Next Stop: Unknown

Our last stop before heading to Christchurch were the cities of Dunedin and Seacliff.  Dunedin is a cool place, and it’s centered around a university there.  One of the locals told us that the university is really the only reason for the town.  But, we found a few other things to entertain us!  Cadbury has a factory here, and this is also the home of Speight’s brewery.  Beer and chocolate, what else could you ask for?  (ok, maybe they don’t’ go well together… but individually, mmmmm)

Cool waterfalls outside Dunedin. 

Sheep often times just show up in the middle of the road.  These were just wandering aimlessly around.  They looked a bit lost, and quite  frightened because they were no longer ‘safe’ in side their fences. 

The color of the water was amazing… blue on turquoise. 

Jenn taking the Cadbury chocolate delivery truck for a spin.  Ok, it wasn’t really moving… but the tour of the factory was awesome.  We got loaded up on chocolate.  Unfortunately, they weren’t making the Cadbury eggs here any longer… this particular factory no longer had the capacity to meet the demand.  But, we still saw lots of cool chocolate bars we never get in the states.  My favorite is the Moro Gold… I’ll have to keep a look out for it now!

San Francisco has nothing on this street.  In fact, this is the “steepest street in the world.”  So, of course, we had to drive up and down it.  Believe it or not, our little rental car could barely make it up to the top.  With it floored, we just barely got up there… and on the way down, wow, did it burn up the brakes.  You could smell it coming from the car when we stopped at the bottom!  Jenn took this picture of a house on the side of the street to give you and idea of the steepness…

After Dunedin, we went to a hostel in the small town of Seacliff.  We were excited because they hostel had kayaks and spear fishing available for anyone who stayed there.  I was stoked to finally go spear fishing and try it out.  Unfortunately, we happened to be there in 40knot winds, and we couldn’t take any of the equipment out for a day.  But, the scenery was beautiful.  Instead of spear fishing, we went down to the beachfront and picked up 93 mussels for dinner.  And yes, we ate every single one of them without the help of Rob. 

This guesthouse was pretty cool though, it was called “The Asylum” and was an old prison.  The owner is a car collector, and has over 50 old vehicles stored in barns on the property.  It was a great opportunity to do some cool shots.  These were some of my favorites… Jay Leno would love it here.

Our next day of driving took us to the most southern point of the south island of New Zealand.  Along the way we stopped at a few beaches and took in some of the sites.  We finally managed to spot one of the brown fur seals.  Most of what we had been seeing so far were sea lions.  For far too long these were hunted down for their skins, and became a protected species.  Recently they are starting to come back in numbers, so things are looking up for them!

This lighthouse was unique in that the entire height of it was made from a single panel of wood. 

One single black sheep in a crowd of white.  He was cute though!

The wind blows so strong and continuously here that the trees do not grow branches or leaves on their front side.  They all seem to lean back from the power of the wind.

Hmmm, which way do I go?  This is the most south I’ve ever been… we are actually closer to the south pole than the equator. I would still love to go to Antarctica, but this is probably as close as I’ll get for a while.

Relaxing on the beach with giant waves… We found ourselves bundled up quite often… isn’t it supposed to be summer in the southern hemisphere?  Still, most of the locals said the weather was unusually cold for this time of year.

Mary had a little lamb, her fleece was white as snow.  Everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go. 

Our next dramatic, not to be missed destination: Milford Sound. The southern portion of the South Island is known as fjiordland for these massive bodies of water, protected by soaring rocky mountains. Milford Sound is the most famous of the lot, probably because of Miter Peak shown in the photo below. This particular sound was discovered by Captain Cook on one of journeys to New Zealand. Cook famously brewed a beer from pine trees cut from the shores to refresh and revive his crew upon landing in Milford Sound. Did you know beer prevents scurvy? Doesn’t sound yummy to me, but it the beer was good enough to make it into the history annuls.

We got a sweet deal on exploring the sound – an overnight ‘backpackers’ boat trip with lodging and meals included, all for the price of one of the typical day cruises. That’s our boat below, parked in the harbor in the afternoon light, just before we set sail.

Milford Sound is another one of New Zealand’s larger than life sort of destinations and there are probably ten or so big vessels on the harbor that take tourists around. We were excited to be on one of the few overnight boats because it would give us on opportunity for some (relative) solitude on the waters.

On our first night, we sailed alone the shores past at least a dozen waterfalls. It hadn’t rained that day, but they say when it has just recently rained, the entire mountainside becomes one massive waterfall, with the lines between each of the semi-permanent waterfalls blurring. It was cold and wet enough for us as it was though! Those winds would pick up and brrr – send us quickly shuttling inside for the free coffee and tea inside the cabin; then we’d go out and brave the stormy weather again.

This one is conveniently named “rainbow falls”… imagine that! 

We were on the Real Journey’s ‘backpacker boat’. The have a second overnight boat where guests have private rooms at twice the cost. Both boats park in the same harbor at night, so we were fine with 1/2 the cost and four-person bunks. The harbor was absolutely beautiful. We took a skiff out just before sunset for a little tour. The second rarest penguin in the world, the Fjord land yellow crested penguin has a colony alongside where we harbored for the night. We saw a couple of them skittering across the rocks. They are pretty solitude and skittish though. I suppose I would be too if I was an endangered species. At night though, the penguins really come alive. We could hear them calling to each other through across the harbor.

