Happy New Year from Down Under

Falls River On the Coastal Track

12-29 and 12-30-09

We last left you in Kaikoura on the track from hell. This time we come to you from Nelson and what is the jump off point for Abel Tasman National Park (not to mention two other national parks that we didn’t even get to see really) and Golden Bay. Nelson is a fairly large town with about a population of about 56,000. It is close to where the Dutch Explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to discover New Zealand around 1642 and because of that, Nelson is one of New Zealand’s oldest settlements.

So given the few facts I provided for you above, you have probably guessed by now that we managed to pack a lot into a couple of days. When we arrived on Sunday afternoon it was soon apparent that the entire region was still on Christmas holiday. Yes I know, Christmas was already a couple of days ago already and back in the states the shelves have probably already been picked clean of after Christmas sales. But things are a little bit different in this country. They don’t seem to be so hell bent on the consumerism that Americans are used to and so, when they shut down for a holiday, they shut down for a holiday!

We did take time to do part of the famed Abel Tasman Coast Track while we were in the area. We started out by taking a water Taxi from Kaiteriteri to Totaranui and then back to Bark Bay. We got dropped off by the taxi at Bark Bay and then hiked the track to Torrent Bay where the taxi picked us up again for the ride back to Kaiteriteri. The track itself was not too difficult (except for a couple of steep climbs), well marked and certainly well populated given the time of year. I kept to my promise about the kayaks and I doubt anyone missed me out there because there was certainly no shortage of other folks in kayaks.

The day before we went to the northern most part of the south island to a place called Cape Farewell. Nearby is the famous Farewell Spit which is a land mass that extends 25 kilometers into the sea and is home to numerous sea birds including a very large gannet colony. Farewell Spit is a nature reserve of international importance. Since it was low tide while we were there, we were able to walk quite a way on the sand flats. Quite frankly, it looked more like a desert than anything else.

Probably the roughest aspect of this part of our trip was the fact that Nelson is really pretty far away from most of what we wanted to do. Needless to say we spent a lot of time in the car driving to the activities we wanted to undertake from our accommodations at the Sussex Inn B & B where we were staying. Our hosts, David and Vicki at the Sussex were very nice folks and even got us our breakfast early (6:30 am) on the morning we went to hike Abel Tasman.

So that’s about all we have to report on Nelson. We made our way to Picton via Queen Charlotte Drive yesterday and got some beautiful pictures along the way. At Picton we turned in our little Toyota Corolla that we had picked up in Invercargill. It was pretty dirty. Once we arrived in Wellington, we picked up a little Ford Focus but won’t be driving that anywhere near that much in the city.

Have a Happy New Year everyone.

Cheers!





Just a nice place to anchor your boat.

Oh No! Not Another Dolphin Picture

Yes, that's exactly what it is, another Dolphin Picture.

Swimming with the Fishes

12-26-09 Boxing Day

I am sorry to report that our vacation took a turn for the worse today. Tasha tried to kill me. I’m not sure why she wanted to kill me but she did. Let me tell you about it.

The day started out innocently enough; we awoke early so that we could walk a couple of hundred feet to the Encounter Kaikoura building to begin our morning with the Dusky Dolphins. Encounter Kaikoura is an award winning organization that offers boating tours to view Sperm Whales, Dusky Dolphins, Albatross and other sea birds in their natural habitats. In our case, Tasha was going to snorkel with the dolphins and I planned on taking lots of pictures. Well all that went according to plan. Tasha swam with the dolphins and I took lots of pictures of them. Far more pictures than I took the first time we did the tour and I got some really excellent shots.

After that, we came back to the apartment to make a couple of phone calls to the family to wish them a Merry Christmas. Once that was done we went off on another hike.

This is how Tasha tried to kill me. When we got to Kaikoura she had mentioned that one of the things she wanted to do was hike Mt. Fyffe. Her complaint was that she had been here twice already and had not had the opportunity to at lease do some sort of hike on Mt. Fyffe. Grant you, there is an eight hour hike that you can do to the top of Mt. Fyffe but this fat, old, middle aged ex-smoker was not going to agree to an eight hour hike. I knew I wouldn’t come back alive from that one.

No, I agreed to a nice little walk up a hill to a picnic area that supposedly had great views of Kaikoura and its coast. Boy was I duped! First of all we parked the rental car on an incline. Once we got out of the car we started climbing, and climbing, and climbing, and climbing. I mean all we were doing was climbing. And this wasn’t your grandma’s nice gentle grade; at times it was as much as a 45% slope that we were climbing.

