Best Fish N Chips EVER!

The morning of the 1st we headed off to Greymouth.  It's located on the west side of the South Island and has more mountains running in to the ocean but with a lot more native forest and RAIN.  The drive was through the middle of the country for half, quite with sprinkles of rain off and on, nothing too exciting...except for the gigantic deer on the deer farms! So cool! We had to stop and grab a photo there...then we finally hit the coast...
The wind and the rained picked up and it was chiiiillllyyyy! The waves crashed high against the cliffs. Absolutely beautiful! We took our first stop at Punakaiki's famous Pancake Rocks, a natural wonder of the world.  The pancake rocks are a heavily eroded limestone area where the sea bursts through several vertical blowholes during high tides.  They had a nice little walk through the rocks and we were able to see the awesome blowholes and all of the different formations of the layered rocks.  We even got one filming of the blowholes on camera...I need to remember to load that up.  It was such a beautiful place...freezing...but beautiful.

We arrived in the town of Greymouth around 5pm or so.  We stayed at this little adorable hostel right in town called Duke Hostel.  The people that ran it were SOOOO NICE! We asked them what to do for the evening and they said the best touristy spot for a night is Monteiths Brewery.  So we went over to Monteiths to do a tour and taste some lovely beers.  BEST BEER EVER! The tour was very informative...they no longer brew their main things there, they were bought out and brew up in the North Island now.  But they do still brew craft beers :) Like their apricot wheat beer! Amazing.  Oh man.

After Monteiths...drinking our fair share of free beers...we headed to a fish-n-chips shop that the hostel owners recommended.  She said that she doesn't eat fish-n-chips much but she heard it was the best local place...not touristy.  And boy was she right! It was by far the best little take-away fish-n-chips I have had in my life.  I will be craving them for years to come.  Drizzled with chicken salt.  Oh my...oh my...She even wrapped it up in newspaper! I think it was the cheapest meal we had in NZ too...only $14 for fish, a HUGE scoop of chips, and two jelly donut thingys.  We had enough for Andrew and I to be stuffed AND have some for breakfast! So amazing...worth the trip, in itself.


The next morning we woke up to a storm of rain....bad rain...sounding like waves on my window rain.  So we slept in a bit, hoping it would pass...11am came around and still there.  So we decided instead of doing some local hiking (as planned) we would take Arthurs Pass back home and stop along the way there, rain or shine.  So we went to fill up at a gas station and LUCKILY a woman asked where we were headed...turns out Arthurs Pass was closed because of the rain.  We would have got all the way there and had to turn around...there are only 2 passes that go through this part of NZ...Arthurs and Lewis Pass...Lewis was how we got here...so instead of seeing a lovely new place, back through Lewis we went.  Boo.  It rained all the way through the mountains, back through the pass until we got on the other side of the mountains to Hanmer Springs where we had some lunch.

After lunch the rain started chasing us so we ran back to the car and home to Ashburton.  Overall a fantastic trip and drive.  Seeing more and more of NZ then I had ever expected!! These next few days are scheduled for work, and a trip up Mount Peel...where Andrew's grandfathers used to have a farm :)

Ice Blue Lakes and Damn Tasty Ginger Beer

After a long and amazing week I've decided to sit down and write out all that was done the past week...get everyone a bit more caught up ;)


 Monday and Tuesday were working days...work work work so that I can get a bunch of hours in and then be able to go to Queenstown for a long weekend :) Andrew did a lot on the farm, helping out his dad, like working in the hay! Nice outfit huh?

Wednesday morning finally came and we woke up around 8am to get on the road a bit early.  Queenstown is about 4.5 hours from Ashburton...so we had a ways to go.  The drive was absolutely beautiful...first we drove through the winding hills of Mackenzie Country, passing all of the adorable farms with my favorite, sheep on hills :) I just love sheep on hills. Not sure why.


