Trip Report - New Zealand ABD March 13 - 24, 2023 Updated 1/17/24!

[sayhello]

Yes, very interesting! My pin #7 is also Tiki Time, but timing wise that name doesn’t seem to fit with the train ride day…?? I don’t recall anything tiki-related that day, or even on the South Island. We too used the handbook as a guide for both activities and “names” for each day, so I’m wondering if they changed the name of the day for the handbook.

That's one of the reason I like keeping the handbooks. I have all my old physical ones!

I'm wondering the same thing about the name change being in the handbook only. We may never know now!

Sayhello

 

[aggiedog]

Even Road Scholar doesn't do hard copy travel itineraries any more. I think I downloaded it from my phone, and chose "books" as the place to put it. Best I got. I'm pretty tech challenged.

Great trip report. New Zealand is high on my bucket list.

 

[sayhello]

Even Road Scholar doesn't do hard copy travel itineraries any more. I think I downloaded it from my phone, and chose "books" as the place to put it. Best I got. I'm pretty tech challenged.

Great trip report. New Zealand is high on my bucket list.

Thanks! New Zealand is amazing, and definitely belongs on your bucket list!

The least they could do is provide you with a pdf copy. These interactive handbooks don't download properly; they are tied back to a website somewhere. I downloaded the app, but it no longer works.

Sayhello

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Great TR as usual, SayHello Have you tried google cached? I was able to find an old itinerary from a non-Disney site recently using it. I can't remember how I did it so you may need to play around. I really wish there was a source that had all the PDFs of the trips from each year. I've often wanted to go back and see how they've changed and ABD makes that hard to do.

 

[sayhello]

Great TR as usual, SayHello Have you tried google cached? I was able to find an old itinerary from a non-Disney site recently using it. I can't remember how I did it so you may need to play around. I really wish there was a source that had all the PDFs of the trips from each year. I've often wanted to go back and see how they've changed and ABD makes that hard to do.

Thanks!

I have not tried google cache. I'll try it, but we shall see! I called ABD, and the Vacationista was surprised to find she could not locate our specific Handbook, either. She's going to do more research and get back to me. So maybe it's a glitch?

I have either the pdfs and/or the physical handbooks for all the trips I've taken. But I really like the official handbook, which I now don't have for either my New England or my New Zealand ABDs. It helps with knowing more exactly what we really did, and the theme for the day. Oh, well.

It would be nice to see the old pdfs for trips I haven't taken (yet!) but I don't know if that will ever happen.

Sayhello

 

[Eastridge]

Thanks. This is where I'm getting myself confused. I'm looking at the pin for day 7, and it's Russell from Up, and the theme says "Tiki Tour".

In my report, I list Day 7 as "Tiki Tour." I think I pulled the theme names from the handbook but I also don't have access to the handbook any more, so I'm not certain.

 

[sayhello]

In my report, I list Day 7 as "Tiki Tour." I think I pulled the theme names from the handbook but I also don't have access to the handbook any more, so I'm not certain.

Thanks. "Tiki Tour" must have made sense at the time, but I totally can't remember why!

Sayhello

 

[Eastridge]

I looked it up. A "tiki tour" is New Zealand slang for taking the scenic route, or a long journey to a destination. Which fits Day 7, and also Russell's adventures in the movie Up.

https://www.helen.co.nz/digital-prints/kiwi-slang-tiki-tour/

Not to be confused with a tiki room where the birds sing words and the flowers croon, or Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar

 

[sayhello]

I looked it up. A "tiki tour" is New Zealand slang for taking the scenic route, or a long journey to a destination. Which fits Day 7, and also Russell's adventures in the movie Up.

https://www.helen.co.nz/digital-prints/kiwi-slang-tiki-tour/

Not to be confused with a tiki room where the birds sing words and the flowers croon, or Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar

Thank you!

Sayhello

 

[sayhello]

Day 7 - Tiki Tour (see the discussion above about the meaning of the term "Tiki Tour"! )

Today was an early day. Luggage out by 6:15, breakfast at 6:30 with a 7:15 meetup. We had a train to catch! This was our long travel day to Franz Josef, and the first leg of the trip was via Kiwi Rail. We were traversing the New Zealand Alps as far as Arthur's Pass, and would then be transferring to our motorcoach for the rest of the trip. I don't remember exactly why, although I imagine part of it was being able to make stops. I think the second half was actually slower by train for some reason, or something like that. I'm sure one of the others will remind me!

When we got to the train station, the train was there, but it was not open.





So we hung out around the Station until they were ready to let us board. We had an assigned area all together on the train, but could pick any seats we wanted within that area.





It was a very bright, sunny day, with amazing blue skies. It made getting photos out the train windows a bit challenging, but was otherwise so beautiful that I really didn't care!





There's an open car with no windows, but it was pretty cold out there with the wind rushing by! Plus it was fairly crowded at times!



There were a couple of areas on the train where you could buy snacks and various things to drink and small souvenirs.

