New Zealand: Under World Rafting!!

We left Nelson pretty early this morning to drive South to Charleston (which is just south of Westport). Charleston is a small town (150 people), but many years ago (New Zealand’s Gold Rush) the town population was up to 130,000 people and there was talk of making it New Zealand’s Capital. We were doing the Underworld Rafting adventure. This company was started in 1987 by two teachers, Ray and Geoff, who were taking their students on this adventure when many of the parents said they would also like to participate.

When we arrived they outfitted us with all of our gear – wet suits, boots, life vests and of course a helmet with a head lamp. The gear was a bit wet and a little stinky. .

We were teamed up with a German group and we loaded into the vans to be transported to our start. Geoff and Ray have built a train (including laying all of the tracks by hand) that takes you through the rainforest to get to the bottom of the caves. Once we stopped at the end of the line we got into our gear


We took a short walk along the Nile River and crossed a suspension bridge (also built by the team). From here we ascended 117 steps to the top of the caves (by now Greg’s stinky wet suit was overwhelming him).

We entered the caves at the Triclops entrance – the caves are exactly as they were found and so we were very careful not to touch any of the formations.



All of the formations are formed from pure calcium carbonate – and just amazing! This area has lots of volcanic activity but the limestone areas in the cave remain perfectly still preserving the formations. The stalactites and stalagmites grow at 1 inch per five hundred years – slow going.



We ducked and shuffled through the caves to see all of the different rooms – I was feeling happy about being a bit vertically challenged, especially as I followed Greg. Many places in the caves the stalactites had grown to meet the stalagmites creating columns – .

Once we had made it through the formations we moved into another part of the caves where we could see water. Now for everyone who talked to me before I left, I was so excited for the glow worms – they brochure says you get to raft through caves using only the lights from the glowworms. As our guide pointed out a few glowworms I began getting really excited – then he said a flood had come through in January and wiped a lot of the worms away. I was feeling crushed. The four glow worms that we were looking at were cool but where were the sea of shiners...



Ray had us get into our tubes and practice steering by using our hand paddles. We were floating around in cave wondering where it was that we were going to get out.



Ray had us hook our feet together like a train and turn off our headlamps. He took the back position and began paddling us and told us to keep our heads down. He pulled us through a narrow opening in the cave (it was a super tight fit) and once through he turned off his head lamp and VIOLA! There were the glow worms – tons of them.



We floated through the caves in the dark and eventually we could see light. The caves open up into the lush forest – an area that would be hard to get to unless you were in our tubes.



From here we floated into the nile river and down the rapids. We exited the river and got back on the train back to Charleston. I had my expectations set pretty high for this trip and they were totally exceeded – for those coming to NZ this is a must. I think they also have glow worm caves on the north island, but rafting through the dark only lit by glow worms can’t be beat!! This rocked!

Abel Tasman kayaking

New Zealand Part three – Adventuring in Abel Tasman

I have decided that I am a First Class Adventurer – I love to explore, adventure, hike (insert activity here) but at the end of the day I like a hot shower and good food. Somehow I convinced Mark and Greg that for this trip we should ALL be first class adventurers… so let the adventure begin!

We started out for kayaking just outside of Nelson in the Abel Tasman National Park– we booked the trip through Abel Tasman Kayaks and we opted for the 2 day tour with Lodge stay (key word here is Lodge). We met our guide at 8:30 am and gathered all of our gear (jackets, spray skirts, life vests) and had a quick safety briefing – we headed down to Marahau beach and began our journey. There were 6 total in our group plus our guide Jake. Mark and I were in one kayak, Greg teamed up with Rachel (a dutch girl visiting NZ) and Eva and Mike were in another. We headed North up the coast passing many “Bach’s” which are only accessible by foot or water taxi – actually all of Abel Tasman is only accessible by foot or Water Taxi (that water taxi is quite a business). We made our first stop at Apple Tree bay for morning tea (I love it here!) .
We pushed off again and continued our voyage north – the weather was beautiful, sun shining and great seas, including an unusual “Sou-wester” which allowed us to raft together put up a sail harness the wind for a while on our way to Watering Cove where we stopped for Lunch. .

