NEW ZEALAND AND CALIFORNIA TRIP 2008

Joe's Tips            The Cities and Towns The Mountains and Sea         Hotels          Restaurants

This is a report of a two month trip (10^th Jan to 13^th March) primarily to New Zealand, but with nearly two weeks in California on the way back.

We flew out from Heathrow to Hong Kong where we stayed three nights at the Renaissance Harbour View on the island. This was mainly just a stopover to break the journey, but we did some of the usual tourist things – a trip on the star ferry to Kowloon, up Victoria peak on the tram, and a bus to Stanley market. It was good fun and interesting, and the weather was pleasant (warm to hot), but very crowded. HK is a crazy place with 7 million people crammed into a small area, and when they are walking in the opposite direction in rush hour, it’s like trying to swim against the tide. Still, it was worth going, though I don’t think I’ll be back.

The Cities and Towns

In NZ we did a typical circuit of both islands, similar to our previous trip in 2002, but with a few changes. We flew into Auckland and stayed 4 nights, then flew to Christchurch for another 4 nights and picked up a car. We then drove to Dunedin, via the Catskills to Te Anau, Queenstown, Mount Cook, Christchurch again, Hanmer Springs, Marlborough Sounds, ferry to Wellington, Napier, Taupo, Tongariro, Rotorua, Paihia and back to Auckland.

In California we flew into LA, then drove up highway 1 to Santa Barbara, Morro Bay, Monterey, Walnut Creek, via Sacramento to Davis, Paso Robles, Santa Barbara again, and back to LA.

We just love NZ, so enjoyed all the towns there.

The South Island

We love Christchurch, good size city, nice river, great museum and botanic gardens, good food; visit Akaroa, Littleton and the cable car.

Dunedin is a pleasant place and gives you a chance to see the lovely Otago peninsular, and take the train trip along the Taere gorge (we did this in 2002, so not this time). Lanarch castle is just about worth a visit, but not that impressive compared with what you can see in Europe. Te Anau is still a charming little place, though a bit busier than last time, and of course is the best place to stay for a visit to Doubtful and Milford sounds (you should do both). We were very lucky here and had excellent weather for both sounds, though it did rain for one day in between. Queenstown is another must, one of the most beautiful locations of any city I have seen. Take the cable car and try the luge ride (you need at least three goes), and the Earnslaw steam boat across the lake. The drive from Kingston to Queenstown is one of the best drives ever, except the one from Te Anau to Milford, and then the drive from Queenstown to Glenorchy is even better. The scenery all round this area is outstanding. Mount Cook is another must (sorry, but it is); you have to stay in the Hermitage hotel (or motel) right in the heart of the mountains, miles from anywhere. It is simply beautiful, though the weather can be unpredictable. I was glad we had three nights here as the first day was cloudy, but the next was lovely and sunny; do the Hooker Valley walk – about three hours. Hanmer Springs was a new place for us this trip and very nice too. Good scenery and the hot springs are fun to spend a few hours at, the weather was hot and sunny as it often is apparently. Our one disappointment was at the Portage in Marlborough sounds. It is (again) very beautiful scenery, but it is really hard to get here – 60km of endlessly winding road, and there is little to do if you are not walking the Queen Charlotte way (OK, you could do kayaking etc., but not much for us anyway). The native bush here is so thick that a car driving away along that winding road vanishes from sight after a few yards – even at night with headlights on.

The North Island

Auckland is a big busy city, but the Viaduct harbour where we stayed is a good area to spend a little time. The national museum in the Domain is well worth a visit, as are all museums in NZ, and you should catch the Maori show while you are there. The Maritime museum is also a must, though unusually for NZ you actually have to pay to visit. Also take the ferry to Devonport, and the bus to Mission bay.  Wellington is quite a pleasant place for a few days; the weather does tend to be unpredictable and windy, but it is a walkable city with two excellent museums on the waterfront (Te Papa is worth a whole day), and good restaurants and coffee bars. Take the tram up to the botanic gardens and walk down through splendid displays of trees and flowers. Napier is also definitely worth seeing; we were lucky to be there for the art deco weekend (booked up way in advance), with a parade of over 300 antique cars, and many people dressed up in 30’s costumes, jazz bands, singers, entertainers – great fun, though very busy. Some people find Taupo unexciting, which I guess it is, but the lake is lovely, and it is a pleasant place to stroll around for a while, with a nice little museum, and visits to Huka Falls and other local attractions make it worth a short stay. Tongariro is a place for serious walking, but there are also short easy walks with great scenery, so we enjoyed our one night stay there. Rotorua is a good size town, and things to do there apart from the hot springs and Maori village (we missed out on these this time due to bad weather, but we did them last time, and well worth it); downside is the pervasive sulphurous smell. We were staying with Bev’s relatives in Okere Falls, and they took us to the seaside at Manganui, which is (again) very scenic, and has a good walk around the mountain. Paihia in the bay of islands is touristy, and a long drive north past Auckland, but is a lovely area, and still fairly quiet compared with any busy tourist venue in Europe. We had some bad weather here, but it recovered enough for some swimming and sunbathing – it is sub tropical here. There are many boat trips you can take, but we just took the ferry across to Russell, which is another charming little seaside place.

