Kaikoura: Mountains and Mammals

Kaikoura : Mountains and Mammals

Kaikoura was a wonderful place to rest and soak up the scenery in a relaxed way ,after our rather strenuous hike. The little town is picturesque, on a penninsula that juts out to sea with huge white capped mountains in the background. It was a sleepy fishing village until 1987 when whale watch charters started its first whale watching operation, and now it's a huge tourist mecca because of the whales. The continental shelf here drops steeply from 75 metres to over 3000 metres in a short distance, and two currents one warm and one cold converge here, making it a favorite site for whales, particularly the sperm whale, which hunts in a solitary fashion, often diving up to 1 mile in depth to feed. We had a great view of 2 sperm whales on our adventure, even seeing the characteristic upturned tail when they dove down. We also saw a blue shark, and some albatrosses. The town is also home to several seal colonies. We had great view of the seals on our first day at low tide. On the second day, at high tide we saw the seals up close and personal, about 10 ft away, sleeping on the grass under bushes and even on the pavement in the carpark- totally oblivious to the tourists.

On our last day, we had the opportunity to go to the Kaikoura A&P show ( or agricultural and pastoral show)- a bit like a smaller version of Western Fair-or maybe the Ilderton Fair. The highlight for us was seeing the sheep shearing competitions. Three contestants at a time would shear, trying to be the fastest and the most accurate. The senior shearers were headed for the world championships - the winner could shear 800 sheep in a 9 hour day- impressive! The excitement just grew when we got to see a real dog and pony show. Kids in carts raced ponies- one pony being significantly larger than all the others ( maybe on roids?). The dog races were priceless. The terriers got all suited up in their racing outfits with numbers; they lined up at the start with some difficulty, then a sheepskin on a retractable rope was released and they were off One pup just couldn't get the hang of the competition and was still wandering on the track after all the other dogs had left .Daisy would have loved it.

Our last morning we said goodbye to our wonderful accomodation - a century old cottage called the red door cottage, watched a great sunrise and headed off. We were a bit unnerved when we were driving the coastal road with the sea on one side and the mountains on the other, to see a train pulling up behind us, and overtaking. The Tranz Scenic Railway track runs parallel to the highway for several miles. At one point the people in the observation car were taking photos of the sea, as I was taking pictures of their train. We passed lots of vineyards in Blenheim and Renwick, passed the green lipped mussel capital of the world in Havelock , and after much winding up mountain roads, arrived at our new home in Nelson.

Queen Charlotte Track : Hiker's Heaven

The Queen Charlotte Track : Hiker's Heaven
Our first adventure in the South Island was a 4 day hike on the Queen Charlotte Track- one of the most beautiful and luxurious hikes we have ever been on. Instead of carrying our tent and all our gear on our backs for the hike, as we usually do- we booked into 3 separate lodges and and had the water taxi transport our gear and us to the trail head. The ride from Picton was gorgeous- a light mist rising from the bay and views of islands and mountainous bays along the way. About halfway through the trip we were treated to a show by a pod of about 20 bottlenose dolphins ( 2-4 metres long). They jumped and played in the boat's wake , some of them jumping a meter out of the water. I wasn't fast enough to capture it all on film. We started our hike at Ship's Cove, the place where Captain Cook landed in 1770 and returned for 2 more trips. The forest was lush, with lots of tree ferns, and large beech and pine trees. After a steady climb, we were rewarded with spectacular views of the coast that just kept getting better and better. Our day ended after a 9 hour hike, and we were greated by the host of our lodge , who gave us chocolates because of our long trek. carried our bags to our room ( they had arrived by water taxi) and announced that dinner would be served on the verandah in 40 minutes. We met the other 12 guests, were fed a sumptuous meal on the porch overlooking the water and took a brief tour of the lodge's glowworm grotto ( called Eden) before collapsing into bed. The next morning after depositing our bags on the wharf, we set off on the next leg of our journey. It was grey and a bit foggy, but it gave a mystical and mysterious air to the surroundings. We climbed a ridge and were supposed to be rewarded with panoramic views from the top, but found the fog thickened and gave us only teasing glimpses of the scenery. One of our fellow hikers, Elke, a young woman from Germany, hiking on her own, kept us company. After another 9 hour hike we were glad to see our next lodge- which had a great view, a jacuzzi and a pool, if not the personable host we had the night before. The weather was sunny and spectacular the next day, and the view were superb. We arrived early and enjoyed the view and the swimming in our next lodge and had a fine view and easy hiking on our final day. We were almost sad for it to end.
When the boat deposited us on the dock, we retrieved our gear, jumped in the car and drove south to Kaikora. The drive was interesting- we passed sheep farms, vineyards and rolling hills- all dry and parched because of the recent drought - except for the irrigated areas. The highway hugged the coast as we got closer to Kaikora- with mountains on one side and the wild raging sea on the other. We even saw seals basking in the sun as we drove by. Tomorrow we hope to take a whale watching tour. More later...

