Back to New Zealand to see the South Island

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Dear Friends and Family,

Ann, Riley and my penultimate adventure on our epic three month journey was to roam the entirety of the south island of New Zealand. We managed to get to lots of out of the way places on both the east and west coast. We began in Christchurch where we rented a car and drove around the city. The centre still looked like a disaster zone with the ruins of the cathedral and many condemned buildings, after the earthquake in 2012). We drove south to Lyttleton but all the ridge roads so we came back through the tunnel and headed as far east as we could go to God’s Head were the views were amazing.

The next day we headed west past lots of small towns, then the summer town of Clearwater and finally past cattle stations to find Mount Sunday. You may ask why we came to find this mountain far away from the main hubs; well, it was the filming site of Edoras in the LOTR movies. There is a spectacular 360^o view from the summit where Ann, Riley and I climbed. We stayed in Timaru where our hotel let us know that blue penguins came up the beach at dusk and we planned our evening around it. We continued south and stopped in at Oamaru where the whole town just happened to be celebrating the Victorian Fete and everyone was dressed up in Victorian dress and there was a parade. Apparently it’s the most important day of the year in this small village. We also spotted a rare yellow eyed penguin at a beach near this town, and some fur seals. Our next stop was to see the unusual spherical Moeraki boulders. We stayed the night a Dunedin where we visited the Cadbury factory and saw a gay pride festival. We drove out the Otago Peninsula to see the Royal Albatross colony (one of the only one’s on the mainland). We also drove, and hiked up Mount Sandy to see fabulous views of the peninsula.

Before we left in the morning, we found Baldwin Street so I could climb the steepest residential street in the world. We drove south to Tunnel Rock and braved the steep path to find the hidden beach (through the tunnel). We later hiked out to Nugget Point to see fur seals and the nugget rocks that jut out into the ocean. Along our route to Te Anau, we stopped at the petrified forest, Monkey Island, Invercargill, suspension bridge at Clifton, Lake Manapouri and arrived early enough to settle in at the hotel before the sun set lit up the distant Livingstone Mountains in pink and purple. We drove to Milford Sound today, stopping at the Mirror Lakes, sighting lots of Kea (mountain parrots), then through Homer Tunnel to arrive at the fjord. We took a cruise of Milford Sound spotting yellow crested penguins, seals, lots of waterfalls (we even had a shower from one) and went all the way out to the ocean.

As you may be able to tell, we enjoy the LOTR films and stopped at many film site locations along the way. The River Anduin and Fangorn Forest were both filmed near Te Anau. Over the next couple days, we also saw The Ford of Bruinen, Gladden Fields, Lothlorien Forest, Isengard, Gondor rangers battle ground, Amon Hen, and the Great East Road. Riley and also drove, then hiked the Remarkables mountains near Queenstown, then visited Arrowtown. For my birthday, I got new shoes and some ciders to go with special hamburgers from Fergburger. We drove up Coronet Peak, then along Kawarau River where the LOTR Pillars of the Kings stood. The next day we drove through the Hart pass to the west coast. It started raining when we crossed the mountains and didn’t stop until we crossed back again two days later.

We visited the Fox Glacier and Franz Josef Glacier, well, as close as they will let you hike to see a smidgen of the glacier. Fairly disappointing. We also stopped at Hokitika and the Pancake Rocks (where we ate pancakes) near Greymouth. We stayed in Westport where there were tons of seals at the Cape Foulwind Tangua Bay Seal Colony. The sun returned at Hammer Springs where we enjoyed the hot springs and Riley came down the kid’s slide by himself. We stayed in Kaikoura which is just south of the Oahu Waterfall. This could possibly be the most unique sight we saw on our trip. We had low expectations of seeing any wildlife when we hiked up to the waterfall but low and behold, dozens of seal pups were frolicking in the waterfall pool and were so curious of us. A very special moment. We left the South Island shortly after on the Picton ferry to Wellington.

Cheers, Richard, Ann and Riley.

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