Holiday with the Rents!

When I last left you the other day, I had just spent the night at the Rolling Stones concert and was awakening to see my parents for the first time in 7 months, picking them up from the airport in Wellington! I should start out first by saying that it was really nice to see them again in my new temporary home!

When the rents (that's short for parents) first got here off their 20-some-hour plane ride, they really wanted food and showers, which I understood! After they had done all to make them feel better, I took them out to the city to show them where I have been the past 6 months, seeing all the sights and such. I also took them to the two places that I spend time at, occupational-wise(This being Olive Cafe and VIVO wine bar/restaurant). At both places, we had dinner (on separate nights) and had probably the best service available in the country, along with excellent meals. Also, the staff discounts came in handy! So, I was able to show my parents a good few days in Welly to start off the trip, trying new foods and seeing new things. Also, I was translator for them, translating New Zealand accent, which I am accustomed to now, to American!

After a few days in Wellington, we took the ferry to go to the South Island to Picton. There, we right away took a boat tour of the Marlborough Sounds for a few hours. We made a few stops with the boat, dropping off supplies and people and also picking up the like at the same time along the way to the many beautiful, remote resorts that are all along the Sounds. We didn't get to see any dolphins, as I was hoping, but did see some salmon farms, which are apparantly huge productions in the area, along with some lovely sights and weather.

The next day, we headed down the East Coast to the city of Kaikoura, where we were to have our next adventure of whale watching! Kaikoura is an awesome city with great scenary that is apparantly a year-round home to many Sperm Whale, the largest toothed mammal in the world. It also has many other cool wildlife like Albatross, a giant seagull-like bird, dolphin, Orca, and other whale varieties. We didn't see all of these animals, but did see the Giant Albatross, which have a huge wing-span, and the Sperm Whale. We all boarded on a big boat to start, that took us out a few kilometers into the ocean where the water was real deep. They then used sonar devices to find the sperm whale, which usually would surface and then dive to the bottom and stay below for around 45 minutes before re-surfacing. In total, we saw 3, seeing one of the whales twice, which they actually knew and had a name for, and was known to be the largest sperm whale in the area. It was really neat seeing the giant whales, which we got within 50 yards or so of, seeing them spew the water from their blowholes and then flipping their tale up before diving straight down in the water for another 45 minutes.

After our awesome whale-watching experience, we headed further down the East Coast, spending a night in Christchurch, before we arrived at Mt. Cook National Park a few days later. On a kinda side-note, we were fortunate enough to meet someone that was part of the Imperial Russian Army at our hostel, which was apparantly a guy who was away from his home of Dunedin (here in New Zealand) and dressed up to go out on the town at night, conquering many-a-bars! So, back in the beautiful Mt. Cook National Park. Here, we took a little break from driving (which I was the only one that did so, not complaining though) everyday and spent the next two nights in our little cabin, which looked directly out the front door to Mt. Cook itself! The first evening we went into the village of Mt. Cook and took a look around at the different places and what there was to do for the following day. The following day, we awoke to weather that was a little misty/rainy at times, but not too cloudy to not see the mountains, thankfully. We did on hike that day that lead us up to a glacier coming down from Mt. Cook and took us over a raging river, over two swingbridges, nearly right up to the mountain itself. It was a really neat walk with a lot of great sights. Occasionally too, we heard sounds which simply sounded like a jetplane was flying overhead, echoing through the valleys, but was actually little avalanches that happened a lot of then mountains. After getting a little wet from the rain, we had a little lunchbreak in a hut on the trail and then headed back to the car where we drove a little further out of the village to a short hike to see the Tasman Glacier, which is the largest glacier in the world, being up to 7500 feet thick. At this time though, it was getting cold and dark, so we headed into the village for hot drinks before spending our last night there and heading to the West Coast the following day.

