Of Ferries, Elves, Dwarfs and Large Sea Creatures

Day 6 saw us on the road for Picton where we would catch a ferry to the North Island.  There was so much more to see in the South Island but distances between these sights would have eaten up too much of our allotted time in long drives. I am saving the South for a return trip once we have recovered and forgotten about those 14-hour flights. 

The South Island is different from the North Island. The biggest difference is population with 3.5 million living on the North Island and 1 million on the South making the North a more happening place. Another is climate with the South generally cooler than the North.  We woke up to 2 C one morning in Christchurch. The mountains are bigger in the south, known as the Southern Alps, they run down the centre of the South island and remain snow capped year-round.

What we are really looking forward to are the volcanoes and volcanic activity that can be found on the North Island. We have developed an affinity for volcanoes over our many adventures. The North Island is littered with them. 

Picton is just a place to catch the ferry.  We were booked into a sweet little B & B just off the downtown area. With some time on our hands, our host directed us to a lovely pre-dinner hike on a little island located off the downtown core and accessible by a bridge over the marina. From the bridge we watched manta rays cruising around the marina, probably looking for moorage.

The hike rewarded us with stunning views of Shakespeare Bay and out into Cook Strait, our next days ferry exit from Picton and on to the North Island.

Day 7 and time to visit a winery before boarding our ferry. We rolled the dice on one that had been recommended by our hosts so with hope in our hearts, off we went and lo it was open. Early in the season, they had limited offerings, mostly all white except for a tasty pinot noir. We left with two bottles. 

I had read that crossing the Cook Strait can be a little rough. There is a wind belt known as the Roaring Forties that can sweep up the strait creating a huge wind tunnel. A bad storm caused a ferry to sink in 1968. I did not mention this to Nonie as she would not have boarded the boat short of knocking her out and carrying her on board unconscious. The strait lived up to its reputation.

We arrived into Wellington, the forgotten capital city of New Zealand to rain, waking up on Day 8 to even more rain. We only had the day to explore the city and so it was to be done in between light drizzles and heavy down pours. My first goal was to find and ride the 1902 cable car railway, a 628-metre climb over a 17% grade from downtown Wellington. 

It has undergone several upgrades since its inception so should continue to be around for another 100 years.  The terminus at the top also houses an interesting cable car museum.

The cable car terminus was also an entrance to a lovely hilltop botanical garden with grand views of Wellington and Wellington Harbour. With the rain continuing and the volume increasing we made the decision to move on to Masterton, a small city north of Wellington.

Masterton was to be the base for our exploration of the south end of the North Island on another stunning coast road.......

and ending at Cape Palliser, home to a picturesque 220 year old  lighthouse.

Up early on Day 9, we meandered the coast road directly to Cape Palliser and a climb up the 250 steps up to lighthouse.

From there we could see forever. Made those steps worth every one.

Fur seals have visible external ears and as such are not considered real seals and are more closely related to sea lions.

One thing we have discovered about seal colonies, you can smell them long before you can see them.

We pulled off the road to enjoy one of the many vistas.  As I exited the car, I was overcome by an extremely pungent odor which brought tears to my eyes. As I stepped away from the car, I looked down to my feet to see if I stepped in something and avoided stepping on a very chill female fur seal basking in the warmth of the sun in the grass alongside the road. It seems that we have found our not-seal colony.

The smell had real staying power and left a stink that lingered on our clothes for quite some time. But did do a nice job on clearing our sinuses. New Zealand fur seals have pointy noses, long whiskers, visible external ears and bodies covered with two layers of fur. The seals colouring closely matches that of the rocks they sunbathe on making them almost invisible.

Our next stop was a hike into the Putangirua Pinnacles used as a film location for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The location appeared in “The Return of the King” the final film of the trilogy. The misty, spooky scenes of Aragon, Legolas and Gimli riding along the Dimholt Road to meet the Army of the Dead were filmed against the surreal backdrop of the Pinnacles. We binge watched the trilogy over Christmas and saw the scene which lasted about 3-4 seconds.

The trip into the Pinnacle was a ten-kilometre round trip that took us off the coast highway, traveling up a mostly dry creek bed and into a narrow valley that abruptly ended.

The Pinnacles are New Zealand’s versions of the hoodoos of Northern Alberta. The pillars are formed by badlands erosion with each pillar taking on a unique shape guided by Mother Nature, wind and rain.  



Can anyone see a penis?

We finished the full day with a short side trip to Lake Ferry, a semi-famous pub/motel on the shores of Lake Onoke. Actually, Lake Onoke was once Onoke Bay but a huge 3.5-kilometre sand bar, Onoke Spit  now completely blocks off the bay/lake from the ocean except for a small section that stays open and allows the lake to drain the glacier fed river that empties into the lake.

