Tuesday 1st March

We said our farewells to Timaru after a reasonable breakfast in our Lodge.

We drove North on a very busy SH1.  Apparently SH1 is not normally so busy but a lot of the trucks are having to come to the port in Timaru as the container ships are being diverted away from Christchurch.

We waved our goodbyes to The Pacific Ocean and at Winchester we turned off SH1 onto SH72 to follow the inland scenic route to Christchurch.

We made a brief stop in Geraldine to visit the Library to check on our flights but the library service was run from Christchurch and they were experiencing difficulties with the internet.

Just North of Mayfield we stopped for a photo opportunity of the Southern Alps from the Canterbury Plain. 

 

We noticed that a lot of the streams were running very full and wondered if the water was being diverted away from Christchurch.

We stopped in the little community of Staveley for our morning coffee.  (Well as the saying goes, it would be rude not to!).  They also had hokey-pokey and liquorice ice-cream and it was a toss up which we had.  The coffee won!  The toilets weren’t in the café but in the community hall which was across the green.  Staveley was very different from the Staveley that Linda grew up in.

 

North of Staveley we made a detour into Methven to try to find the library.  Unfortunately, it was very closed when we arrived with a tape across the front of it.

We drove back on SH 77 and encountered a large herd of bullocks being moved.  The farmer was in a pick up truck and he had thee dogs with him that were keeping the cattle moving.  No notice to warn us that we were approaching the cattle and no -one working with the farmer.  As the SH 77 joined SH72 there was a large flock of sheep blocking the road.  Obviously we are in a very rural area!!

We stopped to take photos of the Rakaia Gorge where the water was a brilliant green/blue colour. 

 

Nine Morgans, participating in the Morgan Grand Tour of NZ, 2011 passed us at the look out point which allowed for another photo opportunity.  There were three cars from the UK and one from the USA!  Examples of the New Zealand car registration were MOG 8, M0G8, MOG 80, MOGMAN!  The UK registrations included TS58 MOG, PH59 MOG.  As the day progressed, we saw several more Morgans.

 

We stopped at 12.51pm on the edge of the gorge to observe the two minute silence called to remember the people killed in the earthquake.  Exactly a week since the earthquake and we would have been there at this time this week.  That was a very frightening thought.

Following SH 72 we stopped in Oxford (yes we know that we are supposed to be in New Zealand) for our final hokey-pokey ice cream in New Zealand.  We took a couple of photos, including one of Ian in the Oxford pillory outside the old wooden gaol.

 

We filled the car up with petrol in Rangioura as it was a decent price and we were not too far from Christchurch. At this point we had not seen a sign post for the airport and only had a sketchy idea of its whereabouts.  8 km from the airport we found the first sign post.

Christchurch airport is undergoing major redevelopment and it was difficult to see where we had to hand the car in.  We had seen a Budget depot on the way in so went back there to ask.  They directed us to a car park near to Departures.  When we parked up a gentleman, in uniform, came straight to us and when we said that we needed a trolley he found one straight away.  He had a look around the car and approved of the state that it was in (coated in dust from the unmetalled roads and even though there was a chip in the windscreen that had been there since day 1), so we handed over the keys.  No drama about extra payment so happy about that.

We thought that we had to check in at Domestic Departures but we were re directed to International Departures.  Our cases were checked in and they SHOULD be put onto the flight out of Auckland!

Waiting in the airport is sooooo tedious.

Monday 28th February

Where has February gone?  It doesn’t seem two minutes since we were getting ready to fly to San Francisco and tomorrow we will fly to Hong Kong on our journey home.

We had an idle morning, no alarm and no rush to get out of the motel.  Linda hung the clothes on the garden airer that she had ironed last night, to finish drying as it was such a lovely morning. We drove in towards Timaru and found a little coffee shop that served a very good breakfast.  We then walked into the centre and went to the Library to upload the blog, check on our flights and see if we had heard anything about the hire car, No news from Saga so we phoned and they have arranged for us to deliver the car to the airport before 5.30 pm tomorrow.  We walked through the shops back towards the car and as we did so it started to rain!!  We drove back to the motel and thankfully the clothes weren’t too bad as they were mostly Ian’s shirts that can’t be tumble dried! 

Had a coffee and decided to drive up the coast a short way to a headland just north of Caroline Bay.  Initially we followed a road out to the shore that ran up to the abattoir!  We quickly turned round and found another road where we could park to walk onto the cliffs and look at The Dashing Rocks (they look as though they have been tessellated). 

 

We carried on walking around the headland and watched the waves pounding onto a small outcrop of rocks.  It was like watching a fireworks display!

