NZ Post #8: Seabirds, Semis and Baby Seals

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Our view of the scenic South Island of New Zealand

Our Introduction to the South Island of New Zealand 

Quick summary of our two weeks on the South Island: it rained.

Quick summary of our itinerary:

Thursday, 18 April:  Interislander Ferry from Wellington to Picton; night near Picton (delightful backpacker). Great fish chowder at the “Jolly Pirate”.

Friday 19 April:  Change of plans: We abandoned the planned trip west to Nelson, Abel Tasman Park and Golden Bay, due to pouring rain. Went south instead. Picton to Blenheim and Renwick: drove on State Highway 1 (SH1) along east coast south to Blenheim and Renwick (the Marlborough region wine country); wonderful Blenheim Library; Omaka Aviation Heritage Center--Knights of the Sky; so-so backpacker in Renwick; delightful pub supper at The Cork and Keg. (Turned out it rained so hard in Abel Tasman Park that some hikers got stranded by the floods.)

On the Ferry, Cook Strait. 

Albatrosses, gulls, sooty shearwaters, fairy prions.

Sat., 20 April:  Renwick to Cheviot:  Second Breakfast among the wineries; continued south on SH1; baby seals at Ohau south of Kaikoura; The Store restaurant for lunch; busy motel for supper and night.

Sun. 21 April (Happy Birthday, Owen!):  Cheviot to Oamaru:  south again on SH1; stop in Christchurch; handsome Victorian old town in Oamaru in cold driving rain; delicious supper at The Last Post restaurant (triple pun--more on that later, maybe).

Mon. 22 April:  Oamaru to Dunedin. We got to Dunedin!  SH1 AGAIN south to Dunedin at last. Royally hosted at the University of Otago’s Executive Residence, since Mike was a visiting scholar. By sheer chance, learned of a Benjamin Britten concert, we went, the music was beautifully sung and played.

Tues. 23 April: Dunedin. Mike spoke to the Faculty of Law; we touristed about Dunedin admiring handsome old stone buildings; LS took a bird-watching boat tour out the harbor past Otago Peninsula to sea. Albatrosses! More albatrosses! [Albatri?]

Scary semis on SH1 in the rain.
Repeat for 1,000 Km.

More scary semis on SH1 in the rain.

Repeat for another 1,000 Km.

REALLY scary semi on SH1 in the rain (cliffs down to sea on left, falling rocks sign on right...).
Try NOT to repeat too often.
Michael calls this “the convergence of undesirable events”.

Wed. 24 April: Dunedin to Manapouri. STILL south in SH1, then west--yes, west--to Manapouri, a gateway to Fiordland at the southwest corner of the South Island. Marx Bros. arrivals at our backpacker; sunset. Yes, that’s right: SUNset.

[Change of plans again. We’d planned to drive back north, probably along the east coast again. We’d abandoned a trip to Queenstown and Aoraki/Mount Cook due to rain. (If you cannot see the mountains, are they really there?) But Mike’s breakfast meeting person said, “Go to Fiordland! Cruise Doubtful Sound! Even in the rain!” We were persuaded. So, much last-minute re-arranging and makings of reservations, since Mike would have to fly back to the N. Island if we did the Doubtful Sound tour; then we took off west instead.]

Map of our trek--we went clockwise from Picton at the top.
Dunedin is above the lower right corner;
Fiordlands by red star at lower left.

                  

Thurs. 25 April:  Manapouri to the middle of Doubtful Sound on the Fiordland Navigator. Ferry across Lake Manapouri, bus over Wilmot Pass down to Doubtful Sound, went aboard the Navigator. Yeah, a  mini cruise ship. Fantastic meal and hospitality. We Cruised the Sound and its side fiords; waterfalls; kayaking at dusk; slept on board.

Friday, 26 April:  Doubtful Sound to Te Anau:  AM on the ship; bus back over Wilmot Pass; amazing private tour (by chance) of Manapouri Power Station; ferry back down Lake Manapouri; drove to Te Anau. By chance, we saw an extraordinary movie in Te Anau:  “Ata Whenua--Shadowland” (Fiordland on Film). 

