After arriving to Queenstown planning to stay 3 nights and ending up staying 6 nights (maybe because of the bungee shock), we felt it’s time to leave the comfort of the “big” city, and go back country again, but not before we go on a day’s wine tour in the region’s vineyards.

Wine not?

NZ apparently, is world famous for it’s wines in general, and for it’s Pino Noir in particular.

Rob, who’s a wine buff, suggested we’d drive around the Otago region, and stop in a couple of vineyards on the way to Cromwell, a nice and grey town, 45 minutes away from Queenstown. Although I feared it will be as boring as it will be sophisticated, it was actually great and we got to freely taste about 30 wines overall, in about 6 vineyards. In some vineyard they also display their cellar, so you learn how the wine is produced.

Stewart Island

After drinking enough wine to kill a medium size alcoholic horse, we camped in Cromwell, and the next day drove for 3 hours down south, to go to Stewart Island, which is the 3^rd biggest island in NZ after the North Island and the South Island. Before driving we said goodbye to Marissa in Queenstown, as we decided to go in different ways, and I continued down south with Rob and Maren.

Visiting Stewart Island was one of my main goals when I arrived to NZ, hoping to see beautiful forests and rare animals like the renowned kiwi.

In Maori legend, the south island is Maori Ancestor Maui in his Canoe, chasing after a whale (the north island), and Stewart Island is the boat’s anchor.

We drove to bluff, from where we booked the 9 o’clock ferry to cross to Stewart Island, but the next day we woke up at half past 9, which threatened to waste a day for us, but resourcefully we found out about a flight to Stewart Island which costs less than the ferry, if you have seats on stand by. We called the company, and 30 minutes after that we were already on a 8 seat tiny airplane, high above the silver ocean.

The island itself is not as virgin as I have imagined, with 26 km of road on it, but still 80% of it is a natural reserve and a bird and wildlife sanctuary. We arrived to the island, and found a hostel on half moon bay, which is the main residential area on the island. The weather was terrible, as it was pouring rain, so instead of going on the 3 day trek, we decided to sleep in the hostel, and go on day walks.

4 seasons in a day

The next day we woke up to a beautiful clear blue sky. We packed our day bags, and started walking to the information centre to find a good day walk. 5 minutes into the walk, the skies were already covered with clouds, and heavy rain started falling. We found a good 5 hours walk from town, and stated walking.

I have never seen the weather change so fast!

We started walking along the trail in heavy rain, and in 2 minutes, the rain was gone, and the sun was out. 15 minutes later, suddenly hail started to fall. No wind, no rain, no storm. It was like in “The Truman Show” movie, like someone was controlling the weather from a control board, sending rain, sun, hail, randomly as he pleases.

The walk was beautiful, through deep forest trees, and along gold sandy beaches. We didn’t see any special wildlife, and return a bit disappointed to the hostel.

The next day we decided to enhance our efforts in finding a kiwi, and took a water taxi to a small island 1 km from Halfmoon bay – Ulva Island. This island has no road on it, and it takes about 3 hours to circle the island. The weather was as crazy as the day before, as we were walking through bright green shrubbery. All through the walk we heard birds singing and crying around us, but still no kiwis.

We took the taxi back to Halfmoon bay, disappointed again.

The next day we took the 16:00 flight back to the south island, concluding that although we didn’t see many animals including the kiwi, we had good 3 days on Stewart Island, and the flight was worth it all.

Back to civilization

We arrived back to the Invercargill, from which we flew to Stewart Island, and the weather continued to be awful. We started driving to a city called Dunedin (pronounced like the famous children book about the transparent boy, but with a MILRA). The drive itself is through a region called the Catalins, which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful drives in NZ, but because of the pouring rain we didn’t get to see much of it.

Dunedin is the main student city in NZ, holding the biggest University in the country. Accordingly, the nightlife is great, and there are many restaurants and café’s in the town centre.

The next day the weather was amazing, without a cloud in the sky, so we drove north to the Moeraki Boulders which are nice boulders on a beach, and are a huge attraction for some reason. On the way, we stopped at Shag Point, to see a penguin and seal colony. This was the real highlight! We saw about 30 seals sun bathing on some rocks, about 5 meters from us. I took so many pictures, my trigger finger still hurts.

We drove back to Dunedin, and continued to the Otago Peninsula, to see an albatross Colony.

The drive was unbelievable - green mountains and deep valleys, and clear blue sea around

us. We arrived to the end of the peninsula, and saw some beautiful huge albatross circling above.

Lakapo

The next day we decided to leave to Lake Tekapo, as we heard it’s a beautiful stop on the way to Christchurch, where I will meet my parents on the 19^th.

The drive was even more beautiful than the day before, as we drove along side lakes and the

snowy Mt. Cook in the background. The little town of Tekapo is situated on the lake side, and has only one mini-mart, one restaurant, one bar and an information centre.

We found a place to camp, and then Rob and I decided to go and try our luck with fishing.

We rented a horrific pink rod from a local shop, and drove 12km from Tekapo, to a salmon

canal, nearby. On the way we went to a salmon farm, and bought half a kilo of fresh salmon for lunch, in case we won’t catch anything.

3 hours. Nothing.

We drove back to the lake, and tried another time, you know: MESHANE MAKOM…

No.

Fishing was fun although we didn’t catch anything, mainly because of the complete silence around. We had a nice lunch, and read our book, while looking disappointingly at each other.

We drove back to town, and the next day decided to drive to Christchurch, as it was march 17^th – Saint Patrick’s day.

Green Madness

If there’s something common to all humans, regardless of their religion and race, is their love for alcohol. The best decision made by the guy deciding to hold St. Patrick’s Day, was to celebrate it by drinking huge amounts of stout beer, and dressing foolishly. Who can’t relate to that?

We bought a green hat, green beard, green tie and green badge, and started drinking at 5pm. The streets of Christchurch were swarming with people dressed in green, wobbling with a brimful of beer mugs.

I don’t really remember everything, so time line maybe distorted in my story, but at one point I found myself in the queue to a mechanical bull ride, and although I was half gone, I managed to stay on the bull for 8 seconds.

After celebrating my success, the guy operating the bull was probably anti-Semitic, because as soon as he saw I was off my guard, he gave the bull a 720 degrees turn, and I was thrown aside.

Tomorrow I am picking my parents up from the airport, and I can hardly wait for the packed 2 weeks I have in store for them. We plan on going all over the south island again, doing some things I didn’t do on purpose, because I was waiting for them.

A Final thought

Welcome to Jew Zealand!

I cannot believe the amount of Israelis here.

In the north island, I bumped into Israelis once in a while, mainly couples around my age, but in the south island it’s a whole different ball game. Everywhere I go I meet a group of 4-5 Israelis travelling together, most of them are post service guys, the type you meet in South America and the orient.

Although I was in that same place once, now I cannot relate to travelling with only people from your country, keeping a safe distance from people from other countries, and with that from something different from what you know.