  The next morning was another cold one, but we bundled up and headed on deck for a tour of the open water just outside the sound. It was a brief tour though, and thank goodness! The water was really choppy, so choppy that I had leave the bow of the boat to escape the bucking swells. We saw more seals, more penguins, and many many more waterfalls.

This particular waterfall is 3xs taller than Niagara! Our ship got so close to the falls that the bow was actually touching the rocky outcropping of the cliffs. Water sloshed over the deck splashing everyone. Helen and Rob smile, just before the torrential downpour begins.

As luck would have it, Holland America’s Amsterdam was in the harbor that morning too. Lucas and I had seriously considered meeting the Amsterdam in Christchurch and sailing home on it via Fiji, Tonga and Hawaii. The price was attractive at $2,500 a pop – but we thought we’d have more fun exploring Fiji for three solid weeks, rather then spending the three weeks at sea. Lucas is still thirsty for a cruise though.

One of the most famous scenic drives in New Zealand stretches from the coast in Haast to the mountains in Wanaka. We’d based ourselves in Haast for the night so that we’d be right there and ready for the drive the next day. Haast is a self proclaimed ‘hick town’ and judging by the patrons at the only diner in town, the title is deserving. Lucas and Rob were all bristles and they looked around at the burly country men checking their women out. I don’t think that town had seen a leg not wearing wool socks and work boots in a good long time!

We had no complaints about the hotel rooms though, and thanks to Wotif.com slept really well at our first non-hostel in New Zealand. 

This is typical Lucas – if he’s not taking a photograph, he’s generally fiddling with the GPS or one of our other techie gadgets.

Cairns are really big in New Zealand and at most of the stops along this particular stretch of highway, engineering tourists had done their best to stack up their own interesting cairn. This one we made here, wasn’t as tall as some but we were getting eaten alive by sand flies and had to jet. Sand flies are pretty much the only annoying thing about New Zealand. They are small, bite the dickens out of you, and are located pretty much throughout the country – even when there is no sand. They only bother you when you’re standing still, they say they are lazy, but it makes pausing for vistas a bloody affair.

About every fifteen kilometers or so along this stretch of highway there was a new waterfall or mountain scene to stop for. It made our 150 kilometer or so journey, stretch out until the whole day. This waterfall was fabulous, but ooh is that mountain runoff water freezing!

At another waterfall later, we decided to actually cross one of the streams. The water was fairly shallow and it looked like we’d only have to get wet to our ankles. It wasn’t until we reached that first spit of rocks there, that we realized the rest of the water was near thigh deep. Oh well, we’d gone that far! We hiked up our pants and trekked through the freeze to catch a close up glimpse of another set of falls.

The rocks here were really beautiful – not as beautiful as Helen’s engagement ring though. Look at it sparkle!

There were so many amazing view along this road that many of them don’t even have place to pull over and take it in. This was just another one of New Zealand’s crystal blue alpine lakes with a rocky mountain backdrop. Lucas took this photo out the car window as we were heading down the highway.

From the rocky coastal area of Greymouth we drove south through windy mountain terrain to the Franz Joseph glacier. New Zealand has a couple of famous glaciers, pronounced “glassier” by the kiwi’s, and a trip to the South Island isn’t complete without taking in at least one of them. Vacationers have been taking in their icy sights since westerners first arrived in New Zealand and the local visitors center had some awesome photos of women in the 1880’s walking along the ice in full skirts and miners boots. Today, you can’t go on the ice unless you are part of an organized tour – and at $300 a pop, we felt viewing the ice from a few yards away was good enough for us.

Well, it was good enough for Lucas an I anyway, Helen always a boundary pusher, popped under the “danger do not cross” sign and walked along the river up to the edge of the glacier. Of course, huge boulders came tumbling over the side while she was up there and almost gave Robert a heart attack.

When the glacier receded hundreds of years ago, it left behind some really unusual rock formations, like these massive rock ‘slides’ We popped the camera on the tripod, Lucas clicked the shutter and than tried to run up the slide within the 10 second window and pose in the photo. It didn’t go quite as planned though and while he was slipping down the slide he popped his knee pretty good. Some other travelers took pity on our situation and snapped this shot for us.

There were some great waterfalls here too, and after all the rain we’d gotten the day before they were roaring pretty good. We went on a couple of little day hikes through the area, taking in hanging bridges, waterfalls and this lovely reflection pool. You can just barely see the Franz Joseph glacier reflecting in the waters.

There was supposed to be an even better reflecting pool up the road a ways, near Fox Glacier, so we packed up some food for a picnic lunch and headed further south. Of course, the wind picked up something fierce during our drive and any reflection that the ‘reflecting lake’ could have been giving off was dulled. But, we did enjoy some great baked chicken, Monteith’s Apple Cider and we made a new friend…

…a Tuna Eel! Lucas was so thrilled by his new friend he alternated between wanting to eat it and play with it. How could a Tuna Eel taste anything but delicious he reasoned! It was a smart little bugger, he’d let us kneel down by the water, stick our fingers in the pond (yes, it took some courage to work up to that!) and then we could pet his chin. Of course the eel was really after the treats we were picnicking on, and he was amply rewarded. Guess that’s how he got to be so big and delicious looking.

I’m surprised we didn’t get kicked out of this little park. First we have a picnic on the grounds, then we’re petting a wild eel, and finally Helen, Rob and Lucas all decide to play Tarzan on one of the low hanging vines. Let’s just say we made a nice donation to the park on our way out!