I (and a few of the others) bought a cute hand-made textile kiwi bird. When I got home, I looked up the store that was on the tag, "Pauanesia", and apparently it was a popular store in Auckland that sold hand made crafts including stuffed animals made out of salvaged material (like these kiwis). It unfortunately closed in October of 2022 after 27 years. I guess these were stock they still had on hand. Kind of sad. I'd've loved to have purchased more of them as gifts!



Anyway, there were also electrical plugs by some of the seats, so we juggled chargers around so that anyone who needed to charge their phones could.

Honestly, I love train travel. It's comfortable, you can get up and walk around whenever you want to, use the bathroom whenever you need, get decent snacks whenever you felt like it and watch the (beautiful!) scenery go by. It was a pleasant way to spend the morning.

Just a few random shots of the mountains and surrounding scenery that we passed.





Continued in next post.

 

[sayhello]

This is called a braided river. The water is low enough that it weaves back and forth across the river bed, and looks like it's braided from above.



Eventually, we made it to the station at Arthur's Pass and disembarked. The train and many of the passengers were continuing on, but we were heading to our motorcoach to continue our travels.







We got a group shot first, then headed out.



This was definitely one of those roads where I was glad I was riding and not driving, because the road was relatively narrow in places, with some fairly steep drops off to the side, and also had a lot of one-way bridges. Those one-way bridges had a definite set of rules you needed to know and follow so that everything went smoothly.



A local celebrity!



After about an hour and a half, we arrived at Monteith's Brewing Co. in Greymouth for a brewery tour and lunch.



The tour was a bit odd, because it turns out they don't do any brewing there anymore, so they just had the equipment sitting there, and diagrams that showed us what the brewing process would be like if they actually brewed there anymore.





Continued in next post

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

LOVE love love the Kiwi. Super cute. I don't buy much anymore, but I would have been tempted by those. And very odd about the brewery tour. But I hope they still had samples

 

[sayhello]

They did have a fun area where they had a couple of taps, and they let folks draw their own sample of beer (after a short demo of the proper way to do it). I was pretty bad at it, so I got a *lot* of foam and made a bit of a mess, but it was still fun.



After the tour, we headed to a private room where our buffet lunch was set up. It was a pretty tasty array of food. They ran out of a couple of the more popular items, but managed to refill those without much of a wait time.





Then it was back on the bus, for the drive to Hokitika, a very cute seaside town on the West shore of the South Island. The Adventure Guides took us to a shop that is well known for it's Punamu jewelry, made by locals. Punamu (or Greenstone) is New Zealand Jade which is mined on the South Island. Several of us managed to find some Punamu pieces there. I found a smallish fish hook necklace that I really liked. After that, we headed down to the beach for iconic photos with the Hokitika sign, made up of driftwood sticks. It's pretty cute, although I can't imagine how often they need to go out there and re-do the letters to keep it looking good for all the tourists! We then had some free time to wander the town and do some further shopping until it was time to head back to the motorcoach to continue our trip down to Franz Josef.









Eventually after another couple of hours, we made it to the Te Waonui Forest Retreat, our hotel in Franz Josef. This hotel was literally surrounded by tropical rain forest. We got assigned our rooms, and then headed out to find them (the hotel was only two stories high, but it was quite a shlep from the lobby to our rooms. Although it turned out it was actually much closer if we had gone around the building clockwise instead of counter-clockwise! Noted for future treks!)

My room was really nice, and the view of the rainforest was really beautiful! The only problem I had was that the tub/shower was *really* deep, so it required some really careful climbing to get in and out. At least there *was* a grab bar!







After we all settled in, we headed back to the lobby area to the hotel's restaurant (The Canopy Restaurant) for a really nice five-course tasting meal (although the portions were pretty large for a tasting menu). There was plenty of food, and it was *really* good. It was the birthday of one of the Adult daughter Adventurers and her mother had arranged a birthday cake for her for after dinner, which we all shared.

After that, it was off to bed! Tomorrow we'd be off to check out the glacier!

Next: Day 8 - Franz and Family

 

[sayhello]

LOVE love love the Kiwi. Super cute. I don't buy much anymore, but I would have been tempted by those. And very odd about the brewery tour. But I hope they still had samples

I really like my Kiwi.

And see the post after yours. They *did* offer samples!

Sayhello

 

[Eastridge]

We were traversing the New Zealand Alps as far as Arthur's Pass, and would then be transferring to our motorcoach for the rest of the trip. I don't remember exactly why, although I imagine part of it was being able to make stops. I think the second half was actually slower by train for some reason, or something like that. I'm sure one of the others will remind me!

That's correct. It was to save time, since taking the bus from Arthur's Pass was faster than staying on the train.

 

[hygienist999]

I'm really enjoying your trip report. My husband and I leave on October 13th for our ABD to New Zealand. We are really looking forward to it. I know you went in March, so I'm not sure if our weather will be much different as we will be there for their spring and you were there for their fall. I know you've said the food was wonderful, could you tell me if there was a good variety. My husband and I do not eat seafood or lamb, and sometimes we have to buy a lot of junk food so we do not starve, while we travel. Looking forward to the rest of your report.

