March 1, 2012- Queenstown

Hey All,
Well since we last posted, our travels have taken us to Queenstown, our last stop on the south island before a flight to Auckland, one night there and then the long flight home. I believe we left off at slope point in the last blog, the southernmost point of the south island. Well from Slope Point and Invercargill, we drove on to a small town called Bluff. This is where the ferry terminal from the mainland out to Stewart Island is located. We stayed at a very charming B&B called the Lazy Fish for one night in Bluff and then caught the early ferry to Stewart Island. If I never see another ferry again it will be too soon after that. The straight between the island and the mainland was ROUGH there was a prevailing south-westerly the morning we sailed and OH MY GOD it was BAD. The ferry is reasonably small, I'm guessing about 40 ft long, and its a cat style boat that travels, according to the skipper, about 23 knots. Unfortunately the wind was probably faster than that and the swells were HUGE. I was so sick I didn't get scared, I kind of vaguely noticed that as I was looking out the window desperate to try to find the horizon all I could see was water.... Dark, black blue water with white crests taller than the boat... and then I was too busy scrambling for the puke bag to notice anything. Miles told me later (on solid blissfully still land) that people seemed to be pretty scared and some looked terrified of the waves. I wasn't scared, I just wanted to get the hell off that damn boat!!! Unfortunately i remained pretty sick and shakey for the rest of the day and pretty much just slept. So a bit of a wasted day there, but when we woke in the morning I felt better, so we had breakfast and then decided we would do a couple of short walks before we had to catch (gulp) the ferry back.
We were headed to a short circuit of one peninsula when we passed a house on a corner and there was this older guy showing a german couple this strange contraption that looked like a tent hung between a couple of trees.  (Now if you know Miles at all, unusual or unique things intrigue him to no end, so before our trip here he had spent weeks researching this contraption called the Hennesey Hammock. Basically a tent-hammock invented by this Canadian guy named Tom Hennessey. Its a pretty neat idea actually) Naturally, where I would have gone "huh, neat" and kept going, Miles is like "sweet" and walks over. The old guy turns to him and says "Hey, any idea what this is?" and Miles is like "yeah its a Hennessey Hammock" the guy laughs offers his hand and says "I'm Tom Hennessey"  So for the next half hour, Tom and Miles talk about the design, how it works, what works well and what needs improving, and then Tom asks where we're headed for the day and convinces us that the best walk to do is a two hour trek out to Maori Beach, and lo and behold he knows a lady who will give us a ride to the trail head and here let him call her for us and why don't we come in for a cup of tea and meet his wife... Long story short we joined him and his wife for tea and a few stories, he spends summers in BC on one of the islands in the straight and winters in NZ on Stewart Island. He flagged us down a ride to the trail head, (litterally hollered and waved down a passing tour vehicle one of his friends drives) assured us we would be back in good time to make our ferry (damn...) and sent us one our way to see the scenery of Stewart Island. In retrospect, we totally got hijacked lol but it was a very beautiful hike, so I"m glad we did.
The ferry back was bad too, not as bad as the one out to the island, I didn't lose everything I'd eaten this time, but still felt ill. We drove back to Invercargill to spend the night and in the morning we headed up to Te Anau. On the way to Te Anau we stopped at Gemstone Beach. The water there is VIOLENT the waves are never ending and they just pound  the shore to no end. They deposit stones on the beach, some considered valuable by ancient maori to use to make tools and adornments, and others still considered valuable such as sapphires and I think it was emeralds. We searched the stones, but all we found were some pretty stones. nuts eh? Of course, as my mom can attest, stones are just as good for me, I"m sure she still finds little caches of my "rock collection" around. So between Miles and me we filled my pockets with pretty stones. There was a couple of older men there who had a sluice set up and were looking for gold. Apparently since the price of gold went up again, they can make about $400 a day just mucking around in the sand. Not too shabby for a hobby is it?
