The Otago Coast and Catlins

We are starting to realize that our time in New Zealand is running out so over the last couple of weeks we have not been able to visit everything that we want to. Unfortunately this means that we focus on the highlights that our guidebook presents and miss many of the smaller things that locals have told us about. At least we know there will be plenty to do on our next trip.

Our last stop in Canterbury before we ventured into Otago was the Timaru beach and rose garden. The rose garden has an incredible variety of flowers and most of them were in full bloom when we stopped by. There is also a wonderful aviary in the park with some incredibly colored birds in it. From there we drove into Otago and stopped in Oamaru to watch the blue penguins come ashore in the evening and check out Oamaru’s Victorian style limestone buildings.

 

South of Oamaru we visited the Moeraki Boulders and sampled the fare at Fluer’s Place before stopping in Dunedin. Dunedin has some incredible bookshops and a few breweries so our time there was very enjoyable. The hills in Dunedin are also an attraction in their own right with Baldwin Street being named as the steepest street in the world. If Dunedin were at elevation it would surely produce some great runners.

 

From Dunedin we drove along the coast into the Catlins. The Catlins are known for being and incredibly windy place, but we had two days of sunny, calm weather. In that type of weather the beaches there are absolutely incredible. We stayed at the Curio Bay Campground which has two main attractions. The first is a section of 160 million year old petrified forest that has a few Yellow-Eyed Penguins nesting on it and the second is Porpoise Bay where Hector Dolphins come in the summer to have their babies. It was incredible to see such rare animals up close and we both feel lucky to have had the experience.

From the Catlins we drove straight to Invercargill to stay for a night before catching the ferry to Stewart Island where we are now.

Wherever you may be, Merry Christmas from Stewart Island!

Kaikoura, The Banks Peninsula and Christchurch

We left Golden Bay and the Nelson area just before the heavy rain, flooding and landslides started and headed down the east coast of the South Island into Canterbury. Our first stop along the coast was in Kaikoura, a town known for its wildlife. You can whale watch, swim with dolphins or seals, visit bird colonies and eat crayfish (kai means food and koura means crayfish). We decided to focus on the seals and did a couple of walks in the area that went near the seal colonies. The first walk we did was a little north of Kaikoura at Ohau Point. We walked up a stream to a small pool at the base of a waterfall where seal cows take their pups to be protected from the ocean storms. At the right time of year the pool is absolutely packed with pups (check it out on youtube), but when we where there one lone pup had the whole pool to itself. The other walk we did was the Kaikoura Peninsula Walk. This walk took us along the cliffs overlooking the ocean at the very tip of the peninsula. At one point on the walk we were able to venture down the cliffs to the rocky beach where birds were nesting and there was a small seal colony.

From Kaikoura we drove through Christchurch to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula. Akaroa was originally settled by French colonists who had come over in hopes of staking France’s claim to New Zealand. The town plays up its French past to get tourists to come, but the only French things left are a few street names and a flag where the settlers landed. We were told by a couple of French friends staying in town that the croissants from the bakery were not even the French style. In spite of not being as French as advertised, it is a lovely town and we spent an enjoyable day walking around, checking out the art galleries and eating local fudge.

After a relaxing day in Akaroa we made our way back to Christchurch. Christchurch is very much a city on the mend after two devastating earthquakes and an unbelievable number of aftershocks. We wanted to do our part in helping out by spending some money in the city, but this turned out to be much harder than we had imagined. The damage to Christchurch’s CBD is quite visible and the area has been declared the red zone and fenced off. We were hoping to find relocated businesses that had been in the red zone and shops around the edge of the red zone that we could patronize, but there was no place to get good information about relocated or open shops. We googled each business to get new locations and hours and were sad to find that most had not yet reopened.

