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.

Travelling to the South Island (New Zealand) part 1

 

So far in New Zealand I have spent my time in the North Island and it was definitely time that I went south to have a look at the island most people recommend you visit when you come here.  I will be travelling south again in March to visit the inland areas and the west coast, but it was looking like we wouldn't be able to fit in the east coast as well so I decided to make a trip there on my own.  I also have family on the east coast, so it would have been a shame to travel all this way and not actually visit them.  I was on a pretty strict budget on this trip so most of the places that I visited were either free or I wanted to see enough to warrant spending the money on them.  

Most of this trip was done on Intercity Bus using the FlexiPass and that actually turned out to be quite a cost effective and easy way of getting around.  It meant I didn't have to worry about driving, factoring fuel costs etc into my budget, and also meant that I got to look at the scenery as we drove by.  I would definitely recommend using something similar when you're travelling, just be aware you can't charge your gadgets most of the time and the WiFi didn't always work. The only problem for me was that this method meant that I only really got to see the towns and cities along the coast.  However, I knew that I was going to get to see more of the wilds later, so this just seemed like the most sensible option.

My first night was spent on the over night bus travelling from Tirau to Wellington.  Needless to say I didn't get a whole lot of sleep until the people sitting next to me got off - then I got to lie down over three seats and got about 2 hours kip.  Not to say that you wouldn't sleep getting this bus, but I've never been particularly good at snoozing when travelling and I was prepared for that.

My first stop was still in the North Island at Wellington.  I really liked this city.  It felt busy without being packed, and actually had quite a relaxed atmosphere.  There are quite a few very fancy shops there (as you would expect for the capital), but there were also some nice green areas.  

I had organised to meet up with some people there to talk paths so I decided to give myself two days there to see everything, and I actually probably could have done with more.

The first day I spent having a general wonder around the city and getting to know it a little better.  Then I headed to the Te Papa National Museum.  This contained a good selection of Maori artefacts and items connected to New Zealand's history in general, including the much debated Treaty of Waitangi.  So far the natural history sections I'd seen in museums here hadn't been great but Te Papa has really very good and, if it hadn't been rammed with people, I would have stayed there for hours.  

They also had quite an intense but important exhibition on Gallipoli during the war and I of course had to visit the Alice in Wonderland exhibition, which was a lot of fun.

Next was the Wellington Museum which contained a lot of maritime and local history.  For such a small area this place contains a lot of artefacts that give you a real picture of the by-gone eras.  My favourite bit was the section where you could see how a cabin used to be.  I always like noseying at the space saving ideas they have and that I store away in the back of my mind to hopefully user at some point in the not so distant future.  

I was pretty tired from travelling so I decided to go back to the hostel (Nomads Capital Backpackers) and relax for a bit before I meet up for some path building geeking.  Then the next morning saw me up early, all bright eyed and bushy tailed (who am I kidding), to do some more site seeing.  I knew that I wanted to spend almost all my morning at Zealandia and so I caught the first shuttle bus I could get there.

Zealandia is a pretty amazing place.  Just 2km west of Wellington it is an ecosanctuary which is, I believe, just under 30 years old and is trying to restore the area back to how it was before humans arrived.  Walking through the trees I couldn't believe how successful the regrowth has been.  

You'd think that it was centuries old, not decades. Some of the birds breeding there have been so successful that they're now moving out into the city, making tui kaka, and kereru pretty common sites now.  

Seeing the birds were pretty amazing and I particularly enjoyed watching a kaka feeding, so unconcerned by my presents that it actually moved to a branch right in front of my face.  Unfortunately no sightings of tuatara though, but there's still time.  

To be honest I could have happily stayed there all day, but I was leaving the next and I still had a couple of other sites I wanted to go to.  So I popped back onto the shuttle bus and headed to the Botanic Gardens.  These gardens don't cover a large amount of land, but they fit in a good variety of species and habitat types into that area.  

I did a good meandering loop around to try and catch as much as possible, but it definitely didn't take me as long as I thought it would.  I then treated myself to a Cable Car trip back down to the centre.

Once I had dropped off some layers at the hostel, the day had definitely gotten hotter, I headed west to walk up Mount Victoria (felt more like a hill to be honest) to the lookout, making a little detour to look at a Lord of the Rings filming location.  

Before you get too excited (like I did) the filming location is a little disappointing, but at least I can say that I went and it meant that I got a much longer walk.  The views of Wellington and the surrounding area were pretty amazing and well worth sweating through the hot weather  After that I decided to call it a day, but there's still quite a bit of Wellington to see, maybe some other day.

