New Zealand

May 9, 2016

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By Heart2Heart | New Zealand | No Comments

Trevor Thomas of Southern Crossings @southerncrossings One of the top 3 Luxury travel specialists in New Zealand. Trevor organized our whole trip in New Zealand and we had a great time. Looking forward to visiting the other parts of New Zealand soon! #southerncrossings #travelspecialist #newzealand #H2HNewZealand2016

For the 9 day journey in New Zealand, we travelled in all sorts of ways! We took the elevator up to the Auckland Sky Tower, walked through the beech forest in Glenorchy, through several rainforests and through the Oahu stream, we drove 3 vans – in Auckland, from Queenstown to Greymouth (5 hours) and from Christchurch to Blenheim ( 5 hours) Rode a gondola up to the top of Queenstown, took 2 helicopters to Milford sound and Franz Josef glacier, boarded a 100 year old steamboat the TSS Earnslaw to Walter Peak farm, took a Jet boat along the Dart River, and journeyed on the Kiwi rail along the Tranzalpine rail and 6 plane flights from Manila via Sydney to get to Auckland then to Queenstown, then from Blenheim to Auckland and from Auckland via Sydney back home. Whew!!! Super LOVE New Zealand #newzealand #auckland #queenstown #arrowtown #glenorchy #christchurch #franzjosef #Blenheim #kaikoura #kaikouracoast #marlborough #H2HNewZealand2016 When going to New Zealand with plenty gadgets, make sure to bring your power strip Hokey Pokey is not only part of a song but a flavour in New Zealand! 🙂 Hokey Pokey all you want!!

( wiki) Hokey pokey is the New Zealand term for honeycomb toffee.

Pavlova is a New Zealand dessert! Love Pavlova! We had 3 this trip! Pavlova Tawari honey cream, berries and organic yogurt at The Square Novotel Auckland, Pavlova with passion fruit at Fishbone Queenstown and Black Doris Plum Nest – meringue, vanilla mousseline, plum soup, baby sorrel, vanilla ice cream at the Botswana Butchery Queenstown #pavlova #newzealand #H2HNewZealand2016We took home a lot of Souvenirs from our trip to New Zealand. Aside from the 5,000 photos and 500 videos that I took, we made sure to take home some Rocks near the glacier where we landed from our visit to Milford Sound. Pavlova apron for mom who collects aprons, “Kia Ora” ( taken at the Auckland Museum ) meaning Welcome or can mean Way to go or Fantastic! which was exactly what our trip was! Most of all the souvenir of memories of a most amazing visit to one of the most scenic spots in the world! Blessed and grateful for the opportunity to travel and spend time with my parents and their friends Tito Manny and Tita Ina who are also family and my own family.Click below to go to their website

Click below to go to the New Zealand website

Official site of New Zealand Tourism, Business, and Investment. Activities, tours, maps and accommodation to plan your New Zealand holiday. Find out about New Zealand made products and investing in New Zealand businesses.

May 9, 2016

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The Square at Novotel Auckland Airport Hotel

By Heart2Heart | New Zealand | No Comments

From Blenheim we flew back to Auckland and stayed in the airport hotel for our next day flight back home

Fern vertical garden at the bar of Novotel @novotelakl Airport Hotel Auckland

LOVE ferns!!!!! And vertical gardens!!

#fern #ferns #verticalgarden #novotel #auckland #newzealand #H2HNewZealand2016We had our last meal in New Zealand and it was so good at the airport hotel!Oysters
Kokonda Cured Market Fish

Beer Battered Market Fish Fingers

Smoked Kahawai Fritters

Peanut Butter Parfait Valrhona, Jivara, Earl Grey Panna Cotta Vanilla ice cream Pavlova

May 9, 2016

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Wairau River Family Estate Vineyard

By Heart2Heart | New Zealand | No Comments

Enjoyed our lunch at this vineyard Yum! Double baked blue cheese soufflé, rocker, pear & walnut salad Marlborough Mussel Chowder and roasted garlic bread – YUM! And that garlic bread on the side is super yum!!! The butter they used!!! Cheese plate with fresh figs! Cheeseboards in French Oak for sale

