Giving Me the Boot

Nine months ago I fell in love with this country. Well, if you want to get technical, first I crashed a car here in under 45 minutes and wanted to lose my shit and get back on a plane and leave right away… BUT I kept my shit together and by the next day the love affair was strong. Landing back in New Zealand today I had a stronger sense of home than I do when I land in Orange County, where I spent the first 12 years of my life. Home really is where your heart and soul feel the purest…

So yah, I made it. Here I am back in New Zealand for the second time this year. Last time my trip was solely in the central part of the North Island. This time I’ll be driving down the entire west coast of the South Island, then flying to Christchurch, and then flying back up to the North Island to finish up the trip. I flew Air New Zealand premium economy this trip and all my sentiments from last time about how wonderful Air New Zealand is have only intensified! Getting here today was a long haul. First a 1 hr 20 min flight from Sacramento to Los Angeles, then almost 13 hours from Los Angeles to Auckland, and then another 1 hr 20 minutes from Auckland to Nelson. But Air New Zealand did not disappoint. Their premium economy fare meant not only larger seats that recline further but other amenities such as full size pillows and a little personal amenities kit with such comfort items as socks, an eye mask, toothbrush, face wipes, etc. And the food, holy smokes the food was delicious! Dinner included delicious breads, a chicken soba noodle salad, sous vide lamb with roasted vegetables, and Mexican horchata mousse cheesecake. This is going to sound crazy but the lamb and cheesecake dishes were probably the best lamb and cheesecake I have ever had. No joke. That good. Breakfast was also good including yogurt, fresh fruit, a croissant, and an omelet. I slept “ok” on the long flight. In total I probably slept off and on for about 7 hours but of course it was a restless sleep and the one time I was in the deepest sleep of the trip the flight attendant accidentally woke me up. Oh well.

One of my favorite travel accessories is the travel blanket I bought last time I came. It’s a fuzzy blanket and also folds into itself to be used as a pillow. Even though they provide a blanket it’s not the same or as soft and I realized on this flight how grateful I was that I had it.

I also love the Air New Zealand sense of humor. The bathrooms are decorated with either chandelier images or made to look like a bookshelf with airplane bathroom appropriate titles. (Bonus – the bathroom also had real wash cloths to wash your face!)

I dowloaded a bunch of movies/shows to watch on the plane and ended up watching Mamma Mia before falling asleep. They actually had the second Mamma Mia film available on the Air New Zealand entertainment console so when I woke up I watched that one too! Though the flight landed before the last half hour so now I’m drying to find out how it ends. This may sound super crazy if you know me, but I LOVED those damn movies! The second even better than the first. However, the first spoke to me in that one of the early scenes one of the dudes says to one of the other dudes, “It’s an adventure, it’s good for you!” Now that is speaking my language!

But I digress. Back to the flights… As my flight came in to land in Auckland I realized I could look down and see the little dale and the cows where I stopped to center myself after turning in my wrecked rental car last February. I literally had pulled off into a little lot and I swear those cows gave me strength to continue that journey; it was so cool to see them as I was coming in for this journey. The Auckland airport was a breeze today. There was zero wait at the passport processing or customs. Last time I did the kiosk passport validation and didn’t get a passport stamp. With no wait, this time I was able to go through the actual passport assistance and get my passport stamp! Yay! I breezed through customs and walked the mile to the domestic terminal (literally, I think it was close to a mile), and found that there is NO airport security for domestic flights within New Zealand. Literally, none. Everyone just waits in a common area and when your plane is ready they call up your flight number and point you to the right terminal. My flight to Nelson was on a much smaller plane that only held about 60 people. They served coffee/tea and a cookie – I thought I was going to break my teeth biting that ginger snap cookie but damn it was good, nice and spicy!

The Nelson airport takes the prize for the second smallest airport I’ve been in now. I was confused at first trying to find the baggage carousel only to realize that they simply roll the baggage trolleys up from the tarmac to the front of the airport and wait until everyone grabs their bags! From there it was to the Hertz rental counter where I made sure to add ALL THE INSURANCE and I was off and running!

Getting out of the airport and reminding myself about driving on the left side and the roundabouts was a bit hairy, I’m not going to lie, I got honked at a couple times in those first couple minutes. But I quickly got it together and continued on. Until I realized I was continuing on in the wrong direction. I started to get frustrated but chastised myself, since I am on an adventure after all, found a place to turn around and started making my towards my Boot finally.

That’s right. My Boot. Tonight’s AirBnB is literally a giant Boot. The host was gracious enough to allow me to check in early so I could get myself cleaned up and put back together after the 20ish hours of travel time. The Boot is in Tasman, about half an hour from Nelson, though it took me about 50 minutes to get here. I arrived at the Boot a little after noon and was, still am, immediately amused! The owner gave me a little tour including telling me where I could find the matches to start the fireplace if I needed heat (I’m sorry what? No actual heater?) and explained to me the composting toilet where instead of flushing you just add a cup of sawdust after you finish your business (Hold up, what?!).