Jake (our guide) cooked up some green lipped mussels (Yummers!) and beef skewers which we enjoyed with Pita Bread and Salad. It was quite a feast on the beach. After lunch Jake let us loose and sent us off on a hike to Torrent Bay Lodge. (Don’t worry all of our luggage was taxi’d up to the lodge ahead of us!). We spent the rest of the afternoon hiking through the beautiful bush (the NZ jungle). Much of the walk was a trail through the jungle with a thick canopy of ferns, trees and vines. We decided to go the long route and head over to Cleopatra’s pool where the water from the river gushed over some boulders.
We made it to the lodge around 4:30 to find no one – we were amazed at this lodge in the middle of the National Park supplied only by boat – but somehow it had hot showers, beer!!, and a full professional Kitchen. Craig Wilson, the Chef and owner of the Lodge, prepared us an amazing dinner of Lamb, roast vegetables and salad. Craig actually cooked for Paul and Linda McCartney (this ones for my mom) and Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones. The lodge holds 24 and the night we stayed there were 10 total guests. After dinner we retired to the lounge for chatter, but headed to bed early.

A new guide, KP, met us the next morning and we took a Sea Taxi up to Onetahuti Bay (more north). We geared up and headed back out to sea, heading out to see the Seal Colony on Tonga Island. Again we had amazing weather (luck is on our side). We kept our distance from the seals – similar to the river otters, if you scare seals they won’t return to the island.

We continued down to Mosquito Bay where we had lunch – this was an amazing beach. We brought our kayaks up on a sand bar and by the time we were done with lunch we had to drag them back to the water because of the tide. . We were in the water about 4 hours by the time we returned to Torrent Bay. From here we took a water taxi back to Marahau Beach where we expected to get off the boat. Instead the driver drove the boat onto a boat ramp that was connected to a tractor. The tractor pulled us out of the water and then drove us back to Abel Tasman Kayaks headquarters in the boat.
We headed back to Nelson to spend the night in a great little house – the Sea View Holiday house (great find greg) where we had fish and chips and watched A History of Violence (I guess lugging our NetFlix all this way paid off). Next we are off to do underworld rafting…

New Zealand (part two)

We left Martinborough and headed back to Greytown to buy more chocolate for Greg and then off to Wellington. (Before we left we grabbed a quick shot of the whole group – notice the similarities between Michael and Roland). Wellington is a lot like San Francisco, with high hills overlooking the bay and quaint little houses tucked all around. One of Michael’s old friends, Faith Taylor (she was at our wedding to Montana) owns a beautiful apartment down town overlooking oriental bay and hosted a cocktail party in honor of our arrival. Her apartment is amazing, a new york loft with great views and lots of fabulous art (some of the art was by Tom Sladden – somehow distantly related to us – 3 cousin?) here we are with Scott, Faith and Jane (Jane is Faith’s daughter who was over from Sydney)

It was a great party – towards the end of the night Hamish Gibbons began to convince Greg and then Chloe that we needed to go out to experience the New Zealand night life. We tried to play the old married couple card – but eventually we caved and off we went. Mark and I made it till midnight, Chloe till 1 am, and greg till 2 am, we aren’t sure when Hamish went home.

We stayed in a lovely Bed and Breakfast and in the morning we dined with a family from the UK who informed us that right behind our house was they tree where all the hobbits hid as the scary man on the horse (nasgul?) passed by in Lord of the Rings. Sadly we were running to catch the Ferry and it was pouring rain so we didn’t get to check it out. The ferry was great – we drove our car on and headed up stairs to get settled for the 3 hour tour. The Ferry is an Inter-Islander Ferry and it carries passengers from Wellington to Picton, it also carries a train. The train drives onto the ferry rides across the Cook strait and then gets off in Picton to head around the south island – crazy!! here is a view of Wellington from the bay as we left.

