After coming off a great few days in Queenstown, New Zealand, it was time to cross the ocean to Sydney. Great city, great people, great food...and FANTASTIC wine! If it weren't for the Australian accents everywhere, you could easily think you were in Newport Beach or somewhere in the SF Bay Area.
As I said in my previous posts, the touristy type spots are starting to wear me down so just enjoying the city for what it is, walking around the harbours and neighborhoods, grabbing a glass of Australian red and relaxing by the harbour were on the top of my list of "things to do" while in Sydney.
Here's a video of just that...relaxing:
(taken on the Sydney Harbour at a café called Sugaroc with the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the background)
Originally I had considered spending a few days in Melbourne and possibly a few days up the East Coast to Brisbane and Cairns, but after the whirlwind tour of New Zealand and not really getting to thoroughly enjoy any one spot due to plane flights every other day (literally), I decided to spend 6 days in Sydney rather than bouncing around Australia before my RTW ticket takes me to Thailand.
I haven't completely sworn off touristy spots - I still had to check out the best of the best, like the Sydney Opera House (which really is cool architecture although the interior was a disappointment)...
...the Sydney Harbour Bridge (the walk across the top of the bridge tethered to a railing is overrated)...
...and Manly Beach (about 40 minutes from Sydney via ferry)...
Manly was a cool beach town but remember I'm still in the Southern Hemisphere and it's winter down here so the beach was empty with the exception of a few surfers in full wetsuits. The strip of bars, restaurants, and shops just off the beach are a pretty cool place to hang out for an afternoon.
A question for any surfers out there: is there some sort of unwritten code that when a surfer goes from the water to his house/car/bar/or wherever he/she is going that they have to jog? Same was true for those going towards the water. It was odd...everyone wearing a wetsuit was jogging with their board tucked under their arm. I'm not a surfer so I do not know if there is an actual logical reason behind it but it struck me as interesting.
I've been to several zoos and aquariums on my trip already, but one afternoon I got caught in the rain on Darling Harbour so I decided to check out the Sydney Aquarium there, at least until it stopped raining...fairly decent place.
Not sure it's worth the admission price if you're not into that kind of stuff, but I thought the underwater glass tunnels with stingrays and sharks swimming all around you - and to within a few inches of your head - were pretty cool!
Sydney was a great "break" for me between the touristy spots of Asia and my next stop of Bangkok, Thailand. I enjoyed the city and look forward to the next time I'm back in this neck of the "planet" so that I can spend more time exploring both NZ and the rest of Oz!
A quick side note that Julie Bowlen was in town for a few days and we enjoyed several bottles of wine and a couple of great dinners...thanks for keeping me company Julie!
I'll also note that a fantastic restaurant, albeit a bit pricey, was the Café Sydney on the 5th floor of the Customs House located directly across the street from the Sydney Harbour Ferry Terminal. If you ever make it to Sydney, give it a try. Thanks for the recommendation Randy Scheffel!
PS - I forgot to take a picture of my hotel but I stayed at the Swissōtel downtown Sydney. Nice hotel, great location, but nothing special.
It's hard to believe I've been on the road for 30 days now (not including the separate 3 week trip to China & Hong Kong in March). Not only is it hard to believe that I've been traveling for that long, but also knowing that I still have 120 more days to go! This is going to sound odd - but I need a break!
After rain and cold on New Zealand's North Island (Auckland and Wellington), I flew into Christchurch which is in the northern part of the South Island. I'll give you one guess as to what the weather was like...and if you get the answer wrong you're either an idiot or you haven't been following my blog! (Some of you may qualify for both...you know who you are...don't look at the person sitting next to you!) Yep, raining and cold. Christchurch was completely uneventful - not much to see, not much to do. The original plan was to fly into Christchurch and immediately get on a train to Greymouth and back then leave for Queenstown the next day. The train trip is a full day trip from the east coast of the south island over (and through) the Southern Alps to the west coast and back again. It's ranked in the top 5 most scenic train trips in the world as ranked by many different travel sites...including the guy in "Seat 61" - apparently some world renowned train guru that I've never heard of until now, but it sounded impressive even though I'm not much of a "passive-sit-on-a-train-and-stare-out-the-window" kinda guy. Unfortunately, after landing in Christchurch and talking to the hotel's concierge about booking my ticket - she said the rail line is undergoing maintenance so the train only goes about a third of the way to Greymouth to the Southern Alps and then you get onto a bus for the rest of the way. She didn't recommend the trip because of this. So - another "plan" out the window. One of the disadvantages of booking 5 months of travel - you can't really be that well prepared for each location until you actually get there and you need to wing it - but with that comes disappointments like this. So far, I'm really bumming about New Zealand especially because this was one of the top countries I wanted to visit out of the 34 I'll hit on this trip.