We called back into the lodge and ate our lunch in comfort before driving down the south of Timaru to Patiti Point.  The beach was very stony and the stones were perfect skimming stones, perfectly flat and almost perfectly round.  The beach appeared very grey but on closer inspection many were green, white, brown and all colours in between!  There was a great deal of driftwood on the beach and we had fun looking at the shapes that the wood had been sculptured into.

Having exhausted Patita Point we drove further south and visited Scarborough (yes we are in New Zealand).   This was a small cove with about half a dozen houses.  To reach the beach we had to walk across the railway line. 

We fancied an ice cream so drove back to Timaru but we could not find a shop selling soft ice cream.  Neither were there any souvenir shops so there was no opportunity for the last minute shopping that we had planned for Christchurch.  Timaru is supposed to be one of the holiday spots for New Zealanders! 

Having returned to the Lodge to start to sort out the cases we decided to eat at the same Café/Bar that we had used last night.  Ian was asked by the waitress whether he wanted his meal with or without “Fijis”; after some to-ing and fro-ing, we realised this was the NZ pronunciation for “veggies”.  We met a lovely couple from Toronto who had just arrived from Adelaide.  They were supposed to have been ringing the bells at Christchurch Cathedral but obviously that part of their trip did not happen.

Sunday 27th February

We woke to find that the cloud was very low over the mountains but before we left Ian managed to take a photo of Aoraki Mount Cook piercing through the cloud.

We had a wander around the complex before leaving to see if we could find any Keas but there weren’t any to see, despite the warning notices in our room and in the public areas of the hotel.

We drove back down the side of Lake Pukaki and as we did so, the sun started to shine.  We had some beautiful views of the mountains.

At the foot of the lake we rejoined SH8 and drove Eastwards through Mackenzie country, which is well known for the breeding of Merino sheep.  It was a vast open plain and the contrast with the Southern Alps was dramatic.

We stopped at Lake Tekapo for coffee and although the guide book wasn’t too complimentary about the town, the area around the lake side was very attractive.

There were a large number of shapes constructed by balancing stones.  We weren’t sure about the significance of these.

Across the river where it exited the lake we could see an old chapel.  We decided to investigate and found that it was a chapel dedicated to The Good Shepherd. It was a beautiful little chapel and behind the altar there were large windows that overlooked the lake and had a beautiful view of the Southern Alps.  To be able to worship there must have been a privilege as you could really give glory to God for the wonderful world that He has created.

On the foreshore there was a young couple who had just got married, they were drinking champagne and celebrating with their friends.

We drove through Fairlie and we were able to get some petrol.

At Cave we had to make a decision about following the main road into Timaru or following the “red” road to St Andrews and then up the coast to Timaru.  No real decision to make as we were being pushed to drive faster than we wanted to on the main road.  We appreciated the route as it took us through some scenic countryside where the ranges of hills were riven by striking gorges, some with limestone cliffs.

In Timaru we called at the i-site to find out where the motel was.  It was very easy to find as it was on the main road to Christchurch.

The couple who run the motel are from Romsey in Hampshire.

Linda did two loads of washing, drying one load in the tumble drier and hanging the other load out in the garden.  We tried to ring the Air NZ desk to confirm our return flights but after a long time on hold failed to reach anyone;  We will try online tomorrow.

We went to a local Café/Bar/Restaurant for our meal which had been recommended by the Motel owners.  It was a very good meal and Ian thoroughly enjoyed his Mud cake served with boysenberries. 

   

Saturday 26th February

We breakfasted in the hotel dining room.  We had waited until the coach groups had left so for almost all of our breakfast we were on our own.

We left just before 10am and drove north towards Twizel.  The valley was very wide and a totally different landscape from anything we had seen.

We stopped in Twizel which was a town built just for the workers for the construction of the hydro electric dams.  In 1985 when the dams opened, the plan was to demolish the town but many of the residents were happy there and convinced the Council to leave the town intact.

The town has nothing to recommend it to the tourist but it is slowly growing into an alpine resort that is cheaper than Mount Cook.  It is being used as a centre for some of the people who have relocated from Christchurch and the town seem to be doing things to help them to settle in.

Many of the scenes from Lord of the Rings were filmed in this area and we went to the i-hub to see a free exhibition about the film.  Unfortunately the display was being dismantled, although we saw Gandalf’s staff, Frodo’s dagger and Aragorn’s sword.

