New Zealand Trip

Due to the operating room closure for over a month, Mark and I had time to make a trip to New Zealand for 9 days.  Although 9 days seems like a long time, New Zealand is usually explored over several months.  New Zealand is made up of two islands, the North Island and the South Island.  We were told the South Island is better so we spent 9 days there.  New Zealand was first settled by the Polynesians and they developed a distinct Maori culture.  Throughout our trip we learned some of these Maori legends. 

Our vacation began with a rocky start.  Besides the bumpiest landing ever, Mark realized he forgot his drivers license.  We had already booked a car, some non-refundable hotels and spent hours of planning and calculating every detail of our 9 days.  At first I thought no big deal, I always keep my license in my wallet, except for this time.  I recently had to mail a copy of my drivers license to my parents and failed to put it back in my wallet.  We were able to print out a copy from the email sent, but the rental company insisted that New Zealand law required the original to be carried at all times while driving so they would not rent us a car.  In Australia our U.S. drivers licenses are useless forms of identity, so we don't keep them on hand and since we don't drive we can just put them aside.  We(I) were thinking our trip is going to be ruined or have to be entirely rerouted.  After Mark checked to see how much it would cost and how long it would take to get another round trip flight to Sydney ($1200!!!) we decided to talk with a lady at the visitors information center at the airport.  She really was very helpful in trying to find a way to work in everything on our itinerary (luckily I had a nicely typed itinerary of our week...I'm such a dork).  Unfortunately the solution was to ride a bus around the island and we would have to miss out on some of the things we had planned.  Then she thought maybe we should just try and call some independently owned car rental places in the area and tell them our story.  She printed up a list of places to call and oddly enough on his first try Mark found someone willing to rent us a car without a drivers license!  In a crazy twist of fate our vacation was back on, just the way we planned, with a later start.  We got the car, grabbed a quick late lunch and I was punching in our first stop on the garmin we rented.  Bad news the garmin didn't work.  Thank goodness the rental place gave us a large atlas of New Zealand because now I was going to have to navigate us around the whole island, old school.

Day 1
From Christchurch we drove to Kaikoura, a seaside town full of wildlife.  We were just passing through to take a look at the seal colony on the side of the road.  We later learned that at a certain time of day it is not uncommon to have to stop and let one cross the road.  We finished a long first day at 1130 in Nelson, in a nice bed a breakfast.  We stayed up to chat with the owners and their friends for quite some time, even though we were exhausted and then headed to bed.  The owner was nice enough to prepare breakfast items for us to eat in the morning as we were heading out at 7am.  She even had some gluten free bread for me.

Seals chillin out.

Scenery along our route.

Salt Factory.

 Day 2
We got a very early start to Abel Tasman National Park.  We planned a day of hiking, so we stopped for some food and water on the way out of town.  Thanks to the purchase of some ginger I was a much happier passenger on the very curvy roads.  The national park is located on the northern coast of the island, so all the hiking is along the beautiful coastline.  A boat dropped us off for our hike and picked us up 5 hours later.  That evening we drove to Punakaiki.

Appropriately named Split Apple Rock.

Very picturesque hike along the coast.

Really high swing bridge.  There was a 5 person limit on the bridge.  That is me if you can't tell.

Beautiful.

Me having fun after lunch on the beach.

We didn't see any penguins on our way to Punakaiki, but we were warned.

Day3
Punakaiki features the pancake rocks and honestly didn't seem like anything else.  The pancake rocks were so much better than we expected and we are glad we stopped.  Now we are on the west coast of the island.  It is a beautiful scenic drive, although still very curvy.  Glad we bought a lot of ginger.  This day we were driving to the Franz Josef Glacier.  Mark was constantly observing and following the speed limit, but an annoying cop decided he needed to turn around on the road and follow us.  This was the most excruciating 20 minutes ever.  I was totally thinking we were going to jail and my blood pressure was seriously off the charts.  As soon as we entered the next town we turned off a side road.  There is nothing between the towns in New Zealand, so there was no where for us to go until we reached another town.  I think I was paranoid the rest of the day.  We did make it to the glacier safely and without any tickets. 

Pancake Rocks.  Just needs a little butter and lots of maple syrup.

On our way to the glacier we crossed this bridge.  There are 2 things unusual about this bridge.  1: there is only enough room for one car (very common in New Zealand).  2: look closely and you will see it is also for trains.

