Feb 4 – March 1: South Island, NZ another LONG ONE by Cathy

2/4 Sunday
Perth-Sydney-Christchurch. Our flight from Perth to Sydney was delayed, which wasn’t all that bad since it lessened the amount of time we had to wait in Sydney, but our late arrival into Christchurch made us miss the last shuttle to the Jucy rental car lot – something we figured out after watching every other rental car’s shuttle bus come and go over the course of about 45 minutes and then finally Googling Jucy’s hours. 

We hitched a ride to Jucy’s lot with another company’s shuttle only to find it had just closed. Luckily, we spied a Jucy employee (in their signature green & purple) walking to her car! We stopped her, explained our circumstances, and she said she could help us. Shortly thereafter we were driving away in our bright blue, very small, Suzuki Swift.

The short drive into the Merivale area from the Christchurch Airport was easy and we were pleasantly surprised with our accommodations at the Ashworth Motor Lodge – great little suite w/everything an Airbnb would have had. And a pool for Mick. Before hitting the sleep wall we were rapidly approaching, we picked up some supplies at the grocery store and a pizza for dinner.

The Merivale area was one oft he areas hard hit after the February 22, 2011 earthquake.

Our plan, which we discussed over dinner, was to road-trip through South Island and camp at NZ’s many Holiday Parks (campgrounds with just about every convenience you wouldn’t expect when camping).

We’d already found a guy – Ross, at CampTramp.com – who had all the gear we’d need for a couple of weeks of camping: 4-person tent, 3 sleeping pads, 3 bags, a tarp, lantern, cook stove & stand, propane tank, folding table and 3 chairs, cutlery, plate-ware, cutting board, pots & pans. It only took us one ride in the Swift, however, to realize square footage was going to be an issue. Unable to change or cancel our car reservation, we got creative. Jeff called a company that rents cargo carriers (Thule, Yakima-type), but without a rack, our car was not suitable for what they had. We searched for soft carriers, like we’ve seen at home, and eventually found a guy in Wellington, Will, who had exactly what we wanted. Mail wouldn’t get it to us in time for our departure, so Will put us in touch with a friend in Christchurch, who had one of the bags we needed, and it was on sale due to Waitangi Day (very important national holiday, see below). Thanks to Will for bending over backwards for us. We’ll come see you when we get to Wellington!

The Treaty of Waitangi: Circa 1840, about 125,000 Māori  and 2,000 European settlers – whalers, sealers, and missionaries – were living in New Zealand. European merchants were also coming to New Zealand to acquire local resources from the Māori in exchange for guns, clothing, and other products. As settlement grew, so did lawlessness, and the Māori feared being taken advantage of or being taken over altogether by a foreign country such as France. As a result, a number of Māori chiefs went to the King of England, William IV, to seek protection from the Crown and to become a British Colony. Waitangi Day is an annual celebration, on February 6, of the signing of this treaty. Note: the story of the Māori is NOT comparable to that of the Native Americans. While the British treatment of the Māori is not beyond reproach, they did not eliminate or seek to eliminate the Māori peoples or culture and the Treaty of Waitangi gave them equal rights. Today the Māori culture is active and alive and celebrated throughout New Zealand.

2/5 Monday
Didn’t get out of bed on my 49^th birthday until almost noon. Life is good. When Jeff woke up at 12:30 and discovered that the Super Bowl was on (It was 12:30 Monday in NZ, but 3:30 in the US!), it was like Christmas morning! Mick finally woke up at halftime (I was crankin’ JT) and I got to opened a couple of gifts that Jeff had sweetly and surreptitiously purchased in Perth, and a beautiful handmade card from Mick. In the evening, Jeff went to pick up take-out pasta and pizza for dinner (my request) and came back with not just dinner, but flowers and some very decadent birthday ice cream bars.

2/6 Tuesday
Will’s friend, another extremely nice Kiwi, met with Jeff at our motel at 9am to deliver the soft-top cargo carrier and explain how to put it on. The rest of the day was largely spent getting ready to start our camping adventure. We drove over to Ross’s house and picked up all the camping gear we needed. Ross as it turns out, has never been a camper, but bought the the business from a friend who’d come to live with him after a bad divorce. He is, however, quite a character and we enjoyed visiting him.

When we were in St. Moritz, looking for winter clothing to “rent” or buy for cheap, we thought how great it would be if Donner Summit had something like that for people who want to try skiing or do anything in the snow, but don’t want to invest in thousands of dollars of equipment/clothing. That’s sort of what Ross is doing out of his garage. I like it. On our way back to our motel, we picked up some provisions at the store for a couple of night’s worth of camp cooking.

2/7 Wednesday
In the morning, after carefully packing the car and our awesome new cargo carrier, we started our South Island road trip.

Our first destination was Kaikoura, just two hours north of Christchurch. Along the way we took a coastal detour that took us by a great lookout onto The Cathedrals, eroded siltstone pillars, and the very small, but picturesque town of Gore Bay.

