You can't eat a dandelion, surely? You can, actually, yeah. Can you? OK. Like that. (SPLUTTERS) Ready to go. You've flown so high and so well. Congratulations. You are now all officially 'balloonatics'. ALL CHEER 'OUR NZ ESCAPE' THEME Captions by Madison Batten Edited by Desney Shaw. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016 When do we find out where we're going? We just check the app, I guess. Oh, did they send you the info? It'll be on it. It's all on here. It's always on here. Christchurch. Christchurch. That'll be awesome. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Apparently it's changed heaps. I haven't been for ages. They do everything in shipping containers now. Yeah, apparently. Let's go. Jackie and I met in Melbourne in 2006. I was over there living, and Jackie came over to do the comedy festival. We ended up meeting on the first night of the festival, and Jackie moved in that night. We decided to get married two weeks later. It was a whirlwind romance. It was one of those sort of crazy things really ` that we met and just decided that it was gonna happen. Two of our kids are at school now, so that's a bit of a routine, and our little one's at kindergarten. When this opportunity came up for us to go away together, it definitely appealed to us because we've been so busy doing our separate projects and looking after the kids that it will actually be so nice to` even just being on an airplane ` just to have that kind of hour to spend some quality time together. Excited about coming to Christchurch. I mean, it's a chance to come back to the South Island cos I love that cos of, you know, being a Dunedin boy. But Christchurch is obviously going through so much with the post-earthquake rebuild, and out of any terrible catastrophe comes newness. And you get that sense of Christchurch now. You come down and it's growing again, and it's gonna be a great city, I reckon. It's exciting. Do you remember that great pie shop we used to go to every time we came to Christchurch? Oh yeah. That was left up there, eh? Somewhere down there. Do you wanna sneak in and grab a cheeky pie? Goat pie... No, but... I am gonna open up this, um,... clue. OK. Here we go. (READS) 'Welcome to Christchurch. Embrace your inner Picasso ` or Pic-ah-sso ` 'and head to Paint'n'Sip for a truly creative experience.' Is that like coffee and painting? OK, so, clearly, it's where we get to paint some sort of picture and sip... ...some sort of beverage. ...a liquid. Yeah. Or it's wine tasting, and they paint us ` nude. They` They paint us. We've got it. And I can't wait. (CHUCKLES) Hello! Hello. Welcome to Paint'n'Sip. Paint'n'Sip. Awesome. If you come in over here, we're gonna be doing 'paint your mate' today. > So you guys can paint each other. You get to draw each other's features. I can give you a hand with that if you want some help. Um, OK, this is gonna be a creative challenge for me. I am semi-talented in some areas ` not in the fine arts. Um, few things to remember is where your wine glass and your paint water is. Real easy to mix them up. You just start with an oval, don't you? Then you start... OK. Yeah, yeah, with an oval. Ooh, the eyes are hard, aren't they? Now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna hold it like a pen or a pencil, and I'm gonna start criss-crossing that colour on there. So just criss-cross, criss-cross, criss-cross. I'm really enjoying how the thing comes to life in front of your face. Like, you do the sketch to start with, and then you start putting the colour on. And you end up just doing it and, uh` so there's no right or wrong, really. I'm really happy with how it's going. Have you tried any of your wine yet? I have. I've had a sip. And my painting got immediately better. My main fear is that I'm gonna show Jesse and he's gonna hate it. And, given my lack of skills in the fine arts, I'm gonna have a few sips of wine and then just kind of really just surrender to the activity. OK, honey. I'm finished. You can come have a look. Wow. Wow, that's good. Oh my God, that's really good. And I really like those kinda auburn tones through my brown hair. My auburn tones... I think it's really beautiful. I think you've done a great job. Thank you, darling. I didn't actually know he could paint. Like, that looks alarmingly like me. I am feeling now a lot more nervous about showing him my piece of art. Oh, cool. (LAUGHS) My first reaction was a bit of a surprise, really. That was not what I was expecting. I was thinking hair... It's meant to be the hair there,... Yeah. But it didn't look like it. It looks like a nasty burn. It looks a little bit like a picture of a god. The god of fashion. Yeah. What do you think out of 10? 