We continued up the road towards Te anau stopping at a few other sights along the way. We stopped to check out this old bridge and were greeted by the ugliest pig I've seen. It really wanted Miles Apricot but he  is pretty protective of his apricots, so the piggy went away dissappointed. We reached Te Anau and stayed in a holiday park there. For the rest of that day I was pretty much down for the count. I was still feeling off from our lovely ferry experience. So I stayed in bed and slept it off. On the next day, which would have been the... 27th of February I think, we drove out to Milford Sound and did a cruise of the sound and some walks in the national park. I was a bit hesitant to get on another boat, but the water was like glass so it was all good. We saw the tallest sea-peak in the world, Mitre peak. It rises a vertical mile straight out of the water from sea level. That was pretty neat to see. We also saw more seals sunning themselves on rocks and the boat went right up to a waterfall. Milford sound isn't actually a sound, it is a fiord, which means it is a water filled valley that was carved out by glacial activitiy. This means that the sides are extremely steep, and at its deepest the fiord is 300m deep. The open ocean we travelled between Stewart Island and the south island was only about 35m deep. Milford sound is pretty unique in other ways too, it gets some of the highest rainfall anywhere in the world, on average it sees 6m of rain annually, some years its been as high as 9m of rain. this means that when all that rain hits the steep sides of the mountains and runs down into the fiord, the fresh water pickes up tannins from the trees and becomes a browny reddish color. Because fresh water is not as dense as salt water it floats on top of the sea water in the fiord. The color of the fresh water filters out most of the sunlight from hitting the salt water and as a result, you get life in the fiord that usually is only found miles down under the sea. Things like black coral that usually grows only in water so deep that most people will never see it, can grow in only 10m of water. Its a pretty amazing phenomenon actually. We stopped at an underwater observatory in the fiord too. It is a floating building that has a glassed in observation area underneath it that goes down to about 10m below the surface. The life you can see in just that small area is astounding. There were sea cucumbers, starfish, anenemes, tube worms, black coral, kelp, and fish galore. It was very cool to see. But once again I got seasick. REALLY??? So I had to go back up while Miles took photos. On our drive back through Fiordland National Park to get back to Te Anau we stopped and did a short walk called the Chasm. It was pretty cool, we were walking through this dense rain forest and we could hear rushing water but it wasn't until we were about 3 feet from the edge of this CRAZY gorge that we saw it. (don't worry there was a trail and a bridge, we wouldn't have walked into the gorge) The rock formations were absolutly incredible. It was a bit like Maligne Canyon, only shorter and with crazier rock shapes. We took lots of photos but not sure they do it any form of justice.
The 28th was another do nothing day as I was all sick and bleh again, and Miles was feeling tired too (THAT should have sent of warning bells, that man hates sitting around doing nothing)
The 29th we packed up our stuff and drove to Queenstown. And Now I"m feeling fine, but Miles is locked in a dark room with a bad cold. Sigh. cant win here these last few days. So yesterday while he slept I did a bit of shopping and walked around Queenstown, but its really just more fun with someone to talk to. I may be one of few women who can shop with her husband and say its more fun than going alone, but there you have it! Queenstown reminds me of Banff, lots of highpriced tourist trap souvenier shops, and lots of tourists... pretty but busy.  And today I've just been on the computer, updating blogs and emailing people. We'll see if Miles is feeling anybetter when I get back to the room and maybe we'll head out into the world to check things out.
Tomorrow we fly to Auckland, spend a night there, and then catch a flight the evening of March 3rd to come home!
Which probably means that this will be the last blog. So hopefully I haven't bored anyone and you've enjoyed hearing about our adventures and seeing some of the photos.
See you when we get home!!!
Cheers
Brianna and Miles