Sat. 27 April:  Te Anau to Queenstown Airport; dropped Mike off at the airport to fly back to North Island.  Spectacular take off from big airport in tiny valley--he flew over the NZ Alps--in the sunshine--they exist!, MHD flew back to Hamilton (well flew to Auckland and then bus to Hamilton); LS started back north on a six-day drive to bring back the car. LS drove west to Haast on the west coast, via Lake Wanaka, Lake Hawea and the Haast Pass. Lakes (still some sun!); enormous waterfalls, some quick hikes, night at Haast (arrived in dark and rain because I stopped at too many waterfalls in the Haast Pass).

Sun. 28 April:  MHD in Hamilton, doing laundry. Haast to Hokitika:  drove north on SH6 up west coast, hiked to Franz Josef Glacier; didn’t see any tops of mountains. (Inside joke for George Cole:  “You could see the top of Mt. Cook, right there, if it wasn’t raining!”), on to the Bird Song Backpacker in Hokitika. LOVELY stay with the birds, by the sea.

Mon. 29 April:  MHD in Hamilton still doing laundry. LS Hokitika to the Hu Ha Backpacker in Glenhope (Glenhope is not on most maps).  Fossicked around in Hokitika immersed in jade. 

Hokitika is one of the greenstone (Pounamu) center of NZ, the town is full of jade stores and museums. Continued north to Greymouth (more jade); headed north-east, aiming toward Picton and the ferry. LS the sole guest at the Hu Ha Backpacker.

Tues. 30 April:  MHD taught his class at the Uni. in Hamilton. LS: Glenhope--Picton--Ferry--Wellington (back on the North Island)--Palmerston North. Sun shone most of the day. Delightful stay at the Legends Motel in Palmerston North.

Wed. May 1 (Happy May Day, Mom and Joyce!):  MHD writing in Hamilton. LS:  Stayed over in Palmerston North. Needed a rest from driving day. Plus, I was in a motel with reasonable rates, which gave guests a complimentary glass of wine on arrival, and breakfast in bed. Te Apiti Wind Farm! Hike in the Manawatu Gorge.

Thurs. May 2:  MHD writing in Hamilton. LS:  Palmy (Palmerston North) back to Hamilton, via Lake Taupo.

PHEW!

Winery wall in Blenheim

Some Highlights

Renwick and Blenheim, Sat. 20 April

We saw amazing amounts of vines. They stretched for miles along the roads.

Second breakfast in Renwick. 

Sodden --but cheerful--motorcyclists warming up.

Roses in Renwick

Lovely taverna in wine country--in a downpour-- 

so we ate lunch inside, by the fire.

Omaka Aviation Heritage Center--Knights of the Sky

 By chance, we saw this museum at Renwick. 

Real plane in a dogfight diorama.
This Etrich Taube really was built like a bird--
the tail had feather formation, and the wings 
also had rounded feather design at edges.

It’s an entire museum--several giant connected hangars--of WWI airplanes and their pilots, and WWI life. It is beautifully presented. Turns out that Peter Jackson collects WWI airplanes; the entire collection of dozens of planes is his;  and Weta Studios designed and built the extraordinary displays and life-sized dioramas.

“At the time war broke out in Europe, Austrian designer Igo Etrich's elegant Taube had already been a successful aircraft for four years, having first flown in 1910. Harking back to the centuries of man wanting to 'fly like a bird', the Taube (Dove) has the distinction of being the most bird-like of any successful aeroplane ever built."

Image from Omaka Aviation website

Also the Taube

“This is one of the most dramatic exhibits. The aircraft is displayed as though flying in formation with another Taube, at height above a huge photographic background. It is under fire from a British Be2c and the observer is twisting round to fire his rifle back at the attacker.”

Diorama of crash and death of the Red Baron.

When Von Richtofen crashed, the first Allied troops on the scene 

were burnt-out trench troops. They looted.

The collection at the museum includes planes, plane parts,

engines, uniforms, posters, audio, etc. etc.

Some of the handsome posters at the museum

Many of the planes are actually flyable, and are flown often by enthusiasts.

The Baby Seals at Ohau

Somewhere south of Kaikoura, the driver saw one too many semis and swerved into a scenic outlook by the sea for a break. Turns out it was a seal colony. 

