Good thing Jess didn’t wear her earplugs last night! Jer forgot to switch his Pilot to “make lots of noise,” but she heard it vibrating at 6:40. Slow start again, managed to pick up a mueslï slice, apple pie and “mega” chai on the way to the bus depot. Ate the food in the depot office, and drank the chai on the bus. The bus had a chicken wire brush guard over the lower portion of the windscreen.
Bus ride was uneventful, decent views, but very overcast. Jess got a little queasy, but managed to keep everything under control. Along the way, we saw fields of grapes, oranges, cows, horses, sheep, and some heavily copassed tree that we suspect to be apple. And vast fields of gorse. The Aqua Taxi was fun, due to the combination of choppy water and an expert driver. We stopped at a couple places along the way to see Split Apple Rock and some seals (NZ fur seals are cute - especially the pups!). After the second to last stop, Jess and Jer were the only passengers left on the boat, and the captain was more than happy to open it up a bit for us. Swells were getting up to 1.5m, so it was pretty bouncy. The driver kept on looking over to make sure we were all right, only to find us grinning like idiots. Landed at Awaroa, Jer carried Jess ashore through the surf. (Aww!)
Got to Awaroa Lodge, the desk lady told us that the weather was supposed to be bad on Sunday, so they wouldn’t be able to take us out sea kayaking then, but perhaps Monday. Jer was a little disappointed, because it meant we wouldn’t be able to go visit the seals, but we figured a half-day was better than no days.
Wandered around for a bit and had lunch in the restaurant/café while the staff got our room ready. Jess had steak with beet relish (such a steaky girl!), Jer had an antipasto platter of local olives, pesto, smoked Kikorangi blue cheese, smoked venison, and ciabatta. The steak was very good, the antipasto was superb. As Jess fell into a food coma, we retired to our room for a bit.
Finally, Jer employed force to compel Jess to get her sleepy butt out from under the covers. (He stole the blankets!) Despite the light rain, he insisted on going for a walk. Armed with a brolly and a hat, she agreed. We wandered down to the beach, collected a few shells, and took lots of pictures of the roiling surf. We walked down to the edge of Awaroa inlet, which can only be crossed within 2 hours of low tide. We decided not to cross, as we were sure we’d not be able to get back. Also, we would have chilly water up to our knees if we ventured in. Jer stopped to play in the tidal pools, but caught up with Jess on her way back to the Lodge. He found an intact shell of one of those spiky, twisty things, then further found that its original owner was still in residence. On the way back, there was much drawing in the sand.
We headed to the lounge to dry off in front of the fireplace. Met a group of three Kiwis who had just run a 36k race through Abel Tasman National Park. Had a series of wide-ranging chats for a few hours, two of them independently said that while in Queenstown, we should go to the Bunker for dinner. Eventually, the din of the 66-person surprise birthday party became too much, so we retired to the second dining room for dinner. We shared a delicious loaf of herb bread with paprika butter (we had to have the waitress explain the butter to us!). Jess had honeyed pumpkin soup (delicious, but a bit spicy - Jer ate most of it!) and duck and sage agnolotti with mushrooms (an excellent use of fowl). Jer had venison rack topped with kiwifruit chutney, with pumpkin and garlic risotto (he greatly enjoyed the risotto and the chutney, but the farmed venison tasted too much like beef.) Jer also had a glass of NZ pinot noir, which was very drinkable and good with his meal.
Fat and happy, we headed to bed around 10:30ish.