Day 21: There and Back Again....

This last post has taken a little while for me to get to since I didn't really want to admit to myself that this trip was really over. Our last few days were spent back on the north island. The guide books had sold me on a scenic drive through Whanganui National Park via Whanganui River Road, but we really could have skipped it since the real draw is the river, which we didn't have time to explore. The river valley is really lush and green, and the walls of the valley towered above us and plunged below us. The valley is a special place to the Maori, and the only signs of life we saw for hours were the sprinkling of small Maori villages including the somewhat famous settlement of Jerusalem (aka Hiruharama) which we had heard of earlier in the trip from a preview for the documentary How Far Is Heaven (http://howfarisheavenfilm.com/about).

What really made this drive tedious was the portion of the road that the Kiwis greatly understate by calling "unsealed". We were no strangers to gravel roads at this point, but this road was brutal. The gravel consisted of apple-sized rocks which made for a slow, slippery, and very loud ride. More than once a rock hit the underside of the van, most certainly causing some sort of damage. We finally made it past through the valley, then it was three more hours to Waitomo.

Waitomo is famous for one thing--glowworm caves. The GPS took us on same crazy route via remote back country roads and we were sure that we were lost. Then, out of nowhere a little village appeared, all built around the caves and the tourists they attract. We had a tour booked for the next day but since we knew photos weren't allowed on the tour, we decided to explore the Ruakuri walk at night to see if we could capture the little guys on film. The bush walk itself was really cool and wound around and over a stream and through a natural tunnel that the stream has carved out of the limestone. The path goes right through the tunnel, complete with stalactites and stalagmites. It was like a real life version of Tom Sawyer's island (or whatever nonsense it's being called now). After much fiddling with the tripod and exposure timing, we did manage to get a few shots but, of course, they just look like abstract blue-green dots. I guess you'll just have to go and see them yourself!

Cave on the Ruakuri Walk

The next day we participated in what was possibly the most hyped tour of the trip and most definitely the thing I was most looking forward to--blackwater rafting. After our memorable experience hiking through the caves of Barbados, we couldn't wait to strap on that helmet and check out the caves in very hands-on kind of way. The trip started out with us gearing up in wetsuits, boots, harnesses, and helmets. Our guides gave us a crash course in abseiling and then sent us down the 30 meter hole in the ground leading to the cave. Andy went first which was smart since the longer you stood there overlooking the abyss, the more time your brain had to tell you this was a bad idea. We all made it down incident free, however, and nobody chickened out. Yay us! Next was a trip down a flying fox (aka zip line) in the pitch blackness, with the only light coming from the glowworms overhead. Unforgettable. Then it was time to jump in the water with our tubes, which, if you've ever cannonballed into a cold swimming pool and gotten that frozen lung feeling where you are gasping for air but can't take a full breath for a minute, you have a good idea of what it felt like to land in that freezing water. We enjoyed a peaceful float down the river in our tubes, taking in the glowwormy scenery before ditching the tubes and sliding down a water slide on our bellies. We continued to wade, stumble, crawl, swim, and climb our way through the cave system until we came to a waterfall. At first we thought, oh, that's a nice looking waterfall, I'm glad we got to see that. Then we realized we'd been brought there so that we could climb up it. Most of us in the group were sure that there was no way that we would be able to do it, but thanks to our capable and supportive guides (literally, since there were points where they were bracing/hoisting/shoving our backsides up through the opening in the rock). Again, all of us in the group made it through. Go team! Another scramble up a much less intense waterfall, and we were back in daylight.

Our daring team--no quitters allowed!

We had to rush out to our next destination and didn't get a chance to buy the photos they took, but I will, so check back later for some action shots.

Our next stop was Hobbiton!! For those of you that are not card-carrying nerds, Hobbiton is where Frodo and his hobbit friends live in Lord of the Rings. All the LOTR sets were demolished after the filming except for Hobbiton, due to a fortunate confluence of events. There are about 40 hobbit holes remaining, and the owners of the land keep up the gardens and grounds in such a way that you really expect a hobbit to come walking down the path at any minute. We were there about one month too early though, since they are opening up a replica of the Green Dragon Inn in December, where it is rumored that visitors can enjoy a pint after their tour. I suppose we'll just have to come back another time.