Click below to go to their website

May 9, 2016

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Meals at Timara Lodge

By Heart2Heart | New Zealand | No Comments

In Timara Lodge there are 2 Quince trees. They look like lemons but a deformed version. When they fall on the ground that means they are ready. These are cooked for 8 hours with lots of sugar and made into jelly known to us as quince paste which we eat with cheese Beside the Quince tree I saw Chef Fran preparing our dinner at Timara Lodge! Dinner and breakfast was included in our lodging Lonnie from Giesen winery serving us wine before dinner and 2 out of the 4 wines we had with our degustacion dinner Quince fruit – freshly picked from the ground and ready to be cooked and made into quince paste

Chef Fran is Irish and has lived in New Zealand since 1997. #TimaraLodge #Blenheim #newzealand #H2HNewZealand2016 Chef Javs learning from Chef Fran 5-course degustacion in the dining room Wines from Giesen vineyard Orange Roughy (which lives up to 120 years old Fr The Tazmanian sea ) with cherry tomatoes zucchini and a lemon and cream sauce Delicious lamb with mashed potatoes delicious dessert – Lemon soufflé Breakfast at Timara Lodge with fresh roses from the rose garden with Manuka Honey which is one of the best honeys in the world that is medicinal as well as a good quality and good tasting honey Breakfast – cereals, yogurt, muesli, bread and fresh fruit juices. Fresh kiwi juice with banana and spinach. Loved the muesli mix they made and it’s so colorful. All the colors of fresh hydrangeas all from the garden

May 9, 2016

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Timara Lodge Blenheim

By Heart2Heart | New Zealand | No Comments

Arrived in our beautiful home in Blenheim – Timara Lodge. It’s an 81 acre property. It was part of the 600 acre property of an English gentleman ( Bryan Johnson) who came to New Zealand in the 1800s. It’s beautiful!!! #Blenheim #TimaraLodge #newzealand #H2HNewZealand2016 Arrived in our beautiful home in Blenheim – Timara Lodge. It has 4 rooms so just right for our group. So we have it all to ourselves. In November 2014 Barry ( 77 years old) bought Timara Lodge for his wife Selena as a birthday gift! Selena ( from Hongkong) loves gardens and gardening. They operated 7 hotels but kept only 1 which is in Marlborough which has 4 Filipinos. Barry said that there is some point in your life when you have to stop and smell the roses and they are literally doing that in their beautiful home. So happy to meet this lovely couple and wish we could have stayed longer at Timara Lodge #TimaraLodge #Blenheim #newzealand #rosegarden #H2HNewZealand2016 Dan Carter a famous rugby player got married at Timara Lodge in 2011. The ceremony was held by the lake and There’s a grass tennis court in the garden where the wedding reception was held The rooms are named based on the view it has 🙂 I love the lake So peaceful and beautiful. Black swans at Timara Lodge. They started with a couple that had 4 baby white swans ( that eventually become black swans when they grow up. ) After they had another 5 babies. The father swan usually doesn’t want the kids to stay where they are. There are protected trees in Timara Lodge and are over a hundred years old and can’t be cut Tall and old tree by the lake named “The Professor” You sit by the swing and he talks to you and he talks to the lake at Timara Lodge #TimaraLodge #Blenheim #marlboroughnz #newzealand #theprofessor White garden where all the flowers are white and the rose garden. They are working now on a new garden which will be Japanese 26 acres of Timara Lodge is garden and its irrigated by computer and there are 5 dedicated gardeners maintaining them. There are 300 kinds of roses – Rainbow garden which is by the tennis lawn and has flowers from all the colors of the rainbow
Phoebe’s garden was named after the daughter of the 2nd owner, Tall and old tree by the lake named “The Professor” You sit by the swing and he talks to you and he talks to the lake

There are around 600 olive trees and occupies 6 acres of the Timara Lodge. They make Cold pressed olive oil

Olive trees Timara Lodge

Art works all around the garden

Click below to go to their website

Located in the heart of Marlborough’s wine region, Lake Timara Lodge offers an unrivalled luxury accommodation and dining experience. 600 acres of gardens a lake, rose garden, and cuisine by Michelin trained chef Louis.

