If It Was Today...

On The Beach

Posted on February 4, 2025 by If It Was Today

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.

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.

Then it was back to the “bach” for a relaxing beverage on the patio watching the surf.

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.

Posted in Travel | Tagged New Zealand, Photography, The Beach, Travel | 8 Comments

Milford Sound

Posted on February 3, 2025 by If It Was Today

Everyone who has been to New Zealand told me that I absolutely MUST visit Milford Sound. To be completely honest, my reaction before the trip was “…meh”.

In the end, Jan decided that we probably should see what all the fuss was about, so she booked a tour and boat ride. I tracked the ride on my smart watch, and if you look at the path of the boat ride, it really does look …meh.

Boy, was I mistaken. This simple map of the route completely fails to give you a sense of what is in store. Thank you Jan for booking the tour.

It’s possible to drive your car to Milford Sound, but we decided to take the bus tour because 1) no need for one of us to drive the very narrow winding roads, 2) no problem finding parking, and 3) we could both enjoy the scenery on the bus ride. And oh boy, is the scenery amazing. You are overwhelmed even before you get to the main attraction.

The driver provided interesting commentary about the scenery, the geography, the vegetation, and the people who built the road. He did all of this while navigating the narrow, winding roads driving a 14 meter long bus. He explained how trees manage to grow on the very steep mountain sides. It is a two-hundred-year process that begins with blue-green algae, then lichen, then moss, and finally beech trees. The trees anchor themselves to the hillside, but not that effectively, so on a regular basis there are “tree slides” where all the trees slide down the mountainside, leaving bare rock so the the process can start all over again. You can see the slides everywhere. Here is one example. Note that the three slides are in different stages of regrowth.

Another interesting things he pointed out was the “hanging valleys” that were created by the glaciers during the last ice age. Basically, the weight of the ice in the main valley pushed out the sides, creating a U-shaped indentation well above the main valley floor. Here is a picture of one.

When we were on the boat ride, we saw more examples of hanging valleys, with lakes in the valley and waterfalls into Milford Sound.

I started this post by saying we weren’t convinced that a trip to Milford Sound would be worthwhile. We were so very wrong. It is awe inspiring. We started taking pictures and eventually stopped (mostly) because we knew pictures could never capture the experience. We tried to just soak it all in, and mostly succeeded. We did take a few pictures, and I’ll offer a few here to give you an idea of what it looks like.

Glacier, river, fiord, rainforest, all in one picture

These pictures are a poor imitation of the live experience, but they are all that I can offer. If you are in New Zealand, go see for yourself.

One other side note. It rains in Milford Sound about 240 days of the year. We were treated to a beautiful sunny day, with barely a cloud in the sky. It almost qualified as a drought for this area. We aren’t complaining.

I relaxed on the drive back to Te Anau, grateful yet again that I didn’t have to drive. Two hours in the sun on the water was wonderful, but exhausting. After freshening up and having a drink in our room, we had dinner at one of the many tasty, and very busy, restaurants in Te Anau. Then it was back to our hotel for a relaxing evening writing this blog and watching the sun set behind the hills.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Milford Sound, New Zealand, Photography, Sunset, Te Anau, Travel | 6 Comments

What’s Not To Love?

Posted on February 2, 2025 by If It Was Today

We freakin love New Zealand. It’s the same latitude as Ottawa, other than being “S” rather than “N”. What a difference one letter makes.

This morning in Queenstown it was cool with clouds hugging the mountains. And by “cool” I mean that a long sleeved shirt was appropriate.

We got away early (for us, anyway … 10:00 AM, because that is the usual checkout time here) and headed for Te Anau. The scenery on the drive was stunning … or at least Jan told me it was stunning. My eyes were glued to the road … the winding, and often narrow, road. I caught glimpses of the mountains from the corner of my eye, but I figured that focusing on the road was the best plan. I’m exaggerating … a bit … the roads were actually pretty good, but paying close attention was still a good idea.

It was cool, with broken cloud, for the drive, but by the time we arrived in Te Anau the sky began to clear, and we were treated to this view from the patio of our hotel room.

After we checked in, we walked along the shore of Lake Te Anau into the center of town, enjoying views like this.

There is a small park in the center of town called Te Anau Gardens, with open space and a variety of trees and flowers, so of course, I had to take more pictures.

