Dunedin to Duntroon

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Dunedin to Duntroon

February 26th – March 2nd 2011

Dunedin

As we'd both been to Dunedin before, we treated ourselves to a couple of relaxing days and didn't rush around trying to see everything. It was also a good chance to catch up with friends and for Samara to interact with another baby. We greatly appreciate Aaron, Yvette and Stella welcoming us into their home, especially as they already had friends from Christchurch with them. It was great sleeping inside for a few nights and having access to a bathroom that didn't involve a long drop! We also had some of the best dinners on this trip so far – the benefits of a decent kitchen.

We had two full days in the city. The first we went out to the Otago Peninsula. Following Aaron and Yvette's advice, we took the 'high road' out and the 'low road' back and avoided Larnach Castle as it was too expensive for what it was. The 'high road' gave us awesome views along the coast. We stopped at Sand-fly Bay, having been assured there were no sand-flies there. It is named for the sand that flies in the wind, forming huge dunes. If we'd been there at the right time, we could have seen penguins (yellow eyed and blue) and seals / sea lions.

Being wanderers rather than tourists, we took the back roads to the end of the peninsula. We followed a series of mud and gravel tracks over the hills and round estuaries and farms, the landscape is amazing here! We were stopped by a shag (Stewart Island shag maybe, we saw a lot of those at the albatross centre) in the middle of the road, looking a little confused by this white bus stopped in front of it. Or maybe it was wondering what it was doing so far from home, it didn't look very old.

We stopped at the Penguin Place, but baulked at paying $45 to see blue penguins, then promptly paid the same to go and see the albatrosses! We didn't see any as we sat in the Albatross centre car park having lunch, but of course they came out as soon as we finished the tour! $45 was a bit much for the hour long 'tour'. We had a 15-20 minute talk and video then went to the observatory for the rest of the time. There were three adult birds sitting in the grass in front of us. Two we saw were sitting on chicks, the other didn't move a lot and we couldn't see under it. The chicks just looked like big bundles of white fluff, they actually get to be far heavier than the adults for a while, before they get put on a diet and leave the nest. The adult soaring over top us were impressive. They have about the same wing span as the condors we saw in Peru but their wings are much much skinnier.

From the observatory we could also see some Stewart Island shags and the mud piles they create as nests. If we recall correctly, they build a pile of mud, poop on it then when it rains the poop and mud turn like concrete and you are left with row upon row of what look like upside down elephant legs. And lots of birds milling around noisily. On a screen inside the observatory we could see a rock pool of frolicking seal pups at the bottom of the headland. When we walked down to the track at the bottom of the headland, we couldn't get as far as that pool but could see some sea lions basking in the sun. We also saw two blue penguins huddling in a burrow. We weren't expecting to see any as it was still early, but got lucky. I haven't checked the pictures yet but hopefully they came out ok, the contrast between the sun baked earth outside and the darkness of the burrow was quite marked.

The second day was even more relaxed. The previous evening I had got hold of the wife of my Dads cousin who lived in Dunedin. The call must have been a total bolt out of the blue as Jenny was quite flustered and I ended up talking to one of her daughters, Sue. We hadn't been in touch over the past few years but at least they knew who I was! We had made arrangements for us to go round in the morning for a quick chat. The quick chat turned into lunch and we had a pleasant few hours round there, and met Sue and Lyn, two of Bill and Jenny's daughters. Their other daughter, Jo, lives in Christchurch, luckily not too badly affected by the recent earthquake.

From Jenny's place we went back into the centre of Dunedin to the Settlers Museum. Unfortunately it was undergoing a major restoration and only the lobby and one small display room were open. It should be great when finished late next year if what little we saw and the plans are anything to do by. We went to the train station (not taking a photo of the country's most photographed building) and got tickets for the Taieri Gorge rail trip for the following day before wandering through the Octagon and along to First Church. We couldn't go in though as a service was in full swing.

Taieri Gorge

The trip up the Taieri Gorge didn't go as planned. To be a little more precise, it didn't really go. At least not all the way.

