Exploring New Zealand

What an incredible place New Zealand is!  There is a little bit of paradise there.  The country consists of two large islands, called the North and South Islands by natives, though they must have real names.  Auckland, the capital, is on the North Island, and contains fully half the country’s population of about 4 million.  As a result the rest of the country is pretty empty, especially the South Island.  I only toured the north end of the South Island.  

Before I get into the details of my NZ trip, I though I should give a few travel tips for the next time you go down there.  First of all, if you get a car, be prepared to drive on the left side of the road.  (My mantra for right turns was “Go right, stay left.”)  Car travel times are much longer for a particular distance than you would expect in the States.  There are no four lane roads (at least where I was), and although there is no traffic to speak of even during this busy holiday period, the roads are quite twisty and turny so travel is slow.  Similarly, on the trails, signs posted to help the hiker time his day give times for walks that are ridiculously short.  I am no slacker, but I would have had to practically jog to match the suggested times!

All over the island, except in Christchurch, two lane bridges are the exception, not the rule.  Most of the time there is a little sign and paint to tell you which direction has the right of way, but I found determining who went first was mostly a game of chicken.  One of my favorite bridges is this trestle bridge that also carries train tracks.  (Note this bridge has a signal – the only bridge I ran across with one.)  As you go across the bridge you can see the tracks above.  Looking up the ties are visible.  Crazy.  My favorite bridge, near Greymouth, had the tracks on the same level as the cars. The signs indicating that the train tracks were ahead really are evocative.  Note the background sign.  That’s a guy falling off his bike as he hits the railroad tracks imbedded in the bridge ahead.  However, my favorite sign was a reminder that the road could get slippery when “frosty.”  Note that the skid marks cross on this sign.  Rough place.

New Zealanders are an incredibly friendly and gregarious lot.  I never had difficulty with asking questions about something or otherwise getting help or advice.  But let me caution you that directions given by a New Zealander are often next to useless.   For example, to find a certain store, I was told to “follow the main street until you get to the bank.  It should be right there.”  Which main street?  “The one up there.”  (We were on one main street, and there are several in a city.)  Which bank?  There is more than one!  

I have changed my mind about the effectiveness of tipping in the States.  There is no tipping in New Zealand, and service at restaurants is nearly nonexistent.  

In towns, finding accommodations and food were not a problem.  There are different levels, and a list from most primitive to most luxurious is youth hostel, backpackers, motel, B&B, and hotel.  Plenty of choices.  In Greymouth I stayed in a Noah’s Ark  themed backpacker’s in the tiger room.

A final note of caution: The New Zealand possum is considered a pest, and its fur is used to make a variety of items, such as socks, gloves and hats.  (Sorry the picture of this stuffed possum is a little out of focus.)  This misuse makes them really mad, and at night you must be careful not to get attacked by killer possums coming out of the trees.  I barely escaped this encounter with my life.

There are so many things to tell before launching into the travelogue, but I’ll just mention one more thing.  I saw the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, which are satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, as well as the infamous Southern Cross constellation. All of these are only visible from the southern hemisphere.  Seeing these has been a lifelong desire of mine.  BTW – Did you know that the moon looks upside down from the southern hemisphere?

You can follow along on the trip by going to some web sites with New Zealand maps, such as  http://www.aatravel.co.nz/map/search-bymap.shtml?locationId=1.  Click on the region of interest.  I’ll give names.

I had found a friend to share a rental car with, and on the first day in Christchurch we made all our plans and reservations.  Since New Zealanders use the Christmas holidays as their primary summer vacation, I was concerned that no housing would be available.  But in the end there were no problems, since NZ’s don’t start their fun until after Christmas, and our trip would start Christmas Eve.  

Here’s where you can start following the map:  Starting in Christchurch, we took highway 1 up the coast towards Kaikoura, cutting in on a loop that took us to see more of the inner part of the island.  The land is very mountainous, and sticking the camera out the window and snapping pictures gave us shots like this one.  Kaikoura is a small town that advertises itself to be a starting place for a lot of water entertainment, such as swimming with dolphins or watching whales, but what I found was the seal colony.  They look like so many giant slugs, except when they get in the water.  The mountains touch the sea around the bay in Kaikoura, so the setting was quite beautiful.  From there, we traveled to Picton, a small town in the Marlborough region at the north end of the South Island.  In Picton, there were hiking trails through the forest, and we did some sea kayaking.  The water was clear enough to see sting rays scoot across the bottom.  Several species of cormorants, which they call shags, were very common.

From Picton we drove west on 63 to the west coast region, and stopped at Punakaiki.  There are very nice stone formations which form blowholes as the waves come in.  Unfortunately I had forgotten to charge my camera, so that part of the trip will forever be lost to photography.  We stopped in Greymouth for the night, where I stayed in the backpackers mentioned above, and moved on across the north end of the Southern Alps in the morning through Arthur’s Pass, taking 73 back into the Christchurch/Canterbury region.

In Arthur’s Pass we took this incredible hike.  It started off with nice boardwalk through beech forests, and after a while put us in a river bed.  If you look carefully at this picture you can find the small orange trail marker up on the left side of the river bed.  From here on out it was a mad scramble, past signs which did not deter me, up to a waterfall and false glacier, which was unmelted snow that the river had undercut.  Lovely day.  I got a pretty good sunburn during my after-lunch nap.

Pictures don’t do this justice.  What made the trip so nice were the constant surprises.  I ran into one nice place after another.  I really MUST go back someday.