KIWI BLOG NUMBER 9… THE LAST.

Many vineyards in the Nelson thru Picton area remind us of Okanagan vinyards.

Camped at Otorohanga before turning in our camper van to Auckland airport. Have rented a car for the last 4 days to do a bit of touring on the Coromandel peninsula, then to Herb and Gillian’s and finally, drive to the airport for our departure to Tahiti for 3 days.

We have developed a bad? habit similar to our trips thru the UK and Europe and that is to stop at bakeshops for Danish pastries, or apple strudel, or apple turnovers plus café lattes. I have to go on a diet when I get home. Roadside bakeries are deadly!

We have re-named Ol’ Nell/Betsie to Elvis because she/he does a lot of “Shake, rattle and roll” and is up over 460k kilometres. She (now He) has served us well but… the maintenance checklist when we picked up Elvis was rather slipshod. Elvis overheated badly on some of the mountain passes on the south island. On the way to Morutake,  it overheated again so I turned around and went back to find a service station. The old mechanic (working on a Sunday) helped me find the radiator fill cap (which is not an easy task on the old, old. old, Toyota vans… not an easy thing to do), it took 30 minutes to cool down, and then took almost 4 liters of coolant. (Thank god for growing up on a farm and routine maintenance!). Old Elvis has not overheated since.

A huge cruise ship was in Picton for 2 days so the town was overrun with North Americans and Asians. Caught the 9 am ferry from Picton to Wellington, 

en route,

got caught up on recent happenings from the PGA golf tour from the Riviera club in LA. Spent a couple of hours at Te Papa, the National Museum in Wellington. We only went thru the Gallipoli section of the museum that documented the massive British “cock-up” for which the Aussies and Kiwis paid dearly. There was a Newfoundland regiment wiped out there as well. Sir Winston, vice-chancellor of the Admiralty, was doing his “strategic planning” using outdated tourist maps… don’t figure!

Winston did get something right tho… see quote below in front of a Nelson pub.

You come to realize how badly the colonials were treated by the upper class ( a.k.a. privileged, unqualified, upper class Brits. The infantrymen were told NOT to salute officers as that made the officers a target for snipers. Salute they did… problem solved!

Every village we drive thru has a commemorative statue to the war dead... Boer War, WW1 and WW2; WW1 for the Kiwis ended in 1919 as they were involved in the occupation of Palestine in 1919 under the Balfour Declaration and many Kiwis were killed after 1918 in Palestine. Gallipoli to the ANZACs is akin to Vimy Ridge for the Canadians.The Gallipoli exhibit was very moving, the creator used lifelike, oversize statues, based upon real people with a narrated story; each statue was about 12 feet high with incredible detail. See nurse Lottie Le Gallais. We watched a BBC movie called “Kiwi Girls” last year based upon true stories of the hardships and sacrifices made by  gallantry of the kiwi volunteer nurses.

The area north and west of Wellington along the coast is much like driving through Devon and Cornwall, pastoral, lots of cattle and sheep, corn and productive farms.

The passes thru the mountains are very tiring driving tho.  Curves in tunnels and passes are so sharp, truckers have to watch for oncoming traffic  using convex mirrors.

New Plymouth is a beautiful sea side town with a great walking wall along the malecon. All the towns have British names.

Driving into Stratford, there were US Flags adorning every farmstead and the town was all decked out with US flags. POTUS Donald is arriving to open a new golf course and the town and district is going absolutely wild!

 

That is the fake news for the day (and it DIDN’T come out of Kellyann Conway’s mouth); the real story is at the end of the blog so I’ll keep you on the edge of your seat until then.

Turned in our camper van at Auckland airport and picked up a nice Toyota Corolla, much easier to drive (but much less room). We have a chalet in a camper park in Thames on the Coromandel peninsula and will do some hiking and exploring before driving to Auckland for our last couple of days.

