Day 15: Homeward Bound

Oct 5th

Our last day in New Zealand. :(

We woke up a little late - whoops! So we all were running around, packing everything up and showering, etc. to check out by 11am (everywhere in NZ, checkout is 10am, and when you ask for a late checkout they say ok, 10:30....yeah, we were late. *sigh*)

Once we checked out we headed back downtown to Vudu Cafe, a joint Jill read about that had a great breakfast. And it WAS good! I got pancakes with lemon butter - super yum! (me being the lemon whore that I am) We bought a few more last minute gifts, took some pics of the lake - of course TODAY the weather was gorgeous! - and then headed out to the airport.

Our check in was painless (we were the only ones in line to check in) and since we left from a small airport, the security check in was REALLY easy and quick (highly suggest leaving out of a small airport when traveling, if you can!)

Our flight to Auckland went okay. Logan was tired but he had trouble falling asleep - and was loud as usual. ;-) And, it was pretty crowded (Jon had the aisle, Logan was on my lap in the middle seat and some poor guy was hunched over trying to sleep and ignore Logan, in the window seat). But, he did finally fall asleep toward the end of the flight and slept through our lunch/dinner (on me in the Ergo carrier) at the Auckland airport. I had another "made to order" sandwich that was again, delish! Too bad I discovered them so late in our trip...

Our flight to SFO was delayed so we sat around the Auckland airport for another 1.5 hours. But we didn't mind too much. It gave us more time to exercise and wear Logan out. :) Sure enough, immediately upon takeoff, he fell asleep....and THIS time he slept a full EIGHT HOURS!

Woohoo!!

The flight wasn't crowded at all, so Jon and I got a full row to ourselves with Eric and Jill in the row behind us. We put Logan in the "far" bassinet (over the seats next to us) and I laid down across three seats to rest my back while Jon reclined in his one. Unfortunately, we still didn't sleep all that well since it was pretty uncomfortable (the arm rests in our row didn't move up so I was playing twister maneuvering my body around them) - but at least Logan was sleeping. :)

Logan woke up about 5:30am NZ time which was about 9:30am SFO time, so others on the plane were starting to stir and wake up too. Perfect! I thought. I won't feel so bad then if he is loud. I didn't have to worry though - he really wasn't that noisy at all. He sat on the floor playing at our feet, crawling around and walking along the seats back and forth between us (Jon sat at one end of the row and I at the other). He was awake for about 1.5 hours before conking out again (on me) - and slept through the last hour or so of the flight.

I think many people were surprised there was a baby in our row. When we landed, several people commented on how great he had behaved. We couldn't have been prouder, or more relieved (we didn't mention how we struggled with him on the flight out).

We gathered our luggage and breezed through customs. We said our goodbyes to Eric and Jill since they had a connecting flight back home to San Diego and were routed down a different path. It was sad to see them go and end our trip, but it was a relief to finally be back home.

Where to next?




Editor's Note: Eric took some AMAZING portraits of us during our trip. Since I don’t have any (good) pics of our last day, I decided to feature a few of his collection instead. I encourage you to check out his entire album when you have the chance. Thank you again Eric - we love them!!

New Zedland Road Signs

As you've seen from my many posts journaling our trip, we spent a lot of time on the road. New Zealand must have a lot of tired drivers who cause accidents, because road signs everywhere, encouraged people to pull over if tired.

We found several of their expressions funny (or perhaps it was just me), so half way through our trip I started writing them down. Here's the collection :)

• You know when you are tired.
• Tired driving is the same as drunk driving.
• You know what causes crashes.
• Tired? Take a power nap.
• You know crashes occur on bends.
• Fatigue kills; Have a break.
  
• You know to drive sober. Kia Kaha! (Maori which means "Be Strong")
• Good drivers have knowledge - use it.
• You know the dangers of bad driving.
• Feeling Tired? Wake up to the signs.

New Zedland Quotes of the Day

Since we were spending so much time in the car, I started writing down various funny "quotes of the day" which often happened during our road trips (but not always).

