Returning to the South Island, New Zealand - part 2

 

The second part of our trip predominantly took us to Fiordland, a part of New Zealand I have always wanted to go to.  We wouldn't be able to do as much walking as I had originally planned as the storms at the start of the year had damaged quite a few of them.

Our first port of call was Te Anau, but not before we took a little detour up to Glenorchy to do a little Lord of the Rings site seeing.  Unfortunately, we didn't have time to get to the two locations we were really hoping for, which were Isengard lookout and Lothlorien forest, as these were much further up the valley past Glenorchy.  

However, we did stop at Twelve Mile Delta to take a little walk to Ithilien where Frodo, Sam, and Smeagol first see the Oliphants.  Even though we didn't get to see all the sites, driving to Glenorchy was worth the detour in its own right as the valley is really beautiful and we loved Glenorchy itself.  Definitely on the list of places to return to.

We reached Te Anau in the late afternoon where we intended to just stop to buy some bag straps for me and some food for the next couple of nights.  I like Te Anau, it's a small town with everything you need in it but nothing more.  Though admittedly we were seeing it offseason and it could have a very different feel during peak season.  The drive to it was also amazing and gave us our first views of the mountains that make up Fiordland.  

The plan that night was to drive further down the road to Milford Sounds and set up camp at one of the DOC sites where we would stay for the next two nights.  However, these sites seem to be mostly designed for caravans and campervans, and the few locations we found between the trees where you could put a tent was only really suitable for smaller trekking tents rather than our larger tent.  We did also wonder a little bit about how the local Kea would take to an unguarded tent during the day and whether we would come back to find it suitably dismantled.  The long and short of it is that we drove back to Te Anau and stayed in a lovely individual room at the Lakefront Backpackers.  It had everything we needed and was a very clean hostel.

The next day was the day I was looking forward to most of all, which was a Milford Sounds Cruise with Southern Discoveries.   They usually recommend giving yourself quite a bit longer than Google maps normally recommends, probably due to the sheer amount of traffic that is normally found on that road.  We reduced that time a little bit as we were definitely not in the busy season, but we were glad that we gave ourselves a little more leeway as damage done to the roads by the flooding earlier this year meant that there were road works everywhere.  It's also a very windy road, so if you're not used to that then extra time is definitely a must.

The additional time on the road wasn't a waste though as it was a pretty amazing drive with beautiful scenery and lots of signs telling you not to stop for fear of death.  Always good.

The cruise itself was amazing and completely worth facing the cold and getting a little wet at one of the waterfalls.  We didn't get to see as much wildlife as it is sometimes possible to see, but seeing the dramatic glacier-formed landscape with trees clinging to practically nothing on sheer rock faces made up for that.  

The skipper of the boat not only sailed us around the sound but gave a running commentary as he did so which was both informative and funny.

On the drive back to Te Anau we had planned to stop off at a number of viewpoints indicated on a map of the road we had gotten at an I-site.  However, it turned out that most of these were either closed due to roads works and damage done by the flooding or we didn't see any signage until it was too late to turn without causing an accident.  We did manage to get a stop at Mirror Lakes though for a two-minute walk.

The following day we had planned to walk a portion of the Kepler Trail starting just outside of Te Anau, hoping to get above the tree lines to get a view of the area, but by the time we had sorted out our gear and repacked the car (we were moving to different accommodation that night) it was much later than we had intended.  We carried out the walk as planned, but didn't get to go out of the bush.  

We were thinking that we might not have been able to get much of a view at all as the clouds were pretty low, but at one section there was an opening in the tree line and we could see above the low clouds.  It was a pretty muggy walk and, in this form, probably not worth the trip and we didn't see or even hear much wildlife in the forest, but apparently it's a pretty amazing walk one you're above the bush.

That night we carried out a large purge of all our items as were would only be able to take one bag each onto the TranzAlpine Train and needed to do some decent purging.  Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to our trusty tent that had served us so well during our time in New Zealand, but hopefully, it can have a new life with someone else.