I must admit, I thought it a little suspicious that we didn’t have an “official” map of the track (the last time we didn’t have an official map, we almost got lost in the Big Basin Redwood Forest) so we had no idea how long the track actually was or what sort of climbs were involved to get to the picnic area. Not only that, it turned out to be a pretty warm day and if it weren’t for the fact we were covered by the forest canopy most of the time, I probably would have died from heat stroke if the heart attack didn’t kill me first.

Still, somehow I managed to survive and I’m here to tell the tale, sordid as it may be. I will tell you this much, you won’t catch me going on any more hikes without an “official” map, that’s for sure.

Off to Nelson tomorrow. I’ll be staying out of kayaks.

Cheers!

P.S. Alright, alright! In fairness, the part about Tasha trying to kill me is not true. I just made that up to make the story more interesting. In fact Tasha was just as uncomfortable as I was and any visions you had of her sashaying her way up the hill, well you can just wipe those thoughts right out of your head.

Kaikoura Part II

12-25-09

Merry Christmas everyone! We hope everyone had a pleasant holiday.

We have been in Kaikoura since Christmas Eve afternoon. It didn’t take us long to get from Akaroa to Kaikoura but we made a couple of stops along the way so it ended up being along the line of five hours or so. One of those stops involved a grocery store north of Christchurch where we endured the Christmas Eve crowds at a shopping center in a suburb called Belfast. It was just like home (sigh)! But we still found time to talk with a nice woman in the check out line who lived in the area and had also spent a little bit of time in Maryland one Christmas holiday season and remarked about how they’d been snowed upon that year. We seem to attract people who want to talk to us and find out where we’re from. I don’t know why - we must look like tourists or something.

Anyway, once we got ourselves sorted out yesterday, we ventured out to one of my favorite spots in Kaikoura, Point Kean. In fact we only just learned that it is called Point Kean (see picture below). For some reason, Google Maps does not list a name for it so “Map Boy” here had no clue that the place actually had a name. I’m so embarrassed. But I digress.

While out on Point Kean we ran into a couple of sea lions who were not at all interested in chatting us up and finding out where we were from, they were really all about sleeping on the shoals until the tide came back in for the evening. We were more than willing to let them be especially after my last run in with a sea lion at Howell’s Point. So we walked on the shoals and I took pictures (surprise) until we finally got hungry and went to dinner. I will mention that dinner was excellent. Easily one of the best meals we’ve had since our dinner in Auckland. The White Morph Restaurant is just a couple of doors down from our apartment and it seemed like it would be ok since we could walk that far and not completely regret it. But the meal knocked our socks off so it was a real pleasant surprise.

Today, we took a hike (or track as they call them here) on the Kaikoura Peninsula walkway. It was a beautiful day with the temp around 70 degrees or so, sunny and just a few high clouds. Absolutely perfect weather, something we didn’t have at the beginning of our trip. (See earlier blogs.) The whole track according to the guide map, was supposed to take around three hours. It actually took us about four hours and twenty minutes. Of course I wasn’t keeping track of time because I was busy taking pictures.

Since we knew (actually at first we suspected, but subsequent research proved our theory correct) that all the restaurants in Kaikoura were going to be closed for Christmas day, we had already purchased our Christmas dinner in Belfast (remember Belfast?). So tonight we cooked up a nice roast beef, mashed potatoes, and green beans. We washed that down with some local New Zealand Cabernet/Merlot wine and we aim to finish that off with some chocolate Moose, I mean mousse, that we brought home from the White Morph last night. Funny how it all comes around again.

Merry Christmas once again everyone! Gotta go, I’ve got a mousse that I need to help consume.

Cheers!

P.S. The picture above is Whalers Bay. It was taken while on our track today.

The Kaikoura Coastal Range from Pt. Kean

Hectors Dolphins In Akaroa Harbor

Update from Kaikoura

12-20-09 Dunedin to Akaroa

For our short time in Dunedin and on the Otago Peninsula we managed to pack a lot in and have a great time. First of all our hosts at Capt. Eady’s Lookout, Richard and Ana are just fantastic people. They have lived in their home in the small town of Portobello for more than 30 years, raised three boys and have seen many changes take place in the area during that time. Not only did they help steer us on what to see in the area but they were really just a pleasure to sit down and talk with. Especially since both of them are music lovers and I have a little bit of that background in me as well. We really regretted that we hadn’t planned on spending more time there.