For those of you that want more pictures - there's nothing spectacular in Christchurch so I'll give you the boring hotel photo (Crowne Plaza). It is in a great location and the cabbie told me it's the nicest hotel in Christchurch. A little better than a Holiday Inn in my opinion.
(I'll make up for the lack of pictures later in the post!)
If you ever come to New Zealand, cross Christchurch off your list - skip it and go straight to Queenstown.
A short side note about how I'm picking the stuff I decide to do when I get to a new location - which will become meaningful in a minute. I've been using Frommer's Guidebooks. They've been absolutely fantastic and 95% of the time their recommendations for hotels/restaurants/bars/tourist attractions/etc. have been spot on. Once in a while I wonder if the author of that particular guidebook is getting some sort of an incentive from a restaurant or bar because it hasn't been as good as the book says it is, but most of the time the recommendations are perfect. I've tried Lonely Planet guidebooks (horrible in my opinion!), and Eyewittness Travel guidebooks (decent but too limited in the information they provide and fill space with too many pictures). For some reason both Lonely Planet and Eyewittness seem to feel the need to cover every possible tourist attraction in a given location regardless if it's a good place for their readers to visit and they provide very little in terms of recommendations with those they do recommend being a hit-or-miss. Frommer's on the other hand, covers their recommended spots in great detail, and then just gives a quick mention to other "attractions" that they don't necessarily recommend or they'll tell you when something is overrated and not worth the cost. They also use a simple three star rating and I've found anything that gets three stars is worth the trip/cost/effort/etc. Most stuff in their books don't even get a star - which I've found usually means it's a waste of time - at least for those places that I decided to go to anyway. One star is recommended if you have extra time or if you are in the area already, two stars means it's highly recommend and three stars are the "must see" places. I've tried to hit just about every three star place in the books and have yet to be disappointed...until now.
Frommer's New Zealand misses the mark...completely! The author of this guide gives 3-star ratings to just about everything under the sun. I feel like the world's 5th largest ball of twine would get three stars...yes, 5th largest! I'm not sure what other brand guidebook for New Zealand would be better, but absolutely stay away from Frommer's in this case. Any other location and Frommer's has proven to be the best (in my opinion). Good example here is that Christchurch got 3-stars. Why? I had no clue until I found out the author lives in Christchurch! I'm seriously considering writing Frommer's to let them know that this particular guidebook hurts their brand - but that may have to wait until I return to the US.
Enough about guidebooks. After a full day in "waste-of-time-Christchurch", I hopped on another plane to Queenstown (the southern part of the South Island). WOW! Let me say that again...WOW! If you have a need for an adrenaline rush, Queenstown is the place to satisfy it. It's the birthplace of the bungee-jump (seriously), the birthplace of jet-boating (a blast!) and probably the birthplace of anything else that can get you killed or seriously maimed! Skydiving, helicopter rides, extreme skiing, parasailing, paragliding, mountain climbing, bear fighting (just kidding...they don't have bears in New Zealand), and anything else that is adventurous is here in Queenstown. And to top it all off, it is the most scenic place I have ever visited in my life! That may change as I continue my trek around the globe, but up to now, Queenstown is in first place!
Finally I get some decent weather. (picture from the plane on my flight in to Queenstown):
It's very cold (remember I'm in the southern hemisphere so it's winter and just a short plane trip to Antarctica (they actually have those!) Cold but the sun is out and there's little wind. Being from Colorado - it's practically golfing weather! (30's-40's fahrenheit as a high for the day)
Here's a quick picture of the hotel (Sofitel) and a view from my room. For those of you that haven't been reading my blog - I'm including these hotel pics to help me remember this trip many years from now. Very swanky hotel, right in the middle of town and at the base of the gondola that goes up to the top of a nearby mountain with a viewing area, restaurant, and a couple of luge tracks...more adventure. By far the best location in town.