Once off the Ferry we headed for Marlborough beautiful wine country. Michaels old “university” drinking buddy owns Spy Valley – the largest privately owned winery in New Zealand producing 1% of all New Zealand Wine – had arranged to give us a tour off the area and the vineyard. On the way to meet him, we stopped at Cloudy Bay for a quick taste and then off to Highfield winery for lunch.(the mountains in the back of this photo are the mountains on the Cloudy bay label – I think we served the Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc “Sauvy” at our wedding).

We met Bryan and Jan (Johnson – close to Johnston) at Highfield Winery and then headed over to their “Lodge” which is really a manor on many acres of beautifully manicured English gardens (they have, over the years, planted 200,000 tulip bulbs!). Bryan had us jump in his car and we drove over to the winery – spy valley is named for the CIA Echelon base located just down the road. Bryan walked us through the entire process (with a glass of bubbles in our hand)– from how the grapes are collected, de-stemmed, squeezed and put into the tanks. We tasted unfermented Sauvignon blanc grape juice (which was delicious) and half fermented juice (not so delicious). Here is Bryan showing us the primary fermentation for the Spy Valley Pinot – the skins float to the top and are stirred every so often. We quickly tasted all of the Spy Valley wines, my favorite was the Echelon Bubbles!! Bryan gave us some Spy Valley gear (shirts, hats and wine) and we were off. We headed to Nelson which is located on the water and considered one of the sunniest areas in New Zealand. Michael’s big event was on Saturday night so during the day Chloe, Greg, Mark and I had headed out wine tasting around Nelson. [insert 8] We tasted at Te Mania, Richmond, Khurangi Estate and Neudorf (our favorite) – I have had more white wine in the past week than I have had all last year. We have collected about 3 cases of wine to bring home – so everyone will get to have a taste.

The Nelson College Jubilee was a huge event – lots of “Old Boys” with family and friends.
Twice Mark was asked if he was Michael Sladden’s son (and he wasn’t even wearing a name tag). :)





We have one more day in Nelson and then we are off for adventuring (kayaking in Abel Tasman, Underworld Rafting in Westport, Heli-Hiking on the Franz Joseph Glacier and an air tour over the fjords in Queenstown) – I am crossing my fingers for good weather all the way.

New Zealand (part one)

Well we are on our adventure!! We took off Saturday afternoon and headed to SFO before getting on our Air New Zealand Flight to Auckland. Greg had been in charge of purchasing us some snacks and we ended up with an entire carry on bag filled with treats (yes we know there are snacks in New Zealand, but you can never be too prepared.


The flight had video on Demand so we were all very pleased - I watched 3 chick movies (Rumor Has It, Prime and The Weatherman), and mark watched 3 Mark movies (Harry Potter, Serenity and Aeon Flux). :) I was pleased when Greg ordered wine with dinner (its true he does drink in other countries). The flight was 14 hours but after many movies, food and games of Sudoku we arrived. I like to follow the law so I made the boys declare all of our goods (food and hiking boots) even after I got the roll of the eyes from Greg. We opened our Snack-case and disposed of the illegal products. Here are greg and mark at the drop point...

Greg's bad luggage Karma showed its ugly face and sadly none of our bags showed up. We headed to our hotel to check in, but because it was 7:00 am they didn't have any rooms. We went in search of some clothes to hold us over until our luggage arrived. We checked in, took a shower using all of the hotel's toiletries - and headed off to catch the ferry to Devonport. We walked up Mount Victoria to get great views of the Auckland bays and downtown. Here we are in our new clothes - yes I love trees!!

We headed back on the ferry to Auckland to meet Duncan and Robin at the Loaded Hog for drinks and dinner. They are both working in Auckland and living the life aboard Whisper. We had a great dinner at Wagamam (japanese noodles) and headed back to the hotel to sleep off our Jet Lag (which hasn't been that bad)

The next morning we headed across to the Bayswater Marina to meet Robin and Duncan and Whisper. The weather was a mix of sunny blue skies and then mini-squalls (WHITE SQUALL!) We decided to be true Kiwi's and brave the elements. Once out in channel I was able to navigate Whisper and avoid massive freighter ships and ferry's - it was pretty stressful. At the first sign of tipping, I quickly handed back the wheel.