What is a road trip without hilarious "you had to be there" quotes anyway, huh? :)

Here's the collection:

• "Good on ya mate" - Everyone (what every Kiwi seems to say when you leave or end a conversation)
  
• "There's prune juice in here! I am not even kidding guys!" - Eric (when seeing that the Waitomo cabin had prune juice in the fridge, which actually happened to be ours, that Jill put in there when we got in)
  
• "Stupid bitch" - Jon; "We will not road rage in New Zealand" - Eric, in response
  
• "It's just too big" - Eric (his reasoning for why he didn't think NZ was/is an island)
• "It's been awhile, but if I remember correctly, this tastes like balls" - Eric; "I just had balls like yesterday, and this does not taste like balls" - Jon (referring to a Kiwi drink they bought and tried out. Apparently "balls" is a type of sports drink that we have here in the States)
• "Man, he's got a small penis!" - Eric (seeing Logan's penis for the first time)
  

Notice all quotes were from the MEN of our travel party?

*sigh*

Day 14: Queenstown

Oct 4th

Even with the twin beds pushed together, they had slowly spread apart throughout the night, so when Logan woke up at 4am (and stayed awake until 5:30!), it was really hard for me to get him back to sleep and lay in bed myself without one of us falling off the bed. :)

When we finally got up for the day, it was POURING outside!! We couldn't see the lake nor mountains beyond, it was so super wet. So much for bungee jumping.... ;-)

We headed into town late morning to find brunch and walk around the "Queenstown Mall" (basically the downtown area with a bunch of tourist shops, cafes, restaurants and boutiquey stores). The area was very cute, even though it was cold and rainy out. It reminded me of a ski town (well, it sorta is) like Mammoth, Tahoe or Whistler. We basically spent the ENTIRE day walking all over, buying all of our last gifts for the trip.

Even with the rainy weather, it was actually a nice day - my back was pretty tired and sore from all the walking but it was still nice to get out and breathe in the fresh air instead of staying cooped up in the car for several hours. We ate at the little Lakeside Cafe where I had a "made to order" sandwich that was scrumptious. Next door was a local chocolate shop - so we stopped for hot chocolate, croissants, truffles and chocolate shake. Excellent!


After a few hours of shopping and walking, we stopped at a bar with several fireplaces, leather couches and a lounge area which we took over, propping up our feet to rest, drink beer, try their nachos and cheese board (finally!) and let Logan crawl around. :) Small world as it is, our waitress was actually from San Diego, working there so she could snowboard all winter (apparently making travel her career, since she was just in Hawaii and was headed to Japan next. Boy was I jealous!!)

Eric has been hankering for a steakhouse forever, so afterward we went to a place called Botswana Butchery for dinner. Logan was asleep for the afternoon, but literally 5 minutes before reaching the restaurant he woke up screaming.... turned out he had peed through, and onto, his pants and stroller. Since it was FREEZING out, I think the cold wet chills woke him up. :( So Jon and I stripped him naked on a park bench in the freezing cold to change him (it was faster than walking blocks with a wet baby to the nearest public restroom/changing station). But, as expected our poor little guy did NOT like that. Some drunk kids nearby yelled at us "I think your baby is cold!!" as Logan screamed and kicked at the two of us huddled over him.

NO SHIT.

When we got back inside, we had just enough time to order our food before Logan got really loud and fussy (he was actually still tired). So, Jon took him for the first shift, walking him in the stroller all over town. I scarfed down my carrot and fennel soup (yum!!) and sauteed spinach (eh.) and then went back out looking for Jon. I took over the 2nd shift so Jon could eat - walking Logan around until he finally fell back to sleep. We then finished our evening enjoying some really yummy desserts (mine was the best - a lemon tart)! :)

We crashed soon after we got home - Jill was nice enough to have us switch rooms so we got the big bed this night. Which I was so glad to have, since Logan woke up sometime in the middle of the night and stayed with us in bed until morning....

Day 13: Franz Josef

Oct 3rd

We all intentionally woke up early (7am) to book our tour of the Franz Josef Glacier, but it was POURING outside, so we decided to just do the "short" walk ourselves without the guided tour (Jon was worried it'd be too wet and cold for Logan). Logan woke up later (about 8am) which was nice for a change (Logan is pictured here checking out the downpour on our front porch).