Most of the seagulls in New Zealand and Australia aren’t the kind we have at home, but blue- or red-billed gulls. Both are extremely entertaining.

Gore Bay had a really nice, small campground that we considered staying at, but decided we should stick with the plan and proceed to Kaikoura. The entire day there were road crews working on the highway, no doubt repairing damage done by the 7+ earthquakes of Feb 2011 and Nov 2016 and by the cyclone that hit at the beginning of February.

Peketa is located just south of Kaikoura and the Peketa Holiday Park is right behind a pretty, grey sand beach sprinkled with chalk white, flat stones, and has all kinds of amenities.

The camping I’ve done with Jeff has been in pretty remote places – whether backpacking or car camping – and this was nothing like that. Basically, everything you need can be found in the campground itself or at the little store, including delicious soft-serve ice cream made by scooping ice cream and frozen fruit into a machine that mixes the two together and spits it out soft-serve in a cone. We had our first of these ice creams shortly after arriving.

While Jeff and I set up our tent, Mick went out to the beach, found some cool rocks and spotted some dusky dolphins. We found a path at the end of the campground that followed a small stream and when Mick threw a rock in (like he does), something moved. Turns out – eels! Thinking this was cool (and gross at the same time), we got a couple of long sticks and poked the stream in various places to see if we could get some action. There was too much duckweed in the water to see them underwater, but we could tell they were big.

We played some dominoes and then fired up the camp stove for a great dinner.

The campground is situated right off the highway and just south of the Kaikoura airport, which apparently is also the base for the helicopters flying supplies to the road crews nearby. Across the busy highway, railroad tracks. The planes, trains, automobiles and choppers, not a problem – they more or less stopped overnight – but the family with three children under the age of 5 (two of whom evidently suffer from insomnia), who set up a few yards across from us? They were loud. It wasn’t so much the nighttime crying , but the raucous, 6am toddler party and the arrival of a second family with two young ones that led to earplugs on night #2.

There was, however, a noise that Mick and I were glad we heard. In the middle of the night, I heard Mick loud-whisper “Mommy, did you hear that?” I told him that I had heard something, but thought it was a bird in the bushes next to the tent. Mick investigated my theory and discovered not a bird, but a hedgehog, trying to get into our bag of dirty dishes! Mick came and got me in the tent and we followed that little guy around with the flashlight for several minutes, probably blinded the poor thing. Neither of us realized how cute hedgehogs are or how slow-moving and unintimidating (but that could be from the temporary blindness). I didn’t get a picture, but here’s what they look like:

2/8 Thursday
Today we explored Kaikoura, drove along the waterfront and picked a great place to pull over and eat the salami and cheese sandwiches I’d made (in the car as it was really windy out).

After lunch, we had a spectacular hike at Kaikoura Peninsula Scenic Reserve. Mick found some really cool shells and we saw a lot of fur seals, many of them babies.

As soon as we got back to the campground, Mick started polishing one of the shells he’d collected with the pumice file I use (make that used) on my feet, while Jeff and I worked on putting together dinner.

2/9 Friday
Today’s destination: Nelson, via highway 1 through Marlborough. There were green valleys and hills, great fishing streams, sheep, cattle and constant, and intermittent road work along the way.

Tahuna Holiday Park is just outside the picturesque city Nelson, on a gorgeous beach with warm water that’s shallow waaaaay out.

Our camp site looked directly out on and was just steps away from the beach. Steps that Mick took often. Our first night was warm and we had a spectacular sunset.

2/10 Saturday
A cloudy morning with the tide way out. On a trip to the bathrooms, Mick and I discovered part of the campground was being used for a weekend classic car show – mostly American muscle cars. Mick now thinks this is the best place ever.

In the afternoon, after Mick went for a second trip through the car show with Jeff and clouds were returning to the sky, we drove into Nelson. We lunched at Pita Pit (our new favorite),  strolled along the cute streets, window-shopped, and picked up groceries for dinner.

The rain held off long enough for a stroll on the beach, dinner and dominoes, but it rained HARD all through the night.

2/11 Sunday
The rain did not stop come morning, which made breaking down camp a soggy, but not cold, business.

And the rain continued on our drive to Motueka, where we stopped into the i-Center to check on lodging possibilities (i.e. not camp site). A really nice girl, who we learned will be doing a year on the road with her husband and two kids in about a year’s time, helped us. Almost apologetically, she said the only thing available was a  “chalet” outside of town and asked if we’d be interested. We said yes, she called the owner to confirm, and we were on our way to Riwaka. There are three chalets that make up the Dehra Doone Chalets, located just above the home of the owner, a really nice man native to the area, who built the everything-you-need in one room chalets himself. The view (when it was clear) to the valley – full of apple orchards, hops, grapes – and the ocean in the distance, was beautiful.

