Day
6:
Had a leisurely morning after our big day
yesterday. Got up, had breakfast, packed lunch for today and tomorrow and went
for a stroll before checking out and catching the train. Oh the train…what a
cultural experience that was this morning. Alex was heckled by a meth addict in
withdraw for taking too long at the self-serve ticket machine. A quick ride to
the airport and we were ready to sit and wait for our plane. A little plane for the ride to Tassie, but
very very full. Even sat in front of a Calgary Flames fan.
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| Brie cheese will NEVER taste the same |
Landed in Hobart at 4:30 (to a “chilly 9
degrees” – which feels colder than we remember 9 feeling at home), de-boarded,
got our luggage, caught the shuttle and arrived at the hostel at 5:30.
Backstory, Alex wants to get to every state in Australia before she gets home,
so that’s why she decided to take us here for a couple nights. Neither of us
were that excited about it until about a week ago when we were grocery shopping
and sampled some triple cream Tasmanian Brie. This has been all we can talk
about for the last week. So we googled the closest cheese factories to our
hostel. Closest one, 20 minute walk (according to google), closing at 6pm every
night. 5:30. We check in, get to our room, drop our things and we were off. We got there in record time at 5:50.
Overwhelming! So many yummy treats around us. This is what we walked away with:
One chunk of triple cream brie, one block of organic wild pepper corn cheddar,
crackers, cranberry/orange/spice spread, a bottle of pinot noir and some honey
chocolate covered almonds. So delicious. Time for us to drift off into our
cheese comas though.
Day 7:
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| Proper thing - Whiskey at 11am |
What a beautiful day. Woke up at the
Pickled Frog hostel (reminds us a little bit of a haunted house, but really
nice and cosy with really friendly staff), had leftover sandwiches for
breakfast and showered in the coldest bathroom ever. It was a little bit like
showering at a camp ground, but it’s winter…not fans of winter showering. After
we bundled up, we headed on our way. We explored the city centre for a bit
before stumbling on to a whiskey distillery. GOOD MORNING TASMANIA! Whiskey
tastings at 11am are our new favourite way to warm up on a cold winter’s day.
After our whiskey tasting we headed to the
bus to make our way to Richmond. This is a cute little town outside of Hobart
that we feel is fully supported by summer tourists – we definitely through them
off by touring around this time of year. We drove past about 10 wineries on our
way, but were only walking distance to one so we stopped in there for an
afternoon tasting. Delicious. Sampled a few whites and reds and finished it off
with a sweet white (anyone looking for Christmas ideas for Maura can order a
crate of this and deliver it to NFLD).
After the tasting Maura decided she wanted
to find the Tri-Wizard cup and led Alex through the local double maze. Let us
add that it was an overcast day and the man running the maze/tea room was
wearing a large satanic star ring that was also drawn throughout the maze
(along with the gremlin cartoons). After NOT finding our way through either of
them, we headed back to the teashop for our lolly we got for finishing them.
Stopped in at the bakery for a little sweetie and a hot chocolate before taking
the bus back to the city.
We fly to Melbourne at 6am tomorrow morning
before connecting to New Zealand so we’re having an early and relaxing evening
at the hostel. Monopoly, packing and some tunes. Great end to a perfect day.
Day 8:
Hello again, dear friends. Today was great,
long but great. We woke up at 3:45am this morning to pack up our little room in
Hobart before catching the bus and heading to the airport to fly to Melbourne
(or as the locals say, ‘Melbin’) before onwards to Auckland, New Zealand. After
a harmless, but surprisingly busy, flight to Melbourne we landed safe and sound
before going through two separate sets of security before finding the
international terminal and going through a third and final time. While passing
what was a three-hour layover in Melbourne before our flight, we decided to
wander through the duty free. Both rocking our St. FX sweaters, we hear in the
background a “Hey! St. FX! That’s in Nova Scotia!” We walked back to find a
lovely girl from Ottawa (born in Halifax) who was working in the duty free, and
chatted with us as we sampled some vodka.