After dropping off some items at a charity shop we headed to Queenstown where we needed to drop off the car, but not before taking a quick detour to Arrowtown.  I would definitely recommend going to see this town if you're in the area as, the centre at least, is a little capsule of history with buildings from the 18th century gold rush.  

I had wanted to spend a little more time there if we could, but we had to be back in Queenstown for 2pm, so instead we had a little potter around the centre, some lunch, and then went to look at the Chinese settlement - which was the main reason we were there.  It's been pretty unusual to come across information about the non-European settlers in New Zealand, but this was a really good insight into the conditions that some Chinese settlers had to live in and the treatment that many of them received.

We had come to the realisation now that the chances of us seeing a Kiwi in the wild were basically non-existent, at least during this trip to New Zealand.  So, we took a trip to the Kiwi Birdlife Park in Queenstown that happened to also be having a deal on their ticket prices that day.  Not only did we finally get to see three Kiwis, with a hilarious moment were one of the females knew that the noise to her enclosure door meant that more food was coming in and rushed at an amazing speed across her enclosure to gobble it all up whilst the male remained in the back corner, but I also got to see the Tuatara lizard, had my clothes slightly manhandled by a Kea, and got a close up of our favourite bird, the Morepork.   There wasn't really much else we wanted to do in Queenstown, so we had a couple of drinks in town before heading to bed.

The next day was basically just a day driving to Greymouth in bad weather.  We had tentatively hoped to see the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers on the way up, though we knew we probably wouldn't have enough time and that turned out to be true (apart from a vague glimpse).  So they can be added to a time when we can do the trip a little more slowly next time.  Other than that, there isn't really too much more to write about when it comes to this journey.

Our last day of travel saw us spending the morning pottering around Greymouth where there doesn't seem to be too much to do except visit the museum (which was closed), sit in a cafe, and go to a gem of a secondhand book shop called Red Bookstore.  From a tourist point of view, it seems to mainly be about the TranzAlpine Train.  We quite liked it though as a possible place to reside.

When we first organised this trip we hadn't planned on going on the TranzAlpine Train due to the price, but they had put out a deal and, in probably consequence, the train was packed.  I hate to say it, but this trip wasn't as good as we were hoping.  We did get some pretty good views, but there didn't seem to be too many that you wouldn't have been able to get by driving along the road that snaked beside it for most of the journey.  

You are given headphones so that you can listen to the commentary they provide along the route and the sections about Maori inhabitants and early European settlers and explorers were interesting.  However, they did seem to be stretching it a bit to try and find information to provide and, at one point, the they were telling us about a modern building built for the dairy industry.  I guess what is interesting is a matter of opinion, but it seemed a little odd to me.

Our last couple of days were spent in Christchurch with my aunt and uncle and there isn't really anything extra to tell you about on that front.  If you want to find out what I did last time you can read it here in my previous blog.  And then, after a lot a faffing with airlines where I'm going to have a little fight on my hands to get my money back, we were off to the UK on Singapore Airlines and I have to admit they looked after us pretty well.

Returning to the South Island, New Zealand - part 1

I am now finally back in the UK and the less I think about that 40 hour trip whilst wearing a face mask the better.  Instead, I'm going to think of something for more enjoyable, and that is the trip we took to the South Island just before we returned to the UK, this time to see more of the middle and the west side of the island.  Due to the time of year, the route we wanted to take, and the activities we were planning on doing (Covid-19 had also reduced some of the services) it made sense for us to hire a car rather than rely on public transport (unfortunately).  We managed to get a pretty good deal using a website called transfercar.co.nz.  What car is available is pretty pot luck but we were able to find a pretty small and efficient car which was able to take all our luggage, was insured, allowed two drivers, and was with us for 10 days of our trip for around $150.  Not bad at all.

The first part of the trip was pretty similar to the last time I travelled south, with driving through the centre of the North Island to Wellington (where we stayed with friends) and then catching Interislander to Picton so I won't go over that part again.  You can find it in my first blog about the South Island here.  We stopped off at Oxford to spend some time with my partner's family and then headed to our first actual tourist stop - Aoraki/ Mount Cook.