10. Aw, that's so sweet. Paint'n'Sip ` what a great activity. I loved it. Haven't ever been to The George before, and it just looks beautiful. I'm just blown away by how classy this place is. It's been great to have a day in Christchurch. Feeling very relaxed. It's been lovely, actually. I've spent a lot of time here in my childhood, and it's feeling very nice and familiar. Great to be back. This is a great end to the first day, mainly because we have to walk about 20M from the bedroom to the restaurant. Thank you very much. Cheers. Chim chim. Chim chim. To the kids. To the kids. (CHUCKLES) Who aren't here. Aw. So, this is a amuse to begin your evening. Tonight it is Horopito cured rabbit with brown onion puree and apple. How do we eat it? With a fork. We eat it with this. Dinner is unbelievable. I don't eat a lot of this kind of fine dining. This is stunning. It's just beautiful. So this is the popcorn scallop. You have scallop tartare flavoured with a miso dressing, finished with popcorn and puffed buckwheat. It's extremely good. Mm. Well, the kids are having omelettes tonight. Are they? Yeah. Omelettes and gruel. I love it. It's good for them. Eggs. At least some people in the family are having a good night. So here is the freshwater smoked eel. This is accompanied with crispy duck as well as apple and nasturtium. For yourself, you have the coffee-cured venison and accompanied with flavours of beetroot and pear. Beautiful. Do you think we should do degustation at our house? Like, just you and me? Or you, me and the kids. And who would come and cook? We'd do everything. That's so true. We'd have to do it. We'd have to do it ourselves. Check this out. (CLEARS THROAT) Oh, cool. This is what we're gonna be doing tomorrow, OK? And I have not looked at it. Oh gosh. OK. (READS) Get yourselves an early night, for tomorrow will be an early rise. How early? I don't know. Not great news when there's so many... Not great news. We're gonna go somewhere... Well, what do you do early in the morning? ...and see the sunrise. See the sunrise. In a balloon? Or a hike... up a mountain. Cheers to day one. Cheers. Here's to day two. Here's to day two. Let's do it. An early start. Let's do it. Let's do it. Be in to win your own NZ escape including flights, car hire, accommodation and activities. Head to ournzescape.tv to enter. You can't eat a dandelion, surely. Oh, you can, actually, yeah. Can you? OK. Like that. (SPLUTTERS) Ready to go. You've flown so high and so well. Congratulations. You're now all officially 'balloonatics'. ALL CHEER 1 It's dark, it's extremely cold, and we find out that we're ballooning. Righto, guys, get that cold air going in that balloon. I'm really excited about hot air ballooning. I've never done it before. It's been something that I've wanted to do for a long time. Jackie, on the other hand, not as excited as me. Um, I'm a bit worried about whether she's going to even come up with us. I'm not sure yet. To be honest, I'm quite scared of flying, so I'm a little bit nervous. PEACEFUL MUSIC So, takeoff is incredibly low-key, incredibly tranquil. And that feeling just continues as we move up into the sky. And we slowly just start to rise and without any sound, without any sort of mechanical engine or whatever. It was really peaceful and just sort of soft. We just sort of glided up. It was nothing, obviously, like I'd ever experienced before. Welcome to the Canterbury Plains. Stunning. I haven't seen it from this angle. Is this pretty cool? It's pretty cool. Do you like my office? (LAUGHS) Yeah. It's very peaceful up here, isn't it? And isn't it quiet? No sense of movement, no sense of breeze, no wind. And feel how it feels warmer. Wow, what a morning, guys. Yeah, stunning. I'm super glad I came along. Spectacular views. It's amazing. It felt like what it must be like to be a bird just flying around over the hills, over the trees, looking around at the animals running beneath us, kind of scattering as we` as we come closer. It was great. It's really exciting. Exhilarated. The contours of the land and... It was a lot less scary than I thought it was gonna be. It was a lot more kind of, just` Quite a chilled-out experience. OK, we do a little thing called the balloonist's prayer, and it goes like this. The winds have welcomed you with softness. The sun has warmed you with its warm hands. You have flown so high and so well that the gods have joined you in laughter and gently laid you back into the loving arms of Mother Earth. Congratulations. You are now all officially balloonatics. ALL CHEER What a way to start the day. What's next? UPLIFTING MUSIC Gidday, Jesse? Hi. How are ya? Good, thanks. Hey, I'm Jackie. Nice to meet you. Gidday, Jackie. Yeah, nice to meet you guys. Hey, we've got a fantastic morning for foraging here. We're just at the head of Lyttelton Harbour, and we're just gonna go for a walk along the coastline here. There's a really good range of plants. We'll head down this way, guys. Are you a forager? Is that your profession? It's sort of part-time. It's sort of just taken off in the last couple of years with the restaurants. And, um, yeah, just a lot more people are interested in just getting out and about into the outdoors and, um,... Here's another forager. Hello. Oh, are you foraging? > What have you got there? > Uh, these are clivers. Gonna make sticky willy tea. Very good for rashes and circulation