New Zealand Part 2 : June 25 - July 14
Dunedin : Saturday, July 1, 2006
Happy Canada Day! Nobody can believe that we are now in our last month of the trip. Today we drove from Te Anau into the town of Dunedin on the east coast of the south island. The roads were particularly frosty this morning. There were a couple of cars off the road with other drivers warning us about icy corners etc. The Kiwis are obviously getting tired of this weather as well. Our route today took us through the towns of Clinton and Gore on the Presidential Highway. On entering the town of Gore we were welcomed by a huge statue of a brown trout. Turns out that Gore is the Brown Trout Fly Fishing Capital of the World! Sierra wasn’t overly impressed however and cynically pointed out that everywhere here seems to be the world capital of something. (She must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed).
As we left the mountainous Southern Alps behind us, we entered into a very rolling hill country with sheep, lots and lots of sheep. It was a 4 hour drive to Dunedin. Dunedin is one of the oldest towns in New Zealand and is famous for its architecture, and the Otago Peninsula. We pulled into town shortly before 12:00 and instead of checking in we opted to do the Otago Drive. The peninsula starts out from the south side of town. It is not very well signed so it took some good navigating to get us going on the right track.
It is 25+ km out to the head of the peninsula. We chose to drive out on the Highcliff road which runs along the top of the ridge, with a very steep drop off down the west side. It was a very windy, very narrow and today a very icy road. It also offered some great scenery. While we had blue skies, the wind was bitterly cold. At the end of the peninsula is the Royal Albatross Center. The Otago Penninsula is the only place in the world where albatross nest on a mainland close to civilization rather than on an isolated sea island. We searched the cliff faces and while we saw lots of other unique birds, we saw no albatross. Maybe if we had paid for the tour we would have had more luck. (Truthfully it was the wrong season.)
The peninsula is also famous for its yellow eyed penguins. These rare birds nest here and one other place along the south island. We had been planning to take a tour of the colony with the “ Penguin Place”. Unfortunately the tour was closed for the afternoon (winter hours). We had to settle for our late picnic lunch and a leisurely drive back into town along the lower coastal Portobello road.
On arriving in town, Deb immediately routed us to the Cadbury chocolate factory. She had heard they offered tours, and if she wasn’t going to get to see penguins then chocolate was the next best thing. Deb and Sierra bailed out of the car at the front door and left the boys (who opted out of the tour) to find the hotel and get the family checked in. We were staying at the Scenic Circle Hotel ( Dunedin City not Southern Cross) right in the middle of downtown.
While Brennan did homework, Brian did a walking tour of town. The guide books were certainly right; the architecture here is very attractive and very old. The town is centered on a very large Octagonal Square, and is anchored by a Cathedral on one end and a large Presbyterian church near the south east corner. It was a beautiful town and we certainly saw why people were attracted to it. By the time Brian got back to the hotel room, the girls were already back (loaded down with “free” chocolate!).
It was Deb’s pick for dinner tonight and she opted for Chinese because she was craving vegetables. It was pretty cheap relatively speaking. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel for some more homework and a bit of TV. Tomorrow we begin the trek to the north. Next stop Christchurch!
Sunday, July 2, 2006: Christchurch, New Zealand
Today was pretty much a driving day. The trip from Dunedin to Christchurch was a little over 5 hours travel time. Our first stop was only an hour into the drive. We had heard about the famous Moeraki Boulders and had seen several pictures of them in the various brochures we picked up along the way. These large boulders are almost perfect spheres found lying along a large sandy beach. Local mythology suggests they are the hardened food baskets that fell overboard from the giant Maori canoes that discovered the island. In reality they are likely an artifact of volcanic extrusions. While it was an interesting break in the drive it certainly wasn’t anything worth driving out of the way for! It might be a different experience in the summer with warm temperatures and a chance to play in the water and the sand.
As we began the approach into Christchurch, the land began to change from mountains to large flat plains. Everywhere we saw evidence of storm damage from the one meter of heavy wet snow that had fallen 10 days earlier. Though the roads were pretty clear, there were broken branches and trees down everywhere. I guess we got lucky with our timing. By all accounts it was a pretty miserable time. The army was called out to help access stranded families and the power is still out in many places.
Christchurch itself is a large city (the largest on the south island, and second largest in New Zealand). It is also an old city with many of the streets running together and changing names rather abruptly. Navigating into our hotel was a bit tricky but armed with a detailed street map we eventually found our way. This was not without incident however as there was significant backtracking, u-turns etc because of many one way streets.
We were staying at the Tuscana Villas (another tripadvisor recommendation). It was a great room, located 6 blocks from the downtown core. A family room ran about $80 USD per night, complete with kitchenette. It was spotless.
After dumping our bags, we had to decide if we needed to get groceries first or take advantage of the remaining sunlight hours and see downtown. Given that we had a busy day planned for tomorrow, the trip downtown won out. We had a walking tour map of the downtown core and headed off to our starting point which was at city hall. We arrived in Victoria Square (located in front of city hall) and Sierra immediately commented on how much the place resembled the University of Victoria. If you ignore the fact that there is no ocean frontage, she was spot on! With a bit of imagination we could easily believe that we were back in our old stomping grounds.