Feb 12 Monday
Woke up early, 7:00am, to clear skies. No rain in sight!! At 8:15, we were out of the house en route to Kaikirikiri for our Abel Tasman National Park “Discovery Day Cruise.” According to the Sea Shuttle brochure:

“Following a Full Park Scenic Cruise, drop-off at Medlands Beach at 11:30 for a rewarding and varied walk to Anchorage Beach including the scenic highlights of the South Head lookout, the famous Falls River swing-bridge and Cleopatra’s Pool. Pick-up from Anchorage 5:00pm. Arrive in Kaiteriteri 5:30pm.”

History of Abel Tasman National Park
Abel Tasman National Park was named after Abel Tasman, an explorer working for the Dutch East India Company who, in 1642 was the first to discover New Zealand (He also discovered Tasmania, which he named Van Dieman’s Land).  He anchored at what is now Golden Bay and had a good initial experience with the local Maori. The following day, however, several of his crew and one Maori were killed in a fight, so Tasman never actually made it to shore. Before leaving the area and heading north, he named the bay Moordenaers (Murderers) Bay. In 1770, Captain James Cook sighted the area through fog and gave it the name “Blind Bay.” In 1826 the area was explored by Frenchman, Dumont D’Urville and between 1854 and 1857, about 26 pioneering European families lived along the Abel Tasman coastline, where they farmed, milled timber and built ships. The primary mod of transport was by boat, making Tasman Bay home to many schooners, cutters, brigs and barques. By the 1930s, European settlers and builders had left this beautiful, but remote area, leaving only holidaymakers and fishermen. The area was made a national park in 1945.

• The upper portion of the park is a marine reserve. Heavy fines  – $250,000 if you’re caught fishing (to deter even commercial fisheries).
• Project underway to kill non-native pines: helicopters shoot poison bullets into trees, which is easier than finding them in the thick tropical bush.
• Cottage Loaf rock. NZ Navy got right to use this rock for target practice  and shot at it three times. Our captain said if you look really closely, you’ll see that they missed every time. “If you’re ever attacked by the New Zealand Navy” he said, “just stay put and you’ll be fine.”

2/13 Tuesday
We were sad to leave Dehra Doone Chalet #1. We were also a bit late in leaving – taking off closer to 11 than 10.

We picked up some provisions as we passed through Motueka for our next two nights of camping at Pukakaiki – on the west coast. Sticking to our BackpackingNZ web site route, we decided to take one of the suggested detours and see Rotoiti Lake in Nelson Lakes National Park. The weather was perfect and the drive was beautiful. Rotoiti Lake was beautiful and the perfect spot to throw together a ham and cheese sandwich out of the back of the Swift.

There were lots of quacking, solicitous ducks to entertain us while we ate and afterwards we walked out on the pier to see what the one guy snorkeling was looking at. Ewww, eels. Lots of them.

Unfortunately, after lunch and a stop in Murchison for ice cream, the navigator somehow got distracted (it was good ice cream) and we got off track, heading south on 65 instead of west on 6. Basically we did a loop that brought us back to 6, just west of where we’d made the wrong turn south, which added about two hours to our already three-hour long drive.

Figuring our new ETA in Pukakaiki (where we had not booked accommodations) would be 7pm or later, we looked at our options. We drove through Westport, a big(ish) town and saw several hotels – all but one had the no vacancy sign out. We checked out the Carters Beach Holiday Park on Cape Foulweather Road (not kidding), which was nearby, but by the time we arrived it was raining,  all the motel rooms were booked and the idea of setting up camp sounded not-so-fun. Luckily, back in town, the Palm Court Motel had one room left and we pulled the trigger. Soon after we unloaded the car and settled in, the rain started coming down in buckets and we were happy with our decision.

Jeff found Casablanca on TV, which made for good dinner-time entertainment.

2/14 Wednesday
Valentine’s Day and no rain. We left Westport and revisited Cape Foulwind – which was gorgeous – on our way to Punakaiki (where we would have spent the night had the navigator been more on-the-ball yesterday).

The drive, as usual, was spectacular, mostly along the coast. Punakaiki is known for its “Pancake Rocks,” a long stretch of layered rock formations that look (sort of) like stacks of pancakes. We found they really stacked up to their hype!!

Scientists know when the rocks formed, but have yet to figure out why they are layered like they are. We had a surprisingly nice lunch at the unassuming café near the parking area, saw a guy with the worst sunburn ever, and spent some time looking at the gift shop (Mick got a copper ring for Valentine’s Day) before getting back on the road. After we’d been on the road for a bit, I hear, “Happy Valentine’s Day” from the back seat and Mick hands me a blue velvet jewelry box. Inside, a dolphin tail paua (abalone) shell necklace that we’d both admired in the souvenir shop. I was floored. And very touched. I immediately put it on and expect to wear it (and remember where, when and how I received it) for a long time.

Our next stop was Hokitika, where we found the Holiday Park campground and set up camp for two nights.

There are lots of things that make a good campground, but usually a zipline (or “flying fox” as they seem to be called here) is not one of them. Mick spent lots of time zipping and met some nice kids while doing so.