We headed into Islington Bay where we dropped anchor and had a lovely lunch with tunes, beers and fabulous sun! Greg and Mark got a little out of control at the front while trying to hoist the sail (at least I wanted them to envision that as they posed for the shot. Duncan and Robin are awesome sailors - they took some time to get us aquainted with the general sailing terms and even let us be ship mates!



We headed back into the marina (perfect docking Robin!!) to try a new Kiwi drink called a "Bee Sting" - a mix of Manuka Honey Vodka and Ginger Beer with a splash of lime. It was YUMMY! We ordered in "Hell's Pizza" which was delicious and tasted many NZ wines. Yes more drinking by Greg!

We got up early to fly to Wellington where Michael greeted us at the airport. We snagged our car and drove to Martinborough to Roland (Michael Sladden Look-a-like) and Lyles Vineyard (Julie this is your kind of place). We had a lovely lunch on the veranda and headed out to do some wine tasting at the local winery that Roland and Lyle supply grapes to Ata Rangi. YUMMY. Lyle also mentioned a famous chocolate shop in Greytown and of course greg was ready to go. Honestly this is truly the most unique and tasty chocolate ever - Greg Stocked up, but today we are heading back for more.

We had a lovely dinner in town and today we are heading back Wellington for a cocktail party with many family friends. We are having an amazing time and wishing we could permanently be on vacation! We will blog more when we get to Nelson.

Cheers from Kiwi Land!

Foxy!

 

Yesterday we had a visitor on the other side of the fence. The fox was in search of some lunch (a little mouse) and didn't mind Mark walking outside to take a photo. 

Snow Shoeing

Last weekend we decided to head up to Brainard Lake to do a bit of snow shoeing. This place was sweet because it had designated trails for both snow shoeing and cross country skiing - so we were pretty much on our own for the walk.

Jessica and Emma joined us - Emma was a trooper. Emma knows us as MeMe (Mandy) and Mar (close to Mark). :)

Here she is snug as a bug...



Here we are heading into the snowy wilderness...


Here is Mark with Emma - she did an awesome job and had the best view from her backpack.

Selling your dog on Ebay...

Lola has been exceptionally crazy these past few weeks, part way though I actually contemplated puting our dog up for sale on ebay (well not actually). Our troubles started out when she rifled through my art supplied in the office and ate a bottle of yellow craft paint - she got a few spots of the carpet.



...then it got worse, she found a ball point pen in my bag and decided to chew it up and get ink all over the floor. Fortunately Lynne and Jeremy told me to use hairspray on the stains (bizarre) but it worked (sorta).



Just when you thought she couldn't ruin anything else, she decides to chew on our freaking baseboards - this is a dogs way of giving you the finger.

THAT'S IT - I HAVE HAD IT!!

But of course my calm, sane husband comes to the rescue (you're luck lola!!). But Mark is right - for all of her destruction she is soo cute and loving and just needs lots of attention (and doggie daycare).

Here she is bouncing through the snow in her very sassy Orange Sweater from Aunt Chloe - Orange is definitely her color. She is even getting better at catching her frisbee.




And even today as I write this post, she sits in her new bed with her new toy "Mr.Crabs". :)


But just for the record, cats are sooo much easier than dogs... look at these angels.

Valentines Day at the Aquarium

Only a month late on this post...For Valentines Day Mark took me to the Aquarium for dinner and a night tour. Dinner was great, but the aquarium was even better. The tour leads you through different environments like you are in a disneyland ride (misting water and playing bird sounds when you are in the rainforest, having rattle snakes rattle and his just as you walk by) - they also have an impressive tank holding quite a few sharkes...

Here is Mark at the entrance...


Saying hello...


Electric Jelly fish (can't pass this up)


Mandy trying to feed the rays (these hungry little bastards have teeth)...


Happy Valentines day last month!! :)