I took a shower, which felt DIVINE after all that time in airplanes, and went to the Jester cafe next door to the Boot (owned by the same lady) to put some food in my belly and figure out my plan. This is my only real day in this area so I needed to get my priorities together. I ate an absolutely delicious goat tangine, I’m seriously not sure I have ever cleaned a bowl so thoroughly, and was reminded by the SLOW service that I am on New Zealand time now. Don’t these people realize I have sights to see?! After stuffing myself full of goat, I found the eel pond, that’s right, there’s an eel pond on my Boot’s property, and got my pack together to head out.

It was about 2pm by the time I was heading out. I knew I had a solid 6 hours of daylight. I am at the base of the Abel Tasman national park, which is a beauty and a treasure. I had some pretty lofty goals for what I wanted to see in Abel Tasman but cut out much of it by deciding that I didn’t want to put in 5 more hours of driving today for it would have been at least 2 1/2 hours to a couple of the destinations I had in mind. I felt rested regardless of the travel time but not that rested and not ready to spend that much time on windy left-sided driving roads.

I decided to start my Abel Tasman adventure by visiting Split Apple Rock. It looked like it should be cool and I could use a hike to work off all that goat. I drove about 45 minutes and found the trail head. I was disappointed to see it said it was only 15 minutes each way. I was even more disappointed when I found it only took me about 5 minutes to get down there. It’s a split rock. I feel like I should have been more impressed by the rock but I wasn’t. I was, however, impressed with the beautiful beach and bay. The waters of Abel Tasman are so pure and stunning. However, I was left even more disappointed that I did not see any penguins! There was a sign indicating no dogs allowed on the beach and it was penguin territory and boy did I get excited. But not a penguin to be seen. False advertising! I found a little side hike on my way back but even with that I was back to my car within half an hour and off to the town of Marahau to find the start of the Abel Tasman Coast Track. This track is meant to be a 4-day hike but I figured I would get my Abel Tasman hiking fix by doing an afternoon out and back.

I started on the track and it was gorgeous. So crazy to look to left and see a marshy area with a rain forest backdrop and then to look to my right and see a sandy bay and beautiful ocean. It was a great hike for sure with stunning views and beach access. But I was getting tired. Sooooo tired. I’d hoped to spend about three hours out there but after 45 minutes I realized just how spent and exhausted my body was from the long travel day and turned back. At one point on my way out I had come across some Wekas, a flightless bird. I guessed that they have gotten used to campers feeding them as they showed no fear and moved towards me like geese in a city park. On my return, I came across a couple ladies on the trail ahead of me who were fascinated snapping away countless pictures. As I got closer I realized that there were two wekas on the trail and these women were all in. I shuffled up behind them and politely stood waiting for them to finish their snapping away so I could be on my way. After about 3 minutes and watching them take about 50 pictures each my exhausted body was done and I just walked right past them. I heard disappointed grunts that I was going to mess up their bird viewing. Sorry ladies, just be thankful that I didn’t really burst your bubbles and tell you that they weren’t actually kiwi like you thought they were!

After my time on the Abel Tasman track I hit the road to Motueka to find the Janie Seddon Shipwreck. On my way out of Marahau I saw a produce stand that made me do a double-take; haven’t seen that one for sale beside asparagus before…

Just outside of The Janie Seddon was not only supposed to be a cool sight to see, but had an important history. “On 3 September 1939, as part of the New Zealand army, she fired “the first shot of the Second World War on behalf of the British” – a warning shot across the bow of a ship, which ignored the order.” I arrived in Motueka and started towards the old shore path that should take me to her. But I didn’t have to look hard. When I turned the corner onto the shore road, there she was, just about 50 yards off the coast, in all her rusted glory. I have to admit, I was expecting a hike to find it and having her so accessible seemed to take away some of the glory. I changed into my gore-Tex hiking shoes as with low tide I could walk closer and started to walk towards her. The sand beneath my feet was pretty soggy and before I knew it that damn sand turned to sledge and with one step both my feet sank about 2 inches into the earth. Awesome. Carefully I pulled them out and miraculously didn’t fall over. I realized I would just have to get pictures from afar and as I walked the beach perimeter found that at some point someone had carefully placed a path of big rocks in the muck so you could get closer. One rock at a time I balanced gingerly and went to see her in detail. It was pretty cool. But I still wish I would have had to work a little more to find her. And now I have some serious work ahead of me to clean off those shoes!

Though I still had at least two hours of daylight ahead of me and had hoped to do more I was beyond exhausted. I decided it might be a good idea to take advantage of the “charm” of my boot and rest this evening so I can really really hit the ground running tomorrow. I stopped at a Thai restaurant in Motueka for an ok dinner and then found my way back here, to my boot. It’s supposed to get chilly tonight but hopefully it won’t get too bad since my heat source in this thing is a wood burning fireplace and I’m not sure I’ve ever actually started a fire without lighter fluid. The Boot also has a lovely patio with outdoor chimney but I don’t even have enough energy for that. I am not sure what I’m going to do tomorrow. The items I did today were actually ideas I had for day two so I may revisit my day three ideas and see if some of them are reachable tomorrow. I’m supposed to stay in the town of Reefton tomorrow night but let’s see what the sights look like and if I end up changing that…