Big Trip

We caught the ferry into the city this morning for a bit of shopping, and then passed the afternoon in Te Papa, the National Museum of New Zealand. I think we all had slightly different highlights. Mine, of course, was seeing a Britten in the flesh for the first time (oooh, all that carbon fibre...). Max & Erin really enjoyed the discovery centres, where you could do things like looking at spiders (dead ones) under a microscope, and Sarah liked the excellent exhibitions on Maori culture. There was a full sized Maori meeting house, several other buildings, a Waka (a Maori canoe) and a selection of various musical instruments, among other things. My only criticism was that it didn't seem to be all that well organised - there was no clear starting point for learning about Maori culture, but it was still an excellent exhibition.
Celebrated the coming of the new year in a very understated fashion - I stayed up in the hope of seeing some good fireworks across Wellington Harbour, but had to be content with some small ones. It's still a fantastic view, though.

What a relaxing day. We had a lie in, a leisurely breakfast, and then a potter round to the shops in Lower Hutt. I managed to get in to see a chiropractor in the hope of sorting out a pain in my neck that seems to have developed while I've been driving the van, and then we pottered back to Eastbourne. After lunch, we went down to the local outdoor swimming pool, which was nicely heated, and Sarah watched while three of us attempted to tackle the huge inflatable obstacle course in the pool. Unfortunately, the attendants, when asked if it was suitable for adults, had said it was, so I couldn't just sit on the side & watch. Good fun though, and good value at $3!

Up at 5am to be picked up at 6 by Alison & Phil, bless their hearts, & taken to the station. Caught the 7am Tranz Coastal train (yes, two scenic trains in three days) to Picton. Nice to see the scenery of the Canterbury Plain, the east coast, and the northerly wine growing areas from the train, without having to drive this time. The coastal parts around Kaikoura are especially spectacular, as the railway runs right along the coast, sometimes even closer to the sea than the road. It was another beautiful day, and this time there was one open viewing car but a much shorter train (I think it was 4 coaches instead of 10), so we had much better photographic opportunities. The people sitting opposite us had a neice, I think, who had worked for Lady Somebody-or-Other in Banbury, of all places, and were a veritable mine of information on places to visit in New Zealand, some of which we've done, some we may yet have chance to do.
The ferry terminal was a short walk from the railway station at Picton, and our bags were loaded for us straight from the train, which was nice. The ferry was the Challenger, but if you looked closely, you could see that the new name had been painted over the previous name "Pride of Cherbourg", which I have a feeling I may have travelled on on a school trip.
The crossing was smooth and largely uneventful, apart from some annoyances over getting a gluten-free lunch for Max, the first time that's happened anywhere in the whole country.
We were met by Sheila & Johnny, Sarah's aunt & uncle, and eventually managed to pick up our hire car and follow them all around the bay to Eastbourne, which is about as far round as you can get. They have a beautiful house right on the beach with the most incredible uninterrupted views across the bay to Wellington. We were made exceptionally comfortable, well fed & watered, and settled down for what promise to be a very relaxing few days.

Spent the entire day packing and sorting out our stuff. With our new Christmas presents, we had so much that we had to buy a box and ship some of it home. It was either that or buy another suitcase...
We had a lovely afternoon tea on the deck at Alison & Phil's, and said our goodbyes to the various family members that we had met, all of whom had done a great job of making us feel very welcome indeed.
Finally, cleaned the house & went to bed.

Another horribly early start (you'd think we'd be used to them by now...) to pick up a coach, which then took us out to Springfield, which is nothing to do with the Simpsons, but where we picked up the Tranz Alpine train to Arthur's Pass, supposed to be one of the world's great rail journeys. There was certainly some spectacular scenery as we headed up into the mountains, and some staggering views from the viaducts down into the gorge of the Waimakariri River in all its turquoiseness. The only downside was that it was a very long train, but only had a single open viewing car, as they like to put on New Zealand's scenic trains. That meant that everyone was trying to get photos from there, and it was a complete zoo. We gave up, and admired the scenery from our carriage instead, and it was still very beautiful.
We got off at Arthur's Pass to be met by our coach driver, Marty, again, and pottered a little further up the valley for some more views, and met a kea. These mountain parrots are amazingly gregarious, and also very destructive. They are a bit like monkeys in safari parks, and if you are daring enough to leave your car in a mountain car park, will often have removed several vital components, such as wipers and windscreen rubbers while you're away. This one was certainly trying to eat parts of the bus while we were there, but was at least willing to be photographed. Then we went off for a short walk through the forest.
Now, Max likes a walk, and always likes to be first. He will often stride off into the distance, leading the way for the rest of us. This time, he did just that, and Sarah lost sight of him. We went looking for him, and managed to go another way entirely. After much searching, and some low key panic, Sarah went back to the bus, to find Max there with the driver, slightly abashed, and a bit less willing to wander off on his own in future.
After lunch, we drove back down the pass on the bus, which takes a slightly different route from the railway, so we were able to see the scenery from a different angle. We stopped at one of the Narnia filming locations, though we need to go back and watch the film again to find out exactly which one it was, and then returned to Christchurch. The coach driver, bless him, had to go back not quite past our house, but very kindly dropped us off on the way, saving us a $30 taxi ride, and quite a bit of hassle. Mind you, we think he'd taken a bit of a shine to Max: he was a helicopter pilot, driving the tour bus just to help a friend out; he'd been a military pilot for 18 years, and had been all over the place, including the Gulf; in all that time, he'd had a small cuddly monkey, called Max, which was his mascot and had been everywhere with him; in all that time, he'd never met another Max, until now. He actually asked us for our photos with both Maxes. How could we refuse?