Febuay 23- ok finally found computers and internet- in Invercargill

I'll try to keep this as concise as possible what with 13 days worth of catching up to do.

February 12 Headed to Hanmer Springs-
 Hopped a bus from Kaikoura to Christchurch where we rented a car and drove back North to Hanmer Springs (apparently the busline we have passes for doesn't go to Hanmer Springs). We arrived in Hanmer Springs around 6:30 in the evening on Februay 12. We checked into our cottage outside of town, which was a "historical" cabin. It was converted from an old smithy into a lovely cabin. Ok so you really couldn't tell that it had ever been a smithy, but it was cool either way. The Morning of the 13th we went to the Hanmer Springs Thermal pools and spa and treated ourselves to massages and then a couple hours in the thermal pools. Its a huge complex with pools ranging in temperature from 34-41 degrees C. It meant there was a comfortable temperature somewhere to lounge in for a long time. We shopped a bit after that, bought some Merino wool stuff and generally just relaxed. The 14th we headed back to Christchurch to spend one night there before catching the train from the Christchurch station over to Greymouth on the other coast.

Febrary 15- the Train to Greymouth

The Tranzalpine train as it is called takes you on a 5 hour trip across the Canterbury plains, through the Southern Alps and down to the west coast in the town of Greymouth. The scenery is outstanding. The alps are an intriguing combination of rugged yet grass covered, with the occasional gorge thrown in. The train trip itself was enjoyable, there was an open air car and the weather was a warm enough that we spend the majority of the trip there taking photos and just enjoying the scenery and the rock and sway of the train.

foggy view from the train

Bri on the open air car- very windy

 The train pulled into Greymouth station at 12:45 so we had plenty of day left to check things out. We rented yet another car so we could get out and about and headed to "Shanty town" think Fort Edmonton Park or Calgary Heritage Park only compacted and in better repair. It is a replica gold mining town of the 1800's. So you get the typical old general store, the shoemaker, the ferrier, etc. we visited the "stamper" and the blacksmiths shop, and the hospital as well. the hospital was pretty interesting, it talked about how crude the methods were and the lack of knowledge about infection and cleaning tools between uses etc. Apparently one doctor did a study about the rate of survival of surgical patients on whom the tools used had been first cleaned with Carbolic acid versus those whose tools had been uncleaned. Despite his findings of a 70% increase in survival of patients whose surgeons used clean tools, people didn't believe him for another 30 some years...  annnyway, we took a short steam train ride and tried our hand(s) at gold panning. I was surprised I had the patience to actually do it lol. Miles had no trouble, having done it before.

When we rented our car, the girl there suggested that if we were heading south towards Hokitika (which we had planned on) then a worthwhile trip would be to the Hokitika Gorge. So after our Shantytown adventures we drove the old farm roads along flat as pancake plains to the mountains that just rise up all of a sudden. It was only a 45 minute drive or so, and the gorge was pretty amazing. The water was green/blue, a bit like the Bow River in Banff, and the gorge was steep and rocky with a swing bridge across it. It was definitely well worth the trip even if we did get rained on.

We drove back to Greymouth to spend the night at a backpackers there, and in the morning we headed north up the coast to check out "the Pancake Rocks". We got lucky and had outstanding clear sunny weather too!
The Pancake rocks, or Punakaiki are a granite formation that is perfectly layered and look like pancakes. The coastal scenery along the way was outstanding. We couldn't get enough photos, but they just don't do it justice. I can never quite get over the color of the water in New Zealand. It doesn't seem to matter if it is salt or fresh, it is clear clear clear and the shades of blue are mind boggling. Anyway, Punakaiki was pretty outstanding too. There is a blowhole at the site, but we were there at low tide so didn't see it blow. The ocean there is quite violent, the sound of it hitting the cliffs and echoing up the rock walls was loud enough and deep enough that we could feel it reverberating in our chests and at some points you could swear you could feel the rock shake. hopefully that was just imagination....

We drove back to Greymouth and caught the train back to Christchurch around 2:00 that afternoon. Lo and behold, we got sunny weather!!!! From Kaikoura on until we hit Greymouth the weather had been overcast and a bit rainy, so the sun was a welcome sight.

February 17- Christchurch
Now it was the third time we had arrived in Christchurch, we figured it was probably time to stay for a bit. Christchurch is slowly recovering from the earthquake that hit the city so hard a year ago. We just missed the actual anniversary, but I'm kind of glad we did. There were 185 people killed in the quake, so there were a lot of mourners in the city and it would have really made one feel like an intruder to be there at that time. As it was, the central area of Christchurch is still very much a disaster zone. There are buildings that still need to be torn down, piles of rubble three stories high, buildings that have actually twisted and are somehow still standing, and of course the many stone buildings, such as the great cathedral, that were damaged and will never be repaired. It was a very solemn sight to see.

demolition crew taking down one of many buildings in Christchurch's central business district

the steps on the bridge of remembrance fell about three inches

if you look at the left side of this building you can see the whole thing is twisted

all that remains of the famous cathedral

part of one of the old university buildings

 And as a result, there is very little for accommodation in Christchurch, and even less in the way of computer communication. We were lucky to be able to find a place to stay for two nights. While we were there, aside from touring the devastated part of the city, we took in the Antarctic center. This is the launch point for any antarctic exploration, and both the kiwis and the Americans have their base here. There is a center that gives all sort of information about Antarctica, for instance did you know that the coldest temperature recorded there was -89.2 degrees C????? that is freaking nuts. No wonder no one has tried to colonize. Even in the summer it is -30. The Center boasted a "blizzard room" that was at a steady -8 and every hour you can go in in a parka and boots and they turn on a giant fan and snow machine and create a blizzard with a windchill of -18. We skipped that, we know what -18 and bloody winds feel like thanks! We did however take in the Haglund ride. its a big track driven machine used for travel in the antarctic and designed by the swiss army. Pretty rough, but interesting.