After our drive from Mt. Cook, we arrived at Franz Josef. Here we saw the Fox Glacier, which was neat to see it breaking apart and thundering at times. It was also really cool for me to see it again, as this time was completely different! The first time I saw it, we took a different road and ended up seeing it from a far distance, where as this time we were able to walk within maybe 100 yards of the terminal face, and probably could have gone right up to it if we had been daring enuogh to cross the thin yellow rope holding us back. But, we weren't, so we used the zoom on the cameras to appear that we were closer than we were in reality. After seeing the Fox Glacier, we saw the Franz Josef Glacier the next day. Again, I had been here before, but again it was a little different. There is a river that seems to always lead from the terminal face of glaciers, and this time it was raging a little more and had actually recently flooded and changed the layout of the land a bit. So, this time, we were much further away at first, but were daring enough to cross the first set of yellow ropes holding us back and take the hike across the valley where then just my dad and I crossed the second set of thin yellow ropes to climb a ladder atop a slick rock to get a better view of the terminal face. Being earlier in the day, we could see some people that were taking guided tours on the glacier itself, which is when you can really see the immense size of the glacier itself, when the people are just little blue dots walking around. So, after our daring breaking of the rules, we headed further up the beautiful west coast to the city of Westport.

While in the area of Westport, the weather turned for the better and so we decided to do more sightseeing. Before heading out of town, we went to a fur seal colony. It was really neat to see almost 100 fur seals, some little pups jumping around and playing, and some really big, not really moving much at all. We then did some backtracking to Punakeiki to see the Pancake Rocks, which are limestone rocks that look like pancakes and the water rushes through them, often shooting up looking like blowholes. The trick is to see this area at high tide, but we were there an hour or two after, but it was still a fun sight to see and we did see some waters raging on through the formations. After we left, we headed back north taking our time, making a few stops for a short walk and some picture shooting before getting into Picton. Once in Picton, we looked at taking a ferry back to Wellington, and found that there was one leaving in 15 minutes. Hearing that, we ran out unpacked our stuff from the rental car and literally had to run back onto the ferry. This time though, the ferry ride wasn't as nice and calm as other times and the seas where a little rough. But we all withstood it and didn't get sick at all!

Back on the North Island, we again spent a two more days in Wellington to do laundary and such. We then left my home to go further north to Napier. Napier is part of the Hawkes Bay region, which is a large wine area, so naturally I thought it best to visit some of the wineries that I have previously been to. Normally, the area is beautiful, along the ocean with lots of nice scenary and views of great vineyards, but it was rainy the entire time we were here, so we didn't get to see as much as I would have liked for my parents. We did, however, go to three wineries to sample their wines and see what they had to offer! My parents, especially my dad, seemed to enjoy all the wines, which I explained was because they were good quality wines, not just really cheap wines, which can be hit-or-miss.

After visiting some of the wineries and seeing Hawkes Bay, we headed to Taupo for a day. The weather finally started to get better and was sunny by the time we actually got to Taupo. In Taupo, we went to see same rapids and waterfalls at Huka Falls, where we also go to see a jetboat. In the area, we also walked around a thermal park, called Craters of the Moon, where it was much like Yellowstone Park, only there wasn't as many mudpools as I hoped, but mostly a lot of holes in the ground, with some bubbling water and a lot of steam in the area.

After a day in Taupo, we started our way back to Wellington, taking our time again. On the way back, I took my rents to Whakapapa, on Mt. Ruapehu, where I spent Easter, and possibly hoped to work for the winter. Whakapapa, by the way, is pronounced Fakapapa, where the 'wh' is always pronounced 'f' in names of things here in New Zealand, which I don't know why. We did a few walks at the base of the mountain and spent a little time in the village there. While there, I actually filled out an application at the Grand Chateau, to be a chef. The Grand Chateau actually seems to almost own most of Whakapapa, having 4 restaurants in the area and is itself an immense building that holds 2 of the reastaurants and is a hotel. About 20 minutes later, I recieved a call from them for an interview, which I appeared for and apparantly went well. After my little ordeal, we continued on our way back to Wellington. Back in Wellington, I spent the day again going around to shops and stuff with the rents before I had to say goodbye to them again at the airport, where I don't expect to see them again for another six months or so.

So, in final words, I really want to thank my parents for visiting and helping me experience things with them that I had hoped to do. Also, sorry if I appeared annoyed with you at times, but I really did enjoy your stay and will be home for the holidays this winter!!