and things. Good on ya. Wow, they're everywhere. Yeah, well it's certainly gaining in popularity, you know? And, um... It's just that fun of not really knowing... You didn't plant her there, did you? Is that` Is that your sister? Is that your sister? No, no, no. It's, uh, actually, yeah. That was pretty lucky, actually. ALL LAUGH So here we've got some wild fennel here. This is one of the more sort of common coastal herbs. They're really aromatic. Here, try. I used to eat a lot of fennel when I was at primary school cos I made a hut in the middle of this fennel bush. Good with fish, yeah? Goes really well with fish and seafood. What is this? A dandelion? Dandelion. So you can` You can't eat a dandelion, surely? You can, actually, yeah. Can you? You can. Can we? You can give it a go, yeah. You eat half of it, and I'll eat half of it. OK. Like that. It has got a really... What is it? What's the flavour? Kind of bitter. It is quite bitter, isn't it? The leaves will go well in a salad, but you're right ` I think the flower is fairly intense. Yeah, it's really intense. Yeah, it is, yeah. (SPLUTTERS) Ready to go. (CHUCKLES) Hey, over here we've got some wild mallow, which is quite a common sort of coastal plant. And it's got quite a beautiful purple flower. Um, definitely not as intense as the dandelion but, hey, no, give that a go, Jackie. OK, great. Mm, that's nice. It's sweet, and it's kind of light. It's like, um, marzipan. Yeah, marzipan. That's right. Marzipan's from almonds, right? And wild almonds have got a lot of cyanide in them, haven't they? That's right, yes. So is there any cyanide...? No, I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm fine. (LAUGHS) > Hey, so, here we've got a nightshade. And some of the nightshades are really poisonous. Some of them are edible but generally` Look, unless you really know what you're doing, you'd stay away from the nightshade family here. You've got to memorise what it looks like, don't you? You do. Hey, it's one of the things you have to be really careful with while foraging, and especially with mushrooms. Even in NZ, do we have, like, very deadly...? We do. We actually do have the death cap, which is found, um, in the North Island. When you eat it, initially it tastes really good ` beautiful, sweet taste. You eat it, and then a few hours later, you'll get stomach cramps ` quite severe. Maybe a day or couple days later, you'll actually have organ failures. Right, OK. So you have this sort of brief honeymoon period where you feel OK. < But fortunately, I've never seen one. (CHUCKLES) All right. Yeah, nah, it's really good. There's some larger leaves up here, so we might gather some of these for, um` for a bit of a cook-up. The really nice, big, succulent leaves on the top ` those are the ones we wanna take. Yeah, cool. Here's, um, Italian flat-leaf parsley growing here. So, this is, uh, yeah. Quite succulent sort of growth here. So give that a shot, guys. That is looking really good, isn't it? So, I think we've got quite a good range of plants. And let's make a nice wild food sort of salad. We've got some littleneck clams and some greenshell mussels, and we'll cook it up, yeah. Let's hit it. OK, let's do it, guys. Cool. It's so nice just to be sitting here outside in the sun, eating food that we've found ourselves. The mussels are amazing. And the weeds ` they're tasty. It's been a beautiful day. That's good. Mmm. That's really good. Yeah, I know. There's a real diversity of flavours going on in there. I thought it would taste bitter, but it doesn't. No. Who would have thought that we go for a wander along the coast, and this happens. I know. It's amazing. So good. This is inspiring. It is really inspiring. It is. Like, we're gonna do this. Can we do this in our` at our place? Oh, for sure, yeah. You can forage all around NZ, and every region's got its own species. And different seasons as well. This is brilliant. Thanks so much, Peter. Thank you. Excellent, guys. Great day. It's been lovely. Yeah, no, really enjoyed it. Absolutely delicious. You did it, babes. (LAUGHS) I shot two clays. He hits the accelerator, and you just press back into the back of your seat. It's really great. LIGHT-HEARTED MUSIC Check the clue? What have we got? READS: 'End your escape with a bang. Start off at the Rakaia Gorge' ` Nice. yeah ` 'as you go river-deep, mountain-high.' OK, so we're kayaking in... Rafting? ...freezing cold conditions. Yeah. I love it. And 'with a bang', so maybe we're setting off fireworks as we go down the river. It is duck shooting season. That'd be nice. I couldn't shoot a duck, though. No, no. If we are shooting ducks, I'll aim, I'll pretend I'm not an incredible shooter and then I'll, um... and then I'll just miss it. That's kind of you. Gidday, guys. How are ya? Gidday. Good. I'm Blair. Hi, Blair. I'm Jackie. Gidday, mate. Gidday. How are ya? < I reckon we're jet boating. Jesse. How are ya? Yeah, not bad, Jesse. We are jet boating, yup. Throw a couple of life jackets on. I'll give you a bit of a safety brief, and then we'll