We had tea arranged with Sarah's cousin Alison in Christchurch this afternoon, so we thought we'd take the opportunity, since it was yet another glorious day (sorry, weather again, I know), to potter out around Christchurch's other suburbs. We went over to Sumner, where there was a nice little beach & playground, but the children didn't seem that bothered, so instead we drove up some very small, very windy roads up onto the headland at Godley Head. There were some great views up the east coast waaay beyond Christchurch, and also some much closer, down to Taylor's Mistake (I must find out why it's so named). We drove over into Lyttleton and then back through the tunnel to the Gondola.
The views from the Gondola were absolutely amazing, down into Lyttleton Harbour, up the coast, out over the Canterbury Plain - crystal clear in all directions. Max & I went on a short walk round the crater rim, but didn't find the viewpoint we intended to. Nice walk, though. Then it was back for tea and more socialising with extended family.

I can't believe it! Santa actually worked out where we are! Two very excited children woke up at 5.45 this morning (we've been struggling to get them up at 8am in the van). Their nasty, cruel, heartless parents sent them back to bed, and they got up again an hour or so later, to find that Santa had indeed found us and left some presents. They were opened very quickly, and Max had almost finished his MegaBlocks motorbike by breakfast time. Had a lazy morning, and just about managed to get ready in time to get to Sarah's cousin Jackie's for lunch with various cousins, aunts and their children.
No turkey for us today, but there was some superb barbecued steak, and definitely plenty of the traditional Christmas over-eating. There was a light shower before lunch, but it brightened up soon after, and it wasn't long before all the children were playing on the water slide in the garden. We even managed to make it down to the park and the beach before going home exhausted and still full to phone our families in the UK and wish them a Happy Christmas morning, which did feel a bit odd. We've promised a traditional Christmas at home next year, but then, a year is a long time...

Hard to believe it's Christmas Eve, it being warm & sunny (I hope I'm not going on too much about how warm & sunny it is - it's just hard to get used to the combination of dates & weather). Sarah had to go to see the dentist this morning, as a tooth's been bothering her for a while. It turned out to be nothing too much to worry about. So, after some food shopping & lunch, we went to see The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe. An excellent film, shared with only about another two dozen people. Erin watched most of it on my lap, and would turn around every so often and say, "Oh, it's too scary, I shouldn't have come", before turning back to watching the film. We all thought it was excellent - a great Christmas film, what with the snow and all.
We tried to buy some stockings for Max & Erin to hang up for Santa (should he find us), but they were all too cheesy, so instead we decorated some reusable carrier bags with tinsel. Two very excited children went to bed.

It was our last day with our now beloved camper van today. We packed up all our bags and drove sadly back to Christchurch. It even rained on the way, just to add to the pathos of the occasion. On the way back to the depot, we popped into the International Antarctic Centre. Christchurch is the central base for supplying many, if not all the antarctic research stations, so there's a huge operation there, with lots of very large, very noisy cargo planes coming & going. The centre has loads of great things for kids (young & old) to see & do to learn about Antarctica and its wildlife. They have a room in which they recreate an antarctic storm. We didn't have time to go in, unfortunately, but it looked pretty nasty from the outside, watching through the glass. I don't think it's as cold as the real thing, as there were people in there with shorts on, but it was very noisy, and they do make you wear windproof jackets and overshoes to protect the very real snow that they have. Brrr...
The highlight was a ride in a Hagglund, which is a caterpillar tractor and trailer as used in the Antarctic for transport. It was hilarious, all being thrown around as they took us round a short off-road course, including ridiculous gradients up & down, a simulated crevasse and a 3 metre deep puddle (fortunately the Hagglund floats). Very versatile vehicles, but then they do cost half a million dollars...
Then we just had to drop off the van and say goodbye to it. None of us really wanted to - we'd all become very attached to it and the associated way of life. It was especially nice being able to stop wherever we felt like it and have lunch, or a cup of tea, and it was nice to live mainly out of doors. Definitely the way to see South Island, I reckon.
Finally, we got a shuttle to New Brighton, and the house where are staying over Christmas. Huge thanks are due to Reg & Barbara, who have loaned their house to a bunch of people with whom they have only a very brief acquaintance. Sarah's Aunt Pauline treated us to another of her most wonderful home cooked dinners: shepherd's pie this time. Fantastic.

