Feb 22 - Back to the North Island

Woke up this morning and checked out of the Maui YHA youth hostel in Kaikoura. today will be a long travel day, but it was definitely worth it to have spent so much time in Kaikoura. We make a quick detour down the road to see if the little penguin we saw the previous day was back, but he was not.



We headed north to seek out the other half of the seal colony and waterfall that the owner of the Sunrise told us about when we checked out the day before.

We drive north for about 20 minutes to Ohau observation point. When we get there it is very clear that there are plenty of seals around because of the strong smell. You smell these guys long before you see them. We walk to the observation point, and below us are the mother seals lounging on the rocks. There was a small depression in a couple of the formations, which had filled with water from waves washing over the top. These little pools were absolutely seething with baby seals, thrashing around, learning to swim and fighting each other on the edge of the pool. We stood there for a little while watching, and a crowd of people eventually gathered, so we moved on up the road.




Just around the corner there was a gravel pull out for the waterfall that the owner of the Sunrise Lodge had told us about. We were excited about the possibility of seeing some seal pups playing in a waterfall, but given the number we saw at the beach, the chances were probably slim. The guy had said that he had been there 8 times in the past 2 years and he had seen them 6 times, but his wife, who had been there about 6 times had never seen them. It was a nice little walk, and the waterfall was really pretty, but there were no seal pups...



We hopped back in the car and continued on towards Picton, and our ferry. I saw a sign for an Alpaca farm, and made the executive decision that we had to check it out. It was a little place, and a lady walked from her house and into the shop. There were many alpaca and 1 llama, we talked for a little while about raising and shearing the animals.


Katie bought a hat made from some of the alpaca there on the farm.





We got to Picton in time for a quick lunch at a cafe along the main street, and a scoop of Hokey Pokey ice cream for desert. We boarded the ferry and settled in for the ride to the North Island. A very awkward Belgian guy asked if he could sit down at our table, and we said sure. We started talking, and asked him what he had done while in New Zealand. He started off by complaining about how expensive all of the things were, like sea kayaking, whale watching, dolphin trips, glacier trip and caving, that he didn't do any of those things because they were just a big rip off. Then he proceeded to say that New Zealand wasn't all that remarkable, and that it wasn't all that different from Europe. He had been traveling with a tour bus, and getting out at the places, walking around, looking at the buildings. I suppose from his perspective, it wasn't that different at all. He had been staying at communal bunk rooms in the hostels, because they were the cheapest accomodations, and they were really noisy and the lack of sleep had ruined several days. He said he was going to Austrailia for 2 weeks after he leaves New Zealand, and that he wanted to do it as cheaply as possible. He was very well educated, as we spoke for a very long time about the world economy, trade issues, and energy markets. I didn't get the impression that he couldn't afford to do these things, it's just that he chose not to. Afterwards, Katie and I both felt really sorry for this guy, since he had missed so much, and his mindset would prevent him from ever really enjoying some of the things that we had done.

We get off of the ferry in Wellington at the beginning of their rush hour (4:45pm), and drive north. Traffic is horrible, stop and go, and it adds about an hour to an already long drive. The one bright spot was a sight that kept us laughing for the rest of the trip. Now keep in mind that Katie and I are both cyclists and there is always an uneasy tension between cars on the road and cyclists. We have a healthy respect and fear for the power of a 1 ton vehicle moving at 40mph vs a 17lb racing bike, and have been scared in traffic before. So, on with the story. We're cruising along this narrow 2 lane road with poor shoulders in bumper to bumper traffic. Traffic is moving pretty well coming the opposite direction but it is heavy as well. We are coming up to a bridge with concrete walls on the sides which narrows a little further, when we both notice a cyclist coming the opposite direction. He looked to be in his 60's, and was decked out in a safety orange vest and a big orange flag shooting out of the back of his city cruiser bike with wide handlebars. He didn't look very at ease. Compounding his discomfort was a gigantic camper van riding right behind him as they were crossing the bridge coming towards us. We don't know what triggered it, but all of a sudden, the cyclist's eyes got really wide, his elbows shot out to 90 degrees, and he stood and started pedalling like speedy gonzales on methaphetamines, mouth gaping open and peadalling like crazy! We can only assume that he survived. Maybe he had signed up for the "Extreme Adrenaline Bike Ride" in wellington or something of that sort...

