New Zealand Part 25 - Otago and Dunedin

---

Feelings of home and burnt out luck

So we basically had to drive from one side of NZ to the other which being a thin country shouldn’t be a problem but there is no choice in road, so we had to work our way through mountain ranges and windy roads to get anywhere in a decent time. We had decided on the way to Dunedin we would drive through central Otago as this was recommended by many people. It was a very dry looking farming region but had great rolling hills and great weather! It also had something called the Otago rail trail, which was miles of abandoned rail line from the gold mining years that was now a great bike track right through the region. Given the sweeping hills, this area was used a lot for filming in LOTR for Rohan (sorry I’ll stop going on abut LOTR soon). So with all these reasons we had planned to drive through to the town of Ranfurly to collect a bike and do a half day ride as the total ride takes about 3 days at least.

We stopped off for the night at a DOC site that was totally free!! Annoying thing was it was no different to all the other sites we had been to, so why the Department of Conservation feel it necessary to charge for some and not others I don’t know. We got here pretty early and it was so quiet, we almost felt like we needed to whisper so not to disturb the other few caravans in the field. With this silence meant there wasn’t really anything to do, so we went for a quick walk around the site (Nath practising his footy skills by kicking dried lumps of crusty old sheep poo at me!! ) before settling in for the early evening and drinking ourselves silly - hey we didn’t need to drive anywhere for a bit after all, so we made the most of it. It was a really great night actually, felt like we didn’t need to rush to do anything or be anywhere which made a nice change.

Next morning we were up and off to Ranfurly to get our bikes so we could make the most of the day. I had called ahead the previous day to order some bikes but had had to leave a message, by the time we would have got an answer Nath and I were gonna be there, so we decided we’d just turn up and hope that they had some bikes left . The drive there was again glorious and although we enjoyed every minute of the drive we didn’t stop to take any pictures. They just wouldn’t have done the area justice so we didn’t bother? (Kind of wish we had now though) Anyway we got to the edge of the town of Ranfurly and whilst I was checking which street we needed we drove into the centre of town past a lot of commotion. What was left of one of the buildings on the high street was still smouldering after being completely gutted by a fire and there were fire men galore still doing their thing. It wasn’t until we looked closer that I figured out the road we needed we were already on and the bike hire place was in fact the charred remains in front of us!!! Looks like we won’t hire a bike then. It was so weird, the whole town was out watching (and by whole town I mean all 10 people), but they were all pulling together and comforting each other. I asked around and luckily the couple and their pet bird got out in time but as they lived above their work they had lost everything. Turns out they only just made it as they hadn’t been woken by a smoke alarm! Luckily the local butcher driving past in the early hours had seen flames through the window so stopped and broke in to wake them - how lucky are they!!

(Go check the battery in your smoke alarm now!! And I mean now! You can finish reading this after and if you haven’t got a smoke alarm then you’re a Bloody idiot!)

So with nothing to do and a bit lost in thought for how precious life can be sometimes, we did what any self respecting Brit would do - we had a cuppa (and a fried breakfast) to make ourselves feel better. We both felt like we really wanted to help but I wouldn’t know what we could do. The whole town had it covered really. After asking at the local I-site it turns out that all the bikes were pretty much booked out in the whole area (seems this bike ride is a very popular one) and the nearest supply was now out of our way, so we admitted defeat, as we didn’t really have the time to hang around , and headed for Dunedin.

Now Dunedin (which is Celtic for Edinburgh) is as you probably guessed a Scottish town well city, so we were expecting lots of ginge and drinking. On getting there it was sooo like home it was weird, I cant quite explain it but if you’ve been to any of the cities in Scotland you’d recognise something here (which I guess isn't surprising as it was built by Scottish settlers). It was a glorious day as we drove out to stay on the peninsula next to Dunedin (with the idea of seeing the Albatross and Blue Penguins) and it felt very much like a Sunday afternoons drive (funny really as it was a Sunday afternoon!!). The roads had very British names; we passed Beaconsfield Road and even a post-box made to look like a TARDIS!! The camp site itself was in one of the little bays, which turned out to be the largest town on the peninsula, with a couple of shops and a hotel. It looked very much like the Devon coast. Perfect scenery perfect day even if the morning in Ranfurly hadn’t gone to plan, just felt a bit weird, like we were at home and all or travelling had been a dream.

That afternoon after washing, cooking etc we made our way out to the end of the peninsula to watch the Albatross take off. You could do loads of different tours but our friend Adam and Evy had said don’t bother paying just park up at dusk and watch them for free so that’s what we did. We had been told by the lady at the campsite to wear everything we had as it got really cold there, so we turned up with coat, hat, scarf etc, to find it a bit chilly and most people in their shorts. We did manage to see a few Albatross gliding over us, but without something to scale up to it was hard to appreciate just how big they were. As it was in fact a bit colder (glad I had my bobble hat even if I looked a bit of a prat) we went into the visitor centre to see if we could venture any further for free etc. The short answer is No there was only a display for free, so we took some time reading that so we didn’t have to go back out into the cold again so soon. The display was very informative, I had no idea that fish not only had to be caught in a friendly way but that it is labelled albatross friendly too, as they get caught in the nets coz they are greedy gannets (excuse the pun).