There was a group of Kiwis trying to take photos of themselves with the seals in background; we did the usual offer to take their photo; chat ensued; they said, “You MUST go back up the road to Ohau. That’s where the baby seals climb up the stream and play in the waterfall.” So we went.

Parent seals getting a break from child care

These are NZ fur seals, which are now protected and making a big comeback. At this time of year (late fall), while the parents rest in the ocean surf and feed, hundreds of baby seals go inland. 

They clamber several hundred yards up a rocky stream, finally arriving at a pool under a giant waterfall. There, with endless delight, they leap and leap in the waves under the falls. 

As we hiked up the trail to the waterfall, the stream was full of them, climbing over boulders, resting like blobs in pools and on rocks.

When we finally arrived at the pool under the waterfall, they were all over the place! There were maybe eighty or so. The stream was full of them, piling up on each other resting, or tussling in the water, or wandering over to the path to check out the people. And in the mist and thunder of the pool under the waterfall, they were leaping like dolphins. 

Leaping and leaping in the falls

Even in the now-pouring rain, groups of human visitors came and went. As each group came out of the woods to the pool, they exclaimed with delight. As we all stood dripping, gazing, exclaiming, and of course photographing and videoing,

They came right up to us

whiskery faces would appear at our ankles, peering and sniffing. And always, there were the leapers and divers in the pool.

This was one of the magical moments of a lifetime.

More on the South Island to follow--including more World Heritage Sites, Dunedin, and.... Doubtful Sound.

As we draft this post to the blog (Sunday, May 12) we are packing and getting ready to leave New Zealand. For the next few days, Mike has a conference at the Law School’s Centre for Environmental, Resources And Energy Law, co-sponsored by the International Bar Association and the Energy Law Association of New Zealand.

By the seal colony, Ohau

We fly from Auckland Wed. evening NZ time, and arrive back in Burlington VT Thursday May 16.

Best to all, Loring and Michael

From RotoVegas to Welly

Or, From Rotorua to Wellington

 RotoVegas!

Hot, stinky, bubbling mud pot

Many Kiwis call Rotorua, the very first developed tourist site in New Zealand, "RotoVegas". It's pretty touristy, and apparently has been so for over a century and a half. Even Bernard Shaw visited, in 1934. But it's touristy for a reason: it is amazing.
After leaving Whangamata, we drove south to Rororua. We stayed with Rachel Cogbill's inlaws' inlaws: Libby's brother Tom Powell and his partner Moira Ellam. They were fantastic and generous hosts--and we'd never met them before! (Thank you Rachel, Lars, and Libby!)

Hells Gate

We visited Hells Gate, one of the major geothermal locations. (Most of them are called spas. The whole area of the town and lake--a giant former volcanic caldera--smells of sulphur, but the individual spas STINK.)

Kiwi sense of humor

From a TripAdvisor review:  "Hell's Gate was named by George Bernard Shaw and he certainly got it dead on. It was like the entrance to hell, a post-apocalypitc landscape with bubbling and steaming mud pools, mud volcanoes, cooking pools that could cook a pig in two hours...!"

The whole area was full of steam

 And, From the Hell's Gate's web site:

       "Geothermal - feel the earth's raw power--
       "New Zealand, as a country is located on the “Ring of Fire” where the earth is always in a state of upheaval. This is no more evident than in Rotorua on New Zealand's volcanic plateau where geothermal activity is pronounced including erupting hot water, steaming fumaroles, mud pools and hot geothermal springs.
          "THE BEAST--
           "Hells Gate Geothermal Park is set in 50 acres with a large variety of thermal features. Walk past steaming fumeroles and hot pools of boiling MUD so violent they are unnerving. Follow the footsteps of ancient Maori Warriors through the swirling clouds of steam, past the hot pool where the Maori Princess “Hurutini” lost her life, see the violent geothermal activity of the Inferno and the Kakahi Falls, the largest hot waterfall in the Southern Hemisphere.  Here, warriors would bathe in the sulphurous waters to  heal their wounds after battle and remove the “tapu” (sacredness) of war."

A mini volcano! This is a mud volcano--maybe 6 ft. tall.
It erupts with mud about every month or so.  Shucks--we missed it.

