A solemn hello to you lads and lassies, as the clock ticks ominously. But no sadness yet. We have had an amazing 48 hours since last report.
Milford Sound = awesome. We did a 90 minute cruise, and because it’s out of season, there were less than 20 people aboard. I nuzzled up to the naturalist onboard who then hooked us up with wildlife sightings. The bad news: the weather sucked: really cold, and really rainy, and really foggy. This made it hard to fully grasp the size of the mountains jutting out of the fiord, but was also kind of haunting in a way. The good news: we hit the wildlife trifecta. Seals, dolphins and penguins all spotted, and at length. Seeing the dolphins was awesome…a pod of 3-4 swam along with the boat’s current for a solid minute before disappearing. After that we asked our guy what it would take to see some penguins. He said prayer. We assured him Linda would hook us up, and indeed she did, as not only did we see penguins, we saw a whole flock of them, and because they were in a group, they were much more “social,” staying above water, doing jumps, playing. Totes awesome.
After our sweet as cruise, we hit the road back to Queenstown, which marked the last leg of our car journey (4 hrs). We broke up the drive by making two stops to frolick with sheep. I'm not joking. Turns out, sheep are camera whores. I’m estimating in total in NZed we’ve spent 25 hours on the road, plus or minus two hours. As with all things, we were very wise and strategic about breaking that up, so it was never insufferable. I did have a nice laugh that as we arrived back in Queenstown that Liza decided it was a good time to tell me that our friends in DC think she’s a terrible driver. Real glad she didn’t mention that before. Don't worry, we (really Liza) managed to come up with more things to discuss, including planning my 30th birthday party, which she better plan since she won't even be there. Speaking of 30th birthdays...you know how watching slide shows of people's vacations is almost always terrible? Imagine watching a slide show created for someone you've never met while ON vacation. Liza has asked about, oh, 30 times if I wanted to watch the video she made for her sister's 30th birthday, and she tricked me into doing so before dinner last night. Bealler, let me just say...you are DEFINITELY the pretty one.
Back on Tuesday night, at a place called MiniBar, our bartender Lucy strongly recommended we go to a place called Botswana for dinner when we returned from Milford Sound, and even rang them to make us a reservation. She mentioned she’d also be working Thursday, so we should stop by to say hi. We obliged, and during the course of convo (which also included Liza and I sweating over our mutual love of Taco Bell) discovered that the company that owns MiniBar also owns Botswana, as well as 2-3 other of the bars we’ve been hitting regularly. I immediately had my doubts about Botswana, since she probably gets an employee reward for sending people there. (She also recommended that we go to a club called Sky Bar after dinner, which turns out is ALSO owned by this company. Unimpressed, Lucy).
Botswana was pretty delicious, but about $10-15 more per main than she’d told us. Still, Liza and I split some venison, mac & cheese (with bacon), pate, and red cabbage with bacon (since we’ve discussed twice that we both love cabbage…and bacon). Oh, and a bottle of wine of course. It was good, but in the end I could have eaten that same meal for just me. From here we went on to our favorite wine bar to sit in front of the fire, where we made fast friends first with two Aussies who we discussed the U.S. tax system with, then with three older gents (MUCH older) who’d been on the slopes all day. Maybe it was the fire, maybe it was the wine, but we sort of fell in love (the “leader,” whose name neither of us can remember, looked like Ralph Lauren), it wasn’t long before we were doing lean backs, accepting free drinks, taking zany pictures, and inviting them to join us for a dance party (which we did). When we decided to move on without them, they wished us well, no skeeviness or awkwardness…just best wishes and goodbyes. I might have developed a thing for old men.
I’d remark more on the rest of the night, but it’s a blur of not being allowed into other bars, Liza caressing a giant Moa, trying to find fish and chips, taking pix on the lake, eating leftovers in the kitchen, and going to sleep before eating the peanut butter I made Liza fetch for me.
We slept in this morning, the first morning we have been able to do so since I got here (since the only other day we haven’t had to check out of our lodging by 10 a.m. was the morning we got up at 6 to ski). We were both moving a bit slow, had to make some unexpected stops that I believe have permanently bonded Liza and I, and then hit the road to fit in my last four wineries. Not only did we crush those last four wineries (with hangovers in tow) but we even fit in a bonus round. The tally for those of you at home is two islands, four regions, 21 wineries, 90+ wines. Not too shabby. For those of you wondering how we’ve been driving while doing this, plead the fifth.
All we had for lunch was a small (but of course…delicious) antipasti platter, so when we rolled back into town around 5, we were famished. A gent at Brennan Wines had highly highly highly recommended getting a hamburger at FergBerg, and as we drove past Liza said, “I could eat that.” This is notable because she says that until this moment, and despite a weak moment at Burger King three months ago, that she had never had a real hamburger (other than fast food as a child). We split one. Her life changed. The cows here are grass fed, and the difference in taste is incredible. Top 5 burger of my life.
So that brings us to the present. I’m pecking away in the room, Liza is regenerating with a quick nap, and then it’s out for our final evening. I feel like I’m going to the electric chair in some ways. Will be nice to be home for about ten minutes, and then, to be honest, I’m going to be sad as fuck.
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