New Zealand

New Zealand

Kia Ora, Hello readers,

NZ was a very different experience for us than other legs of our trip, for a number of reasons; notably its coldness, its affluence, and the fact that we toured the country by car. Initially we found the crispness and clarity of the air a welcome, refreshing change from the heat we'd experienced in Thailand etc, but there were nights when we were quite uncomfortably cold, especially as we slept in a tent for the first time since Chile (and some of us are getting old). Aside from our stop in Europe midway on our trip, this was the first winter we've experienced in our many criss-crossings of the hemispheres.

The prosperousness of the country - its status as a first world rather than developing country - was also a mixed experience: very nice because everything was clean (very few dead cats about although they were more than made up for by road kill possums) but also a bit annoying because with first world wealth come first world prices. As well, while we found NZ's natural history, dynamic geology, absurd flightless birds, and Maori/pakeha negotiations interesting, we also felt that being in NZ was much less of an adventure than being in the more exotic, truly foreign places we'd been seeing. NZ is a pretty good mix of English and American norms when it comes to street signs, proliferation of rules (no eating here, no excess noise, that kind of thing), and food available in supermarkets - nice and easy in some ways, but less exciting too.

Having a car to tour around in was great - it proved to be an economic option and it gave us the freedom of our own schedule, and since the country is quite small we were able to see almost all the places we wanted to. Unfortunately, my driver's license had expired, so Adrian had to do all of the 4000km of driving. He did a great job, but I was disappointed about missing a chance to drive on the wrong side of the road and it was a lot of work for him!

Though the country is famous for its strange birds, we were struck by the complete lack of wildlife at all! We could walk for hours sometimes and not see a single bird or animal. Most of the common birds and animals are introduced, and spend most of their time chewing on rare native birds, but a few of these natives can be seen in certain areas. The more esoteric - such as the kiwi - are very hard to see in the wild and are best seen from inside a preserve. Sad really. The possum, which is less common in its native Australia, is a real pest and we even saw possum fur clothing items for sale. According to some sources, the locals like to go hunting possum, wild pigs and goats, but it's a battle already lost.


Mount Cook


A toilet design and partially built by Hundertwasser

NZ interesting fact: Native bird the Tui has 2 voice boxes.

One of the things that most impressed us was the range of accommodation available for car/caravan campers; we stayed in a succession of holiday parks which are set up to serve tourers such as ourselves, and were very satisfied. Most of the time we set up a tent and slept there, but occasionally we upgraded to a "cabin" (a little room with bed and table usually) and we always had the gamut of fancier options - from en suite to kitchen cabin to hotel room to dorm lodge - and with whichever accommodation we were given access to the kitchen, tv lounge, and showers. These varied in quality but were always adequate, allowing us to save money by self-catering (and depressing us with a reminder of how few meals we know how to prepare).
Disclaimer: Contrary to what some of you may be hoping, this will not be a Guide to NZ's "Lord of the Rings" sites, as we don't know anything about that.

North Island (by Adrian). May 16th to June 1st
Auckland

We flew into Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, and after the 3 months of developing nations, it seemed like a very clean, modern city, and the Kiwis are quite proud of it I think. There was talk by some of the huge traffic jams and crowds that the city has, but it's what you're used to - I didn't think it was either busy or congested at all. In keeping with the NZ manner of converting every attraction into some type of adrenalin sport, in the centre of town there was an area with 2 poles and a seat between them suspended by some type of elastic. You sit in the seat and are then twanged upwards (a sort of reverse bungee). Next to it there was a bungee jump from a skyscraper. We did not do either of these, and upon questioning, the Kiwis don't seem very keen on this sort of thing either.

Northland

As we had negotiated the hire of a car for a month, we were free to go where we pleased. The roads in NZ are good and empty, but sometimes twisty and narrow. We started by heading north to "Northland". Here there are pieces of original forest not cut down for timber, and it was hot! We saw giant Kauri trees at Waipoua, which are very stout round trees that grow straight - so they were very desirable for wood and few survived.

Then we drove to Paihia, on the east coast of Northland, which is the site of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. We got quite familiar with this, as it's the basis whereby the Maori and the Europeans divided up the country, and even today it is used to settle disputes. In 1840 it was agreed that the Maori owned most of the land, and could sell it to whom they pleased (with the consent of the British), so since then they have been in control of the country to some level. They got the vote in 1867 and seem to be pretty well integrated in NZ society. This is very different to the peoples of Australia and the USA who are in a position much inferior to that of the Maori today. We saw the place where it was signed and various memorabilia of the signing; pens, desks, clothes etc, as well as a copy of the treaty. And the gift shop.

Most famous New Zealander: Edmund Hillary
Most famous Maori: Kiri Te Kanawa

Rotorua

I'd heard of this place before as the site of much mud bubbling and general area of geothermal activity. However, when we got there it seemed more like a theme park than anything else, but a bit smellier. Each of the locations that are best suited for observing bubbling are inside of some type of attraction with gift shop, cafe, kiwi house, maori dancing and so forth. We decided to go to one of these which on its flyer mentioned the geysers in larger letters than the gift shop, and saw its main attraction, the "Lady Knox Geyser". This was a ~15m high geyser, which goes off at 10.15 precisely every day, its eruption being initiated by a ranger throwing a bag of soap powder in it. We also saw many hot pools and coloured pieces of rock with names like "The Devil's Kitchen", "Satan's Hole", etc. We decided to leave this place after only a brief stay. A shame as it could be much more interesting and pleasant.


