Solis Photography: Here in Blenheim

Greetings again. First off, I want everyone to know that we had intended to blog much more. We had envisioned ourselves sipping flat whites and mochaccinos at a café and using their wireless to send you all photos and updates. Turns out that free wireless is something of an oxymoron here. Sorry about that. Julie is keeping pretty good notes on what we do, so maybe when we get home, there will be a more detailed account. Plus, I've got (at this point) 1,500+ photos that I will have to go through and sort out before uploading them. I’m doing a few, but just the highlights.

We were in Queenstown last you heard from us and the temptation to stay was strong. Even though it was rainy nearly the entire time we were there, we didn't want to leave. Besides, since it was cloudy, I didn’t get a single good photo of Queenstown and we never actually saw the Remarkables, so we really wanted to stay for better weather. Hopefully we will come back at some point.

We did a nice hike to the top of the gondola above Queenstown that was tough for me, but of course it was a breeze for Julie. Even without the Remarkables, the view was worth the walk. We rode the gondola down for a nice lunch at Fergburger, which was excellent. Julie needed a coffee, so we had to stop in at Starbucks, not because we are silly Americans that need our retail chains, but because a friend of the family used to work there. Hey Maddie, Amber says "hello" and she misses you. From there, it was off to Wanaka.

If you happen to find yourself in Wanaka, there's one thing you have to do … see a film at Cinema Paradiso. We saw "Yes Man." The experience was better than the film. I’m not sure words can do the place justice except to say that it may be what I would consider heaven. Movies, food, beer, wine and homemade cookies and ice cream. All the seats are old couches except the ones in an old car off to the side of the cinema. Julie and I are thinking of opening our own back home.

The next day was all driving to Fox Glacier. We had lunch in Haast and ended up in Fox somewhat late. Beautiful drive though. Friday morning we got up before dawn and started what for me was the best day so far here. We did a speed hike around Lake Matheson to get some sunrise photos. The reason we were speed walking was because we had an 8:45 appointment for a helicopter ride over the Fox Glacier and around Mount Tasman and Mount Cook. Wow. Just wow. (Note: Even though I wanted to use a bunch of exclamation points, I didn’t just for Larry.) We were supposed to land on a glacier, but it was too windy to go over the divide. Disappointing but OK still. The photos rock and I can’t wait to play with the hundreds I took in the 30 minutes we were up there.

We dilly-dallied in Fox and took a few photos of sheep and a goat we named Sir William. We next had Rocinante (the name of our campervan for you literary types) take us to Franz Joseph for lunch where Julie had the world’s largest cup … er … bowl of mocha.

We continued to Hotitika where the next day was a Wild Foods Festival. Julie really wanted to try some gross food, so we parked at a bad hostel and went the next morning. The highlight was the homemade kahlua with fresh, unpasteurized cows milk. The lowlight, well, Julie might tell a better tale later on. Let's just say that not all parts of the cow should be eaten and you should remove the shells from creepy-crawlies before putting them in your mouth. I've got pictures, don't worry. The kangaroo was quite good and I really liked the raw tuna, which wasn’t odd to me, but people around me seemed keenly interested that I was eating raw fish. $2 NZ (about $1.10 US) for a pretty good sized chunk. I had seconds and really wanted to take some home as that would probably cost about $7 in Santa Cruz.

From there we drove to Nelson and prepared for our next awesome day ... WINE TASTING. First off though, in Nelson, Julie had a coffee (notice a theme here?) that was spicy. The chocolatier added red pepper flakes to the chocolate. The sample we had was pretty good but I think Julie's mocha was a bit too spicy.

We did a wine tour so we wouldn’t have to drive, which was good because I don’t think either of us could have. We bought a few too many bottles depending on who you ask. The aren't too many red wines here other than Pinot Noir, though one small winery had a great Syrah that should be even better in a few years. Yeah, like it will last that long. I had a nice seafood chowder for lunch at the second winery. Our driver said the only place he’s had better chowder was in Monterey. He was right.

Right now we are in Blenheim, still marinating in our wine. I think we'll crack open a bottle to finish the night. Until next time ...

Cheers.