The mountains in the background are the Remarkables - which they absolutely live up to their name, they are remarkable! (Video of the view...pretty cool!) The town of Queenstown is only about 15,000 people and feels very much like a Vail or an Aspen but a little bigger. Great restaurants, bars, cafés, shops, etc. It's located right on a lake and at the base of several mountain ranges.
Here's the sunrise from my deck over The Remarkables (zoomed in)...
Unfortunately, I've only planned on spending one full day in Queenstown (because of that d*&%$d Frommer's guidebook) and I can't possibly fit it all in. I've already extended my time in New Zealand by two days, so the more I extend the less time I'll have in other locations the rest of the trip. Since taking on a bear in a fight to the death isn't really up my alley (even though I probably would have won because of my cat-like reflexes), I decided to take a helicopter tour out to Milford Sound and to try the jet-boating. WOW! Let me say that again...WOW! I know I used that already but it deserves repeating!
First the helicopter tour. At the break of dawn (sun rise is 8:30am at this time of year, so don't think I'm getting up early or anything) we head out to the airport. It's normally a 30 minute helicopter flight from Queenstown to Milford Sound. By bus the trip to Milford Sound is 5 hours - each way, which will become understandable when you see the type of terrain we go over in the videos below. I said "normally" because the boat cruise in Milford Sound portion of this tour had to be cancelled due to weather coming in off the ocean and the pilot's fear that he wouldn't be able to get us back to Queenstown if we stuck around at the Sound for too long. So instead of 30 minutes each way via helicopter and 1 hour on the boat, he gave us 1 hour each way in the helicopter and landed it a couple more times than what is normally included in the tour. We landed once on a mountain near a frozen lake, once on a glacier, once at the Milford Sound, and once on top of the highest mountain near Queenstown with a great view of the city. Since we didn't do the boat cruise it's hard for me to compare that with the extra tour/landings in the helicopter but I think we ended up getting a sweet deal.
The scenery is absolutely stunning.
I've seen pictures of New Zealand before, I've seen all three Lord of the Rings movies that were filmed here, but nothing I've seen in pictures or movies comes even remotely close to the views experienced in-person from a helicopter flying over and around these mountains. "Majestic" is the only word I can come up with to describe these views, but even that seems lacking.
("New Zealand - South Island" is continued in my next post)
Even now as I look at these photos, I'm disappointed that they don't capture the beauty - the awe inspiring beauty! I took a little over 100 pictures and probably 30-40 minutes of video. I'll try posting all of them up to web album when I get more time. Here are a few of the pictures and videos to chew on until then: (note these videos are low-resolution so that I can post them via the iPad, but when I am able to post the HD videos, you'll have to check them out! Also, these videos are only 30-45 seconds long because I have limited bandwidth in the hotel but some of the HD videos are 3-4 minutes long and well worth the time to watch them! Turn down the sound on your speakers - all you can hear is the helicopter whirring...we have headsets on so that we can hear each other and the pilot pointing out different things along the way but I couldn't capture that in my videos.)
(The landing on top of a mountain)
(View of the Southern Alps from about 9,000 feet)
(Coming into Milford Sound - these peaks are about 6,000 feet above sea level and the Sound is about 1,300 feet deep...that's deep!)
(Landing at Milford Sound)
(I think this is Mitre Peak - but it was hard to understand our helicopter pilot sometimes...English in New Zealand could be classified as a different language in my mind!)
(The tide was out when we landed, but would have come all the way up to my feet if the tide was in.)
(I love this shot - the base of these mountains are at sea level so it's basically a lush rainforest type environment, then shear rock faces up the to peaks of these mountains.)
(Another landing with Queenstown in the distance on the edge of Lake Wakatipu - click on the photo and zoom in, there's actually a town way down there!)
It's interesting that the highest peak in all of New Zealand is only 12,500 feet (+/-) and all of the peaks around me are no more than 7,000 - 8,000 feet. My Vail house is at 8,120 feet so it is actually higher than all of the tops of these peaks you see in the pictures and the videos. The difference is that the bases of these mountains are at sea level so the mountains climb 8,000 feet very quickly versus in Colorado the Gore Range is 14,000 feet climbing up from the base of 8,000 feet - so you only see a 6,000 foot vertical rise. Here, we're looking at an 8,000 foot vertical rise which gives the appearance that these mountains are higher than those we see in Colorado.