We had already booked an activity to go hiking on the glacier, so we were all set.  I think we hiked for about 45 minutes before we made it to the actual glacier.  The glacier a large flow of ice set between 2 mountains.  It has been melting over the past several years so the hike to the glacier from the car park keeps getting longer and longer.  The legend of the glacier is that it is the tears of Hine Hukatere after her lover fell to his death while exploring the Fox Glacier (another glacier nearby).  After hiking up a winding hill of gravel it was time to put on our crampons and get on the glacier.  It was so much fun.  There were little tunnels to walk through, they had stairs carved out of the ice to walk on, and when needed ropes to assist.  Our guide told us to walk like John Wayne just got off his horse to avoid getting our crampons all tangled together.  Mark was walking behind me and apparently I took that to heart.  That night we had a nice dinner outside and did some grocery shopping for the next day.

Waterfalls along the hike to the glacier.

Very top of the glacier.

Trying some fresh glacier ice.

And just past these signs was the glacier.

Ice tunnel.

Me showing off my crampons.

Day 4
The next day we set off towards Queenstown.  Along our drive we stopped to see the other glacier in the area known as the Fox Glacier.  The Fox Glacier is larger than Franz Josef and much flatter.  On our way to Queenstown we planned to stop along Haast Pass (a scenic highway) to venture on some short walks.  Here we saw several waterfalls along with more beautiful mountainous surroundings. We made it to our awesome hotel in Queenstown that overlooked Lake Wakatipu.  Downtown Queenstown was on the opposite side of the lake but thay had a water taxis that took us over.  We got takeaway from the famous Fergburger and enjoyed burgers that were seriously larger than my head.  We were told to ride the gondola to the top of the mountain, so we enjoyed our burgers up there.  We had great views of the entire city and after we rode back down the mountain we watched the sunset over the lake.

Fox Glacier.

Waterfall known as Roaring Billy.

Pleasant Flat.

Thunder Creek Falls.

Fantail Falls.

Swing bridge of the Blue Pools.

Blue Pools.  Seriously crystal clear.

Just as expected there were sheep grazing everywhere.

The winding road to Queenstown.

Gondola in Queenstown.

It's a long way up!

Mark enjoying his Fergburger!

To help get your bearings once you made it to the top of the mountain.



Queenstown was a large town by New Zealand standards.

Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown.



Big city of Queenstown.

Day 5
After a nice breakfast on the lake we ventured to Milford Sound.  Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound, are part of the Fiordland National Park located in the southwest corner of the island.  Our drive to Milford Sound was interrupted by a sheep muster.  The drive is about 1.5-2 hours of scenic drive to the sound with many photo opportunities.  We made several stops along the way looking at mountains and the waterfalls cascading down them.  There also was a long tunnel (Homer Tunnel) which was painstakingly made by hand using picks.  The one-way tunnel is 1270m long and decends 945m.  No worries the traffic is controlled by a light so no one crashes.  When we stopped to see "the chasm" we saw a Kea in the parking lot.  We were warned about the Kea earlier in that they are very curious and mischievous birds that frequently tear the wipers and other rubber parts off your car.  We made it back to the car with no damage.  At our stop for the evening, Te Anau, we had some dinner and rode around town on a two person bike.  We were killing time until our tour into the glowworm caves.  We don't have any pictures because the worms don't like having their pictures taken.  After seeing a large rodent outside I was a little worried to head into a dark cave, but all went well.  Poor Mark had to practically bend in half to fit through the cave, but once inside we could stand up.  There were waterfalls in the cave and bright green glowworms all over the roof of the cave.  At one point we went on a small boat along the underground river and they were all around us.

Old Steam Engine we saw during our drive.

Sheep muster!  So cool!

Sharing the road with the sheep.

More scenery.

Mirror Lakes.  This is en route to Milford Sound.

Beautiful drive to Milford Sound.

Waiting to go through the tunnel.

The Chasm.

Milford Sound.

This is what the glow worm caves were like, except the worms were bright green and the cave was pitch black.