While on the peninsula we spent some time at the only mainland Royal Albatross colony in the world and walked the gardens of the only castle in all of New Zealand. We made our way to a beach where the sea lions decided they didn’t need to be hanging out on this particular (quite windy and cold) day and an aquarium with a very active octopus that had only seven arms. Finally, we finished our busy day with a splendid dinner and a bottle of wine at the “1908” restaurant in downtown Portobello.

The next morning, after a light breakfast we headed off on our longest drive of our whole vacation. We were in the car and on the road for about six and a half hours. That doesn’t include the time we took for bathroom breaks, food, and a little bit of sightseeing. One place we stopped along the way was the Moeraki Boulders. The Moeraki Boulders are a geophysical phenomenon - they were formed many years ago and can be seen submerged in the sand along the tide line of the Pacific ocean near the little town of Moeraki. They are truly fascinating. (see picture)

12-23-09 Akaroa

It has been a couple of days since I wrote the entry above so I’ll just continue. This entry will likely not get posted before we get to Kaikoura so I suppose I will fill in those blanks shortly too.

Akaroa is a sleepy little town (for most of the year) on the Banks Peninsula (don’t forget I posted that map a long time ago) just south of Christchurch. The town has a population of about 500 people during the off season and swells to a whopping 6000 people during the summer months. But that doesn’t really happen until Christmas which means it’s still pretty quiet around here.

Yesterday we took a tour of the eastern side of hills and villages around Akaroa Harbor (the harbor is 7 km long) but this time I wasn’t driving. Instead we hitched a ride with the local postal delivery man. Essentially he delivered his mail and gave us a lot of history about the area. I would have preferred a few more picture taking stops but what I got was nice and it was interesting none-the-less. I mean where else would you see a defunct microwave oven being used as a mailbox? Plus we got to see parts of the countryside that we never would have found on our own. The trip took around six hours so by the time we got back to town we had just enough time to get a snack to hold us till dinner then head back to the cottage to do some laundry. Laundry, I believe I’ve mentioned that before.

Today we took a boat cruise around the harbor with the hope of seeing some Hector’s Dolphins. Hector’s Dolphins are the smallest and rarest dolphins in the world and Akaroa Harbor is one of the few places they can be seen. While we were at it we saw some of the cliffs that surround the harbor as well as sea lions, a salmon farm, and various caves. All in all a nice two hour trip. And guess what? The weather was absolutely beautiful! This has been the warmest day so far and I actually got to wear shorts in the afternoon. Yippy!!

Later on we took to some of the walking trails around town to see various monuments and points of interest. We needed to at least make an attempt to work off some of the vast quantities of delicious food we’ve been consuming. Tomorrow it is off to Kaikoura where we will spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, then on Boxing Day we’ll be on yet another boat viewing (and swimming with) Dusky Dolphins.

Stay tuned!!

Doubtful Sound & Scotia

Te Anau & Doubtful Sound

Our drive on Wednesday from Invercargill to Te Anau was mostly uneventful except for when I jumped up onto a rock at Howells Point and surprised a sleeping sea lion. I managed to get a couple of snapshots before safely retreating back to the beach but even now, I’m still not sure who was more surprised…the sea lion or me.

Once we arrived in Te Anau we found the Antler Lodge, met our lovely hostess Helen, and then it was off to do some laundry at the local Laundromat/internet surfing station. Since we were going to spend the next evening on a usually cold body of water, we needed to wash the clothing that we’d basically been wearing to stay warm the prior few days. Laundry duties were followed by a nice dinner at one of the many local eateries and then it was off to bed.

Thursday morning we were picked up by the touring company in front of the Antler Lodge and driven to the town of Manapouri, about 20 kilometers down the road. At Manapouri we were loaded onto a catamaran that would whisk us across Lake Manapouri to the hydropower station on the other side of the lake. Once there, we were loaded onto buses that would take us through the Wilmot Past and down to Deep Cove which is the deepest point inland of Doubtful Sound (it’s actually a fiord misnamed by the early European settlers) and where our ship was waiting to take us on our overnight tour.

