The focus of our visit to Wellington is to spend time with Duncan and Sarah. We went out for a lovely brunch today.
Brunch in Wellington
When we were in Dunedin we went in search of street art. It is a bit of a thing in many New Zealand cities, and we continued to spot interesting art while walking around Wellington.
Street art in Wellington
One of the most interesting murals in Dunedin was by an artist called Cracked Ink. On our walk back from brunch we passed the Wild Workshop by Garage Project. Jan thought that it looked a lot like the Dunedin mural by Cracked ink, and sure enough it was.
Wild Workshop by Garage Project
Sarah assures me that the Wild Workshop has some very interesting beers, so I plan a visit it to check it out before we leave.
We visited the Wellington Museum for the afternoon, and then headed back to the house for an ad hoc meeting of The Other Champagne Club.
If you are wondering about the title of this post, our house is fairly high up the hill in Wellington, so wherever we go anywhere, we are walking downhill. And of course, that means that when we come back home we are walking uphill. Memories of Porto. Tomorrow we are going to Zealandia. We’ve heard so much about it, and are really looking forward to seeing it. Fair warning – there will be lots of photos tomorrow!
We were sad to check out of the Tin Hut and leave Blenheim today. The accommodation was wonderful and the wineries were calling us to explore further. We couldn’t help wishing that we had stayed at least another day. This is becoming a theme for this trip.
We had to check in for the ferry from Picton to Wellington no later than 1:15. It’s only half an hour to drive to Picton, but traffic and roadworks can cause significant delays, so we arrived early and wandered around town. It is a pretty little town nestled between green hills.
The hills around Picton NZ
There was a small open air market for tourists, so we had a pleasant stroll in the sun. One of the stalls was named “The White Wabbit” which had been the name on the house next door to The Tin Hut. Sure enough, it was the same place, selling original watercolors and prints. What are the odds? Of course, we had to buy some.
The White Wabbit
The seas were calm, but even so, you could definitely feel the boat rolling gently. We were very glad it wasn’t a stormy day. The landscape changed dramatically as we went along. This seems to be another theme in New Zealand. I’ll post a few taken pictures from the ferry to give you an idea.
Before we knew it we were sailing into Wellington harbour.
We are spending five nights in Wellington, visiting with Duncan and Sarah. They have been living here for almost a year now, so they have lots to show us. We started tonight with a lovely meal at a restaurant with small plates for sharing. The meal was fabulous, but then we had a very steep walk back to the wonderful place Jan found for us in Wellington. We are going to get a lot of practice with hills…
It would be foolish to come to Marlborough and not go wine tasting, so our activity for today was obvious. The problem was which wines to taste – there are so many to choose from. I suggested that we focus on Pinot noir, both rose and red, and use the tastings to stock up on wine for the next leg of the trip. We ruled out the major wineries – why come to New Zealand to taste wines we can get at home – and focused on boutique wineries with an excellent reputation. That narrowed things down, but not as much as you might think. A bit more research and pruning by Jan got us down to six very interesting wineries along an easy route. There is no way we are visiting six wineries in one day, but we didn’t have reservations so we thought we’d play it by ear and see where walk-ins were available.
On the drive to the first winery we loved the contrast between the lush vineyards beside the road, and the dry hills in the distance.
Although I’d suggested we focus on Pinot noir, on our first stop at Fromm Winery we opted for the set summer tasting, and we’re glad we did. You could add others wines to the set flight, so we included a premium Pinot noir in addition to the standard Pinot. Oh my, but it was good.
The flight ended with a Riesling Spatlese that was also amazing. We didn’t have any intention of buying Riesling – Canada has some wonderful ones – but we couldn’t resist. This wasn’t going as planned.