We decided to carry on to Aoraki Mount Cook and have morning coffee there. (Aoraki Mount Cook is the only place in New Zealand where it uses both the Maori and the European name, where the Maori name is given first) The scenery was stunning and as we drove along the side of Lake Pukake, the sun started to shine and we were getting fantastic views of Aoraki Mount Cook. 

We went to The Old Mountaineer’s Cafe for coffee and sat out on the balcony in hot sunshine, looking up at Aoraki Mount Cook.

After a little research Ian found out about the track up to The Tasman Glacier.  We drove 8km out to the car park on a gravel road and had our lunch.  We then walked 30min to a point overlooking Lake Tasman which is at the end of the glacier.  There were huge icebergs floating on the lake that had broken away from the glacier exactly 7 seconds after the Christchurch Earthquake.

Ian walked up a further hill to get better views of the lake and the glacier.

We retraced our steps almost to the car park before heading off on the alternative track to The Blue Pools.  When we arrived there they were not blue but a vivid green colour. Linda was still smiling at this stage.

We climbed a little further but the quality of the track degraded considerably.  Linda said that if she was meant to climb mountains she would have four legs and hooves like a goat!!  She decided that the final scree was too dangerous for her to attempt so stayed where she was while Ian scrambled to the top and came back saying that the view of the glacier was worth the effort.  Linda totally disagreed with him.

We drove to our hotel, The Hermitage, at Aoraki Mount Cook, and found that we had been given a suite of rooms, very reminiscent of our hotel stays in Canada.  We had a long balcony outside the bedroom and the lounge where we were able to sit to drink our afternoon tea and drink in the fabulous views of the mountains.

We had dinner in the Panorama Restaurant and it was superb.   After ordering our starter we were brought a small complimentary starter of Fijian Style Blue Nosed Condor (some sort of fish).  Linda had a starter of home smoked salmon, while Ian had a soft shelled crab (complete with legs and claws which he ate) on an avocado and cream base.  We both had the lamb served medium rare which was delicious.  It would have been rude not to have dessert so we indulged ourselves.  Coffee and Tea were served at the table and along with them a small tray of complimentary mini desserts.  The view from the restaurant was splendid and we watched the different light effects on Aoraki Mount Cook as the sun went down; you could not have wished for better on a film set (think of the logo for Paramount Pictures).  Far too much food was eaten before we retired to the room to write the blog and sort out the photos.

 

Friday 25th February

After another superb breakfast at the Excelsior Café we set off driving through the city.

We drove around the Octagon and navigated to Baldwin Street which is the steepest street in the world, according to The Guinness Book of Records.  We drove up the street and back down again which was quite scary as it has a gradient of 1 in 2.86.

From Baldwin Street we carried on driving North around the back of Signal Hill which afforded us good views over the sound and the Otago Peninsular where we had been the previous day.  The weather wasn’t as kind to us today as it was slightly hazy.

We drove along SH1, which was very scenic, until we came to Palmerston where we stocked up on lunchtime provisions.  According to our guide book “There’s little reason to stop long in Palmerston”.

We continued until we arrived at Shag Point where we didn’t see any penguins but we had great views of Fur Seals (almost up close and personal)

 and sea birds (and an owl!)

We drove into Moeraki village where we had a great coffee at Fleur’s Place.  This is a very characterful converted fishing shack restaurant/café which serves the freshest of fish.  They had produced their own cookery book which not only included photographs of the recipes, but also photographs of the area around Moeraki.  The celebrity chef Rick Stein had endorsed the recipes and apparently Gwyneth Paltrow had eaten there when filming in the area.  Outside on the cliff were a great number of roosting birds.

We visited the Moeraki Boulders and were amazed by the size of these perfectly spherical boulders, some of which reach 2m in diameter.  Contrary to popular myth these boulders have not fallen from the sky, not were they washed up by the sea but rather lay deep in the mudstone cliffs behind the beach.  As the sea eroded the cliffs, so these boulders appeared.

We decided to delay our lunch stop as the car park was full of coaches.  We drove north, failing to find a picnic spot so ended up eating lunch (at 3.30pm) overlooking the harbour at Oamaru.  We quickly visited the Blue Penguin reserve but as no cameras were allowed in we decided not to bother as we had seen blue penguins yesterday.  Here there was another derelict pier with hundreds of roosting sea birds. 

 Oamaru did not benefit from our patronage as they required us to pay for parking; in any case it was a little too touristy for us.

