November 17th- November 20th
CATLINS COAST/DUNEDIN/CENTRAL OTAGO
November 17th
Having had a great visit with Stew and Casey over the last week, it just worked out that they were headed up north to do a little more travelling, and we were headed south. So we said our goodbyes and watch as Stew nervously take on NZ roads on his own.
We made our way south from Queenstown to Invercargill. After stocking up on groceries there, we went to Bluff, a very windy town on one of the most southern tips of New Zealand (the most southern road at least).
1401km from Cape Reinga, the Northern most tip of New Zealand
There wasn’t much else to see in Bluff, so we made our way back into Invercargill for the night. This was one of the stormiest nights we have experienced in Bertie. The wind was ripping and Bertie got beaned with hail a few times throughout the night. As you can imagine, we got little sleep in between the wind gusts that would literally shake the van and the thumping of the hail on the roof.
November 18th
The next day we took the beautiful drive along the Catlins Coast. This is a beautiful stretch of road along the coast between Invercargill and Dunedin a region full of extensive farmland, native forests, and rugged ocean bays. The road itself wasn’t so nice as a lot of it was gravel, but the scenery was some of NZ’s best. Unfortunately we did not have great weather for it, but worth it.
Nikki getting blown away
Obviously wind is quite common in the area
Slope Point (NZ’s actual most southerly point)
Curio Bay, a bay of fossilised Jurasic-aged trees among the rock pools.
We were lucky enough to be here at low tide, which allowed us to go explore the interesting fossils. The stormy weather made for some great wave watching as they crashed up against the rocky bays.
We have really grown to love the ocean
The next attraction along the way was called Niagra Falls. It was just off the main road, so we figured we shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to see it.
This is NZ’s version of Niagra Falls. There was actually a sign posted explaining that the guy who named it had been to see Niagra Falls in Canada, and had a pretty good sense of humour when naming this one. Ohhh...Awww!
Now... we came to NZ with some general expectations. Many of those were met early on, but there was still a couple major ones lingering over us. With only a couple weeks left, we were starting to feel like this one in particular would not be met. One of those things being that we would have to stop on the highway for farm animals (for example, run away sheep or a farmer moving them to another pasture).
Run away sheep skipping down the road.
Farmer moving his cattle.
Not even kidding you, these both happened within a hour of each other. I know it doesn’t seem exciting, but it was! The only classic NZ thing left on that list is to hit a possum. Ok... I know that sounds horrible, but if you saw how much road-kill there is here, you’d understand that it is part of the true Kiwi experience to hit one.
Next we stopped at Jack’s Blowhole. It was a 45 minute walk through farmland to get to it.
Scenery along the way to Jack’s Blowhole
In the middle of a sheep paddock, 200m inland from the sea and connected by a huge cave is a huge cauldron 55m deep, 144m long, and 68m wide.
Watching the waves crash up into Jack’s Blowhole
Then we made our way to Nugget Point, where there was a short walk to a lookout where the land steeply drops off into the ocean.
Nugget Point
We continued along to Kaka Point, where we found a sheltered camp kitchen to use to make dinner because it was still pretty stormy out. After dinner, having seen all the no camping signs all over Kaka Point, we decided to carry on to the next town, Balclutha. We found a quiet place near an athletic park to pull over for the night.
November 19th
We drove into Dunedin, the second biggest city on the south island. We went to their Saturday morning farmers market, where we enjoyed some delicious food (pork dumplings/samosa/cheese) and bought some fresh stuff for dinner (lamb sausage...yum).
Dunedin’s farmers market
Then we made our way into downtown Dunedin only to find Occupy Wall Street, Dunedin Edition.
Seems like all this guy could occupy was the ground.
After checking out the town, we decided to head to Dunedin’s beaches for some surfing.
Geared up and ready to go!
Yes, that is really Scott out there
Dunedin has the Guinness World Record for the steepest street in the world. We had to check it out.
We decided we didn’t want to put old Bertie through it, so we walked up ourselves leaving him at the bottom.
It was really steep! 18 degrees and 35% grade.
I wouldn’t want to live on this street.
Leaving Dunedin, we headed for a campground just out of town through a beautiful rocky gorge.
Another of the many beautiful drives we have done in NZ. We were happy to have some sunshine, as it seems we have been cursed with rain the last few days.
November 20th
In the morning we woke up to another grey rainy day. We went to Moeraki Boulders.
Big spherical boulders on the beach.
Just tinsy little rocks hey
Then we cut inland into Central Otago, toward a town called Omarama. We were just passing through, but saw a big sign for a “Merino County Hoe Down” and some big stampede style tents up, and about 100 RV’s in a great big field. The curiosity got the better of us so we turned around and went back to check it out. It ended up being a great big country music festival and BBQ. Which would have been cool if we like country music and were 70 years old.
Not even kidding you, the average age of the people attending this thing was probably 75.
After making some lunch here, we continued on to Lake Pukaki.
There are a bunch of dams in the area that provide one fifth of NZ power.
Lake Pukaki.
On a clear day, this is the perfect spot to view Mt Cook, NZ’s highest mountain. Unfortunately for us, it was completely socked in and we couldn’t see it at all.
Sad
Even though it was cloudy, it was still a pretty drive.
Then we stopped at Lake Tekapo, another beautiful glacier lake along the way.
Lake Tekapo.
The beautiful color of this lake is due to rock flour in the water which was created when a stony-bottomed glacier moved across the land. The grinding action created fine particles that ended up being suspended in the glacial melt water, creating this beautiful milky turquoise color.
It is here that they have an amazing Observatory where you can go look at stars at night. Again, unfortunately for us, there was no use for this as it was completely clouded over and only expected to get worse.
So, instead we went to the Hot Springs where we enjoyed a long hot sauna and hot pool soak. Followed by a much needed shower ;) You take any shower you can get when you live in a van and haven’t had a shower in the last 3 days.
We read about a campsite just a little ways away from Lake Tekapo and decided to head there for the night. One thing we have noticed about NZ is that the signage for things can be very poor at times. You really have to pay attention if you want to catch the turnoff. We must have missed the campsite (or... we still both think it didn’t even really exist), because we ended up in the next town, Geraldine. Not wanting to retrace our path, we decided to just stay there for the night.
So, freedom camping in NZ has become a little bit harder since the laws have become stickier. But, we had yet to have any issues or a knock on the window in the middle of the night. So, we pulled over by a park, cooked some dinner, and settled in for bed later in the night. Just as we were drifting off to sleep...
Knock Knock Knock.
Nikki: Uh Oh! Don’t move!
Knock Knock Knock “You can’t stay here”
We still didn’t move...
“I’m taking your numbers and you’ll get a fine if you stay here”
Having not heard a car drive up, or drive away, we peaked out the window and the man had left. We looked around and realized that we were parked just outside of the Motor camp, and that was probably the manager of the Motor camp. We decided we would move down to another block. Sure enough, we slept uninterrupted the rest of the night.
In the last few days, we saw a lot of the country. Unfortunately it was rainy and cloudy a lot of the time, but we still made the most of it and saw as much as we could. But... we are ready for a break from the rain and hoping for some sunshine in the next few days.
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