NZ: Curio Bay to Stewart Island

December 28, 2011

We were not expecting to have a horrible night sleep because of the wind, but sure enough we had to get up at 2am to tighten the tent and get earplugs from the car.  Things got better after that, but unfortunately we had a 6am wakeup because we had to catch a 9:30am ferry in Bluff, which was over an hour away.

By all measures the ferry to Stewart Island was very rough, but I have some new motion sickness pills that kept me feeling great through it all.  I might even go so far as to say I enjoyed it!  We saw a massive seabird related to the albatross, so that was pretty neat.

Stewart Island is just off the far south west coast of New Zealand and is known for abundant and protected bird life.  It has a small town, a few restaurants, and a grocery store, but that's about it.

The only place to camp was at a hostel (Stewart Island Backpackers), so that's what we did.  It worked out great because we got to use their facilities and we were close to everything we wanted to see.

Napping/reading on the grass at the hostel is what gave me my second sunburn of the trip.  It was also there that we had our first showers of the trip, which was quite exciting at the time.

For lunch we caved and had locally caught fish and chips.  The food was delicious, but when I asked for vinegar they put it right on the chips and when Ryan asked for a plastic fork they said that it cost extra.  So strange!

Since we couldn't just sit around doing nothing all afternoon, we went on a short walk through some beautiful forests to two beaches and the botanic gardens.  I wasn't feeling great so what should have been a short walk turned out to be long and tiresome.

We decided to relax for the rest of the afternoon and play board games in the hostel common room with a bottle of wine.  After dinner at the local hotel we went to the dock and looked for marine life, spotted only fish and coral, and then we went to bed quite early.

NZ: Omaru to Curio Bay

December 27, 2011

By 9am we were packed up, fed, and on the road again. 

We wanted to get to the Morecki Boulders before hoards of tourists showed up, and our 10am arrival time was perfect.  On the short walk to the beach we passed our first little "permanent" tent settlement, or "shanty town" as they will be referred to from now on.  As we later found out, these are the result of freedom camping and probably why it has become illegal in so many areas.

Anyways, the Morecki Boulders were pretty cool.  Ryan thought they were lame until the info board perplexed him.  He always assumes they're wrong, but maybe, just maybe this time they were right!

When the rocks crack open they looked like dinosaur eggs or geodes or something, then some of them made these neat tidal pools.

We had lunch in a cute café in the town of Dunedin, which was full of beautiful old buildings and great smelling restaurants.  This would have been where we saw albatross but we were pressed for time and decided to skip it.  We attempted to buy cheap Christmas chocolates at the Cadbury factory, but they wouldn't even let us in the store without a ticket!

We had heard good things about Nugget Point, our next stop, but no one had told us about the treacherous drive required to get there.  We had a tiny car, but meeting camper vans on a 6km, cliff hugging, dirt road was not fun.  The scenery was beautiful, but I'm not sure it was worth the drive because we only saw a few seals in the distance and no penguins.

At the base of this weird island, very far down from where we were, there were a few New Zealand Fur Seals.  Also, the white dots are a large, rare bird with a fluffy head called the spoonbill.

At this point I'd just like to say that our pictures didn't turn out as well as we had hoped on our entire trip, so most of them really don't do the place justice.  The lighthouse at Nugget point was quite ominous and felt like a scene from a scary movie, but of course we couldn't capture that mood.

I let Ryan take over the driving as we proceeded to Niagara Falls (the New Zealand version).  The pictures in this case are worth a thousand words.

Our resting point for that evening was Curio Bay - home of a petrified forest, yellow-eyed penguins, and Hector's Dolphins.  We were both quite hungry and grumpy, so we feasted on a delicious pasta creation and then headed to the beach. 

The petrified forest was overshadowed by the super cute penguins coming in for the night, and the super annoying tourists blocking their paths.

I debated even including this picture since it made us furious, but I thought you should see it how it was.  Some people were literally standing in a semi-circle around them so they couldn't pass.  That's why we decided to leave early to let the penguins come in peacefully.

Ryan overlooking the petrified forest.

I think I saw a dolphin in the distance too, so it was a great day filled with interesting wildlife.

Australia Day

January 26 was Australia Day, so naturally we had to do something fun to celebrate.  Originally our visitors were due to arrive at noon, but due to flight trouble unfortunately we had to quickly change our plans.  Lucky for us Justin and Kelsey were free, so we had a barbeque on the beach.  We had some chicken skewers, but cooking them on the little charcoal barbeque turned out to be problematic and quite sandy due to the wind.  We also had veggies, paté and crackers, and of course, Tim Tams (an Australian cookie covered in chocolate).  My contribution was the Australia Day party hats.

