Days 17 - 20 of NZ Trip 2022

DAY 17: We set off to NZ's capital, Wellington, this morning. We were to catch one of the ferries to the South Island at 1:30pm and last night's camp was about two hour's drive away. We wanted to do a bit of sightseeing in Wellington so left reasonably early.

There was an unexpectedly big climb up and big descent down into Wellington over the Remutaka Hill. I'm glad we weren't on the look-over-the-edge-of-the-mountain side. About 1/3 of the way up we can across a B-double truck that had broken down - skid marks for quite a few corners beforehand. How the driver managed to stop before he careered over the edge or into someone coming the other way is beyond me. How they retrieve broken down B-doubles from such a point is also beyond me.

It was with some relief (I don't travel well around myriads of curves) that we got down to sea level for a cuppa at a beach overlooking the large inlet of the Cook Strait known as Wellington Harbour or Port Nicholson. We also had a good view of Wellington itself, which is not dissimilar to Canberra in size. The beach was made not of sand, but rather of pebbles and gazillion shells.

After reaching the ferry terminal and exchanging our ticket for a boarding pass, we lined the camper up, first in Queue 2 of 6, then scampered off to get a quick glimpse of Wellington. There are some wonderful harbourfront buildings that have been converted into cafes, galleries, museums etc. and will be worth investigating on our return.

We decided to check out the Beehive, NZ's house of parliament in the short time we had. Well, all I can say is that I think Australia got the better deal. This strangest mix of buildings is now Parliament here.

The Anglican Cathedral across the road does no better. Ugh! We couldn't really see inside to check out if the interior redeemed the exterior because there was a funeral about to start.

That was all we had time for and at least we got a bit of exercise in before the three and a half hour ferry ride across the Cook Strait. I dosed myself up on seasickness preventatives while we waited at the head of our queue for about half an hour.

A seemingly endless queue of trucks was loaded on first, then a couple of caravans, a motorbike, then finally, us. Being early in the queue meant we could secure a window seat with table.

This was the view from my window, basically the only thing I saw between eating lunch (having learned in the Galapagos that having a full stomach is better than not eating for preventing seasickness), and reaching somewhere in Queen Charlotte Sound on the other side, having promptly fallen asleep after lunch!

Queen Charlotte Sound was magical.

Disembarking at around 5:30pm left us little time to do anything but drive to a tiny free camp beside a little lake on the way towards Christchurch.

DAY 18: Today was the big, long-drive day - somewhere between 550 and 600 km worth. An early start meant that it didn't seem that bad, particularly because the days are long and we had time to explore a little on the way.

State Highway 1 is a real mix. The section south of where we camped goes along the edge of the coast, under large cliffs and is quite spectacular in parts. We stopped a few times to look at seals and views. This road is obviously subject to many landslips and one wonders how long before more of the road is destroyed from either the ocean side or the mountain side. There is almost no dune system here is NZ. Apparently they have lost 90% of their dunes in the last couple of centuries!!

The highway then takes you through grape country before the 80kph tedium of the outskirts of Christchurch for what seems like forever.

We had morning tea at a town called Rakaia which is apparently well known for its salmon.

The big salmon celebrates a fish that was imported from California as roe and is now fiercely protected here so that people ask over the world can come here to fish. What happened to the local river species I wonder?

Further on, we arrived at Timaru. Another fascinating town in terms of architecture, this time Edwardian. It was amazing how well preserved the town centre was.

Timaru is also home to quite a large industrial port which we were able to get a good look at from a waterfront park. Here they are trying to regenerate dune planting to keep and extend on what little remains. It seems that dune regeneration is at last becoming a concern throughout NZ.

This park extends for quite a long way and includes more formal Edwardian parts to fit in with the town's history. We looked in at the lovely rose garden that, although not at it's finest, still smelled of heaven.

Sadly, we did not have time to explore more here but headed on to Oamaru. We had not done heaps of homework on what there was to do here but we were glad to have decided on this destination for the day.

The caravan park where we are starting is right on the harbour. Next door is a wonderful kid's playground.

Pete had fun trying out the barrel roll.

