Merino Wool and Jade

I drove out of Franz Josef the next morning while Ingrid rested. On the way to Queenstown, I found a nice little rest stop called Ship’s Creek. Ingrid and I got out and took two walks. The first was inland, along the actual creek for which the stop was named. The creek was very brown and was fed by surrounding swampland. A gravel path along the creek turned inland into the swamp as a wooden walkway. The swamp water mostly appeared black. It was covered in a lot of places with a water plant that looked like a nice green ground cover. In the swamp we also saw “dinosaur” trees, which were extremely old trees that have entire ecosystems growing in them (other plants and animals). The second trail led through a freshwater marsh that led to a freshwater pond that was separated with the ocean by some sand dunes. The drive took us through Haast, where we stopped at a merino wool and jade store. The jade craft is surprisingly expensive. New Zealand is fighting the influx of Chinese Jade, which, because of the cost, is putting stress on their craft. The merino store provided some good wool goods. And as the clerk was fairly helpful we decided to ask her recommendations on places to eat. There was one place to eat in Haas, but she was emphatic that, if we could stand to wait for an hour, we should stop in at the Country Café in Makarora. Thinking we got an awesome food tip, we headed off to Makarora and found the Country Café. Let me just say that the clerk either had never, ever, ever, tasted good food or she had the worst sense of food of anyone I have ever met. The Country Café was a tourist trap. It was the equivalent of an American mini-mart. There was a case of hot “pies” filled with meats or cheeses, some pre-made sandwiches (with loaf bread), and hot fish n’ chips (although not fresh). All was expensive, greasy, and decidedly not gluten-free, which I had been hoping for. Our tip was a complete bust, and I am still amazed at how bad it was. We stopped to admire the beautiful blue water of another lake before arriving at Queenstown and checking into the Bella Vista Hotel, which is a chain hotel in NZ. The room was average but as expected for a chain hotel. The good news was that the hotel was within walking distance of a large portion of downtown Queenstown. We settled on Luciano’s for dinner, an Italian restaurant right along the harbor. Once again we tried the green-lipped mussels. These were in a spicy tomato sauce that drowned out any of the refined flavors of the mussels and so did not suit our fancy. Ingrid had the special, a wild hare w/ a chocolate, tomato, and feta sauce and pappardelle noodles, which was good but not amazing – you couldn’t taste the chocolate out right but could taste it’s effect on the sauce; the hare was lean and dark and tasty (and not very gamy); I had sole with pancetta and potatoes and rocket (a lettuce of some sort); it was decent, although the olives were kind-of an after thought. The good thing from this restaurant was that we got a great tip from the friendly waitress for dinner the next evening.