Susan Kime's Top Five Most Excellent Travel Adventures of 2010: Unexpected, Unbelievable, Unforgettable

The Otago wine region is known for warm summers and cool winters, great for grapes. Other wineries on the road are : Chard Farm, right oustide Queenstown, creating an excellent Pinot Gris and Chardonnay; a winery called Mt. Difficulty, situated south of the Kawarau river in Bannockburn. This winery had excellent Pinots, and also had a vareital called Pinot Rose, a wine that was dark fruity and rosy yet with a subtle, drier finish than was expected. Further along the Otago Wine road near Cromwell, was Aurum Wines. The Aurum Pinots were exceptional, velvery finish, throaty, and warm. Then there were their 18 and 24 carat Pinot Gris dessert wines -- I have never liked dessert wine, but their 18 Carat Dessert wine was honeyed, lemony, with a soft, clear finish. I had never tasted a Pinot Gris with a honey undertone. Aurum is Latin for gold, and as I recall, the owner told us this vineyard was built on or close to a gold field. It is also interesting to note the history of the Queenstown area is replete with gold rushes and gold exploration. And yes, I did go gold panning on the Shotover River,. There were, amazingly, a few gold Shotover flecks in the pan, but my guide said they weren't worth keeping, so we tossed them back.

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3. The Deconstructed Dinner: Pescatore, at the George Hotel, Christchurch, NZ

In 2010, Christchurch has been the unfortunate recipient of two earthquakes. I was there a few months earlier, and was told that earthquakes are very common around there, and not to worry. I am from Southern California, I have been in earthquakes before, so I didn't. And from what I know, life has returned to normal in Christchurch. While there, I stayed at The George Hotel, a multi-awarded place, due to the intimate boutique hotel ambiance, the eco-sensitivity, and their restaurant called Pescatore. It was at Pescatore that I had one of the tastiest, most contemporary dining experiences ever, as it was the first time I encountered a deconstructed meal. I hasten to add, this is NOT new to many gourmands, sybarites, and hyper-Epicureans, but this was new to me. Below is an image of the cheesecake. The essence of cheesecake cheese is in the tubes, the sugar is crystallized into a sculpture and the crust is on the bottom in crumbles. Where the flower goes is anybody's guess. It was delicious, nonetheless.


and now we get to the steak, eggs and french fries, or chips, on a stone platter. You can see the steak, but the eggs is to the left, the chips are in the back, the stone ground mustard is behind the steak, and off to the side is a small muffin.

I was told by the Chef that any deconstructed dish should contain all the classic components found in the "original." The difference is in the preparation. When creating a dish utilizing deconstructive techniques, the ingredients are essentially prepared and treated on their own. It is during the plating and presentation stages that everything is brought together. And because of this, and its warm ambiance, Pescatore at The George was a succulent, memorable experience. And, I will never look at cheesecake or steak and eggs the same way again.
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4. Oraki Korakau -- near Rotorua, NZ -- taking the seaplane into the Rotorua interior, exploring a volcanic island and a thermal cave.







Orakei Korako is an active thermal island, and is called The Hidden Valley by many. It is accessible by a boat service which departs on request at the southern end of Lake Ohakuri. In order to get to the boat, not to mention the LAKE, you have to take a seaplane into the Rotorua interior, full of lagoons, and extinct volcanoes, and geothermal areas spouting steam. It took nearly an hour by plane to get to the thermal island, full of bubbles, a huge silica platform, sulphur streams,, hot waterfalls, and steam. It was one of the places that, although it was winter, was really warm. Lonely Planet Guides once described Orakei Korako as "possibly the best thermal area in New Zealand and one of the world's finest."

Ww walked almost to the top of the island, about an hour, where Ruatapu Cave lies. It is a 120ft deep cave extending into the earth, and is one of only two geothermal caves in known existence. Ruatapu has thermal hot pool at its bottom called Waiwhakaata, meaning 'pool of mirrors'. You can climb down there as I did --it is slippery and smelly, and was glad I had a walking stick. The experience was unique -- like walking into the prehistory, into the earth's core.





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5. On a boat trip around Kiawah island, South Carolina, seeing Dolphins, ten feet in front of me, strand feed on a sandbar.

I had written about the developer of Kiawah Island for Luxist. And while on this trip, my second to the low country of South Carolina, I took an early morning boat trip in hopes of seeing some Dolphin, some Heron, and other species of the AM.
While going up the Kiawah River we saw a few dolphin, then we observed about ten hurl themselves out of the water, all together and suddenly begin strand feeding on a school of fish -- or something! -- on a marsh sandbar.

I had heard about this type of feeding behavior for years, but had never seen it -- most people I have spoken to haven't. It usually occurs early in the morning, when the Kiawah is glassy and non- turbid.


Strand feeding appears to be unique: it typically involves a group of dolphins which will herd a school of fish or shrimp up onto a sandbar or mudflat. Then the dolphins will literally launch their bodies out of the water to feed. It is a behavior fascinating to watch. It happens so quickly, the flinging and the eating, that after we saw it, we still found it hard to believe. It lasts for between 30 seconds and a minute, then as quickly as they started, they stop, and slide back into the water again. Here's more factoids on strand feeding: the dolphins usually leave the water entirely for this type of feeding, and land always on the their right side; there is no leader of the Dolphin pod, they all work in unison. It was a marvelous experience to observe, after having heard so much about it. It was an unexpected gift of a river morning.

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