Stopping off at Lake Tekapo on the way, which was definitely worth that extra time.

We had managed to get a good price for staying at the Hermitage Hotel at Mount Cook, but even so, it was still quite a splurge on our part.  However, it totally worth it as it ended up being much too cold to actually stay in the tent at that time and I have to admit having that little bit of luxury was very welcome.  As we arrived mid-afternoon we decided to first walk up to the Red Tarn before checking in, giving us a pretty good view of Mount Cook and it's surrounding peaks, as well as the Mackenzie Basin.  It also gave us a really good view of the weather rolling in and we decided to head back down before that reached the valley.  We also didn't have the right equipment to carry on any further up the mountainside in winter conditions, and there was also the traumatising fact that lockdown has definitely helped reduce our fitness levels quite considerably.

Though we had initially planned to go there in March, when the weather would have been much milder, there was something very beautiful about seeing the landscape all covered in snow not to mention the extra cosy feel of getting to watch a snow blizzard through the window of your warm room.

We only really had one short day to spend at Mount Cook and, as the conditions didn't match our equipment we decided to take the safer lowland routes that day.  I say safe, there was literally ice the whole way along one of the tracks, including the bridges, but I guess you have to get your adventures where you can.  

Our first destination was the Hooker Glacier, which was absolutely stunning especially in the winter light we had and definitely worth the sort of ice skating we had to do to get there.  There were more people there then we were expecting, but the reduced numbers from what is probably normal in summer, and possibly a Covid free winter as well, was an added bonus to the winter visit.

Next was the Tasmin Glacier walk which passes the Blue Lakes (kinda more like ponds).  Aa much easier walk with no ice but straight up a steep hill.  The view might have been slightly less impressive, but it was still worth the visit and there were a lot fewer people than at the Hooker Glacier.  The Blue Lakes aren't actually blue anymore, more of a green colour, but apparently this is due to the fact that they were named during the 1800s when the Tasmin Glacier reached over the surrounding peaks and feed these lakes with its meltwater.  Now, this glacier doesn't even fill the valley it sits in and the lakes only receive water from rainfall.

After that, we drove to Omarama where we were staying the night in a very different type of accommodation, including only having 5 minutes of hot water for both of us to shower in.  However, I got a really yummy vegetarian meal and some good beer at the Boots and Jandals Hotel (not the place we were staying in).  There isn't a whole lot of things open at Omarama during this time of year, and also probably due to Covid-19, but we did manage to book a section at HOT Tubs Omarama from 8.00pm to 9.30pm, which meant soaking in what looks like a giant cauldron whilst getting a really clear view of the stars and listening to Pukekos.  You can also book these during the day, but I would definitely recommend going at night instead.  I would also recommend not eating as much as we did an hour before getting in, made it ever so slightly less comfortable then it should have been.

The following day saw us driving to Wanaka, mainly to visit more of my partner's family.  This time we decided to camp as we had already been pushing the budget just a little bit and needed to save some money.  We went for the campsite right beside the centre of town called the Wanaka Lakeview Holiday Park and it turned out to be a really good choice with great facilities.  It also helped that they gave us a good spot right beside those facilities ensuring we were only a hop, skip, and a jump from the loos and (more importantly) the warm lounge.  After initial hellos to the family, we headed off to set up camp and then visited the 'Wanaka tree' that you see on all those Instagram photos.  It is a beautiful tree in a great setting, but I'm not sure if I'd go as gaga about it as some people do.  

We were also lucky in that we had unintentionally arrived on Matariki, Maori New Year, where we were entertained to a couple of bonfires on the beach, a band, and some fireworks.  There was also hangi, which normally contains meat but they did a vegetarian option giving me the chance to get an idea of the flavours.