Day 6 and 7
We got an early start to Doubtful Sound.  We booked an overnight cruise on the peaceful and serene Doubtful Sound.  Doubtful sound is 3 times longer and 10 times larger than Milford sound and far less visited.  We started out on a short boat ride then needed to board a bus for a short drive to our cruise boat.  Due to the rain that morning there were a number of waterfalls to see on our trip.  The crew was so nice and helpful the entire trip, quick to point out interesting sights along the way.  We made a stop in one of the arms of the sound to get out on a small boat.  They also offer to let people go swimming and always have plenty of volunteers.  We were told the water was 17 degrees Celsius which is about 63 degrees Fahrenheit.  Too cold for us.  We had heard the sandflies in Doubtful Sound were relentless and we brought some bug spray with us, but since it was cold we thought we were bundled up enough.  Those pesky things would bite you anywhere, including the palms of your hands.  The damage wasn't too bad, I had eleven bites and Mark had seven.  According to Maori legend "the god Tu-te-raki-whanoa had just finished creating the landscape of Fiordland, it was absolutely stunning... so stunning that it stopped people from working. They just stood around gazing at the beauty instead. The goddess Hinenuitepo became angry at these unproductive people, so she created the sandfly to bite them and get them moving."

Later in the afternoon they took us out to the ocean and most people on the boat saw some wildlife, but we were back in our room trying to hold down our lunch.  We had been taking ginger, but you have to take it every 2 hours for it to work.  The boat had been pretty smooth until that point.  We hurried to our room to take some more and Mark managed to go in to a deep coma for the next 1.5 hours while I layed in the fetal position until it was all over.  Sad we missed the wildlife, but we managed to hold down our lunch.  After dinner our wildlife expert showed a presentation on a lot of different birds native to New Zealand, many of which don't fly, as well as some species that are only present in the sound.  She also described that the top 4-6 meters of  water is fresh from all the  rainfall they receive each year (it rains an average of 252 days/year) making the water look dark.  Just below that level the seawater is crystal clear.  Would have been neat to see what it was like down there, I guess I should have gone swimming.

Gloomy morning in Te Anau, but we managed to spot a rainbow.

We found this amusing.  Posted speed limit on a gravel road of 100km/h (62mi/h).

Power plant on our way to Doubtful Sound.

Our first view of Doubtful Sound while on the bus.

Different view through the rain on the windshield.

 

 So many waterfalls, thanks to the rain.

Our boat.

This was a hotel!  Seriously in the middle of nowhere.

Another rainbow.

 The next morning they served us a nice breakfast and we pulled in to a peaceful cove to just stop and listen.  They turned the engine off and we just stopped in pure silence for a minute.  Very relaxing.

They put the sails up on the boat in the morning.

Very Serene.

Once off the boat we headed to our next destination, Dunedin.  Our first stop was the Tunnel Beach Walkway.  I was a little worried as the sign to the walkway said it took 20 minutes to reach the walkway and 40 minutes to get back.  The walk back to the car was entirely uphill, but it was totally worth it.  It was a nice walk down along the beach through some tall grass.  We quickly made it to the walkway, which is more like a rock bridge that jutted out into the ocean.  It was unusual as there was grass growing on top of it and they actually let you walk wherever you wanted.  It was pretty windy, so we didn't venture to close to the edge.  Then we walked through a long tunnel stairway that went down to a rocky beach.  After the very long walk back uphill we made our way to our hotel to get some food and directions to the Otago Penninsula.  Based on the recommendation from the people at our bed and breakfast in Nelson we rushed to the end of the Otago Penninsula for a chance to see some emperor penguins.  Another winding road along the water, we made it to a tourist center that takes people on tours to see the albatross and penguins.  There weren't any more tours for the day, but they showed us a good place see some albatross flying around.  They have a 3 meter wingspan; that is 10 feet!  They also openly mocked us for thinking there would be emperor penguins in New Zealand since they are only found in Antarctica.  They did recommend a beach with pacific yellow-eyed penguins so with map in hand we were off to find some penguins.  First, we decided to stop for a walk out to another chasm.  The beginning of the walk was through beautiful rugged overhanging trees that led through a sheep pasture.  We got really close to some sheep, although they were pretty afraid of us.  We just had to be careful where we placed our feet.  We finally made it to the chasm and I could barely even see the bottom.  It was extremely windy, making it difficult to get pictures as the sun was setting.  Then we were off to see the penguins.  We were looking for the pacific yellow-eyed penguins, which are about 30 inches tall.  We were making our way to the beach as the sun was setting and we were walking forever.  We made it to the top of a hill only to find out the beach was still very far away.  Without a flashlight we decided to make our way back to the car so we weren't stranded on a cold beach for the evening.  Sad, but we didn't get to see any penguins.

