Two for the Road

Sorry, time flies! It was only a day or two after New Year’s Eve when we were thinking that a blog post was overdue. Now both our birthdays have passed¹ and we’ve got a lot of catching up to do. Strap yourselves in.

New Year’s Eve in Sydney was a must-do for us when we booked this trip. It’s a city that celebrates it exceptionally well. Locals also claim that they’re first in doing this round the world. One wonders what New Zealanders and Pacific Islanders must think.

We’d treated ourselves in advance to seeing the Sydney Harbour fireworks aboard a ship named The Jackson which would take us right onto the river to see the display. Food and an open bar were included, of course. You know us well enough.

The firework display was incredible. Below are some photos of our time on the ship and on the display. The brightness of the fireworks in these photos hurt our heads to look at the morning after (must have been a dodgy prawn) so we’ll leave them here for you to enjoy –

After a sluggish New Year’s Day it was Iris’s birthday! I’d arranged us an organised trip to two wineries in the beautiful Hunter Valley, a two-course lunch, before concluding with chocolate and cheese tastings. A health-conscious birthday for the modern, active couple.

The wineries had great vines and some exceptional views of the surrounding valley. The lunch and chocolate tastings were a bit disappointing, unfortunately. Our lunch was a paint-by-numbers two-course meal from an IHG hotel, and the chocolate tasting was a cupcake-case full of chocolates for us to have while we wandered around what appeared to be a shop owned by a friend of the tour group who sold expensive chocolate and had more rules signposted than the strictest school you could imagine.

On the other hand, we enjoyed the cheese tasting at a local dairy (even if Iris enjoyed the copious amounts of goat cheese more than me), and our guide at one point stopped the coach as he’d spotted wild kangaroos, and we got out and were able to see them! It was our first time ever seeing kangaroos in person. Fun fact – they’re ripped as hell! Talk about getting motivation to hit the gym in the new year.

We concluded the day with a lovely meal at a restaurant overlooking Sydney Harbour. If you’re looking for a great meal in Sydney, Atelier is the place to be.

Then it was time to say goodbye to Australia and head to the land of the long white cloud² and the really, really good rugby player³. We landed in Auckland, New Zealand on the 4th and had a quiet night in a city centre hotel, before the 5th of January rolled around. You may be familiar with this date for the following reasons –

• My birthday
• Twelfth Night
• The day that, every year without fail, everyone starts dismantling all Christmas decorations and heads back to work.

I’d like to think the strength of the first point makes up for the following two, but I’ll leave you to be the judge on that.

Iris, however, demonstrated that great minds do indeed think alike. She’d booked to stay three nights on Waiheke Island – a short 40-minute ferry ride from Auckland where vineyards are abundant – at a house with a truly breathtaking view over Onetagi Bay.

Speaking of breathtaking things, the island is very hilly. Thankfully, Iris booked us e-bikes with which to get around the island. If she’d booked us regular bikes the first item on my birthday itinerary would likely have been the local hospital.

The landscape is gorgeous to the extent I have to remind myself to keep my eyes on the road while riding the bike. Rolling fields and hills compliment the drops to the many bays the island has, each with rolling clear water. Pretty idyllic.

If you’re an anorak like me, you’ll also be thrilled to learn about all the weird and wonderful bird life. Our visitors have included several very curious sparrows, sacred kingfishers, and tuis, a colourful bird native to the North Island whose unique song sounds like a sound effect you’d hear on a 70s episode of Doctor Who. Truly amazing scenes.

Over the last few days, we’ve enjoyed many a wine⁴ and a bite to eat as we’ve explored this sublime countryside. At one winery we took part in some laser clay pigeon shooting and some archery. Needless to say, I won the clay pigeon shooting (who said video games were a waste of time?). But Iris, despite repeatedly saying how bad she was going to be, completed what can only be described as a perfect audition for a gender-swapped Robin Hood as she repeatedly landed her arrows in the gold and scored top points. I’ll offer a reward for anyone who can confirm you saw her practicing at an archery range before we left the UK.

Today, we’re heading for an olive oil tasting and maybe a walk around before we head back to the mainland tomorrow.

Then our road trip begins!

Matt

1. Thanks to those who sent us messages on our birthdays! For those who haven’t, it’s never too late to send a crate of wine. It’s the least you can do, right? ↩︎
2. Aotearoa, the Māori name for New Zealand, translates to this. ↩︎
3. Too many memories of the All-Blacks running in try after try at Wales matches I’ve attended to list here. ↩︎
4. No, I will not look up how many times I’ve written about wine this post, thus potentially concluding we may have a problem. It’s my birthday and you can’t make me. ↩︎