Of rocks and other excitement in New Zealand

…aaaaand, we’re back! We left Sydney and took a pleasant flight over to New Zealand, but as you may recall, we were so enthusiastic about NZ that we jumped the gun and already wrote about half of our time there.  After the excitement of pancake rocks, glacier hiking, and faulty tires, we spent the second half of our time in NZ looking at more rocks, taking more hikes, and having car excitement of a different sort…

After our success with Table Mountain in South Africa, we decided that 1,100m (3,630ft) ascent hikes are what we’re made for, so we set out on a hike up Roy’s Peak near Lake Wanaka where we were spent a couple nights. Since it was a little cloudy, we couldn’t see our final destination, and let’s just say we grossly underestimated the challenge of a hike that covers that ascent over an 8km (5mi) path – i.e., one that doesn’t leisurely meander back & forth, but seems to climb straight up. As the clouds rolled in & out, we caught glimpses of points higher & higher. About 100m from the top, we stopped for lunch. I decided this would be my highest point, but Jason managed to reach the peak, with the only reward being his sense of accomplishment, as the clouds were too thick for views.  As I waited for him to return, I watched the mist alternately obscure and reveal the beautiful valley below. Then, of course, we had to walk back down!

Phew! This is hard work!

Guard sheep

View of the valley from our lunch spot

Much deserved post-hike beer back at camp

The next day we set off for the relatively large east coast town of Dunedin, stopping at a few small wineries in Otago county along the way – including one which has the distinction of being the southernmost vineyard in the world. We arrived in Dunedin around 6pm and stopped in at a handful of hostels, only to find them all booked up for the night. After exhausting all the reasonably-priced options we knew of and even calling some campgrounds to see about cabins, we set off for the single most frustrating experience of the trip – a dark, winding, rainy drive in search of lodging on a small peninsula near Dunedin. Our search effectively ended around 9pm, when I spoke with a sympathetic lady running a campground on the peninsula, who advised that there was (a) a big rugby game the next day, (b) some annual arts festival that weekend, and (c) a random civic celebration – all coming together to ensure that every room in and around the city was all booked up (although perhaps we could find a place in a B&B for $400 or so). She said, ‘Sounds like it might be a night in the car.’ She was right.

We made our way back to Dunedin and found dinner at a Japanese/Korean restaurant-cum-night club (many other places were closed given the late hour), and finally made our way to Dunedin Holiday Park, where we covertly found a patch of grass on which to park our car for the night. To our great delight, we found that the front seats of our little Hyundai Getz reclined all the way, so we dug our sleeping bags out from the bottom of our packs and curled up for a surprisingly not uncomfortable night’s sleep, listening to the rain pitter-patter on the roof of the car. We escaped without notice around sunrise, freshened up at a nearby BP station, and hit the weekly Dunedin farmers market for some therapeutic coffee & pastries.

Dunedin Holiday Park served us well

Surprising comfort!

Picking plums

We headed north along the coast to our next stop, Oamaru. Along the way, we stopped to check out some seals lounging in the sunshine, play around on the oddly entertaining Moeraki boulders, and eat some very tasty fish & chips.

Lazy seal at Shag Point

Moeraki boulders

Just for fun

Pondering the rocks

Feats of balance

Feats of strength

World famous, indeed!

Oamaru is a quiet little town whose main attraction is a couple of penguin colonies. For some strange reason, tourists like us gather at dusk to watch yellow-eyed or tiny blue penguins return to their nests after a day of fishing out in the ocean.

This was the poor guy sent to have his photo taken that evening

We enjoyed the sleepiness of Oamaru for a couple days, largely enhanced by the excellent guest house we stayed in. It was just out of town, across from the beach, and had a very welcoming kitchen & common area. We cooked up a couple tasty dinners – thanks to our shopping at the Dunedin farmers market! – and spent a lot of time just enjoying the peacefulness and beginning our preparations for South America.

What a feast!

Because this is New Zealand, it is important to show sheep grazing (across from our hostel)

Enjoying the beach, across the street in the other direction.

We spent our last day/night in NZ in the ski-town of Methven, about an hour outside of Christchurch. We tried taking a hike around the nearby Rakaia Gorge, but the day ended up being a wash-out so that was cut short. 

Ice blue Rakaia river

On the morning of March 22 we began our 40-hour day by making our way back to Christchurch Airport, from which we flew to Auckland to catch our flight to Santiago.  Even with the hiccups we encountered along the way, New Zealand easily lands a spot in the top 3 places we’ve visited on this trip – and perhaps even in all of our traveling. The people were friendly, it was easy to get around, and the landscape was beyond stunning. We already can’t wait to go back and see more!