Since we skipped the guided tour we took longer and ate breakfast at the cabin and enjoyed the morning. At checkout, we spent 30 minutes online, writing quick emails to everyone (or a quick blog post). We finally set out for the glacier about 11am-ish. We took one trail that ended at a lookout point with signs warning us not to go any further since the bad weather had washed away many of the trails.




So, we did what any determined set of traveling Americans would do.

We scoffed at the signs and kept going.

The sights on our way to the face of the glacier were absolutely gorgeous! There was water running everywhere - waterfalls every where you turned, creeks to skip across, rain falling on your head, rushing rapids as we got closer and of course the creaking glacier in the distance.

Along the way, Jill stumbled across a second DANGER sign, not along our path but within eyesight from where we were walking. She pointed it out to me, a bit more nervous this time, but the boys were already far ahead of us and out of yelling reach.

So, we did what any good wives would do.

We pretended we didn't see the sign and rushed on ahead to catch up.

The walk to the glacier was a little slow going because we were stopping to take a bunch of pics and navigating across rivers, streams, and lots of rocks. But I'm so glad we made the trek. When we finally got to the face of the glacier, it was unlike anything I've seen before. It was made up of massive chunks of hard compacted ice - yet was very pretty, reflecting the water inside the ice like crystal catching a flickering sunbeam.

There were small boulders falling near us since the glacier was fairly slippery and actively melting from the sun.

But, we did what any determined set of traveling parents would do.

We ignored the tumbling rocks and changed Logan at the foot of the glacier anyway.

After an entire afternoon spent hiking and taking our fill of pictures, we hit the road again, grabbing lunch at Cook Saddle Cafe in Fox Glacier Village first. I ordered a tostada, but it was NOTHING like a tostada (more like a casserole or enchilada). And, even though I ordered it HOT, it was not spicy at all damnit.

Kiwis are such pussies.










We had another long drive ahead of us to Queenstown, our final stop before returning to the States. :( We made a pit stop in the middle of nowhere and Eric left his door open, which let a bunch of gnats inside the car. And, this is what one of our guide books said about that:

"The dreaded sand fly. Particularly common in the wetter and coastal areas of Fiordland (but present almost everywhere), these black, pinhead sized 'flying fangs' have a successful hit rate that makes laser-guided missile systems look archaic. Open your car door and within seconds a vast cloud of the little devils will descend and your entire party will look like a crowd of deranged loonies at a rave."

THAT WAS TOTALLY US.

We spent the next 30 minutes on our drive, powering the windows up and down, and up and down, "guiding" the lucky ones out of the car, or smacking the unlucky ones against the dashboard. All the time yelling with excitement the minute we caught sight of another wandering impostor.

Throughout our trip, Logan had this uncanny ability to wake up super cranky about 30 minutes before arriving at our destination. No matter how long the drive - 2 hours or 6 hours - he always fussed 30 minutes before we got there! We've noticed this ability to predict also appears when drinking his bottles, since he will always leave 2oz of milk, no matter how much was originally in it. :)

We arrived into Queenstown just after sunset. We had a really nice apartment hotel - most of the units were over looking Lake Wakatipu, but ours overlooked an inner courtyard of the property. Still, it was a very nice and "modern" pad. I think our only complaint was that one of the two bedrooms had 2 twin beds again - doh! So, Jon and I took that room for the first night.

The boys went to get dinner while Jill and I stayed at the apartment with Logan, unpacking and letting him exercise every last bit of energy left in his bones.

The boys got back and I finally got my Chinese takeout fix. Yummmmmm.

Only, watch out property management!

'cause now our place smells like Chinese food. ;-)

Day 12: Punakaiki

Oct 2nd

Logan woke up about 1:30am which is unusual for him these days. But, he seemed to be cold (it WAS cold) so we gave him a bottle and he fell back to sleep in our bed....and then Jon moved him to the crib shortly afterward (I'm not going to pay for a crib and then not use it damnit!)