Our next stop was Te Whare Ra where we had made a last minute reservation, since they had three set tastings a day, and didn’t accept walk-ins. Fantastic choice. We were fortunate that our tasting was under-booked. There can be 15-20 people at a tasting, but we had six, and the owner walked us through a half dozen amazing wines. The passion, knowledge, and love of her wines shone through with every wine. It was a fabulous experience – serendipitous opportunities to meet face to face with the winemaker is one of the experiences that I treasure. We did buy Pinot noir red and rose here, but we also bought another Riesling and a blend of Gewertz, Riesling, and Pinot Gris … something that I never would have expected. I could bore you with how the fact that this wine was co-fermented made a huge difference, but I’ll save it for later.
Toru is Māori for “three” for the three grapes in this blend
Then it was off for what turned out to be our final stop of the day for a tasting and charcuterie board.
Lunch
We enjoyed fabulous local cheese and sampled wine as we enjoyed the view over the vineyards. Note that we were now looking in the opposite direction and the hills were green with trees, rather than brown.
We had some entertainment for our tasting, with the local rooster checking us out.
We bought another Pinot noir, but also a Chardonnay – so much for plans! And we also bought a sparkling wine, so we will be able to have an ad hoc meeting of The Other Champagne Club.
The labels for this winery were all designed by a local clothes designer. Very nice.
And for those of you who are doing the math on the tastings, I was driving, but I wasn’t swallowing. So I could still taste!
We had to be out of the hotel in Christchurch by 10:00 AM. This is typical checkout time in NZ so it gets us on the road earlier than might be the case if we were left to our own devices. That probably isn’t a bad thing. But we had time for lattes from the Truffle Cafe and for breakfast in our room.
It was overcast this morning, something that we haven’t seen often on this trip. But it’s good for driving. The changing landscape in New Zealand never ceases to amaze me. We went from flat farmland near Christchurch, to river valleys with hills on either side, to mountain roads, to driving along the ocean – all within the span of two hours. No pictures of this journey because, once again, eyes glued to the road!
We stopped for lunch at the Slam Club in Kaikoura. It was a bit of a hole-in-the-wall, but the reviews were very good so we took a chance, and were glad we did. We had a braised venison sandwich (venison is very big here) and it was delicious. I’d definitely recommend it the next time you are driving through. Then it was onward to Blenheim where we checked into another of Jan’s fabulous finds.
Blenheim is the gateway to Marlborough, and Marlborough is one of New Zealand’s major wine producing areas. I’m sure you can see where this is going. One of the NZ wineries we can get at home actually has a tasting room right in town, and it’s within walking distance. I went to check it out. Turns out we were too late for the tastings today, but I could buy a bottle of their wine to take back to the Tin Hut. (You know exactly what happened next, don’t you!) The walk back was pleasant, along the small stream.
I couldn’t help taking pictures of the wildlife on the walk. This picture is unusual – it almost looks like this seagull is playing fetch with the stick. Or maybe he was emulating politicians and claiming it was his, all his, just because he could. We will never know.
Seagull claiming a stick
And here is another cormorant.
Cormorant
A little bridge across the stream leads to home.
You will be shocked to learn that along the way I couldn’t resist taking pictures of flowers. These flowers were mostly dry, but still very pretty. If anyone knows what they are, please let me now – Siri lookup wasn’t helpful.
Mystery flower, along the street
The Tin Hut comes with a lovely covered deck, and since we’d had a full lunch and I had a cold bottle of local rose wine, we decided that today would be perfect day to dine in.
Pre-dinner snacks on the covered deckJan has already claimed the basket chair for tomorrow
Here is the rose wine I bought at Astrolabe. Not available at home.
As I write this, Jan is researching options for wine tastings tomorrow. Stay tuned.
One of the comments to this blog recommended that we visit the Akoroa Peninsula if we were in Christchurch. It looks very interesting, and we were sorely tempted, but in the end we decided against driving today. We had a four and a half hour drive yesterday, and another four hour drive tomorrow, so we opted to let the car sit today. But it is definitely on my list for our next visit to Christchurch, though we will need to stay more than two nights. That seems to be a theme for our next trip here.
Christchurch is known as a garden city. There is a large park and botanical garden a short walk from our hotel. We also have an arboretum in Ottawa, but you know … winter…? Anyway, it was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for shorts and cool linen dresses. So we applied sunscreen, put on our sun hats and headed out for a walk.