Managed to squeeze in on a whale watching cruise this morning (for which Kaikoura is well known). They go from the whaleway station, of course. Picked another fantastic day for it - clear blue skies with only a little cloud, as usual, and ncie and calm. Kaikoura has a particular coastal geography where the continental shelf is very close to the coast, and forms a deep gorge. A warm current flows into the gorge, causing krill and other yumy things to rise to the surface, which makes whales want to hang out there & chill. We were lucky enough to spot three of the resident sperm whales there, just resting on the surface. The sightings were all separate, and we actually saw one of them twice, and they all obliged us by hanging around blowing water into the air and then diving, leaving us with the classic view of their tail flukes in the air before they disappeared. We weren't as lucky as the people cruising the previous day, who got to see a pod of orcas on their way through as well as the resident sperm whales, but it was quite an experience nonetheless. We did see a few hector's dolphins around the bays, and some fur seals in local colonies, but nothing to cause any great excitement, as we're all pretty blase about seals & dolphins these days :-)

Today we drove from our lovely camp site at Spring Creek down the east coast to Kaikoura. Not directly, of course. First we went to a chocolate factory. Well, when I say factory, it was more of a large chocolate maker's kitchen with a shop next door. And they forced us to taste the products: macadamia nut brittle, macadamia & toffee popcorn, macadamia nut bark, cherry truffles. It was awful. We felt compelled to buy some. Next stop, the Cloudy Bay winery. Guess what? They forced us to taste the products, and we felt compelled to buy some very nice bubbly for Christmas and some dessert wine. They recommended a fruit farm round the corner, where we went and picked some wonderfully juicy boysenberries (rather a lot, actually), and felt compelled to buy some cherries & freshly picked strawberries from the shop too. Then we dropped into the Montana winery for a delicious lunch. We managed to catch a winery tour too, where they made us taste the products, and oddly enough, we felt compelled to buy some.
Finally, we fetched up at Kaikoura, at a great camp site with a playground, trampolines and a pool.

Well, well, small world. Turns out that the two kids that Max & Erin had befriended a couple of days ago have caught up with us and are staying on the same site. Not only that, but they're from Wheatley.
Anyway, we drove the short distance to Nelson and eventually managed to find a parking space just out of the city centre. We'll have to put it on the list of places to visit next time we come (!). Lots of interesting craft-y shops & things. Had a great time watching a paperweight being made in the Flamedaisy glass studio in Trafalgar Something (Square? Street? Row? Most streets seem to be Trafalgar something in Nelson). They were great with Max & Erin. Came away with an urge to try my hand at glass blowing.
Finally headed up towards Blenheim & camped on a delightfully dated site where I was greeted by a nice chap smelling of beer. However, it was fine, though Max & Erin found the unheated pool a bit chilly (brrr...)

No, that's not a Kiwi exclamation, it's where we went for lunch. Took an early water taxi up the coast today, hopping from one bay to the next. Passed Split Apple Rock (I'll leave you to guess...) and saw basking seals at Tonga Island. Hopped off at Tonga Bay and had a nice hours walk up through the forest (BIG tree ferns) and over the headland to the next bay at Awaroa. There's a hotel and cafe there, where you can have an overpriced lunch before heading off to the beach. So we did. We spent a couple of hours dozing, digging big holes, and playing in a lovely little 'shelter' (more like a sculpture) that someone had made from driftwood, before catching the water taxi back to Kaiteriteri.
We spent the evening pinned down in the van by the torrential rain, which was relentless. Mind you, we did marvel that it's the first time we've really been stuck like that during our whole time on the road.

Altered our schedule slightly to try and see a little of the coast of the Abel Tasman National Park in the top left corner of Southland, so we were on the road at 9am today. That's a record for us. More great unphotographable views up the coast, and then up the Buller Gorge (though the latter was my fault for not stopping when I should have).
I have realised that NZ is where old buses go to die. First they are retired from active duty to part time work as camper vans, some static, some still mobile. Then, when they become too decrepit even for that, they are put on garden shed duties, or simply awaiting future restoration. That, of course, never comes, as it gets increasingly expensive, and there is no health service for buses here. So they just decay gently into the ground, fading into the background as they are camouflaged with different moulds and lichens.
Stopped at the longest swing bridge in NZ over the Buller Gorge. Had to walk it, of course. Sarah had to photograph us walking it, of course. It does bounce nicely when you get towards the middle. Especially if you make it >;-)
Made it to Kaiteriteri by mid afternoon, so were able to go & sit on the beach in the warm sun for a couple of hours before tea. Lovely.

