Central Otago

I was able to sleep in a little bit this morning because my wine tour didn’t start until the afternoon, so I decided to go for a run when I woke up. The running path around the lake is beautiful and loops in and out of the trees. Unfortunately, I tripped pretty much immediately after I got to the path and scratched up my phone and cut up my hand, knee, and hip. It really hurts to walk and running in the cold air was making the bleeding worse, so I couldn’t push myself too hard. I kept going though because since I like Queenstown so much, I felt like I needed to run through it.

My wine tour in Central Otago was beautiful. All of the wineries were set at the bases of the mountains. It reminds me of the winery we went to in Italy. I was on the tour with two couples who were both honeymooning. It was kind of weird being with such a small group, but it meant that we got to know each other. We visited Gibbson Valley, Waitiri Creek, Peregrine, and Chard Farm. I didn’t really like any of the wines particularly much, except we did try a fairly sweet Riesling at Chard Farm that was nice, but it cost $38 a bottle L I found out that apparently the sweetness of Rieslings isn’t based on the climate, but instead of how much sugar the maker decides to siphon out of the grape. I must like really sweet grapes because the 7g of sugar wine still wasn’t enough for me. Apparently it can go up to 45g. Even though I didn’t like the wines, it was fun getting to know the couples.

The Central Otago region specializes in pinot noir and pinot gris because of its position on the globe. The 44^th parallel has been determined to be the optimum growing position for the grapes that go into pinot noir. That’s why the wine is so big in Oregon, Central Otago, and Burgundy, France. It’s also starting to get big in Tasmania, which sits on the 42^nd parallel, so it has somewhat similar growing conditions.

Doubtful Sound

I got up at the crack of down this morning, much to the dismay of my roommates who were just crawling into bed, so that I could meet up with my tour coach for the three hour drive to Lake Manapouri. Our group took a leisurely one-hour cruise across the lake to the hiking area on the other side where we were picked up by another coach and driven up and down the mountains to reach Doubtful Sound, one of New Zealand’s many fjords.

I’ve read so much about fjords in Scandinavia that when I started planning this trip to New Zealand, I knew I would need to visit one. Milford Sound is the bigger tourist spot around here, but I discovered Doubtful Sound, which is supposed to be more peaceful than Milford. I was pleasantly surprised that we saw only one other boat on our entire cruise around the sound. We spotted penguins, dolphins, and seals in their natural habitats and the captain even turned off the engine and requested silence from all passengers for a few moments on the sound so that we could hear how peaceful it is out there.

The sea was a little choppy as we got closer to the opening of the sound into the Tasman Sea, but it was beautiful and I’m glad our boat went all the way out to the barrier islands. Even though it made for a very long day, considering I left at 7am and didn’t get back until nearly 8:30, I think it was well worth it. Even after having to put up with a group of annoying Asian tourists and a family from Minnesota that kept trying to adopt me (seriously, the mom came over and asked if I wanted to hang out with them because her daughter was in college too! Gasp!). It seemed like older women flocked to me all day asking me if they could take my picture for me… it was a little weird.

I woke up from my nap on the bus back hungry, so I headed to a cute little diner called Cranky Franky’s that is down the street from my hostel. I ordered the macaroni and cheese and it was like no diner food that I’ve ever seen. It looked gourmet. However, the surroundings were complete fifties diner and they specialized in milkshakes. It’s funny how when I’m on the other side of the world little places like this make me feel at home because they play Grease Lighting and have cheesy décor. The food was fantastic though, albeit rather pricey. But I guess I’m getting used to the cost of eating out down under.

And on to Queenstown...

I didn’t want to spend anymore time in my hostel than necessary today, so when I woke up on my own at 7:30 because of a combination of the noise outside and the couple in my room, I took a shower and packed up.

I ended up getting to the Auckland airport three hours early, which was kind of a bummer because it turns out that they don’t have free wifi in the domestic terminal. I should have just hung out in the city and McDonald’s or something.

My flight to Queenstown was pretty unmentionable. There was quite a bit of turbulence but I slept through it and anything else that might have happened. I caught the Super Shuttle into town for $20, which was more than double what I was expecting for transport here. My hostel is right in the center of town though and it’s very charming. I was given a tour right after checking in around all of the facilties. Minus the fact that they’re shared, the kitchen, bathrooms, and bedroom are all nicer than my place in Sydney and I’m paying less than $30 a night to stay here. There’s also free international calling during reception hours and free wireless internet. It’s like someone realized I needed to hear the word free and decided to indulge me.

I, of course, called Adam right away. I haven’t spoken to him on the phone since Fiji, so it was pretty weird at first. It’s so nice not to have to deal with the issues of skype. I was worried about hogging the phone for too long though, so we didn’t chat for long.

I wasn’t really hungry, even though it was way passed lunch, so I decided to walk around the city and explore. I bought some bread, peanut butter, and apples so that I would have breakfast food in the kitchen and I got a couple of souveneirs from the cute touristy stores. Queenstown seems to be primarily touristic, but that suits me. I could imagine owning a lake house here, set at the foot of the mountains. It’s really beautiful.

I stopped at Patagonia Chocolates for a snack of ice cream. The waffle cone looked burnt but somehow managed to taste amazing with the ice cream in it. The chocolate was a little rich for me though. It started to drizzle and I pretty much walked the whole town including along part of the lakefront, so I headed back to the hostel.

I spent my afternoon reconnecting with the internet before heading out for a late dinner at Fergburger, a well-known burger joint in New Zealand. Luckily for me, there menu includes options for people who don’t eat beef burgers. I settled on the Sweet Julie minus the “salad” plus cheese. It turned out pretty good. There was some kind of chili sauce on it, so it was a little bit spicy, but I really liked the bun and actually ended up eating it like a burger instead of tearing it all apart. I passed out immediately after getting back. Contiki exhausted me.

(Also, I'm out of photo space on my blog, so for photos, check out my facebook!)