Next day we drove from the west to the east coast and arrived in Dunedin by late afternoon. The first European settlers here were Scots and it is very proud of its Scottish heritage.
After a morning spent strolling around the shops and museum in Dunedin we headed north up the coast to Oamaru where we had some unexpected lovely experiences. We saw our first sea lions (only seen fur seals up to that point) and penguins in the wild. Not just any old penguins, rare Yellow-eyed penguins. We bounced along a gravel track in the van for 4 km to Katiki Point lighthouse where a colony of penguins has flourished on the hillside.
By the time we had waited for the penguins to come up the beach at dusk it was getting late so we decided to stay in the nearby village campsite at Moeraki, right on the ocean front. We saw a few people walking round the harbour to what looked like a bit of a rumble tumble building so thought we'd give it a go, not knowing that we had stumbled into one of NZs best seafood restaurants, Fleur's Place. When Rick Stein was told he could go anywhere in the world to write an article for a UK newspaper he chose Fleur's Place. They were so booked up they even set up a table for us on Fleur's desk and we chatted to the lady herself. Best meal of the trip!
More of NZs geological wonders next day, Dinosaur eggs!
Not really, although the Moeraki Boulders are fascinating in that they each contain a fossil bit in the centre that the boulder built itself around over millions of years, layer by layer like the formation of a pearl around a grain of sand. In the museum in Dunedin we had seen the skeleton of an 8 foot dinosaur which had been discovered in one of these boulders, the skeleton had been the grain of sand! Amazing.
We finally arrived in Oamaru, said to be NZs only Victorian town, it is certainly eccentric and pretty cool. Lots of quirky shops in the Victorian Precinct, even penny farthings and steam trains. We took the half hour steam train journey to the waterfront with the added bonus of being shown some blue penguins in one of the old sheds at the bottom of the track. They had come up from the beach and found shelter in there.
We had never heard of 'steampunk' until we visited the Steampunk HQ in Oamaru. A quirky collection of customised steam driven machines from the era of Victorian England created into a version of what the Victorians might have thought the future looked like. Quite bizarre.
We had decided we had time to head back up to Nelson to spend a few more days with Joe and Katie. En route the next day we stopped at the cute little town of Geraldine where I couldn't resist going to have a look at the Guinness Book of Records biggest Jersey in the world.
Back in sunny Nelson we had a break from the van and spent 3 nights in Katie's motel where she booked us into a suite with a spa bath. The van had to go into the garage to get the handbrake adjusted (after a few scary red traffic lights on steep hills in Dunedin!). It turned out to be a bit more serious and the back brakes needed a bit of work as well, don't even want to think about all the mountains we had been up and down!
The time came to say our final goodbyes and we set off again on our journey to Christchurch where our friends had arranged to collect the van from us and drive it back up to Auckland. New Zealand had another surprise in store by shaking us up a bit with an earth tremor of 6.2. We had stopped for a coffee on the coast road and the wooden beach cafe shook back and forth for about 6 seconds. We all just looked stunned at one another. Fortunately the epicentre was 80 kms from the earths surface. Then a couple of days later there is the news from Nepal, how terrifying that must have been.
Just further on we stopped to look at the seals again at Ohau seal colony. Nearly all the pups had disappeared from the rocks with only the adults lounging around. We were told about a track on the other side of the road which went up about 300 metres to a waterfall pool. By some instinct these little pups know that there is a play pool up there. Goodness knows how they clamber all the way up but there they were, about 30 of them all practising their socialising and swimming skills. I will never forget that experience of just sitting there on a rock watching them play.
We finally made it to Christchurch and headed downtown to see what was left of the city following the earthquake in February 2011. Although redevelopment is slow there are signs of a city starting to recover. The innovative Re- Start container mall is a must-see, brightly painted shipping containers converted into shops following the devastation of the old mall.
Our friends Trish and Glen whom we had met in France last year live in a wonderful apartment suite in the old Heritage building right next door to the Cathedral. Although the Cathedral suffered severe damage their building stood firm although they were unable to live in it for 3 years after the quake whilst all the assessments were done. On Sunday evening 9 of us French boaties got together for dinner at their apartment, and in a few weeks we will all be back in France. It's a small world really.
So here we are in Auckland airport waiting for our flight to Hong Kong. We have 2 nights there then fly to Heathrow on Thursday. We have had an awesome trip in so many ways, the special times with Joe and Katie and all the other people we have met and spent time with, the things we have seen and the experiences we have had. We travelled just over 5000 kilometres ( 3000 miles) in Itza- Breeze, it really is the best way to explore NZ. Would we do it all again? Of course we would!
No comments:
Post a Comment