Month: April 2019

We took the short flight from Christchurch to the metropolis of Auckland. We actually never made it to the city center on this trip. My wife and I had been there in the past. (For a few pictures of the North Island from the trip in 2006, click here.) It was a lovely city then and though I am sure it has grown, we opted to stay south of the city. My wife had grown weary of my “try to see it all” attitude and she wanted to relax. She knew she was going back to work and wanted at least a little time at a slower pace. We only had three nights in the area and then we had to fly almost halfway around the Earth to home. We did a little hiking, went to the island of Waiheke for some sightseeing and wine tasting, and watched the Men’s NCAA Basketball semifinals game. My wife is a big sports fan and we have a lot of relatives that went to UVA, one of the schools in the final four. Thankfully, in an exciting game, the team we were rooting for won. Now she could look forward to watching the University of Virginia in the final game at our house.

The North Island has a lot going for it. Being closer to the equator, the weather is usually warmer than the South Island. Around Auckland there is more to do for people who like a faster pace. Even though we did not make it to the city center this time, it was clear from the surrounding area that the metropolis compares favorably with the best metropolitan areas of the world. Judging from the boats, or should I say yachts, and the beautiful homes with gorgeous sea views, there is plenty of money in this part of the world. A third of New Zealand’s population lives in the Auckland region, but still it does not feel crowded like Los Angeles or New York. Of course it is much smaller at about 1.5 million people.

And then there is Waiheke Island, a short ferry ride away…it is reminiscent of how Napa Valley was 30 something years ago with, dare I say, better views. While we were there, we drove up to a beach that was recommended by Lonely Planet.  It was raining a bit but still very pretty. On one end of the beach there was a geology field trip with students using graduated cylinders to test the water. On the other end there were people dressed very well. My wife assumed there was to be a destination wedding and so she followed the people. I, being a retired science teacher, went to see what was going on at the field trip. The students worked through the light drizzle, and so after seeing enough, I walked back to find my wife. 

She was seated off to the side, still hoping to see the bride. I don’t know if the groom was worried, but he and his groomsmen sure had to wait for a while in the rain. For the fun of it, I decided to take some pictures. The minister had invited the attendees to use their cell phones to take pictures. We were wedding crashers (though we left before the ceremony was over), but no closer than the dozen or so other beachgoers, and with my long lens (not a cell phone) I got some pretty good shots. The weather cleared for a moment as the bride and her bridesmaids pulled up. The ceremony began. Just before we left, I gave this website address to a man whose child had had enough sitting still in the seats on the beach. As the mist started again, he said he would give it to the wedding party, and we were off to another tasting room. 

If you are a member of the party, or if you like weddings, click here. The bride and groom, family and friends are free to use my images as they wish for personal use, free of charge. Everyone else, they are property of this website, and you do not have permission to do anything but look. I still don’t know who the people were, but it was wonderful to witness. The groom might even have had a tear of joy in his eye (I don’t think it was just the rain) when he saw his bride being escorted down the aisle. Despite the weather, the wedding party looked like something out of a magazine. I hope everything went well after we left. 

In our last tasting room of the day, at a place called Jurassic Ridge, we met the winemaker and owner; an extremely bright and articulate man named Lance. I learned through conversation that he had been a neurologist before he turned to winemaking. I have a high-school friend and teammate who is also extremely bright and articulate and a neurologist, whose father was a famous neurologist at a teaching hospital. I started dropping some names. Lance’s eyes lit up as he said he helped my friend’s father write a couple of chapters in medical texts. It was another small-world moment for me. Just then, my wife (who is usually pretty trusting) turned away with her cell phone (at the time, I thought she had just gotten an important text to which she had to reply) to Google verify whether Lance was telling the truth.  I don’t know why, but she thought he might be spinning a story to sell wine. I guess she thought it was “worth a Google” (a phrase often quoted by my sons from some movie they liked). His wines had been declared by several sommeliers we talked to during the day as some of the finest wines from the island. I liked them too. Anyway, to finish this story, I chose 15 bottles of his wines to be shipped home to be given to friends, partly because I enjoyed the conversation. We left for the last ferry of the day. On the way to the pier, my wife said she was going to try to sleep in the car on the return, but when I got back in the car she was awake. She quietly announced she couldn’t sleep because the beauty that was passing before her eyes was not to be missed. If you would like to see some pictures of the last days of this adventure, click here. Some of the last pictures are images of the sky and sunset that kept my wife awake.