Big steaming pool

Alas, we didn't get to do a spa or a mud bath. Maybe next time.

Our wonderful hosts and the redwood forest walk

 Tom and Moira live across a ridge from Rotorua, on Lake Okareka. We had great food, great conversations, and gracious hospitality.
To top it all, Tom is a geologist working with thermal energy generation.
NZ gets roughly 10% of its energy from geothermal. Think he and Mike had anything to talk about?

Lovely view from Tom and Moira's porch over Lake Okareka

They live a short drive from a Redwood forest.

Hunh? Yep, a redwood forest. It's a regional park, and the plantings were imported from California and started about 1905.
So should we consider these redwoods as invasives?  (Whatever...)

Baby redwoods

Tom took us on a beautiful hike on his favorite trails thru the forest, with lookouts over the town and lake.

Fascinating blue spring in Redwood Forest--
colors from chemicals in hot spring that is its source

View from the Redwood trail over Rotorua, with a random steaming geyser

Tom Powell, Mike and Loring

Then, Wellington

After a very brief stint back in Hamilton, just time for Mike to teach, LS to do choir practice, and for us to wash a mountain of dirty laundry from Whangamata and Rotorua, we headed out for our long-awaited trip to the South Island--thanks to a two-week university vacation. We drove south all the way down the North Island and spent the night before going on the ferry at a backpacker in Wellington-- the Cambridge Hotel.

What's a Backpacker?

What's a 'backpacker"? It's basically a hostel, on steroids, or a hotel on a diet.  They come in all sizes, from just a few beds or rooms to beds for over 100. They usually have a mix of single rooms, doubles, and dorms; and if you pay a bit extra for your room you get "en suite"--i.e., with your own motel-style bathroom. Otherwise, you go down the hall--or several halls--or outside--to the big group bathrooms. They also have a large kitchen/dining area, where visitors store their food and cook their meals and socialize. We've now stayed in all kinds: big ones that were good, big ones that were OK but not great, and all kinds of little ones. We've met and chatted with all kinds of travelers, except for the time Loring stayed at a lovely little house/backpacker in the tiny town of Glenhope, where she was the only guest in the whole place.

Wellington, In the Rain

Wellington harbor

Yeah, the drought is over. Big time. From the time we started driving south from Hamilton, in Wellington, going across the Strait on the ferry, and all the time we were driving around and visiting on the South Island for two weeks, it rained. Every Day. It rained. Except for the last day, when Loring was driving back to the ferry to go home.
Wellington, as far as we could tell in the rain, is a lovely city. It is nestled around a spectacular deep-water harbor at the southern tip of the North Island.

Harbor again

Boat sheds belonging to the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club

Urban planning, Kiwi style--poster by the harbor

Wow--what a manhole cover!

Handsome houses by the harbor

A real highlight of our visit was the Te Papa Museum--New Zealand's beloved national museum, and really quite extraordinary. It was a visit of several hours for us, including visiting a Maori village and Marae, plus a fantastic exhibit of NZ jade carvings; seeing a giant squid, and seeing a nice presentation on the pre-metal South Pacific explorations and migrations.

And here's our Wellington 'backpacker', the Cambridge Hotel. In its heyday, it must have been quite grand ...

The Cambridge Hotel backpacker

Last Wellington shot:  NZ has a long way to go re residential energy efficiency, but they're 'having a go':

For the NEXT blog, finally:  on to the South Island!

Cheers to all--
Loring and Michael

A Picnic at the Farm--the Wind Farm, That Is

 

Introduction: This is out of order, because we haven’t even shared all our adventures in the South Island. Mike is back teaching in Hamilton, and Loring is in the midst of driving the car back thru the South Island, across the ferry, and up thru the North Island. (“Six days on the road, and I’m gonna see my baby tonight....” OK, so it’s actually fifteen days, and I’m not gonna see my baby till tomorrow night, but who’s counting.)

A Picnic at the Farm--the Te Apiti Wind Farm, that is.

May 1, 2013, Te Apiti Wind Farm, Manawatu, New Zealand. Text and photos by Loring Starr

The sound is like windshield wipers in a gentle rain. The view is fantastic. The tourists are wowed. 