One kid was not a kid, but a lovely young man named Julian from Edinborough (where Mick discovered the bagpipes in 2015!). After Mick and Julian finished zipping, Julian came over and we learned that Julian is at the tail-end of a six-month tour of Australia and New Zealand – working along the way and staying in campgrounds and hostels. He hadn’t yet been into Hokitika (the campground is outside town and he’s traveling by bus), but needed to get some groceries, so we took him with us when we went in to check out the beach.

The town of Hokitika is really cute – slightly bigger than the others we’ve seen on the coast so far, but with the same, laid-back, step-back-in-time feel that Jeff would describe as Mayberry-esque (from the Andy Griffith show?). It’s got an amazingly long beach, fed by a river that at some times of the year must deliver a LOT of water based on the width of the river bed (now largely exposed river rock). We walked along an embankment above the beach to where the river meets the sea before heading back to pick up some milk at the store and Julian at the spot we’d agreed upon.

Back at the campground, we took showers (Jeff’s hot, mine cold!) and started to get dinner going. Julian stopped by with three sausage/cheese/tomato sandwiches (which were delicious) as a thank-you for taking him into town, and told us he’d purchased wood for a fire if we’d like to join him later. And we did. Around his campfire were a mother and her son, a girl whose name I now can’t remember, and a girl named Emily, from Cambridge, Mass, who is traveling New Zealand for a semester before going back to school at Bowdoin in Maine. Emily and I exchanged numbers and she encouraged us to get in touch with her whenever we’re in Massachusetts or if we’re thinking of visiting Colombia (her mother is part Colombian and spends a lot of time there). It was after 10 when we crawled into our cozy tent to read for a bit before sleep.

2/15 Thursday
The rain started early in the morning, but had stopped in time for a trip to the bathroom at 8am. After coffee and breakfast and booking our site for one more night, we went into town and took the road up to see the Hokitika River’s famous blue water in the Hokitika Gorge. Before reaching the gorge, we stopped at a monument located at the site of New Zealand’s largest mass murder.

Out the car window, before we reached the trailhead, we caught a glimpse of the ribbon of milky light blue water that looks like it’s been Photoshopped. The gorge viewing point is reached by a short trail and provides a great place from which to take many pictures that no one will think are real.

So far, we haven’t been much bothered by the sand flies we’d been warned about, but they were definitely on the prowl at the gorge. Seems like everyone was either snapping pictures or slapping their ankles. A park employee told us that if you don’t itch the bites, they won’t itch, something that we’d all learn in the days to follow.

The clouds remained in the sky, but the rain stayed away long enough for another side trip to Dorothy Falls – a beautiful triple-falls – and sandwiches at Lake Kaniere.

Instead of going for a swim at a nearby beach on the lake, we went back to town so Mick could check out some of the many stores selling “greenstone” or jade that is found in this area. I’m not a huge jade lover, but I did like the couch-shaped jade boulder they had on display and, based on what they were charging for jade jewelry, I think the $200,000 price tag was pretty reasonable.

Just after arriving back at the campground, the rain started again. It’s not as if we were relegated to our tent, however, since one of the camp’s two cooking areas also has two cozy recliners, a couch, and a gas log fireplace. We recharged our batteries (literally and figuratively) until it was a reasonable time to go into town for pizza with a stop at the glow worm dell (we saw two – and it wasn’t easy) on the way back.

2/16 Friday
We packed up, said goodbye and exchanged numbers with Julian and hit the road late morning.

We stopped off in town so Mick could pick up a rock he’d found the day before (pink obsidian, which he was disappointed to find out later is man-made) and so we could get something to-go for breakfast and lunch (we ended up getting everything at Subway, but their breakfast sandwiches don’t hold a candle to an Egg McMuffin).

The drive to Franz Josef was short – about two hours – and full of post-card perfect scenery. When we arrived at the Top 10 Holiday Park, we were once again amazed at the location and the facilities.

For us it was because of the setting, but for Mick it was because the place had two trampolines.

We found a great, sheltered spot and once we got set up, I gathered up my mounting dirty clothes and did a load of wash.

With rain in the forecast, but the where and when unclear, we headed into Franz Josef to do the suggested hike to the head of the glacier.

The hike was about an hour-and-a-half and we lucked out with the weather. Right when we got to the glacier terminus, the clouds opened up a bit, allowing some blue sky and sun for our photos.

The trail followed a river bed with steep mountains on either side with dozens of small waterfalls along the way. I wonder how many there are when the water’s really flowing in the spring.

Partly because of the glacier’s recession since 2008 (currently 13 feet per day), tourists are not allowed to hike to and on the glacier themselves – the only way you can actually walk on the glacier is by taking a helicopter and going with a guide.

Mick was disappointed we didn’t go with this option, but a trail full of cool rocks was quick to placate him.