 

[sayhello]

I'm really enjoying your trip report. My husband and I leave on October 13th for our ABD to New Zealand. We are really looking forward to it. I know you went in March, so I'm not sure if our weather will be much different as we will be there for their spring and you were there for their fall. I know you've said the food was wonderful, could you tell me if there was a good variety. My husband and I do not eat seafood or lamb, and sometimes we have to buy a lot of junk food so we do not starve, while we travel. Looking forward to the rest of your report.

I'm glad you're enjoying my trip report! You are so going to love this trip! New Zealand is amazing, and the ABD covers some really great sites and activities!

There *was* a decent variety of food. Many of the meals are served buffet style, with lots of choices. I happen to love lamb and seafood, so I always went for those first. I would HIGHLY recommend that you if you haven't already, that you let ABD know that you don't eat seafood or lamb, so that the Adventure Guides can be sure you are taken care of. You will also meet with the Guides the first day, and definitely discuss this with them. They will do their best to make sure you have what you need. I can't eat tomatoes, and I've recently had my gallbladder out so I can't eat fried foods. The Adventure Guides always let me know before meals what there was that I could eat. I've had issues with foods I can't eat for quite a while, and ABD has been fabulous at taking care of that.

Sayhello

 

[hygienist999]

I'm glad you're enjoying my trip report! You are so going to love this trip! New Zealand is amazing, and the ABD covers some really great sites and activities!

There *was* a decent variety of food. Many of the meals are served buffet style, with lots of choices. I happen to love lamb and seafood, so I always went for those first. I would HIGHLY recommend that you if you haven't already, that you let ABD know that you don't eat seafood or lamb, so that the Adventure Guides can be sure you are taken care of. You will also meet with the Guides the first day, and definitely discuss this with them. They will do their best to make sure you have what you need. I can't eat tomatoes, and I've recently had my gallbladder out so I can't eat fried foods. The Adventure Guides always let me know before meals what there was that I could eat. I've had issues with foods I can't eat for quite a while, and ABD has been fabulous at taking care of that.

Sayhello

I have another question. How did you handle prescription drugs. My husband just went to our pharmacist to get a copy of our prescriptions for us to take along with our bottles. The druggist, according to my husband, looked at him like he was crazy. He said he had just gotten back from New Zealand and did not have copies of his prescriptions or meds in their bottles and had not trouble. It wasn't any different than traveling anywhere else. Could you tell me how you handled your medications. Thank you in advance.

 

[abdgeek]

I have another question. How did you handle prescription drugs. My husband just went to our pharmacist to get a copy of our prescriptions for us to take along with our bottles. The druggist, according to my husband, looked at him like he was crazy. He said he had just gotten back from New Zealand and did not have copies of his prescriptions or meds in their bottles and had not trouble. It wasn't any different than traveling anywhere else. Could you tell me how you handled your medications. Thank you in advance.

I saw your question and figured I’d chime in while you were waiting for @sayhello to respond. I did extensive research about NZ and their requirements before my trip and also asked my doctor for my prescriptions to take with me. He didn’t bat an eye and seemed to know it was required for my destination. However, no one ever asked to see them…but I guess they could if they wanted to. I can honestly say NZ has the most restrictive customs list of any country I’ve traveled to. I understand why they do, but it caused me some angst since I was visiting Fiji beforehand and knew I had to be careful about the type of souvenirs I chose.

 

[sayhello]

I have another question. How did you handle prescription drugs. My husband just went to our pharmacist to get a copy of our prescriptions for us to take along with our bottles. The druggist, according to my husband, looked at him like he was crazy. He said he had just gotten back from New Zealand and did not have copies of his prescriptions or meds in their bottles and had not trouble. It wasn't any different than traveling anywhere else. Could you tell me how you handled your medications. Thank you in advance.

What I have done for years, and did for New Zealand is my prescriptions all come with paperwork that has a copy of the label that is on the bottles. NOBODY cares about the bottles, they want the info off the label. (If your paperwork doesn't have a copy of the label, you can usually request that from your pharmacist).

So I have purchased small pill ziplock bags from Walgreens and CVS, and I tape the copy of the label onto a baggie, and put the medicine that goes with the label in the bag. I do that with each of my prescriptions (I take a lot), and I do the same with my OTC drugs and supplements. Then I put them all in a 1 quart ziplock bag. This always goes in my personal item. I've been doing this for at least 15 years, including trips to China, Japan and New Zealand. I have never once had an issue with any of them. The first time I heard this rule, I tried to load all my bottles into my personal item, and it literally took up the entire thing. After crying in frustration, I found this answer somewhere, and never looked back.

American prescriptions you carry probably aren't going to be valid in a foreign country, so it's really just for the information about the prescription.

https://www.walgreens.com/store/c/walgreens-pill-pouches/ID=prod6328104-product

I agree with @abdgeek to check that all your meds and OTC drugs are allowed in New Zealand. I didn't have any issues, but in Japan, OTC Pseudoephedrine (the "real" Sudafed they keep behind the counter) is not allowed to be brought into the country.

Sayhello