By now the sky was completely clear. I love the way the deep blue of the sky contrasts with the plants.

And of course, everywhere you look you can also see mountains.

Some of the plants aren’t native to New Zealand … in fact they are often considered weeds. But they can still be beautiful, like this Mountain Ash, or Rowan.

There are increasing efforts to conserve native species, which is a good thing. I’m not sure if the next two plants are native, but they are definitely different than anything I’ve seen before.

The park had one other really cool thing, intended to encourage young readers. A story based on Māori legends was illustrated with a series of posters distributed around the park like a treasure hunt. It’s hard to describe -I know I’m not doing it justice – but it really was neat to follow. Here is one of the posters to give you an idea.

Right next to one of the posters a tree looked like it had a face. I’m not sure if this was intentional or accidental.

Te Anau has a surprising number of very good restaurants. We picked The Fat Duck and just barely managed to get reservations, on a Sunday evening. The place was hopping but we had a great meal. Jan discovered a great cider, which we will be looking for as we travel around.

And then it was back to the hotel, by the lake, along with many other people enjoying the evening.

As I’m writing this, I’m enjoying a cool breeze and watching the sun set, getting totally discombobulated because the sun is moving in the “wrong” direction. So confusing, but well worth it to be enjoying this instead of a snowstorm.

Did I mention that New Zealand if freakin awesome?

Posted in Travel | Tagged Food, New Zealand, Photography, Queenstown, Te Anau, Travel | 2 Comments

Wandering and Wondering

Posted on February 1, 2025 by If It Was Today

We didn’t have anything in particular planned for today, so we decided to go for a leisurely drive. Jan suggested we head up to Arrowtown, a historic gold mining town that has been updated and turned into a local tourist attraction. We discovered later that today Arrowtown was hosting a NZ Gin Festival, where you could taste up to twenty different local varieties of Gin. I like Gin, but this did not sound like a good idea at 11:00 AM when I still had to drive back to Queenstown. We decided against attending the festival (good thing too, as it was sold out) but the traffic made driving through town looking for parking our first “adventure” of the day. Google maps wasn’t much help so we were about to give up and head out of town when we spotted the perfect parking spot pretty much by accident.

The main business street of Arrowtown has been restored and now houses museums, local craft stores, restaurants, and bars. Some of the original houses have also been restored, like these.

After a pleasant stroll through he shops, we had lunch at a local pub in a building that had originally been the stables. I mentioned earlier that I had to drive in the afternoon … on the left side of the road … so a pint of the local brew seemed like a bad idea. I decided to do some market research and try a local non-alcoholic beer.

I was about to say that “I did not hate it” but decided that wasn’t fair. It actually wasn’t too bad, but I’m still having a real hazy ale while I’m writing this post.

While we were eating lunch, the local birds were keep a close eye on us, hoping for crumbs.

After lunch, it was back to the hotel to pack for tomorrow, and to take one more walk along the lake into central Queenstown. This time we took a detour through Queenstown Gardens, giving me an excuse to take more nature pictures.

There were also bee hives in the gardens – about 20-30 hives enclosed in a wire fence, presumably to keep idiot tourists out. The bees were very obvious, and I had no desire to go closer … though they were fascinating to watch from a safe distance.

Tomorrow we drive to Te Anau. We head south along Lake Wakatipu, and then west toward Te Anau, where we will spend the night before our visit to Milford Sound. Here is a picture showing where we will be headed tomorrow.

I titled this post “Wandering and Wondering”, because we have already started wondering when we will be back again.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Craft beer, Flowers, New Zealand, Photography, Queenstown, Travel | Leave a comment

Up, Up, and Away

Posted on January 31, 2025 by If It Was Today

In a comment to yesterday’s post, Stu suggested that we should drive up “The Remarkables” and tried to sell the idea by mentioning narrow winding mountain roads without guardrails. So I was amazed when Jan said “let’s do it”. And that is how we found ourselves enjoying views like this.

And yes, Jan came with me on the drive. I insisted on taking a picture as proof.

Jan, still smiling after the drive up The Remarkables

I mentioned yesterday that I had a surprise activity for today. Remarkably, I wasn’t referring to the drive up The Remarkables. (Sorry, but I couldn’t resist.) The surprise activity was this…

That isn’t me (I had a much better landing) but I definitely went paragliding. And here’s the proof.

