Dunedin and Otago

I headed north to Dunedin. I stayed in Dunedin three nights in a great new apartment.   The room I wanted they didn't have so I got upgraded.  I caught up on work and then headed out to the Otago Peninsula which is just adjacent to Dunedin around 1/2 hour.  I went all the way to the end of the peninsula to a nature preserve to see the Penguins.  They took us in 6 or 8 wheeler amphibious cars.  First destination was a spectacular panoramic view and then to the seal colony.

There were maybe 100 to 150 seals and there were lots of mothers with babies.  There is something mesmerizing about them.  They are a little like humans and little like dogs.  Next stop on the tour was a incredible picturesque beach to see the penguins.  Well actually penguin.  The brochure showed a bunch of penguins and when we got there, there was just one really far away.  They told us that penguins were very unsociable and didn't even like each other.  Any way the tour was nice despite the lack of penguins.

I then drove around another 20 minutes to Lanark Castle.  The drive was through  narrow winding roads through the hills.  Actually, most of New Zealand is winding roads through hills but this was particularly narrow and windy.  The road narrowed so much that I got out of the car and stopped a car going the other way.  I asked them if I was going the wrong way on a one way street and they told me that was just how the road was.  I also asked him what Boxer day was.  Which is what the day after Christmas is called and they told me rich people used to give the peasants boxes of food the day after Christmas in England and it became known as boxer day. 

Befittingly I arrived at a Castle.  I did have a great lunch of smoked salmon and eggs.  They are big on poached eggs in New Zealand and they have lots of salmon farms.  I walked around the castle  a bit.  It was built by a wealthily guy a long time ago and then abandoned.  It was rediscovered and bought by a family who refurbished it.

What's The Point?

I got out of Queenstown on Christmas day and head south to the southern most point of New Zealand.   I got lost that night and ended up on  a gravel road.  I have maps and gps in my cell phone but could not quite figure out where to go.  That Christmas day was one of the hardest driving days.    My final destination was Nugget Point.

The great thing about driving in New Zealand is sometimes what you see on the way to a place is better than the place you are going to.  Or at least you see something unexpected.  There is always an abundance of rolling hills, cows and sheep and you may just see a surfer too. 

I was in  a race against the sun to get to Nugget Point.  When I final did get to Nugget Point, I had to take yet another gravel road.  This place is one of the most beautiful points in New Zealand and you would figure they could put in a real road. The sun was about down when I got there but there was just enough light to grab the incredible shot above.  It was worth the trip.

On The Road To Queenstown

Queenstown is in the middle of South Island as on the circuit list.  The photo you say above I took somewhere on the road.  I don't know exactly but it reminded of the American West like Montana.  New Zealand is a combination of the US West, Hawaii, Ireland, England, New England and a little bit of France thrown in.  The great thing about traveling is not all the places you visit but the traveling in between.  I spent Christmas eve in Queenstown and left the next day at noon.  There was not much to do there and I was itching to get back on the road. Driving can do that to you.  You can get addicted to the road.

Christmas Eve 

Everything was pretty much closed Christmas day but I found a Chinese noodle place open.  Incidentally the only other people in there were a couple from Hong Kong that were on my Glacier expedition.  New Zealand is really a small country.  You bump into people you know even if you don't know any people.  Photo below is Queenstown at dusk.

Ice Elated

This area is not very inhabited and borders on a rustic coast on the west mountains just east.  There are several points of interest on the way to Queenstown.  There are two glaciers Franz Josef Glacier (named after the King of Austria) and Fox Glacier.  I opted to go to Franz Josef.  On the way there I stopped late to sleep in a small town and did not want to pay for whatever they were asking for a hotel room.

I was steered toward a Youth Hostel and my slumming experience began.  As I mentioned before there is a whole slew of young people traveling around New Zealand.  The places that I am traveling to are pretty much a circuit.  Young people in their twenties and thirties are primarily from Germany, US, Israel, Holland and some French.  They travel in cars, rent small vans, hitchhike or can buy a pass on the Magic Bus, which goes from place to place and is a hop on hop off type thing. 

