We've just got back from a weeklong trip to the South Island.
Or, more accurately, it was just us oldies. Mulan and Miya stayed in Auckland with Nainai, continuing to do all their usual activities.
Mama and I travelled because Mama's uncle and aunt are visiting us from China, and we thought it would be nice if they saw the South Island as well as Auckland. Mama was the tour guide while I was the driver.
It was my first time in the South Island since 1995, and my first time to actually do any sightseeing there. Between 1989 and 1995 I visited the South Island a few times for athletics competitions, though back then I saw little more than the airport, hotel and stadium. On the one tourist excursion I did, from Dunedin to Queenstown in 1989, 13-year-old me spent most of the time on the bus reading rather than admiring the scenery. (It was in 1995, in Dunedin, that I achieved my best sporting result, getting a silver medal at the Nationals in the under 20 triple jump.)
Here's what we did:
Tuesday 19th: Auckland-Christchurch-Geraldine
We caught the early flight from Auckland to Christchurch, arriving just before 8am. At the airport we picked up our hire car, only to discover that our suitcases didn't fit in the boot.
Moral of the story, don't trust advertising. On the booking website they claimed that the boot fitted two suitcases. Well, maybe it would've fitted two carry-on suitcases, but it certainly didn't fit our two smallish check-in suitcases. For the rest of the trip Uncle and Aunt had to have a suitcase squished between them in the back seat.
We drove to Christchurch central, parked, and had a wander around for a couple of hours.
It was quite relaxing and pretty, though I'd always thought the Avon River was bigger!
We then drove to the gondola.
While very expensive, it was a pleasant ride up the mountain, with some good views. Springtime meant that there were several lambs gamboling about underneath.
Christchurch is an amazingly flat place!
Then it was time to drive to our accommodation in Geraldine.
Wednesday 20th: Geraldine-Lake Tekapo-Mt Cook-Twizel
We left our accommodation a few minutes after 9am, blissfully unaware as we drove to The Church of the Good Shepherd on Lake Tekapo.
I say blissfully unaware, because it wasn't until several hours later that we heard that at 9:14am there'd been a 6.0 magnitude earthquake 45km north of Geraldine (see eg here and here). It seems that lots of people had felt it, but driving in the car we didn't notice a thing. It's a bit disappointing, as I'd like to have known what it felt like, but maybe we just thought the jolting was my bumpy driving in the wind.
We joined the other tourists at the church. It was exterior viewing only, as the sign said it only opens Sundays for services. But we saw a few rabbits hopping around in the bushes and on the grass.
Next, we drove to Lake Pukaki, where the essential activity for the Chinese folk was to buy salmon at the Mt Cook Alpine Salmon Shop. The plan was to eat it while enjoying the lake and mountain views. Wanting the best deal, they bought the larger lump of fish flesh, not realising that it wasn't cut up for immediate eating. So we had to store it on ice until we got to our accommodation for the night. In my opinion the salmon was nice enough, but not worth the hassle!
We then drove along the length of Lake Pukaki towards Mt Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand, with some pretty gusty winds keeping us occupied,
before stopping at White Horse Hill for some scenic walks.
Unfortunately the bridge was closed on the walk we'd planned to do,
but the scenery on our side of the river was still pretty spectacular.
Then it was time to backtrack, driving back the way we'd come alongside the lake. We'd planned to stay the night at the Omarama Top 10 Holiday Park, until we discovered that the road between Twizel and Omarama was closed. The man at the orange cones said the power lines were down, and the road wouldn't reopen until about 9pm.
So some quick Googling and phone calls from the car and we cancelled Omarama, booking instead at Lake Ruataniwha Holiday Park in Twizel. It's turns out this was a very nice lakeside campground.
Wikipedia tells me that Lake Ruataniwha is a manmade lake, created in 1977-81 as part of a hydroelectric project. But I still don't know if there are two monsters (taniwha) swimming around in there.
Thursday 21st: Twizel-Queenstown
We left Twizel in the morning, again blissfully unaware.
This time we were blissfully unaware of two scrub fires that were burning out of control around Lake Tekapo and Twizel (see eg here). And it was only after we arrived that evening in Queenstown that we began to wonder if the police might be wanting to talk to certain persons of interest driving a blue Toyota corolla -- "one old whitey driver, with three old Chinese passengers one of whom is younger." These persons of interest seem to have a spooky, unnatural ability to create natural disasters as they travel, blissfully unaware -- first an earthquake, then fires. What next, in Queenstown will there be flooding?