In California, we had good weather and enjoyed all of the trip. Santa Barbara was nice though very busy. It is an old town by CA standards, and actually has a smallish walkable town centre (or rather one long main street) with loads of restaurants and shops – it’s a trendy sort of place. The second time round the centre was booked solid, so we stayed in the seaside area, which is also very pleasant with good fish restaurants. Our favourite was Monterey, ghosts of John Steinbeck, and again a nice size town for walking – try the historic trail with markers in the pavements. Both the Cannery row area and Fisherman’s wharf are worth visiting, and good eating abounds. There is a walking track linking these areas which also extends 11 miles along the coast (no, we didn’t do all of it). We went to Walnut Creek to stay with my lovely cousins in their condo at Rossmoor and had a very enjoyable stay with them, driving into San Francisco one day for the usual great sights (Golden Gate, Fisherman’s wharf), and also to Berkeley for the University campus. We stayed at Morro Bay just to visit Hearst Castle again – it is a must if you are driving Highway 1. Although we have been before, we went on a different tour this time (there are 4 types) so it was still fascinating, and with super views down to the Pacific coast. Morro Bay isn’t anything special, but has good fish eating. Davis and Paso Robles were simple stopovers, but both nice enough places for a short stay.

The Mountains and the Sea

New Zealand is full of mountains. The South Island is more spectacular, with Aoraki Mount Cook dominating, but the North Island is lovely too. It only suffers by comparison with the south, which is very exceptional. The whole south island is split down the middle by mountains, so much so that you can not get from Mount Cook to the west coast directly (except by flying). As mentioned, the whole region around Queenstown and Wanaka is spectacular with lakes and mountains in every direction. And to the south west you have of course the sounds – equalling Mount Cook in spectacle. The Canterbury plains around Christchurch are flatter, but still full of great scenery. The drive to Cromwell from Queenstown is splendid, and the drive through the Catskills at the south end is great also. In the north, the drive inland from Napier to Taupo is also excellent, as is that from Taupo to Rotorua, and from Auckland to the Bay of Islands. It is all beautiful really. Look.

Hotels

Hotels in NZ are a treat. Virtually all will give you milk (often fresh) to put in the room fridge (of course you have one), and provide some guest laundry facilities. Sometimes you have to pay for washers and driers, sometimes they are free. Several of the more pricey places had kitchen areas, and some had washers in the room. The Sebel in Auckland and the Bolton in Wellington even had mini dishwashers. Our favourites are still the Auckland Sebel in Viaduct Harbour, and the Heritage in Christchurch. And of course the Hermitage (Mount Cook) is brilliant with amazing views. This time we opted for a motel unit, which was excellent – nicely kitted out and lovely views. Also excellent were the Bolton (Wellington), Pebble Beach (Napier) and Crowne Plaza (Queenstown). The Tongariro Chateau is worth staying at for the location, and some splendid public rooms, though the room was perhaps a little disappointing. The Scenic Circle in Dunedin was OK, but a bit hot as no aircon, good position though. The Bella Vista in Te Anau was nice but small, but still good value. I wouldn’t recommened the Holiday Inn in Christchurch, its OK but a bit far out and not a patch on the Heritage, but not much cheaper. And although we had fun at Cheltenham House B&B in Hanmer Springs it was a bit too hot under the old iron roof. The Portage in Marlborough sounds was quite a good place, with good food in the cheaper restaurant (and the most enormous breakfast I’ve ever seen), but as I already said we did not enjoy the stay that much (and it didn’t have aircon). Chantillies (Taupo) and the Scenic Circle (Paihia) were OK without being anything special. The Scenic Circle did have a reasonable swimming pool which I managed to use once in between the rain spells.

