PWT? Not us!

Now here's something I can't say I've ever thought to do... Pulling into Taupo we hit a few of the local holiday parks to check rates, scenery, facilities, etc... Now up until now, we have pretty much limited ourselves to camp sites as our sleeping options. If we're really looking to spoil ourselves or if the weather just isn't looking like it's going to cooperate and keep us dry, we'll spring for a hostel. But at one of the holiday parks we tried we were offered up a new option – a caravan. A caravan? Yes, a caravan.

We walked around the site for our obligatory inspection of the facilities (communal bathroom, kitchen and lounge areas) and then made our way to the caravan. It is what you would expect I suppose – a camping trailer, pulled straight from the '50s and it could be ours for the low, low price of around $40 per night. Sold! We booked our three nights and quickly settled in. We unloaded practically the entire car, put away dishes, lined the spice rack with all of our seasonings, hung up clothes and felt immediately at home. Clementine, as she was named after a not too extensive period of deliberation, was stocked – queen size bed, two benches for seating, pretty much a full kitchen, closet and a TV. She was, in her own half-century old, musky, dusty way the perfect holiday getaway – and she was all ours.

We have lots of great memories of times spent with Clementine – cooking up some great homemade meals, playing cribbage late into the night, sleeping in late and watching our shows (which consist of Relocation-Relocation, a British show where the two camera-worthy real estate agents help find new digs for rich folk and The F Word, a Gordon Ramsey show where he runs a restaurant with a new group of amateur cooks each week).

It was a sad day when we had to say goodbye, but alas, we had to move on and Clementine had to provide much needed shelter for a new family. Ya, I can't say I could see us back home rolling into a KOA and asking to rent out someone's 50 year old camper. But then again, after the summer of '95, I'm never going back to a KOA again. (Please refer to the Tillamook County Sheriff's Office judicial records for further information... Sorry again Mom and Dad.)

Down the hatch!

I walked into the kitchen of our holiday park in Manapouri only to find yet ANOTHER older woman flirting with my husband (they love him, those cougars), when after introducing myself, she said “Oh, you're the wino!” (Also not scoring high points). Though a tad harsh, she was harmless after all, but apparently I'd been called out on my appreciation of wine. As many of you have probably heard me gush from time to time, my favorite wines EVER are the Sauvignon Blancs produced in the Marlborough region of New Zealand's South Island. I've found that price doesn't much matter, as the $7.99 King Shag from Trader Joe's (BUY IT if you've never tried it – it's spectacular) is right up there with the $20 plus bottles of Dog Point, Whitehaven, and Giesen, which are three of my favs. But really, I've been hard pressed to find a bottle of the crisp, grapefruity/green apple-y/grassy goodness of a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc that I don't enjoy. Okay, maybe I am a wino.

SOOO, you can imagine my unabashed excitement upon arriving to the South Island and heading straight for the glorious grape-laden fields of Marlborough. We stayed at an adorable place called Watson's Way Backpackers, right in the heart of the wine region, whose owners were happy to point us toward the wineries offering free tastings, and to the best meat pies in town for soaking it all up afterwards. Our first day out we drove around to the outlying wineries, hills surrounded by vineyards as far as the eye could see on a gloriously sunny day. The scenery was as tremendous as the tastings! Our first stop was Montana (known as Brancott in the States – they don't go by Montana so as not to confuse us with thinking the grapes were grown in the state of Montana – they give Americans a lot of credit, eh? Thought you'd find that interesting, Eleissa – before our niece Leighton was born, Eleissa was very familiar with the likes of Brancott as well!). It was the first time that it's really 'hit me' that we're here....I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that we were wine tasting in MARLBOROUGH!! We hit up 11 different vineyards and met some very entertaining people – including one wine steward who grew up in Portland!

The second day we rented bikes from our lodge and made our way around to several more within peddling distance, stopping at farms for heads of garlic and shallots, and local cheeses along the way. Another lovely warm day welcomed us as we combined our boozing and biking. By the end of the day we were surprisingly steady on our wheels, even after tasting the offerings from 13 different 'cellar doors' – impressive, no?! The headache the next day said differently, however. But with about 50 or so wineries in the area, I'd say we'd done a decent job touring the sights in our two days!

Needless to say we found some amazing wines....some of which we can find at home, but most of which are not exported to the States. We looked into the cost of shipping some home – YEAH RIGHT – the shipping fee and taxes alone cost over $300, NOT including the cost of the bottles themselves. Not quite in this traveler's budget. Ah well. We would have loved to share the joy of what Bouldevines had to offer (my top choice – even the Reisling was fantastic) and especially the Mt. Riley Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc with our Prosecco-loving family, but alas, tis not the season after all. We were able to pick up a few bottles to enjoy on our travels, however, with surprisingly little arm-twisting from wino, I mean wife, to husband!