We drove for another 4.5 hours to Turangi, where we stayed at another hostel. The night driving over the mountain pass was pretty harrowing, so to wind down once we got to our room we had a glass or two of wine that we had brought from Kaikoura. That helped us get off to sleep...

Feb 21 - ORCA!

Today we woke up to see the sunrise on the beach just behind the hostel we were staying at. I went out the back door, and crossed the train tracks and went down to the beach. Katie said she would be a long in a little bit. The beach was composed of small to medium sized polished black rocks sloping gently down to the water line. I got down to the beach and took some photos at the shoreline as the sun started rising. Katie came down just as the sun was coming up. We watched the sun come up, and walked along the beach for a little bit, checking out the cool little rocks.




We then went across the street to buy a breakfast. We got mountain tops, which are like little pot pies topped with a mound of twice baked mashed potatoes. They were really tasty. As we checked out of the Sunrise Lodge, the owner told us about the other half of a the seal colony (consisting of the females and pups) which is just about 20 min north of Kaikoura, and that just past it, there is a 5 min walk to a waterfall that sometimes has baby seals playing around at the base. He said it is kind of a kindergarten that the mothers bring the pups to in order to keep them safe while the moms go out and hunt for food. We decide to check it out on our way towards Picton tomorrow.

On our way down to start the peninsula walk, Katie says "stop the car, I think that's a penguin". I pull over and we get out and walk to the shoreline and standing on top of a rocky outcropping is a little penguin. We thought it could be one of the impostors at first, but after zooming in with our cameras it was obviously a penguin. EDIT: upon further examination, the bird in question was the "almost-a-penguin" or "not-a-penguin" that we had seen plenty of (the one that nests in trees). Katie was very disappointed.



WE continue down to the seal colony and do the peninsula walk, which is a 3 hour loop that goes along the rocky coastline, and then up along the cliff tops pack to the parking area. Since the coastline part of it can only be done on the 2 hours on either side of low tide, we decide to do the cliff top first to give the tide time to go out. The clifftop walk is very scenic walking along grassy pastures and along the cliff edge which drops to the sea.





Then the trail drops down to the coast line near south bay on the other side of the peninsula, where there is a little wharf and comes back along the shoreline. The first part of the shoreline is a very large flat base of rock, which turns out to be very slippery. The rock is pretty smooth and rounded and formed into parallel channels filled with water.



There are seaweed (I think) that are shaped just like little balls on a rope, tied into a bunch. When you walk on top of them they pop like bubble wrap.



After about 10 min of walking we come to a large collection of male fur seals. They are all sprawled out on top of the rock. As we get closer we see more and more, about 20 or 30 in all, and they are spread from the terminal face of the cliff to the shoreline. at first it doesn't seem like there will be a safe way to thread between them all without getting uncomfortably close, but I find a path that hugs the cliff face, and keeps us from getting closer than about 10 feet from one. So we ease along this path, taking photos every now and then until we get through most of the seals.





The trail continued on along the rocky coastline, with the occasional indifferent Fur Seal here and there. We continued to pick our way through along the coastline. It was taking a little longer than we expected, and given that we wanted to try to make it back to see the dolphins, we picked up the pace a bit until we got back to the car. As we rounded the last corner to where the parking lot was, we saw a Japanese lady almost step on a sleeping Fur Seal. Another lady was trying to warn her that she was about to walk into one, but I guess she didn't understand her. Good thing the seal saw her first and barked loudly. She understood that pretty well, and nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw this thing about a 3 feet from her.

We were back at the car just before noon, and with the tour leaving in 30 min, we took off down the road to the Dolphin Encounter place. When we arrived, folks were checking in, and when we got to the front of the line, the receptionist said that there were 2 spot left to spectate, we were pretty excited. Then she after checking she said that there was 1 opening for swimming! Katie was really excited. I insisted that she be the one swimming, so I could take photos. Katie dashed off to put on her swimsuit, and while she was gone, the receptionist checked with her supervisor, and there was 1 additional spot, so I could swim too. We were both pretty excited about the whole thing, based on what we had seen the day before on the whale boat, it looked like a really amazing thing.