We stopped off in “town” to get some things to cook dinner and Jeff and I shared a beer at the Snakebite Bar so Mick and I could download new books on our Kindles. We had a delicious stir-fry dinner, played some dominoes and caught glances at the glacier when the clouds blew over.

2/17 Saturday
Overnight, it POURED. And it continued pouring until after noon.

After noon, however, the sun burned through the clouds and we ventured back toward the town of Franz Josef to the Tatare Track trailhead. At the end of the Tatare Track is a tunnel built in the 1900s to pipe water from Tatare Gorge to the Waiho Terrace as part of a gold mining project that now apparently  “thousands” of glow worms call home. This hike, unlike the one to the glacier terminus, was thick with rainforest-like growth. Ferns, ferns, and more ferns. After so much rain, the path was saturated and when we arrived at the tunnel, we found it, too was flooded with anywhere from two inches to almost a foot of extremely cold water.

I was the first to venture in, headlamp and Tevas on. Brr, rrr, rrr. The tunnel was about 6 feet high and wide and pitch black. We were told we’d see the most glow worms at the end of the tunnel, but I got all the way to the end – about 15 minutes one way – and didn’t see any. Hmm. I asked a couple of other hikers if they’d seen any and they said I needed to go back in a ways, turn off my headlamp, and look around. Sure enough, there they were. Lots of pinhead-sized blue dots, glowing like crazy.

I would like to have stuck around to enjoy them longer, but my feet said nuh-uh. Jeff & Mick’s trip was much faster and more productive and once our feet warmed up a bit we were back on the trail.

Jeff thought he’d like spaghetti for dinner, so we stopped off at the grocery store again, picked up provisions and headed back to camp for dinner beneath a full rainbow.

 

2/18 Sunday
Today we left glacier country and headed south to Wanaka, unfortunately missing Fox Glacier along the way due to a road closure from storm damage.

What struck us most about the drive today was the damage done by recent storms – a series that started with the typhoon of February 2^nd. The thick vegetation covering the mountains wasn’t able to hold the saturated soil in many places, resulting in many, many mud- and rock-slides.

Then, all of a sudden, the wet, rainforest, fern-filled landscape stopped and we were into drier, but still mountainous terrain.

“Bradona” Bra Fence in the Cardrona Valley outside Wanaka.

We’d planned to stay in Wanaka, but it was so windy when we arrived and the campground was just so-so, so we continued onto Queenstown.

Jeff had in his mind that Queenstown was going to have an old-school British feel and I was thinking more ranchy. Neither was what we drove into. Queenstown is a resort town, a fact that became evident when, after entering “Queenstown Information Center” as our Google Maps destination, we discovered not one, but four storefronts with those little “i” signs out front, all jam-packed with brochures for helicopter “safaris,” zipline tours, Kiwi bird experiences, bungy jumping, jet-boating, and on and on and on. Also, the streets were teeming with people and congested with traffic. Was there a concert? A festival? We chose an i-center that seemed more lodging- than fun-focused and discovered that due to Chinese New Year, the entire town was booked (confirming my various Internet searches).

According to the girl who helped us, Chinese New Year is the only time Chinese folks have time off during the year and New Zealand is one of many favorite places to vacation. The actual new year was the night before, but the festivities last for ten days before and after the actual date. The Chinese presence had been obvious since our arrival in Christchurch, but in Queenstown we were the minority. She said the campground that was walking distance from the CBD showed no vacancies, but suggested we confirm that directly. Our next option would be one of the Department of Conservation camps nearby – one 15 minutes from town and another, with a beautiful setting, 25 minutes. The campground in town was indeed full (though they had openings the following day), so we headed out of town to Moke Lake.

Moke Lake was beautiful and felt much more remote than it actually was. It was also more like what I think of as “camping,” with only running water and toilets – none of the fancier stuff we’ve been getting used to. The wind was howling when we arrived, but we took our chances and set up camp near the lake’s edge in an area without much shelter.

Mick had been wanting to try sleeping in the car and after setting up the tent with periodic wind gusts, he decided this was as good a night as any. We fired up the stove just inside our rainfly, heated up some leftover spaghetti and Top Ramen and listened hopefully for the sound of trout jumping through the not-so-distant ba-aaahing, mooing and quacking of the large duck population in camp.

I took Mick up to the car (about 25 yards from the tent), made sure he was cozy, and kissed him goodnight (thinking the chances of him staying there through the night were about 50/50.

2/19 Monday
It rained hard all throughout the night, but the wind that I’d been bracing for never came. Mick wasn’t in the tent when we woke up and was happily reading his Kindle when Jeff went up to check on him. We went back and forth about our game plan. We lucked out by only having rain overnight and no wind, but knowing that Cyclone Gita was turning up north and without WiFi to check the weather, we decided to head into town and try our luck again.

The campground right in downtown Queenstown had an opening, so we booked two nights and once again, set up camp.