The following day we were meant to start with a walk, but the night before had been much colder than we had been expecting and ended up being pretty sleepless.  So instead, we enjoyed snoozing as the morning sun warmed up the tent.  Then it was a quick but wonderfully warm shower before we pottered around Wanaka town centre.  It's a very nice town with a good number of outdoor shops and cafes.  However, the type of shops and prices definitely shows the wealth of the area.  That afternoon we drove up to the Treble Cone ski centre for more family time, though we didn't do any skiing ourselves.  However, perhaps the highlight of the trip was getting to see a couple of Kea not exactly in the wild, but definitely not in captivity.  The orange of their underwing feathers is really striking and it's really enjoyable watching their mischievous behaviour.

And then we were off further to Southland for more site seeing and walking, but I will save that for the next blog.

Travelling to the South Island (New Zealand) part 2

It's probably pretty obvious to most of you that I'm not a big city person and, as interesting as Christchurch is, I wanted to see a bit more of the local area.  So my Aunt and Uncle very kindly drove me to Akaroa in Bank's Peninsular, one of the only French settlements in New Zealand.  Akaroa was what I wanted to see but it turned out that drive there itself was a very pretty drive in its own right, with lots of vineyards and beautiful views across to Akaroa Harbour.

The town itself has a definite French feel to it, specifically when you look at some of the older buildings that remain, and you are mainly right beside the waterfront for most of the time you're walking through around it.  

The Akaroa museum was compact but still pretty interesting and contained rooms taken from one of the older buildings in the area showing how people used to live.  There weren't a large amount of artefacts, but apparently the original French inhabitants didn't actually leave a lot when they moved on.  You also get to have a look at the old court house which actually only closed pretty recently.  The last trial that got heard there were for a couple caught naked in a hotel room they hadn't paid for - in case you were interested.  Oh, and they were aquitted.  

There is also the possibility of seeing the rare Hector's dolphins there, though we didn't see any from the harbour and unfortunately didn't have time to go on one of the tours.  One of the best things about that day was, despite the strong sun, there was a very cooling breeze that made it very comfortable to walk about it.  Sunscreen was still a definite must.

On my last day at Christchurch we didn't have a huge amount of time as I was catching the bus in the afternoon.  So we first went to the Christchurch Gondola to get some great views of the surrounding area.  

It's a pretty quick trip up and then you can see over Christchurch itself, the Canterbury Plains, the Southern Alps, and back across to Banks Peninsula which definitely made the trip worthwhile.  Part of the ticket meant getting to do the Time Tunnel ride, where you basically get taken through a very quick look at the geological history of the area.  You can walk back down to the car park, but we decided to take the Gondola back down.

And then with the hour or so that we had spare we visited the Ferrymead Heritage Park.  This park displays buildings and artefacts from an Edwardian township that developed when the first railway in New Zealand opened there to move the traffic that came to the area by sea to Ferrymead to the centre of Christchurch.  

As it's run by volunteers not all of the buildings were open for viewing but those that were were pretty interesting to look at and included cottages, schools, printers, local general store, and a church.  

Unfortunately the one building I was particularly interested in seeing, I think it was called the Pioneer's House, was closed, but we were able to peer through the windows to have a look at what people thought was important to bring with them.  It was another blisteringly hot day that day, so getting on the bus was almost a relief.

The next stop on my journey was Timaru and my grumbling about the heat was rewarded by a much colder city which rained on me the whole way from the bus stop to where I was staying that night.  I did get in relatively early and had intended to maybe do some site seeing.  Instead I decided I would have a nice warm shower and then snuggle into bed to read a book whilst listening to the rain outside, leaving all the site seeing for the next day.

Unfortunately there wasn't anywhere I could leave my bag in Timaru so I had to carry it around with me everywhere and that did make me change my plans a little when it came to deciding what I was going to do.  First stop was the South Canterbury Museum which contains artefacts from the surrounding area as well as Timaru.  The items here are very similar to those I'd seen in the museums I've visited so far, but it's always good to get a more local feel for things and they had quite a few displays that were more hands on then other museums.  They also had a section on the work being carried out on the Sacred Heart Basilica church.