I had a ball! Fifteen minutes of pure joy. I was worried that I’d be frightened before I got used to it, but not at all. I’d gladly go again. And I was so enthusiastic about the experience that I think Jan might actually join me the next time.

After my paragliding adventure, we walked into Queenstown to investigate options for dinner. (Being within walking distance of downtown is wonderful.) We had trouble getting a last minute reservation – it’s a Friday night during NZ summer break … silly us. But we finally managed to find a place right on the lake, sitting outdoors. We had a fantastic dinner (probably the best rack of lamb that I’ve ever had) and Jan had delicious local salmon, all the while checking the weather at home … snow, snow, and more snow. During dinner, Jan had an amazing view of The Remarkables, watching the changing light as the sun set.

I had a view of Jan…

I win…

Posted in Travel | Tagged Food, New Zealand, Paragliding, Photography, Queenstown, Sunset, Travel | 8 Comments

Queenstown

Posted on January 30, 2025 by If It Was Today

After a solid night’s sleep in Auckland, we had a two hour flight to Queenstown today. I selected a window seat, because I was hoping to see New Zealand’s lush green landscape. Instead, for the first hour I saw featureless cloud cover. And when the cloud cover finally dissipated, I saw…

It was beautiful in its own way, but not what I was expecting. Fortunately, after a breathtaking approach to Queenstown airport (with mountains towering over us, just outside the plane window) we checked into our hotel with this view.

At home today, school buses were cancelled because of a snowstorm. Here, we changed into shorts and a t-shirt and walked along the lake to head into town. The path took us through a small park.

Queenstown seems to be a small town, but it’s definitely a pretty town with restaurants, shops, and … fabulous weather.

Jan has been looking for a hat to wear in the sun for a while now, but she is having trouble finding something she likes. Finally, she found one today. Good timing too, since there is a lot of sunshine here. Then we picked up groceries for a light dinner and breakfast in our room and headed back to the hotel, with Jan wearing her new hat. You can see the mountains in the background … but you see that everywhere here.

If you follow this blog, you know that I love taking pictures of flowers and tropical plants, especially when we’re missing a snowstorm at home. Today is no exception.

And then, it was time for a malt beverage on balcony outside our room. Jan had rose, of course.

When we were in Lisbon last fall we met a couple who said they loved visiting Queenstown, and told us there was one thing that we absolutely had to try when we were there.

You’ll need to come back tomorrow to see what the mystery activity is, and if I was brave enough to try it.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Craft beer, Flowers, New Zealand, Photography, Queenstown, Travel | 5 Comments

New Zealand

Posted on January 29, 2025 by If It Was Today

The original plan was to leave Vancouver just before midnight. But the incoming flight was delayed, and boarding was slow. By the time they closed the doors, finished de-icing, and taxied to the runway, it was after 2:30 AM. We were very glad we’d had a chance to eat in the lounge so that we could immediately try to sleep.

I had more luck than Jan – I got a solid seven hours. I’m told there was no doubt that I was sound asleep because I was snoring … loudly … loud enough to be heard over the cabin noise. I can neither confirm nor deny this.

I can tell you that after I woke up, I ate the airplane dinner, which had kindly been set aside for later. Then I spent the next five hours listening to Bob Dylan’s albums, in order. Watching “A Complete Unknown” got me interested enough to focus on just listening to his music. Of course, being stuck on a plane helped. But after seven hours of sleep, dinner, listening to six albums, and having breakfast, we still had two more hours to go…

We finally landed, cleared customs, got our NZ SIM cards and checked into our hotel. Then we went for a walk outside in the perfect summer weather. Along the way we passed posters highlighting all the exciting things to do in New Zealand.

At this point we started to worry that five weeks wasn’t enough time. I guess we’ll need to come back again.

Then it was time for a welcome drink overlooking the Auckland airport. It’s Wednesday here so our Wednesday afternoon pub day arrives early.

Tomorrow we’re off to Queenstown.

Posted in Travel | Tagged New Zealand, Photography, Travel | 1 Comment

On Our Way

Posted on January 28, 2025 by If It Was Today

We’re on our way back to New Zealand for another visit. This time, we decided to break up the trip with a few days in Vancouver. A fourteen hour flight to Auckland is exhausting enough on its own, without having a five flight from Ottawa and a four hour wait in Vancouver tacked on the front. Besides, it’s a nice transition in other ways – the time zone is half way between Ottawa and Auckland and the weather is also somewhere between the two. And it gave us an opportunity to start training for the hills we will find in New Zealand.