On the way out of the building I stopped briefly to open the door for a sea gull, which had aimlessly wandered in but suddenly realised without opposable thumbs he couldn’t open the door once in. We headed back out to the cliff edge only to find that the albatross had all buggered off, that’s what we get for waiting in the warm. So we headed down to the “penguin beach” we had heard so much about. Obviously there wasn’t anything there just yet and only a couple of people reading books in the cold, obviously they knew it was gonna be a long wait. We stopped for a bit to take some shots of the seal lions that were hidden amongst the rocks; we literally didn’t see them till we were very close. They looked so sweet and innocent but I reckon they could have your arm off in an instant!! As we had hours before it was due to get dark and we were cold and hungry again we parked Elton up at the beach side and had a (nother) cuppa - now that’s travelling. As it got dark more and more people turned up and parked in stupid position and wedged themselves as close together as possible to try and save on a few meters walk to the beach.

We were now surrounded by people who were crowding up towards the viewing area, so we felt a little peeved that we had been waiting longer but hey, we enjoyed that cuppa. There was a volunteer warden there who gave us a little speech about what would happen when the penguins came up, now it wasn’t hard, you only had to listen for a short time and there were two main rules - firstly no flash photography (Coz you actually blind them, although Nath thought it would be funny to watch loads of blind penguins walking into things!) and secondly once seated keep still as it may frighten them. I already had this feeling that someone in the group (being that there were a lot of certain nationalities there) would break these rules and I made a little bet in my head as to who would be first!! So we sat down as it got dark and whispered and held our breath as we heard that some had just come up the beach….we waited and waited and waited…….nothing. It would seem that of the two paths the penguins could have taken they took the one we weren't all sitting at. We didn’t know this till the end however, so still sat like idiots waiting for these imaginary penguins. And as predicated one idiot had a flash and got told off by the warden and one guy who was either stupid or “very foreign”, just wouldn’t sit down, first he stood right in front of us (not that we could see anything in the dark but it’s the principle) then he moved around a bit more before being told again to sit down only to get back up and start wandering around again!

Anyway after sitting for about 2 hours on the cold, dark beach, only hearing the little penguin buggars laughing at us from their hide holes, we decided we would give up. People had been leaving for some time and we were one of the last, but still worried we would step on something or someone we took a slow shuffle up towards the car park. On the way up in the dark our eyes were aware of a couple stood looking at a bank so we joined them to see what the fuss was about. Now we could have spent 10 mins looking at a rock I’m not sure, but the extra dark patch in the darkness of the evening did look like it could have been a penguin. It didn’t move and we both imagined we could see some white but after it didn’t move and more and more people joined us, we were starting to feel a bit desperate and stupid so moved on - I guess we’ll never know. A little disappointed havening seen absolutely nothing, we headed back to the camp site.

Next morning the weather wasn’t quite as lovely as the day before and the coast was looking a bit more like home! We decided with the time we had saved by choosing the one bike store to burn down, we had an extra day to explore Dunedin, so we drove closer to town (to a more expensive campsite - dam it) and got the bus into town. It didn’t take us long to walk round inner Dunedin and realise there really wasn’t anything to do. It was grey and raining too and reminded me of Glasgow. I’m sure in the sun it would have looked nicer but still would have had buggar all to do. So we had a quick look round one of the churches, before realising that neither of us is actually bothered by churches its just that they are free, before making our way half way across town to a science museum. They had advertised a butterfly house as “the hottest thing to do in Dunedin” so feeling cold from the rain it seemed like the best place to go.

A bit like the science museum in London (launch pad) there were lots of hand on games and science type things, which we really enjoyed (even though technically they’re meant to entertain kids) and then we moved onto the butterfly house which was as promised nice and warm. Being typical of us though we had entered the museum quite late so within a couple of hours we were asked to leave (not because we were being too childish in the hands on room - honest). This didn’t matter to Nath as we had realised we were in the university end of town at the end of lectures so we got to follow home plenty of young “hotties” and pass lots of cheap beer bars. Not that we went in any, my fault really, something about the sticky floors and smell of piss put me off- or maybe its because I’m getting old?? So with nothing else to do in town we decided to do what we do in every town that’s a bit dull - we went to the cinema. Some stupid American valentines film which was very similar to “Love Actually” but a poor version, especially ruined when the “hunk” of the film turned out to be gay - what a waste. So that was it, what a thrilling day, I had heard from friends that Dunedin was a bit dull but again didn’t listen , as I should have done with Kaikoura. It was however very familiar and felt quite relaxed so if the weather had been a little better I may be writing more positively about it.