Unfortunately this work meant that I wasn't actually able to have a look inside the church, or even get to see the outside properly.  But it does look like a very beautiful church and hopefully I'll be able to see it properly if I'm ever in the area again.  At this point I had to make the decision about whether or not I was going to have a look at the Botanic Gardens.  It wasn't a huge walk away but it was far enough that, with me having to carry my bag with me, I decided to give this one a miss.  

Instead I headed back into the centre of town to have a wonder around the Edwardian Precinct, geeking over the architecture that had managed to last this long.  Whilst a lot of these buildings have a very distinctive Edwardian feel to them, there is definitely a kiwi touch that makes them different to the styles of buildings we get in the UK.

Next on my list of things to do in Timaru was to wonder around the park at Caroline Bay.  It was a nice little walk, if not a little short, and the sun that had come out was particularly appreciated at that point and the wind was pretty cold.  

I then had a potter along the shoreline and sat on the beach (fully dressed with a jacket on because of the cold wind) to enjoy the view and wait for my next bus.  They actually have a Little Blue Penguin colony here, which is actually one of the things I should have done the night before, but all of the birds were out to sea feeding at the time and wouldn't be back before nightfall.  So it was pretty unlikely I would see one that afternoon.  Then it was on the bus to Oamaru.

Oamaru is a very distinctive town and definitely worth stopping there is you're driving through.  I got there pretty late and unfortunately couldn't stretch for the free of the night  ticket at the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony (which is meant to be amazing and you're pretty much guaranteed a site of the penguins coming in), so I just used the time to sort out my items and get ready for the early start the next day.  

If you look really hard you can see a penguin. 😂

The early start was because I was going to walk to the Bushy Beach Scenic Reserve where a Yellow Eyed Penguin colony is.  They are very shy of people so you have to be careful about disturbing them and make sure that you are quiet and keep to the path away from the beach.  As they also go out to sea during the day to fish the only way you have any chance of seeing them is to either go at sunrise until about 9.00 am or between 3.00pm and sunset.  I was catching the bus in the afternoon so I decided to go in the morning.  Getting up early is always unpleasant and the walk to the reserve isn't the most interesting walk ever, but all that and sitting in the cold for over an hour I got to see...… 1 penguin.  Literally one, but you know what?  It was worth it to get to watch it waddle along to the shoreline, hesitate quite a bit as the waves came in and out, and then shoot off into the water like a torpedo.  There were also quite a few fur seals and best of all I got to see a Morepork fly right in front of me.

I headed back to the hostel via the South Hill Walk, which has a really good lookout at the top, and packed up my stuff.  Thankfully the hostel let me leave my bag there which meant to could go where ever I wanted on my walk around Oamaru.  

First stop was the St Patrick's Basilica (which I could actually get into), which was a lovely quiet church to have a look around. 

I had heard that the museum might not be open as they're getting ready to move location and, after asking in the I-Site, I found out that they only had a limited amount of items on display and it probably wouldn't be open that day any way as it was Waitangi Day.  Things not being open is definitely a little bit of a theme for this trip.

So the next stop was the Victorian Precinct and this was a particularly good area.  The buildings are really well preserved and the whole area, including a number of shops and attractions is Victorian themed.  

Despite it being Waitangi Day most of the shops there were open, including a Victorian custom hire shop that I absolutely loved looking through, and there was quite a lot of interesting window shopping to do for someone who doesn't really like shopping.  Probably my favourite was the second hand book shop which included some hard to find items and in which I had to remind myself that I had a very strict budget and a very specific baggage weight allowance I had to keep to.

I then headed up to the Oamaru Public Garden, which ended up being better than I was expecting. It didn't take a long time to have a look round the whole area, but it was a nice and surprisingly quiet, seeing as it's very close to a main road, spot to wonder around in. 

I had expected all of this to take a little bit longer than it actually did, probably because there was no museum for me to wonder around in, and there was quite a bit of time before my bus was due to go.  It also began to rain quite badly and getting under cover seemed to be a pretty good plan. So I decided to sit down and decide on maybe one or two more places to visit which I had initially intended on not seeing, mainly due to budget reasons.