We got fitted for our wetsuits, saw the briefing video, and to a bus over to south bay, the same place the whale-watch boat left from. We get on the boat which is a little smaller, and motor out along the coastline. As we are cruising out to find the pod of Dolphin, we are looking out at the front of the boat and see a tall black fin rise out of the water and disappear. I thought I knew what it was, and a few seconds later the captain confirmed that I did a few seconds later. It was a Killer Whale, or Orca! The captain tried to bring the boat up to it, but we didn't see that one again. It was moving away from us, and probably dove down to feed. A couple of minutes later, we passed through a large pod of dolphin swimming very fast. There were several hundred of them, and they seemed to be moving extremely fast.








The captain says for the first group of swimmers to get ready, but before they can get into the water, we found out why the dolphin were swimming so quickly. There was a pod of 6 Orca behind them, heading their way. The captain of the boat said that the Orca can hunt and eat these dolphin, but they usually prefer to hunt stingrays. The crew on the boat were very excited, because they said it is actually pretty rare for them to see the Orca here: they only see them about once every 2 or 3 months. We turn around and parallel the Orca about 60 feet off to their left side, and watch as they surface to breathe. There is a couple of males, 3 females, and 1 pup swimming along with them.




After following the Orca for about 35 min. we turn back and head towards the cove where the pod of dolphin should be. When we find them, they are really agitated, and the pod is small. Their natural defense is to break into much smaller groups when the Orca come through. The captain of the boat circles around for about 15 min, and is able to determine that the dolphin were too agitated by the orca to play around with people so he canceled the swimming, and told us that we would be provided with refunds. I was ok with that, and pretty impressed with the captain's decision, because he could have just as easily plopped us in the water, and then pulled us out, saying that's just the way it goes.

After we returned and changed out of out wet suits, we headed up the road to the Kaikoura Vineyard, where we had a glass of wine on their porch looking out at the mountains and the ocean. After relaxing for an hour or so there, we go back down into town and to the Adelphi Lodge for dinner, which was excellent. Just down the road, we stopped at the Craypot for a gigantic slice of Chocolate Mud Cake. We then make our way to the youth hostel we were staying at for the night, the Maui YHA. It is located on the road facing the beach, and the kitchen area has great views of the ocean and mountains across the way. We talk a little bit to the ladies at the front desk, who ask what we've been up to. We mention that we saw an Orca pod, and they were really excited, as neither of them had ever seen them up close. It was kind of cool that they were excited about it, and it validated our boat captain's comments on how special it was to come across the Orca.

After we move some of our stuff into the room, we go back outside to try to catch some good sunset photos. We stop where we saw what we thought was a penguin for a little bit, and then went back down to the Seal Colony. Tonight is a full moon, so I was hoping to get some good moon rise shots with seals in the shot. I got one descent shot. They wouldn't stay still long enough.



Katie is getting eaten alive by the kelp flies, so she retreats to the shelter of the car, and I walk out along the rocks and play around taking long exposure shots by myself. Capturing one of my favorite shots of the entire trip:




Bigger version here

It's very difficult to weed out emotional attachment to an image and to be objective about it's merits when the experience of taking the image is so close. Maybe it won't be my favorite from this trip forever, but who knows.

Feb 20 - Thar she blows.

We checked out of jail and hit the road right at 8:30am, right at the peak of rush hour. When I entered our destination into the GPS, Judith told me to make a right turn out of the car park. This is the equivalent of a left turn in the states. It was against heavy traffic, so I decide to make a left turn and let Judith figure out what I should do next.

The traffic was pretty heavy in spots, but the behavior of the drivers was significantly more cordial than those here in RTP. When 2 lanes would go down to 1, everybody merged together taking turns, without any pushing and shoving, or "me firsts". This might have been an anomaly, but it sure was nice. We get out of town and stop for coffee and a bite for breakfast, before heading on to Kaikoura.

We get to the whale watch place a little bit early so we sit outside in the tailgate of the car and put on sunscreen. Parked across from us is a young couple who are obviously traveling in their car, and they are checking us out as I organize my camera gear for the boat trip. This makes us a little bit nervous, since we are going to leave the car for about 4 hours, but they leave for a walk before we do, and we figure they were just looking at the only thing that was going on around them.