We did however, on the way out the following day, visit the steepest street in the world “Baldwin Street”. On approaching it didn’t look that steep, there had been roads in San Fran that looked bigger but I can officially agree that it is bloody steep once you’re on it. The people that live on this street must get so annoyed at stupid tourists taking photos of their houses, and we didn’t want to join the crowds by doing this but as you’ll see form the photos in the end we did - some things just have to be done. So with the excitement of Dunedin over, we started the long drive towards the centre of the south island for our next destination Mount Cook. On the way we had one main sight to stop and see, something that appears on many NZ postcards (one of you would have received this at Christmas as Ben took a great shot of them - they’re called the Moreki Boulders. The best way to describe them is to imagine a giant has left his marbles scattered along a coast line beach and they have now started to rust away and crack. They are the weirdest things, their presence loosely explained for by erosion and compaction theories, but there’s a part of you that feels like there’s more to it; that you’re being lied to to cover up some government conspiracy!! The photos do them more justice but all I can say is that they are large smooth spherical boulders just laying along the beach, mostly visible at high tide. They are mystical and spooky and just plain weird so we took the opportunity to exploit their comic potential as you will see in the photos.

On the way back to the van we passed a couple of huge deer (oooo side note, there are fields of small red deer all over NZ yet I’ve never seen their meat for sale or deer milk - what’s that about?) anyway this one deer was chewing most contentedly on a huge plastic bag like a piece of chewing gum, and of course being as their teeth aren’t designed to bite it just kept trying to swallow the bag whole. Concerned we hung around for ages trying to reach through the fence to take the bag but the deer was having none of it - he had found the tasty bag and there was no way two humans were gonna take it away from him. I did all I could to pick tempting grass for him instead but his mate just kept coming over and eating it. Many people came over to see the deer and found it funny that he was trying to eat a bag but did nothing, maybe we were over reacting but that bag could have done so much damage. So with a lot of patience and timing it just right, Nath’s boom arm saved the day and grabbed the bag, slime and all, just in time. The look on the deer’s face was awful, if he could have charged us at that second he would have done, we had taken his favourite toy away and he hated us! He was already sending messages to his friends in the outside world to run in front of out van I just knew it! He looked so sad at one point I almost wanted to give him the bag back. When we took the slimy spit covered bag to the visitor centre in search of a bin and explained to the moron behind the counter why we need a bin they just said “eh what, oh the deer yeah they’ll eat anything!!”. So after washing our hands and waving good bye to the deer we returned to Elton and continued our drive north.

On the way we stopped at a town called Omaru to try and use their internet at the library for free again (hey now we know this I don’t see why we should pay for internet ever again!). It was getting a bit late though and we still had quite a way to go so we couldn’t be long. However when we found the library was closed but there was a proper evening tour to see the little penguins we “possibly saw stood freezing in the dark” back in Dunedin, we decided hey why not. The only disappointing thing was that we weren’t allowed to take any photos of them again even if you turned the flash off (probably coz some idiot wouldn’t listen) so we have no evidence of it - you’ll just have to take our word for it. Before the paid night tour we went to a near by beach to see some yellow eyed penguins for free (along with every other tourist in town it would seem) cooking our dinner in Elton on the side of the road first before heading down. Unfortunately without a NASA telescope you saw pretty much jack shit. Luckily there was a friendly ornithologist there who let us look down his telescope to see a small fuzzy bird hiding in the bush - so worth waiting around for …NOT….hopefully the little blue penguins would be more impressive. I bloody hope so as we’d paid to see them.

We got to the evening tour and took our seat at the viewing platform - along with half of China!!! Is it a cultural thing or what? but the amount of Asian people we have seen on our travels that not only cant whisper, but seem to have no manners or concept of being quiet when someone else is talking - phew that was close I nearly launched in to a full on whinge then - sorry. Anyway before long the little penguins started marching up the sandy bank and towards their little hidey holes, whilst others appeared from the holes calling to their mates. (Squawk squawk, what time do you call this?? You’ve been down that bay again, haven’t you, swimming with all your work mates, whilst I slave over regurgitated fish for ya dinner! Get inside squawk squawk.) They were so cute and in the end we had seen so many we were a little penguined out.

Now we definitely weren’t gonna make it the two hour journey to Mount Cook so we drove around in the dark searching for yet another freedom camping site with nothing more than a road name! Luckily we found it and settled in for what would be our last warm night in Elton for a few nights, not that we knew that! Next morning we would be heading to our exciting next stop, Mount Cook to see more glaciers, take a scary tiny plane flight and see the turquoise lake Tekapo that everyone had mentioned as a must.

---

Photos

P1100360
Spot Elton!

P1100364
Spot Mandy

P1100366
Oh dear - of all the bike hire joints in the world you had to burn down mine

P1100369
Two classy ladies!

P1100372
Just like home

P1100376
Albatross watching - it was cold!!

P1100383
Elton surrounded by birds (like vehicle like driver)

P1100385
Geeeza!

P1100402
Mr Sea Gull trying to break into our van

P1100405
Nerd alert, Nerd alert!

P1100407
Catchin a bus into town

P1100412
MMM funny tasting cadburys

P1100414
God I've got fatter whilst travelling

Comments

[Donn]

Strikes again!
The lying down game strikes again! I bet you were finding sand in all sorts of places that day.

[Donna]

Come on
Come on Archimedes, try harder!

[Mandy Nath]

Inteligent joke....
I knew you would get it!!