In California we had so much choice (and we had not booked in advance save the first night) that we decided to standardise on Holiday Inn Express where possible – we found them to be a good standard and not too expensive. They were also easy to find on our Satnav. The standard facilities in mid range U.S. hotel/motels is now very good. Almost all had a fridge (or mini bar), a microwave, coffee maker, free small breakfast with juice/coffee available all day, free internet with printer/fax/copier. One place even offered to lend us a laptop so we could use the free in room wifi. In L.A. (actually Marina Del Rey) we used the HI-Ex, and it was fine with plenty of restaurants nearby. In Santa Barbara we also used HI-Ex, which here is in an attractive old historic building, right in the town centre (a bit expensive, but you can haggle).  We also used the same chain in Monterey (just next to Cannery Row), Davis and Paso Robles.

Restaurants

In New Zealand the food is almost universally of a high standard, as is the wine, the coffee and the smoothies. Menus are sometimes over complex, with lots of fusion type cuisine, but usually it is still very good. Some typical examples:

Warm chicken salad, saffron potato, poached pear, toasted walnuts, honey & sour cream dressing

Shredded duck confit, cucumber ribbons, roasted peaches, pine nuts, honey & thyme dressing

Fettucine, pesto, pumpkin seeds, roast capsicum, spinach, chickpea

In Auckland the viaduct harbour abounds with good restaurants (try Mecca), as does the nearby Princess wharf (try Buffalo); but you can also eat very well in the Domain museum. And in Te Papa (museum in Wellington) they do a mean Goulash soup for lunch.

Foods of different nationalities is abundant – we liked the Little India chain (BYO), and we enjoyed a little Cambodian restaurant in Dunedin, though the spicy soup was hot, hot, hot. Also in Dunedin, the stone cooked steaks at the Terrace were fun, and the Reef is excellent for fish. In Te Anau we had a rare bad experience at the Fat Duck, the Toscana was OK, but the Ming Garden was (once again) excellent, as was the Waipara Springs sauvignon blanc we had with the set meal.

In Queenstown, I recommend Finz for fish, and Luciano’s for steaks and other goodies. In Hamner Springs, try Jolly Jack’s – not smart, but good food and service.

Choice is limited at the Hermitage in Mount Cook, the alpine buffet was fair, I should try the restaurant (pricey but good), or the cheap and cheerful bar food.

As I mentioned, in the Portage you should eat in the café – try the blue cod fish and chips with some Montana sav blanc.

If you stay in the Bolton in Wellington you could walk to the Backbencher – a pub frequented by members of nearby parliament. It’s a noisy place with character and good food, though the benches are a bit hard (guess that from the name I suppose).

In Napier on Marine Parade, the up market Pacifica is good, but expensive and not as good as it should be for the price. Better is the nearby Indonesia which does a huge set meal which we could not finish, but good and full of different flavours.

In Lake Taupo avoid the Irish pub, but Hell Pizza does some mean takeaway deals. The restaurant in the Chateau at Tongariro is a nice place to eat, and does pretty good food too at a reasonable price for a four star hotel (there is a cheap café there, but its pretty basic).

In Paihia the restaurants were pretty busy. The Scala was poor and quite pricey, much better was the cheap and cheerful Mako seafront bar, which is also a lively fun place.

California is also pretty good for eating (though you have to be selective). We had excellent fish at the Fishhopper in Monterey, and good lunch in Gilbert’s on Fisherman’s wharf. In Santa Barbara go to Brophy Brothers in the harbour (http://brophybros.com/) for very good fish and equally good views (its busy, you may have to wait, its worth it). Yet more good fish is to be found at the Great American Fish Company in Morro Bay right on the waters edge.

Joe's Tips

For New Zealand:

You can often (but not always) bring your own wine or beer (BYO), its worth checking beforehand. Ask the staff, as they don’t always say on the menu – I guess they don’t actually want to encourage it, though they charge a small corkage (up market places can charge a lot, so watch it).

Meal quantities tend to be large to very large, so go easy. It can often make sense to share a starter, or even a main course.

You can eat very well in a small café, try the ones in the museums or botanical gardens; they are all good.

Fish and chips can be very good and cheap, though it does vary. Usually cooked to order while you wait.

Try a large smoothie for lunch – healthy and quite substantial.

You don’t need to buy maps in N.Z. The amount of free tourist information is staggering (literally). They have huge quantities in every tourist office, but also in hotels, restaurants, shops – just about anywhere. There are at least three different competing tourist maps with all kinds of info on them. Its just one of the many good things about N.Z. that makes it such a lovely place to visit, along with the people, the food, the wine, the scenery, the lack of traffic….Just go there.