Time comes for the tour and we head inside for a quick "briefing". There is a little panic, becuase we left our boarding passes in the car when we came back out, so Katie and I run out and dig out the passes and get on the bus that takes us to the south bay wharf where the whale watch boat is waiting for us.

One of the striking things about Kaikoura is that there are snow topped mountains surrounding the peninsula. It is very beautiful.

The whale watch tour is a 4 hour tour where they boat you out to an area where sperm whale are known to feed. It is a 1600m deep trench that comes very close to the shore line, making it easy to get to. We get in a large catamaran and start motoring out to the trench.




The boat absolutely flies across the waves crashing through some 8-10ft tall swells, throwing water more than 20 ft into the air as we cruise along for about 20 minutes or so. We see our first whale just as it is diving to feed. We cruise around and find several more through the use of an underwater microphone. What you see with the sperm whale is that they come to the surface, then breathe several times, spending about 10-15 min on top, and then they dive straight down sending their tails up into the air as they dive. They stay down for about 45 min. before they return to the surface. It was really cool to see them up so close. It was also very difficult to take photos, because the seas were pretty big, and I had to wrap an arm around the edge of the boat to steady myself as we rocked around.






Before we came back to dock, we stopped and looked at a giant pod of dusky dolphins. There were several hundred of them playing around in the water just off the coastline. They were jumping and flipping all over the place. It was like a circus on speed.



That was the sight that made us decide to try to get on one of the dolphin tours the following day that put you in the water in the middle of these things. We didn't hold much hope that we would be able to, since all the guidbooks said we need to book at least 2-3 weeks in advance. We figured we'd try anyway, though.


We stopped by the dolphin encounter place and they said that there was space on the 12:30pm tour, but for spectating only, no swimming. We decided to check back after we did the peninsula walk tomorrow, and perhaps hop on if there was still space.

We checked into our Hostel, the Sunrise Lodge, Mark and his wife (who was about 8 months pregnant) showed us around the place and gave us good tips for doing the walk around the seal colony. We head that way to see if there were any seals around. We stopped at a roadside barbeque grill where a lady was grilling fresh seafood, and had a crayfish fritter, and some green shell mussels, which were delicious and cheap. At the end of the road which goes down to the end of the Kaikoura peninsula, there is a seal colony with male seals lounging around on the rocks.



They come ashore some too, and are not at all bothered by people. You can get as close as you dare to these things, I think the closest I got was about 10-12 feet or so, but I kept a good eye on him the whole time. One seal barked at me and gave me a start, so I backed off a little.





We did a little grocery shopping and turned in for the evening after a dinner of fish and chips and Speight's Gold Medal Ale...

Feb 19th : A night in Jail

Today is a big travel day, with almost 7 hours of driving. We went into town and Katie bought a wool sweater on sale at one of the sporting goods stores. We grabbed a quick breakfast to go, and said goodbye to Queenstown, it was a great city, one that would be near the top of the list for ideal places for us to live.



About 2 hours later we drive past lake Pukaki and Lake Tekapu, turquise blue glacial lakes with amazing views of Mt. Cook far off in the distance.





We stop for the obligatory Ice cream break in Geraldine, as suggested by the i-Site person in Queenstown. I had Honey Kiwi Fruit and Black currant blackberry, which fueled me for the rest of the drive to Christchurch.

Some of the road signs have a little too much information to absorb at 60+ mph:




We get to Christchurch, and park in front of our accommodations for the night, an old Jailhouse converted into a youth hostel. We check into our cell, and ask the front desk for places to eat for dinner. The Jailhouse was pretty neat inside. The door to the rooms are the original heavy solid steel plate doors, with the peep hole covered with a circular plate. Inside there is a bunk bed, and not much else. The toilet seats in the bathrooms are made of clear Lucite with barbed wire embedded in them. After looking around for a while, we head downtown for dinner.





City driving is where Judith (the GPS) really comes in handy, this was especially so in Christchurch, since the area we were heading to for dinner was a web of one way streets. We park the car and are a bit early so we decide to walk across the street and check out their botanical garden.





