The End of New Zealand

Day 109

We are booked on the earliest boat out to Milford sound so we get the fiord all to ourselves! It's quite a small boat, and so upstairs is relatively crowded, but we get a seat, wrap ourselves up tightly in our warm clothes and get our cameras at the ready!

It is utterly beautiful out here... the sun is only just rising over the mountains, and on the facing side the cliffs are all topped with blazing crowns as the first light of the day touches them... The cliffs themselves are immense, so tall you have to crane your neck to see the summits and all draped with hundreds of waterfalls!

Most of the waterfalls aren't permanent, but 3 are, and we see all of them. The beautiful rainbow filled 'fairy falls' are the prettiest by by far, but Stirling falls is very impressive, and the boat goes right up to it, sticking its nose in so we can see the full power of the spray... the captain warned us to get inside, saying “it's wetter then you think, you will get soaked” and being as it looked pretty wet anyway we took his advice!

On our exploration of the fiord we do not only see mountains though, we also get to see some more seals (and I get an awesome video of one just out of the water, all shiny, black and slippery looking!) and some dolphins!

At the end of the fiord the wind picked up, so strong it nearly blew our hats off (and mine was tied on!) although the Tasman sea was again quite calm. Looking into the fiord from outside you can see why cpt cook never found it, it's very hard to see the opening, even if you know where it is! Luckily we knew where we were going (well our cpt did), so we made it back into the fiord safely, although the wind continued, so we hid in the shelter for most of the return journey!

Shortly before arriving back in Milford the boat stops, and around 13 of us get off. The reason is to visit 'the deep' an underwater observatory where you can see the very rare black coral (which is actually white) and generally have a look at what it is like underneath the water of the fiord. It was built because Milford sound is one of the only places in the world where you can observe the phenomenon of 'deep water emergence' whereby the environment mimics that of much deeper waters so you can see life which normally only survives at over 60m at only 10m!

(This happens for a number of reasons. Firstly the water in Milford sound is abnormally dark, because it has a layer of tinted fresh water lying on top of the salt water. This is the water which runs off the mountains. It collects tannins on its way down, because there is barely any soil to filter it, or keep it on the mountains, and it acts like sunglasses on the water beneath. Normally this would not make much of a difference as the salty water of the fiord and the stained fresh water would mix, but Milford was carved out by a glacier which left a deposit of rocks and general debris at the mouth of the sea, which acts like a breakwater, making the waters of Milford sound very calm – therefore hindering any mixing. In many places this would still not create deep water emergence, but because Milford has 7metres of rainfall a year, there is a constant 4 – 6m layer of this dark fresh water creating the perfect environment for things such as black coral!)

Anyway the deep is awesome! Like diving but quiet and effortless and you can take as many pictures as you like (the windows are perspex, not glass so they do not magnify or distort) using a tripod so they come out good! There are fishies of all kinds, anemones, coral (obviously), a starfish which is actually long and thin and snake like, not a star at all, some squid eggs... apparently sometimes the dolphins come down and play around just outside the windows too although we weren't lucky enough to see this... it was the best part of the trip without a doubt!

We take the rest of the day to drive to riverton, passing some trees which have been well and truly BATTERED by the wind and a field full of cows ignoring two bulls who appeared to be having an argument (over what we shall never know). Mr left seemed to be consistently winning the pushing match, but mr right was determined not to lose ground... quite amusing! We watched for about ten minutes, but no conclusion seemed near so we left them to it and drove on! A few miles down the road we come to a place called Clifden, which has a 'historic' suspension bridge LOL. It's a tiny little thing, no longer used but as the site for a scouts camping ground but it did make me chuckle!

Day 110

Up early as were not sure if were allowed to stay overnight where we are... turns out this was a good choice as we get to see an absolutely stunning sunrise over the sea – beautiful!

We then head into the town and have a look around, chatting to a man who's sons have just come back from England and are now camping on the Catlins coast (our next destination) He raves about the Catlins, and tells us all the best places to go, Kiwis really are very friendly!