 After storms, this small drain can get plugged up with sand creating the potential for flooding. Large pieces of earth moving equipment are brought in to clear the sand away so the lake can once again drain.

A cold beer and meat pie at the pub/motel and it was back to Masterton. Tomorrow we are off to Tongariro National Park.   

I’m All Shook Up

Day 4 had us up early and on the road for a drive along the beautiful coastal section of State Highway 1, ranked in the top 10 beautiful drives in New Zealand.  Described in an online blog as “not only stunning because of the natural landscapes but because of wildlife you’ll see along the way. Baby seal pups squashed to a bloody pulp in the middle of the road is such a pleasing sight. The Peregrine falcons swooping down from up on high, landing neatly, eating their flesh and picking out whats left of their juicy eye balls, yellow eyed penguins being pestered by overzealous tourists and marooned whales make, what only can be described as, a great family fun day out……... Just kidding (to an extent) you may see a few dead seals but most of them are alive and well; and they are so cute and fuzzy (from far away)”. 

Once I read this, who wouldn’t want to take a ride here. 

We are  headed for Nelson, a small city located on the north end of the South Island.  This would be the base for our hike into the beautiful Able Tasman national park. 

The highway took us through Canterbury, the first of three wine areas that we would travel through today.  Okay, okay, I admit that that is the real reason I chose this route.  Perhaps we should have delayed our departure a little as we arrived to early to find any tasting rooms open in Canterbury just a short distance outside Christchurch.  

We still had two more areas so as the they say “no problems mate”.  

Arriving into the Waipera Valley wine area we found most of the wineries closed or only open a few days a week and this was not the day.  “No problems mate”, we still had the Marlborough/Blenheim wine area which we is located at the other end of the coast highway.  

From the Waipera Valley, we began the descent down to the coastal section of the highway.  

Perhaps I should have read the fine print. “recent earthquakes and storms have done a considerable amount of damage to this stretch of road and whilst maintenance teams are doing their best to fix it, it will no doubt still take several years." 

On November 13, 2016, a magnitude 7.8 quake hit the east coast of the South Island. The quake and the aftershocks destroyed numerous sections of the highway. 2 years later, the road has been opened but the massive re-construction is ongoing along a 120-kilometre section of the road. 

What should have taken 90 minutes, descended into a 5 hour stop and go trip from hell.  Thank god, the earthquake did not destroy the coasts beauty, in fact may have added to it. We could admire it as we sat idling in the “way too many” line ups, telepathically encouraging flag persons to let us through. 

We reached the Marlborough wine area just after  closing time. The vineyards were pretty awesome though.  

Nelson is the oldest city in the South Island and the 2^nd oldest city in New Zealand. Named after Admiral Horatio Nelson, it was established in 1841. We are booked into one of the many hostels that are found there. While a pleasant little place, we were here for the park. Abel Tasman National Park is a wilderness preserve, well known for the 60-kilometre  trail that travels along golden sand beaches, coastal forests and across ridges that provide glorious vistas of Cook Strait.

We did not have the time to hike the entire route but planned to spend one day exploring a small part of it. We chose to hike a pretty 12-kilometre section in the middle which required us to take a water taxi to the start and a pickup 6 hours later.  This section would take us into several beaches, several ridges, a cable suspension bridge, some coastal forests and if we were lucky, we would finish the hike crossing a tidewater bay, missing a low tide meant adding on another 3 kilometre walk around the bay.

Up early Day 5 for a 50-kilometre drive to the small town of Kaiteriteri where we would be picked up at 8:00 am on the beach and dropped off at Bark Bay and picked up 6 hours later at Marahau. The track is well used by locals and tourists so we wanted to hit the trail as early as possible and avoid the crowds that would be showing up later in the day. We left quite a few millennial's still asleep back at the hostel that would be coming later.  

The taxi showed up on time and before dropping us off, did a drive by of Split Rock 

and a small seal colony on Adele Island.

Our first beach was winner. We were dropped off on a long sand spit formed by a small river entering the bay.  

As promised we saw beautiful beaches, although we had wait 15 minutes for a boat load of tourists  to unload, take a picture, reload and sail away before we could have the beach to ourselves. Well, at least for 10 minutes anyway. 

A suspension bridge taking us to a coastal forest.

We made low tide and were able to walk across the bay. The bay was covered in sharp little shells making the barefoot crossing a little uncomfortable. 

And a shady beach where we could wait for our taxi. 

