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.