Day three of my travels was basically dedicated to travelling from Wellington to Kaikoura.  First was the Interisland Ferry across the Cook Straits to Picton.   This was a pretty smooth, but very windy trip.  So windy in fact they wouldn't let us on desk 10 until we got into the Marlborough Sounds area, and even then it was quite a struggle to move around up there.  

However, it was worth being blown around a bit just to get the views, though wildlife did seem to be few and far between. Based on some advice I decided not to stop at Picton, but now I wish I'd at least spend a few hours there.  I may be coming through here again, in which case I'll put some time aside to have a proper look.

And then it was back on the bus from Picton to Kaikoura.  I had been told that this was a very scenic route but I have to admit that the first half wasn't great as it mainly consisted of a wasteland of areas that used to have trees.  It was only when we passed Cape Campbell that we got views of beautiful aqua seas and blue skies.  Much more of what I was expecting.

Kaikoura is a lovely little town, which definitely has a more hippy vibe to it.  Though, if you're expecting golden sandy beaches you'll be very disappointed.  More of a grey, sort of gravelly beach which leaves a sooty types material on you.  

My main reason for stopping here was to walk the Kaikoura Peninsula with the hope of seeing fur seals, mainly at Point Kean.  They turned out to not be too visible actually at the Point, mainly because the changes made to this coast line by the 2016 earthquakes has meant that they now sit further out to sea.  

However, once I had walked around the peninsular a little bit I saw a lot!  There was even a pup creche I got to just watch for a good hour that was well worth the uncomfortable seating on sharp, jagged rocks.  I also got to see some red-billed gulls nesting and shearwater which was an added bonus.  The views on their own were also incredible.

I did try and go to the Fyffe House, which is located on the route to the Kaikoura Peninsular, but unfortunately it was closed as they were having to renovate after the damage done by the earthquake.

I then headed of to the little Kaikoura museum.  This was a nice, little museum, and had some interesting information about the 2016 earthquake.  I had thought about doing one of the whale or dolphin watching trips, but they were just a little bit out of my price range really and I also heard that there hadn't been a lot of sittings by those who had gone out in the days before, so I decided not to go and keep it on my list of things to do.

I spent the last couple of hours before I had to jump on the bus window shopping and then sitting on the gravelly, grey beach enjoying the sun whilst pretending the chilly wind wasn't there.

Next stop - Christchurch where my Uncle and Aunt live.  I got to stay with them for a few nights, which was really nice and also meant that I could use their knowledge to see some good sites.  Day one there saw me and my Aunt being true tourists in the centre of Christchurch.  

We hopped onto the Christchurch Tram as a way of getting around the centre.  These are restored trams which act as tour guides around the centre of Christchurch.  The drivers give you a running commentary of the area they drive through and you can get off and on again as many times as you like in a day.  It's mainly history based facts, but you do get some more recent information as well, especially about the 2010 earthquakes that devastated the city and from which they are still rebuilding.

I had heard that the Cathedral in the centre was beautiful but that was a no go as it was very badly affected by the earthquake and can only be viewed from behind a fence.  However, we did get to see a few other things I had on my list.  

The Canterbury Museum was really lovely and I particularly liked the Maori displays, the reproduction of Fred & Myrtle's Paua Shell House is a little bit nuts, and it was interesting to walk through the reproduction of a 19th Century Christchurch street.  And who knew that there were penguins basically the same height as me - I certainly didn't.  I also spent a bit of time looking at the Antarctic exhibited that they have as it tied in nicely with the book I was reading at the time, 'I may be some time' by Francis Spufford.  I have to say, those trips have always fascinated me.

Conveniently, the Botanic Gardens are right beside the museum so, after a cup of coffee we had a nice walk around for as long as we could stand as the temperature was beginning to hit 34∘C and I'm certainly not designed for that anymore.  

We also had a look at a couple of markets dotted around the town and my Aunt very kindly brought me a beautiful pounamu (greenstone / jade) necklace.  It's a Toki, which was originally a tool and is associated with great mana (a supernatural power which can be inherited or transmitted), power, and honour. 

We also pottered around a bit to see things like the Dragon in the River Avon ready for Chinese New Year and the Bridge of Remembrance.  It was a lovely day and getting to use the tram instead of walking in the heat was definitely a blessing, but I have to admit that so was getting back in doors. 

We had a little time to spare so we decided to have a quick drive around to have a look at some of the beaches.  We first drove to the very popular and very packed Sumner beach where we couldn't even find a parking spot.  So then we headed to the not so packed, but just as blue beach at New Brighton.  The sea looked very inviting but we opted for ice cream instead and the pier is definitely very different from the ones at old Brighton.

And that seems like a good place to stop with this post (it's already getting long enough).  It had been a pretty good start to visiting the South Island and set me up for all the walking I was going to be doing in the second part of the journey.