The advertising blurb told us to sit back and relax on a spectacular rail journey, travel on one of New Zealands most historic railway journeys with photo stops and live commentary (plus a few other claims). We sat back and relaxed, and waited for the live commentary. We got it as far as Wingatui, not far along the line, where we left the main line for the privately owned Otago Central Railway. While we were sat at the station, the lights went off and all went quiet. Finally someone came round to tell us there was a problem with the power and they were sending a guy out from Dunedin to try and fix it. In the meantime we would be moving a little way along the line as we were in the way.

So there we were, sitting and waiting for the spectacular. It turned out that it wasn't a fault with the generator but with some wiring under one of the 1920's carriages. The old carriages were quite neat, all wood and sash windows. We had a little group of three seats round a small table. Nice and historic that it was, the panoramic carriage looked better for seeing outside. Not that in the end it made much difference, the fault couldn't be fixed and we were heading back for Dunedin, trip over. But first we had to go far enough along the line for the engine to be able to pass us and move to the rear of the train so it could pull us back. This was quite a way along the line, making people wonder why we were going that far and turning round when the end of the line wasn't much further. Health and safety was cited as the reason for turning round, but we have gone through several tunnels with only a LED torch for lighting and no-one was really complaining about the lack of hot drinks and food in the buffet car. But anyway, turn around we did, after the main viaduct, the Wingatui Viaduct, about 1/4 of the way to Pukerangi (the end of the line on this trip, only Friday and Sunday does the train go all the way to Middlemarch). The Wingatui Viaduct is one of the largest wrought iron structures in the southern hemisphere at 197m long and 47m above the Mullocky Stream. It didn't look half as impressive as it sounded! It looked far shorter than 197m. The pictures in the advertising blurb showed the train crossing it from below, and that looked more impressive than just driving across it. We got as far as a place called Parera, formally a crossing station and now a semi isolated holiday home (nothing else for miles around would make it isolated, the Taieri Gorge Railway coming past four times a day takes away a little of the isolation) and where we turned round. We discovered that trains aren't quite as good as boats for sending Samara to sleep (though they work just fine with Colin) but that could have something to do with the fact that we kept stopping and starting all the time.

So that was our experience of “one of the worlds greatest train rides”. We got part way through, saw the big viaduct, then got our money back. We could have gone on the afternoon train, and it was tempting, but it would have really messed with what little routine we have left with Samara in the evening. So we left it on the to do later pile, along with the Otago Rail Trail (for when Samara is big enough to pedal a long way or ride while we pedal) and headed off further on our explorations.

Moeraki and Oamaru

We went up the coast as far as the Moeraki Boulders. For those who have been following our blogs for a while may remember us taking a short break last Easter in Northland (our own backyard) and stopping at some big round boulders in the Hokianga. The Moeraki boulders are similar in their shape and geological history, but they are a little smaller and easier to find / see. And way more crowded. We followed Yvette's directions and parked in the DOC car park not the signposted info site car park and walked along the beach. The guide told us we might see penguins and seals along the beach, and we did see a seal (dead, rotting and smelly). The boulders were pretty neat, just like a pile of giant marbles strewn along the beach. They were concentrated in a smaller area than the ones in the Hokianga, but seemed more spread out due to the smaller number and the sand in-between rather than rocks.

From there we followed the coast road up to Oamaru, stopping at a couple of places with “Vanished World” signs. They were beaches with fossilised sea shells (cockles etc.) in the cliffs. The second place we stopped and had a long walk along the beach and some dinner. We didn't want to get to Oamaru too early, though the parking turned out to be free along the harbour. We were planning to mess up the evening routine completely and stop at the Blue Penguin place at dusk then head back out of town to camp for the night. The only campground in town was a 'Top 10', and they are too expensive for us.

So we got to the penguin place around 8pm and were surprised at the cost to get in. $25 each to sit in a wooden grandstand and watch penguins come out of the water and walk up a concrete ramp to their burrows. And we weren't allowed to take photos. We could understand not being allowed to use the flash, but the SLR would have handled the first few penguins and the video camera takes OK footage in low light. So its slightly grainy, but you can see whats there. Apparently their license doesn't allow night photography. So we sat there with a hundred other people and watched rafts of penguins come ashore. We saw nearly 50, which is about average for this time of year, along with a couple of rabbits. The penguins are quite easy to see once out of the water as yellow/orange sodium vapour lights are left on, we were told because penguins cant see that colour light and so believe they are in the darkness. Or maybe they are just used to coming home in orange light with a bunch of people watching.