Because Logan woke up in the middle of the night, he didn't wake up again until 8:30am, which was nice for sleeping in, but not so nice for the early start that we were hoping for. So, we all had a really lazy and relaxing morning instead; ate some breakfast and hung out in the cabin while Jon ran back and forth down the hill to tend to our laundry.

We decided to walk to the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks and Blowholes (about 1/3 mile down the road) while our laundry dried (did I mention the dryers are definitely not as good here?). And ended up spending a really long time there!! The pancake rocks were nothing like I've seen before. Sea, wind and rain have etched out layers within the limestone rock formations along the coast and it was absolutely amazing. We got there just as high tide was approaching which was perfect to see the blowholes in action as well!

After our excursion, we packed up and headed back south, through Greymouth, where we stopped for lunch. But, it being 3pm, all cafes were closed again (they shut down between 2-5pm for some weird reason). We ended up at the same pizzeria because it was the only place open again.... but we got pasta this time and it was sooo disappointing. :(

I think we were all finally starting to have enough of each other and definitely enough of the car rides.... at least, I was! I got cranky and argued with Jon - about nothing really. Jill and Eric had moments where they no longer thought Logan was cute but just loud and annoying instead. And Jon was tired of driving everywhere. :(

I won't lie - it's definitely harder traveling with a baby, and being in a car the majority of the time is even worse. There were times on the trip where I was even sick of Logan myself! (I'm definitely not used to caring for him 24x7) :)

So, the next trip I will need to plan out less driving and allow him more time to crawl and explore. I've also decided that two weeks is probably the max we can travel with him (I was wanting to travel longer but now I think it's better we didn't do any longer than we did). On the other hand, if we had more time, we could space out the drives more and then perhaps it wouldn't be as bad. Hrmmm.

It rained most of the drive south to our next stop, Franz Josef. All four of us napped (minus poor Jon), which was probably good since we were all starting to get at each others' throats a bit. We pulled into Franz Josef early around 6:30pm which gave us a bit more time to relax and find a nice place to eat. Our "tree house" wasn't really in the trees like we were hoping for - but it WAS a beautiful HUGE cabin! And perfect timing for a nice place to lift all of our spirits up. It had 3 bedrooms, full kitchen, bath/laundry, dining room and huge living room. It was great! Especially for Logan to crawl around in - and better still, he even got his own room. ;-)

We ate dinner at an Indian restaurant down the road which was pretty good. Jon and Eric got Chicken Tikka Masala hot and extra hot (respectively) and were literally SWEATING through their meal :) while Logan played peekaboo standing on a chair, watching some nearby women. What a flirt!

Besides being such a flirt and also super loud, Logan started taking everything (food) OUT of his mouth, examining it and then putting pieces of the food back in his mouth. Aiiieeee. Also, he wouldn't eat ANY of the veggie jars we got him throughout the trip. Talk about frustrating! :( All of the veggie jars did have meat - so either he's a natural vegetarian ;-) or our veggie jars at home are more plain, or sweet or something?

He has also started walking around coffee tables and furniture a lot more which again, was particularly great with the cabin we were in. :) From time to time I'd even catch him trying to stand on his own but he'd still lose his balance pretty quickly.

Next time we visit Franz Josef, we're going to have to stay at the Rainforest Retreat again, and we're going to have to stay longer than just one night. *sigh*

Day 11: Christchurch and Arthur's Pass

Oct 1st

Logan slept in until 7:30am!! I know I keep saying it, but seriously. I think wearing him out by crawling around the night before is really helping.

We went for breakfast at another hotel, recommended by one of our guidebooks. It was okay, but they were a little snooty and cleaned up the buffet SUPER FAST, so we had to hurry and cram our plates high with food before it was all gone. At least the food was light (cereal, toast, fruit) since my stomach wasn't feeling too good this morning (nauseous and feeling 10 lbs fatter! Do you think it's from all the carbs?)