Behind camp was a steep, tree-covered mountain with a gondola running up. There was also a long zipline running through the trees, although we only heard, but never saw it. Jeff ran/hiked up to the top and, although unfortunately he didn’t have his phone to take pictures, saw some beautiful views of Queenstown and the lake. He also saw a luge-like thing that he thought Mick would like to do with him if the weather improved the following day. After showers, we joined the masses in town.

While window shopping the myriad retail shops, I spied an out-of-place looking restaurant called “The Cow.” Just one step inside the door and our dinner plans were made. The Cow used to be a cow shed, back in the late 1800s, but has been a restaurant now for 40+ years. The ceilings are low, the wood is dark, and the lighting comes from candles and a fire.

From the ceiling above the very small bar in the back hangs an assortment of antique commodes. The main course menu consists of pizza and spaghetti – about five variations of each. We had both pasta and pizza and both were delicious. We also enjoyed sharing a table and visiting with a couple from Long Island, who was traveling with a tour group. Jeff enjoyed a new audience, as usual, and I think they enjoyed us, too.

2/20 Tuesday
Rain. Again. Hmm, matinee?

Yes! After a late breakfast at McDonald’s and delicious cappuccinos from McCafé, we went to the 12:30 showing of The Greatest Showman. I’m probably the only one that will seek out the soundtrack, but we all loved it. Mick and I particularly liked the fact that this musical had a much happier ending than the last Oscar-winning musical we saw. After the movie we walked down by the lake’s edge and Mick looked longingly at the semi-submersible shark vehicle that he’d seen when we first drove into town – “Oh my god! I just saw a whale in the lake!”

 

Since the rainy weather wasn’t inviting for the luge-like ride, we decided to put Mick out of his misery and splurge on a HydroAttack ride. He was ecstatic. We had just over an hour before his ride was scheduled, which was just enough time to find a barber and get haircuts for both Jeff and Mick.

Mick was practically shaking as he walked down the dock and got into the cockpit of the shark and the grin he left with only grew upon his return.

He could not stop talking about the ride – the speed, the dive and subsequent pop-ups, the turns, the views! He could not wait to get back to his computer to watch the partial video of the ride that we purchased from the tour operator. It was still raining as we walked back to the campground and the temperature had really dropped (close to freezing), so we decided to spend some time in the warmish communal area, charging our various devices and catching up on stuff.

Jeff took a shower and headed back into town to check out a Blue Light-like bar that we’d seen walking to and from camp. The WiFi was too slow for Mick to get any work done, so he walked into town to join Jeff for some pizza and some pool at the pub.

I opted for alone time in the tent with my new book, leftover pizza from The Cow, and some New Zealand chardonnay.

2/21 Wednesday
While it may not have made the nightly news at home, Cyclone Gita has been big news here in New Zealand for the last week. It started out as a category 5, but by the time it hit South Island yesterday it had dropped down to category 1. The thing is, the island was already reeling from another major cyclone that hit on February 2, just before we arrived on the 4^th and a lot of precipitation in between.

And we were sure getting an unusual amount of rain for summer in New Zealand. After pouring all night long, we had a bit of a break just long enough to break down camp without getting soaked and after another stop at McDonald’s for breakfast and coffees, we headed south out of town to Te Anau.

Hurricanes and Clones and Typhoons, Oh my!
Hurricanes and typhoons are the same weather phenomenon: tropical cyclones. A tropical cyclone is a generic term used by meteorologists to describe a rotating, organized system of clouds and thunderstorms that originates over tropical or subtropical waters and has closed, low-level circulation.

The weakest tropical cyclones are called tropical depressions. If a depression intensifies such that its maximum sustained winds reach 39 miles per hour, the tropical cyclone becomes a tropical storm.  Once a tropical cyclone reaches maximum sustained winds of 74 miles per hour or higher, it is then classified as a hurricane, typhoon, or tropical cyclone, depending upon where the storm originates in the world.

In the North Atlantic, central North Pacific, and eastern North Pacific, the term hurricane is used. The same type of disturbance in the Northwest Pacific is called a typhoon. Meanwhile, in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean, the generic term tropical cyclone is used, regardless of the strength of the wind associated with the weather system.

Te Anau is about halfway between Queenstown and Milford Sound, a good option for those planning a Milford Sound cruise who don’t want the very long drive to and from Queenstown. Of the three holiday parks in town, only one had tent sites available – Te Anau Kiwi Holiday Park. Our site was right next to the Kangaroo Jumper, and right across from the building with all the facilities, so everyone was happy.

Te Anau is a great little town set on Lake Te Anau and surrounded by natural beauty.  Jeff and I agreed that were we to come back to South Island – and we’d very much like to – we’d much rather stay in Te Anau and explore (bike, hike, kayak, fly-fish) more of Fjordland National Park than spend much time in Queenstown.

 

2/22 Thursday
After a good night’s sleep (and no rain!), we cooked up some scrambled egg burritos in the cozy communal dining area, before heading off on Milford Sound road to … Milford Sound! and our 1:10 cruise. I think I probably took 80 pictures before we even arrived at Milford Sound and once again our mostly quite ride was punctuated with “It’s so beautiful,” “Did you see that?” or simply “Wow.”