It looks like we were alone on the beach, but really as far as you could see people had brought massive tents out for the occasion.  Many people brought full patio sets, and one group even carried a massive barbeque onto the beach.  Not many people were swimming, but of course we had to go in for a short swim.  The water was warm but quite wavy and unfortunately a bit dirty.

After our sun shade blew down we decided to go back to our house where we promptly polished off an additional 4 bottles of wine (on top of the beer at the beach) then cooked 4 frozen steaks for dinner.  Luckily I had ice cream cones for dessert!

Overall, despite the travel setbacks my family had, we managed to have an excellent Australia Day.  It also means we can eat our roo burgers and kanga bangas (kangaroo sausages) for dinner tonight to keep the party going!

New Zealand: Christchurch to Omaru

Hi everyone!  Thanks for waiting around for me.  I hope I didn't lose too many readers over the past two weeks.  I have purchased a new computer so my only excuse for not writing from now on will be because I'm too busy having fun!  This week we have our first visitors - my aunt and uncle from BC arrive tomorrow.  I'm super excited, but I'm trying to get at least one New Zealand post in before they get here.  Enjoy!

December 25, 2011

We departed for New Zealand with only our two red extra large MEC "hockey" bags, and somehow we fit all of our camping gear in them.  This will definitely encourage us to do it again!  We had a minor panic when we checked in because of our visas, but all ended well.  Clearing customs in Auckland was far easier than we had expected, and we easily made our connection to Christchurch.  The second plane was much smaller than the first and the crew was a riot.  Since it was Christmas they all dressed up and sang us a song to the theme of "Jingle Bells" instead of reading their usual pre-flight speech.  Just before we landed, Santa made an appearance to hand out candy canes and lead the plane in a few Christmas carols.  This was the most festive our holiday got, so we really enjoyed it.

The downside was that they didn't have food on that flight or in the airport when we arrived, so at 11pm our first experience in Christchurch was looking for a gas station for some food (since everything else was closed).  All they had left was one sandwich and a muffin, so our Christmas dinner was slightly disappointing.  Luckily the "check in" at our hotel went smoothly (the key was in a lockbox) so we were able to get to sleep after our long journey.  In a change of events, Ryan was awaken by one of the Christchurch earthquakes!  He had never felt one before so it was a unique first experience.  He said the walls and headboard shook quite a bit, but surprisingly I slept through it.  (Sidenote: when I felt an earthquake in Australia Ryan told me I was crazy and to go back to sleep!)

December 26, 2011

The hotel owners had left us a really nice breakfast in the fridge, so we feasted on cereal, yoghurt, and a new food for us: golden kiwis!  They were yellow instead of green, and a bit sweeter.  So yummy!  We didn't stick around long in the morning, eager to get our trip started, but the hotel was quite nice (and highly recommended: Airport Christchurch Motel).  Our first stop was another gas station for fuel for our camping stove, and then a grocery store.  We tried to buy a cooler at the grocery store, but sadly they only had display ones and they refused to sell one to us.  It was very awkward at the check out. 

Initially the drive south was quite exciting with lots of farms, but we quickly got over it. 

One point of note is that farmers seem to really love hedge fences.  We noticed them from the airplane because they are made from extremely tall trees of all different varieties and they were everywhere.  It seemed to be a competition over who could get the most geometric shape because some were amazingly trimmed.

Our first stop of the day was in Timaru where we had a delicious picnic lunch on the beach.  It was funny because to get to the beach we drove down this long circular ramp (like an off ramp but longer) and there was a basic park in the middle of it absolutely packed with people.  This was strange since literally 200m away was he parking lot for the beach, which was beautiful and uncrowded.  Obviously that was our choice for a picnic!  We put our feet in the water and considered a swim because it was so warm.  It was the warmest water of the trip so we should have done it, but we were excited for the next destination. 

During the trip from Timaru we passed through Rakia which has the longest bridge in New Zealand, so that was another first for us.

We were looking forward to Omaru, the next stop on our journey, because of the penguins.  Supposedly they come into the town for the night and they're fun to watch, but that was not exactly correct.  The town has built what is essentially an enclosed grandstand viewing area with night vision lights around their sleeping area so tourists can pay $25 (!) to sit in there and watch them.  NO THANKS!

