Hokitika to Dunedin

Sorry it’s taken a while to write this, but we were pretty busy during my mom’s trip and so am just getting around to it. Let’s see, when we last wrote in we were enjoying the beautiful scenery and some great weather on the west coast. That was soon to change, but first we’ll pick off where we left off on the west coast.

From Hokitika it was up the coast to Greymouth where we stayed at a pretty sweet hostel. Everything was decorated in African and Asian décor and they had a really cool library/reading room, great kitchen, and free kayaks to use.  We secured a three-person room and quickly headed up to Punakaiki to see the pancake rocks and blowholes. The drive up there was pretty similar to the Oregon coast - usually rough seas, rocky shores, sea stacks, and lookouts galore. We made a few stops for pictures and thought we were pretty clever arriving at the pancake rocks about half past 2 - we had been told high tide, the best time to view the blowholes, was at 3. That excitement quickly vanished when we saw the blackboard out front of the info center stating high tide was 7:45. Oops! So no blowholes were going, but the pancake rocks were still pretty cool to see. It’s limestone, but they (geologists, I guess) don’t really know why it’s formed in layers. We also got to see some Hector’s dolphins swimming just offshore near the pancake rocks - our first glimpse of these tiny, rare dolphins.

west coast scenery

pancake rocks

Afterwards we headed back towards Greymouth to enjoy our nice hostel. We all went for a short kayak trip around a nearby lake, looking for ducks and herons along the way. That evening Steph and I went on a tour of Monteith’s Brewery - one of the many New Zealand beer companies. It’s probably the most popular of them all, so when we found out they only have 8 full-time employees we had to find out just how so few people make so much beer. Turns out most of it is made in Auckland, so not that interesting, but we did enjoy the tour and I’m sure my mom enjoyed some time to herself to work on her journal.

The next day we had basically a full day’s driving cross-country to Akaroa. We’ve been there before, if you remember, it’s the French-style town just south of Christchurch.  We decided to try the dolphin swim here, mainly because all the tours in Kaikoura - the best place to do it - were booked. After crossing Arthur’s Pass and making our way down the other side of the Southern Alps, we stopped at a random little scenic reserve looking for some cool rock formations. Turns out we had stopped at a place called Stream Cave Reserve, which is exactly as it sounds - a stream that flows through a cave. It also turned out that you can actually walk through this cave. Normally you’d want a headlamp and some fellow ‘splunkers’ to accompany you, of which I had neither (did have a small flashlight tho), but still I decided to go for it. When in Rome, I guess. So it was admittedly a crazy thing to do - enter a cave you know little to nothing about by yourself - but it was awesome! You walk up this stream through a carved limestone cave with absolutely no light coming in. I didn’t know how long it was going to be until I got out and it was hard to tell how far I was going.  When I got out I found out it was 560 meters. I only wish I had brought a camera with me.

cave entrance

diagram of the cave

On to Akaroa, and we opted for a farm-based hostel just outside town. The plan was to visit the animals, do some walks on the property, and join in on the dolphin swimming tour they organize daily. Unfortunately the place was a little expensive (by our standards), so we decided to give the tent some use and camp (still not as cheap as you’d think). They had a pretty cool campground with one lone sheep wandering around, a few peacocks, and an outdoor kitchen to make dinner in. The stars that night were simply amazing, so we all laid out on a platform looking for constellations, satellites, and shooting stars. We were all pretty tired, but unfortunately the excitement wasn’t done for the night. As we made out way back to the tent in the dark - the three of us with one flashlight - I turn around to see my mom rolling down a small hill into a bush. Despite how funny that sounds, she turned her ankle pretty bad and nearly had to sleep there for the night. We managed to get her back to the tent but she was beat up pretty good for the rest of her trip, though was able to get plenty of good pain meds. It was obvious she was out for the dolphin swim, and we didn’t want to go without her, but it ended up getting called due to weather so we all felt a little better about it. Still disappointing though. Steph and I will have to go back at some point because it is supposed to be incredible.

French-looking building in Akaroa

The weather was turning nasty so we were happy to move on down the coast to Oamaru. The main reason we were visiting Oamaru was because Steph found us a great hotel deal - yes, a real hotel! Actually it turned out to be a great place to stay since Oamaru is the penguin capital of New Zealand. First we went to find the endemic yellow-eyed penguins (only found in NZ). They are moulting this time of year, which means the shed all their feathers at once, losing their waterproof coating and thus can’t leave their nests. Because of this, we were told we wouldn’t see any but could probably hear their calls from inside their nests. There’s not much else to do in Oamaru, so we decided to give it a shot. Turns out not all of them were moulting, so we got to see one penguin climbing up the cliff and stand around with a moulter, no doubt enjoying the ocean breeze. They were only about 50 feet away so we were able to get a good look at them. That evening we went for the full penguin sweep - for the little blue penguins had a colony nearby. In true New Zealand fashion you have to pay to see the penguins come out of the water, but if you are cheeky you can get almost the same thing for free. So we sat in the parking lot peering over the fence at all the nests they have set up, waiting for the penguins to show up just after dusk. Show up they did, and you could hear them coming from a mile away. No idea why a tiny little penguin with little to no defenses on land would make so much noise on arrival. One by one they’d come out of the bushes and creep across the open spaces. To our surprise some of them kept right on creeping through the fenced in enclosure, under the fence we were standing next to, and shuffled across the parking lot to their not-so-protected nests in the bushes. Tough to get a pic of them in the dark, but you can at least make out two penguins…sort of.