First up was the Steampunk HQ, which was as bizarre and intriguing as you would expect it to be. 

And then I headed, via the Steampunk playground, to the Oamura Blue Penguin Colony. I knew that it was very unlikely that I'd see penguins returning from the sea at this time, but it was good to see an adult penguin and two chicks in the nest boxes, and the viewing section meant I got to watch fur seals just 5 metres away.  

The money I paid does go towards conserving the penguins, which made me feel less bad about spending the money, and they told me I could spend as long as I wanted inside the compound.  So I did.  After sitting there for almost an hour I headed off to get some food, grab my stuff from the hostel, and head to the bus stop for my last stop.

I had only planned to spend one day in Dunedin, but I actually now wish that I had put aside two days to really explore the place.  I did manage to see everything I had planned to see in the one day I had, but it would have been nice to have spent some more time wondering in the large park area and getting to have some time on the beaches there, which actually looked really inviting.  There also seems to be some really good railway trips that go from Dunedin and give you a good view of the surrounding area and landscape.

To start my day I walked to the i-Site and booked my shuttle bus to the airport for the next day, which was conveniently close to the cathedral I wanted to see, St Paul's Cathedral.  It's a beautiful building with all the features you would expect to see from this type of cathedral - very Anglican in it's style.

And then I headed south east to the Railway Station.  This probably seems like quite a strange action to take if you're not actually catching a train, but the building is stunning to look at and more importantly, it still contains the tiles inside which were put in when it was built in the beginning of the 1900s.  

As you would expect from this era, they weren't your common garden tiles, but a lot of time and work were put into them.  It also contained an exhibited some work by local artists and I decided to take the time to have a wonder around and see what people were producing.  Most weren't really my style but there were some beautiful landscapes.

Very close by was the Toitu Otago Settlers Museum which takes you through the history of all those who settles in the area, from Maori to the European settlers who came later.  It's basically a long building that you walk through full of artifacts from Otago, but the two sections I particularly liked was the information they had on the Maori from the area and the reconstruction of the living quarter of the ships in which the European settlers travel to New Zealand in.  It's always interesting to see just what type of conditions people were prepared to go through for the promise of a better life.

The exit of the Settler Museum conveniently takes you straight to the Chinese Garden and this was something that I had planned to spend some of my budget on visiting.  It was definitely worth it and if you're in Dunedin definitely go and spend some time there.  

Despite its location beside a busy road it is very quiet and calm inside, and walking around was quite relaxing.  I ended up spending a lot more time there then planned, mainly just sitting having a cup of tea whilst staring at the water, plants, and goldfish was very pleasant.  Culturally it's very different from the style of gardens that are done in Europe and other countries with European influences, but I actually think I prefer this way of gardening.

I had a quick look at some of the buildings near the Garden before heading across town to the Otago Museum.  This was very similar to the museums I had visited so far on this trip, but despite it size it contained a lot more artefact then I thought it would.  I spent a lot of time, mainly in the natural history gallery and the gallery on Pacific cultures.  Though I have to say that natural history galleries always amaze me that there are any animals left in the world, what with our bizarre need to collect everything.  There were some additional exhibits, but I didn't really have time to go and see them, and I was beginning to get a little bit tired after so many days of sight seeing.

The last thing I did was to go to the Dunedin Botanic Garden.   I did grab a map when I entered the gardens, but actually just ended up wondering around following the signs instead of using the map.  There wasn't anything particular that I wanted to look at so it was nice just get to see what was around without any real plan involved.  Something my brain was more then happy to do by this point.

And then it was back to the hostel to pack my bag and get ready for my early start the next day as I travelled back to Auckland and the North Island.  Even though it was just a trip of seeing towns and cities I did really enjoy this time in the South Island, but I am really looking forward to my next trip which will involve a lot more wildlife and landscapes.  Should be good.