Three things we read about Oamaru piqued our interest: penguins, steampunk, and Victorian architecture. A weird mix but well, that's Oamaru.

Hoping to see some penguins from the wharf near our caravan park we ventured out around dusk to see a few little heads bobbing around in the water but too far away. We then noticed another wharf further round the bay with many, many birds on it. Hoping they were penguins we hurried around. They were not penguins but Otago Shags, a type of cormorant that comes in two variants, one black and white, the other just black. What a sight! Chicks and adults with a few seagulls standing sentinel.

Apparently this old, disused wharf has recently become a major breeding site for these birds. Alas, no penguins but the sight of the Shags was enough.

Next, steampunk. We had no idea what it was until we googled it. It is basically sci-fi that uses steam- powered technology in a 'retro-futuristic' way. Work that out! The Victorian building that houses Steampunk HQ is perfectly suited to the task. We walked around the outside and booked tickets for a look tomorrow.

Thirdly, Oamaru's well preserved Victorian architecture. We found many examples as we walked to the supermarket. Amazing! I figured out that the lack of electricity wires down the streets makes it look even better.

We are looking forward to having more of a look around tomorrow.

DAY 19: Well! Our visit to Steampunk HQ was well worth it. It is very hard to describe and even the pictures don't do the place justice. It is basically a big playground for adults with a sense of playfulness and imagination. Kids would love it too. The following photos might give you a bit of an idea. Sort of Mad Maxish ...

We then spent time wandering around the main gallery/boutique shops that are housed in the harbourside Victorian buildings. We were here for the annual Victoria festival that culminates in a day or two. As part of the festival, people wander around the place dressed in Victorian clothes, locals, visitors, anyone. Fun times.

While we were headed for somewhere near Dunedin, we took a bit of a detour to see some Maori rock art, an interesting geological site, and a whale fossil.

The Maori rock art site was in a fantastic limestone cliff location, but was very sad. So little remains, with many chunks of rock having been taken for collections in museums! The first photo is of older Maori art, the second and third ones are from the early 19th century and show early images of Europeans. The last shows what remains after the chunks of art have been removed.

Our next port of call was Elephant Rocks. Uplifts in the earth millions of years ago caused large bits of limestone to cracked. Following years of erosion have caused the cracks to widen, eventually resulting in large rocks that are completely separate from each other. The result is a fantastic sight. All of this is on private property but the farmer and the Department of Conservation must have some agreement in place so it is free for all to visit, even when sheep are in the field.

Just down the road was the fossil site. Again, the limestone around was rather beautiful. Although the fossils were clear enough, noone but a specialist would know that they were from a baleen whale! The first two photos are of the fossils.

Today really was a rock day and our last point of call before we headed to a camp was Moeraki, to see the Moeraki Boulders. These are a bit like the Koutu Boulders on the North Island but on the beach. In fact one is just trying to make its way out of the cliff onto the beach. There are numerous theories about these rocks ranging from alien eggs through to reasonable scientific explanations for their spherical nature which are too complex for me to remember. Pete had fun with the rocks too.

Onwards towards Dunedin as the weather deteriorated into windy drizzle. We found a free camp just a little north of there at a place called Warrington. A good campsite in which to hunker down. The drizzle and wind continued all night.

DAY 20: Today was possibly the least satisfying of our trip so far. The weather was atrocious, meaning that when we drove into Dunedin it was hard to see much because of the rain and fog. Nevertheless, we did brave the elements to look at the old Dunedin Railway Station. Unfortunately for us, the exterior is being restored at the moment so we did not see it at its finest. However, we were able to go inside and see the old waiting room. I don't think I've seen anything to match it in Australia.

A parking fine later, and the continuation of foul weather made us decide to give more Dunedin a miss for this trip. We needed to be down here in Bluff anyway because we head to Stewart Island tomorrow, so we made our way back out on the road again. Fortunately, the further west we travelled the clearer the day became and by our arrival in Bluff the temperature was positively balmy, even if the wind was still rather strong.

We visited Stirling Point, or Land's End and got our obligatory photo there, then walked along towards the lighthouse that marks the entry into the harbour here in Bluff. As we were out there we saw the ferry we will be catching tomorrow. Eek! I'm terrified!