A Geyser near Rotorua

Tongariro

After Rotorua we headed south, around Lake Taupo and to the large volcanic area of Tongariro. This area of the country is mostly flat, but has a number of large volcanoes sticking up out of it. Some are active, a few recently, so the landscape looks unusual. We stayed in the park campsite and decided to undertake the "Tongariro Crossing" a well known walk up and over one of the volcanoes. For some reason, huge numbers of people do this walk and having seen hardly anyone in the park, we were surprised to be joined by a few hundred people on this trail. On the tops it was cold but bright and were were crunching along in snow and ice for a little while. The rocks are made of pointy lava and are all different colours. The volcano erupted only 9 years ago so there are still rumbles from it, and steam comes out of some holes.


The Tongiriro crossing


Rime ice as seen on the Tongiriro crossing. (It was nearly midwinter)

After warming up, we headed south from Tongariro for the Mount Bruce National Wildlife Center, which is a government run place where many native birds are looked after. As most of these are flightless, or not very good at flying, they find it hard to escape from dogs and possums, and as they prefer to nest on the ground their eggs are eaten easily by rats too, so they really do not stand a chance in the wild. The birds are kept in large cages and we saw various parrots and strange looking grouse things. The kiwi, being nocturnal animals, are kept in a building where lighting swaps day and night so it is possible to view them without having to get up in the middle of the night. We spent a while peering into the darkness and finally spotted one walking about in its enclosure. They are large - bigger than a chicken - and have a long beak and large nasty-looking feet and quickly scamper about prodding and poking. Several of the native birds that are good flyers we spotted in the wild, notably the charming Fantail which followed us around in many areas and the Tui which seems to be able to make any number of strange sounds it wants and was often heard beeping and whistling.

Wellington

Fortunately for us we were able to stay with Nicki in Wellington who provided a very fine house for our usage for a few days and was a great, relaxed, welcoming hostess. The luxury of our own room AND a kitchen was impossible to convey, and she even had a washing machine, not to mention roof! Nicki took us on a few hikes in the steep hills surrounding Wellington; we experienced some local weather as well - strong wind and rain - and learnt something of what it is to move to New Zealand. In addition it was a real pleasure to spend time talking with a good friend who was interested in many of the same things we were.

In Wellington (the capital) the main museum is called Te Papa (Our place) and was possibly the best museum we've visited anywhere in the world, and both being museum geeks, we've seen a few. Certainly it was the best presented and had very informative exhibits on the wildlife, Maori history, geology, modern history and politics of NZ. We stayed for hours.

South Island (by Carrie). June 1st to June 15th

Having enjoyed our time on the picturesque North Island, we were very excited to make it south, for opinion seems to be unanimous in naming the South Island as the more spectacularly scenic of the two. We were hopeful that the winter weather would continue to be as mild as it had for the first few weeks of our trip, and that we would be able to try some sections of the Great Walks, as NZ's network of tracks connecting huts in various national parks are called.

Abel Tasman

We took the ferry from Wellington to Picton on the South Island, and drove around the Marlborough sounds to the town of Motueka, from which we could do a bit of the Abel Tasman track. Unfortunately, we did not have time to complete any of the GW's, having prioritized seeing most of the country over doing any track in its entirety, but we got a sampling anyway. Equipped with our usual snack of gorp, some peanut butter sandwiches, porridge, and an indifferent pasta meal, we began hiking at a little before noon. We found this track very impressively maintained and concluded that the bush is so thick with ferns and other creeping ground covering growths that bushwhacking would be pretty much impossible in many areas of the country; thus, the great walks are extremely well-maintained and allow everyone access to the wilderness. Also, having huts at regular intervals all along the Great Walks makes for quite a cushy time of it, and our experience of the hiking suggested that not only is it technically simple, it is also less strenuous than other treks we have done. For me, having grown up on easy California hiking, this was great, but I think Adrian would always enjoy a bit more cross-country and exploration in nature experiences. As in Tongariro, we were impressed by the numbers of people out walking and very glad we were not trying to get anywhere in the summertime, when the great walks must be absolutely heaving with trampers. The hike to the Anchorage Hut, our destination for the night, was quite easy and pleasant. We strolled up and down in and out of view of the sea, and on one beach far below we were sure we saw penguins. The hut was well-appointed and we had our large bunkroom to ourselves.


Moeraki boulders which seem to look much better in photos than they did for real

Number of New Zealanders: 4million. Number of possums in New Zealand: 80 million

West Coast and Glaciers

After the taste of Abel Tasman, we made our way south towards the west coast. We drove to the coastal town of Hokitika, and were awed by the dramatic surf and the wood-strewn beaches. It was here that we had our only consistent rain of the trip, and we indulged ourselves with a night in a basic cabin--very cosy. We went out to see the creatures in nearby Glowworm Dell and likened them to stars in the sky in their scattered constellations of pinpricking lights, some fainter and some more luminous. Continued on down the coast on the following day, enjoying a sunny, windy walk in the sanddunes and more fantastic crashing waves, impressive in their numbers.