For Todd

Have you ever seen that Friends episode where Rachel makes the trifle but the pages of her cook book are unknowingly stuck together and she ends up with custard (good), jam (good) and meat (GOOOOOD!!!)? Meat pies are kind of like that. An apparent staple around New Zealand, I'm quickly becoming a fan. Picture a light, flaky crust wrapped around the meat/cheese/veggie combination of your choosing. It's not exactly gourmet, as the gelatinous and rather unidentifiable meat goo that binds the filling together constantly reminds you that you are in fact eating mostly “meat goo”, but they're still good. They're usually about three inches across and run about $2 USD each. A nice little snack on the go. So many varieties to try and so little time. I'm sure we'll report back on our favorites once we've completed more taste tests. I'm already envisioning a meat pie cart on the corner of 13th and Lexington. Maybe I'll end up in Bon Appetite!

In all its glory, I present to you steak and onion goodness. Enjoy.

Is this sane?

Unique people, places and activities in New Zealand are what we would like to go for as we travel around. If we can stay off of the Lonely Planet hot spots and get a little more authentic flavor we will. So granted, NZ is the adventure sport capital of the world (bungee jumping, zorbing, sky diving, hand gliding, giant swing things, black water rafting and on and on and on...), but none of those things are adventures that we couldn't have at home. Maybe zorbing being the exception, but we're not dying to do that.

So of our options, I'm thinking that a bungee jump would be pretty cool as Queenstown is the birthplace of the sport? (back in 1988). At least I could then say that I jumped from the very first location ever. But then I thought, hey, if we're going for it, let's go for the big daddy. As the original location is off of a bridge and about 150 feet high. But, for those with a complete lack of sense, there is the Nevis jump which is something like 130m. Now I'm still working on my imperial-to-metric conversions, but I think that's around 400+ feet. Riiiiiight... When we were at one of our hostels up in Renwick there was a guy we met from London who had just done the Nevis jump and had a video of it. We watched it. I'm not doing the Nevis jump.

Depending on the timing of this post, we may be past Queenstown and past the bungee jumping experience. Either way, I'm sure I just freaked my mom way the f' out with even the possibility of us bungee jumping. I know, Mom, I won't tell you for sure until after the fact.

Oktoberfest - NZ Style

Pulling in to Rotorua for a few days of thermal pool soaking and touristy wandering, we pull into the local Top 10 and get checked in. We browse the wall of brochures to see what there is to do around town and what catches our eye? Of course the advertisement for the first ever Oktoberfest to be held in nearby Okere Falls. They've got a drunk bus leaving from the nearby Burger Fuel and everything... this could be trouble.

A twenty minute ride later and we pull up in front of a small roadside store in pretty much the middle of nowhere. Granted just about everything looks like the middle of nowhere around here unless you're actually in a larger city. We figure we're probably stopping to pick up a few more degenerates, but nope, it's off-the-bus time. We're here?!?! Ok, around back we go to what could be described as a nice little outdoor beer garden type area – tables set up on terraces, a few small tents, a fire barrel and a window with two lederhosen-clad bier maidens shelling out the frosty cold beverages. Not to be deterred by the underwhelming nature of this Oktoberfest celebration (guessing about 15 people there once the bus unloaded, total), we head to the window for our first sampling. Twelve genuine German selections to choose from – why not just run down the list and get them all?

A new deck of cards quickly purchased from the store (naturally we forgot ours back at the camp site) and we were well on our way to a debaucherous night of drunken Gin Rummy. Watch out New Zealand!!! We hung out for a few hours, chatted with a few other travellers and managed to make our way through the entire list of beers, obviously doubling up a few times for good measure.

We unfortunately had to catch the bus back to Rotorua at 9:00, which only gave us three or so hours at the party. Courtney tried to muster up the drunken courage to join in with the locals and their sing-along, but after quizzing me about the full lyrics of “Like a Virgin” opted to pass on her opportunity to shine, Karaoke style. I have to think that if we were in Munich under the same circumstances we may have seen her best Madonna impression. Let's see if we make it there next year...

Picture Time!

So we've finally had a chance to get the majority of our photos captioned and we've started uploading, so check them out! There's a link to the right "Evidence (Get yer flickr on!)" that will take you to our online albums.

We're still behind, but making progress. Enjoy!

Bye Bye Bush!

WOOOHOOOOOO!!!!! Way to go, America! The good ol' US of A got it right this time and no blatant cheating took place this time (as far as we know)! We'd just checked into a little hotel in Hokitika, got settled, and turned on the TV to see Obama giving his acceptance speech live from Chicago. We're so excited and celebrating at the bar downstairs with a jug of the local brew. It will be intriguing to chat it up with other travelers now that we know the outcome. The overwhelming consensus so far has been that the rest of the world was rooting for Obama as well, so many parts of the globe are probably breathing a sigh of relief along with us. We've already received many congratulations on our win....I guess people just assume we'd be leaning the Obama way! Now we'll wait to see what changes are to come!