Venturing forth to settle at our gate, we
were soon to find that our plane was nowhere in sight, no longer had an
estimated departure/boarding time, and had a gate change. After a delay of only
about an hour and a half, we were settled on our flight and en route to
Auckland. With two more stamps on our passports, we found our hostel, which is
set up differently than our last ones…undecided if we like it or not yet, and
grabbed some dinner. On our way back, we decided it was time for a treat since
Maura didn’t get sick on various early morning flights and layovers, and we
stumbled upon a local organic gelato shop, and our lives changed for the
better. Beyond delicious. We have just finished pouring through vast amounts of
brochures and are now going to get some shut eye before our big day tomorrow,
consisting of black sand beaches, a zoo, an aquarium, lots of wool, and an
evening outdoor skate. Hopefully we can get some sleep, as it seems we are
sharing this apartment with two European couples who are enjoying a few late
nightcaps before settling in.
Day 9:
Almost to the double digits here people,
hope you’re still hanging onto our adventures. Today was fantastic, to say the
least. We woke up early, got some groceries for our adventure here in NZ to
help us have some meals and snacks to help keep us from having to eat out every
day and night. After discovering some phenomenal deals, we dropped our treats
in our room, and headed out to get our rental car. We got a free upgrade
because we are dropping the car off in Wellington before we take the ferry; the
upgrade is from a small car to an Toyota rav4 of sorts. The reason being they
need the four-wheel drive cars on the south island due to snow, and not in
Auckland, so we are a glorified shuttle service. Though we will be spending a
little more on gas, the four-wheel drive and size of it, seems to make it a
little safer, which is worth the extra money in the end. Because we’ve learned
you’re not allowed to turn left on a red light in Australia, we thought we
would double check with the sales agents about the road rules here and learned
the same goes here.
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| Black sand at Piha Beach |
After being looked at like we had three heads for wanting
to turn left on red lights, we headed off to Piha Beach, which is a popular black
sand beach in the area. We got there through what seemed to be literal
rainforest, with trees more than 40 feet high easily. One of the most beautiful
drives of the trip, and really helped us understand what people said when they
mentioned New Zealand as “how beautiful the world looked before people came and
ruined it”, it was simply stunning. Once we arrived at the beach, we were met
with very black sand, and lots of cool shells. We took some, ahem, samples,
lots of photos, and were on our way to the zoo. The Auckland Zoo appears to be
a very popular place, and it should be. One of the best zoo’s we have been to,
lots of animals, lots of cool animals, in lots of pretty settings. Sadly, the
Kiwi birds were hiding when we went by their habitat, however we did see a
larger green eagle type bird that hopped around as what can best be described
as the “Soldier Boy”. After spending a good chunk of the morning there, we had
a snack and explored a pretty little suburbesque shopping area just outside the
city on our way home. Along the way
home, we walked along the waterfront, saw a little more of the other side of
downtown Auckland, before getting a cell phone and heading back to the hostel
to make dinner.
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| The Canadians would find the ice rink in the middle of Auckland |
After a lovely meal and a bottle of wine,
we decided to go skating on the public skating rink by our hostel. What a fantastic
set up, outdoors rink, a carousel, and teacups, all in the same area. After a
little skate, and only one tumble between the two of us, we went across the
street to grab some churros. Now, when I say that, it may seem random, BUT,
there were 100 people in line for them last night and then when we walked by
again there were another different set of 100 people in line. We figured they
must be good, and we were very correct in that assessment. After our long day,
we came home, out on some laundry (we are still in the process of doing it),
and packed up to head to Hamilton tomorrow. Beyond excited, we are going to
Hamilton to see the All Blacks-Ireland game. Should be the best. Well, best be off
to check the dryer, keep your fingers crossed because it is certainly past our
bedtime. Cheers, Alex and Maura
Day 10:
Another great day in New Zealand! Woke up
relatively early to make breakfast and pack up of tiny room, say good bye to
our “roommates” and headed off to Hamilton. Driving out of Auckland towards
Hamilton is stunning. The hills and scenery are breathtaking. We haven’t seen
anywhere as beautiful. We wanted to stop and pull over for photos all the
time. Hamilton isn’t that far from Auckland
so it was a relatively short drive today.