Video from one of the landing sites:
Video of one of the glaciers...and what appears to be flying within a few feet of the peaks. It doesn't just appear that way...we were that close! Be sure to watch this one...it's really cool.
So after a great morning on the helicopter and a good lunch with some new friends from Wash DC that were on the helicopter with me and can be seen in the front seat in one of the videos (a shout out to Christian and Annabelle!), I decided to give the jet-boating a try. WOW! (I know I'm overusing that word, but what else can I say?) The concept of jet-boating on a river is that the water is too shallow (just a few inches deep at some points) for a regular motor so they tack two jet engines onto the boat!
Each has 520hp and can propel the boat to 80 km/h in seconds (about 50 mph). In an open ocean or lake, 50 mph is not that exciting, but when you're in a canyon with sheer rock faces on either side, in a few inches of water, making precision turns to avoid the rocks, and the driver of the boat definitely has a screw-loose, it's fantastic! At times, the boat was within 2-3 inches of the rock walls of the canyon (that's not an exaggeration!) and it's not like we're floating up to these rock walls, but flying towards them at top speed making a turn just moments before crashing into the wall!
And to top things off, they decide it would be fun to throw in a few 360° turns at high speeds! I asked our driver if he had ever hit a canyon wall and his response was "once...only once!" I think I should be thankful he didn't expand on that.
We weren't allowed to take our cameras onto the boat (which was a good thing because it would have gotten drenched), but they did have a video camera on the front of the boat and recorded 3 minutes of the ride. Of course, I bought it for a ridiculous price along with some pictures which I will try to post later when I get a chance to download off the CD and upload onto the web. For now, here's a short video of the group after us.
As you'll see, the boat will go in between the rock walls and it will appear that he's only inches away from both sides of the wall...it's not an illusion, he actually is only inches away...on BOTH sides!
Afterwards I grabbed dinner with Christian and Annabelle and then played a little blackjack with them at a tiny little casino on the wharf (Christian - stay away from the PP...you can't win buddy!!) I lost about $1,000 US in a very short period of time, but thankfully I'm still up after the winnings in Singapore!
The next morning it was back to the airport for my return flight into Auckland in order to link into my "RTW" ticket to Sydney. Great weather so far and looking forward to a little relaxation (yes, I said relaxation - hopping on a plane every other day is exhausting!)
6 full days in Sydney and then to Thailand for 11 days. I'm thinking 4-5 days in Bangkok and then 4-5 days in Phuket, but if anyone has other suggestions as to where I should go in Thailand, please let me know.
Thanks for following along - I know this was a long one!
Days 24-29:
Arrived in Auckland, New Zealand to a rainy day and it hardly stopped until the morning I left...of course. In Singapore it was 20-30 minutes of rain showers, in Auckland it was only 20-30 minutes of sunshine. Because I'm in the Southern Hemisphere, it's the start of their winter season, so I guess I should have expected it. I knew this when planning this "round the world" trip, but wanted to make sure I hit New Zealand and Australia.
Lots of rain, and it's cold! Because of the rain/cold, my plans were all shot to "heck." I originally planned on playing golf one day - nope, course closed due to rain. Planned on bungee jumping off the Sky Tower - nope too windy but "come back tomorrow!" Got a decent shot of the tower on the morning I left for the airport...
Also a good shot of my hotel right after a heavy rain:
I stayed at the Hilton which is at the end of a wharf - pretty cool hotel and I had a great corner room with a huge deck...too bad I could only spend a few minutes enjoying it. Video of deck:
I was hoping to take a ferry to Waiheke Island (an up and coming area for wineries), but spending an hour each way on a ferry in the rain and touring vineyards in the rain didn't sound like a lot of fun. So basically, Auckland was a bust. It's a nice city and I'd love to come back in the summer when the weather is better.
Next stop was Wellington which is on the southern tip of the north island. Again I arrived to rain, more rain, with a little bit of rain mixed in.
Since anything outdoors was basically out of the question, I decided to check out the National Museum of New Zealand - wow, very impressive!
