Wednesday 1st February
All of a sudden, we were well in to our final week together; the time had flown by. We were still determined to make the most of it though and after a relaxed morning we clambered into the car for another day out. We were leaving the city of Dunedin for a while though and heading out of town in an attempt to see something almost unique to New Zealand. We drove along a coastal road along the sheltered side of the Otago Peninsular, which extends from Dunedin, into the Pacific Ocean. We travelled the length of the road until it ended at a car park at the Royal Albatross Centre. The Albatross is a huge seabird and is regularly considered to have the largest wingspan of all living birds. Where we were, at Taiaroa Head, a 45 minute drive from Dunedin, was home to the only mainland colony of breeding albatross in the world. The only problem was that we had to pay to see them. We could have hung around the car park and waited (probably in vain) for one to soar over our heads but we'd read that they prefer to fly on windy days, which it wasn't. So, we bit the bullet and paid the fairly exorbitant entrance fee. It did help to know that the majority of that fee would go to conservation however, the visitor centre was far too flash and modern for my liking. With the centre opening at 11 and us arriving just after, we had to wait until midday to do a tour, so we purchased a coffee and killed some time in the onsite café. We did hover (no pun intended) in the car park and on a viewing platform shortly before but the Albatross just weren't showing. We were greeted in the lobby by our tour guide, who we followed through to a room where we were told all about the Royal Albatross and their exploits before being shown a video. The video can't have been too good though as I can't remember what was on it and at least one of our group fell asleep. The presentation was good though and the scale models to show the size of the birds and their wingspan really helped us appreciate the size of them. After the 20 minute introduction, we were escorted up the slopes of Taiaroa Head before entering into a viewing room that looked out across where some of the Albatross were nesting and resting. It was a slight disappointment to be behind glass but understandable, so as not to interfere and disturb the birds. It helped that we were supplied with binoculars so we could get a good close up view of the giant birds. There wasn't too much going on, just some cuddling of young couples (they mate for life) and some sitting on nests. We did get to witness a nest changeover though, which is where one Albatross arrives home from hunting at sea, takes on the responsibility of the nest, relieving the partner Albatross to head out for its own hunt. Once the Albatross was off the nest, we were treated to a stretching and limbering up show that involved it flapping its huge wings, ready to take the leap of the edge of the head and catch the wind. It didn't look like we were going to see it but just as we were about to leave, the Albatross spread its wings, took a run up and disappeared beyond the ledge. They were impressive birds to see, however, because we were a fair distance away from them, we couldn't really appreciate their true size. The stuffed toys in the viewing room helped but it was still hard. We had been able to appreciate an Albatross properly when we'd been fishing in Kaikoura though. (I can't remember if I wrote this, so I'll write it just incase). The fishing boat we had been on was being staked out by some prehistoric looking bird that the skipper called a Mollyhawk. When we got back and researched it, it turned out a Mollyhawk was just a small Albatross, but still an Albatross. As they'd been so close to the boat, we really could appreciate their size and there were some small gulls milling around that we could compare them to. We still thought it had been a worthwhile exercise visiting the Royal Albatross Centre though and on our way out, we were pretty sure we spotted some Sea Lions sunning themselves on the rocks at the bottom of Taiaroa Head.
With our wildlife excursion complete, we started the scenic drive back towards Dunedin. About 3 quarters of the way back, we turned off at a sign pointing towards Lanarch Castle. The castle is the only one in Australasia, so we decided it might be worth a visit. After a steep climb up the hills of the Otago Peninsular, we only got as far as the gates. With an entry price as steep as the hills we drove up just to walk the gardens and visit the café, we knocked it on the head and drove into Dunedin city centre. We parked up just out of town and walked in via what is claimed to be the most photographed building in New Zealand/Australasia/The World, depending on the source, Dunedin Railway Station. It is a great looking building and incredibly large but, as much as I can understand Asians and maybe some North Americans finding an elaborate train station incredibly wonderful, for a pomme, it just doesn't really do it. The architecture outside is interesting but (just to wind mum and dad up) at the end of the day a station platform is just a station platform. Stop taking photos of each other pointing at the sculpted door handles!! We did have a look around and we did take some photos but we quickly moved on. We stopped for lunch in the Octagon, which is the centre of town and where the majority of the cafes, restaurants and bars are located. We picked almost the first one we found and then almost instantly regretted it when we saw a sign in the one next door to us that offered ribs and a beer for $25. We still enjoyed our food though, even if Charlotte's and my BLAT contained far too much avocado for its own good. It's okay, but I don't see why Kiwis go ballistic for it. When we were working up in Kaitaia, people seemed more worried about the price of avocados than anything else going on in the world (this blog is turning in to rant after rant, sorry!). We still had one full day remaining in Dunedin, so rather than explore the town fully then and there, we wandered back to the car, stopping off at a couple of craft shops, and retuned to base to get ready for our meal out. Mum had her heart set on a steak dinner, which Dad, Charlotte and myself were certainly not going to disagree with. So after some research, we made a reservation with the first one we'd looked at (learned our lesson from lunch) and got there for around half 7. It was hardly posh but it wasn't McDonalds. They had good sized beers and the 2 starters we had were tasty. For the mains, 3 of us had the same things, with dad going for reef and beef (surf and turf to you and I). Reviews were all pretty positive, so we had no complaints, apart from maybe a little more sauce to go with the steaks but we'd eaten it all before we'd thought about asking for some more.