Driving out on SH1 we hit the back of a traffic jam, which seemed to be going nowhere very quickly so we attempted to navigate our way on the back roads.  This resulted in us coming back into Oamaru, so we decided to head south and then turn west onto a “red road”, which was signposted Weston.  We had to do many educated guesses as the road meandered around and didn’t have signposts, but had road names.  It turned out to be a very spectacular road beside limestone cliffs. We drove for an hour and twenty minutes without seeing another car, bliss! We made an unscheduled, but extremely interesting stop at Elephant Rocks, so called because the rocks look like a small herd of elephants, in shape and colour, making their way through a grassy bowl.

After Elephant Rocks we rejoined the main road which we had intended to use.  This took us through the unremarkable town of Duntroon and then to some rocks where there should have been Maori rock paintings.  Unfortunately, the better drawings have been removed to a museum and we weren’t able to view what was left as there had been a major rock fall.

The road then went past three lakes and three dams, which are producing hydroelectricity.  The water in the lakes was the colour of eau-de-nil and it looked as though it had a viscous quality to it.

We drove through countryside that reminded us of the Scottish glens and finally arrived at Omarama where we ate in the dining room to the motel. 

Thursday 24th February

We breakfasted this morning at the Excelsior Café which is situated in the lobby of the old Excelsior Hotel.

We then walked into town to go to the library to make use of the free internet, which allowed us the freedom to load the blog, read some e-mails, answer some e-mails and then Google the local square dance group as we had come out without the contact details.  We e-mailed the organisers and also left a message on the phone to let them know that we were still intending to join them, but would be later than we had anticipated.

We had a walk around the city centre and found it to be full of “ordinary” shops rather than the tourist shops that we have been encountering.  We collected Subway sandwiches to eat for our main meal tonight as we would not have time to go out for a meal.

After walking back to the hotel we had a quick change of clothes as the weather had definitely warmed up.  We then sat outside the hotel and waited for the courtesy coach that was due to pick us up for the Monarch Wildlife cruise.  We were picked up by a very nice young man called James who took us on a scenic drive along the Otago Peninsula.

We ended up at Penguin Place, a reserve to help the breeding programme of the yellow-eyed penguin.  We saw the hospital where the underweight or injured penguins are nursed back to life. 

We then went for a walk around the reserve and got up really close to the “teenage” penguins.  They were not afraid of us at all (at their stage, they know no predators) and it was a real privilege to be allowed to get so up close and personal with them. 

There are areas of the reserve that the humans are in covered walkways so that they don’t disturb the penguins.

We were then taken down to the local quay side where we were taken aboard The Monarch to go further out of the sound into the Southern Ocean.  There were less than 20 of us on the boat and so it was possible to see both sides of the boat.  The skipper and his two assistants were marvellous at pointing out the wild life.  We saw fur seals again, pied skuas, shearwaters, various shags and the highlight:  three different kinds of Albatross and blue penguins.

 

After dropping off some of the party, we were then taken on a boat trip up the sound  towards Dunedin.  It was very calm and we appreciated seeing skeins of shags flying from Dunedin towards their roosts on the sea cliffs. 

Before we got off the boat we were given cups of tea and savouries.

We had a courtesy bus back to the hotel and then it was a quick change and a sandwich before we set off to join The Roaring 40s Square Dance Club.  We were warmly received by Eleanor and Simon, the callers and Brett the round dance cuer.  We had an excellent evening of square and round dancing with only a ten minute tea break.

An excellent day in Dunedin.

Wednesday 23rd February

We were still feeling a little shell shocked this morning as the result of the earthquake in Christchurch starts to hit home.  We were due there on Saturday but spent some time trying to decide how we could avoid the city.  We e-mailed Saga Independent and made some suggestions about our last few days.

Thank you to all the people that have contacted us to ensure that we are safe.

We left Invercargill at 10 am having breakfasted in the lodge.  The owners cooked breakfast for Ian and brought it to the door at 8 am along with muesli, fruit, yoghurt and toast for me.

We followed the Southern Scenic Road out of Invercargill and followed the coast.

We considered visiting Waipapa Point but as it was 14km on grit road we decided to carry on.  (There is a ship wreck at this point but it is only visible at low tide.)

We passed a road sign for Dead Horse Road!!

We drove through Fortrose and, as we did so, this main state highway became a gravel road! 

It was 4 km from the main road down to Slope Point and we decided to make the journey. The road had intermittent lengths of tarmac road of about 200m but the rest of it was quite bad (as judged by Linda; Ian was in rally mode – almost as fast on the gravel as on tarmac).  (Slope Point is the most southerly point of New Zealand and as we had visited Cape Reinga it would have been rude not to visit Slope Point.) We each had our photograph taken by the sign post pointing to the Equator and the South Pole.   