I'm not much of a museum kinda guy, but spent 3 hours inside this one...the rain outside might have had something to do with that too. Very high-tech, extremely interactive, and not just a museum on New Zealand but spans multiple areas (geology, animals, the ocean, art, culture, history, etc.) This is going to sound weird, but the "star attraction" is the world's largest squid ever found (accidentally caught on a fishing boat). This picture of it encased doesn't do it justice, but it really was cool. When it was alive, the eyes were the size of soccer balls (believed to be the largest eyes of anything still living on earth!)
Overall, I really liked Wellington but like Auckland, I would like to come back in the summer. There's a pedestrian mall called Cuba Street Mall, that felt exactly like the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder. I half expected to find Potter's around the next corner (those of you that went to CU know what I'm talking about). Great funky coffee shops and cafés, old school record shops, awesome bars and restaurants, young crowd.
If you ever make it to Wellington, check out Matterhorn on Cuba Street - great food (I had the venison) and I found my new favorite wine: Passage Rock Syrah from Waiheke Island. Fantastic!
On the morning of my last day in Wellington, of course the weather was beautiful. I only got to experience a couple short hours before having to go to the airport, but captured a few pictures of my hotel (the InterContinental) and took a quick cable car ride up to the top of a nearby "mountain".
The original plan was to start in Auckland and take trains, ferries and buses to get to the South Island, however it's a good day's worth of travel between each of the major cities (Auckland and Wellington on the North Island and Christchurch and Queenstown on the South Island). Since I've only planned on spending eight full days in New Zealand, I decided to look into flights between the cities and spend more time in each city rather than traveling between them. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it) I found flights for $49 NZD ($33 USD) between each of these cities, so I decided to book them. I say unfortunately because I've since heard from several locals that the "on the ground" traveling between the cities is where you get to see all the beautiful scenery of New Zealand. Next time!
I'm hoping the South Island delivers a little better weather, but I'm traveling further south which in the Southern Hemisphere means I'm getting closer to the pole and unfortunately it will only get colder. Next stop: Christchurch.
History lesson of the day - Singapore didn't want to be it's own independent country, but was essentially booted out of Malaysia because the island of Singapore had too many Chinese people living here. Interesting. Most people fight for independence, Singapore didn't want it but got it anyway in 1965.
Many say Singapore's national pastime is shopping...well they certainly have enough places to do it! My hotel (The Rendezvous)
is located right at the beginning of the largest shopping mecca I've ever seen (Orchard Road). Mega shopping mall after mega shopping mall, surrounded by more mega shopping malls and adjacent to a few more mega shopping malls. And if you wander off into Chinatown or Little India, you'll run into more shopping malls. It's crazy! I think the number of stores in Singapore outnumbers the number of people...3 to 1 (okay, obviously not possible, but it certainly seems like it). If you ever want to shop-til-you drop, Singapore is the place to do it. Thankfully, that's not of much interest to me so I haven't bought a thing. Besides, my backpack is already busting at the seams!
The hotel was perfect - great location in the heart of the city, high-end finishes, and great views of the city skyline.
Overall, Singapore is very clean, lush, and a very modern city. It doesn't have the history that a Beijing or Tokyo has, but I could see myself living here. It also helps that everyone speaks English. Some not as well as others, but for the most part they all speak English - or Singlish which is very hard to understand every word but you can get the gist of what they're saying. No, I'm not making the word Singlish up - it's actually what some people speak. Google it!
If I rank the Asian cities I've been to recently in terms of "livable cities" for a Westerner, I'd put Singapore at the top of the list followed by Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei, Macau, and then Xi'an at the bottom. If I ranked these same cities as a great tourist spot to spend a week vacation, Singapore would be towards the bottom...unless you like to shop.
If shopping isn't the national pastime in Singapore then eating must be. Wonderful restaurants everywhere - not once did I have a bad meal, or even a mediocre one. The most interesting was the chili crab. There must be a hundred restaurants in Singapore that serve this speciality. I went to Jumbo Seafood along the Boat Quay (pronounced key) to have this speciality. Basically a crab in a pot drenched in a spicy hot sauce.
It was very spicy for the first two or three bites but then I seemed to adjust. Very good, but at $50 it better be. I also had a "dragonfruit and lobster salad topped with caviar" to go along with my crab - needless to say this was my "splurge" night for dinner!