Thursday 2nd February
We awoke to weather that was in keeping with the majority of the rest of the holiday. Overcast, with the constant threat of a downpour. We had Dunedin to explore though, so after breakfast, we drove to our first stop of the day at Signal Hill lookout. The lookout offered fantastic views of the city and the Otago peninsular and we were thankful that the rain hadn't come in and spoiled the view just yet. It was only a quick stop up the hill and afterwards we drove on to what was going to be a really unique tourist attraction. If I just said we went to Baldwin Street, you'd think “and? Just sounds like a road”, which it is but Baldwin Street holds the accolade of being the steepest residential in the world, much to the annoyance of some Americans who are adamant that it's in their country. We parked up nearby and walked along to where the street was. Dunedin had been relatively free of hordes of Asians but as we turned the corner on the Baldwin Street, we found where they had been hiding. They were crawling up and down the street like ants. The crowds aside though, the street really was steep and all we could do was start the walk up it, just to see how steep it was. At the bottom, we passed a small building that encouraged tourists to stop by on their way down and claim their “I ascended Baldwin Street” certificates, for a small fee of course. That was one souvenir we definitely wouldn't be adding to our collection. We all huffed and puffed our way to the top to join half of Beijing and catch our breath. Not all the Chinese were walking up, the cars driving up and down the road were exclusively rental cars containing Asians, who looked petrified as they rolled towards the edge of the hill and down the road. All the commotion was incredibly amusing to watch and when mum finally caught up with us at the top, we let her catch her breath and then started the walk down. One Asian lady was too keen to get down though and ended up on her backside after slipping on some gravel. In keeping with tradition, nobody helped her up and she was too far away from us to do so, so we continued on down and returned to our car. One final gimmick of the street, was that every year they have a Cadbury festival in town and as part of it, they roll hundreds and though sands of Jaffa chocolates (sort of like mini eggs) down it for a laugh.
With the outer reaches of Dunedin explored, we headed back in to town. As well as see the town, Charlotte and I were also on the lookout for second hand bookshops in order to shift a couple of unneeded books that were weighing us down. Having thought about it more, I think this may have been the day that we entered the train station and had a look around but there's no need to chop and change now. Mum and dad appeared from the station with a slice of great information. Apparently an R.Hosie sculpted one of the war memorials in town. As we were following directions to one of the bookstores, we stumbled across the cenotaph but couldn't find a sculptor name anywhere, we took a snap though, just incase. We found the bookstore and entered, keeping our fingers cross for a good offer on our books. They were brand new Lonely Planets, which go for well over $40 of the shelf in New Zealand, so we were fairly hopeful. We could only sneer at the insulting offer of a dollar a book though, so we took our wares elsewhere. We agreed with them that they wouldn't be spending big money on buying them off of us but disagreed with them saying that Canada and USA Lonely Planets don't have much resale value and New Zealand Lonely Planets do. We reckoned most travellers would go to New Zealand with a travel book already in hand. We didn't let it bother us and headed off in the direction of the Speight’s Ale House. With a couple of Tui and Monteith’s glasses already on hand, I wanted to add a couple of glasses from Speight’s to the collection. After the stop at the gift shop, we continued round to the restaurant and bar and sat down for lunch and a drink. The beer were a good size and all on tap and the food was filling and quick to arrive. Mum and dad had the ribs, while Charlotte and I tucked in to the blue cod and chips. As we wandered back towards the Octagon, we were struggling with what we should do for the remainder of the day. We swung by the iSite and picked something to do out of the relatively short list that we were given. As it was free, we walked out to the Otago museum and spent a couple of hours walking around the exhibits and learning about the local area, New Zealand and the Pacific. Not ones for museums, we were surprised to find that we all enjoyed it. Charlotte and I particularly enjoyed the exhibits on the Moa, the huge extinct bird that used to be king of New Zealand before the arrival of man around 1000 s ago. Unfortunately, they were too tasty for their own good and had non reason to fear humans as they'd never encountered them before, so they were hunted to extinction within about 500 years of mans arrival on New Zealand. There was also a tiny little lizard in a terrarium that we found incredibly entertaining, even if it didn't seem to move anywhere. After we'd had our fill of the museum, we headed out, got rejected at another second hand bookstore and then found a bar, where we had a beer each. Again, the beers were a good size, so it must have been a Dunedin thing. We were pretty happy with our time in Dunedin, although we did manage to squeeze in one final stop before reaching the car. Our route back took us conveniently past the Cadbury factory shop. This gave mum a great opportunity to pick up a few Kiwi treats for those back in England, stocking up on some Pineapple Lumps, which, along with the drink L&P are proper New Zealand. We got in just in time though, as they were just about to close. Just for the record, New Zealand cadbury’s chocolate is nowhere near as good as British Cadbury’s chocolate. After a long day, we wanted an easy dinner, so took the short drive out to the neighbouring suburb of St.Clare and got a burger and chips in a popular bar/restaurant.