We did a really quick self-guided two hour walk around Christchurch's town center for some pictures (of course!) and a little culture. We saw their famous Cathedral (it was nice, but we've been spoiled by the ones in Europe), walked through some city streets (very European/English), an art museum, a few old buildings, a couple parks, etc. Everything we stumbled around town seemed very picturesque. It started sprinkling during our walk, so we stopped at Sala Sala to fill our tummies with a little lunch and stay dry. YUM! (altho, Logan peed through his outfit - again - and a little on me, with no change of clothes on us! dangit!) :(

Our walk around town was short because we had to get on the road for the long drive ahead of us - through Arthur's Pass to the other side of the island. And, it was supposed to be beautiful so we wanted to make sure we were on the road to see everything before it got dark. :)

And all the reports were totally accurate. The drive was absolutely stunning! It was pretty damn cold on some parts of the pass - the coldest the temperature registered (on the car) was 5 degrees Celsius. Brrrrrrr.

We drove through gorgeous views of valleys and snow tipped peaks. My breath was really taken away - and I couldn't help thinking that the mountains we were driving through would make for some really great snowboarding! :) We also hit some slippery, icy, steep curves down the mountain, after the top of the pass, which really freaked me out. Jill thought it was funny that I was so nervous. I think I'm more nervous and antsy (in the car) now that I'm a mom, since I don't remember ever getting this nervous about driving through passes and valleys pre-Logan.



The mountains and peaks looked so tall and enormous to me, yet the highest point we drove through was about 3300 feet, and the highest peak in the National Park is only about 8-9000 feet. Which made it kinda weird and puzzling to me - why did it feel SO much bigger? We didn't stop for pics unfortunately (no time!) so I took some blurry lame ones from the car window as we whizzed by instead. Oh well.....

Once we got to the west coast, we stopped in a small town called Greymouth for dinner and groceries since the place we were staying at didn't have a store or restaurants. It was 7pm and not ONE restaurant was open!! JEEZ. We finally found the Bonzai Pizzeria that was open, so we scarfed down a couple of pizzas (they were pretty good but not great - I think we were all just really hungry). Then we bought groceries and headed to Punakaiki where we were staying for the night.

It was dark, late and we were all pretty tired from the drive when we checked in (Logan was already conked out in the car). Our cottage charged us for a crib ($15!) which was a first, but Jon and I were too exhausted to argue, especially since we were only staying there one night.

Just give us a damn bed already so we can stretch out and crash. Please.

Day 10: Kaikoura

Sept 30th

Logan woke up at 5:30am SCREAMING bloody murder (worse than ever before - and yet I feel like I say that every time!). He was super hungry and then passed out. UGH.

We spent most of the day in Kaikoura - what a cute little beach town! I really liked it! We had breakfast at the Kaikoura Food Company (aka Fudge Factory) where Jon and Jill got the biggest honkin' plates of french toast you've ever seen. All in the name of carbing up. :) My food was simple yet also delicious - a bagel with cream cheese, pesto spread, gruyere and tomato = YUM. Eric, Jill and Jon couldn't resist the free fudge tastings (too sweet for my blood!) and we ended up buying a few boxes of fudge as gifts for some of our friends back home.

We walked around the town of Kaikoura, checking out gift shops (puau shell jewelry, wool clothes, etc.) and then headed out to a "seal colony" at the peninsula's point. We only saw one seal, but were captivated by the most beautiful views of the coast and snow capped mountains behind. We took a few group photos of all of us with Eric running back and forth from his tripod to us, across the slippery moss covered rocks in the freezing cold! :) I'm sure to the outsider's eye, we were quite the entertainment.

Logan has been doing much better during the day trips - he seems to like hanging out in the backpack carrier (an Aussie told Jon that it was a "BRILLIANT" idea and he wished they had those things when his kids were young) :) About the only real trouble (other than the middle of the night wake up calls) that he is having is some uncomfortable constipation, the poor kid. :(

Kaikoura is known for crayfish, its namesake (Maori for "to eat Crayfish"), so Eric decided that we needed to find the BEST crayfish in town to try before leaving. So, we walked and drove all over town looking for crayfish to try out. Unfortunately, with our luck, almost all places in town were closed, but we finally got a recommendation to try The Pier Hotel and Restaurant where Eric finally got his crayfish fix (similar to lobster, he said it was really tasty, but not sure it was worth the price - they are expensive!!) and they made me a really nice veggie dish as well.