I have to confess I didn't find the drive from Franz to Punakaiki terribly memorable today, except that there were some great coastal views again, which were all completely unphotographable, at least while driving.
We stopped off at the Pancake Rocks formations so called because the strata have built up and been eroded so that they look rather like stacked pancakes, and spent more time in awe of the sea as it thundered in around the pillars and caves. Unfortunately the tide wasn't high enough for us to see the full effect of the blowholes, but I can believe it's a stunning sight.
Found a camp site right on the beach, and saw a fabulous rainbow as the sun got lower in the sky. Unfortunately, Max & Erin missed the fabulous sunset, so I hope the photos turn out.

Would you believe it? After arriving in the rain, another day dawned bright & sunny, with just a few fluffy clouds. We could hear the helicopters flying as we awoke, and so quickly booked ourselves on about the only free flight of the day, over both the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers. It's hard to describe what it's like flying over glaciers in a helicopter, really. It all started gently, with a flight up towards the township of Franz, just to get used to flying in a helicopter. Then we turned in towards the mountains, and of course, the pilot did that thing that they do in every film you see taken from a helicopter: he flew up the hillside, giving us that great view of everything suddenly dropping away as we flew over the top. I'm sure they must teach that kind of thing in pilot school. In this case, the drop revealed the Franz Josef glacier below, and we flew down & over it at pretty low altitude. The surface is amazing. It's sort of sculpted into what cookery books would probably refer to as "soft peaks", but instead of egg white in between, there are crevasses which get bluer the deeper they go. We flew up the glacier, along the Southern Alps, with clear views of the peaks of Mounts Tasman and Cook, and then down to the snow field at the top of the Fox glacier, where we landed. We took the obligatory photos, threw a few snowballs, though they were actually made from the inches-deep melting ice, rather than any fresh snow, and then got back into the helicopter. The pilot then zig-zagged down the Fox glacier, which is highly entertaining, I can tell you. At the first zig, Sarah exclaimed something which caused the pilot to look round & check that she was OK (she was) before starting the zag. Another highly memorable experience, which suffered only from being about two hours too short (it was 30 mins in all!).
We went back & packed up the van, and headed off to Peak Viewpoint, which is only about 12km down the road towards the coast, but gives breathtaking views of the glacier in the middle of the rainforest. By that time, the clouds were really gathering, and so there probably weren't too many more flights that day.
We went down a very narrow, unmade road to Gillespie's Beach. Wow. It's a massive expanse of wild pebble beach. The pebbles were interesting too, with all sorts of coloured veins & patterns. The whole beach was covered in huge pieces of driftwood - tree trunks & roots - and stretched as far as the eye could see in both directions. Fantastic waves - you could feel the spray 20 feet away, and the roar as the water receded over the pebbles was incredible. I could have sat there all day listening. Erin & I played a bit of didge on the beach, but I felt so humbled by the noise of the sea that all inspiration left me.
Finally, we made our way up to Franz for the night.

One of our longest days today, from Queenstown up to Fox Glacier. Max & Erin were fantastic, bless them, given that they were confined in the van for pretty much the whole day. We set off, the wrong way (well, not quite, but not the way we intended to go) and instead of missing out Arrowtown, we went right through it. Very pretty, with lots of little miners' cottages. Sort of a chocolate box frontier town. It would have been good to stop & look around, but we had a long day ahead and had started late, so we'll have to save it for the next visit. Then we wound our way up the hairpin bends leading us up and over the Crown Range. Very wild looking moorland, and windy, second-gear hills eventually dropped us down into an almost claustrophobic valley, so steep were the hillsides. We made Wanaka in time for lunch by the lake, and just beyond Wanaka it started to rain. We stopped at Fantail falls, a beautiful waterfall only a couple of minutes walk from the road. Shortly afterwards, we crossed a single lane bridge over a river thundering down over rocks in the gorge below. The volume of water forcing its way down really did make you aware of the power of water. We pressed on, and eventually came upon the coast near Haast. Very wild and rocky, with crashing waves. My kind of seaside. Mind you, there's no land for 1700km, so there's nothing much to get in the way of the waves. Eventually holed up on a nice little site in Fox, had a good dinner in the local pub & went to bed.