Singapore seems to have everything you could want/need and a melting pot of nationalities/races/beliefs. It was nice to see and talk to many Europeans, Ausies, Kiwis, and a few Americans for a change - considering the first part of my trip has been almost entirely people of Asian descent. I have nothing against Asians, I just like the diversity of Singapore. It is however only about 60 miles from the equator so the temperature is hot (90-95° and the humidity is very high (approaching 75-80% year round). You feel soaking wet about 2 mins after walking out the door. It rained everyday while I was here except one, but mostly just a 20-30 min shower and then the sun would come back out. Three or four of those showers a day, so not too disrupting. It explains why everything is so green and lush here.
The Quays (Boat Quay, Clarke Quay and Robertson Quay) seemed to be the hot spot along the Singapore river and only a few blocks from the bay. I would describe it to be similar to the Riverwalk in San Antonio. Lots of restaurants, bars and night clubs.
The famous "Merlion" is located nearby as well - which is a cross between a fish and a lion ("mer" standing for sea").
Apparently the first explorer to come to the island of Singapore thought he saw a lion and named the area Singapura (means lion city). Later it was determined that there are no lions in the area, and never before nor since have lions been seen in the area - except those brought in by man to the zoos. (sorry - two history lessons today!)
One of the best parts of my time in Singapore was at the Marina Bay Sands
- a brand new casino/hotel/resort that just opened up a couple of months ago. It must have been a soft opening because the place was still under construction - the mall, the hotel lobby, the landscaping, everything was still under construction...except the casino!
It figures they would finish that part first! The above shot is a picture of the first of three floors of casino space. You can only see about 1/3 of the floor in this shot - almost all baccarat tables! Crazy how Asians love baccarat. As I've been known to play a hand or two of blackjack, I HAD to partake in a few hands. Thankfully I did, as a couple of hours later I walked out with S$4,000 ($2,800 USD) of the casino's money. Not bad for a quick visit!
As you can tell from the pictures, there's a giant platform at the top of three towers that is cantilevered over the edge (which is 60 stories up). This is where the pool deck is...I'm sure it's really cool, however I couldn't get up there. I believe it's still under construction, but I think they only let hotel guests up there which I was not. I guess that just gives me one more reason to come back to Singapore!
You may have heard of the famous Singapore Sling - a fruity drink with pineapple juice, gin, cherry brandy, Cointreau, lemon juice, bitters, benédictine and grenadine.
It was "invented" by a bartender at the Long Bar inside the Raffles Hotel back in the early 1900's. Every guidebook and website about Singapore mentioned a visit to the Long Bar to have this famous concoction. Well, apparently the folks at the Long Bar have caught on to this demand and charge...
...Yes, that's S$29.45 for one drink which is about $21 USD. That's ridiculous...but I had one anyway because I'm a stupid American (that's for you Ric and Alayna - we're not just in China!)
I've been trying to figure out how to upload videos to my blog but I haven't figured it out until now. I can't upload HD videos from my Canon camera to the iPad but I can upload low quality videos from my iPhone to my iPad - so here's my first attempt (and a little entertainment for all you guys reading this post).
While hiking one day, I came across this sign:
I wasn't sure what it meant so I jumped over the fence to see what was on the other side. VERY interesting.
On a completely unrelated note, here is a random shot of a couple of Pringles cans on the store shelf
- if you can't read the flavors, they say Shrimp and Seaweed. First of all, those are both disgusting flavors for a potato chip. Secondly, if you eat them together is it like eating sushi?
I'm now in Auckland, New Zealand for a few days. If you're following me on a map, you'll probably see I'm heading backwards - it was the only way I could get this "Round the World" plane ticket to work. By only using airlines that are members of Star Alliance, I was limited in how to get to the southern hemisphere and through Singapore was the best/cheapest way. After a 10 hour flight into Auckland and after visiting Australia I'll have another 10+ flight into Thailand - I'm wishing I had figured out a better route. I will say, however, that Singapore Airlines' business class is by far the best class of service - far better than any FIRST class service I've ever flown.
With completely lay-flat seats, a 20" video screen with 100's of new release movies and TV shows, and great food, it made the 10 hours fly by (I've got to stop with the puns!)
Regardless, I'm here in Auckland for a few days, then to Wellington, NZ for a day, Christchurch, NZ for a day, then Queenstown, NZ for a few days before heading to Sydney.
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