Jan, outside our hotel
It’s a summer Sunday afternoon here, so the locals were out in force, along with the tourists. But the park is big enough that it was never overly crowded. It was lovely and cool.
Beside the Avon River
As you know, I love unusual vegetation pictures, like this one of a large fungus beside a tree stump. Abstract art!
Fungus
The botanical garden had a section devoted to native New Zealand vegetation. We love how different it is from anything we see at home. For this next picture, Jan is in the frame to give you a sense of scale.
But I also wanted to zoom in on the branches of the tree. It is a jumble of branches going every which way – total beautiful chaos.
And then, when we looked at the trunk, we saw this. I suspect it is a parasitic plant, but it looks like something out or Tolkien, which seems appropriate for New Zealand.
And of course, lots of birds, some native, and some introduced.
California Quail – not nativeShags – native (we think)
One of the things we’ve been doing on this trip is trying to spot the Manuka trees. Here is what the leaves look like.
Manuka leaves
We know it was a Manuka tree because it had a sign, telling us what it was.
Manuka trees
We love nature, but for us, this is the best way to observe nature – with gravel paths and small plaques identifying the species. I may have grown up on the farm, but by now I’m definitely a city mouse.
One of the benefits of walking through a botanical garden is that you learn all sorts of interesting (at least to us) details about plants. It is basically a museum that is outdoors. One section of the garden had a number of different species of Veronica. They all came from the same original seed, but have changed to adapt to the many different climate niches in New Zealand. One of these was called The Remarkables, because it is adapted to live in harsh alpine conditions. We visited The Remarkables just last week, so this was cool.
The Remarkables
Here is a sampling of some of the other plants we saw today.
Torch LilyBegonia blooming in February
And here is another of those amazing New Zealand trees.
I’ll close with this picture. It was taken from a quiet spot in the botanical garden where we rested on a bench, in the shade, overlooking the Avon.
The weather gods have continued to smile on us. It was sunny and warm (not hot, just nicely warm) as we left Dunedin this morning. Two nights, and one day, simply wasn’t enough time. More on that later, but for now, here was the view from our room just before departure.
Dunedin
We spent most of today driving (4 1/2 hours), with a stop for lunch at the Zest Restaurant in Timaru. We ate outside (Lamb salad and Moroccan Chicken salad) and were treated to live music for the second half of our lunch (Susan Be. – include the “.” if you look for her music) with a mix of original and cover folk songs. It was an unexpected find that added to the day.
I don’t have many scenery pictures today, so I’m going to bore you with food pictures. Specifically, New Zealand specialty food. A friend told us they had New Zealand butter over the holidays and it was almost a religious experience. They said we absolutely had to try it. I’m not sure it was religious, but it was very very good, on new crop potatoes and on toast with local Apricot jam.
On our trip to Milford Sound, the bus driver told about the amazing properties of Manuka honey. It aroused my curiosity – about what the tree looks like, how to pronounce Manuka, and of course, the taste. So I treated myself to a small jar of pure Manuka honey to try with New Zealand butter on toast tomorrow morning.
I mentioned at the beginning of this post that we really should have spent more time in Dunedin. But we said the same thing at the cottage. We have yet to find anywhere we don’t want to return to. Our first 3-week trip to New Zealand in 2023 led to a second 5-week trip this year, and it is already clear that we will be back for more.
Dunedin is a UNESCO Creative City with a rich arts history. In 2014, artists were invited to paint murals on ten city walls. The idea has taken off, and there are now over 50 wall murals around Dunedin. One of the local tourist attractions is the Dunedin Street Art Trail. For those who want to learn more about this, see:
This is probably a good point to warn you that this post is going to be very photo-heavy. I’ll provide context where I can, but some of the pictures are just cool pictures and I couldn’t help myself.