When you go for a walk, the best thing to do is check out a local micro brewery. There are so very many in the Vancouver area.

In addition to an impressive and unusual lineup of brews (the Christmas Tree IPA had spruce needles), this pub also had two cask conditioned ales… so of course I had to try both.

My sister generously offered to let us stay with her, and agreed to pause her dry January for our visit. We make such incredible sacrifices for our siblings.

Then we stayed with friends we met on our river cruise in 2023. They live in White Rock, with streets that are a little like San Francisco. Okay, okay, a very small version of San Francisco, but work with me here.

It was lovely walking weather (+5 Celsius and sunny … with no hint of snow) and more views of the mountains.

We walked along the waterfront with our friends.

It was a lovely sunny day, with the sun reflecting off the water.

The water fowl were out in force. These are Surf Scoters.

After a late lunch along the waterfront we took in a movie (A Complete Unknown – I highly recommend it) and then headed to the airport. The bad news is that our flight is delayed almost two hours. The good news is that we have lounge access, so we can have dinner here, and then try to sleep as soon as we get on the plane … at 1:30 AM. Fortunately it’s only 14 hours till Auckland and the start of our NZ visit!

Posted in Travel | Tagged B.C., Canada, Craft beer, Food, New Zealand, Photography, Travel | 4 Comments

Bill & Jim’s Excellent Adventure

Posted on January 21, 2025 by If It Was Today

I know this is supposed to be a travel blog, but you could also think of it as an adventure blog. And a vintage ale tasting that spans two decades is definitely an adventure. A once in a lifetime adventure.

We aren’t experts. We aren’t even close to experts. But we know people who are experts, and we invited them to join us. The attendees included a brewer, an assistant brewer, a brewpub owner, and a recent graduate of a college-level beer tasting course.

Identifying the subtle notes in this vintage

And then, there were the rest of us…

Enjoying an impressive lineup of vintage ales

The first challenge was deciding the tasting order. Youngest-to-oldest or perhaps, oldest-to-youngest. But then Evan had an idea. Save the youngest and oldest for a side-by-side tasting at the end, and start by tasting the second-youngest through to the second oldest. It was a brilliant idea … but we decided to do it anyway.

The next challenge was deciding what we were looking for. The obvious theory was that as the beer aged, the flavours would fade in intensity, but integrate into a richer whole, much the way a good stew mellows but improves with age. But while preparing for this tasting I came across another theory. As a vintage ale ages there are many chemical reactions competing with each other. Some are good and improve the flavour, and some are … not so good. As a result, you see a flavour cycle … better … worse … then better again. In a tasting like this, it would depend on exactly where you were in the cycle.

We were curious to see which one of these theories was correct. I’m sure you’re dying to know the answer. What … wait … you aren’t? Well, too bad. I’m telling you anyway.

The answer is … both are actually true. Overall, the flavours did fade and integrate. But at the same time, there was a definite cycle with sweet and bitter flavours intensifying, then fading, then intensifying again.

In the end we couldn’t agree on a single favourite vintage … it was a tie between the oldest and the youngest. The oldest had all the flavours fully integrated and in balance, and the youngest was fresh and lively, but also in balance. And the conclusion was … I have no idea what the conclusion was, but it was a fun evening.

Here is the crew who joined us for this epic tasting.

I opened this post by noting that this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Of course, having said that, we have no choice but to try to repeat it next year.

Posted in Adventure, Travel | Tagged Canada, Craft beer, Photography | 3 Comments

Vintage Ale Tasting

Posted on January 18, 2025 by If It Was Today

Most beer is intended to be consumed when it is young, and in many cases it’s at its peak on the day it’s released. But this isn’t always the case. Some beers hold up very well with age, and a few will actually improve with age. Fuller’s Vintage Ale is one of these.

Fuller’s Vintage Ale is brewed once a year, in limited quantities, and released in the fall. I started collecting these ales years ago, and I now have a reasonable collection reaching back nearly a decade. Once a year, I usually get together with friends and have a vertical tasting, to see how the ale changes with age. This year I proposed this lineup.