penguins

One of the reasons we were going to go to Dunedin, our next stop, was to see the penguins. Since we had such good luck in Oamaru, it gave us a little breathing room in our itinerary. The weather had gotten pretty bad yet again, so we first headed to the Otago Museum to wait out the rain. It was also a good chance for my mom to learn about some of the Maori culture and history, as well as some of the birds and wildlife we’ve been seeing and will be seeing later in the trip. After the rain we headed to the botanic gardens to see the birds and flowers. My mom’s ankle was not feeling so great to walk around, and it started raining again, so we didn’t spend much time there. We did enjoy conversing with a parrot that knew phrases like “cuppa teas” and “whats up?“ From there it was out to the Otago Peninsula to look for the albatrosses. Same story - you have to pay to see the nesting - but luckily it was a very windy day and apparently albatrosses love windy days. Sure enough they were out flying - gliding around their cliff-side nesting area and occasionally near us (you guessed it, in the parking lot). An albatross is basically a giant seagull, which doesn’t sound all that interesting until you see them and realize they are truly GIANT. We’re talking over 10 feet wingspan, which is pretty spectacular to see soaring over your head. We also got an up-close look at a New Zealand fur seal, which I had seen laying on the rocks from afar, then almost stepped on it as I was trying to find it.

albatross (stuffed)

NZ fur seal

Okay this is already too long, so I’ll get to the rest of the trip in a couple days. Coming attractions include Stewart Island, Milford Sound, hiking (some of) the Routeburn, and some kiwi ingenuity - bungy jumping.

Queenstown to Greymouth

Hard to believe it’s only been 3 days since my mom got here - we’ve done so much already. We spent almost the entire second day driving from Queenstown up to Fox Glacier on the west coast. It’s only about a 5 hour drive normally, but we made a few stops on the way since we had plenty of time to spare. First was in Wanaka at Puzzling World to do some free puzzles in their lobby. Steph had spent some time there while I was doing my first aid course in Wanaka a while back, so she’s been itching to show me one puzzle that she was good at. Afterwards, we picked up lunch at Subway while in town and stopped near the north end of Lake Wanaka to eat on the lake shore. From there it was up and over the Southern Alps towards the coast. Three stops along there: blue pools - crystal clear water with big trout swimming around, Fantail Falls - cascading waterfall, and Thunder Creek falls - a big tall waterfall pictured below.

Thunder Creek Falls

Cameron Flat - one of many great views on our first day's drive

We stopped again when we got to the west coast to do a little walk along the beach. The beaches are nice - soft sand with the occasional groupings of small rocks. We had a good time searching through the rocks looking for greenstone, or pounamu as the Maori call it. This stuff is in every gift shop in New Zealand, and we managed to find lots of rocks that we think are pounamu - they don’t look so green when they dry up. Steph has big plans to bring what appears to be a suitcase full of rocks home and get a rock tumbler and make jewelry from them…

First beach we stopped at

We stayed that night at a ‘holiday park’ (similar to KOA’s in the US) in Fox Glacier township. We didn’t really have much time to do anything that night, so we just made dinner and turned in early because we had a big day planned for the next day.

sunset on our night in Fox

It’s been a while since I’ve been up before dawn, so it was good to experience again what it’s like for all you people with “jobs” back home. It’s not fun as it turns out. Guess you already knew that. Anyways, we had a good reason to get up about an hour before sunrise - we were only minutes away from Lake Matheson, the ‘most photographed lake in New Zealand.” Lake Matheson is popular for two reasons - its mirror-like stillness, and it’s amazing views of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman, New Zealand’s two largest peaks. You can’t go into a gift shop in New Zealand without seeing postcards, paintings, and posters of Lake Matheson. So, we got up and trudged through the darkness to see what the fuss is all about. Turns out we had amazingly clear skies and an even more amazing view from the lake. It was just as advertised - super calm lake with great views of the mountains. If you look at our pictures on Picassa you’ll see we took at least 50 photos, all of which look almost exactly the same. It’s just that photogenic.

