Category Archives: Travel

Stopover in Greymouth

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From Marlborough we headed West so we could start our journey down the West Coast of New Zealand.

We needed to break up the drive and quickly identified the town of Greymouth as the ideal stopover distance on our way from Picton to Franz Josef Glacier.

Jordan Driving on the Left Side of the Road

Greymouth is a relatively small town and it appeared to mostly serve as a tourist stopover. While there isn’t a ton to do in Greymouth, there are some beautiful sights in the surrounding area and Greymouth was actually the location of our favorite hostel of the whole trip, Global Village Travellers Lodge.

We are not really hostel types, but since we were traveling for a month on a budget, were looking for good value accommodations wherever we went. This meant sometimes we stayed in hostels, sometimes piled a bunch of people into a hotel and other times paid up for special accommodations in a special location. Global Village Travellers was comfortable, private, well maintained and friendly.

Our evening entertainment was the local brewery, Monteith’s. Monteith’s has it’s Brewery in Greymouth and hosts daily tours, tastings and dinners. We were disappointed that the brewery is currently under construction so there was no actual brewery tour, but rather it was replaced by some sort of video/powerpoint presentation on the history of the brewery and the brewing process. The best part about it was that they kept it short and we were quickly moved onto the tasting.

Monteiths Brewery, Greymouth, New Zealand

We had the opportunity to taste all of Monteith’s beers and ciders and then choose our favorite to pour ourselves a full pint from behind the bar. I particularly liked the ciders and the Summer Ale. While the package comes with one pint, we noticed that most of our companions at the tasting helped themselves to several.

The dinner that comes with the package is a prix-fix deal at one of three local restaurants. Monteiths shuttles people from its brewery to the restaurants so you don’t have to drink and drive. I’d skip the dinner part unless you are on a tight budget or you want to get to know other travelers (mostly backpackers) over dinner and drinks. We were with a big group so were less interested in the backpacker scene than we were checking out the local town.

All in all, our brewery trip turned a stop over into an event in it’s own right.

Behind the Bar at Monteiths Brewery

Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand

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We left Kaikoura around lunchtime after our peninsula hike and started out on a beautiful drive up the coast. We had great views along the way of the coast line and a few pit stops to see waterfalls and seals. Our destination was Marlborough Sounds, which we picked for the ability to combine wine tasting, outdoor activities, scenery and time on the water all within short drives.

After about two hours we reached Blenheim and decided to turn lunch into an afternoon affair. We headed to Wither Hills Winery, a beautiful cellar door up on a hill overlooking their and other vineyards. The location was spectacular and the interior light and modern. We had a wonderful tasting and all fell in love with a few of their wines.

Wither Hills

After the tasting, we ordered two of our favorite bottles and sat down at a big wooden table for a gourmet lunch. Since it was late afternoon, we had the place pretty much to ourselves and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon over wine and great food with friends. Continue reading →

Kaikoura Peninsula Walk Photos

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We had some great photos from the Peninsula Walk in Kaikoura. Check out the slideshow for some of my favorites. 

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Kaikoura, New Zealand

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Our first stop in our whirlwind tour of New Zealand’s South Island was the town of Kaikoura, on the Eastern Coast of the island. Just a short two hour drive from Christchurch, we decided to head straight out of the city after we landed and spent the night in a great little hostel by the water, the Fish Tank Lodge.

Kaikoura is on the tourist route due to its whale and dolphin watching, but we decided to skip the boat ride for a hike along the Kaikoura peninsula. The New Zealand government has an online brochure, complete with a map that you can find here for the Kaikoura Peninsula Walk. The walk is mostly on a well maintained track and takes between 1.5 and 3 hours to complete. You can do the walk straight from town, or if you have a car, drive straight to the “good part” by parking at the car park at the base of the cliff walk.

Here are the girls on the flats on the walk back along the beach:

It was a great walk atop the bluffs on the way out and then along the beach on the way back. The whole hike only took a few hours, but it was a great way to get outside and get some exercise for a few hours before hopping in the car to head up to Marlborough Sounds, which we would make our base camp for the next week of wine tasting, mountain biking and hiking.

Travel Update: Australia and New Zealand

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Coloured state locater map for Australia and N...

We head out tomorrow for Australia and New Zealand! I’m excited to get going, but the night before a trip is kind of like the night before Christmas: so much anticipation that it’s hard to sleep!

We’ve uploaded a broad outline of our itinerary over on the ethos blog so I won’t repeat it here.

However, the logistics of organizing a trip for eleven friends has proven challenging, so I thought I’d share some of the things that have worked. Continue reading →

Girl in Motion Update

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During second year at Tuck there is a six week break between Thanksgiving and New Years meant for travel, consulting, recruiting and maybe even some relaxing.

I’m hitting the road (and plane, boat, train, maybe even helicopter) and headed to Australia and New Zealand for a whole month!

I’ll post updates on this blog, but I’ll also be blogging for a start-up I’ve been working for: ethos. Four other members of team ethos are traveling with me so we will update the ethos blog with lots of fun pictures and stories.

The blog is already up and running, so check it out!

If you have suggestions for our travels down under, we’d love to hear them! Please leave them in the comments here or over at the ethos blog.