The cloudy skies (and rain!!!) we’d had for the last few days cleared up, revealing the top half of what had already been gorgeous surroundings. And, a lot of that top half was dusted with snow! It makes sleeping in my “winter uniform” for three nights very rewarding!

Fjords and Sounds and Bays, Oh My!
Fjord: a long, narrow arm of the sea bordered by steep cliffs: usually formed by glacial erosion. A fjord is commonly found in regions where the present or past glaciations are below current sea level. A fjord appears as a narrow steep-sided valley filled with seawater. It is formed by a glacier which washes away the bedrock of an area as it tumbles down. The fjord is primarily formed through glacial activity in the context of other geographical processes such as fluvial erosion and tectonism. Fjords were formed during Earth’s last ice age when glaciers altered landscapes as they moved.

Sound: 1) a relatively narrow passage of water between larger bodies of water or between the mainland and an island: Long Island Sound; 2) an inlet, arm, or recessed portion of the sea: Puget Sound. A sound is wider than a fjord, and it is described as a large sea/ocean inlet. A sound lies parallel to the coastline, and it commonly separates a coastline from an island. A sound can be formed when a glacier recedes in a valley it carves out from a coastline. The sea can also invade a glacier valley and create a sound. More commonly, a sound is a result of the sea’s invasion on a river valley to form an extended inlet characterized by sloping valley hillsides which sink to current sea level and deeper under water.

Bay: a body of water forming an indentation of the shoreline, larger than a cove but smaller than a gulf. A bay, in its basic form, is a body of water partly surrounded by land mostly on its three sides. A bay has a wide mouth through which it accesses the sea. One method through which bays form is plate tectonics, which is the drifting of continents.

Our two-hour Jucy cruise (booked at a discount through our car rental company) was spectacular.

About ten minutes into our cruise, the captain let us know that we were being accompanied by a pod of bottlenose dolphins – something that happens about a quarter of the time ships go out. It was awesome!!

The water was so clear, you could see them under water as well as when they jumped above it. And there were babies! And I think they were having more fun playing in the wake than we were having watching them. Some of us were so focused on the dolphins, the captain had to remind us to look up! Particularly beautiful were two waterfalls – one right outside the port, and another farther down the fjord, the only two that run year-round.

On our way back to port, the captain piloted us right up to this second waterfall and everyone on the upper deck (the majority of passengers) who didn’t get quickly cover themselves up with waterproof attire, was drenched with mist – something no one seemed to mind.

We disembarked the boat just after 3:00 and took another 80 pictures, in the other direction, on our way back to Te Anau.

We stopped to pick up something to cook for dinner – Jeff thought lamb burgers sounded good – and then went for a walk along Lake Te Anau while Mick did some homework before finding some more kids to jump with and entertain on the “Kangaroo Jumper.”

2/23 Friday
We left Te Anau without a set destination in mind. We could drive all the way to Christchurch and return our camping equipment a day early or stay at Lake Tekapo, about halfway to Christchurch. The drive was predictably gorgeous, a new “wow” view around each bend and over each summit.

We had a long (1+ hour) wait for road work at one point, which made the full drive to Christchurch less appealing and once we got to Lake Tekapo, the decision to stay was easy.

The reward for our long wait … magnificent views of Mt. Cook.

The Lake Tekapo campground sits right on the lakeshore with views across the glacial blue water to the mountains on the other side.

The camp was almost full, but we got a perfect camp spot with a lovely view. We set up the tent, had cocktail hour at sunset, and then whipped up some dinner on the stove.

2/24 Saturday
After a great night’s sleep and seeing the beauty of the lake in the morning, we decided to stay another night. After a yummy scrambled egg breakfast, I did some transcribing in my “office” in the shade of the tent, Mick went to the beach to hit rocks with a wood “bat” he had fashioned, and Jeff went for a run along the lake.

 

In the afternoon, we walked the short distance to town, had another of those fruit ice creams that seem to be everywhere here, and then picked up some groceries for dinner.

Back at camp, Mick found some fun friends at the trampoline – two boys and two girls from Christchurch. We discovered our propane tank was almost out – not a good night to cook pork chops, fried potatoes and onions – so went over to the communal barbecue area that sits up high with great views of the lake and started cooking there. We shared the barbecue for a while with a nice guy from Berlin and exchanged stories of places we’d both been.

When Mick finally showed up, he wanted permission to go swimming with his friends at the hot springs (right next to the camp site). We said yes, absolutely, so excited for him to have found some pals, and as he walked away, I followed behind them and took a picture.