Friday 3rd February
It was time to leave Dunedin and typically weather was lovely. After breakfast, we packed up the car and headed north on Highway 1 towards Christchurch. The road north was pretty straight, which meant we made really good time. Around an hour and a half in, we turned off and stopped at a place called the Moeraki Boulders. We didn't really know anything about them but seeing as there was numerous signs and they were starred on the road map we thought we'd best check them out. We pulled in to a café car park and started towards the beach, which is where the crowds were heading. Before starting down the path, we were put off by a sign saying a donation for the maintenance of the path is expected from everyone but after watching numerous other people head down without considering the sign, we walked down without paying. Essentially, the Moeraki boulders were just large, smooth, spherical rocks sitting on a beach and we couldn't really see why they were such a draw. People were lapping them up though and there was even one guy doing various tai-chi poses on one while his wife took photos or filmed him. We took a few snaps and then departed, feeling incredibly underwhelmed. Our next stop was 20 minutes up the road in the town of Oamaru. We were stopping for lunch and to have to a look around. We picked up a pie each and cream doughnuts for Charlotte and myself (I'll claim we’re still growing!) and then had a coffee at a nearby café. After the refreshment,me walked down to Oamaru’s famous Victorian precinct, which is one of, if not the only example left in New Zealand. It's only situated along one street but as we walked in we were greeted by a penny farthing bicycle that mum and dad had to have an attempt at riding. It was static,miso we didn't have to worry about them falling off. Charlotte and I had already had a go on our previous visit, so we didn't need to embarrass ourselves this time round. Once we'd explored the small Victorian precinct, we wandered back to the car and continued on towards Christchurch. We made one more refreshment stop in the town of Ashburton, before the final hour or so into the city of Christchurch. Our motel, Argyle on the Park, seemed pretty flash and was in a great location right next to something Park. All we had to do was walk through the park and we were in the city centre, which we did that evening for dinner. Christchurch was a city still rebuilding itself after it was rocked by huge earthquakes way back in 2011. As we walked in to town we were surprised to see just how bad the damage was and how long it was taking to get the city back on track. The damage meant a lot of he roads were still closed, which made it a slightly awkward city to navigate. We eventually found the city centre and a restaurant to have dinner. Somehow we managed to pick the restaurant with the slowest service and waited for almost an hour on our food. The portions weren't even that big but we'd waited so long, we just ate and left, heading back to the motel through the botanical gardens.
Saturday 4th February
This was our final full day with mum and dad in New Zealand, so we thought we'd best make the most of it. Or try to, with what there was to see and do in the city. We walked through the park again in the morning and were incredibly pleased to find out how hot and pleasant it was. We had breakfast at a highly rated café just beyond the city centre called C1 espresso, with Charlotte and myself being as fat as ever and having a breakfast burger each. It was a pleasant spot but the music they were playing was far too loud and inappropriate for that time of day. After breakfast, we spent the majority of the day wandering around the city centre taking in the few sights that were left and the few that had emerged from the rubble of the earthquake. In the centre of town was cathedral square, which had been home to Christchurch Cathedral. Unfortunately, it had been seriously damaged in the earthquake; the spire had collapsed and most of one wall had disappeared. To make up for the lack of a cathedral, a “cardboard” one had been erected a little out of town so the locals would still have somewhere to attend services. This was one of numerous “pop-up” sculptures dotted around the city, many of which we'd passed on our walkabout. Just up from the cardboard cathedral was a poignant and moving memorial of 185 chairs painted white, one for every person who died during the 2011 quakes. We were pretty hot after all our exploration, so retired to cathedral square where we picked up a cold drink and sat in the shade listening to a blind man sing what sounded like sea shanties. We also took time out to explore a local craft market on our way round, which was exactly the sort of thing Charlotte and I had been after. After our extravagant clock expenditure though, we made the smart decision not to buy anything. Finally, we concluded Christchurch with another stroll through the botanic gardens. This time though it was daylight, so we could appreciate the flora and fauna a bit more than our previous jaunt through the night before. The lofty trees provided some welcome respite from the sun on such a hot day and the greens inside the gardens were throbbing with sunbathers, walkers, joggers and there was even a wedding taking place in the water garden. The exit of the gardens placed us on the road that would take us back to the motel, so, with heavy disappointment that things were coming to an end, we slowly walked back to get mum and dad packed and ready for their early flight out the next morning.