Such is the haze of adrenalin wround Queenstown that we thought we'd better try something out of the ordinary. Having calmed myself down after repeated failures to upload photos to blogger, we pottered up to the Kiwi Sanctuary, as we've been in this country for a couple of weeks without even attempting to see one. The kiwis were in a nocturnal house, being strictly night birds, and it took a fair while for our eyes to adjust to the darkness. However, as we acclimatised, we could see a strange form working its way along the glass right in front of us. There were a couple of kiwis poking about in the leaf litter on the bottom of their enclosure, completely oblivious of our presence. I'm sure I don't really need to describe them, apart from to say that they're about 30cm high, and a bit like a cross between a bird and an ant-eater, with their long, curved beak. A bit like a small ant-eater walking on its hind legs, with its hands behind its back, perhaps. If you see what I mean. Ahem. Anyway, I thought they were really cute.
We followed that up with a round of indoor mini-golf at Caddyshack City. I can honestly say that it was the most ludicrous round of mini golf I've ever played. It's clearly an outlet for someone's desperate desire to make big electro-mechanical models, and you have to admire the talent and dedication that have gone into it. Never before has my golf ball triggered a volcanic eruption, or gone up in a chair lift, through a saw mill, or an oil pipeline. Best of all, of course, the last hole is a sweet factory, and when your ball is consumed, in return you get a free lollipop delivered straight from the factory door into the waiting truck. Top entertainment for the under-10s and over-40s.

A full day out today, starting with a drive up to Glenorchy at the end of the Dart River. Beautiful morning drive up the side of Lake Wakatipu. There are some sections of that drive that I'd love to do again on two wheels (actually, that applies to a lot of NZ).
On arriving, we changed into wetsuits, bootees, fleeces, spray jackets and life jackets. Phew! Then we set off up the river in a jet boat. You have to do jet boating in Queenstown, apparently, and this is one of the longer runs. We did a couple of 360 spins, just for our driver to show off, and then set off up the river at high speed. It's amazing being able to hurtle up the river in so little water (the rivers are only a few inches deep in places), but I can't decide whether the clamour of a big-block Chevy V8 behind you detracts from the wonder of the wilderness or whether it's just all enormously grinworthy. After a brief interlude of sitting on the bank when our boat broke down (needle valve stuck, fuel everywhere), we got into the replacement boat and had to go flat out to catch up with the others. Shame.
By the time we caught them, the rest of our party had already inflated the Funyaks, inflatable Canadian-style canoes :-) so all that remained was a bewildering safety talk and paddling instructions, a wee stop and we were off, paddling down the river. Max and Erin went with the guide, leaving Sarah and me to share a boat. The concentration required to steer and pick a course meant that it was difficult to appreciate the wonderful surroundings - the turquoise waters, the snow-capped mountains nestling in the clouds, the fabulous views down the wide valley, that kind of thing. We pootled, with the occasional pause for running aground, to our lunch stop. Before lunch we paddled around a lovely little canyon, bouncing off the walls in our feeble attempts to manoeuvre in a tight space. Well, I was steering, what d'you expect?
After lunch we paddled further downstream over some more exciting (but still pretty tame) waves and bumpy bits to be picked up by the bus and driven back.
All in all, it was a good, but perhaps not a great day out. It was fun, but perhaps not entirely our kind of thing, and much too expensive for what it was. We did dither over booking it, and perhaps next time we'll stick with our gut instincts.

Our first day in Queenstown, so we took it slowly, trying to resist the pressure to indulge in adrenalin sports. Oh, and of course in another one of those I'm-turning-into-my-father-in-law moments (sorry, Peter) I ran over the van power cable, damaging it, so we had to go & get that replaced, which took an hour or so.
Then we went up to Bob's Peak on the gondola for views over the town, and to try their luge tracks. The luges are sculpted plastic trays on wheels, with handlebars and brakes, and there are two tracks, the 'scenic' and the 'advanced'. The scenic is supposed to be slower, but when ridden flat out, can still be pretty scary. We pottered and then hooned down. Sarah and Erin stuck to the scenic route, and Max and I tried both. The advanced is quite a bit more scary, and indeed on the last run, the one when I lost my mobile phone, I got air over one of the jumps because I was distracted by Sarah trying to take a photo and forgot to brake. Huge fun for all of us.

Had to be up at the unholy hour of 0630 again for breakfast at 7 this morning. The boat motors out to the Tasman sea, and things get a bit uppy downy then, so keeping plates still is a problem, apparently. More of the same beautiful scenery with breakfast, and then we all went up on the bridge and chatted to Ray, the skipper while he took us to Sterling Falls, and put the bow of the boat so close to the falls that you could almost feel the spray on the bridge. Of course, Max & Erin had their spell in the skipper's chair, and then it was back to the terminal. Definitely an excursion I'd recommend as it was so relaxing. The crew were all extremely friendly, and accommodating, and Max was pretty well catered for, too.
Then we headed off for another day's driving up to Queenstown. Yes, more scenery, more lakes (Wakatipu) & mountains.

