobbit.” But there were so many places with greener than green hills that could have been the Shire.
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| A typical rural vista on the North Island |
The Roads: Despite my complaints in previous posts, what a refreshing change to have to drive through every little town on the way and see the real country rather than zipping by everything on a superhighway. It took me back to the ‘50’s when I would go on road trips with my parents on two lane roads through every city, town, and burg along the way to Florida or out west. New Zealanders are excellent drivers and courtesy abounds. When a car or truck is holding up a line of traffic and there are no passing lanes in sight, it is not uncommon for them to pull over to the left, slow down, and indicate by turn signal that those following should go ahead and pass. When have you ever seen that in the U.S.? They really ought to work on converting the one lane bridges to two lanes, however!
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| Oh, I hope no one is coming from the other end! |
So in summary, New Zealand was fabulous! If I had unlimited funds, I would buy a condo somewhere on the South Island (probably Queenstown area) and spend January to March watching the sun come up over the mountains. I will do this just after I buy a villa in Tuscany, where we would spend our summers. Remind me to buy a Lotto ticket when we get home.
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