Our walk took us by several large statues (including one large one of Captain Scott of the Antarctic) and meandered its way along the Avon River that runs through the center of town. While it is much smaller than its British cousin, it is still big enough for kayakers and punt boats. The architecture here was pretty unique and old. While the surrounds of Christchurch are made up of traditional row houses and suburbs are all made of cookie cutter homes, the downtown core is one of the prettiest we have seen.
It was beginning to get dark as we turned up a large walking mall in the center of the city. Being Sunday, most of the shops were closed. Most but not all! The kids located an EB Games and immediately began searching for replacement games. While Brian stayed behind with the kids, Deb sprinted on ahead to the Cathedral Square in the center of the city for some more photo ops. Thanks to some early birthday $ from his grandparents Brennan was able to pick up a game and “ease his boredom” during the long car rides we have been taking. The purchase however was not without discussion and extreme levels of dissent from Brian who argued that he should wait till he got home to spend the $. Tough luck Brian, it looks like yet another lost spending argument!
We made it back to the hotel an hour or so later. The walk was just what we needed after a long day in the car. Brian, still bearing a grudge, headed off to the grocery store to pick up some materials for dinner. If he couldn’t get the family to save money voluntarily, he was convinced he would do it by controlling food intake. Despite its low cost, dinner was a chorizo sausage and vegetable scramble. Very cheap but very, very good! Goodnight Christchurch!
Monday, July 3, 2006: Christchurch, New Zealand
Everybody slept in this morning and Deb took advantage of the internet access to make some calls. Brian in the meantime spent some time tinkering with our email application. For some reason it has stopped sending emails! Reception is fine however, and we still have our internet based email access as well.
We were on the road by around 10:00. Today we headed out to the little town of Akaroa located on the Banks Peninsula. This small town is located roughly 90 minutes south east of Christchurch and is well known as a quiet little fishing town tucked away into the shadows of the seaside mountains. Tucked away is right! While the first 70 km was pretty flat stuff, the last 50 were crazy steep! Finally we reached the summit and looked down on a spectacular little bay and the sleepy little fishing town. The road then proceeded to wind its way down to the sea. We stopped along the way at Barry’s Bay Cheese shop, a local landmark and picked up some of the more famous flavours. This whole region is big on cheese.
The town itself was remarkably active for being the middle of winter. We hit a couple of shops and worked our way around some very steep walking trails that took us by an old French Cemetery. The town itself was unique in that it was founded and colonized by both French and English settlers. Had we given ourselves more time, we would have arranged for a harbour tour (the bay is home to some very active dolphins and seals), or we would have got a ride on the mail truck. The mail is delivered daily to the very remote seaside villages. Ride along tours are available and are very popular, giving visitors a unique perspective on some of these remote communities. After working up a good sweat from all the climbing we headed back to the car for our picnic lunch. After salami, local cheese and crackers by the sea side we were raring to go again.
Our return route was going to be a bit more circuitous. From town we caught the 50 km “ Scenic Summit Route”. This road hugs the steep hillside as it winds its way up and between the two large volcanoes (extinct) that formed this peninsula. We thought the main road was twisty but it didn’t compare to the Summit Road. Often times it resembled more of a goat track than a road, and it was not anything you would want to do in bad conditions or at night. Our progress was stopped for several minutes when we ran into yet another sheep herd working its way down the road. The farm kids on bikes acted as the herders in this case. The lucky dogs were riding in the back of the truck with the farmer. In short order we were back on our way again.
All along the way are yet smaller roads that take you down various inlets and yet smaller fishing villages. We did manage one detour to the town of Okains Bay. This town is famous for its Maori museum and associated meeting house. Brian was still doing the “cheap” thing so we had to settle for pictures on the outside.
A couple of hours later, we found ourselves back in the outskirts of Christchurch. We had a few hours left in our day, and had given the kids a choice of mini golf or a VISIT TO THE WORLD FAMOUS ANTARCTIC INSTITUTE! This institute is reportedly one of the top attractions in New Zealand and offers some amazing hands on exhibits all to do with the continent further south.
The kids opted for Mini-golf….
While it didn’t totally suck, Brian was disappointed. The kids however had a blast. They had more than their fill of museums and scenery. The 18 hole course had all sorts of motorized things that smoked and sprayed and moved your ball etc. Brian won handily however and let everybody know it. It doesn’t happen often. This was the first time he had ever beaten Deb at mini golf and was going to remember it for a while.
Navigation back to the hotel went smoother the second time around. Dinner was more comfort food (soup and grilled cheese). This was our last full day on the South Island, and we all wish we could spend more time here. We covered a tremendous amount of ground down here but we only just touched the surface. Onwards and northwards!( NEXT PAGE )