Toward the end of the afternoon, we piled back into the car to get back on the road for Christchurch, our next destination. I was really disappointed I didn't get to go whale watching or dolphin swimming :( especially since Kaikoura is known for some spectacular experiences like that. But, no one in our group wanted to try it since they were all worried about getting seasick (we would have been in the open sea). Oh well. Next time? :)

We arrived into Christchurch in the evening - it is a very big city with a real English feel. Eric was craving steak (again) but I just wasn't in the mood to do another plain veggie option. In fact, I was actually craving Chinese takeout myself. So, we ended up "compromising?" with Italian instead (but no one got pasta!) :)

Logan started getting super cranky the minute we arrived at the restaurant. Jon didn't want one of us to miss yet another dinner walking him around outside the restaurant. So, we decided to order takeout instead. But, they took FOREVER and made us order larger sized orders of things for "takeaway" (we're still not exactly sure why that was) :( The food was okay - we all watched TV and hung out in the living room before bedtime (Jon had put Logan down earlier).

As we were cleaning up in the kitchen, Eric noticed a really strange sign posted above the sink. It said no fish or curries were allowed (to be cooked) in the unit, otherwise the hotel would charge a fine, since it's hard to get the smell out. Kind of a stuffy attitude, don't you think?

Yep, definitely felt like England. ;-)

Day 9: South Island's East Coast

Sept 29th

We ate "brekkie" at the Dog & Frog Cafe in Picton before heading south to our next destination. We stopped in the small towns of Blenheim and Renwick, the center of Marlborough's wine country, for a few different wine tastings along the way. It was a relaxing start to our day, and especially nice given our craptastic day yesterday where we missed the Queen Charlotte's track. We ended up buying wine, oils, and dukka (an Egyptian blend of nuts, seeds and spices that you dip bread into) at a couple different places, in memory of the visit. :)

We had a delicious late lunch at the Allan Scott winery where I had another tart which was really good. I was definitely diggin' the veggie tarts in New Zealand! :) We all stuffed ourselves silly, treating ourselves to a few decadent desserts too. Overall, I was really happy with most of our food along the trip, even if it was expensive, and even though it was totally screwing up my diet/weight loss program. :( Ah well, you only live once, right? ;-)

It was pretty damn cold and rained all throughout the afternoon, as we left the wine country and hit the road for Kaikoura. We had an absolutely GORGEOUS drive down the east coast - through several valleys and peaks along the way, with mountains on your right and rocky beaches on the left. I loved it. I had Jon stop soon after we hit the coast, since I saw a black sand beach that I wanted to take pictures of. Jon, Eric and I took off to document the beauty while Jill and Logan napped in the car.

While I was collecting a number of smooth round rocks from the beach (now displayed in one of our guest baths), Eric set up a shot of himself and Jon, with his camera on the tripod. But, the wind was so SUPER strong, it knocked both the tripod and camera over, straight into the sand! :( His camera seemed to be okay afterward though, thank goodness. We also pulled over to check out a colony of seals sun bathing on some rocks. This time, I stayed in the car with dozing Logan so Jill could join the guys on another photo opp.

A bit later down the coast, I suddenly noticed, out of the blue, these gorgeous snow capped mountains. They had popped up out of nowhere - but were so beautiful and cool. Yet, so weird to see them right next to the coast. :) I was really impressed with the drive down the east coast, definitely one of the more prettier drives for me.

We arrived at our hotel/lodge in Kaikoura just about dusk - we stayed at these newly built apartments located on a golf course at the foot of the mountains which was lovely, although they were also a few minutes out from the center of town which was disappointing for me.

After unpacking and checking out our digs, we drove down to the shore to check out Kaikoura's downtown and grab some dinner. Just like everything else in New Zealand (it seems), all but the bars and SOME restaurants were closed. Yet it was 8pm! (We never really did adapt to this oddity)

We ended up at a schwanky super quiet restaurant for dinner. Logan was pretty tired and starting to get cranky. But, he wasn't hungry (just LOUD), so Jon and I took turns walking him outside along the beach. He finally fell asleep on me, so I missed dinner, but I wasn't that hungry anyway, and the sound of waves crashing along the beach right next to me more than made up for it.