An added benefit of having mum and dad come and visit was that they had a nice bit of spare space in their suitcases. This meant we could ship home numerous things that we'd accumulated along the way, as well as things we no longer needed such as clothes. By the time we were finished, all three of their bags weighed a tonne but once they were checked at Christchurch airport the following morning, they wouldn't need to be touched until they arrived at Gatwick almost 2 days later. Seeing as we'd started with a dinner cooked by Charlotte and myself, we finished with one too, a nice simple one of sausages, chips and beans. We eventually got to bed no earlier than we usually would, so didn't have many hours sleep before our alarms chirped to awake us.
Sunday 5th February
I had been dreading this date since I'd been told it was booked. Having the company of family for 3 weeks after having been away so long had been wonderful, even if it had been incredibly stressful organising an itinerary and seeing that itinerary through. The only consolation was that it wouldn't actually be long until we'd see my mum and dad (and all of you at home too) again. We skipped breakfast, as we weren't exactly hungry at 3:30 in the morning, so instead packed the car and drove the short distance out of town to the airport. It was only a few miles, so took us about 10-15 minutes from our motel. We wanted to make the drop off as quick as possible to avoid any emotions but as quick as it was with a hug and a handshake, there were still a few tears shed by some. As far as I know they really enjoyed the trip but at the same time, I think they were looking forward to heading home, particularly to see Barney. They were just dreading a 14 hour layover in Brisbane and who could blame them!
I'll apologise now. I know I said I'll try a live blog and my mum may have told a few people that I was considering it but it became clear to me pretty quickly that it just wasn't going to be practical. So sorry for the delay in getting these up but I hope they were okay and did my mum and dad’s first ever excursion across the equator justice.
While my mum and dad started their long journey home, Charlotte and I started our long drive south to an all too familiar place. We drove south in the dark along highway 1 before turning in land towards the town of Fairlie. We were both pretty shattered, so stopped in the town for some breakfast and a coffee. It was premeditated, as the Fairlie abate house had been recommended to us by our Milford Sound kayaking guide as supplying the best pie he had ever eaten. This meant we just had to try one. There was a bit of confusion when we first got there just after they'd opened and there was only 2 pies listed on the menu. We had to go with ones written up there, so we had a pepper steak and smoked chicken and mushroom. They were nice but hardly outstanding. By the time we'd finished, there were a few more written up on the board, which was a little bit frustrating. After some thought, I couldn't resist trying the pork and apple sauce pie, so picked one up for the ride down south. It didn't last long though and was eaten within an hour of leaving Fairlie. This pie stood out over the other ones we'd had, it was a more interesting flavour and had a generous cut of cracklings baked into the top. The drive down turned out to be a lovely scenic drive in the rising sun and, as we drove past Lake Tekapo and later Lake Pukaki we had outstanding views on the morning sunlight glancing off the snow covered slopes of New Zealand’s highest peak, Aoraki/Mount Cook. We held slight regret that we weren't driving up to the Mount Cook township but knew it wasn't the end of the world. The rest of the drive was pretty straightforward and after Charlotte had a power nap in the town of Omarama, Queenstown was only a 2 and a half hour drive away.
We pulled into Slopehill Road not long after midday and were greeted by an old friend. Rodney the Fox Terrier was barking away at us and the car wildly but from the second we opened the doors, he remembered us from our previous visit. We'd previously wwoofed at Slopehill Road before and we had asked upon leaving whether the lady, Valerie, would have us back. She had been and everything had fallen rather conveniently as she was on holiday until the 22nd February and needed someone to look after Rodney and her house/garden. We also needed somewhere to be settled while we sold our car and wound down to leave New Zealand at the end of March. We were taking over from a German man called Kevin, who would be leaving in a couple of days, so with him around to look after Rodney, Charlotte and I caught up with some much needed sleep to ready for the lengthy walks Rodney would want to be going on over the coming weeks.
James and Charlotte