We eat dinner at La Cafe, I have a Lamb Burger and Fries, and Katie had Salmon Pasta. Then we raced each other on dessert, a slice of "Chocolate Nemesis". We head back to Jail and get ready for the drive to Kaikoura in the morning. On the recommendation of the couple from San Fransisco, we have booked a whale watch boat tour for 12:15pm, and it is about a 2.5 hour drive, so we shouldn't have to rush to get there. It will be nice to stay in Kaikoura for 2 consecutive days, even though we couldn't stay in the same hostel both days. It's also good to get a big portion of the South Island driving over with all at once.




The jailhouse is a little noisy, so earplugs come in handy yet again.

Feb 18.

We wake up early to watch the sunrise, which turned out not to be so great, since we were down in a slight canyon. Then we ate breakfast on the ship, as we motored out to the Tasman sea. They raise the sails on the ship once we were out at sea, which didn't seem to do very much and were mostly for show. Then we turn back around and head into the sound.



Motoring back in to the sound we see a few dusky dolphin riding our bow, and a couple of fur seals lazing on the rocks.





We get back to the wharf, exchange email addresses with our new friends and say goodbye. The bus we have scheduled to take us back to Queenstown is supposed to leave a 2:30pm, and it is 9:30am. There is not much to do at Milford with the exception of the cafe and the cruises, so we check to see if we can catch an earlier bus.




The 9:30am bus to Queenstown has plenty of room so we hop on. As we pass Milford lodge, we stop to pick up some more passengers, which turn out to be the couple from San Francisco we saw the morning before hurrying to meet their bus. We talk with them almost the entire way back to Queenstown. They are taking a year off and traveling the world. they both worked in the software industry before they left, he mountain bikes and used to climb, so we had plenty to talk about.


We get back to Queenstown at 2:30pm and catch a city bus back to the Hotel. When we check in the lady at the front desk remembered our names from checking in 4 days prior, checks us in and brings our bags up to our room for us. I went out to the car to get Katie's jeans for her which were set out to dry while we were on the Routeburn. It's always a little relief to find all of the stuff I have left behind is all present and accounted for when I return from a little excursion. The room is very nice, on the top floor and is a 2 level room with a living room and kitchen, and 2 bedrooms upstairs. We take showers and a quick nap, and then plan the final week of our trip. We decide on 2 longish travel days with activities in between them and book our lodging at Rotorua, Christchurch, and an additional day in Kaikoura. We book our 2nd attempt at a white island tour for the day before we fly home.

We walk down into Queenstown, which is a beautiful little city by the lake with the Remarkables rising out from the shores of lake Wakatipu. While in the city we run into the German guy we met along the Routeburn, he was planning to do the other portion of the Routeburn that he didn't do for the next day. We eat dinner, eat ice cream, have a drink, and then walk back to the hotel to turn in for the night.

Feb 17

Last day on the Routeburn Track. I get up at around 6:10am and when I do, I start a wave of folks waking up and getting going. I go to the kitchen to brew up some coffee, borrowing a lighter to light the stove from the man who lent me tape to bandage my leg the evening before. He came up from the Divide yesterday, which is where we are heading today. He says that we will have all the time in the world to catch our bus, and that's exactly what I want to hear. The sun slowly starts to rise and reflect off of the mountains on the other side of the valley, and I set up my tripod for a few photos of the colors reflecting off of the glaciers. I meet a commercial photographer from Minnesota who is also shooting the sunrise with a Nikon D70, he is also using a tripod, but it is a smaller one that he says is not really worth carrying. We get on the trail at 7:24am, along side a couple from San Francisco who are trying to make it to a 12:30pm bus to Milford Sound Lodge.



The advertised time from The Mackenzie hut to The Divide (the end of the Routeburn Track) is 5 hours. This is an "average time" taking into account short breaks for photos or eating. This couple will be pushing it to get there, and they are practically jogging up the trail, so we let them go, we had plenty of time.

Most of the hiking on this section is through the same type of forest that we were in the last hour of yesterday's hike. Enchanted forest type scenery heavy moss covering the ground and trees.



After a couple of hours we pass Earland falls, which is almost 200 ft tall. We stop for a couple of pictures and continue on.




We make really good time down to Howden hut and stop there for just a little while to eat our lunch.