The people of Christchurch have suffered. In response to their suffering, there has been an outpouring of love and support from people around the world. It was fitting that on our last two days on the South Island, we stayed outside of Christchurch and we visited the city and the surrounding area. The photo above is from the impromptu memorial of flowers and messages on the grounds just outside of the Botanic Gardens along Rolleston Avenue. As you can see, the flowers are starting to fade. I am confident that the message of hope will remain.

I want to thank our hosts at a beautiful new home constructed to be a Bed and Breakfast called 101 on Lowes. The facility was immaculate and the hosts friendly, accommodating, and knowledgeable about the area. Though the house is in Rolleston, a suburb of Christchurch, it is conveniently located close enough to the city and the airport. We visited the city and the Banks Peninsula. I wish we had more time, because there is so much to see. Even if all you wanted to do was relax, 101 on Lowes is a great place to stay.

If you already looked at the pictures in the last post no need to look again; but if not, click here.  They are in chronological order; the last ones being from Christchurch and the Banks Peninsula. The people of Christchurch wanted me to encourage people to visit. Maybe, it is the best way to support them. Next time, I will be sure to spend more time. I will remember the remote control model sailboat race in the park, the walk along the Avon River in the Botanic Gardens, and the winding scenic tourist drive on the crest of the Banks Peninsula with stunning views at every overlook. Most of all, I will remember the welcoming nature of the people.

After having the luxury of not having to pack and unpack bags for a week in the resort town of Wanaka, we headed to the bottom of the South Island and then followed the coast as much as possible to the city of Christchurch. The mission was to see the scenic coastline and try to find creatures only found in New Zealand. Finding scenery to photograph was easy; finding endemic animals, not so much. New Zealanders proudly call themselves Kiwis after the odd flightless bird that evolved here in a mammal-free habitat. Until people arrived, the only mammals to make it here on their own were bats and marine mammals. People brought domestic animals like pigs, goats, sheep, horses, and cows, and also introduced the Australian brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula), which was released to be used in the fur trade. Anytime man enters the picture it changes the ecosystem.  All the endemic animals have struggled in New Zealand since the arrival of man, especially since European settlement. All the animals people brought on purpose, and some that we brought accidentally, have made it hard to find creatures like Kiwis. Programs are in place to try to eliminate or reduce the possum, and the other introduced species like mice, rats, feral cats, rabbits, and weasels. The worst one is said to be the possum; if the number of road-killed possum is any indication of the actual number of live possum, the numbers must be very high. 

We stayed in the small town of Bluff. Its location on the bottom of the South Island makes it the launch point for ferries to Stewart Island. The island contains Rakiura National Park, a site said to be one of the best places to see Kiwis in the wild, as well as a few other animals that are struggling elsewhere in New Zealand. When we arrived in Bluff it was starting to get dark, but the weather was clear and the seas relatively calm.  The photo above was taken on the southern point next to the restaurant where we had dinner; a large seafood platter for two. We booked a lovely homestay at Bradshaw House in Bluff. Our host said the people who stayed in the room the day before had an exciting and successful day cage-diving to see Great White Sharks near Stewart Island. Unfortunately, by the morning after we arrived, the winds had picked up to the point that it was hard to stand without holding onto something, and the waves were huge. The cold winds were coming across the Southern Ocean from Antartica. No cage-diving for us, even if we wanted to; even going to the island, we decided, was not in the cards that day. We tried, but in this case we failed. So after a quick trip to a viewpoint above the town where I got some usable photos (but it was too windy to get out of the car) we headed up the east coast with the new goal of seeing scenery and penguins. New Zealand has three species of penguins that nest on the South Island. All three are rare today because of competition with invasive species and because people have overfished the waters leaving the penguins without much to eat. 