A more fond memory of Omaru is our Boxing Day shopping experience.  We still needed a cooler, so we went to this weird store (kind of like Giant Tiger) and asked for a "cooler" or an "esky" (the Australian word).  The clerk looked at us like we were crazy, then said "Ohhhh….you mean a chilly bin!"  Seriously!  That's what they call them in New Zealand!  So we proceeded to buy the exact same chilly bin as the display model from the grocery store.

Our final mission of the day was to find a campsite, so we took a beautiful drive along the coast to get to one recommended by the tourist centre. 

The only charge was a $5 donation, and was probably the best site of the trip. 

Since we were there early we quickly set up the tent to claim our spot, then went for a swim.  The water was freezing but we had a blast jumping in the waves.

Dinner was an (albeit delicious) adventure since it was the first time we used our stove.  When it lights it makes a fireball so we were a bit leery at first, but it worked great after we read the instructions and found out that was normal.  The unfortunate result of that dinner was a sunburn on my face which lasted (then peeled) throughout the duration of the trip.

And thus concludes, with a bottle of New Zealand wine (Matua Valley, Marlborough, Sauvignon Blanc, 2011) and a board game, our first night on the road!

Temporary Hiatus

Unfortunately when I arrived at work this week I discovered that my computer won't charge, meaning I have to take an extended break from updating this blog.  Hopefully when I get home in 2 weeks I will be able to fix it, but sadly you'll have to wait until then.  Sorry!

An Introduction to New Zealand's South Island

Well, we survived our first overseas trip since being in Australia!  It was harder than you might think, considering we had visas to worry about and a ton of camping gear to get through customs.  You know that question on the customs forms about freshwater streams and farms?  We actually had to declare that we were in those places!  But, like I said, us and all of our gear made it without too much trouble.

For this blog post I thought I would just give an overview of our New Zealand experience and talk about things that might not make it into later posts.  It also buys me some time to get our pictures organized.

This is the route we took.  We flew into Christchurch on Dec. 25, 2011, drove down through Dunedin to Stewart Island, up to the Fiordlands, over to Queenstown, then to Mt. Cook and back to Christchurch.  We flew home on Jan. 9, 2012 after driving over 2300 kilometers.  Originally we had planned to see Franz Josef Glacier, but we would have had to backtrack pretty far after Mt. Cook so we decided against it.  As you can see, in 2 weeks we only did about half of the South Island.

We slept in our amazing tent almost every night, and for the most part that was an excellent decision.  I would say we could have our campsite set up in about 5 minutes if we were both taking our time, and about 10 minutes if one person did it and couldn't find something in the car.   Our meals were quite basic, but I think I have Ryan eating couscous now!  It was a great food since you only have to add boiling water to cook it.  The campsites were unlike anything I have ever seen before, so I will elaborate on them in a later post.

Many of the roads were windy and steep or gravel so I'm glad we had a little car.  Unfortunately gas was about $2.06NZD/litre, so that ate up quite a bit of cash.  Many people say that the South Island is very similar to British Columbia in Canada, and we definitely noticed the similarities.  The weirdest part for Ryan was because it was so similar he was amazed that he didn't have to watch out for bears!  What kept throwing me off was the tropical plants and trees mixed in with the "Canadian" scenery.  Oh, and there really are as many sheep as you expect there to be!

While we were there the weather was unseasonably warm and dry.  We felt very lucky for that since we were camping in a tent without any chairs or a cooking shelter.  It would get up to about 27 degrees Celsius during the day and down to maybe 15 at night, so it was absolutely perfect compared to Australia.  I sunburned my face on the first day and it didn't really get better for the rest of the trip.  The sandflies (blackflies) were also pretty bad like we expected, but that certainly didn't bother us as much as it did others.

Before we left we went to the bank to figure out what we should do for money.  They recommended a reloadable money card that you use like a credit card, so that's what we did.  First off, things were a lot more expensive than we had anticipated so we quickly ran out of money on the card.  Some of the campsites had internet, but when we went to reload the card the bank required us to confirm the transaction via text message.  That would have been fine, except of course our cell phones didn't work in New Zealand.  Consequently, for the second half of the trip we had major money problems.  We had to keep finding bank machines and withdrawing from our Australian account, which of course incurred high fees.  By the last day we were actually counting the change in the car to see if we could buy a plate of potato wedges (we couldn't).

That's all you're gonna get about New Zealand for now!  Today is our only day off before work, so we've got lots of packing/unpacking to do.  I'm hoping to be able to post while I'm at work this time, so don't worry, pictures will be coming soon!