Anyway the Catlins is lovely, we stop at Waipapa point and see our first sea lion (acting all cute flicking sand over itself to keep cool) looking smug as he was blocking the pathway! Curio and porpoise bay are a bit of a disappointment as we see no wildlife, although they are both gorgeous, and there's a fossilised forest to marvel at (quite cool, you think there are loads of rock, then you realise they're tree stumps! Growth rings and all preserved for thousands of years!). We see the very pretty Purakanui falls, which are quite lothlorienesque, and then we get to nugget point, which does not disappoint! From the hideout there we see no less than 4 yellow eyed penguins (Hoiho)!

Hoiho are cute little penguins which look like they are wearing superhero eye masks of bright yellow! In the evening they return from a days feeding to their nests, swimming up to the shore looking like ducks in the surf, and then standing up and waddling over the beach to the bushes at the edges. At one point there are some quite large rocks to navigate which they do by making little hops – absolutely adorable!!!

Day 111

Dunedin and the Otago peninsula today! We go straight through Dunedin, and head out for some more wildlife watching! After an hour or so on a long windy cliff-top road which gave us some absolutely magnificent views of the beaches and sea on each side, we stop for lunch at 'sandfly bay'. Here an old man called liam gets talking to us, and offers to show us his favourite spots – we accept as this seems like a pretty good offer, he'l drive us around, show us all the best places to see wildlife, and give us local commentary at the same time!

It was a very good offer, our first stop was Allan's beach, and before we had even set foot on the sand we had seen a sea-lion, then we saw two red-billed oyster catchers, three or four seals lolling around on the rocks, and... a baby penguin! This was a little blue, and Liam knew where the nest was (a little cave under some boulders) and lo and behold we could see its little face looking at us from the little entrance – cute as! To top all this off the beach itself was fantastic, all rock shapes and sand and surf and sand dunes... fantastic spot, and completely off the tourist trail, apart from two guys making driftwood art, we were the only people there!

We drove to the albatross colony, the only mainland colony in the world. Liam was worried they wouldn't be flying as there wasn't much wind to help them, but again we saw four or five, flying right over our heads and just in front of us – they are MASSIVE; truly awesome birds! You can't really appreciate how large they are from a distance, but when they are only a couple of metres away, and practically winking at you, you can really see how immense they are!

After an hour albatross spotting we head back to sandfly bay, stopping to look at the odd falcon and a lot of swamp hens (funny little blue birds with a red beak and a white tail feather they like to flash as they walk). Sandfly bay is apparently another Hoiho residence so we head down at dusk to see them come home. Unlike Nugget point you are allowed to get right onto the beach (you have to walk all along it to get to the hideout) and we see one quite close almost as soon as we are down there! There are also a couple of pairs on the cliff side which you can see from a distance, and at the end of the day we saw one more heading up into the dunes. Again they are quite adorable, but the main memories I have from this beach are of the Sea Lions!

Again we had barely got on the beach before we saw our first, a pure white female (they're a lot prettier than the males!) but as we walked along there was one every 10 metres or so. In the middle of the beach they all seemed to be resting, although one was a BIG male (mane and all) which was cool to see up close, however at the end we saw another big male yawn, stretch, and lollop off into the sea, which was amazing! Then as we walked back to the other end of the beach they got positively lively! We saw two females get up and go to the sea, and a huge male chase one for a bit, sit around yawning, completely block the beach for us (as you shouldn't get to close to them) and then eventually also make his way to the sea. Wow. What an experience!

The day ended with us making our difficult way back up the massive sand dune to the car park (and I mean massive sand dune, I was surprised Liam, at 80 was still making this journey, but apparently he does it at least three times a week). It was tough going, but definitely worth it – I've never been on a beach with so much wildlife! Thank you Liam for a fantastic day!

Day 112

Just a long long drive today – all the way to Hanmer springs before the Lewis pass!

Oh and we see the moeraki boulders, huge spherical honeycomb rocks strewn all over the beach! Quite pretty but not as impressive as described! Nevertheless it made a nice break in our day, and the photos are quite cool!