a hagllund

Brianna and "sized" penguins

Miles standing "on both poles"

 
Our last day in Christchurch we went punting on the avon river. ok we had intended on going punting, but it seemed like more fun to kayak on your own rather than have someone else pont you along, so we actually kayaked. The Avon is fairly wide, very shallow and very smooth. there is hardly a ripple let alone any rapids, so it was a very genteel Kayak compared to our other experiences. We enjoyed it though as the section we kayaked took us through Hagley Park and a bit of the botanic gardens. Oh and there were ducks galore.
We caught a bus later that day (the 18th) and headed for Dunedin.

kayaking the avon river

punting the Avon river :)

February 18- Dunedin
Our bus arrived into Dunedin around 8 at night, and we hadn't realized it but there was a bike rally AND the Scottish Pipe Band contest in town that weekend which meant that finding a bed in Dunedin was next to impossible. We were lucky to find a hostel that had tent space for us for the night. Unfortunately it was once again raining and COLD! We did manage to stay dry and warm, but I was glad for my mummy bag, I had the hood all done up and all that stuck out was my nose and eyes. (And Mom, I didn't get stuck in it this time, and didn't have a claustrophobic panic attack either...well not bad) 
The 19th dawned dreary but dry at least so we packed up our soggy tent and caught a cab to the airport to pick up one last rental car. We'll keep this one until the second of March when we fly out of Queenstown back to Auckland. At least now, if we can't find accommodation again and its pouring rain, we can sleep in the car!!! We drove to the Octagon (central "square" of Dunedin) which is literally an octagonal street. We walked this old central area, took in the gorgeous architecture, and stopped to watch some of the Scottish Bagpipe bands compete. Now it took us a while to find the area where they were performing, and we had no idea what was going on, but we noticed there was an unusually high number of men in kilts wandering around so we figured there had to be something going on. The bands were pretty neat to watch, they are so precise in every movement and each one played something a little different.
Dunedin is also home to a Cadbury Chocolate factory which offers tours, so we booked on for the next day. The 18th continued to be really cold and damp and windy, so we eventually gave up wandering the streets and found a cabin at a holiday park on the outskirts of the city.
The 19th- We woke to grey skies and cool temperatures, but it was lighter clouds and warmer than the day before so we were happy. We headed to the Cadbury factory for our tour.  Miles was in seventh heaven (I was pretty close too!) all that chocolate!!! We saw them making chocolate chips and a 12.5kg BLOCK OF CHOCOLATE!!!! we got to see 1 tonne of melted chocolate make a waterfall in a giant silo, and of course we got to sample :) We may or may not have purchased an obscene amount of chocolate to share back home. There are some chocolates that New Zealand Cadbury makes that we don't get in Canada, so we took advantage of it :)

Miles' sexy hair net

Brianna's even sexier hair net

posing in the old Cadbury milk truck c. 1919

When we got out of the factory, the weather was growing steadily warmer (yay) we checked out the university book shop as it is supposed to be a really good one, and it was, I found a fair few books I'd love to read, but they are REALLY expensive in NZ. like $30 for a paperback, so I restrained myself. We did however buy a bird book. Technically, other than sea mammals and two types of bat, the only animals on the islands (naturally anyway) are birds. And there are a lot of them so we figured it might be interesting to try to recognize some. Now I have to wonder, are the authors of bird books able to keep straight faces when they are discussing how to describe the calls of some birds??? because apparently the call of the Australian Magpie is, and I quote "quardle-oodle-ardle-wardle-doodle, all year long" try saying it with a straight face to someone who isn't expecting it. I dare you.
When we walked out of the bookshop the sky was blue and it was warm enough for t-shirts! SWEET! We decided to drive to the Otago Peninsula.  talk about beautiful scenery. Once again, the crazy shades of blue ocean, and rolling hills with sheep and cattle and a castle. The only Castle in New Zealand, the Larnarch Castle is nestled among the hills with spectacular views of the landscape. We toured the inside of the castle, built in the late 1800's. It was abandoned when the patriarch of the family killed himself, and was in sad disrepair when a young couple came across it in the 1970's. They decided to buy the castle and the land, restore it and open it to the public. They did most of the work themselves, by hand and it is very well done. The gardens are also all done up and quite spectacular.