As I said, there is a lot of street art in Dunedin. We even noticed some of it on our drive into town. But as we went in search of the start of the trail, we had trouble finding our way. It’s almost as if we’ve lost our ability to navigate with paper maps. At least some of us … not mentioning anyone in particular here, but… it’s me…
We were looking for No Name Alley, which is perhaps not the clearest name, but finally we found it, and … well, see for yourself.
This had one of the larger, and more impressive murals, covering two full walls of the building.
This next picture is cool for a few reasons. It is very large, very realistic, and almost has a 3-D effect. But it is also on the side of a commercial building, and they use the space for business. At first I thought the truck detracted from the effect, but in the end I decided I liked it. The mural is practical, accessible, and open for everyone to enjoy as they go about their daily business. It also gives you an idea of the scale.
Now I’m going to show you a lot of murals without much explanation, because I can.
Sometimes other other media were added to the murals.
This one was painted around a corner.Note the sheep sculptures to the right.
The sculptures look exactly like the real thing, and have about the same intelligence.
Fish takes revenge?Woman reclining
Some of the walls are a mostly blank canvas, but others have pipes and vents. Some murals work around these obstructions, while others actively incorporate them into the mural. I like the way this yellow submarine incorporates the vent.
Yellow Submarine
There were so many murals that eventually we were incorporated into the picture. This one shows Jan photographing the mural on the opposite wall.
Jan
And in this one, it looks like I’m being sprayed with paint.
Jim, in the picture
A lot of the pictures had social commentary messages.
For all you bee keepers…I don’t think the one for #47 will be this polite…Building re-use
I’m guessing that a local group opposed a plan to demolish this building. In any case, the full message on the iron grills (in case you can’t read it from the photo) is: “We have re-used these buildings, having battled the might of foes. They tried rules and wealth, we applied tools and self, or so this story goes.” I like it.
I spotted this next mural on the way to dinner. A very powerful image that highlights New Zealand native species that have gone extinct in the last thousand years.
Extinction event
Here is a larger image of the extinctions.
There were also murals with humorous themes.
This next one shows how the boundary between mural art and true graffiti begins to blur here. But it does it in a way that doesn’t deface the art, but is respectful and in many ways complements it. I like that too.
Pro, and Con…
We ended the day with a lovely dinner at the Eureka Cafe where we played “name that tune” trying to identify the classic rock playing in the cafe. It took us back to our trip to Brentwood Bay on Vancouver Island, where we did exactly the same thing. Thank God for Shazam!
I’ll close with a picture of unusual berries along the street, because … that’s what I do.
In the comments section a few days ago, Wendy suggested we should go to Slope Point. To be completely honest, I’d never even heard of Slope Point before. A quick investigation with Dr. Google (or in my case, Dr. DuckDuckGo) told me that it is the southernmost point on New Zealand’s South Island. That would also make it the farthest south that we have ever been, so of course we had to see it.
It was too far from the cottage for a day trip, but we realized it was more-or-less on the way to Dunedin, so we updated our plans. An unexpected bonus was that we were now driving along the Scenic Southern Route. No pictures from the drive – eyes on the road all the way – but I can say that it was amazing, without being terrifying. And we can offer these from Slope Point.
JanJim
The sea was fairly calm but still very impressive. Apparently rogue waves have swept people to their death while fishing on the point, even when the sea looks calm.
The area around Slope Point
Duncan asked us to wave to Antarctica, so we obliged.
Just over the horizon, Antarctica (actually, way over the horizon)
I don’t think Antarctica waved back.
The ground right at the point was covered in a plant unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. (Seeing unusual plants happens a lot in New Zealand.) Here is a view of the ground cover.
But if you look closer, you see this.
You can see a lot more detail, but you don’t get a sense of scale. This should help.
If anyone knows what the plant is, please let me know.
Then it was onward to Dunedin where we checked into a lovely apartment (another one of Jan’s finds) with views over the city and the countryside.