Decided to make our drive up to Milford Sound a leisurely one, and stop off to look at the scenery (yes, more) along the way. It's a beautiful road. The start is more open, and then the mountains close in and tower over it, reminding you of your insignificance. There are some great spots, and we had a map indicating where some of them are. We missed the first two. I don't know how, but they were only a small waterfall and some tarns reflecting the mountains. The next one, at Cascade Creek, was lovely. We pulled off the road by a creek where there were vast drifts of pink & purple lupins. Took a short walk through a red beech wood (native trees) which is noted for mosses & birds. We didn't see a single bird, but the variety of mosses on the trees and the ground was unbelievable. There were so many different shapes & sizes. Half way round we reached the shore of Lake Gunn, which gave us more great views of the mountains. Then back to the van for lunch with the sand flies.
Our next stop was at the Homer Tunnel. There was a great lump of snow still sitting at the base of the mountains by the road, so Max & Erin had to go & climb it, of course. Back to the van with soggy socks and frozen toes, and on through the 1.2km downhill unlined tunnel. Shortly afterwards on the other side we stopped at The Chasm, another short walk to an amazing waterfall, where the water has worn tunnels and channels through the rock, which are now dry as it's found its latest channel to flow through.
Then we made our way to Milford sound, where there's nothing much apart from a few hostels and a boat terminal, parked up & checked in for our overnight cruise on the Milford Mariner. We had a great evening, motoring out down the Sound watching seals flopping about on a rock and a pod of dusky dolphins playing around the boats. We moored in Anita Bay, where I went kayaking & saw a single penguin, and Sarah, Max & Erin went off in one of the small tender craft and saw all sorts of interesting things and places where Captain Cook had been. Motored back to the other end of the sound for dinner, admiring the towering scenery as we went. Great dinner, stayed up chatting until it was well & truly dark & then to bed.

Had a lie-in this morning, and treated ourselves to a day just pottering around Te Anau. Blogged some more, checked email, had lunch, that kind of thing. Determined that there's nothing in the souvenir shops worth buying, too. Lovely walk by the side of the lake, very scenic. The problem with all this scenery is that it's hard to photograph and hard to describe, so please accept my apologies for repeated definition of scenery as 'scenic' or 'lovely'.
Late afternoon, we headed down for our trip to the glow worm caves on the other side of the lake. After a short boat trip along the lake, we were at the cave entrance. There was a cheesy, but mercifully short, slide show about the caves which I think just filled in time while the guides were getting themselves organised. Then we were sorted into boatloads of about 12 people, and then went out a boatload at a time.
The walk into the caves is amazing. Very low headroom in places, and the stream rushing out of the caves past us all the time. It was really very noisy. We walked up to the first boat departure point, and one notable feature of the caves was the absence of stalagmites or stalactites. The caves are only about 12000 years old, so there's been no time for them to form yet. There were a few blue dots, rather like blue LEDs on the roof of the cave - our first sight of glow worms. Actually they're not glow worms at all, they're fly larvae who produce a blue bioluminescent glow to attract insects, which they catch on long mucousy strands and eat.
The boat, a tin tub propelled by the guide pulling us along a cable on the roof, took us further up the cave past a collection of round boulders and up to another walkway. This was the highest part of the cave roof at around 70 feet. The roar of the water was pretty deafening by this point, and we soon found out why as we reached the waterfall that was producing it. There was a lot of water in a small space. At the next boat departure point we had to keep quiet. Above the waterfall things were a lot more peaceful. We were taken into a pitch black section of cave, where the glow worms were all over the place. It was very disorientating. There were hundreds of little blue LEDs of different intensity (the brightness depends on how hungry the larvva is - the hungrier, the brighter, the more likely to attract an insect to eat). The gooey strings were just about visible, too.
We returned whence we came, by the same route, to be attacked by sandflies as we waited for the return launch. This was more of a surprise to me than the others, I think, as I so rarely get bitten by anything, but sandflies are obviously hungry little devils.
Another great trip. I think the sheer rawness of the caves, the fact that the water is still rushing through and changing them, and the absence of guides trying to impose human shapes on stalagmites ("...and here we see the madonna with child, elephant and rhinoceros...") made the whole thing more enjoyable.

Mostly driving today, from Dunedin right across to the other side, to Te Anau on the edge of Fjordland. Most of the scenery was agricultural land, and seemed very much like driving through, say, Somerset or Wiltshire. Perhaps the hills were bigger. I'm sure there are vast numbers of subtle differences in tree species and that kind of thing, but you get the idea. Very green & lush, anyway. Found a nice camp site with a great view over lake Te Anau to the mountains beyond.

