School ended on September 29th. I started term 3 on July 21st. Ben started on the 28th of July. What a crazy and eventful 10 weeks of teaching at an all-boys Catholic public school. To tell you how things went would take some time, but I will put it into a nut shell and just say that this two week break is a welcome and much needed one to recharge my batteries so I can get through the shorter term four.
We spent the first two days of our break sleeping in, relaxing by not doing any lesson planning, but definitely putting in some time to work on our possible upcoming job search for the 2018-2019 school year if we decide to leave New Zealand after our visas expire in July of 2018. Hiring season for the 2018-2019 school year is gearing up and we will be needing to make a decision on whether we want to stay in New Zealand for longer or if we wish to try to land a job in another country.
Anyhoo, we were working on updating our professional documents, uploading them to our accounts, communicating with various associates who we are working with to help us gain employment with international schools. Ben was working on some students’ letters of recommendation who are applying for colleges soon. That’s pretty exciting for them!
We did lots of research on where we wanted to go on our vacation and whether we would be able to do what we’d like to do and then get hotels. One of our ideas for an activity bombed. We were hoping to maybe do a multi-day canoe trip down the Whanganui River in the Whanganui National Park, but we discovered that the water levels have been too high and the outfit we were hoping to use said they haven’t allowed anyone into the water because of these high water levels. So, we opted that perhaps we would have to postpone that activity for summer time (Dec/Jan).
We decided on heading up to Martinborough which is known as the wine country. The area is about an hour away, and we thought we’d stop off and check out Harcourt Park and then onto Kaitoke National Park. Harcourt Park was the filming location for Isengard in Lord of the Rings, the ancient Gondorian fortress at the southern end of the Misty Mountains, facing Rohan. Of course, this location looks so very different from the movie because of the amount of time that has passed as well as how much gets digitally changed. Kaitoke National Park is known for the filming location of Rivendell and specifically Frodo’s room in Rivendell when he wakes from having been stabbed. It is also the place where the Fellowship of the Ring was formed. There is signage in the areas where filming happened and some description and mapping to help you put it all together where various locations where. There was one arched entrance that was left standing which was fun. Here is a picture of the traveling party near the arch. And then I included a picture of Ben and me at the same arch. How cool!
In Martinborough we made reservations for two nights at a very luxurious hotel, Peppers Parahua, which was just LOVELY! It was quiet, peaceful, clean, and we had a hot tub and fireplace. We thought we’d just posh it up a bit and splurge on being pampered. It was great! We got all comfy into our place and the first thing we did was pop open a bottle of what we thought was a complimentary bottle of pinot noir from the region (oops! It ended up costing us a pretty penny…but luckily it was a good bottle of Pinot Noir! Phew!) and then walked over to the reception desk to rent out two bikes so we could go visit some wineries. There were baskets on the front of the bikes and we were on a mission to fill them. We also brought back packs just in case we needed more haul space! Unfortunately (or fortunately, can’t be sure) many of the wineries closed early so we were only able to visit 3-4. We came away with a handful of bottles of delicious and rare wines and with a good buzz. After searching around on our bikes and realizing around 5 p.m. that no other places were opened, we headed back to the hotel laden with our treasures. We enjoyed a wonderful 3-course meal with (aha) some local wine of a winery we had not gotten to visit that day (because they were closed) at the hotel. All in all, a great day.
The following day, Ben and I woke up late and ate breakfast around 10 a.m. and decided to play a bit of tennis on the courts located on the hotel grounds. Needless to say I earned the titles “Gameless” and “Lead Foot” and although I deemed Ben “Soft Serve” at the beginning of our games, he definitely found his groove and was Soft Serve no more!
After tennis, we thought it was around the time the wineries would start to open and we headed out in our car to three more wineries. The last one, Margrain, resulted in us purchasing 12 bottles and getting one free. I think you could say we really liked their wine! By the time we finished at Margrain Winery, we were pretty buzzed and decided that we should just stop and continue onto the next part of our day…we headed down to the Pinnacles because we were recommended by one of Ben’s colleagues who is a former geologist and finds the area fascinating. What we didn’t realize is it’s another filming location for LOTR which search as the Paths of the Dead by Rohirrim. The hike details say it’s easy even though taking the streambed path was an unrelenting and gradual incline, but when you’re buzzed I’d say it’s a lot harder! But hey! We made it and enjoyed the views and spots of shade along the way from the towering rocks on either side.
We continued along the coast to check out Cape Palliser and the light house and even got to see some fur seals along the rocks. They blend so well you really have to watch and wait to see which ‘rock’ is moving!
We headed back to our hotel to make it to our next appointment which was a 7 p.m. transfer to Tirohana Restaurant for a 3-course meal that was a wonderful 2 hours spent. Because of all the exercise we got, we were ravenous, but even so, the food was delicious! Another great day in the wine country!
Oct. 4
After another yummy breakfast, Ben and I piled up our alcoholic loot and our luggages into the car and headed waaaay up north to Turangi. It is apparently ski season still but we’re hoping for hiking and possibly some rock climbing. The roads were windy and narrow in places and it was more dense with traffic in both directions which might have been due to the fact that there was one path closed for whatever reason. There was also multiple areas of construction where there were people posted to allow one-way traffic only. But overall, the views were lovely and the times when I was fearful for my life were few, if any. We made it to the town of Turangi with time to spare to hunt down a grocery store and go to a local restaurant. I had a yummy salad topped with lamb and camembert and Ben had Red Snapper Fish and chips all washed down with some beer.