The view from our apartment
We don’t have firm plans for tomorrow, but we will likely walk around town admiring the street art, and the local microbrewery looks very interesting. We will see…
The cottage where we are currently staying is steps away from the Omaui Scenic Reserve that is preserving native New Zealand plants and birds. One of the birds is the Tui. It is a member of the honeyeater family, and the name is well deserved. They love bird feeders with sugar water. We know this because there is a feeder on our patio and we have enjoyed listening to the Tui (they are very vocal) and watching them use the feeder. It isn’t hard to see where the term “pecking order” originated.
Tui asserting his dominance – note the white tuft at the throat
And here is a picture of the Tui feeding. The tube has a ball bearing that blocks the flow, and the Tui push it in and drink the sugar water.
Tui feeding
The reserve has a walking path that leads to a lookout where you can see Stewart Island, just off the coast of the South Island. Jan decided to use the “cottage day” to read a book that was in the cottage. It isn’t clear if she will finish before we have to leave, but she is trying her best. I decided to take the hike through the reserve because … it was there. The path started gently enough.
I’ve been wanting to see the Manuka trees for the last couple of days, and suddenly I was seeing hundreds of them.
And then even more – the path was lined with Manuka trees on both sides.
Path through the Manuka trees
I’m not sure if this next picture works, but I loved the play of shadow and light on the bare trunks of the Manuka trees. Very calming, so I couldn’t resist taking a picture.
As the path continued upward, the vegetation became more and more lush. Lots of colours and textures.
The path started very wide, but as I walked, it began to narrow…
Getting narrow…
I had to duck under fallen trees…
And narrower…
Until the path looked like this. Yes, this is the path, straight ahead.
This is the path…
At this point, if I’d been in Canada I would have been concerned about ticks. If I’d been in Australia, I’d have been concerned for my life. But in New Zealand, I pressed on and was treated to a view of Stewart Island.
Stewart Island
Then it was back to the cottage to prepare for dinner and then a nice long barefoot walk along the beach. The beach was fabulous, but the seaweed was rather drab today. So you are in luck … no more seaweed pictures.
And after the walk, refreshments on the deck. This picture is for our regular Wednesday pub crew at home (it’s Wednesday here). Wishing you were here … and very glad we aren’t there.
Pub day…
I mentioned the Tui feeders at the beginning of this post. While barbecuing dinner (and writing this post), we got to watch them some more.
Here is a picture that gives you a view of the complete feeder.
Turns out that the owner is a wood carver and he carved this. There are a few more of his carvings around the cottage. He is very talented. Here are some of the carvings.
In the comments, Wendy suggested we should check out Slope Point – the southernmost point on New Zealand’s South Island. We were hesitating because of the distance, and then realized it was more or less on our path to Dunedin tomorrow, so we’ve added that to our itnierary. Thanks for the suggestion Wendy.
We headed south to Invercargill today. One of the people we met in Queenstown told us that Invercargill “has nothing to offer” … but our accommodation was booked so we headed south to see for ourselves. The place Jan booked was south of the city, so we had to drive through town. Our first impression was not great. It wasn’t necessarily bad, but it definitely didn’t look all that interesting either. We pressed bravely on anyway.
On the south side of town the rural countryside transitioned into “cottage” country – a “cottage” is called a “bach” in New Zealand. It was pretty convincing, complete with gravel roads. I had confidence in Jan’s ability to pick accommodation. Jan wasn’t quite as sure. But then we arrived at a wonderful tiny house with views over the ocean. We quickly unpacked and headed down to the beach for a barefoot walk in the sand.
Jan’s happy place
We weren’t tempted to swim – the water is far colder than it was on the east coast of the north island – but it was perfect for walking barefoot. We love doing this, collecting stones and looking at the seaweed that washes up on the beach. So today, rather than more pictures of trees and flowers, you are going to be treated to pictures of seaweed on the Omaui Beach. Lucky you!
I won’t subject you to pictures of stones, except for this one perfect stone I found for Jan.
For Jan
Then it was back to the “bach” for a relaxing beverage on the patio watching the surf.
Ahhhhh
We are steps away from the Omaui Reserve with walking paths through the bush and views of Stewart Island at the top. That is on our plate for tomorrow, along with more beach walks and beer/wine on the patio after.
If It Was Today... 