NZ Part 3 - Christchurch to Invercargill
Trip Start
Aug 07, 2008
1
10
22
Trip End
??? ??, 2009
Invercargill,
South Island,
New Zealand
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
The next day we went for a walk around part of the lake and up Mount John for some great views of the lake. It is when you are up the mountain that you understand why Tekapo is considered one of the beautiful New Zealand lakes. There are so many stunning accessible lakes here that you need something a bit different to make it stand out and Tekapo has a lovely turquoise colour to it
A-Wow cool lunch stop
. The colour comes from rock flour, which was formed in glacial times when rock bottomed glaciers were grinding on the rock below forming fine particles, which are now sediment in this and other lakes in the area and this sediment refracts the sunlight, giving the turquoise colour, simple ay?After our day around Tekapo, we were in the mood for mountains, so we headed south for a couple of hours to Mount Cook National Park, which is set in a valley at the base of Mount Cook. Mount Cook is the highest peak in the Southern Alps and Australasia, for that matter, and not something we were ever going to try and climb. The thought of climbing the mountain, which never actually entered our minds, was pushed further to the back of our minds, when we spent time in the small museum they have there, which tells stories of people climbing the mountain over time and has a sad memorial book for those lifes lost of which there are several per year. I can tell you, there have been some very brave, heroic pioneering people that have climbed and attempted to climb the mountain, as well as some apparently stupid, ill equipped people. All very interesting though. Having said that we were never going to climb it, we did do a walk in the park, which took us to the base of, the very ugly, Hooker Glacier. It's ugly because the face of the glacier is full of rock, stones and mud it has picked up on it's way down the valley, making it very dirty and therefore, ugly
B-Lake Tekapo
! Despite this, looking beyond the glacier gave us a great view of Mount Cook. From Mount Cook, we spent the next day heading south east, away from the mountains and onto Dunedin. The drive was a lot like driving through the Great British country side, lots of farmland and rolling hills, but I have to say, it was pretty ordinary by New Zealand standards. After a couple of hours, we hit the east coast town of Oamaru, which was just a lunch stop for us at the time, although in time, it became another small piece of all the pieces that made New Zealand such a fantastic place for us. Why? I hear you ask. Well, a couple of weeks after we'd stopped at Oamaru, we realised (I say we, but actually, it was.....) Suzanna had lost her driving licence. We looked high and low, turned the dreamy Delica inside out, as well as our backpacks and other assorted bags, but nothing. On retracing our steps, the last time Suzanna could remember using her driving licence was in Oamaru. So, she decided to phone the police there to see if it had been handed in, and in what is still a nice surprise for a cynical 40 year old Englishman, living in what can be a cynical world. Someone decided not to sell it down the pub, but instead, had handed it into the police, who still had it and offered to send it to our friends in Auckland!! Amazing, I thought.
C-Suzanna taking a rest on way up Mount John
Next we landed in Dunedin, which is famous for, their Scottish ancestry, being a university town and Cadbury's, yup, most of the southern hemisphere's descent chocolate comes from the south island of New Zealand!! We liked Dunedin. It was compact and felt cosmopolitan, with lots of café's and bars to watch the world from. The guide book put this down to the university students keeping the average age young and who am I to disagree. Whilst here, we took in Dunedin's must see Street, Baldwin Street. It's a must see due to it being "the steepest street in the world" and we've included a picture giving you the detail. We walked up it and can confirm that it is steep. The locals have a race up and down it once a year and the winner usually does it in 2-3 minutes, with plenty of others breaking limbs when they fall over on the descent. Another example of the steepness and an example of what not to do, is to get in a wheelly bin and head down the street. Two girls did this a couple of years ago and smashed into a lamp post killing one of them! Onto to brighter things, we also took a scenic train ride into what used to be mining territory. When we looked at the pictures, it looked stunning seeing the train going over the viaducts, but unfortunately, when we were on the train we, maybe obviously, didn't get such great views of the viaducts, but the information given along the way, was interesting, although we did both agree the guy giving the info was a bit incessant and could have given us a few minuites of quiet time
D-Lake Tekapo again, pretty ay!
. It was Dunedin, when we made our only repairs to the dreamy Delica. We thought the tyres looked a bit worn, so took them in to be changed. Turned out the tracking was way off and the inside of the tyres where down to the wire mesh on them, so we like to think that Suzanna mentioning changing the tyres quite often!! averted a potential accident.
So, with our shiny new and fully aligned front tyres, we headed further south into the Catlins area, which is actually as far South as you can go, unless you go to Stewart Island, which we didn't. The Catlins is a bit like Bracknell Town Centre, well in one way at least. Everyone knows it's there, but doesn't bother going!! Seriously though, the Catlins has a total population counted in hundreds and is the size of Devon and Cornwall. There is no large town/city and it is made up of farmland and a few townships. We had a good time nosing around though, heading towards Invercargill, which is the other side of the Catlins and New Zealand's southern most City. I should point out here that for a place to be considered a city in New Zealand, it only needs a population of 25,000 or over, which in terms of Britain would make for a lot of cities!! Anyway, back to the Catlins. We saw some cool stuff here, half of which had to be reached by dirt road, which was no problem for the Delica!