Black/brown sheep we saw on our way to Dunedin.

Just your average sign in New Zealand.

Tunnel Beach Walkway.

Creepy cave on the beach.

A little windy on the beach.

Walking back up the hill.

Old railway car on Otago Peninsula

Spooky tree tunnel.

Very cool pasture on the other side of the tree tunnel.

Watching the sun set while trying not to get blown away.

The beach where the penguins supposedly were, looking too far away.

Had we seen a penguin this is what it would have looked like.

We made our way back to town to see the Dunedin Railway Station.  Dunedin is know for their architecture and this was supposed to be a highlight.  We got some great night shots of this really incredible building.  The inside looked just as spectacular but it was closed when we got there.  Apparently they hold runway shows inside during fashion week.

Interesting teeth sculptures we saw on the way back to our hotel.  There were about 6 of them all lined up.

Day 8

We left Dunedin bright and early to check out the Moeraki Boulders on our way to our next destination, Lake Tekapo.  From this point I had been doing so well staying awake while in the car, but after a late night and an early start, I just couldn't make it and I was supposed to be giving directions.  The Moeraki Boulders are large soccer ball shaped boulders found along the coastline.  Some of the boulders are up to 2.2m in diameter (7.3ft).  While I was slowly taking pictures on the beach, Mark had walked ahead and up a path to view the boulders from a higher vantage.  I was walking towards him to talk to him.  I was about to step on what I thought was a rock, when I noticed the rock was breathing.  I seriously was about to put my foot down on a sleeping seal!  This scared the living daylights out of me after what I had read about seals.  Do not go close to the seals as they will bite you and hospitals are few and far between.  Do not walk between a seal and the water.  Well, luckily, he didn't even move, although he might have blinked.  I quickly made my way around the seal to safety, with my heart racing.  The crazy thing was that I think Mark didn't realize it was a seal either until I almost stepped on it.  After getting to higher ground, we decided that maybe it was sick.  We saw another more unfortunate (decomposing) seal on our way back to the car.

Poor seal I almost stepped on.

 After a couple more hours in the car, we made it to Lake Tekapo, a photographer's paradise as I had read online.  It really was beautiful.  The color of the lake is absolutely breathtaking and it is like no lake I have ever seen before.  It is a very picturesque little town.  We were staying at a bed and breakfast, so we went to check-in and ask the owners for some suggestions on what to do.  He mapped everything out for us and we were back in the car to drive up the mountain to get a different view of the lake as well as see some other nearby lakes.  We made it to the top of the mountain, again another very curvy small road, and the wind was absolutely crazy.  We were told there was a front coming in, but this was ridiculous.  I barely managed to get the car door open when the wind literally blew my earing out of my earlobe.  Luckily, it was not a real diamond because I knew there was no way we were ever going to find it.  Although it was to windy to walk we made it to the viewing point to take some pictures.  Neither of us was enjoying being blown around so we didn't spend much time there.  There is an observatory on the top of the mountain as it is supposed to be one of the best places to view the stars.  We thought about going back that evening, but it was so cloudy that we didn't think there would be that many stars out.  We had some dinner and watched the sunset before taking some more night shots.   The Church of the Good Shepard is located along the shore of the lake and is one of the most photographed churches in the world.  We used the church in our shots and got some great pics.  We even tried to take some more pictures of star trails as they did finally show up in the cloudy night sky.  I think we are learning.

Lake Tekapo.

The observatory at the top of the mountain.

Church of the Good Shepard.

Star trails.

Day 9

After a nice breakfast with the owners of the B&B we headed back to Christchurch.  We planned to drive through downtown to see some of the damage from the earthquakes, but it was raining pretty hard.   We just drove around, but you couldn't get close enough to see anything.  We felt some relief in returning our car as we had no run-ins with the authorities.  In the end we put over 3500 kilometers on our car (~2200 miles) in 9 days without a drivers license.  As equally impressive is the more than 1700 pictures I took, of which I have only showed you about 150.



If you ever have the chance to visit New Zealand we would absolutely recommend it.  It was one of the best, if not the best vacation we have ever taken.  Thanks to Mom and Dad for the polarizing lens they got us for Christmas, it helped capture some amazing looking memories!