We are at the Te Apiti Wind Farm, near Palmerston North, in the middle of the North Island of New Zealand. We are at what the owners call “the largest wind farm in the southern hemisphere,” and we are blown away by the spectacle.

There is wind. New Zealand lies in the path of what sailors call the “Roaring Forties”:  the 40 degree latitudes of the southern hemisphere, where winds blow almost unimpeded around the entire planet, and build up great force. For mariners, it can be a nightmare, but for wind farmers it is a gold mine. Our precise coordinates are 40 degrees 18 minutes 02.98 seconds South and 175 degrees 49 minutes 19.32 seconds East. The wind is blowing strongly here, and almost always does.

We thought it might be like “Day of the Triffids”--you know--monstrous towers stalking the landscape--but it is more like a outdoor sculpture garden, writ large. The individual wind mills are huge--so big that they are hard to comprehend. But most of all, they are beautiful. They tower above us, and spread across the rounded hills, all white and silver, shimmering and flickering in the sun. Their vanes swing smoothly in the wind. There seem to be hundreds of them. They are clustered in large groups, marching into the distance at both ends of this north-south ridge. (It turns out that the Te Apiti farm, owned by Meridian Energy, has 55 turbines; other wind farms in the area, part of the overall groupings viewable on the ridge line but under different owners, are New Zealand Wind Farms, Te Rere Hau wind farm, and Tararua Wind Farm.

“Wow!”

“Whoa!”

“Feel the tower!”

“Look up! Look up!”

“Mom--can we go look at that one?”

The astonished visitors continue to come and go. We have brought a picnic, and so are sipping our wine and watching the crowd. Most visitors are operating on the Grand Canyon Tourist Model: jump out of the car, go “Oh Wow!”, take a few photos, jump back into the car, and leave. But some of us can’t tear ourselves away. 

The photographers follow a pattern: take one of a wind tower pylon (modifications include embracing it, making gestures, and/or including the kids), and take one of everyone in front of the panorama of wind towers fading into the distance. Overall, it is the typical New Zealand tourist crowd: some Kiwis (New Zealanders), some Asians and Southeast Asians (generally from China, Taiwan, Singapore), Indians, random Yanks (that would be us Americans), and a sprinkling of Brits and other Europeans. This time we also have a van of NZ All Blacks fans (the rugby banner was a dead giveaway), plus an entire daycare center of toddlers. Since we were all here on a Wednesday morning--the middle of the week on a day in late fall--there must be considerably larger crowds on weekends and school holidays.

The tourists are awed, but the cows and sheep seem indifferent.  The cows are grazing right by the observation lookout, and the sheep are scattered under the wind towers on the surrounding hills. 

The machines are impressive. A single turbine tower measures 70 metres high (230 feet) and the blades are 35 metres (115 feet) long. The Te Apiti turbines have three blades, while some of the other projects’ turbines have two. (The two-blade turbines apparently create more noise, and have been the subject of a number of complaints.) Each Te Apiti turbine can produce 1.65 Megawatts, about enough to power 900 houses.

The sheep are the tiny specks in center left

We are in the Manawatu region, near Palmerston on the North Island. Te Apiti is the Maori name for the Manawatu River gorge, and the wind farm is on the ridges above the gorge. According to the Department of Conservation signs at the start of the gorge hike, Te Apiti means--duh--narrow gorge.

“The Creation of Te Apiti:

“According to Rangitane folklore, Te Apiti (Manawatu Gorge) was created through the actions of a great totara tree that once grew on the western slopes of the Puketoi Range in the east. This totara, which came possessed of a great spirit called Okatia, made its way west to the Ruahine Tararua mountain range and forced its way through, creating Te Apiti--the gorge.”

.

One more bit on place names:

“Manawatu:  The name Manawatu was bestowed upon the river by a well-known ancestor Haunui a Nanaia as he pursued his wife Wairaka and her abductor down the west coast of the lower North Island. Upon reaching the vast Manawatu river mouth at Awahou (Foxton), he stood aghast at the prospect of having to cross it. Hence “manawa” meaning heart, and “tu” meaning to stand still.”

As we approached Te Awati, and especially as we lingered under the turbines, our hearts did indeed stand still. They are heart-stoppingly beautiful.