Bag End (the Baggins manse)

View of the Party Tree

We then drove back to Auckland, where we had just enough time the next day to visit the Sky Tower and One Tree Hill. One Tree Hill is part of a large park in a pretty central part of the city and is also home to a large flock of sheep. I don't know why I was surprised to see sheep in Auckland since they're everywhere else in the country, but I was. Coming down that hill was like coming down from a vacation high, since after that it was non-stop logistics until we got home. Our Saturday lasted 44 hours, and we were more than a little dazed by the time we got past hour 20. But, we made it home safe, sound, and laden with all sorts of exotic flavors of chips, cookies, and candy.

The view from One Tree Hill

It's good to be home, but now that we're back home in suburbia I can appreciate New Zealand's beauty even more. New Zealand truly is as amazing as the tourism advertising would have you believe, and I cannot recommend it highly enough as a vacation destination to anyone who likes wide open spaces, clean air, lush rain forests, and adventure. And if you do go, can I go with?

Day 18: Picton

After a disappointing time in Queenstown, we headed to Te Anau, which was purely a stopover on our way to Milford Sound. It’s been raining most of the day, but that didn’t stop us from trying to explore where they filmed the Fangorn Forest scenes from LOTR just outside Te Anau. Per the campground host’s recommendation we watched a film at a little theater in town showcasing the fiordlands. It sounds corny, but it was really kind of neat. The footage was collected by a local helicopter pilot over several years, and was produced by the same team that produced LOTR (seeing a theme here?) so it was pretty high quality. We spent the rest of the evening in the hot tub at the campground, listening to the rain tapping on the roof.

The next day we drove down to Milford Sound, and we were lucky to have been able to do it since the day before they had closed the road due to the risk of a landslide occurring due to the rain. Apparently, a big landslide happened last week and someone actually died, so the authorities are being very cautious. The road was a piece of cake and we made it down in less than two hours. The weather was pretty nice and we enjoyed a lovely cruise around the sound where we saw another penguin species, the fiordland crested penguin. I actually got to see one swimming in the water just before it dove under. Apparently they’re very shy but we did see a pair on the shore and they didn’t seem to mind us all staring at them. We wanted to do a quick hike but the trail was closed so we just drove right back out. We stopped to see a gang of kea birds, which are the only alpine parrot species, or so we’re told. They’re smart but have a reputation as being pests, since they love to chew on rubber and have been known to shred tires on parked cars. We pressed on towards Wanaka, and we actually got snowed on most of the way there. 

Kea up to no good

We got to Wanaka just in time to catch “Safety Not Guaranteed” at Cinema Paradiso, which was pretty good, and it was made even better by the wine and fresh baked cookies that we enjoyed during the movie. The next day we strolled a bit by the lake since a hike was definitely out of the question as Andy has a bit of PTSD from Tongariro. 

Next stop was the Franz Josef Glacier, where we got to do a heli-hike on the glacier. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience that we’ll never forget. The helicopter ride was brief but fun, and our guide on the glacier was great. We crawled through ice caves, wormholes and straddled crevasses, and I only fell once. We made it back to warm earth and enjoyed a soak in another set of hot pools before we treated ourselves to a dinner out.

 

Kayaking in Abel Tasman

Yesterday was a big driving day, with a few stops for shopping and photo ops. We ended up in Maharau, a tiny dot of a town but a good base for exploring the Abel Tasman National Park, which is what we did today. We kayaked along the coast a bit, but had to move on in order to catch the ferry back to the North Island, which is where we are right now. Our journey is coming to an end, sadly, with another long day of driving ahead of us tomorrow and one last day of excitement before we return to the real world. We did find out just moments ago that Obama was re-elected so for the moment, we are proud Americans!

