South Island, Part 2

Feb 24th and on to the Catlins:


We enjoyed a nice drive around the base of New Zealand through Invercargill to stock up on groceries for our two night stay in a self catering cottage on a farm. Our cabin is rather spacious with three bedrooms, tho none of them were particularly large and we discovered that our double bed was also not particularly comfortable. But more about that later.

We drove out to the coast to Curio Bay to see the dolphins (no sighting), the rare yellow eyed penguins (success! we saw a chick, which was almost adult size) standing next to a flax plant. This is in the petrified forest area which can be seen at low tide. Next down a long gravel road to visit the southernmost point of land in New Zealand. Good scenery here.

Back to our cottage to heat up the cooked chicken we had purchased and make a green salad – delicious meal. But we discovered that our refrigerator was not getting cold, so we packed our steak (tomorrow night’s dinner) and other things in our chilly bin with the ice that we had purchased. Lots of sand flies in this place – Chris is not happy. The owners of this place bought it two years ago and are working hard on bringing it back up to par, but they have some distance to go. She was very friendly but he was a bit strange. She noted that they had a herd of cattle and one of the cows disappeared the day before; they were hoping that she would calf OK but didn’t know where she was in their bush country. We thought it odd that he was hanging out in their home in the middle of the afternoon when they were having problems, but oh well. Sometimes we find it a challenge supporting our transpformer to set up the iPod player, but Dave is ingenious.

The morning brought rain and we decided to pull up stakes and head up to Dunedin a day early, our excuse being that the non-working refrigerator spoiled our food. There were several other problems that we also encountered; our hostess was gracious and emailed us later on in the day with an apology for non-working equipment. We did have a great steak and egg breakfast.

We found a very nice B&B on the Otago Peninsula and were absolutely astounded when we visited the Royal Albatross facility on the head of the peninsula at 5:30 that afternoon. The wind was blowing 40 + knots which albatross love and they were soaring back and forth right in front of our viewing place – WOW! These guys have about a 10 foot wingspan. This is the only location in the world where you can see albatross nesting on the mainland. Quite a treat; we were really glad we left the Catlins a day early.

On the 26th we headed over to John and Shona’s sheep farm high in the hills to the northwest of Dunedin. He runs about 3,000 sheep plus a herd of cattle on 1,200 or so acres of land; we got to see him and his two sheep dogs corralling some sheep. Then he gave us a full tour of his farm, followed by a delicious meal with them of lamb roast and great roasted vegetables with a very refreshing salad. We enjoyed our stay with them very much; great down-to-earth people.

We had two full days seeing the sights of Dunedin, capped by a train ride up the Taieri Gorge the afternoon of the 27th. They had a forest fire in that area (blocked the train a couple of days ago) and the helicopters were active scooping up water. Had a good time at the Speights Brewery tour also!

On the 28th we drove up to Christchurch, stopping at Shag’s Point for a look at fur seals and we had a great encounter with a yellow-eyed penguin right below our view point. These guys are rare. While at this point another couple asked us if we were aware of the tsunami warning because of the 8.8 earthquake in Chile – hadn’t heard about it, we replied. The ocean did seem unusually calm, but no big problems were noted in this area of the coast. We were not allowed to go down to the beach farther north to see the boulders at Moeraki; CLOSED due to tsunami danger.

Our day in Christchurch on March 1 was supposed to be 80 degrees, but the cloud cover did not go away and we don’t believe it got over 68; not a good day for punting on the Avon River. The botanical garden was great, and we did enjoy a number of interesting museums in Christchurch. We have found it interesting to note that most museums and the like are free of charge; they will accept a donation. Same with the national parks. Kind of nice for us, but it must place a tax burden on the residents.

The South Island, Part 1

There is not a lot of internet access available in the wild Southland, so we are playing catch-up in Christchurch. We’ll get through the Westlands with this post and then the south and east coast tomorrow.


Monday February 15 – Tuesday, February 23

Feb 16 we enjoyed a good day taking our bikes around to a number of wineries, and we found some good ones. Our B&B host used to run a bike rental shop, and when he closed that business he sold off those bikes and bought 10 or so good ones that were really great to ride. Today another couple joined us in the B&B extension at Antares, from Beverly Hills. He is interning at Cedars Sinai. This was our first real interaction with Americans.

Feb 17 and off to the Abel Tasman national park area, staying in Motueka with a couple who have owned this place for a number of years. We have the upstairs; a nice living room, bedroom and bath. And SKY TV for the Olympics. We drove over to the other side of the peninsula to see some natural springs; a cloudy and rainy day. No pictures at this place, tho Dave just missed getting some shots of some beautifully restored Bentley’s that were parked in our car park.

