Visitors from Down the Block and Across the Sea

Pano view from the Auckland Sky Tower

Since first coming to New Zealand on ANZAC Day, 2010, we have been visited about once yearly from friends and family from the USA. 2018 will be remembered for the 13 days we spent with our dear Fort Bragg friends and neighbors Christine and Doug. More so than with other visitors we recapitulated a lot of our times in NZ. Appropriately, they came to Auckland shortly after ANZAC Day, the 8th anniversary of our first arrival.

ANZAC Day at Timaru Cemetery

After greeting them on arrival at the airport, we spent the first two nights at the Waldorf Tetra in the Auckland CBD, our home for six months in 2012.  In addition to taking in the view from the SkyTower observation deck (above), we walked the same path I took to go to work at Auckland City Hospital, on across the Domain and over to the Auckland War Memorial Museum and the wonders it holds. 

The Auckland Art Gallery displayed a fascinating video installation Manifesto "starring" Cate Blanchett in multiple roles, described as:

The immersive 13-screen film installation Manifesto by German artist and filmmaker Julian Rosefeldt pays homage to the moving tradition and literary beauty of artist manifestos, ultimately questioning the role of the artist in society today

While Fayne and our guests pondered the complexities of that, I took the opportunity to make my first visit to the Maritime Museum, Auckland. Dubbed The City of Sails, my visit to see the 1995 America's Cup winning yacht Black Magic was long overdue.

NZL 32-Black Magic

Of course, there were many other odd nautical pieces that caught my attention.

Figurehead of the HMS Virago

The streets of Auckland have been invaded by 46 giant owls, part of The Big Hoot, part of a public art project to raise funds for childhood cancer.

Nobody rocks the party like my nearly surrogate son Florry O. and his little buddy Rocco, and we were fortunate he made time to brunch with us before we left the city.

All bow down to Rocco (at center)

Christine and Doug had less than a fortnight to spend in NZ so in order to show them as much as possible we had to be on the move. They wanted to visit Hobbiton, the one place on this trip we had not visited before. It's about a two-hour drive from Auckland. The place was first constructed in 1999 as the Shire for the LOTR trilogy, fell into disuse, but was revived due to tourist/fan interest and the subsequent bloated Hobbit films. They rebuilt it with more durable materials with an eye to creating the present tourist attraction. I have had some resistance to visiting because mentioning hobbits to a Kiwi is like asking the Irish about leprechauns: they are tired of hearing about them. Also, at $84 a pop, it is pricey. Despite those reservations, we had a lovely experience. Set in a idyllic dale, although most of the hobbit holes are exteriors only, they did create a serene setting.

Hobbiton stone bridge and The Green Dragon Pub

In front of Bag End, the Baggins Clan home burrow

After a quaff at The Green Dragon we were invited to indulge in a little cosplay, Hobbit-style.

Hobbit Gal and Guy

Wizard-in-training prepares for a grand adventure.

A short drive from Hobbiton got us to Rotorua, the geothermic heart of Maori culture and a prime NZ tourist spot since the mid-1800's. We had visited before in 2010 and were overdue for a return. Doug had put three things on his to-do list:

1. Hot water spa bathing,
2. Learning more of the native peoples, and
3.  Eating at the Fat Dog Cafe and Bar.

Check, check, and check.
Fayne and I are not spa people, but they had a delightful evening at the lakeside Polynesian Spa. I think it was a true highlight for both of them and they would recommend it to fellow spa-lovers without hesitation. (Two of my sisters also really enjoyed it in 2010).
We had dinner at the Fat Dog Cafe, the place for large plates of classic cafe meals. We started a trend that lasted the whole visit: we ate well, we ate too much, and we ate so avidly that I only thought of getting a photo after the meal was over.
Te Puia is a Maori-run one-stop tourist destination where one can see the Te Whakarerewarewa Thermal Reserves, an actual brown kiwi bird, a meeting house (marae) and cultural performances, and a new center for the teaching and preservation of traditional Maori arts and crafts. We all greatly enjoyed the entertaining guided tour of Rotorua's famous geothermic area, and the geysers were playful that day.

Ngā mōkai-ā-Koko (The Playthings of Koko) Mud Pool

In a separate building, you can watch artisans carving wood and stone or weavers at work and appreciate the fruits of their labors, both from the students as well as the masters.