Lake Matheson - Mount Cook on right and Mount Tasman on left

But we couldn’t linger for too long as we had a glacier hike scheduled for 9:30. Oh yes, I forgot to mention we’re in Glacier country! (Maybe you could have figured it out from ‘Fox Glacier township’) There are two glaciers here - Fox and Franz Josef. Fox is less crowded but supposed to be as good or better, so we opted for it. The outfitter kitted us up with heavy duty boots, thick wool socks, and crampons for when we got on the ice. We opted for the half day hike of about 4 hours since I had heard it is strenuous getting to and from the glacier. Turns out this wasn’t a great decision for a couple reasons: one, the rest of the clientale are worried about the strenuous hike and therefore old and slow, and two, you really only get to walk up on top of the glacier, peer into a few holes, but don’t really get to see much “blue ice” or other cool ice formations. Still, it was cool to walk out on a glacier and the views were brilliant. Trivia time: Fox and Franz Josef are two of only 11 glaciers in the world that terminate in a temperate rainforest so close to the ocean. It was also interesting to hear about how the glacier goes through cycles of lurching forward then pulling back. Currently it is pulling back, but we’re entering another El Nino cycle which means it will probably start moving forward again. Also, there’s something like 10 billion tons of ice in the glacier. That’s all the facts I’ve got. If you want more, try Google.

Fox Glacier

Steph on ice stairs

After the glacier hike we had lunch and headed north. We didn’t have anything booked and weren’t really sure  where we wanted to go, and ended up picking a town called Hokitika. Not really sure why, maybe because the name sounds cool. More likely because it is famous for it’s pounamu and craft shops, and Steph wanted to shop! We found a dirt cheap hostel to stay in and went searching for more pounamu on the beach. We have lots of rocks now, most of which look pretty gray and boring when their not wet. Hokitika has another nice attraction, one that Steph has been dying to see for some time now - a Gloworm dell. I have no idea why Steph want’s to see glowworms so bad, but I must say they are pretty cool. Once the sun goes down and it gets really dark out, hundreds of little glowworms light up and it looks like stars on the side of this hill. We spent about an hour trying to get a picture of it. This is the best we could get - with a 60 second exposure time.

no, not stars - glowworms!!

This morning we did some browsing of the many craft shops in town. Steph has been searching for a good New Zealand souvenir for us, and ended up buying a painted rock from a South African. It does have kiwis on it, so it is technically New Zealand-y. Today we’re driving up to Greymouth to see the famous pancake rocks of Punakaiki. Not slowing down yet!

Penny's First Day in New Zealand

My mom arrived in Queenstown today after almost 24 hours of traveling. Hooray! We knew she'd be a bit tired, maybe a little jet-lagged, but we knew we had to break her in in style. We picked her up this morning at the airport (5 minutes away) and gave her a little tour of town. No surprise she liked the gardens, and it was interesting to see her go through the same 'these plants look like the ones from home, but different' thing that we went through when we first got here. It's Saturday so we went to the crafts market, walked around town a bit, then split a couple of the popular "10 dollar thai" meals for lunch (every thai restaurant in town, and there are lot of them, have a $10 lunch menu). This being the adventure capital of the world and all, and her only having about 3 days here, we had to add some adrenaline to the schedule - if for no other reason than to keep her awake all day. I have been able to do a couple jet boat trips in the past week on famils, so I figured that would be a perfect first day activity. I even got a 'local's discount' for Steph and my mom (over 50% off) and they let me go again for free! Sweet! So if anybody comes to Queenstown anytime soon, do the Skipper's Canyon jetboat - it really is the best one. The tour takes you about an hour out of town to the upper Shotover River in, wait for it, the Skipper's Canyon. The drive is crazy, there's no other way to put it. It's literally carved out of the side of a mountain by gold miner's - the Shotover River is said to be the richest gold-producing river in the world. You drive along 100-meter cliffs with literally inches to spare. Steph was terrified. It was great.

view from stop along the way

do you see the gorilla?

The jetboat ride was fantastic. You go up to 50 mph over water that is sometimes no more than 3 inches deep. Plus you're dodging rocks so close you literally cannot believe you didn't hit it and doing 360 spins across the top of the water. Here's a video to give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

Skippers Canyon Jetboat NZ
Uploaded by nzjetboat. - Discover the latest sports and extreme videos.

If that didn't work click here: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x83g9r_skippers-canyon-jetboat-nz_sport

look familiar? it's from Lord of the Rings - where the river floods and washes away the bad guys on horses

nice view of the canyon

Steph's throat had to be sore from all the screaming she did, but both her and my mom really loved it - though I'm not sure they'd want to do it again! We planned to drive up to the top of the Remarkables to watch the sunset, but everyone was a little tired by the time we got back, so tonight we just had dinner here and did some more planning for the rest of my mom's visit. Tomorrow we drive about 5 hours to Fox Glacier, which is on the west coast. It's supposed to be a nice drive with some great scenery along the way. We don't have anything else planned so we can take our time and stop wherever we'd like. Then the next day we have a half-day glacier hike planned - gonna be awesome! To see the rest of the photos from my mom's trip so far click here. Be back soon...