Treated ourselves to a lazy morning today, and then headed further up the wibbly windy coast road, which was better today, as it wasn't anywhere near as windy. Popped in at Penguin Place to see if there was any tour space, and managed to get in straight away. We were taken over to Penguin Beach to see the colony of Yellow Eyed Penguins (very rare, only about 4000 left). They're replanting coastal woodland there, and building nesting boxes for the birds. There were a few nesting, including Brian, the 21 year old senior male, and his 3 year old partner, Nicky. There were quite a few chicks around too. Hefty birds, they were, almost adult sized, but brown and fluffy instead of the more traditional penguin markings of the adult birds. We were able to get really close to some of them. There were also a couple of Blue Penguins, the world's smallest, but they were lurking in their nesting boxes and were quite difficult to see.
Down on the beach below us there were a few fur seals basking in the sun and, oddly, there was one up on the grass next to a small group of grazing sheep.
Later, we headed up to the Royal Albatross colony at Taiaroa. We were lucky enough to see a number of birds sitting on the nests incubating eggs, and there were quite a few juveniles showing off their flying skills. They really are amazing - they soar without any effort at all, and they can fly really fast. Yet, when they take off, they just spread their wings and wait to be lifted off the ground, and when they take off they just slow to the point where they can step out of the air on to the ground. Great viewing. Then back for another night at our lovely little camp site.

Ugh! Drizzle and grey skies this morning. Not too pleasant as we set off towards Dunedin. At least when we got to Moeraki beach it was dry, so that we had a reasonable walk along the beach. It reminded me of a british beach in spring or autumn. The waves were rolling in on a stiff breeze, and the sky was grey. Actually, I rather like that wildness. Anyway, we picked our way in between the vast mounds of seaweed to a spot where someone appeared to have abandoned a game of boules, or perhaps marbles, though all the marbles were black. It had obviously been a pretty rough game, as some of the marbles (or whatever) had shattered and were lying in pieces. The Moeraki Boulders are not actually boulders at all, they're concretions: accumulations of salts around a small hard core. They formed on the sea bed 60 million years ago. The manner of their creation makes them oddly spherical, and this is one of the large collections of them in one place. The ones that had broken looked a bit like inverted turtle shells, because lighter brown calcites accumulate in cracks in the boulders themselves, which I guess is one of the reasons that they break.
After the bracing walk back and a hot chocolate, we headed down to Dunedin, having nabbed the last four seats on the afternoon's Taieri Gorge train. It was an interesting mix of old & newer carriages, and fortunately we were in an old one. At first I began to wonder what all the fuss was about, but as the train climbed out of the cold drizzle in Dunedin and the sun came out, we crossed the Strath Taieri plain and climbed up into the gorge itself. The railway runs round some fairly tight curves, hugging the gorge walls on a little ledge which gets higher & higher. The views are quite spectacular, as you can see both up & down the gorge. We had a quick unscheduled stop to remove some rocks from the track, and a couple of other, scheduled ones for photos & leg stretching. There was a bit of a scrum on the platforms at the ends of the carriages as people struggled to get photos, but quite a few people only made the trip one way, being ferried on to Queenstown by coach, so it was quieter on the way down. Some nice little bridges and vertiginous drops, enough to give my mother-in-law kittens. Definitely worth a visit.
We decided to head out to the Otago peninsula to camp, which involved a hilarious coast road. I don't think I've ever driven closer to the sea. Poor Sarah was on the watery side, and was able to look straight down the four foot drop from the road into the water as we negotiated the tight bends in as stately a manner as I could manage with a mixture of head- and cross-winds, depending on the twist of the road and the dip of the cliffs. We plotted up in Portobello, on a lovely little quiet camp site just up a side road from the sea.

Today we left Mount Cook and drove back towards the coast. We had to stop in Twizel for diesel (do they rhyme either way?), having practically coasted in on fumes. Nobody told me that the petrol station in Mount Cook was unmanned with a credit card machine that doesn't accept cards from outside New Zealand. Next time we'll be a little more cautious when planning fuel stops.
Anyway, thereafter we passed the chain of lakes that make up the hydro-electric scheme. Water's stored all the way from Tekapo and Pukaki, and fed down through canals and lakes, generating power on the way. Unfortunately we were a little early to stop for lunch, even though the scenery was beautiful.
We stopped a little bit later by a Maori rock art site. The limestone on which it was painted was very soft and badly eroded, and it was difficult to make out much, apart from the fact that they used fewer colours than the Aborigines and the styles were very different indeed.
Oamaru reminded me of seaside Sussex in spring. We found a camp site in town and Sarah took Max and Erin for a swim in the local pool. Then we treated ourselves to an early night.