There were some penguins outside the official area when we went back to the van. We cheekily took some video of them, but it was too dark to photograph them without a flash (not that it stopped some people). We may have been annoyed that we couldn't take non-flash photos or video of the penguins, but did at least understand and appreciate why flashes were bad. Some people just dont think.

The next morning we came back into Oamaru for a look round the historic Victorian and Edwardian buildings. We had a leaflet that took us on a kind of self guided tour of the main Historic Places Trust buildings, and found signs outside many of the others that explained what they had been many years ago. It was at this point, having spent an hour or two walking round, that we discovered we had reached the point in our trip that we no longer needed to photograph things. We were walking round admiring the buildings and the slightly steampunk train on the main street, and thought that we couldn't share any of them with you as the camera remained in the bag. Much of the scenery over the previous few days we also cant share for the same reason. Crazy. We tend to get like this after a while, we lose the need to capture everything on “film” but spend the time admiring with our eyes not the viewfinder. I'm sure if you google Oamaru you'll be able to enjoy the architecture! The biggest, flashest buildings were along the main street, old banks and the courthouse etc. But there were plenty of side streets near the old port. One street had been retained almost as it was “back in the day”, with tram tracks down the middle and warehouse type buildings complete with original or repo signs and signwriting on the walls. Unfortunately though it was open to traffic and the ambiance was marred by the presence of modern cars.

Vanished World

From Oamaru we headed inland up the Waitaki Valley and back to the Vanished World trail. We went to the visitors centre in Duntroon first and met a really helpful, informative lady there. If there was a question she couldn't answer, she knew who to phone to ask. She also accompanied us round the museum giving us extra info on top of the already good labels.

From the visitors centre we went to one Maori rock art site where caging had belatedly been put up to deter vandals – there was a lot of graffiti there and in some cases it was hard to tell what was old rock art and what was new “art”. After the rock art, we followed some of the vanished world trail, visiting several sites to look at fossils and rocks. Sounds exciting huh?!? The first place was called Elephant Rocks and was a field of large limestone rocks. None particularly elephant shaped, they were just large and grey. We stopped at another place on the side of the road to look at rock, this time where thin layers of molten basalt had intruded into wet sand and mud on the sea floor, and when it slowly cooled vertical cracks formed and produced these columns of rock. The other places we stopped at had fossils of ancient whales, or parts of whales, still stuck in lumps of limestone. This area had once been under the sea and many fossilised whales and dolphins, of types no longer found, have been unearthed. Fossils from 20-30 million years ago. It was all much more interesting than we have made it sound and definitely worth a visit. On our way out the following day we stopped at another Maori rock art site, Takiroa. There had been a landslip there following the first Christchurch earthquake and it had just been given the all-clear to be cleared and re-opened when this latest earthquake had struck. The lady in Duntroon said it was still ok to visit, but we didn't spend long there. Despite a massive rock fall, none of the art had been affected. The rock had come down in between the two shelters where the painting had been done. But as at the previous site, damage had been done before protective caging had been put in place, by latter day graffiti and “collectors” in the early 1900's seeking to “preserve” the art. By cutting out and removing sections of the rock art, the weathering process had speeded up and was slowly destroying what was left in place.

From the vineyard filled valley of the Waitaki river (lovely Pinot Noir), we headed towards the Southern Alps, and we'll tell you what we saw in the next blog. (Sorry we are so behind!)

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Photos

Stella and Samara
getting to know each other

Comments

[Erika + Willi]

We are glad to read that you have not been affected by the earthquake in Christchurch and we feel sad for the people there who lost their relatives or their houses. Hope that you three travelbugs are well. We will send you a photo of Oamaru with our syncro. Enjoy the last weeks of your journey! Erika + Willi