Penguin Dreams and Stranger Things

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Andrew here....

We arrived on New Zealand's south island eager to have a little more free time. Our north island travels had been pretty hectic. We didn't set up the tent in daylight very often. Between late setups and long drives most days, I was getting a little grumpy. I'd enjoyed everything that we did (even the horse show), but I was really looking forward to spending some more time with my feet up enjoying some lazy afternoons. After all, why go camping if you can't enjoy a sunset beer?

The ferry deposited us in Picton, on the very northern tip of the island. We had two weeks to make it to Christchurch, and very little actual planning had been done. We knew where we wanted to go, but not how long we should allow for each leg. We took a hard look at our trip planning, weighing the benefits of each town and area on the possible list. In the end we deleted absolutely nothing at all. Between the two of us, we wanted to see everything, even if it was only for a while. We agreed to split up the driving a little more, and we were off.

Jen was behind the wheel for the first leg, a beautiful, winding road along the north shore. I wasn't too happy with the whole thing, as I got carsick for the first time that I can remember! I wasn't hurling or anything so exciting, but I still didn't like that it came even to that. Jen can't read at all in a vehicle without getting sick, so she was glad to see that I was vulnerable too.

We stopped for some delicious and expensive fresh green-lipped mussels, and headed off down the road to Nelson. We had planned to do little hiking in the Abel Tasman national park, but the weather wasn't cooperating much. We ended up spending a couple of days in a great little hostel in Nelson, complete with a poolside hottub! It was a good break from the driving, and we got a little more caught up on the blog (and the beer drinking). We never did get to hiking in the park, but with so much to see in NZ, we weren't too worried about it. We set off for a big driving day, stopping in a few small towns as we headed down the Western coast. After another night of setting up the tent in the dark, I was getting grumpy again! We finally worked out an itinerary that had a couple of easier driving days (only a few hours) that would give us some free time.

Another part of our planning was also up in the air. We wanted to do some big hiking (tramping) while we were in NZ - it was our number one priority in the whole country. All of the tracks that we wanted to do were in the southern end of the island, where the really big scenery is. We investigated several of them and found some good news and some potentially very bad news. The good news was that we would be in the area just after the booking season ended. The tracks are so popluar that they have reservation systems - spots fill up several months in advance for the most popular ones. They are still open to trampers after the booking season ends - so we were in luck. The bad news was that the booking season ends because it is winter! There had already been snow down to the treeline in the area. The department of conservation's website described bridges being removed and fast flowing waist deep rivers- if you were lucky enough to miss the snow that would require mountaineering gear to get over. Calling them for a more up to date status of the trail was no help at all. We decided to head down to the area anyway and assess the situation then - we could always just drive around the area if the trails were impassable.

The trip down the coast was lots of fun and pretty uneventful. We saw less coastline that we thought we would see, but the bush was pretty spectacular as well. On one particularly long driving day (something like twelve hours) we stopped for a few hours to check out the two glaciers that come down out of the mountains in the central section of the island. Schedule and weather prevented us from getting deeper into the mountains here than we would have liked (oh well - next trip!).

We were surpried to see penguin crossing signs on the road where it ran along the shoreline. We never did see a penguin along the west coast, despite constantly keeping an eye out for them!

We arrived well after dark in the little town of Wanaka, but I wasn't at all grumpy this time as we had covered a lot of ground in order to have a few easy days ahead of us. Those easy days were spent hanging out in Wanaka and Queenstown, basically just checking things out and paying too much for food. Queenstown is certainly the action center of NZ, with every manner of putting your life in danger that can be imagined. We decided against spending any of our money on these tours though - we were more interested in tramping, and had found out that our fun budget might be eaten up entirely just for transfers to and from the trail.

We finally made our way to the little town of Te Anau to check out what was really going on with the trails....we were in luck! There wasn't any snow, the river levels were down and the bridges were still in place (for a little while longer). We stayed in a great holiday park that had comfy couches in the TV room (loved that) and prepared for our hike. Given that we were travelling with the minimum of equipment, we needed to rent a couple of things; gaiters for our hiking shoes (we had a good chance of getting very wet due to very high rainfall in the area) and hiking poles to take some of the load off of Jen's knees on the downhills. We had just returned from walking around town, pricing these rentals at the local shops when we discovered something wonderful back at the holiday park. Sitting right on the road were four telescopic hiking poles! They had obvisouly fallen off somebody's vehicle. We did the dutiful thing and reported them to the holiday park office - if anyone was looking for them, they could come see us at our site and we would happily return them. No one ever turned up and we have those poles to this day. Given that they cost anywhere from $50 to $200 per pole we were very pleased with our find!

We still had a little bad news - even though it was off season, the trip was still going to be very expensive; transfers (boat and bus) in and out, mountain hut fees and rental of a personal locater beacon (heavily recommended for post booking season travel). All in all, our three night hiking trip was going to cost us close to $400! We were starting to blow our budget in NZ and it was worrying us a lot.

*** The hike is described on it's own blog page - see that one for all the juicy details ***

We returned from our hike, tired, happy and needing to get back on the road. We had a great meal with our new hiking friends and headed off for a well deserved sleep - we were exhausted. We left early the next day, finally headed for the East coast.

The one thing that we really wanted to see on the east coast was penguins. After being teased by the 'penguin crossing' signs all the way down the west coast, we really wanted to lay eyes on some flippers. We headed up to a little place called Oamaru to test our luck. We opted against the organized blue penguin facility and headed to the natural cliffside lookout where the yellow eyed penguins come ashore each night. We got there just as everyone else was leaving...they missed a good show. We had some great views of a brave little guy who came within ten feet of the hide that we were sequestered in. We were amazed that he could climb the fify feet up the steep cliffside, but he managed to hop and waddle his way to the edge. He stopped there for a while, looking out at the surf as if he was contemplating the wonders of penguin life. We even got a little song and dance from him before we bade hime farewell. We were very happy to have our little glimpse of him, even without any pictures (it was after sunset and they really don't like flashes).

We left from there to visit with friends of friends that we had never met before. Greg, one of our friends from Ottawa had put us into contact with his cousin Mel and her partner JB. She had very generously offered to put us up, so we were off to the Banks pennisula. We very much enjoyed our stay with them at their beautful house in the middle of farmland. It was a pleasant stop from the hectic pace. I also learned something new - how to make pasta from scratch! (thanks JB) It's surprisngly easy. A pasta machine will definitely be on the shopping list when we get home.

We wrapped up our NZ experience with a short stop in Chistchurch. Most of our last two days on the island was spent getting things organized for our next leg to Sydney.

New Zealand was a great place to visit. The scenery was breathtaking and the people we met along the way always added to the fun. We loved the kiwis - they are laid back, friendly and outgoing. Hopefully we'll be back someday to explore the farther reaches and spend some more time leaving footprints on the ground!

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