E-Mount Cook
! And then on foot, which was no problem for Suzanna and I, we have trekked in the Andes you know. First stop for us was at Nugget Point, which is famous for it's Light House and wildlife. We didn't see much of the wildlife as we were 100 metres or so up on a cliff and the animals were at sea level. We did make out a few sea lions, but it was hard work as they look a lot like rocks from 100 metres up. It was a great view though and made for a good picture.From Nugget Point we drove onto Sandy bay and did a walk around a.......sandy bay!! The point of this was to look at a ship wreck that is visible at low tide, only problem was when we got there, the tide was not as low as it needed to be so there was no ship wreck, just the sign and therefore no picture I'm afraid. Whilst we were a bit disappointed, we did feel quite adventurous, as not only is sight of the ship wreck only at low tide, so is the access route, so when we were to late to see said wreck we were a bit nervous about getting back before the tide came back in. Needless to say we made it and didn't have a chitty chitty bang bang moment.
Our final attraction of the day was Jack's Blowhole!! Which for those of you who may have their minds somewhere around the toilet, it is fact a hole in the ground by the sea, where sea water has eroded the rock over time, meaning as a wave comes in, the water is pushed through a cavern and is forced up and out of the hole, so it is water blowing, not wind! To get there we had a pleasant 45 minuite walk over farmland with some great views of the coastline. Now, having given the explanation re a blowhole, Jacks blow hole did not blow water into the air. We decided this was due to the fact the hole was massive (30 by 30 metres or so) as well as the sea being too choppy, meaning no consistent waves to push through the cavern
F-Walking to get closer to the great Mount Cook
. So, what sets Jacks Blow Hole apart from any other, you may be asking. Well, I can tell that it is because the hole itself is set 200 metres back from the coast, which means if you didn't know it, you wouldn't believe the water in it has travelled that far to get there. From here we returned to the Delica and having found a camp site retired for the evening, full of fresh air and a small sense of adventure.Next morning we set off bright and early to cover what remained of The Catlins and to travel onto Invercargill, where we were planning another weekend of luxury living, in a hotel room. The day promised much, with Waterfalls, Cathedral Caves and Petrified Forests all on the agenda!!. First up was Purakaunui (pronounced pura-ka-u-nu-i) falls. To get there, we had another fab walk through Beach Tree and Fern clad forest, to what are small but very picturesque falls, even in the rain! Next up where the Cathedral Caves, so called for their huge arch like entrances. They are on a beach and are subject to closure in bad weather and unfortunately, the day we went, they were in fact closed due to bad weather, bug--r!! Undeterred, but with time now on our hands we drove on, deciding along the way to check out McLean Falls as an alternative to the Cathedral Caves. Well, it turned out to be a master stroke by us, as the half hour walk to the falls and the falls themselves, where probably the highlight of the Catlins for us and we decided seeing them made us better than everyone else as it's not somewhere most people go to see because it's not one of the recommended spots in the guide books, so we gave a BIG, well done, to ourselves!
So, full of a sense of self importance we moved on to our last sightseeing spot of the day, and the Catlins, The Petrified Forest
G-Toby on the Taieri Gorge Railway
. We didn't know what to expect from the petrified forest, except that it was the remains of a Jurassic fossilised forest on a rocky part of the coast, that was only visible for a few hours either side of low tide. When we got there, it initially just looked like a large piece of rock, as you will see from the picture, but on closer inspection, there are ancient root systems inter twinned in the rock. We were a little underwelmed and felt as though we could have done with a guide for this part, as they could have fully explained what, when, why and how it all happened. Having said that, it was v v windy and raining on and off whilst we were there and it made for a spectacular sea, with waves crashing on the rocks. We tried to capture it for you, but our little camera didn't seem to be up to the task I'm afraid (clearly it was the camera and not the photographer who couldn't get a good picture here!!). So, that was the Catlins and we had a great couple of days here, despite the wind and the rain. From here we drove onto Invercargill and spent a lovely couple of days chilling inside a room!! We even had Fox Sports (same as sky), so I got a footy fix and got to see Lewis Hamilton use up the whole of the UK's luck in one go. I'm still disappointed he won and feel he was gifted the title, as opposed to earning it, but I won't go on..... honest. Anyway, back to the blog. From, Invercargill, we headed North and over to the Western side of the South Island and into Fiordland and then north up the very dramatic west coast, which Suzanna is going to tell you about. So, that's it from me for now. Take care everyone and stay safe.
Tobs and Suzanna
xx