In the campground in Otorohanga last nite, we meet a British couple (David (a builder) and Jenny Flew ( a property manager) who were from Boscastle in Cornwall. I asked him if he knew Middle Beeny Farm where Heather and I stayed in 1995 and 1997; Of course he did… his cousin (also a builder) was renovating the Middle Beeny Farm farmhouse for the new owner. The farmhouse was built in the late 1500s and an addition put on in the 1860s. It was our favourite B&B to stay at in the UK and we celebrated Wendy’s 70^th birthday in 1997. The B&B was run by Wendy and her brother Barry and we really enjoyed our visits with them. David’s father is 88 and knows everyone in the community, so he will check on Wendy and Barry’s whereabouts to give them our regards (that is, if they are still on the right side of the sod) and get back to us. It truly is a small world!

The US flags are celebrating a HUGE  US car rally, the roads into Stratford and area are bumper to bumper with American cars, beautifully restored from the 1930s thru 1980s all travelling at 30 kph to avoid chip damage as most of the roads are under construction with “new seal;” warnings… hot tar with finely divided stones flattened into the tar stone chips flying every direction. It is a 3 day event and thousands of cars are expected. I think we met every chevy from 1936 thru 1980 mostly 55, 56 and 57’s plus lots of Corvettes on the highway into town.

We have sold our house in Camrose,  and bought the beautiful old bus below in Whanganui. moving to kiwi land which will be our new home.

See you all soon back in Canada.

BLOG NUMBER EIGHT SOUTH ISLAND HEADED NORTH

3 nites in Te Anau was 1 nite too many, Lynn had a bad cold so we just sort of hung out and did the glowworm cave trip to pass the time ($180 worth of time passing) very interesting but overpriced. Scratch that one of the bucket list! Rained 2 or the 3 days in Te Anau not surprising tho as they get 9 meters of rainfall annually in the Milford Sound-Te Anau area. Campsite was one of the best we have stayed in. The proprietor was a riot. A lady from Sweden phoned him and asked him the whereabouts of her daughter. Her daughter had been travelling for months and one of the stops on her itinerary was his campground and the daughter indicated to her mom that she would be there on that date but had not called home for 11 days. The Mom left the message for the daughter to call home immediately so… when the daughter showed up 2 days later, the first thing the owner did was tell her to call her mother as she hadn’t heard from her for 13 days. The girl’s mouth just dropped!

Drove across the country to Dunedin (very Scottish) Dunedin was the ancient name for Edinburgh and we stayed at a campground in Portobello half way out on the Otaga peninsula. Penguin colonies, Albatrosses, Larnach Castle is impressive, a Highclare Castle look alike. The Laird shot himself, was married three times and (Heather’s words, not mine… so I can repeat it), “they must have driven him to do it!” Dunedin is a wonderful little city and home to Otago University one of NZ’s best.

Dunedin Train station

Many day trips are available that take you inland to various gorges. We did a walk-about and had a great pub lunch with draft Guiness. The area around Gore is very beautiful and many trout streams; anglers come from all over the world to fish for trout around here.

Next stop Oamaru which is a really neat place along the coast,

very quiet and quaint with blue penguins and yellow eyed penguin so we just watched from afar (instead of Paying $60 to go inside the compound)… when they came ashore as we had seen the penguin parade on Phillip Island in Aus. There was an international convention of cormorants at the wharf in the inner harbour.

As we walked back to town, there is an old guy that locks up the rowboats and dinghies every nite on the wharf. Three little penguins come ashore every nite and sleep under his dinghies. He looks out for them so that stray dogs cannot get at them. Better to see than  the commercial adventure.

Stopped at the Moritake boulders so Heather could do some exercises.

At Ashburton, south of Christchurch we stopped on the side of the highway for lunch; we noticed the bakery across the street had a turnstile of customers. During the half hour we stopped there were literally more than a hundred customers. Truckers, locals, tourists, stopped on both side of the State Highway and the parking lot with picnic tables was full.

We checked it out and bought he best carrot cake we have ever eaten. There must have been 15 or more people in the store while we were browsing… meat pies, fruit pies, pastries, cakes… you name it! DON’T BYPASS SIMS BAKERY ON THE SH1 AT ASHBURTON!!!!

Drove from Oamaru  to Christchurch and decided to push on to Hanmer Springs and spend extra time in Nelson for 3 days. Many wildfires in the Christchurch area and many homes have been lost. Did a drive thru downtown Christchurch to see the earthquake damage; very sad to see the extent of the damage. Many streets are being totally rebuilt, roadworks everywhere, Scaffolding and cranes are everywhere.