On the way out of town, I was able to confirm that there were herds of elk (another non-native) in pastures with very high fencing. The day before, I had seen them, but I was not expecting it; so I did not believe my tired old eyes in the fading light. In recent years, fields that may have been used for sheep, have been converted to ranching these animals; creatures that are normally hunted for sport or market-hunted. It was explained on one of the many informative placards I read, this has become a trend. It is more profitable in some areas than raising traditional farm animals.

After admiring the majestic, but out-of-place creatures, we headed up the Scenic Catlins Route. All along the way, the winds continued to whip across the ocean, but we did find occasional sunshine; an excuse to stop, stretch, and check out the views. Before the sun set we made it all the way to the city of Dunedin and the tip of the Otago Peninsula. We stopped at the Royal Albatross Centre. Outside the center, I was able to photograph the magnificent birds from a distance while they glided on the updrafts over their nest sites. We visited the information center where we found out they had a trip that left after sunset to try and see the smallest penguin in the world called the Little Blue Penguin.  We had no place to stay yet, and so reluctantly we headed further up the coast; finally stopping for the night at the town of Oamaru. Back in the day, it was a thriving port town and it still has some remarkable buildings from the Victorian Era.

The next day, we checked a few other places for penguins and other wildlife as we continued up the coast to the Christchurch area, our final destination on the South Island. Sadly, no penguins found their way to the front of my lens, though I did get plenty of photographs and even one photo of an area where they have nest boxes set up for the little blues with grandstands for the people to watch them come ashore. If you would like to see the photos from this part of our journey, click here.

Situated north of Queenstown is a small town on Lake Wanaka named after the large blue lake. It is a town with a modern feel, and plenty of things for active people to do. We were fortunate to be able to stay in one place for a week. In that time we were able to spend time hiking in several areas as well as do scenic drives. Within a few minutes of our resort there were three wineries, a distillery and a few places to taste New Zealand craft beers. There are things for families, young people, and old folks to do. On our outings, it was not uncommon to see three generations of tourists walking the trails or picnicking together.

While we were in Wanaka, just north and west of us in The Franz Josef National Park area, they experienced a 100 year flood that wiped out a bridge and stranded people on the west coast. Click here to see some amazing video of the collapse shown in the news in New Zealand. We were lucky. Where we were, it rained hard during the night but the sun broke through the clouds in the morning. It was a lazy day for us, but we did meet interesting people around the pool and went out for a delicious meal in town. A couple of days later, knowing we could not make it all the way to Franz Josef Glacier, we traveled up over the Haast Pass to the west coast to visit the area of the northern part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site we could not access from the road to Milford Sound. The drive was slower than usual. Mud slides had partially covered the road in some stretches and in other places part of the road had washed away. In those locations, the road had to be reduced to a single lane in order to be passable and safe. I felt sorry for the tourists that had made plans to go to the glacier or were trapped, and for the residents and businesses that were impacted by the flooding and washed out bridge. Mother Nature is a powerful force. We were told by park authorities that it would be safe to go as far as the bridge, and we would still see beautiful scenery; but the water in the rivers would be full of silt and therefore not as pretty. On the plus side, there would be many more temporary waterfalls flowing from the steep mountains.

To see some of the images taken during the seven days we were in Wanaka click here. I wish I had time to tell you about each of the photos and why they were included. On the last day in Wanaka, we decided to hike up Rob Roy Mountain Track. As we approached the top third of the strenuous climb; in a case of “its a small world” I stopped to ask a young couple coming down the mountain, how much further we had to go and would it be worth it. I noticed that the young man was wearing a shirt that made me realize he and I had a common interest. It turned out, we were from the same state and he coached one of the sports I coached. Even though he was much younger, we started to realize we knew many of the same people and when I told him where I taught and coached, he said in a surprised tone, that is were his newlywed wife and hiking partner had gone to school. She was in the same class as one of my sons. I should have taken a picture of the cute couple on their honeymoon adventure. It would have made a good photo for our alumni publication. I did tell them I would mention the story in my blog though. I appreciate the encouragement they gave us to get to the top. The view was pretty spectacular.

The photo that goes with this post is neither my wife and I, nor the newlywed couple…just a couple being romantic near the top of the hike. I took the photo from a slightly higher vantage point. As you might guess the spot was an extremely popular place to take selfies. I had to wait nearly an hour to photograph my wife on that point.