We continue on towards The Divide, and we get to Key summit, which is a 1 hours side hike. We get there at around 11:30am with plenty of time to do the hike. At the junction of this trail we meet a group who are taking part of a guided hike . We talk for a little while, turns out they are a Sierra Club group, doing a day hike from the divide and up to Key Summit. This was one of the many times that I saw a group and was glad that we are doing the trip by ourselves. Not that it looked horrible, but there were many different levels of ages and ability and the group will only move as quickly as the slowest person. I would imagine a lot of time is spent waiting on folks to re-group. Most people drop their packs at the base of the climb and do the key summit hike without their packs. I just continue onward with mine still on. It feels strange to not have the pack on after 2.5 days of it being welded to my back. We go up a couple of switchbacks, and I catch and pass some of the Sierra Club group that had gone up earlier. After another switchback or so, Katie calls up to me and says, "Is this the climb ? Why didn't we drop our packs ?!?!" So she chucks hers in the bushes, and starts bounding up the trail like a tigger with her new found, unencumbered lightness.

At the top of Key summit is a view of snow topped peaks, and a hanging lake. It is very clear how the glacier cut a cross section through the mountain and chopped off the valley at the mouth of this lake, turning it's outflow stream into a 500 ft. tall waterfall to the bottom of the glacier cut below. there is a loop trail at the top, with signs pointing out various things about the alpine environment.



We go back down the trail, pick up Katie's pack and continue down towards the Divide. We arrive with about an hour to spare, take the obligatory "End of the hike with the sign" photo, and I brew us up a cup of coffee while we wait in the bus shelter for our bus to arrive. It feels strange for a while to be be a road after being in the woods for 3 days.



The bus arrives at 2:30pm and we head towards Milford Sound for our overnight cruise which leaves at 4:30pm. The landscape along the drive down to Milford sound is very dramatic with very steep faces towering above the road in all directions. Many of the tops of the mountains have significant glaciers at their tops. There is a long 1 mile long downhill tunnel that leads down to the sound and a 15 min. timed traffic light controlling traffic going into it. We get stopped at it going in. Looking to our left we see a apartment building sized block of ice that had fallen several hundred feet from the mountain top above. There were people walking around it's base, which didn't seem like a very wise idea at all.






When we get to Milford it feels like we are back in civilization, we get a slice of cake and a beer at the cafe, then walk on to the wharf and wait for our cruise. The cruise holds 60 people and is fully booked. We share a bunk with a couple from Brussels, Belgium, who we make conversation with on and off for the duration of the cruise. Katie and I throw our packs into the bunks, and quickly go to take a warm shower, our first in 3 days. Milford sound was very hazy and humid, making photography pretty poor. The Scale of the sound is hard to grasp, the steepness and height of the mountains rising out of the sea don't really register until you see a kayak or another boat at the base of one. The peaks rise up to about 5000 ft (Mitre Peak is the highest) and rise to that height almost immediately after leaving the water. There are trees clinging to the side of the mountains, and in places there are tree slides where one falls and rips all of the others off and pile up at the base. The wind is blowing very strongly, blowing the spray from the boat and making it very wet to be up top on the boat.




We meet an Irish guy who is traveling the world and we exchange stories about Southern Utah. He tells of getting off a train in Green River Utah, and being the only one getting off the train, no platform, just down on the dirt. The man on the train told him to walk for about 10 min in a certain direction and he would come across a bar. He decided not to go into the bar after looking in. He noticed he had cell phone receptions so he sent a text message to his friend back in Ireland to get on google maps very quickly and find him a place to stay. His friend replied with some detailed directions (North for about 5 min then east for a little while). Somehow he found a place to stay, he said it was one of the coolest places he had been, because the people were so nice. One of the ladies in the town lent him a truck (an old Silverado), and some guy took him hunting. It was pretty entertaining to hear his take on staying in this little town.



In the evening we stood outside with the Irish guy and Belgian couple and talked while looking at the sky.


It's pretty interesting that almost all the non-American people we have spoken to have all asked what we thought about the presidential race, and politics in general. The most impressive thing about this is how knowledgeable they all are about all of the candidates and what is going on.

We turn in and set our alarms so we can catch the sunrise the next morning.