More South Island

Our next stop was in Akaroa, the current port for the city of Christchurch and the Canterbury Plain. The usual port for Christchurch is Lyttleton, which is much closer, but the port area is still under repair from the last earthquake that the area suffered in 2016. It is expected to reopen later this year.

As a result, the small town of Akaroa has had to take on more tourists and tour buses going through the area for the past few years. We wonder what will happen when they disappear again, as our fellow guests who were in town were impressed by the atmosphere – and for some, the crafts and knitting yarn!

The problem with touring from this point on the Banks Peninsula is that everything is a lot farther away from here. Our tour, the High Country Adventure, meant a bus ride of 2 ¼ hours in each direction…Larry took his e-reader and Monica took some knitting along. The scenery was lovely as we drove around a number of bays and lakes, so part of the ride was very picturesque.

The bay in the town of Akaroa

Overlook from one of the bays

The pastoral landscape of the peninsula

Once we arrived at our destination on the Waimakariri River, we got our lifejackets and headed down to the Jet Boats for the first part of the adventure. New Zealand is known for these jet boats that skim over the water at an amazing 40 knots, or 46 miles per hour. They were originally developed on this river, but as Queenstown is more of a tourist area, boating on the Shotover River near there is much more well-known. It certainly was a lot of fun, especially when our driver took the boat into 360 degree turns!

After our 45 minute ride, we left the boats, had a nice buffet lunch put on by the tour company, and then headed out in our 4x4 vehicle to check out the views from a couple of cattle stations in the area. Rather than being in small trucks, we were in a 4x4 ‘bus’ that held about 14 people, so it wasn’t quite the experience we had been expecting. But we did get nice overlooks on the river and in the whole area.

Overlooking the river. The water is this brilliant blue
due to the composition of the rock and sand
that the river carries from the Southern Alps

Another view of the river valley

These were working stations that we drove through, and
the dogs were being taken out to round up the cattle
and sheep for the night

Once we were done with the hour or so here, we headed back into our highway bus for the long ride back to Akaroa.

Overlook toward Akaroa. Notice how much cloudier
it was here than on the Canterbury Plain.

There was a Mardi Gras party in the Crystal Cove that evening, but as our tour was one of the last to arrive back, we had missed the pre-dinner festivities. They did however carry on with the music and dancing later in the evening as well.

And for our final port stop in New Zealand, the next day we arrived in Dunedin. We had been here a few times before, and had done all of the tours offered by Shore Excursions, so we decided to take the shuttle bus from the port area at Port Chalmers into town. There, we walked around a bit, visiting St. Paul’s Cathedral and the First Church as well as the Railway Station, before Monica checked out a local yarn shop that was just down the street from the shuttle bus stop…..and found our knitting instructor and a few other knitters from the ship there already!

The morning sail in to Port Chalmers was amazing. This low-lying
cloud eventually burned off, but it looked like a cotton
batten blanket on top of everything.

St. Paul's Cathedral. The first Anglican church in
Dunedin, although the building is only about 100 years old

Beautiful stained-glass windows

This modern part was added in 1971....note the
scaffolding!

The Cathedral and the statue of Robert Burns, famous
Scottish poet. The name 'Dunedin' is actually old
Gaelic for 'Edinburgh'.

The Dunedin Railway Station. There used to be regular
passenger service in New Zealand, but now the station
is only used for the Taeri Gorge Railway's
scenic tours.

The inside of the railway station.

The First Church of Dunedin, the first Presbyterian church.
The Reverend Thomas Burns, nephew of Robert,
came to Dunedin in 1843 and established the
congregation.

Inside the church. The woodwork is amazing.

This tapestry of the story of Thomas Burns coming to establish the First Church, in 3 panels
of needlepoint, made by 19 women from the church between 1983 and 1990.

Heading back to the ship in the early afternoon, we worked on catching up with a few things, like probably a blog post, before dinner. Before we left port, the captain warned us that it would be quite rough during the night. That meant two things: 1) we had to ‘sea-proof’ our cabins by putting away anything that might fall down, and 2) that we would not get in to Dusky or Doubtful Sounds the next day. He was hoping, however, that we would still get into Milford Sound, although a little later than expected. Stay tuned!

Sailing past the lighthouse while the weather was still nice.