A woman standing nearby said, “Are those your kids?” and I responded with a much-longer-than-necessary something like, “No, just one, but he’s an only child and we’re on a one-year trip and he’s so tired of being stuck with his parents, blah, blah, blah…” She said, “You’re American?” and I said, “Yes.” She said, “Where from?” and I said, “outside San Francisco. You?” “Seattle.” “Oh my god, I love Seattle [now I hug her] – I have family in Seattle, and Edmonds and our dog is with my cousin in Gig Harbor!” She said, “I live in Edmonds, just up from the ferry!” And thus, we made a new friend, too.

Marianne hiking in New Zealand

Marianne Simon is a 49-year-old nurse, traveling in New Zealand on her own for a month, which I think is amazing. Marianne was a traveling nurse years ago (had been at Stanford actually, but not in 2015 when I was there) and was thinking about doing so again – maybe in New Zealand or Australia. She hadn’t been to Perth, but told us it was a place she’d considered, and since one of the reasons we loved Perth was because it reminded us so much of the Puget Sound area (with less rain and more heat), I think it would be a good fit. We each talked about our trips, our family, the latest political “reality show” antics at home, and how much we like New Zealand. We told her we would be in her neck of the woods in June or July and promised to get in touch. Mick eventually made it back to the tent around 10:00, scarfed down the cold remains of our dinner, and fell immediately to sleep.

2/25 Sunday
The weather forecast when we woke up was for rain, so we broke down camp (while Mick was trampolining with his friends) and were on the road, with coffee and pastries from Run 76 before 10:00.

Wanting to explore Akaroa, a peninsula southeast of Christchurch, I made reservations at a B&B called Twin Gullies and got permission from Ross (camping gear guy) to return our camping gear two days later. Such a good decision. The road from just outside Christchurch into Akaroa is extremely windy and fully of hills, but when you come to the final summit and see the view – it’s like you’ve found a hidden treasure.

Twin Gullies B&B is in Duvauchelle, about 15 minutes from the small, French-influenced town of Akaroa. When we checked in with the owner, Jane, we learned that they had recently purchased the property, having moved back from Australia to their native New Zealand.

When Jeff asked about a model sailboat wall-hanging, we learned that Jane and her husband, Richard, were big-time sailors, once going from British Columbia all the way to Wellington. Also, they lived in Sausalito for several years, in the same harbor, at the same time that Jeff lived on his Grand Banks. It’s a small world after all…

We loved our little cottage and its view of the main house and bay beyond.

We loved the wildlife – some kind of field mice that were out and about several times; the neighbor’s sheep, Shaun, who Jane feeds stale bread to daily when she hears him “call” her (not kidding, we heard him); and the hedgehog that unfortunately only Jeff and Mick caught a glimpse of.

It was good to sleep in a bed and have a bathroom all to ourselves! After we got settled in, “connected,” and everything that needed charging was charging, Jeff and I went into the small town, and picked up some groceries for dinner.

The wind was really blowing (apparently unusually so), but after relighting the barbecue a couple of times, Jeff managed to cook up some delicious chicken.

2/26 Monday
Jeff and I went for a continental breakfast in the main house around 8:30 and spent a long time visiting with a woman from New Hampshire who’d started her trip in the North Island with her husband, but was continuing for another month on her own. She asked us about our trip so far and Jeff exhaustively listed all our destinations. She told us that when her now-grown kids were younger, her husband had a 5-month sabbatical and he took their youngest, an 11-year-old daughter, on a trip around the world with him. So, when she said Mick’s experience would be life-changing, she spoke from experience.

While we had great plans to spend the day exploring (as there is much in the area to do), what we really did was enjoy our surroundings at Twin Gullies. We did drive into Akaroa in the afternoon, to pick up groceries, get gas, and check out the town. Best shop? Hattie’s Rock Shop, where, after a looooonnnngg time browsing, Mick found a piece of NZ greenstone (jade) and a garnet.

We both enjoyed visiting with Christine, the woman who worked there, and discovered that she’d gone to college back east and later lived in Berkeley for several years. We took the “Tourist Road” home, stopping frequently to take pictures.

2/27 Tuesday
Early departure for our long drive from Akaroa to Picton – via Christchurch to return our camping supplies to Ross. Our duplex in Picton lacked curb appeal, but was very cosy inside – decorated in a sort of Mad-Men-meets-granny’s-house style, and we got some good advice from our hostess, Penelope (who lives next door) to go to Melbourne, where she’d lived for the past 17 years. Found an old Jerry Seinfeld standup video to watch – Mick’s first real intro to Jerry – and laughed until our sides ached.

2/28 Wednesday
With the first free and fast WiFi since Perth, the majority of the day was spent planning our itinerary for the rest of our time in North Island – searching Airbnb/Booking.com/HomeAway/TripAdvisor for places to stay, and then doing the same for when we arrive in Sydney.

In the afternoon we drove to Karaka Point, about 15 minutes northeast of Picton for a look at the views and a walk down to the water.

 

Back in Picton, we took a walk around the harbor, which is really cute. Checked out the old boat and the ferry building and picked up stuff for ravioli lasagna for dinner – our last night in South Island. And the last day of this very long post.