jump into it. < Cool. Whoo! ROCK MUSIC It is freezing cold but very beautiful. I love the Rakaia Gorge. Super great company. Beautiful river. I forget about the cold after about two minutes. I'm not cold any more. The rocks come at you. You look away at those rocks, don't ya? I can't. I can't look at them. Look out. (LAUGHS) You don't think, you don't care, cos you're just having such a good time. He hits the accelerator, and you just press back into the back of your seat. It's really great. (LAUGHS) Blair, uh, sees a little beach, and we just push in up on to the sand. He gets a couple of fishing rods. Still on step one. I'm still on step one. Have I unhooked my hook? Might be a bit hard in your gloves. I'm not taking off the gloves. (LAUGHS) I'd rather not eat. Here we go. < Oh, perfect. Look at that! Good to be standing by the river without the engine sound, actually. And you really get a sense of the river going past and the rapids, and it's lovely, yeah. I can imagine spending a whole day here. Great experience. Really, really cool. Good afternoon, guys. Gidday. Gidday. I'm Neil. Hi, Neil. Jesse. Jesse. How are you? I'm Jackie. Jackie. How are you? Very nice to meet you. Welcome to Terrace Downs. Gonna do some clay shooting this afternoon. So, is this the first time you've done it? Yeah. < Yeah. First time. Fantastic. I've shot clay before and pigeons, but never clay pigeons. They're a lot of fun to shoot. Uh, they're not very nice to eat. Really? They're quite tough. There's not a lot of substance to them. We've had lunch. We've had lunch. Uh, and then we're gonna have a competition, right? So either Jesse or I, one of us will leave a winner, is that right? Yup. We're quite competitive. We play a lot of Scrabble. Awesome. OK, I'll just get a gun, and then we're gonna go through it. No, I'm joking. (LAUGHS) Now, I won't be able to hear anything you say after this. I've got a bold voice. (MOUTHS) Smile and nod. So that hand goes in there. Finger up the side there. That's right. Left hand on the wood at the front. Here we go. Keep looking at the clay with me. Jackie, give me five, cos you got 100% already. That's awesome. 100%. That felt graceful. You can walk away now, if you wanted to, and say, 'I got 100% at clay shooting.' Nice one, honey. (LAUGHS) Pressure's on. OK, I'm stepping back. So, steadily follow. Little bit in front, and squeeze. You ready? Yup. Here it comes. Speed was a little bit too fast for the clay. Oh, OK. So we're just gonna steady that swing down a little bit. There we go. Did I hit that one? You did hit that one. You did it, babes! (LAUGHS) I shot two clays! I killed them. If I lose this competition, I'm not gonna get down in the mouth, but I definitely want to win. Yeah, I'm very competitive. Just a fraction behind it. Fraction behind it. Ooh, that was... Yeah. I wavered. < Good luck, babe. Thank you, honey. Heeey! Yeah. Fantastic. Little bit underneath. We have a winner. And it's not me. Unfortunately. It's me. I can't imagine who it is. (LAUGHS) It's me. Well done, honey. You're the best shooter. Today. Jackie, well done. Fantastic shooting, guys. Thank you, Neil. It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you very much. Thank you. Loved it. Thank you for coming out to see us. Thanks so much. Hope to see you again one day. Indeed. Cheerio. Buh-bye. Cheers. Bye. It's been super enjoyable. So much fun. It has been jam-packed. All right, let's go. OK. Wow. This is awesome. I love it. It's great to be in the helicopter just with these amazing views. I don't feel any fear. I just` It's really beautiful, just to be able to so quickly be up here, you know, amongst the peaks. And so much snow and sun, and it's, um... it's wonderful. How about a coffee? An iced chocolate. Is it chocolate? I think so. Yum. Oh. Lovely. Here's to it. What a weekend. What a weekend. Chim chim. Chim chom. I love cocoa at any time. That particular cocoa in that particular environment ` best cocoa I think I've ever had. What was your favourite part of the trip, sweetheart? I think the... I think the ballooning probably. Yeah, same. Cos I had a little bit of fear, so as well as the incredible activity, I felt like I kind of got over that. Yup. Yeah. But I loved the foraging. The jetboating this morning I really enjoyed. Jetboating was awesome. I believe we've gotta be in the airport` at the airport in about an hour... Do we? ...to get back to the kids. (LAUGHS) Well, Rob's leaving, so... We should probably go. We should go with Rob. We should probably go. I'm gonna do a quick scull. Let's go with Rob. OK. Hang on, Rob! OK. Such a great ending to the weekend. Being up that high, it felt like we were kind of almost surveying the region in which we'd had all of these great experiences. Looks just so beautiful out there. I'm gonna miss it. It'd be great to come back, but next time we'll bring the kids and do some of these activities again. Yeah, it's been super fun. Captions by Madison Batten. Edited by Desney Shaw. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016 TUI SING