Doug was obsessive in his desire for a New Zealand savory pie, and he sampled his first (but not last) here at Te Puia. Do you think he liked it?

A bit later he was seen digging into some aihikirīmi (ice cream).

 
From Rotorua we headed south to Wellington but broke up the trip with a night at the historic Chateau Tongariro in New Zealand's oldest National Park. Established in 1887, Tongariro N. P. is the fourth oldest National Park in the world. Built in 1929, the Chateau retains much of its grandeur and faded Old-World charm, and although Fayne and I have stayed before, it was a special treat for us all.

Chateau Tongariro with Mt. Ruapehu in the background (from a visit in 2014)

The front entry driveway perfectly frames Mt. Ngauruhoe, a.k.a. Mt. Doom to LOTR fans.

Mt. Ngauruhoe

Moving on from the center of the North Island, it was south for two nights in the capital Wellington. Wellie is always fun, lots of good food and things to do. In addition to the must-dos like walking along the harbor and visiting the great National Museum Te Papa, the 2018 NZ International Comedy was on there (and in Auckland and around the country). We went to a show of well-known (in NZ) Kiwi comics, Justine Smith and Ben Hurley. The accents and local references can be a stumbling block for visitors, but we had fun.

Ben Hurley(L) and Justine Smith(R) performed at the San Fran venue in Wellington

The same caveats apply to the new New Zealand feature film comedy, The Breaker Upperers, but we had the opportunity to go to a Wellington premiere with the stars on hand for a Q&A afterwards, and I was not going to miss that. It features some really talented and funny NZ performers. The premise: two friends start a business to help clients creatively end a relationship they may not have nerve to do on their own.

Click here to see the trailer

The film was shown at SXSW® (South By Southwest) to good reviews and I hope it gets a proper US release. For an extra treat, we shared our flight the next morning to the South Island with the same movie principals.
The theme of this visit, as you may recall, was to share as much of our experience here in a very short time. We flew into Christchurch and took the Inland Scenic Highway 72 across the Canterbury plains skirting the Southern Alps to Timaru, where we had two nights. The town tour included:

• Our Wee House
• My office at the hospital
• Local cuisine and sights
• Hosting a lovely and delicious schnitzel dinner (prepared largely by Doug and Christine) with my German colleagues, as both D&C are noted Teutonophiles.

A random lovely picture of Timaru

If you have paid any attention to my many past blog entries particularly when they include visitors, you may well guess the next stops on our South Island itinerary. Lake Tekapo (not pictured) was a must, and then on to Mt. Cook. For the first time when we visited we did not have a clear view of the summit, but even with low clouds and mist she showed her majestic beauty.

Tuesday we traveled Mt. Cook to Queenstown to stay at one of our favorite places and a Pub Quiz baptism for the tourists, then to Dunedin for Wednesday night, and Thursday up the Otago coast. We were lucky to pop into Fleurs Place on Moreraki Bay for lunch, a small dockside restaurant with an international reputation as THE place to get fresh seafood and other dishes. Fayne and I have been in the past, but today it was ideal: the sun on the sea, eating delicious food on the upper deck, and a photo op with Fleur Sullivan herself.

C&D with the eponymous Fleur

We couldn't pass by without a stop to see the Moeraki Boulders.....

.....and unique Victorian/Steampunk Oamaru.

After a pit stop in Timaru, featuring lots of laundry, it was up to Christchurch for Friday May 11 to see them off safely back home, but not until we shared a bit of Christchurch and kiwiana.

Iconic Christchurch Cathedral, still in ruins, its fate yet undecided

Love in the Paua House in the Canterbury Museum

We made the most of the time we had together and I hope Christine and Doug will have fond and indelible  memories of this beautiful (and delicious) country, and a better understanding of how and why we ended up spending so much time so far away from home.

PS- I wanted to include a picture of our Granddaughter's school project, a diorama featuring her chosen animal, the manatee. We tried to have some input based on our manatee experiences at Weeki Wachee Springs, FL. We could not be more proud of her (and we'll be seeing her in two weeks)!!!!

PPS:

Good luck to our Supreme Leaders. Have fun in Singapore.