May 9, 2016

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Blenheim Marlborough

By Heart2Heart | New Zealand | No Comments

Arriving at our next and final destination – Blenheim

The ‘Golden Mile’ is the name given to a special strip of land in Marlborough located on the old riverbed soils in the sub region of Rapaura. This relatively small area of land has the most optimum wine growing conditions due to its unique microclimate. Some of the oldest and most famous Marlborough vineyards are planted in this area #goldenmile #marlborough #marlboroughnz #vineyard We visited 2 vineyards – Wither Hills as arranged by our tour guide Grape tasting 🙂 There are over 70 wineries in Marlborough and half of the wines from New Zealand come from the Marlborough region. 75% is Sauvignon Blanc #marlboroughnz #Blenheim #sauvignonblanc Wine Tasting in the basement cellar surrounded by French oak barrels at Wither Hills Vineyard #winetasting #witherhills #Blenheim #marlboroughnz #H2HNewZealand2016 Saint Clair Family Estate @saintclairwine in honor of Tito Ralph Joseph of Ralph’s Wines who is the distributor of their wines in the Philippines #saintclairwine #saintclairfamilyestate #Blenheim this idea for menu board at Saint Claire Vineyard @saintclairewine It’s a roll of brown paper that you can just tear when you want to change/update it Mom loves Tito Ralph so she made sure she had a photo here

Click below to go to their website

Saint Clair Family Estate is one of New Zealand’s leading wine companies. Saint Clair is one the world’s best Sauvignon Blanc producers.

May 8, 2016

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Ohau Stream Pups

By Heart2Heart | New Zealand | No Comments

In Kaikoura, there are many animal activities – with seals, whales and dolphins. Since we were just driving through, we stopped to look at some seals by the coast Sign in Nin’s Bin 🙂Hundreds of baby seal pups come to the Ohau stream during the winter time while their mothers go out to the Kaikoura coast. The pups then have to go back to the coast to feed on their mothers. National Geographic moment!! Kekenu fur seal pups ( babies) swimming by a waterfall. Kekenu fur seal pups playing and kissing around by the Ohau Stream

Kaikoura is a beautiful coastal town offering unique marine wildlife including whales, dolphins, seals and seabirds that reside there year round.

May 8, 2016

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Kaikoura

By Heart2Heart | New Zealand | No Comments

We drove towards Kaikoura which is a beautiful drive by the coast As recommended by Ian, we look for a restaurant serving crayfish in town – but there was none We saw this painting on the wall of one of the restaurants and it was a sign! 🙂 James had been insisting we go to Nin’s Bin And so we did! Thanks to my hubby we found crayfish in Kaikoura – Nin’s Bin Crayfish shack! Nin was a lady and lived in the small red shack! Nin’s bin started in 1977 and now owned by the nephew #kaikoura #crayfish #ninsbin #newzealand #H2HNewZealand2016 They call it a caravan 🙂 A caravan that accepts credit cards! 🙂 Simple menu
with a small kitchen Crayfish is expensive in New Zealand because of the demand. They are being exported to Japan. If you can look closer at the photo the price is written on each piece and these range from $60-109 per piece! We passed by Kaikoura on the way to our final destination. Kaikoura means eat crayfish or delicious crayfish. So we made sure we had crayfish. They call the yellow part – the Mustard which they use it like a sauce. We call it ALIGUI or TABA! haha!! Our eating adventure today was by a picnic table at Nic’s Bin with our van behind us to block the sun by the Kaikoura Coast facing the Pacific Ocean eating muscles, crayfish and beer battered chips with our hands! It’s the most expensive shack meal ever :-O but anyway the hubby treated since he’s celebrating his birthday
One of the best celebrations ever for one of the most generous and kindest persons ever – I am so lucky and blessed

May 8, 2016

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Christchurch New Zealand

By Heart2Heart | New Zealand | No Comments

It will take 20 to 100 years to rebuild the city of Christchurch after the Feb 22, 2011 earthquake. There is a lot of construction going on but still a lot of empty spaces.

Christchurch New Zealand (1) This buildings is doing Base isolation where the base is separated from the building by using technology that is the same as springs/ airbags on a truck to protect it from future earthquakes. There are around 15,000 earthquakes in New Zealand a year since its part of the Pacific Ring fire. Around 100-150 are actually felt

Lots of beautiful street art in walls of buildings in Christchurch. After the earthquake there were many walls that were exposed when some buildings fell hence the artwork 185 Chairs Monument at Christchurch in memory of the 185 people that died during the 2011 earthquake. There are all kinds of chairs -Wheelchair, babies chair, office chair, stools and some have flowers on them #chairmonument #chairs #christchurchearthquake #christchurchnz #newzealand #H2HNewZealand2016 Leaving Christchurch and still unending scenery On the way to our next destination from Christchurch – many tree farms Kale Love sheep scenes 🙂 and cows 🙂