We walked around the outside of the red zone to get a sense of the damage. It was quite sobering to see the spray painted messages left on the front of buildings by the search and rescue teams. Peering in the windows of some of the buildings on the edge of cordon gave us a glimpse of the days the earthquakes happened. Personal items are visible and in restaurants you can still see plates on the tables and broken cups on the floors. On the weekend a path into the center of the red zone was opened so we went in and took a look at Cathedral Square. Most of the rubble has already been cleared away, but it was easy to get a sense of the destruction that had happened. For us the saddest part of walking around Christchurch was seeing all the empty houses near the CBD. Most of the houses had signs on them that they were safe for occupancy however they were completely empty. A few had for sale signs in front of them, but many of them looked totally abandoned.

Even with all the destruction and change going on around them the people of Christchurch were incredibly friendly and welcoming. In the southwest corner of the CBD a City Mall has been set up using shipping containers to house stores. It is beautifully done and the attitude there is incredibly positive. The farmer’s markets are also in full swing, the museum had some wonderful exhibits on display and the botanical gardens looked incredible, especially the rose garden. We are sure it will take some time, but we hope that Christchurch is able to rebuild and maintain its wonderful character.

The Mussel Inn Area

The Mussel Inn Area is known to most people as Golden Bay, but for us the Mussel Inn was so representative of the area that we stopped using its proper name. The Mussel Inn is a brewery-café where business first, suit wearing, BMW driving people rub shoulders with vegan, dreadlocked, jalopy driving hippies. There is a pole covered in crucified cell phones and a sign that says, “Get the point?” The beer is brewed on site and the food is almost all caught or grown locally. The staff is friendly and their mood is contagious so if there is a bonfire burning or live music playing your are sure to make a new friend or two.

It is fitting that you have to cross Takaka Hill to reach Golden Bay because crossing the hill involves enough turns to make any San Francisco Street proud and makes you appreciate the effort that people go to live in the area.

Admittedly we did do more exploring in Golden Bay than just the Mussel Inn. We visited Farewell Spit, a 35km stretch of sand that includes some of the most important wetlands in the world. We intended to hike to Wharariki Beach to see its incredible rock formations and small seal colony and somehow overshot and ended up on Green Hill Beach. Finding our way from Green Hill Beach back to Wharariki Beach ended up being an off track adventure involving a few cliffs and a number of scratches on Jenni’s legs. We stayed at the Innlet and had an outdoor bath next to the creek before stopping at the Naked Possum for dessert. In Collingwood we bought chocolates from Rosy Glow Chocolate House where the chocolates are made not only with fresh ingredients right off the local farms, but also with love.

Takaka is the business center of Golden Bay, but that is a little like designating a rugby capital of the States. It is an arts and crafts town that does business because it has to. The incredible art galleries around town and relaxing atmosphere made us wish we were staying longer. We saw the clearest freshwater in the world at Te Waikoropupu Springs, visited the geological formations of The Grove and drove out to Tata Beach to find out why most people call the area Golden Bay.

We wanted to extend our time in Golden Bay to take up the rest of our trip, but the Nelson Saturday Market and other adventures dragged us back over Takaka Hill. If we ever come back to New Zealand we are going to make sure that our time in Golden Bay takes up a larger portion of the trip than it did this time.

If you get a chance make sure you try the Mussel Inn’s Happy Jackal Pumpkin Ale which tastes like pumpkin pie in a bottle.

The Heaphy and Karamea

As we headed north up the West Coast we kept an eye on the weather forecast to see if there was any chance that the rain might let up. When we got to Westport a window of good weather was being predicted so we decided to do the Heaphy track. The biggest challenge of the Heaphy track is getting from one end to the other before or after doing the hike. Driving takes over six hours and because of the taxi pickup times usually involves an overnight stay somewhere along the drive. Hitchhiking is possible but can take even longer because the ends of the track are in out of the way places. The quickest way from one end of the track to the other is flying, but it does cost a little more than the other options. The opening of good weather was not going to be long enough to drive so we decided to spoil ourselves and fly. We picked Jim, a Cessna pilot, to fly with because it was the cheapest option.