Our first stop was Lake Tekapo.  Its this amazing ice blue lake, crystal clear, surrounded by colorful lupins with a backdrop of snow capped mountains.  We pulled up to the lake and it took my breath away.  So amazing! I've never seen water so blue in my life.  In front of the lake, there was an adorable little church on the hill.  We got out of the car to walk around and take it all in....The lake was surrounded by rocks of all shapes.  I definitely needed better shoes.  After lots of climbing up and over and tripping I finally made it to the waters edge to take some photos and stick my toes in the water.  It was FREEZING. I guess that's what happens when you have glacier fed lakes.

After a photoshoot we decided to go grab some lunch in the tiny town surrounding the lake.  We decided on fish and chips.  Andrew wasn't too pleased with the result, but I thought it was just fine. Kind of tasted like funnel cake batter around fish. We also got a ginger beer...its like a thick ginger ale.  This one was a special one though because it was called "Franks Damn Tasty Ginger Beer"...Damn tasty. Funny. They're so much less censored here in NZ...SO MUCH less censored.  Its strange.

After fish and chips we decided to go look in a little gift shop to see if we could find a post card to send off.  I picked one with Tekapo and some of the lupins on it and sent it off to my family back in NC...missing them bunches! Then we decided to keep going with the drive and head to the next place.
Next stop was Lake Pukaki.  We didnt really get out and do a lot of looking around.  We just pulled off on the side of the road to run and grab some photos.  A nice Swedish family stopped behind us and took a picture for us :) Andrew did some funny poses...then I did some funny poses...and then we decided to move on so that we could get to Queenstown a bit earlier with time to have dinner and look around...and MAYBE go see The Hobbit...ohhhhhh how excited we were about that!



After our stop we continued on through Mackenzie Country to our destination...Queenstown.  Before the trip to New Zealand (while still in the States) I figured out there was a site called GrabOne, like Groupon or Living Social at home.  I scanned the site daily to find any deals we could use while we were here in NZ.  I ended up finding quite a few awesome things.  The first was our hotel stay in Queenstown...then I found a deal where you took a bus from Queenstown in to Milford Sound, and then you got to do a little boat cruise on the sound and then hop back on the bus back in to Queenstown. I also found a deal where we could go to the Minus 5 Ice Bar and a Pub Crawl while in Queenstown as well (fit in all the bars/restaurants at once!)...and then the last was Skydiving in Auckland (at the end of our trip here in NZ).  So with all those deals, plus our Christmas present from Andrew's dad and Aunt Steph, a trip up the Queenstown gondola and 5 luge rides, we had lots to do in the 4 days we were there.


Anywho...so off we continued on our journey in to Queenstown.  The next town we hit was Cromwell, also off a lake.  That town was pretty cute.  Must be known for their fruit because they had a huge sign as you entered town with gigantic fruit statues behind it.  It smelt amazing! Andrew saw a sign for fresh fruit ice cream and decided we needed to stop.  So we went in to this adorable fruit stand and got some fresh fruit ice cream.  They take fresh fruit and then put it in this contraption and the put ice cream on top, blend it, and then fill your cone.  We decided to pick two flavors...kiwi and mixed berry.  Both amazing and just what we needed to cool us off.  It was a beautiful hot summer day.

So then we kept on going in to another landscape...wine country! I couldn't tell you how many vinyards we passed.  It was amazing! There were a whole bunch of wine and cheese tastings...I was quite tempted...their cheese is awesome. But we kept moving, determined to make it to Queenstown with time to spare.  So onward we went, through the mountains and cliffs.  Each part of the trip was different.  It's amazing the difference in the landscape here.   Some places completely flat...others hilly...others cliffy...others like our mountains at home, rolly and tall :) And then snow caps and waterfalls and beaches! So incredible! Every step of the journey had something to see.  I couldn't let myself sleep (as I normally would on road trips) and kept my eyes peeled open :) 

Next stop...Queenstown...our vacation for the next 3 days.  Filled with adventure, relaxation, and beautiful sites to see :) Oh how we couldn't wait...