Treated ourselves to a lie-in this morning. Took a leisurely drive up to Mt Cook village at the head of the valley. It's dominated by a large hotel, the Hermitage, which appears to be made mostly of something sort of dark charcoal grey, and the towering mountains all around, still with their icefalls lingering quite a long way down.
After lunch, took the Glacier Explorers trip out to see the Tasman Glacier. At 18km, it's New Zealand's longest glacier, and comes down the Tasman Valley right next to Mount Cook. We had a 5 minute bus ride and a 20 minute walk to the top of the terminal moraine wall left by the last major advance of the glacier about 50 years ago. On the other side was a very light grey lake, and an awful lot of dark grey rock. On the lake were some small yellow boats (Erin was very worried about falling out of them). Once in the boats, we hooned around the lake, which was only about 3 deg C, and that, we learned, is the warm layer at the top. Actually, the lake's about 200m deep and the glacier goes all the way to the bottom, which makes it pretty cold. There were quite a few small icebergs floating around, and some grounded, so we motored up to one and got out for a walk around. They're an odd miixture of rock & ice, which makes them very black & white, unlike me.
The rest of the trip consisted of more doodling round the lake, which is a fair size, inspecting the terminal walls of the glacier and the icebergs that have broken away and are visibly thawing. The glacier is filthy. None of your crystal clear ice here. It's mixed with liberal amounts of dark grey rock, which makes the whole thing look pretty black and unattractive from a distance. Close up it's much more fascinating because the whole thing's animated. There are drips & trickles, rivulets running off the top, small rock falls into the water, and the distinct feeling that at any moment, a large lump of either ice or rock could crash into the water around you. The other thing is that the sides of the valley are huge lateral moraine walls, about 50m above where the glacier is now. Those represent the height of the glacier at its last push, a few decades ago, and they're made of crumbled rocks that have been brought down the valley by the movement of the glacier. The whole thing was completely fascinated, and Max & Erin particularly enjoyed being able to handle & taste lumps of glacier. We were lucky enough to have superb weather for the trip, and also excellent views of Mt Cook clear of cloud, as well as the movement of the cloud forms over the top.
Oh, and of course the reason the water is grey is that it's full of rock flour. The reason that this lake is grey and Pukaki is turquoise is that the lower lake is a mixture of glacial water and fresh water from the hills, which changes the proportion of rock flour and therefore the diffraction of the sunlight.

We were ferried to the airport again this morning to pick up our camper van. It turned out to be brand new, just to make it really easy to tell if we break something. Hit the road at about 10.45, heading for Mount Cook. The scenery on the inland scenic route was stunning. Flat and open, but with high fells in the distance. very lush and green too. Sort of a cross between Cambridgeshire and the Lake District or Scotland, only with vastly fewer people. At one point we didn't see another vehicle for almost ten minutes. Driving over three and a half tons of van is entertaining when the wind's whipping across the plains. Obviously the locals have noticed the wind too, because there were a number of very tall conifer hedges clipped very thin & square, presumably for shelter. All the towns & villages we passed through seemed beautifully kept - even the odd house out on its own just before a village would be ship shape.
We passed over some pretty turquoise water at times, but seemed never to manage to stop by any. After a while, we noticed lupins appearing in great drifts by the roadside. Apparently they're a bit of a pain, ousting indigenous flora. At Tekapo, we stopped at the Church of the Good Shepherd by the lake. Great views over the turquoise water (again) to the fairly serious mountains beyond. Then we came upon lake Pukaki, a vast expanse of opaque turquoise water. It looks unreal, because you can't see anything below the surface of the water. It's because it's full of finely ground rock flour, created by the glacier whose meltwater feeds it. Found a great camp site at the end of the lake with good views up the valley to the mountains. Darling lady in the coffee shop ground us some coffee for the morning, bless her.

Caught up on blogging, and then took the children to the cinema to see Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire while Sarah went to the hairdresser. The cinema contained us and about ten other people, but then, it was 11am on a schoolday. Then it was back to the hotel for washing, packing, updating diaries and a bit of food shopping.

Had a potter around Christchurch this morning. Took the tram on its little loop around the city centre accompanied by amusing, if occasionally groanworthy commentary (this kind of thing seems pretty typical down under). Christchurch is a nice, small-scale city. The main shopping areas are pretty typical of any major city. Of course, there's a Starbucks and a McDonalds, as with anywhere in the global village. Had a great lunch at MegaWatts. Max thought he'd died & gone to heaven - I don't think we've ever seen such a number of gluten-free cakes concentrated in a small area.
Took the bus out to New Brighton to visit Sarah's aunt and her cousin & children. In fact, her cousin was out at work, but at least the children were home. Lily's a lovely little thing, with a bit of a potato fixation. The first thing she said to me was that she'd been doing the potatoes. All the children got on well. Ruby's tall, and very cool for her six years. We were treated to a delicious home cooked roast chicken dinner, and then strolled down the road to the playground and the beach. What a nice place to live.

An early flight to Christchurch today, but all the formalities were fairly painless, and the extra time was useful to make the most of the three-hour loss in travelling east. Yet again, there was just time to unpack, get some shopping done, have dinner & go to bed.