Kapiti Island and Wellington: Birds and Big Cities

Kapiti Island and Wellington : Birds and Big City
After we left Whanganui, we headed south to Kapiti Island, a nature reserve island just offshore, north of Wellington. The island is sacred to the Maori, and apparently, one of their leaders is buried there. It has been a nature reserve since 1897, but was farmed and also used as a whaling base. Since 1998, after 10 years of eradicating possums, rats, stoats, goats, dogs, etc. it is officially predator free and is home to a wide variety of birds that are rare or extinct elsewhere. It was wild and stormy the night before we left, but the morning was sunny and clear for our short ride to the island. We had a brief introductory talk from the naturalist about the birds and the area and then had the whole day to explore ( only 50 people are allowed on the island each day- and they have to leave by 5 pm). We were struck by the chorus of birdsong there. Many birds that we had heard but not seen on the mainland (like the bellbird) openly serendaded us. There is a native parrot called the kaka that was very aggressive and comical, perching on people's shoulders and trying to grab tidbits of lunch, even though we all obeyed the rule of not feeding the wildlife. We saw the endangered saddleback, hihi and the abundant but cute weka (that also tried to scavenge food). The forest was lush and had abundant tree ferns and the view from the top made the climb worthwhile. We returned for a sunset walk on the beach and a return to the garden of our lovely accomodation.
Wellington was a bit of a culture shock after the nature preserve. We toured marine drive and saw the lovely norfolk island pines along the promenade, great beaches and griz got to get up close and personal with an Easter Island head, donated by the president of Chile. That evening we were graciously entertained by Wendy's sister Linda and her husband Robert, who insisted that we stay to dinner even though she was off to hospital to check out an eye emergency after we left. Luckily Linda was fine the next day- an example of Kiwi hospitality.The next day we saw a great exhibition on whales at the Te Papa museum and saw videos of a sperm whale diving 1 mile deep to catch a giant squid, heard the sonic noises of different whales and saw videos of Maori elders telling the legends of the whale. We dined well and saw great views of the city from Mount Victoria and finally headed to the ferry to begin our south island adventure. The ride was reasonably calm and not too windy, but not loving boats and being a bit motion sick, I was glad when our journey was over.

Waitomo and the Wild Whanganuin River

Waitomo to the Wild Whanganui River

After leaving Mangawhai we headed south and spent some time touring the Waitomo Caves: a huge series of underground limestone caves. The most interesting one was the famous glowworm cave were tiny glowworm larvae emit a blue luminous light in order to attract bugs to their tendrils of web, hanging from the cave top. The cavern with statactites and stalagmites was impressive, with excellent acoustics. Apparently many opera singers and choirs have given concerts there.The tour concluded with a magical ride on boats in the dark with glowworm light overhead. The following day, we toured the huge stalactite cave with some of the stalactites several thousand years old.

Our next adventure was our canoe trip down the Whanganui River. We stayed overnight in the small town of Ohakune, known as the carrot capital of New Zealand and you will see Griz posing with the giant carrot. We were up bright and early the next day to start our 4 day river adventure. As we set off , our canoe rental guide took great care to strap our barrels of belongings into the canoe (something we don't bother doing at home) and gave us a few pointers on how to handle the rapids. With some trepidation we set off, with fast water and gusty winds pushing us along. About an hour into the trip we put the equipment to the test as a gust of wind pushed us into a large log snag, just as we were hurtling through the rapids. Griz managed to keep his cool and found my paddle (which I had forgotten about in the excitement of trying to surface from under the boat), bailed the boat and set us on our way. The rapids and the winds kept us quite busy the first day, and I was terrified to take my camera out of its waterproof case in case we dumped again. We had a great campsite with tree ferns, high cliffs and the sound of rushing water. The next day was calmer and we started to appreciate the huge cliffs, seabirds,goats and even began to enjoy the rapids. Partway through the trip we came to "The Bridge to Nowhere". Apparently, after WW I returning solders were offered free land to farm. However, the steep cliffs and rocky valleys made for difficult farming. By the time the government got around to building a bridge into the area in 1936 all of the settlers had left for more profitable farms and the bridge to nowhere stands forlorn in the wilderness. Tired but happy we concluded our trip and were able to see Mt Ruapehu clearly on our return trip. Now we are spending a couple of days in the town of Wanganui- a laid back Victorian town that had its peak of tourism in the early 1900's when travel down the Whanganui river in steamboats was the major travel and tourist route. Tomorrow we will see the river the easy way- riding a restored steam powered paddle wheeler- the only one in New Zealand .