Tomorrow we head to the town of Picton where we will pick up our ferry and cross over to the North Island and hopefully find a wine shop that is open. 



  

Christchurch still has Owies

It was 12:51 pm, on February 22, 2011 when a 6.2 magnitude earthquake, struck approximately 10 kilometres south-east of Christchurch causing wide spread damage.  The central city business district was badly affected and is still recovering from the and its aftershocks. Over 180 people perished. The quake only lasting 10 seconds but destroying or severely damaging many of the buildings in the downtown core.

7 years later we arrived after a 2-hour flight from Auckland. We were booked into an apartment which was ideally located just on the edge of Christchurch’s central business district (CBD).  After the earthquake, almost 45% of the buildings in the CBD were condemned or had their access limited till repairs could be undertaken. 7 years later and there are still highly visible signs of the damage that was caused. Empty  lots from some of the 1240 demolitions that had to be done as well as  vacant buildings still waiting for repairs.

Sadly, many of the buildings damaged were heritage buildings.  The most visible is ChristChurch Cathedral located in the centre of town.  Damage was severe here and there is now an ongoing battle between those that want to save and restore it and those that feel it should be torn down and rebuilt. The restoration crowd seems to be winning.  It would be a wonderful feat for Christchurch if restoration could happen.  

Christchurch is very walk-able, easily explored on foot. It had been a two flight, 21-hour sojourn from Vancouver so we just spent what was left of the day of our arrival, getting our bearings and exploring the CBD while trying to stay awake.  During our walk, we discovered that there is hop on, hop off trolley that has a circular loop around the city so to save a few bucks, our plan for the next day was to follow the tracks on foot and visit all the listed tourist stops along the way.

Our first stop on day 2 was Hagley Park and a stroll along the river Avon where for a few bucks you could be punted along by young oarsmen in period costumes. 

Within the park is a lovely little botanical garden and our first introduction to the flora of New Zealand.  What we found were somethings familiar and somethings never before seen.

Giant cedars that could be found in any forest near our home.

and others that shed their bark and would not survive a winter in Canada.  

In keeping with our theme of jet lag avoidance we booked an afternoon/evening visit to the Ko Tane Maori Experience, billed as an "interactive cultural experience that provides a look into our country from the past to the present day in a fun and informative way." The experience also included a "Kiwi Tour" as the Experience is located in the middle of the Willowbank Wildlife Preserve and what is a wildlife preserve without a kangaroo or perhaps it was a wallaby. It should be noted that there are no wild kangaroos and a few wild non-native wallabies inhabiting New Zealand. But they are sooooo cute! 

The preserve provides a 100% guarantee kiwi viewing.  Kiwi's are nocturnal so the preserve has created a building that turns day into night and fools the kiwis into coming out of their nests to forage for food the staff have hidden around there habitat.  To dark to take a picture but we did see their shadowy forms moving silently around in their habitat.The kiwis are changed every few weeks so I can sympathize with them on the jet-lag they must go through.  

The Experience was definitely interactive. Other attendees, sensing my innate leadership qualities chose me as their  honorary chief to meet the welcoming Maoris and their chief. 

Looking forward to rubbing elbows with the chief, I was surprised to find that it wouldn't be elbows we would be rubbing but another part of my body.  

Nonie as usual, made friends immediately

while I struggled to get a long with the men. 

Some parting words with the chief and we headed back to our apartment. He promised to keep in touch. 











Day 3 saw us heading for the little coastal town of Akaroa and my first test under fire for driving on the wrong side of the road. Driving on the wrong side takes team work. When turning left, Nonie would repeat the mantra “stay inside, stay inside, stay inside”. Turning right, she would repeat the mantra “go outside, go outside, go outside”. Mantras that would be repeated hundreds of times over the next 6 weeks. 

I settled into making correct turns fairly quickly, but struggled with the other equipment which were also located on the wrong side. Took me weeks to quit turning on the windshield washers when I wanted to use the turn signals. We had no mantras for that. 

The roads to Akoroa, a little village popular with cruise ships were to be our first introduction to the type of roads we would find in our travels in New Zealand. The lanes were quite a bit smaller in width then we are used to and shoulders were non-existent. Straight stretches were few and far between. Curves, curves and more curves, but the views were spectacular. 

Akoroa was first settled by French colonials in the mid 19^th century and the town boasts several heritage buildings. We were there for the delightful hike that took us above the town with grazing sheep and brilliant views of French Bay. No cruise ships today. 

Tomorrow we are moving on from Christchurch so it will be an early start with a 300-kilometre drive along the beautiful coast highway to Nelson.