Our first afternoon and early evening on the fiord was cloudy and somewhat hazy but there was no rain involved. We went out as far as the Tasman Sea before turning back and setting anchor in one of the arms of the fiord where we were sheltered from any major wind or weather that might roll in from the sea. At that point, all those who were willing either got into a kayak or a tender craft for a leisurely tour around the shores of the cove. Tasha was one of those kayakers while Schmoose and I stayed on board since neither of us much like the water. There was also the opportunity for the brave and hardy to swim in the cove and Tasha was one of those as well. And yes I have the proof but I’ll not show those here.

We also met some nice people while we were on board the ship. One woman, Dorthe is from Denmark and spending a year in New Zealand mostly on a working visa. She had been to Milford Sound the day before and was quick to point out that the tour personnel on this trip were using the same jokes as the crew from the day before. Still, we all had fun capping on the Christmas lights and the stunted Christmas tree on the ship.

Of course I’ve yet to say anything about the scenery. I suppose I could sum it up in one word adjectives like, awesome, beautiful, stunning, amazing, but none of those really fit because they are simply not powerful enough. While Milford Sound gets most of the publicity and is more well known, Doubtful Sound is much larger and just as impressive, if not more so. (The picture I’ve included here is from a stopping point along the Wilmot Pass that shows just part of Doubtful Sound.)

On Friday morning we awoke early, had breakfast and cruised the sound some more…in the rain…till 10 am when we returned to Deep Cove to board the buses back to the power station, across Lake Manapouri and eventually back to Antler Lodge. It ended up raining the rest of the day but we still took a trip up the Milford Highway so I could see about getting another picture of the Eglinton Valley, one of my favorite photo shots from two years ago. But the stormy weather prevailed and we returned to Te Anau for a nap and a late dinner.

As I write now, we are staying at Capt. Eadys, a B & B on the Otago Peninsula which is sort of across from Dunedin. We got here this afternoon and spent some time walking and driving around Dunedin before coming over to Otago for lodging and more nature sightseeing tomorrow. One place of significance that we visited in Dunedin was a whiskey bar and restaurant known as Scotia. Scotia has on hand at any one time around 350 different varieties of Scotch whiskey. I’ve included a picture of the bar here. I know if I lived here, this would be a place that I would certainly frequent.

One last note: Yesterday in Dunedin it got up to about 22 centigrade (about 72 degrees) and today it hit maybe 18. Tomorrows high is supposed to be about 13 and Monday about 10. Go figure. I guess we’ll be doing laundry again soon.

Cheers!

Invercargill Report

Note: This was written a couple of days ago now. Since then we've done the Doubtful Sound overnight cruise and we leave for Dunedin tomorrow. We've been short on internet coverage, hence the delay. I will publish something again as soon as I can. S.

As I mentioned yesterday, our visit to Invercargill was cold, windy, and showery. We were expecting it to be a little cooler but nothing like it was. I don’t think the temperature got about 15 degrees Celsius (59 F.) any of the three days we were there. And by saying it got as high as 15 I’m being generous. Most of the time it ranged between 8 and 13 degrees (46.5-55.5) combined with the wind and the rain showers, we fought the weather the whole time.

But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact that Invercargill has many things to offer and the people are very nice. Everyone we met there went out of their way to be helpful and friendly. There was even what I would call a genuine delight that we were tourists visiting their city.

The city itself (pop. 54,000) has a decidedly 1950’s small town America feeling to it. I don’t think there was a building taller than 10 stories and our hotel was seven stories which means we had a pretty good view of the surrounding area. The city also has a fantastic part called Queens Gardens at its center. Tasha and I spent about an hour and a half wandering around the grounds and saw maybe one quarter of what was contained within its borders. But the gardens are beautifully maintained, well laid out, and very relaxing. They are well worth a visit in their own right.

Yesterday we traversed a large section of what is known as “The Southern Scenic Route.” The route itself runs from Dunedin on eastern coast to Te Anau at the entry way to Fiordland National Park. The section we spent the most time on yesterday is known as The Catlins. The route runs mostly along the southeastern side of the South Island. Dodging between rain showers, we saw some incredible points, bays, beaches, the occasional sea lion and lots and lots and lots of sheep. We actually got worn out by the wind and cold so we didn’t even come close to seeing all that we wanted to see. But I still managed to get a bunch of pictures.

So that is a brief description of our trip to Invercargill and I didn’t even mention the Invercargill Brewing Company. We are now in Te Anau and will be doing the overnight cruise on Doubtful Sound tomorrow. So thanks for tagging along and stay tuned for more updates.