After making all the arrangements and picking up supplies in Westport, we drove up to Karamea to get packed and look around before our hike. Karamea has a number of interesting limestone formations nearby including arches over rivers and a variety of caves. We only had time to visit the arches over the Oparara River before getting organized for the hike.

In the morning we met Jim at the Karamea Aerodrome and took off for the northeast end of the track. Jim has been flying for quite a few years and knows the area quite well so he was able to show us some highlights of the track as we were flying over. We made a bouncy landing in a farmer’s field and were greeted by Jeff, Jim’s contact on the ground, who had a pipe hanging out of the corner of his mouth and drove us the five minutes past his place to the start of the Heaphy track grumbling the whole way about tourists and how busy it was becoming “out this way.” It was well worth the cost of the flight just to meet those two characters.

The shuttle bringing the masses to the beginning of the track arrives later in the day so we were alone on the start of the trail. The first day of the track is done through the forest, up a constant but gradual incline with very few views of the surrounding country. It may not sound that appealing, but we found the variety of bird and plant life along the way very entertaining. The few views that we did get along the way just whet our appetite for more and when we got to the Perry Saddle Hut, the views from their made the whole day worth it. It was a clear day so we decided to do the side trip from the Perry Saddle Hut up Mt. Perry. It is an unmaintained track which involves some scrambling over loose rock, but from the top (on a clear day) you can see Farewell Spit and Mt. Taranaki. There was a little too much haze for us to see Mt. Taranaki, but we did get our first look at Farewell Spit.

On the second day we walked from Perry Saddle through the Gouland and Mackay Downs to the James Mackay Hut. The downs are relatively flat areas covered in golden grass and shrubs. They look like they would be the perfect place for animals to graze, however when we stepped off the track and onto the swampy ground we quickly realized that it is no place for a farm. The Gouland Downs is the larger of the two and has a number of streams and rivers running through it which support an incredibly diverse ecosystem. On our way through the downs we saw the shells of giant snails, an incredibly large earthworm, a kea and a pair of blue ducks. The blue ducks were the highlight as they are an endangered species with a very limited habitat range.

Our third day of hiking involved descending from the James Mackay Hut to the Heaphy River and then along the river to the Heaphy Hut at its mouth. The journey down through the forest was similar to the first day although several of the tree species and birds that we saw were different. Our first encounter with the Heaphy River was crossing it on an 80 meter swing bridge. From there we walked along the river through the Nikau Palms, crossing several more swing bridges and stopping only briefly to eat lunch and be eaten by sandflies before reaching the Tasman Sea and the Heaphy Hut. The sun was shining through the palm trees onto the golden sand of the beach and the ocean was a sparkling blue. It looked down right tropical so we jumped in the river and were quickly reminded that a river mouth on the West Coast of the South Island is far from it. There was a beautiful sunset and as long as we avoided the water it was possible to imagine that we were in a tropical paradise.

Our last day was spent walking through the palm trees in the sun. The rocky beaches and waves that crashed with incredible ferocity were the only reminders that we were not in Hawaii. It was easy going and our shortest day of hiking, but it also felt like the most spectacular. We felt a sense of accomplishment tinged with sadness when we reached the parking lot at the end of the trail and caught the shuttle back to Karamea. That was quickly overwhelmed with sleepiness when we found a bed to fall into.

The next day we took a tour of the Honeycomb Hill caves just north of Karamea. They have restricted access because there are over 71km of caves that are full of Moa bones and incredible limestone formations that should not be touched. Our guide was a biologist who has been around the world working on different projects and he was full of wonderful information about the cave and its surrounding area. The only disappointment was that all of the Hast Eagle bones and most of the impressive Moa bones have been removed from the cave and taken to museums for study. After the tour we drove through the Buller Gorge to Nelson for a few days of rest.