 

 

Brunhilde (our GPS) got a heavy workout as many streets were closed, others converted to 1 way traffic, and the like. As detours would not allow us to follow Brunhilde’s commands, there was a lot of “ recalculating, recalculating, make a U turn as soon as possible” .

Harvest is underway in the area along the east coast; canola has been swathed, much barley is being combined by straight cut and the crops look very productive. There was a file of oats that had been cut with a binder and stooked… it would have made Heather’s and my Dad’s hearts take a leap to see that! Sheep and cattle haulers are required to wash all the animal waste into large holding tanks along the highway; there are animal refuse dump sites about every 50 km along each highway.

Camped in Hanmer Springs, a spa/ski/jet boat resort town much akin to Canmore.

Long day drive to Motueka today; only 200 km but took about 6 hours due to the terrain and multitudinous curves. After a great steak BBQ, we will spend a couple of days here to unwind before heading to Picton to catch the ferry northbound. Motueka is a great spot, the best campground so far

 

 and the entrance to Abel Tasman National Park, we both feel if we wanted to holiday in NZ, this is the ONLY area we would come to. You could spend a couple of months here, the weather is the best in the entire country. Everything anyone wanted to do ids right here within short drive. Hiking, biking, boating, fishing in saltchuck and streams, swimming, vineyards, birdwatching, golf, and every extreme sport that tickles your heart. The best thing is… it is also very quiet here. Spent the day at the beach in Kaiteriteri.

 

No vehicles are allowed in Abel Tasman National Park; options are... walk in- walk out, or take water taxis that will drop you off at many locations and you can walk out. From a 2 hour walk to a three day hike. For three days take extra blood because the sand flies will take you down a quart.

We also celebrated Waitangi Day and Valentines Day as one.

Waitangi Day (national holiday Feb, 6) celebrates Maori signing treaties with the Brits in 1840s. We (efficient) Canadians celebrated Waitangi Day and Valentines Day all in one as follows:

Old Maori chief, Lynn-rangitangi leads his warriors in a war dance called a haka. Tattooed warriors make themselves look fierce by bugging out their eyes and sticking out their tongues to intimidate their enemies.

AIDED BY Princess, Heather Anne amorous arua,  enemies  adopt a demure, deferential manner and lay gifts like Marlborough Pinot Noir, dark chocolate and fresh strawberries from the farmer’s market at the chiefs feet.

Trust, friendship and mutual respect are recognized by touching foreheads and noses.
Gifts are shared and consumed… one thing leads to another…

et voila, Waitangi Day and Valentines Day all in one.

This war paint was supposed to be water soluble/washable… NUTS! I hope it wears off before we have to clear security with the American Border security in LAX.

Hope to golf Tasman tomorrow on the way to Nelson.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BLOG NUMBER 7        MILFORD SOUND

Arrived in Te Anau Saturday the 11 of Feb., and are camped at a Kiwi Park. Lake Te Anau below is a huge lake behind the hydro dam.

Sunday the 12^th we went on a tour to Milford Sound by bus. 2 hours up to Milford Sound, a 3 hour boat ride with lunch followed by a 2 hour trip back to Te Anau. Many stops along the way for tea, scones, walks, photos, informative talks, etc. 

The area was opened up by Aussie sheep farmers who could apply to the government for a lease prior to ownership much like the Homestead Act in Canada, followed by goldseekers, possum ranchers/trappers, deer hunters, and finally tourists. Tourism and dairy are the largest contributors to NZ GDP.

Before the European colonials arrived, there were no four legged critters in NZ; the sailing ships and Maoris bought rats, the Aussies and Brits introduced rabbits as a food source for settlers, after being overrun by rabbits, the politicians (“I’m from the government I’m here to help you”… second of the three biggest lies in the world), allowed the Brits to introduce stoats (slightly bigger than a weasel) to manage (a.k.a. eat) the rabbits… (didn’t work) and now there is a stoat problem. A second political decision was to introduce Aussie bushy tailed possums to establish a fur industry (Merino sheep wool and possum fur) are highly prized by Asians and the Brits. Possums also transmit and spread bovine tuberculosis through the cattle stations. The TB control regulations are very rigorous. So, in summary, there is a massive rat, stoat and possum problem in Kiwi land which has managed to decimate the bird populations. Dead (a.k.a. “good”) possums litter the roadways and they are so plentiful they are called Kiwi speed bumps as it is not uncommon to see a dozen good possums per mile.

The drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound is 120 km with about 80 km. inside a National Park; within the park, there would be a stoat trap (tree is marked with a pink tag and baited with an egg) about every 300 meters for the last 80 km. Traps are checked every second day. Massive pest control campaigns have been mounted where food pellets have been dropped by helicopter to attract rats, stoats and possums; initially, unbaited pellets were dropped to lure the critters then… the second batch of pellets are baited with 1080 (sodium fluoroacetate) which, if my memory is correct (probably not!) from Biochemistry 303 in 1965, is a all encompassing, non-specific metabolic inhibitor which blocks the Krebs Cycle (all metabolism stops and critters die). Any deer eating the pellets are also culled which has the hunters “up in arms” (pun intended). So to get rid of rats, stoats and possums a few deer are being sacrificed. Actually, the deer overpopulation is a problem as well deer season lasts 365 days per annum with no limit on the number of deer taken. Now… eating venison laced with 1080 MIGHT BE a problem so best to eat a deer that has been shot and not a dead deer that the hunter has come across in the bush.

Milford Sound is absolutely stunning but is a very busy place; 90 cruise ships annually and they accommodate about 50 full size tour busses daily plus many smaller 20 passenger buses. 

Selfie sticks abound and it is not uncommon to have one stuck up your nose by a careless tourist. Selfie stick users should have to have a Selfie Stick Safety Course (SSSC) to emphasize the need to have the direction of the selfie stick under control at all times; just like hunters controlling the direction of the muzzle of their rifle at all times. I promise... no mores rants about selfie sticks (that is UNLESS "the Donald" starts to use one..  

North American elk (wapiti) have been introduced here and hunters come from all over the world to enter a raffle to get a licence. Moose were introduced but did not survive. The alpine forest on the east side of the divide is quite open while the rain forest on the west side is a jungle. 

To get from the east to the west you must traverse a one-way tunnel (Homer tunnel) and while waiting to get thru the tunnel there are many keas (mountain parrots) that descend on camper’s luggage and demolish it looking for food.

 Homer Tunnel took more than 30 years to build and completed in 1954 after major surveyor error, the original estimate was 100 meters in length, oops, completed length was 1200 meters. 

The switchbacks and curves are awesome.

A sheep, venison and beef station on the way to Milford Sound encompassed some 10,000 acres and is managed and operated by 2 fellows, their wives and kids and their dogs plus part-time help at shearing and roundup. The owner has 30,000 ewes that produce about 50,000 lambs annually. The perinatal mortality rate of lambs was very high due to (stupid?, warm and comfortable?) ewes who lamb out in the worst of elements (wind, rain, gorse) so the resourceful owner, shears his ewes at 130 days gestation. The shorn, now cold and uncomfortable ewes, seek shelter and the lambs has a fighting chance. Brilliant!

Our guide, Terry, 

is an avid hunter and outdoorsman; before modern GPS, his GPS was to break a bracken fern and point it in the direction of his travel every 10 meters or so to avoid getting lost. His GPS was Green Pointing System. Great guide! Fishermen must wash every bit of their gear in detergent and rinse it well when moving from one stream to another to avoid contamination. The rivers and streams and lakes are great trout fishing sites. Kiwis take environmental protection and biosecurity very seriously.

BLOG NUMBER 6    WANAKA      SOUTH ISLAND       FEB 10

Rained all night at Greymouth but we were in a Kiwi campground that had a nice lounge with TV. Campground was saturated the next morning but the day cleared and we decided to go east of the mountains rather than do a run down the west coast where the weather is always a bit dodgy. 

Arthur`s Pass and the Otira Gorge were beautiful (and a very slow) drive. It turned out to be a good choice as the weather cleared once we got east of the coastal mountains. The sandflies are quite nasty, they look like blackflies but, unlike blackfies, you can feel them biting. The local cure for sandflies is to rub exposed parts with whiskey then rub on finely divided sand. The sandflies get pissed on the whiskey and then kill each other by throwing boulders at each other. We have found a local prep that works better and then we take the whiskey internally.