Over Medium

In my last post, I said:

"The cafe didn't know how to cook an egg 'medium easy' for Eric which disappointed him."

I stand corrected (thanks for the catch Eric!). It's "over medium". Whoops! Told you I didn't know what the heck "over medium" was.

And now I know....

North Americans may choose among the following methods:

• 'Over well', 'Over hard', also called 'hard' — cooked on both sides until the yolk has solidified.
• 'Over medium' — cooked on both sides; the yolk is of medium consistency and the egg white is thoroughly cooked.
• 'Over easy', also called 'runny' — cooked on both sides; the yolk is a thin liquid, while the egg white is partially cooked. This is occasionally called 'sunny side down.' These are also commonly referred to as 'dippy eggs' or 'dip eggs' by Marylanders and by Pennsylvania Dutch persons living in southern Pennsylvania, mainly due to the practice of dipping toast into the yolk while eating. Also called 'treasure eggs' in southwestern Pennsylvania.
• 'Sunny side up' — cooked only on one side; yolk is liquid (the oil or fat may be used to baste the sunny side, however.) The egg white is often still rather runny as well. This is often known simply as 'eggs up'. Covering the frying pan with a lid throughout cooking allows for a less "runny" egg.
• Another style known simply as 'Fried' - eggs are fried on both sides with the yolks broken until set or hard. These are common in fried egg sandwiches and in Asian cuisine.

Who knew eggs could get so complicated?

Day 8: Marlborough Sounds

Sept 28th

Logan slept all through the night and didn't wake up until 7:30 - Yippeee!! :) Definitely started the day off right. I think he got a lot of excess energy out playing in the kid's area all night on the boat. Again, could we be onto something here? ;-)

Jon and I slept together on one of the twin beds which reminded us of old college days. Ahhhh, how sweet. Jon did end up moving to the other bed once Logan woke up in the morning since we couldn't quite squeeze two adults AND a baby on the single bed. ;-)

Our hotel was located in the heart of Picton. So, we walked to a local cafe for brunch. The food was so-so. The cafe didn't know how to cook an egg "medium easy" for Eric which disappointed him. Jon and Eric discovered (and then ordered) latte/cappuccino bowls which were so humongous (they were literally BOWLS of caffeine) that the two were very jittery the rest of the morning.

Just what we need - jittery nerds. And what do jittery nerds do with their jittery selves?

Well, once back at the hotel, the boys wasted 30 minutes of Jill, Logan and my lives, arguing over how to work around the hotel's Internet access so that we could have free access.

30 minutes later, and they didn't figure it out.

30 minutes wasted, that we'll never get back. I wonder if it felt like just 5 minutes to Eric and Jon tho...

We set off for Captain Cook's Monument as the starting point for our 6-hour hike on the Queen Charlotte Track, that we had planned to take that day. The drive was gorgeous for the first hour or so, curving around the nooks and crannies of the Marlborough Sounds. But, then it got MORE curvy and windy and everyone (primarily me!) started getting carsick, cranky and tired.

Where was the fucking Queen Charlotte Track??

We finally stopped at a resort in a small town called Portage (I'm not even sure I'd call this a town) and found out that you cannot DRIVE to Captain Cook's Monument, you can only get there via boat.

Seriously?? You're kidding!

No, I'm really not.

And by then, it was too late in the day to go (I forgot to mention but we had also lost an hour with the time change).

The drive was super scenic and the Marlborough Sounds were really pretty, but what a waste of a day! :( Once again, I was kicking myself for not planning or researching our activity any better. Gah.

So, we took our time on the drive back home since everyone was starting to get a bit carsick. Poor Logan was an unhappy camper. I actually got really bad room-spinning vertigo when we finally got back to the hotel which wasn't fun. I suppose all day in a car on windy roads will do that to a person.

Though we had been sitting in a car all day long, we were actually in fairly good spirits over dinner, at a fancy little restaurant on the wharf. When we got back to the hotel, the four of us crowded on Eric and Jill's bed in the living room watching TV (since Logan was already down in the kid's our room sleeping) before calling it a night.

