So, the South Island…
Christchurch: The first town of the trip that held much interest for us at all (Rotorua and Taupo, not so much). The botanical garden is well worth exploring, the Art Gallery here had several really interesting exhibits, and the Riverside Market has lots of fun food offerings. We stayed at the Observatory, which is set in the Gothic former campus of Canterbury College (now called the Arts Center), and would recommend for the setting. Dinner at Fifth Street was excellent, tried several wines, including 2023 Felton Road Pinot Noir, Bannockburn, which is just way too young but seems to have potential, and a 2020 Elephant Hill Syrah, Hawkes Bay, which was on the lean side but still too jammy for my preferences. Really enjoyed an orange wine called Skinny Dip by Silver Wing winery, North Canterbury, made from Sauv Blanc and Semillon, 5 months on the skins in ceramic egg, no additions. Great flat white in the AM at Espresso Studio by Fushoken, very good pies from the Butcher’s Pie Shop - loved the green curry chicken one especially.
Akaroa: Stunning drive from Christchurch, very windy roads, beautiful views. We booked a tour with Ecoseaker to see and swim with the wild, rare, Hector’s dolphins. Their boat is a raft hybrid, very low to the water, and they are highly respectful of the dolphins and environment generally. Wonderful experience exploring Akaroa bay. We had time to kill and decided last minute to visit Shamarra Alpaca Farm - which our kids (and us) absolutely loved - the setting is spectacular, and the animals are super friendly, welcoming hugs and hand feeding.
Aoraki / Mt Cook (and Lakes Tekapo and Pukaki, etc.): Much of our drive on the scenic road was obscured by clouds, but the conditions improved throughout the day. Stopped at Darfield Bakery for more pies - the smoked beef and jalapeño was outstanding - and had sunny skies as we crossed the turquoise Rakaia River. Stopped for more pies at the apparently-viral Fairlie Bakehouse, with a really nice pork belly and apple. We began to see the wild lupin fields right before Lake Tekapo and this became a recurring highlight of our drives, gorgeous blankets of the purple and pink and sometimes yellow and white flowers dotting the landscape all over the island. Intoxicating aroma as well. We stopped at the famous Mt Cook Alpine Salmon for a snack, and it was… fine? I was expecting something revelatory, but the sashimi, cold smoked salmon, and salmon dips seemed pretty standard. The views are great, though. More stunning scenery, vibrant lake hues, mountain vistas, on to the Hooker Valley Track - a really spectacular and easy trail along the rushing river, probably my favorite hike of the trip. Stayed the night at the Hermitage lodge (meh, great views, but akin to a standard american national park lodge, not-very-good dinner and breakfast), and did the “Glacier Explorer” guided boat trip to the Tasman lake and glacier/icebergs, which was way better than I expected (having done similar in Patagonia and seen the setting here, I didn’t expect as many sizable and up-close iceberg encounters, but our timing apparently was good as a huge chunk had recently broken off). Fantastic experience, another sobering reminder of how quickly the glaciers are retreating and will likely be gone completely in 50 years. By the way, I should mention that this was all during Christmas vacation time and we booked everything way back in September, which was already late to be doing so - these things fill up!
Wanaka: We actually stayed here a night on the way to Queenstown, then another night on the way to the glaciers, just seemed to work out best that way. Edgewater hotel, nice views, good setting, right on the lake near Rippon winery. The town is small and clearly tourist-oriented. The outdoors is the draw - we didn’t have time for the Roy’s Peak hike, but heard great things from others. Did the Rocky Moutain Lake hike, lovely views. Woke up to rain and thick clouds, which totally ruined the scenic drive on to Queenstown…
Queenstown and environs: … started by passing through town and on past Glenorchy, to the Routeburn Track, where we did the 13 mile out and back to the falls. Lovely, lush hike, limited views, but nice when they appeared. Not quite as “epic” as I hoped, but the drive out there alone makes it worthwhile. If we could have done the full track over multiple days, we would have. Stayed just outside Queenstown proper at the Kamana Lakehouse, semi-luxury kinda place, outstanding views marred somewhat by construction just below the property. Solid restaurant, another night when I tried a few wines and found them all uninteresting, including the still 2023 Te Kano “Blanc de Noir” and a 2022 Wet Jacket Pinot Noir.
Next day we got lucky with great weather and did the flight out to Milford Sound and the boat ride there. The flight itself was the highlight, simply incredible flying at close range to these stunning mountains, then the boat ride was beautiful as well. Back in town after, had a nice lunch at the Boatshed Cafe (excellent flat white), then on the jet boat ride on the Shotover River. Super fun. Dinner at the very good Rata, had the 2016 Burn Cottage Pinot Noir Moonlight Race - nice to see a few older vintages here, but still nothing exciting to my palate.
Next day back to Wanaka and hit the lovely lavender farm outside town, then took a walk along the lake into town for dinner at Kika, another very good meal on par with Rata and Fifth Street. Tried a few more meh wines, including a 2023 Matt Connell Wines Pinot Noir Rendition that was fruity and big in a way that worked well with lamb, but lacked nuance.
Fox Glacier: The drive out from Wanaka was long and slow due to some heavy rain, but we awoke to hopeful skies and ended up getting very lucky for our scheduled heli-hike - our trip was a go, while the nearby Franz Josef Glacier trips were not running. The helicopter-hike experience was fantastic, and really interesting to compare vs. a glacier hike we had done in Patagonia several years back. This is way up in the mountain glacial valley, with roaring waterfalls nearby. The real treat ending up being witnessing a massive rock slide down the valley, watching car-sized boulders bound down and up into the air dozens maybe even hundreds of feet as they ricocheted down. Scary and awe-inspiring. They looked like they were in slow motion, simply because the spaces they were covering were impossible for the eye to gauge.
From there, it was the long but scenic route back to Christchurch to begin the trip home. Thankful for great time with family in this stunning country, thankful the weather mostly held out for us, thankful we could book the experiences we did despite the holiday crowds! And thankful not to have a case or two of wine shipping back to the US since I already have too much ; )