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| All Blacks vs. Ireland |
Now, Hamilton may seem like an odd or
unpopular destination, but we were off to see a rugby game: All Blacks (New
Zealand) vs. Ireland. Driving into Hamilton there are street banners and flags
hanging at all the houses. We pull into our hotel and….it appears we are
staying at the Irish hotel. We happily discovered the hot tub and sauna and
went off for a soak before getting ready for dinner. Headed off to dinner and
got a wicked parking spot halfway between the restaurant and the stadium.
Filled up on a lovely dinner before quickly changing and following a mass of
fans to the stadium. WHAT A GAME!!!!! Beautiful winter weather if you ask us,
although plus 15 at night isn’t real winter. It started to mist during the
first half, but stopped shortly after. An absolutely unreal game. The All
Blacks won 60-0. So great, a little disappointing for Ireland (and it seemed as
though a third of the fans had flown in from Ireland for the game) but wicked
for the home fans.
Off to bed now. We have a longer drive back
up north tomorrow morning to see the bay of islands before heading on to Cape
Reinga the next day to see the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meet. Hopefully we
can get some good photos for you. Night night!
Day 11:
Big day today people. We woke up early
(well, tried to) and headed back up north towards the Bay of Islands. We don’t
want to sound like a broken record, but New Zealand is the most beautiful place
on earth. We are spoiled for coming here so young. (Alanna, you need to get
here. Don’t care how, just get here!) The drive was stunning and as Alex drove,
Maura did an excellent job capturing photos. Stopped at Sheep World along the
way as we are on the hunt for wooly things to bring home to keep us warm during
the Canadian winter. We didn’t pay admission to go in and watch the sheep
sheering and wool production exhibitions, but we did browse around the gift
shop.
We landed at the YHA hostel in Paihia and
it is beautiful. We have a room to ourselves with our own bathroom (no shower
shoes tomorrow), we even have some artwork on the walls. After we got our stuff
settled we drove off to the wharf to see the little shops and the Bay of
Islands itself. Again, it is the most beautiful place on earth. Walked along
the water and found some sea glass to bring back to the cottage. Headed back to
the hostel, after watching the sunset, to make a lovely dinner. Curling in to
watch the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in anticipation of our
tour next week, with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and a wheel of Camembert. $8
bottle of Sauvignon Blanc we may add…and it’s absolutely amazing. Friends and
family, New Zealand needs to be added to your list of places to go before you
die. You’ll all love it.
Day 12:
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| Meeting of the seas |
So what did we do today? Drove. And drove
some more. We started up North to see Cape Reigna. This is one of, if not the,
most northerly point of New Zealand. We were told that there is a beautiful
little lighthouse and this is also the location where the Tasman Sea and
Pacific Ocean meet, and there is supposed to be noticeable markings in the water
where this happens. Well, what a drive up there it was. Think you’ve been on a
windy road before? THINK AGAIN!!! We can only describe one section of the drive
up and over a mountain as, well, hell. It was like the Cabot trail meets the
autobahn on crack. Alex is suffering some blisters on her fingers from gripping
the wheel around the turns and Maura can no longer say she doesn’t get carsick.
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| Not THAT far from home... |
Watching the two bodies of water meet was
incredible. After our lovely picnic lunch on the hill over looking the water we
headed back towards the twists and turns and off to Auckland for the night.
Settling into our hostel for the evening. Seems like a popular spot with
several friendly faces. We’re just too tired to be sociable, and we have
another day of driving ahead of us tomorrow. Alex and Miwa out. (The
receptionist here has changed Maura’s name to Miwa/Mawa. A couple new spellings
for the books). 