So the big idea for the 18th was to take the water taxi up the coast to a beach and walk a part of the Abel Tasman coast track back to Marahau. Threatening weather but what could we do; that’s about it for activities here. A shuttle bus transferred us to the beach where we found our water taxi; a “King of the Fairies” chap was helping the bus driver with advice to the passengers. This middle aged man was dressed in pink tights, a sequined top with cute little fairy wings on his shoulders and a tiara in his dreadlocks. Strange! But then this area is kind of a throwback to an earlier era. Lots of hostel folks and backpackers with brightly painted old camper vans and VW van type vehicles.

Not very many of the water taxi folks got off at our beach, Anchorage Bay, but we certainly did see a number of people on the track. Some day hiking and some backpacking. It started raining about 30 minutes after we began our hike, and stayed rather wet for the next three hours. The last 30 minutes or so were pleasant as we walked on walkways over the estuary back to our car. Actually, the whole hike was good, it’s just that the wet weather got a bit long. But we dried out quickly.

We suggested to our hosts Barbara and Jerry that we share a bottle of wine and some of cheese early this evening, which turned into a great conversation time with them and enjoyment of cheese, pate, crackers, her special sauce and several bottles of wine. Great fun! Experiences like this show why we enjoy B&B visits, particularly when we can get the hosts to relax and really share what their lives are all about.

Today we drove down the Buller Gorge to Cape Foulwind – nice views, etc. Saw our 1st Weka, one of NZ’s flightless birds. And on to the seal colony.

Now on to Fox Glacier, with a stop at the really interesting pancake rocks in Punakaki. We enjoyed a late afternoon walk to Fox Glacier, and enjoyed a nice time with our charming hosts Colin and Trish at our B&B in Fox Glacier town.

Colin made the excellent suggestion that we drive to Lake Matheson early the next morning to catch this beautiful lake when it would be still and watch the sunrise over the mountains, including Mt. Cook. And he was right – we enjoyed a spectacular walk around this lake and are pleased to share this photo with you. We had several beautiful sightings of Mt. Cook from this area. Colin is quite the character.

CHRIS HATES SANDFLIES!!! Unfortunately, the feeling is not reciprocated. They love her. And she reacts with huge blisters which last for days (make that weeks). Maori legend has it that the gods made sandflies to keep people from staying too long in this beautiful country. With the blistering that Chris is getting from these pesky things, it’s probably true.

Next day on to Arrowtown over the highest paved road in New Zealand. It is much dryer on this side of the Southern Alps. We think the elevation was about 1800 meters; spectacular views up there and we enjoyed our stay at the Old Villa in Arrowtown. Didn’t go out for dinner here; instead we enjoyed several bottles of wine in the yard with our hosts; complemented with nuts, cheese, fruit and so on. A most enjoyable stay. (Is this getting familiar?)

Off to Te Anau and the Rose and Reel B&B outside of town; Lex and Lynn are great hosts and provided good recommendations for dinner and drive up to Milford Sound next day. The weather forecast was for a rainy day and we wondered about how our cruise on the sound would work, but wonder of wonders, the weather forecasters missed the boat and we had a beautiful day. We cruised out into the Tasman Sea past St. Anne Point and enjoyed the numerous waterfalls. This area is suffering a drought (couldn’t tell it by the lush greenery) and as a result the waterfalls were much smaller that they could have been. But none the less very enjoyable. Sheer walls reaching up to the mountain tops 1500 meters above the water; reminded us or the fiords in Norway.

Lex used to be a sheep farmer, now they have a smaller place and primarily raise deer. We fed the tamer deer; one was 23 years old. His principal deer crop is a cross between deer and elk; very large animals that mature quickly. As we have heard elsewhere, most of their venison is exported to Europe. Lex is also a fishing guide; folks come from all over the world to have him guide them to rivers where then can catch trout in the 4 to 5 pound range; a catch and release operation. Lex seems to be world renown; Lynn restricts his guide trips to 3 or 4 per week. (work to be done around the place as well).

On the way back from Milford Sound (really a fiord) we stopped at all of the scenic areas, including a long gravel road trek to see Humbolt Waterfall. Beautiful! The guide information does not indicate waterfall height, but a quick check on Google tells us it is 275 meters high. One of the other walks we took was very reminiscent of scenes in the forests in Lord of the Rings.