The areas that we have travelled thru are reminiscent of BC, Kicking Horse Pass, Rodgers Pass, Okanagan valley, farms and vineyards, lavender fields, etc. However, the mountain passes are much steeper (16%+ grades) and much curvier. Have to shift Ol`Nell down to 2^nd gear to get up the passes. Lots of ``Slow Traffic “ pull out bays which is a boon to traffic flow.

Spent one night is Ashley Gorge kiwi park just north of Oxford did a hike up the canyon then one nite at Twizel just outside Mt. Cook National Park.  The whole area around Christchurch is called Canterbury and it was the dream of an Archbishop of Canterbury about 150 years ago to re-create the area in the likeness of the Canterbury area of jolly old England. All place names (towns streets, schools, parks, clubs, and domains) are copies, it is said the Archbishop even tried to teach school children to speak with British accents.

Haven’t tried an RSA club yet but it is on our list of things to do;

Drove up to Mt. Cook and hiked to the base of the glacier at Mount Sefton. 




Spectacular scenery… Mt. Cook below is the highest point in NZ at over 13,000 feet. 


Sir Edmund Hilary and his sherpas, Tensing Norgay among them, practiced here before their successful attempt on climb Mt. Everest. There is an alpine center in the Park named in their honour. The glacial lake is like Lake Louise but more of an azure color and stretches about 50 km down the glacial plain.

Interesting to watch a team of border collies herd sheep across a road from one pasture to another. Did not appear to be any commands issued to dogs from handlers… the dogs just seemed to know what to do and how to work together. When done, the shepherdess just whistled and all dogs jumped into the back of her backie… job well done!

Lindas Pass on the way to Wanaka was a real climb, red tufted grasses and red head at the top of the pass were beautiful. 

Hard to imagine that the travel thru this country 150 years ago was by horse drawn coach and bullocks pulling wagons on the way to the goldfields.

Drove to Wanaka and spent two nights here. Lake Wanaka below.


Wanaka is like Banff, very crowded, very touristy and the hub of testosterone-fueled adrenalin rushes/sports; bungee jumping, skydiving, snow skiing, jet boating thru narrow canyons, hangliding, parachuting, paragliding, mountain climbing, motorcar racing, helicopter and biplane rides, flying lessons, and the like catering mostly to omnipresent  wealthy Chinese and Japanese tourists. Lots of hiking and biking paths to get us out of town. The streets and outdoor cafes are immensely overcrowded just like Banff on a summer weekend. It will be nice to get out of here to a quieter place. Dylan and Ashley (Grand nephew and girlfriend) joined us for dinner. They have been on a working holiday in Aussie and now New Zealand. Dylan just got his “pilots” licence for parasailing at Arrowtown and they are off travelling for a couple of weeks before house sitting on the North Island. Apple didn’t fall far from the tree eh? Garn and Les.

Stopped at Cardrona 

a gold mining town in the 1860s. Oldest hotel (still in existence in NZ).

and Arrowtown (two sleepy little villages) on the way to Queenstown. Descent into Arrowtown is a 10 km downhill run hairpin turn after hairpin turn.





 Arrrowtown is beautiful and quiet, Queenstown is beautiful and very busy. Drive to Te Anau was very scenic south of Queenstown below but very windy, almost got blown off the road at times. 




Roadside lunch gives the driver a much needed break.


Scheduled to see Milford Sound tomorrow by via coach and boat. Two more nites are booked in Te Anau before heading to Invercargill. The BBQ pit at the campground in Te Anau has a herb garden beside the BBQ… chives, mint, parsley, basil… help yourself!

We have been enjoying lattes and sharing a danish at the plentiful coffee and bakeshops along the route; we estimate that we need a 5 km hike to wear off each bake shop and coffee stop.

Heather has already started her exercises.

Had a video call with Jacquie and the boys this afternoon (Friday Feb 9?).  The boys didn’t want any souvenirs… they just wanted us to come home and give them a hug!

We were not able to extend our camper van rental but they have offered us a car and so we will probably use the chalets available in the campgrounds.