Having seen our share of glaciers in Alaska we were nonetheless interested to see the NZ variety, and took in both Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers with a few hikes, walking right up to the snout of the former and peeking into an ice cave. Both glaciers were rather dirty and have receded quite far in recent years, but remain impressive hunks of ice. Near Fox Glacier we went not once but twice to take in the views of Mounts Cook and Tasman from Lake Matheson. The latter is a very pretty little lake in the middle of forest, from which you can stand and watch the mist clear to reveal the snowy peak of NZ's tallest mountain and its neighbors; better photographers than we have managed to get the peaks' reflections in the lake.

Queenstown and Routeburn Track

We regret to inform our daredevil friends that we did not take advantage of all the hardcore adrenaline activities available throughout NZ, but notably in Queenstown. We passed through the touristy spot on the banks of Lake Wakatipu on our way to Glenorchy, a pretty village from which we began the Routeburn Track, another of NZ's Great Walks. Again, we only took time for the first day of the track, and were unable even to daytrip further due to snow and ice on the trail, but we had at least a taste of it. We found the huts to be quite fancy although built more for summer than winter use--the views were spectacular but the huge rooms were cold, and our fellow hutters spent over three hours trying to get the coal fire to burn, with very limited success.


The local population


The snout of the Franz Josef glacier


The Mount Cook range

Dunedin and Otago Coast

The drive from Queenstown to Dunedin was stunning, taking us through gently rolling, softly furred hills of grass sprinkled with large flat boulders (which A confirmed to me resembled bits of north England and Scotland) and then villages flanked by apple orchards, the rosy fruit clustered on some trees. Arriving in Dunedin we found the place abuzz with excitement over the upcoming rugby match between the famous All Blacks and the English team, 2003 world champions. Wandering around the town, we enjoyed its homey feel and particularly liked the Arc Cafe, where we munched on muffins and their kin and had free email. We visited the Otago Settlers Museum in town, and learned there a bit about the area's history. Dunedin, we found, is the Gaelic for Edinburgh; most of the original settlers were Scottish Presbyterians, and the few English Anglicans who sneaked in were looked upon as the "Little Enemy" during subsequent political intrigues.


A Panorma in the South Island


A large, stone penguin

The Otago Peninsula which sweeps out from Dunedin has a network of trails leading to sandy beaches, where penguins can be spotted. We made our way over a few miles of sand dunes one dusk to climb into a hide and hope for a glimpse of the rare Yellow Eyed (or Hoiho) Penguins coming in for the evening. To our delight, in they came, washing up with varying levels of grace onto the sand and righting themselves with a shake before making their long, laborious way up a few hundred feet of grassy cliff and over into their nesting sites on the other side of the hill. Returning in the gathering dark from this adventure, we saw a dramatic burst of fireball over the far horizon, and read in the paper later that a meteorite had crashed through someone's house in Auckland!

As the hordes began to descend on our holiday park in their garb of black (with silver feather) or white (with red rose) we decided that we'd drive a safe distance and watch the big match in a pub. Even though Adrian assured me that rugby union fans are a far more well-behaved lot than, say, Raider Nation or the notorious louts of Engish football, I wasn't keen to spend the night amidst a bunch of lagered up sports fans. The drive up the Otago coast to the "penguin capital of New Zealand," Oamaru, was beatiful--yet again the skies were clear. We found Oamaru to be rather a sleepy little place but were excited to check out their colony of Little Blue (or Korora) Penguins. This we did at dusk, when the rafts (groups) of Little Blues were making their way in. Like the Yellow-Eyeds, the Little Blues spend all day out at sea, swimming up to thirty kilometers as they feed on fish. Returning in the evening, they have just enough energy to climb up to their nests (which can be quite far inland) and rejoin their partners. If they've already had their baby for the year they regurgitate a bit of food for her, but not for their mate, who will take his turn the next day while the other partner has a day off. The Blues are the smallest of penguins and were of course very cute as they stumbled out of the water and made their waddling, determined way up the hill. Signs on the road warned to go slowly--penguin crossing. Har har, we thought, until the headlights caught a bit of white and the swept-back wings of two little guys caught in their progress home.
After this wildlife the rugby was bound to be a bit anticlimactic, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. First of all, the All Blacks do this great sort of warrior dance, called a "Haka", before their games, to intimidate the opposition, and I thought this was excellent. And the game itself was a lot more exciting than many sports because it kept going, without pause for beer commercials every yard or so!

NZ term for bedding:Manchester (eg "kitchenware, lingerie and Manchester; 2nd floor")

Christchurch

Our last stop in NZ was in Christchurch, where we had a walk along the bluffs outside of town and resisted the temptation of numerous duty-free souvenir shops with reams of stuffed sheep, penguin mouse pads, and possum-fur belly-button wamers on offer. We also took the opportunity to attend Evensong in Christchurch Cathedral, a pleasant experience.