Milford Sound, Te Anau, etc. is the most touristy area we have visited in New Zealand – lots of tour buses, camper vans etc. etc. The Southern Alps in Fiordland National Park are spectacular. Tomorrow we will take the scenic route along the Park on our way down to Invercargill and we look forward to driving with no traffic. The south island has only one million residents plus who knows how many tourists – our road travels have been very easy.

More tomorrow! Catlins to Christchurch.

North to South Island

Friday, February 12 – Monday, February 15


Contrasts:

North of Auckland we often saw lush tropical vegetation along the roads, and it was rolling hills there. As we move south on the north Island the tropical plants have disappeared; the farm country here looks like what we might see in Washington, except that the variety of trees is amazing. Including lots of gum trees (Eucalyptus).

We had expected to see more tourists in the Martinborough area today; but not; it was really quiet for a Friday. Apparently the folks from Wellington come up for a short weekend; not a long weekend. Pinot Noir wines were quite expensive in the wine shop in Martinborough, as they were in wineries close to town. But to our pleasure we found that as one got out of town the wineries became less pretentious and the prices dropped. We enjoyed a particularly good visit at Te Kairanga winery, where the other two tasters were a grape grower from Napa and his daughter – she managed to convince him that he could take 18 days off for this trip. Our first real conversation with folks from the U.S. And we should note that folks here have told us that tourism travel from the U.S. really dropped off after 9-11 and hasn’t picked back up.

The grapes in this region are just starting to get ripe, so it's time to put up the nets to thwart the birds. Some of the grapes are very tiny, more so than varieties we've seen elsewhere.

Our hosts here at Shy Cottage are great; she invited us for dinner tomorrow evening in their home! A great place for us to be staying.

Out to the coast on Saturday to walk to the Pinnacles and on to the lighthouse. Well, that was the plan anyway. When we arrived at the parking lot for our 1-1/2 hour round trip walk to the Pinnacles the wind was blowing quite strongly and drops of rain were in the air. We decided that the better part of valor was to take a pass so on we went. At Ngawi we snapped a few photos of the 20+ old bulldozers lined up along the beach that are used for dragging fishing boat trailers in and out of the water. Our host here at Shy Cottage calls this an example of Kiwi ingenuity, I wonder why they can’t get together on this dozer business. In any event it is quite a sight.

Next stop was at the end of the road for a walk up 250 steps to the Cape Palliser lighthouse. Great views from up here, but wow the wind was really strong!

On the way back along the gravel road we had to take a few pics of the seal colony; then back to Martinborough to hit a few wineries on our way back to Greytown.

An interesting day – and we also got stopped while a dairy farmer was moving his herd down the highway toward the milking barn. Got some interesting shots of this experience (yesterday we were stopped while a farmer was relocating a herd of sheep along the road). Farmers here seem to all use quads to ride herd on their animals – we guess that horses are a mode of transportation that has gone out of favor. The dogs seemed to do a good job of helping the farmers with the herding tasks.

Our dinner this evening with Franz and Dierdre was excellent – a good lamb dinner. We felt privileged to be invited to dinner with them. We have enjoyed very much our opportunities to really get to know our NZ hosts. And they did a superb job of taking care of us in our cottage. Which was spacious with a bedroom, LR, dining area and full kitchen. A fully stocked refrigerator each day with warm breads and the daily Wellington paper greeted us each morning.

On to Wellington on Feb. 14 and a trip down to the Te Papa museum. New Zealand’s finest, they say, and deservedly so. We spent four hours there, a record for us and we didn’t see it all. This museum is unique in that the displays are more interactive, much more interesting, than in other museums. A real treat, and admission was free!

Feb 15 and our early morning ferry crossing to Picton. We were a bit apprehensive as the Wellington harbor was cold and windy yesterday afternoon, but not to worry. An extremely smooth crossing. We had great seats in front (inside) and at one point saw dolphins playing in the water in front of our ferry. This was a very large boat – lots of cars and people.

On to the Marlborough wine region some tastings and on to our Homestay accommodation at Antares. This is quite a nice place, they have great new bikes for us to ride about the wineries in this area and we look forward to doing that tomorrow providing the weather does not deteriorate more – it is rather cold and almost rainy today. Finally cold! We have had temperatures in the mid to upper 70’s with some humidity, but not today. We checked out winery restaurants this afternoon and made a reservation at one for lunch. This evening will be our rather normal dinner of fruit, bread and cheese while watching the Olympics on SKY TV – great coverage!!