Day 113

Up early to get to the thermal pools early, only to find out they don't open until ten! Anyway we are in the first few people to get into the thermal pool complex at Hanmer, and they are lovely, it's almost like having a bath, sitting in the 41degree water, but it does smell slightly different, being that they're sulphur pools!

Anyway we spend a couple of hours relaxing in the pools, then get out and have a lovely lovely hot shower, and then we're on our way, driving through the not actually all that impressive Lewis pass and onto the Punakaiki rocks, which apparently look like piles of freshly cooked pancakes! I'm not sure how true this metaphor is, but the rock formations are pretty cool! They are limestone pillars, columns, spires and walls all made in layers. The walk out and around these impressive formations (which remind me of an old castle, crumbling into the sea all around) is a very nice one, short, but it winds through a bit of forest (tree ferns and old gnarly trees and palms galore) and then over a couple of bridges out to the formations, and at one point along a path through the rocks! Very nice end to the day, and worth the drive no matter how much mark tries to tell you it wasn't (and it was not 460km out of our way!)

Day 114

Even the best of us make mistakes, and today I admit, I made quite a big one! I didn't turn the page of the map to check the end of the route I was taking us on... a route which apparently has no end! What kind of road actually goes to nowhere!? Stupid road! Anyway the sign which said 'last fuel for 92km' was now around 60km ago, so we had to carry on to the end of the road to refuel (we were running low) – a little bit worrying as Karamae(?) is a tiny dead end town and it was good friday... will it be open, wont it be open, will it be open? Wont it be open? It was open! Phew!

Now we were in the dead end of nowhere we decided we should check the guidebook to see if there was anything worth doing up here, as it turned out there were a couple of impressive limestone formations to look at, so off we went to find them!

Now, New Zealand is awesome in many ways, but the one thing they don't seem to have the hang of is roads. Even main roads sometimes degenerate into gravel tracks, and this wasn't even a main road! Anyway it took us a while to get to the car park (which turned out to be massive and have a huge notice board full of information, in proper tourist style, which seemed odd after following a gravel path for 14k!) so we had lunch before we set off through the amazing forest to our first destination, the 'gates of moria'!

The forest here was the best we have seen, gnarly gnarly old trees dripping with moss and ferns and the odd impressive fungi... just like fangorn, there are even some entish trees (or maybe treeish ents...) I may have been reading LOTR! Anyway the forest really was lovely, looked ancient too! Anyway the gates of moria are also pretty cool, they turn out to be a mini adventure all by themselves too, as to get to them we had to lower ourselves into a cave in the ground and then make our way through the darkness to the gates! The gates were an arch over a river, all dripping with stalactites and looking very impressive... I can see how they got their name!

Our second limestone feature is a MASSIVE arch over another river. The walk to this one is not as impressive, but we do meet the bravest, most inquisitive little bird I have ever seen – he hopped onto our shoes and pecked marks feet and everything! I have no idea why, but it was very cute of him! Also, whilst the forest is just normal gorgeous NZ rainforest, the river is something else entirely. The water is bright orange, but the rocks it runs along are pure white, and the water is so still on the surface it is a near perfect mirror or the surroundings... it looked genuinely magical!

The 'Arch of Oparoa', once we get there is definitely impressive. It's immense, covered in stalactites, and just generally huge! I would have to say its more of a tunnel than an arch, but kiwis don't seem to understand tunnels, nowhere we have seen limestone tunnels have they been labelled as such... always called an arch or a cave (odd isn't it)! Anyway it is 40m high, 37m wide and nearly 100m long (clearly a tunnel!) although at the beginning one huge chunk of the ceiling has fallen down, leaving an arch nearly separated from the main tunnel.

All in all I think my mistake was a blessing in disguise... we saw some lovely stuff, but it did cost me $40 as mark made me pay for the fuel it used!