Otago peninsula scenery

Larnach Castle

view from the tower

The stairs up to the tower!!!!

Miles found the armory! Not sure what an anvil is doing in there unless they're gonna pull a Pirates of the Caribbean and shove it into a cannon...

We drove to the tip of the peninsula to see the only mainland breeding colony of Royal Albatross in the world. it was late by this time, after 5, so the center was closed, but we stood on the cliffs and watched these magnificent birds from a distance. Unfotunately BOTH camera batteries decided to die, so no amazing albatross photos :( its really hard to understand just how big a 3.7m wing span really is until it swoops over your head and makes you feel REALLY small.

February 20- Moeraki Boulders
The morning of February 20 we maneuvered our way though Dunedin to Baldwin street. The steepest street in the world. Its pretty steep. At its steepest point you gain 1 meter in hight for every two meters you walk. Or drive. We got a few dirty looks, from all the other tourists walking it, but we drove to the top. Between colds headaches we just weren't up to walking it, and really, everyone walks it, how many people drive it??? We carried on North from there to the infamous Moeraki boulders. New Zealand has a lot of "worlds only" and the Moeraki boulders are definitely among the notable. They are these almost perfectly round boulders scattered along an otherwise sandy beach whose cliffs are also soft sandstone. The boulders look like granite some some other hard stone and I have NO idea how the heck they got there. Some are cracked open and lay there like egg shells, some are split to show their hollow center. Its weird and really cool.

this one had its own little aquarium going on

so many strange boulders

no hatching comments!

one of these things is not like the others...

lets play a little where's Waldo... er Miles...

From Moeraki we headed south again, we did a short walk in a scenic reserve that mentioned Trotters Gorge, we never found or saw a gorge but there was a pretty stream and some neat caves- the caves weren't deep, maybe ten feet into the hillside, but still neat. It was raining a bit that day however, and the hiking trails in NZ get REALLY muddy really fast, so the trail was slippery and a bit treacherous on the hills. We almost made it out, but Miles lost his grip on one hill and went down before I could even blink. He slid a good 6 feet through the mud on his ass. Yeah, i laughed. His jeans are still folded in the back of the car, caked with dried mud lol. Gotta find laundry facilities one of these days.

We also stopped at a cheese factory, we had hoped to do their "cheese making" tour where you actually get to make cheese, but it wasn't running that day, so we settled with a sampling (yummmm) and chatting with the owner who told us that before we left the area we HAD to check out shag point. Its a scenic reserve where you can often see seals and yellow eyed penguins (the rarest in the world). We drove out to the point and saw tons of seals chilling on the rocks. Honestly, the positions they can sleep in on those rocks... We didn't see any penguins though. apparently they are quite shy and often won't come to the beach if they can see humans. The seals were still cool to see, even though we had seen them before, I never get tired of watching them.

We have been heading south by car ever since. We stayed that night in a town called Balclutha, then hit the road again down the "southern scenic highway". Scenic meaning winding, twisting roads. Although not as bad as the roads up to Cape Reinga.  We stopped along the way to see quite a few waterfalls, attempted to see Cathedral Cave, but the tide was in and did not allow us entry. We stopped at a place known as the Petrified Forest. Its right on the coast and is a rare example of full trees that had been petrified by a landslide.  This is also a good area to see yellow-eyed penguins. Luckily enough we did see one penguin lying amongst the rocks. These penguins are the rarest in the world and we just so happened to get a lot of photos. Amazing. Along with the massive waves breaking at the nearby coast line.

not dead or ill, just resting

Miles standing at the end of a petrified log

massive waves hitting the rocky ledge

another petrified log

same yellow eyed penguin, still sleeping

 After this we headed toward Slope Point, this is the most Southern point of the South island. So naturally we could not pass up the chance for a photo opportunity. So off we went down a gravel road for the next 30 odd km. After seeing about every attraction along the way we decided it was time to make some miles and head to Invercargill for the night.

Now fully rested  and waking up to a down pour we decided to take the better part of the day and sit down and write about what we have been up too. So there you have it.

Next stop Bluff, Stewart Island, Fiord-land, Queenstown and ultimately home
see you all soon!
Cheers,
Brianna and Miles