 The waves were crashing onto the rocks and Ian enjoyed taking photos (surprise, surprise!).

Back on the main road (well it is going somewhere but still gravel) we came to one area that was prone to Tidal Flooding!  Thankfully we were OK.

From there we drove to Curio Bay which contains an area of petrified forest, a particularly fine example of fossilised jurassic trees and stumps that are clearly visible at low tide.

 

In this area there are also the very rare yellow-eyed penguins and we were very lucky to find one on the beach.  Normally, you see them at dawn, when they leave their chicks to collect food, and at dusk when they return.  At this time of year the penguins begin to moult and lose their waterproof feathers so they don’t venture into the water.  The one we saw must have just started moulting. 

Driving to the east of Curio Bay we came to Porpoise Bay which is the home, not to porpoises, but to the small Hector Dolphins.  They live right in the bay and if people swim they will approach the swimmers to play.  We were lucky enough to spot about four of these dolphins but they weren’t close enough to get good photographs.

Travelling along the coast road Linda spotted her first ever Kingfisher and was VERY thrilled.

We stopped for coffee at The Happy Frog Café but decided not to go to the Maclean Falls as it would have taken us about an hour so pressed on north-eastwards.

We did have a quick stop at Florence Hill Lookout to admire the coastline from a high vantage point.

A few km further on we turned off the “main road” again to visit the Purakaunui Falls; only 10 minutes walk through rain forest to reach these.  We were not the only visitors; a party of junior school children with teachers/parents were just ahead of us and by the time we reached the falls, the children had stripped off to their swimsuits and were getting scored by the adults for entering the water and standing under the falls.  No risk assessments in NZ!

 

In Owaka we stopped for a photo opportunity of Teapot Land.  This was next door to Dollyworld!!!

                     .  

 

                     .  

 

                     .  

Several km further down the gravel track we rejoined the tarmac but not for long.  We turned off again, this time to Nugget Point.   After parking we had a kilometre walk to the light house on the point.  The scenery was, of course, magnificent but the main draw for us was to see the hundreds of seals on the rocks below the windblown point.   The geology on the point was particularly outstanding with the rock strata of “the nuggets” lying in a vertical plane.

Back on to tarmac, we finished off with a straight run to Dunedin stopping only for fuel after the car beeped at us that we were about to run out (after filling we calculated there had been about 8l in the tank and therefore enough to get us to Dunedin but better safe than sorry).

We checked in at the Mercure to find a letter waiting for us from Saga’s agent in NZ offering to make alternative for us in lieu of Christchurch.  After 2 phone calls that has been done and we will now stop in Timaru.  Parking would have been a problem for us so we had to pay the “nominal charge” of $20 per night for valet parking in the hotel carpark.

We went to Speight’s Ale House attached to the brewery and had one of our best priced meals yet.

Tuesday 22nd February

The weather today is definitely better than it was yesterday, but there again it could hardly be worse!

We breakfasted at The Olive Tree and after refuelling the human we also refuelled the car before driving out of Te Anau towards Manapouri.

The scenery soon changed from the lakes and fiords around Te Anau to rich pastureland where sheep and cows were grazing.  The flocks of sheep are much bigger than we see in England and quite tightly packed in the meadows.  We also managed to photograph one of the many birds of prey we have seen; we believe they are Australasian Harriers.

We then followed the scenic route to Tuatapere via Clifden, where we stopped to admire the Clifden Suspension Bridge, currently out of use.  It was a little smaller than our Clifton Suspension Bridge but still worth calling in to see.

We stopped for coffee in the little town of Tuatapere at the Yesteryear’s Museum.  It was full of kitchen equipment, china and glass wear from the 50’s.

There was not much else to take photographs of around the town so had to make do with photographing the mural on the public toilets!

Following the coast road towards Invercargill we stopped to take photos of the huge breakers.  The sea was very grey as was the sky.   We also took photographs of the wind sculptured macrocarpa trees which were planted to act as wind breaks for the homesteads from the fierce southerly winds that lash the coast.

 

We had a text from Robyn asking if we were safe.  At that stage we hadn’t heard about the earthquake in Christchurch.  We sent a text back to reassure her that we were fine.  (We didn't realise how bad it was at that stage)


 We stopped at Riverton overlooking the river mouth for our usual lunch and spotted our first whale!

We arrived at the Balmoral Lodge Motel and watched the television to see the devastation in Christchurch.  We are going to wait a few days before we contact Saga Independent to check on what we should do.  We are hoping and praying that the people that we met on our coach trip are safe as most of them were due to fly out today or tomorrow.