Wellington and Marlborough

In Wellington we participated in a food tour and gourmet lunch with chef Shaun Clouston, co-owner and executive chef at Logan Brown. It is one of the premier restaurants in Wellington, and Shaun, besides being an amazing chef, is very personable and a great foodie tour guide.

We started off with a trip to a family-owned grocery, Moore Wilson. It is like Longo’s at home, but with only one very large location as well as a Costco-like wholesaler side and a Wine and Spirits Shop. There are two other big pluses to this store: they feature fresh, sustainable foods and they work with a number of local small producers, like fishmongers, bakers, and butchers, and sell their products in the store. The bakery that provides the French-style baguettes will come to replenish stock multiple times a day, and Moana New Zealand, which sells the fresh fish, closes for the day when they run out. We couldn’t resist buying a couple of small bottles of infused extra virgin olive oil to bring home, once Shaun gave us the background on the couple who make the oil and the process they use. Watch for the salads and nibblies to come when we get back!

At the entrance to Moore Wilson

This chinese takeaway is permanent, but they also
have food stands with rotating occpancy so
new vendors can 'test the market'.

The fresh baked goods looked particularly appetizing!

After our tour around the market, we headed over to Logan Brown. It is in a former Bank of New Zealand building, with a high ceiling and lots of windows, and an almost round shape with the bar as the focal point. The bar itself is unique in that there’s a sort of aquarium of small local sealife as part of the bar top.

The restaurant

The interior is gorgeous

The little aquarium bar-top. Small mussels....

...and a crayfish, otherwise known as a Spiny Rock Lobster. This
guy will be put back out to sea when he gets too big for the
restaurant.

Our host, Shaun Clouston, in what might
be his 'Iron Chef New Zealand' pose, if they
had such a thing.

Our visit started off with a fresh-made cocktail that had been devised by Logan Brown’s mixologist just for our group. Not only did she infuse the gin she used as the base, she also made up little smoke-bouquets from aromatics, and infused the glasses with the smoke before she made the drinks. That was really inventive and did give the drink a smoky component all the way to the bottom.

The rest of the lunch was fantastic! Six courses, paired with wine if desired, showcasing local New Zealand produce, meat and seafoods. We could wax rapturous over each one, but we’ll just put in the photos and descriptions below:

Albacore tuna with native herbs and black lime

Paua, a type of mushroom, in ravioli and poached

Hapuka, a delicious local New Zealand fish

Crayfish sandwich with truffle slices

Lamb loin, smoked ricotta fritter and a rabbit ragout ravioli

Poached white peach with a little meringue on the side

Chocolate 'cremeux', chocolate mousse covered
in dark chocolate with berries on the side
and a sugared hazelnut on top.

Needless to say, dinner, if we had any (it was so long ago we can’t remember) was a bowl of soup and some cheese and crackers at the Bistro. That’s become our go-to for a light meal when we’ve had a large lunch…so far it seems to be working.

The next day we had a beautiful early morning sail in to Picton, just across the Cook Strait from Wellington on the South Island, at the end of the Queen Charlotte Sound. We sailed the Sound for a couple of hours, very peaceful and quiet.

The sun had just risen when Monica got outside
with her camera.

Beside the dock at Picton

We were touring into the wine country of Marlborough, to visit first a private garden, and then a couple of wineries, one being the winery that put New Zealand on the global map, Cloudy Bay.

The Upton Oaks Garden is on New Zealand’s list of Gardens to Visit, and was developed by the owners, Dave and Sue Monahan, into this beautiful formal garden with orchards of peaches, apples, pears and an olive grove on the side. The family’s main business is making furniture, but they do all the garden work themselves.

The house is in the style of the early 1900s
in New Zealand

After a stroll through the gardens and a stop for refreshments, we boarded the bus again and drove on to Cloudy Bay for a wine tasting. As a few of Cloudy Bay’s wines are available at home, we were already familiar with them, but there were some others to try that we hadn’t seen.

The Cellar Door Entrance at Cloudy Bay

The tasting room

Out in the grounds

The hills in the background were the inspiration
for Cloudy Bay's label

After Cloudy Bay, our second stop was Wither Hills. This winery wasn’t all that far away from Cloudy Bay, but we weren’t overly impressed with the wines or the way the tasting was set up for 29 people on the tour.

Back on the bus to Picton, but even though the day was not the most satisfying, we did have the sail back out through Queen Charlotte Sound to make up for it.

Onward to Akaroa, the port for Christchurch on this cruise.