Cheers!

Invercargill

It's been cold and windy with lots of showers while we've been in Invercargill. We are off for Te Anau and Doubtful Sound the next few days. I will tell you more about Invercargill but here are a couple of pictures in the mean time.

Cheers!

Schmoose, Connecticut, & Harbor Cruise

Say Hello to Schmoose (sounds like Bruce), a moose in sheep’s clothing. We met Schmoose on the LINK bus that travels around Auckland City proper when we were returning to our hotel after a day at the Auckland Museum and Auckland Domain (sort of Auckland’s Botanical Gardens).

The little we know of Schmoose’s story so far is that he is “on the lam.” From what or who he is running from we’re not exactly sure but we told him he was welcome to travel with us for as long as he’d like.

In other news: We stuck to the plan on Friday with a Harbor tour during the afternoon and a nice dinner to celebrate our birthdays and anniversary. The Harbor tour was a one and a half hour tour that afforded some different views of the city and surrounding area. It also included an additional round trip to the suburb of Devonport which we took advantage of last night. But what I really want to talk about is the dinner we had the other night. Actually, not the dinner so much as the folks who own the restaurant.

The Grove restaurant was one of the four places recommended by the Auckland-based friend of Joanne Weir’s. It is located just five minutes (if that) from our hotel. At our 6 pm reservation time, when the maître d’ showed us to our table, we were the only people in the place – though not for long. The food was absolutely fabulous, and the waiter’s recommendation of a Destiny Bay cabernet from a winery on Waiheke Island (35 min ferry ride from Auckland) was spot on. But real part of this story is that you never know who you are going to meet.

It turned out, the maitre d’ was not only an owner of the restaurant but also born and raised in Connecticut, my home state. Michael Dearth stopped by our table to chat with us for a while and it was during our discussion that we learned was born and raised in Watertown, CT, went to University of New Haven, traveled for 2 years (including in NZ) and finished at Southern Connecticut State University. He met his wife Annette in San Francisco when they were both working there and eventually they settled in Auckland. So like I said, you never know who you’re going to meet.

Last night we took advantage of our extra ferry trip and traveled to Devonport, one of Auckland’s oldest suburbs and walked around the town for a while before getting some fantastic pictures of the sun setting on Auckland. I’ve posted one here is one for your enjoyment.

Today we fly to Invercargill, which is at the very south end of the South Island (see map below). It’s supposed to be a little cooler down there but still a lot warmer than the -50 degrees below zero that my friend Bret reported for Winnipeg, Canada for today.

Cheers!

Auckland Sunset from Devonport

More Pictures

The Long Flight - Or We Made it to Auckland 12-10-09

Anyone who has ever traveled a great distance in a jetliner will likely tell you the hardest part is when you actually arrive. If you’re one of those folks who has a hard time sleeping on planes (as I do) it can be even harder to adjust to the change of environment or time difference. Thankfully, I seemed to do better this time around. Tasha however needed a little more time. Fortunately the flight out was really nothing more than long and mind numbingly boring.

We arrived in downtown Auckland around 9am local time on Thursday, the 10th. Of course the hotel I booked didn’t have any rooms available until (what turned out to be) noon. So we killed the time by getting some breakfast in a little café. While we were sitting there waiting for our food we could hear a Scottish Bag Pipe band working their way up the street toward the café. Well it turned out the Bag Pipe procession was leading a group of freshly graduated seniors from a local school. Finally, students and bag pipers all converged in the middle of a three way intersection holding up cars, trucks, and buses for what may have been 10 minutes or so. Finally they started to disperse with some of the some of the parents, friends, and freshly graduated seniors spilling into the café to celebrate with cold beer or “bubbly.” (It’s 10 am in the morning but who cares? We’ve just graduated high school!! I like these people!) Why do I tell you all this? Well, even though it has been a long time since Tasha and I graduated high school we couldn’t help but feel slighted that our graduation processions paled by comparison.

Tomorrow during the day we are thinking of taking an Auckland Harbor cruise to see what the city looks like from the water. Tomorrow night we are planning on celebrating my birthday, Tasha’s birthday, and our 17th wedding anniversary with a nice dinner at a restaurant recommended by a friend of Joanne Weir’s. Yes that Joanne Weir (Weir on Cooking, PBS). I’m not going to tell the story, you’ll have to get it out of Tasha, she was sitting next to her after all.

That’s all for now folks.