Day 115

Abel Tasman national park (eventually) today. It's a nice drive, up a MASSIVE hill (which our spaceship struggles with somewhat!), and there are stunning views over rainforest and beach, but it just makes me sad that we can't spend time here. It seems like the kind of place it would be fantastic to spend at least a few days (or weeks) in, but as a flying visit so much of it is missed :-(. We do get a bit of adventure though, having to drive through two massive washouts on the gravel tracks – no room to turn around until you get to the car park at the end so no choice but to risk it! I was glad i'd had experience of washouts before otherwise I think I might have chickened out!

Day 116

Easter Sunday! Also clocks go back giving us a useful extra hour! We drive the Queen Charlotte drive through the picturesque Marlborough sound stopping to watch some logs being loaded onto a huge huge huge tanker – mark made us stop (no matter how old a boy gets really big toys still fascinate them!) but it was quite interesting to watch, we were very high above them, so everything seemed quite comic, the little tractor type vehicles moving around, picking up great piles of pine trunks in their mouths and delivering them to the ships four massive cranes...

Anyway we get to Picton via the scenic route, and book onto the next ferry ready for our return to north island! It turns out the fact its Easter Sunday is good, as there's an extra ferry running at 2pm so we don't have to wait until 7pm. Yey! We also get to charge up cameras etc on the ferry, which is useful as we are now both completely out – marks has run his battery down twice since its last real charge, the solar charger has really shown its worth whilst campervanning!

Day 117

Mt. Taranaki (Egmont) today. We drive to dawsons fall, but are somewhat disappointed by the 17m falls when we see them, and the drive along the coast is also not that pretty... this is the only place which has disappointed really, I guess its somewhere you need to spend time in – or just miss out really. The mountain itself makes a nice picture, brooding in the background shrouded in self made clouds, but it wasn't worth spending a whole day on!

Day 118

On the way to the Waitomo caves we stop off in three places. The first is the moropoka waterfall (far better than Dawsons fall!) which makes a nice early morning walk! Its quite impressive, and definitely worth seeing although you cant walk to the bottom of it.

The second stop is at the piri piri caves (only one cave as far as I could see) where we get to feel very adventurous entering it all on our own and shining our tiny torches up at all the stalactites!

The third stop is the mongophue natural bridge, an arch over a river, its pretty awesome really, but not what the guidebook made it out to be!

The waitomo caves cost us $65 to visit two caves, the fantastic, magical Aranui cave, and the overly commercialised glow worm cave. Aranui is, as I just said, wonderful and magical full of limestone marvels quite tastefully up-lit with soft lights. We are in a small group with a down to earth guide who lets us get on with looking around in peace for the most of it! In comparison the glow worm caves leave a bit of a nasty taste in your mouth, even though its all the same company! 50 people to each guide, and a group going every 15 minutes... and tacky names for all of the formations, but the reason for it all, what makes it such an attraction, is actually completely magical. The (thankfully) silent boatride through dark tunnels whose ceilings sparkle with thousands of glow worms is absolutely worth it! It is a lot like looking up at the stars, but so close you could nearly touch them... no photos allowed and words dont really do it justice....

After our trips we eat lunch in the carpark and get chatting to a friendly ex-pat who advises us to stay at Raglan, a seaside town around 2hrs out of auckland. On the way we stop at the 55m bridal veil falls, which is otherwordly in its beauty. Even as accustomed to beauty as we have become it was like a vision from a fairy tale, a straight white frothy fall into an almost perfectly circular pool ringed with moss covered boulders and lush green forests... Wow!

Day 119

Today we have 2 aims, find some internet (to book somewhere for LA and touch back to reality) and unpack and clean spacey ready for his return :-(

takes us a long time to find internet (looking very dodgy curb crawling around the little towns looking for an unsecured network!) and once we do its a four hour connection to the outside world... then its a bit of a rush to find a place to stay so we have daylight to do our pacing etc. Therefore our last night in the magical New Zealand is spent in a grotty lay by (albeit in a forest covered gorge) which is sad, but beggars cant be choosers, and its dark by 7 now!

Anyway tomorrow I will be in LA and on the last section of my trip! See you soon!