Franz Josef Glacier

Today we drove from Wanaka to the town of Franz Josef. The drive takes about 3 hours and 45 minutes, but it took us over 6 hours because of the multiple stops we made to take photos and enjoy the scenery. This could easily be one of the most beautiful routes in the world. You travel around lakes, following a river and surrounded by green mountains, many of them with several tall waterfalls.







And many, many sheep grazing in the field, with a few cows to keep them company.

Lots of one-way bridges and picturesque scenery. Franz Josef  is a small town with a few restaurants and shops, mostly catering to the visitors. They have a great visitor center with all kinds of information about the area and the two main attractions: Fox Glacier and Franz Josef Glacier.



We drove to the Glacier. It is a 45 minute hike from the parking lot to the foot of the Glacier. We got lucky with the weather and were able to walk to the closest point allowed, which is 250 meters from the Glacier. Depending on the weather, they may close off the hike 500 to 2000 meters from the Glacier. It is simply a spectacular formation of ice. We got a good idea of the magnitude of the Glacier when we saw a helicopter hovering over the Glacier and it looked like a small dot on the ice mountain. The hike to the Glacier was very nice too, along a wide river with colorful stones and a few gorgeous waterfalls.

Food: We had dinner at Alice Mae. Food was great and not very expensive. Staff were very friendly, of course.

Lodging: We stayed at the Oasis motel. We booked this place because we could not find available rooms in town. It is an inexpensive motel, but we were so pleasantly surprised with the high quality of the rooms. We had a modern room, good breakfast with a gorgeous view of a farm field surrounded by hills and occupied with sheep. An important note: we forgot our power converter and iPhone charger in the room and someone from the lodge took the time to locate us via email and make arrangements to get these items back to us by mail. That's great service!!

Wanaka

Lodging: We stayed at the Wanaka Homestead Lodge, which is a small comfortable lodge a few meters from Lake Wanaka. You can walk to downtown Wanaka.

About Wanaka: It's a beautiful small town in front of a large lake surrounded by mountains. The center of town is full of restaurants, bars and shops. There are hiking trails around the lake and most of the town's activity is about the lake and its beaches. It is quite a place to visit.

Food: We had dinner at the Bistro Gentil, which is located up on a hill across from a golf course and it has phenomenal views of the lake and mountain from above. The food was simply superb. I had the best lamb I've ever tested. The Cardrona lambs roam free eating grass. The meat is super tender and tasty. We also had some of the best salmon we've ever tasted.

Queenstown

Arrowtown

Lodging: We stayed at the Millbrook Resort, which has to be one of the most gorgeous resorts we have seen. It is situated on beautifully landscaped grounds with a golf course, surrounded by mountains and water streams. The room was also quite nice.

Town: It is a quaint, small town with small shops, restaurants, and bars.

Food: We had dinner at Saffron in Arrowtown (New Zealand cuisine), another fantastic restaurant with great food and superb service. Before we left for Wanaka, we had brunch at the Postmasters cafe in downtown Arrowtown, also quite good.

Wine: We visited two wineries in the area, Amisfield and Gibbston Valley (in the photo). Great wine selections, cheeses, chocolates, Manuka honey, etc.

Queenstown

The town is lively and chock full of restaurants, shops, bars, and gorgeous views. Big vertical mountains, sky lifts and hand gliders. We also went to Coronet Peak, which has a ski resort with fantastic views of the valley.



Food: We had nice brunch at the Tin Goose, a small cafe in Frankton near Queenstown. We had dinner at the Public Kitchen and Bar in Queenstown. The food was good, but the views were fantastic. We sat in front of the lake with gorgeous water and mountain views. Queenstown is really full of life.

Auckland

 
We visited Devonport, a small town across the bay from Auckland. You can take a ferry there from downtown Oakland. Devonport has the best views of Auckland across the water.


On our way there we stopped at the Lake House Art museum, which has a nice cafe (we did not eat there). 

We also drove to the west coast to Piha and Karekare beaches. Both are beautiful beaches but the walk from the parking lot to Karekare beach is a 10 minute hike through amazing scenery. Karekare is the beach where they filmed the movie The Piano. On your way to Piha from Auckland is the Elevation Cafe, a convenient mid-point to have a nice lunch or coffee. It is at the top of the mountains and it has breathtaking views of Auckland. The food is very good and inexpensive, very casual.

We drove through several neighborhoods in Auckland. Our favorites were Ponsonby and Parnell. Ponsonby is full of bars, restaurants, and shops, and it can get pretty busy and difficult to park. But once you park it is a lot of fun and the eating options are endless. If you drive through the Ponsonby neighborhood streets you will run into some spectacular views of the Auckland needle. Parnell, the other neighborhood, has museums, shops, and restaurants. The Britomart area is also nice, near the water with a lot of activity, bars, and restaurants. Finally, we visited the Birkenhead area for dinner one night, which is a quiet beach community.

Lodging: We stayed at the Langham Hotel, conveniently located near the University of Auckland and relatively close to the Ponsonby and Parnell neighborhoods.

Restaurants we really liked include Cafe Hanoi (Vietnamese, Britomart area); SPQR (Italian, Ponsonby area, the eggplant parmigiana with fresh tomato sauce was delicious); Ortolana (Fresh European, Britomart area, the friendliest staff); Milse (bakery and sweets, same owners as Ortolana, next door, looked great, but didn't try it); Rosie (Parnell neighborhood, same owners as Ortolana, great little cafe for brunch, breakfast, and desserts; the servers could not be nicer; this is the only restaurant where we ate a second time); Eight.Two (modern cuisine, Birkenhead area, excellent food and service); The Orphan's Kitchen (home style, casual, great food, and very friendly, Ponsonby area; you seat at long tables with other guests; the tables were beautifully crafted by the owners themselves out of huge tree trunks).