Off to bed to get rid of the vertigo!!

Day 7: Wellington

Sept 27th

Logan woke up about 5:30 but went back to sleep by 6am or so. I'm pretty sure he woke up from the cold (his blankets had been kicked off, he was scrunched up in one corner of his crib, and his eyes were still closed yet he was crying), so we just fed him a warm bottle of milk and he soon fell back to sleep.

We got a later start than we had planned. After packing up, I asked around at the front desk about a half day LOTR tour (including Helm's Deep), that we had hoped to do. Yet, no one knew anything about it nor had heard about it. Gah. I was kicking myself for not doing enough research ahead of time (I had just assumed the hotels would know all about it!). :( So, we took a cable car up the local mountain and then walked around a beautiful Botanic garden instead.

It was windy as hell and super cold but I had a warm jacket with Logan on me as well, so I didn't think it was all that bad. ;-) Jon, Eric and Jill were freezing their asses off however. Although I was warm, the walk was hard on my back. :( Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

During our walk we came across a kid's playground that had a small zip-lining set up (cool! if only Logan were old enough!), tons of tulips, an herb garden, and more. It all reminded me of the Golden Gate Park. We meandered down several paths through the gardens and back into town, where we went searching for a place to eat lunch.

And yet....

Yep, you guessed it. Everything was closed. *sigh*

Molly directed us to a German beer house (for the life of me, I can't remember it's name unfortunately) which was open - yay! - and had great food. Logan pulled the napkin out from under my soup bowl and spilled the entire bowl all over my plate and table. Damnit. Gotta watch for that. He's growing increasingly quick on the draw!


Jon still needed his LOTR fix, so after lunch we headed out to some suburbs of Wellington to visit the Weta Cave, a small museum which featured props, books, displays and clothes galore on all the various movie characters that Weta Workshop has created over the years. Jon, Eric and Jill watched a short film on "behind the scenes" stuff, but Logan and I skipped it since he was SO loud in the small theatre.

We left with tons of time to get to the Ferry - and it's a good thing too. We got totally turned around and lost while trying to find the Ferry terminal. It was actually really hard to find! When we finally did find it we were right on time for checking in. ;-)

While Jon went off somewhere to straighten out the rental car return, Eric, Jill and I checked ourselves, and our luggage in.

Shortly after, I realized OH SHIT. I left Jon's Dramamine packed in our bags! And, if any of you know Jon well enough, you know he gets TERRIBLE motion sickness :(

Sooooo, I sweet talked the guy behind the counter to let me back into the checked luggage area to rummage through ALL the bags in the back and find ours to get the meds out. I was taking so long he actually just left me back there so he could go back up front to man the counter (again, never in the States would we be allowed to do that!).

Only, I couldn't find it.

UGH.

Where the HELL did I pack it???

I got back to where we were all seated, not sure what we were going to do, when I finally remembered I had smartly packed it in the diaper bag ahead of time so that we'd have it with us while traveling. Yeesh. Planning ahead sure as hell doesn't work if you don't remember you did it. ;-)

Unfortunately, Jon still got sick. :( The ferry ride was long and a bit rocky (particularly in the channel between the two islands), but not that bad for most of us. There was a kid's play area that Logan (and I) basically spent the entire time hanging out in until he finally fell asleep on me (in the Ergo carrier) toward the end of the ride. It was night time and dark out, so we didn't get to see much of the ride at all, but apparently it's supposed to be "one of the most beautiful ferry rides in the world". :)

We checked into our hotel in the small teeny town of Picton. Jon, Eric and Jill wanted to find somewhere to eat, but Logan was conked out and I was pretty tired myself. So, I had them drop us off so I could put him (and myself) to bed while they went out for dinner.

Jon and I got the "kids" room with two singles since that's where Logan's crib had been set up. Oh boy - it was going to be a cozy couple of nights.


Editor's Note: Shortly after I published this post, Eric reminded me of the name (and link) to the Beer Cafe we ate at in Wellington. Not German, but Belgian! Leuven, the Belgian Beer Cafe. Thanks Eric! :)