Passing along the now-opened road where the power lines were down, we saw a repair crew hard at work putting up power poles. As I drove I counted at least eight wooden power poles that were snapped in half like matchsticks and still needing replacement.
Our first stop after Twizel was the spectacular looking Omarama Clay Cliffs. These are definitely worth a visit, and easily worth the $5 per car dropped into the honesty box at the gate.
It was a comfortable walk up to and into the cliffs, and it was impressive in person, but my photos came out a bit flat.
Driving over the Lindis Pass was also impressive.
Up until this point the weather had been comfortably warm and dry, but soon after the top of the Pass the rain started falling.
Passing through Cardrona, we wondered about picking up a few cheap bras and starting an underwear shop.
The rain continued to fall as we got to the Queenstown Top 10 Holiday Park. I took these photos the next morning.
Friday 22nd: Queenstown-Te Anau
We slept blissfully unaware.
The next morning we woke to discover that the persons of interest in the blue Toyota corolla had struck again. There was snow on Lindis Pass, and Queenstown had been flooded. A state of emergency had been declared, and about 100 people were evacuated from their homes. Roads were closed and people were advised not to drive into central Queenstown unless absolutely necessary (see eg here and here).
We drove into central Queenstown. We sort of had to, as it was the only road going where we wanted to go.
First of all we took the road towards Glenorchy, travelling as far as Bennett's Bluff Lookout, before turning around and heading back again. There were a few watery bits on the road along the way, though as the day went on they started to dry out. For the rest of the trip the rain mostly stayed away, though from Queenstown on there was always a slight chill to the air.
Nearing Queenstown again we were slowed down with a queue of traffic all trying to get through central Queenstown. Again, we had to go this way, as it was the only road to get us to our destination of Te Anau.
We'd planned to ride the Queenstown Gondola, but the flooding had closed it.
Through the worst of the traffic, we found a carpark near the centre and wandered around Queenstown for a couple of hours.
At Queenstown Gardens we found an interesting game -- frisbee golf.
Upon sending this photo to Mulan and Miya, Miya immediately recognised and correctly identified it. Mulan didn't, pointing out that Miya spends too much time on Instagram!
Then it was on to Te Anau, where we stayed at Possum Lodge in Manapouri for two nights.
Staying at these cabins was like stepping back in time 50 years (except for the heat pump and flat screen TV on the wall).
Saturday 23rd: Te Anau-Milford Sound
In my opinion, this was the highlight of the trip. We had a daytrip to Milford Sound, including a boat ride on the fiord and out to the Tasman Sea.
We left at 7am, to give ourselves enough time to make it to the boat before it departed at 10:30am. We all took so many photos that it hard to know which ones to keep and which ones to cull.
Driving through the one-way Homer Tunnel was an interesting experience.
It was around this time that our car told us that the temperature outside was 1 degree Celsius.
We took the Southern Discoveries Nature Cruise.
On the boat ride we saw a few dolphins (apparently seen on about 50% of the trips):
(We were informed that the water was greenish because of the recent rains, which wash through the plant life on the hills and run into the Sound -- which is actually a fiord, not a sound.)
Back on land, several times throughout the day we saw keas. On our return journey, while waiting our turn to go through the one-way Homer Tunnel, one kea stopped by to say hello to me.
And there were plenty of moments of keas doing kea things.
(that's Mama and Aunt)
(On the way back. And no, the orange thing perching by the water isn't a kea.)
Back at Possum Lodge, we went for a local walk in the evening. It seems the water in Lake Manapouri was higher than usual.
Sunday 24th: Te Anau-Dunedin
On our way to Dunedin, we took a scenic detour to Nugget Point Lighthouse.
And then on to our accommodation for our final night in Dunedin.
That evening the three Chinese folk drove to the peninsula to watch penguins waddle up the beach. I rested at our accommodation (we might be back in January to see them with Mulan and Miya!).
Monday 25th: Dunedin-Auckland
On our final day we squeezed in three activities in Dunedin before our flight for Auckland left at 4:30pm.
First, we visited Tunnel Beach. There's a tunnel through the rock down to a beach. There's also some pretty good views.
Next, we had to visit Baldwin St, the steepest street in the world.
All four oldies managed to walk up to the top.
Finally, we drove into Dunedin centre, parked, and wandered about for an hour or so.
Then it was to Dunedin airport, where we dropped off our hire car (getting rid of the blue Toyota corolla evidence for the persons of interest). While waiting at the gate to board our flight it was interesting to watch the cows file past in the nearby field.
Back in Auckland, Uncle and Aunt are staying with us in our home, but will be flying back to China on Tuesday.