 

Day 14: Queenstown

It’s been an easy past few days here on the south island, though nonetheless enjoyable. We did some whale watching in Kaikoura and saw a sperm whale, which is the largest toothed whale. It’s quite lucky if you see one since they dive for 45 minutes at a time and only come up to the surface for about 5-10 minutes before diving again. We also saw albatross, dusky dolphins, and a fur seal. Andy got some good photos of the whale but I have no photos worth sharing :(

Hey, you broke one!

We drove further south to Hanmer Springs, which is a small town built around more thermal pools, but I opted for a pedicure at the spa instead since most of the cool pools were under construction. We then spent the night in Christchurch, which I would have liked to explore more than we did but we had a long drive ahead of us the next day to Dunedin. We stopped in Moeraki to see the famous Moeraki boulders, which are these almost spherical stones that roll slowly (geologically slow) down from the bluffs into the sea. We had a perfectly lovely lunch at Fleur’s in Moeraki, which is the first really nice meal we’ve had since we arrived. The restaurant was made out of reclaimed wood and was built to look like a French farmhouse. The food was unexpectedly beautiful, given the rather shabby town that the restaurant is in. On our way out we got stuck due to a house being moved in on the one narrow road that leads in and out of town. Housemoving seems to be much more common here than at home…it wasn’t even a very nice house.

Fleur's place - in Moeraki, not a village in France

A lovely lunch

We made our way through Dunedin to the Otago Peninsula, where we had been greatly looking forward to staying at the Kaimata Retreat. The property did not disappoint and exceeded our expectations. It’s situated in a pocket of bush that overlooks the Papanui inlet which, if it’s not already, seems to act as a preserve for various birds and marine life, including penguins. We didn’t get to see any, but the other guests said they were all over the coastline. We soaked in the scenery until it got dark, then spent the evening by the fire with a bottle of wine. The next morning Chef Pedro served us an amazing breakfast which we really appreciated after having alternated between toast and cereal almost every morning since we arrived. This place really is special. If we ever come back to New Zealand, and I hope we do, we will definitely be spending more time at the Kaimata Retreat.

A New Zealand fur seal

The next morning we took a nature tour on the Otago Peninsula which was also very special. The tour is operated by a family that owns a significant piece of land on the peninsula of which they use half to raise sheep, and the other half they treat as a nature preserve. The portion used for conservation has been virtually untouched by humans for decades since, before they owned it, it was a military base during WWII, which saw no action. Our guide drove us around in an Argo which is like a heavy-duty golf cart with eight wheels that can handle any terrain. It even floats on water. We got very close to a large group of fur seals, which dozens of cute pups learning to swim in the shallow pools. We saw cormorants, which were nesting with their chicks in the rocky cliff, and got to see the rarest penguin on earth, the yellow-eyed penguin. They’re super shy and nervous about everything, so we couldn’t take photos. Even the slightest click from the camera would send them into a frightened panic such that they may abandon their eggs, further contributing to their severely endangered status. Since they’re so shy, they don’t nest on beaches where humans go and only live in a single latitudinal position on the globe. Even in zoos, they hide from everything so most people will never get to see a yellow-eyed penguin, even if they try. We feel very lucky to have seen them at all.

The little vehicle that can do it all

We didn’t want to leave the Otago Peninsula but our itinerary led us back into Dunedin where we stopped at the Cadbury factory for a few minutes to try a few samples, then continued southwest to Queenstown. It was a long drive but we made it just in time (actually we were 5 minutes late but the people here are so nice they let us go anyway) to do the luge. We took the super steep gondola up to the top of the mountain and raced down the luge twice. It was a draw, with us each winning one race each. Unfortunately when we came back down the mountain we found out that our whitewater rafting trip had been cancelled since no one else had booked the tour. They offered to put us on another tour with higher level rapids but reason prevailed and we decided to find something else to do. We would have been bummed but the more we thought about it the less excited we were about possibly reliving the terror that we experienced on the Kauri Coast. As an alternative, I decided that I would go whole hog and try skydiving instead. The universe had other plans, though, and today it was so windy that the planes could not take off. Oh well….it seems there will be no adventure for us but at least we’re $400 richer. More to come!

 

At the top of the Skyline Gondola in Queenstown