This hostel that I stayed at had a whole contingent of Magic Bus Travelers.  I took a single room that had a high ceiling and was not too bad.  Just down the hall was a TV room with about twenty kids in sleeping bags watching a movie.  Although I had my own room, you share shower and toilet.  I survived my night there and throughout the rest of the trip, a hostel was always an option.

When I got to the town of Franz Josef I opted at staying at a hostel too.  Each hostel is different and this one had adjoining cabins that were like ski chalets.  I had a shared cabin so I had my own room and shared a common area and bathroom with  one other person.  The other person did not show up so I had it to myself.  I loved that place.  It had a lot of character and felt like I was in a ski resort town in the 60s.

The next day I was primed to climb the glacier.  I took the expedition around 12:30 PM.  There are around 40 on the trip and that equip you with gear including jackets, pants, socks, boots and clampons.  I kept thinking they were saying tampons.

They put you all on a bus for mourned ten minutes and then  you hike in the woods uphill, at a fast paste for around twenty minutes.  You then arrive at a clearing en route to the base of the glacier. 

This was not an easy trip and it probably took around an hour and a half before you actually came to any ice.  The glacier is around 20,000 years old and is from the ice age.  It is not that very high up as far as elevation goes.  The reason the ice has stayed so long, is that the gorge it is in has compacted it.  The compacted ice also gives it its blue color.  There is a prism effect occurs that makes it so blue.

This was one of those once in a lifetime experiences.  To top it off as part of the deal, we got a free ticket to the town hot p

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ools, which felt great after the hike.

Ready, Willing and Abel having to go to Pu Pu

In a country where Christmas is in the summer, cookies are called biscuits, the date is tomorrow, they drive on the wrong side of the road, an appetizer is called an entree, they say thank you to the bus driver, and they like the sound of my voice, it is no wonder that they name the source of the purest water in the world, Pu Pu springs.

Pu Pu is actually short for Waikoropupu which is a Maori name.  The Maori are the natives of New Zealand and most of the names for everything here are Maori names.  The spring was really a side trip to the Abel Talisman National park. 

 

I had planned on going to Golden Bay a beautiful strip at the top of South Island but it was raining terribly and decided to cancel that part of the trip.  I stayed in a hotel room which was like a small room in a basement made of concrete blocks.

The next day, I actually was going to forego Abel Talisman also but right when I got to the junction to turn, it looked like the weather was going to break.  The park is accessible by foot path or water taxi and I opted for the water taxi.   

They dropped me off on the beach you see above and I stayed there for around 2 hours.  I was basically the only person there and I would say this is the closest to paradise that I have been to.  

 I was thinking about doing a shoot here but the logistics did not lend itself to this location.  I am glad the rain broke for that short time because the park was spectacular. 

 

Doing Well In Wellington

I have now traveled all the way to the southern most point of North Island to the capitol of New Zealand, Wellington.  Wellington is a bit like San Francisco and the harbor like the South of France.  It has a lot more character than Auckland.  I stayed in the Cuba area, which is a street with lots of restaurants and shops and part of it is sealed off to make a pedestrian mall.  

There is an active promenade area with parks, shops, museums and restaurants by the water.  You can see a little bungy jumping ride set up for kids.  I think bungy jumping was invented here. 
I spent time by the harbor and then took the cable car up to the top of the hill.  There is a botanical garden there and then I walked to a beautiful rose garden. 
 I walked down the hill and got a little lost.  I stumble upon a youth hostel and the kids there were making Christmas ornaments from egg cartons.  There are so many young people here from all over the world traveling.   In fact, any where you go, their is a good chance the people serving you are from another country.  New Zealand has a very liberal work program for traveling young. 

The next day it was on to Picton.  Picton is the most northerly town on the South Island.  I had to catch the car ferry between the two Islands.  It left at 8:30 AM and arrived at around 11:30.  I enjoyed my short time at sea and forget how much I loved sailing.  You pull your car right up and get on the ship.  Getting off was easy too.  I then drove up to Nelson and stayed overnight.  It rained pretty hard and the weather did not look promising.