Otago

Otago Peninsula, Thursday 26 February

A rather shabby but comfortable enough backpackers (my first choice was full) on the Otago Peninsula, which apparently is full of German speakers.

Meandered from Oamaru here, stopping where it took my fancy. First stop was the Moeraki Boulders, which were way too busy with loads of people, none of whom were paying the slightest bit of attention to anyone else so getting photos without people was extremely difficult. Doable, but difficult. I planned a coffee at the restaurant but they were a) packed and b) inefficient, so I walked away and didn't pay the $2 fee to see the boulders (Doc doesn't make you pay it so why should you?)

After that, I turned off for Shag Point where there were some seals, some bright green kelp, and some gulls with fluffy chicks. Awww. Then it was lunchtime, so I turned off at Karitane and found a spot by the beach which was pretty enough. That led to a lovely coast road drive, crossing and re-crossing the railway line.

Had to drive through Dunedin but it turned out to be relatively painless and easy. Then on to the peninsula road, which hugs the coastline closely. Decided to stop at Larnach Castle (“New Zealand's only castle”) as the weather wasn't looking too hot and it would be indoors. It was actually a worthwhile visit. The gardens were quite pretty and the castle itself very attractive in an elaborate Victorian sort of way. Lots of carving and plasterwork and that sort of thing, pretty tiles on the floor and great views from the castellated tower. I ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would, which is always a bonus.

I reckoned I still had time to spare, so drove to what the Lonely Planet described as the “impressive Chasm” - without explaining what the Chasm was, though I had a pretty good idea which wasn't too far off the mark. There was a long dirt road and then a hill with a lookout, which I failed to get to after reaching a overgrown patch of gorse that was not worth battling through. The Chasm proved – as I'd guessed – to be a sort of gully in the cliff. The angle of the lookout point was such that I couldn't see the bottom, but looking the other way was good too with the turquoise water foaming at the foot of the cliff.

Then to the hostel, including hazardous parking on a steep hill and scary departure for the penguin reserve. My penguin tour was led by a squeaky-voiced lady named Rhonda who talked quite fast but quite simply, presumably for the benefit of the furriners in the group (two other Brits, three Japanese, one American or possibly Canadian and four French). She was a little on the annoying side but am sure she meant well. First we saw the penguin hospital, sheltering some underweight juveniles rescued from further down the coast. After that into a bus to the reserve, where Rhonda led us at breakneck pace from one hide to another to find penguins. The first few were not particularly visible, bits of them being hidden by foliage and the like, but right at the end we saw a parent penguin and its very cute chick right close up. I only wished I'd had a tripod to get less wobbly shots, some are a bit blurry. Anyway it was worth doing to see the penguins up close rather than a million miles away.

Tomorrow on to Dunedin.

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Dunedin, Friday 27th February

Not much done today. Weather better than anticipated and I wished I had shorts on rather than jeans. Nice hostel with odd name of Hogwartz (one assumes the z is to prevent any sniffiness on the part of JK Rowling or associates). Anyway, despite the silly name it's spacious and clean and I have a double bed. :)

Had a nightmare finding my way around Dunedin and initially, instead of trying to get to the hostel, went to the museum and paid for two hours' parking. The museum was pretty good, a variety of exhibits including a particularly good one on the South Island. Then I found my way (eventually) to the hostel and parked on the horrid narrow street behind it, which I'm not leaving until tomorrow morning!

Lunch, art gallery – free, with a good selection of European paintings that you could get right up close to. I stuck my nose up to a Monet, a Constable or two, a Pissaro, plus some Gainsboroughs and Reynolds and wondered where the security was. Bless NZ. Next stop the cathedral, which was extremely English and had the organist practising plus some annoying Japanese tourists being noisy and taking photos of each other in the nave. Grrr.

I wandered up the main street to the university campus, by which time the sun had come out, and took photos of the clock tower and the also very English-style old buildings. They so copied Oxford and Cambridge in building Otago.

Tomorrow, the Catlins for a complete change of scene.

More penguins!!

It's been a quiet sort of day, I couldn't be bothered doing much and actually there isn't much to do in Oamaru. But what with Nationals and leaving Wellington and everything it was nice to have a day with no cares or concerns.

After a swim in the morning - a nice, clean, modern but shallow pool - I wandered around town a bit. Found the Victorian corner; a couple of streets of original buildings which were very photogenic (see Flickr). After that, the art gallery, which was between exhibitions and what there was was a bit indifferent. Some of the professional stuff I honestly couldn't really tell apart from the school children's art also on display. After that, on to the North Otago museum, which wasn't huge but had some moderately interesting displays of things from Oamaru's past. And a huge album of old photos, which I had fun flicking through for a while.

Then on to the Whitestone cheese factory for a slice of utterly wonderful but very rich cheesecake (felt a tad sick afterwards). I contemplated going to the cinema, but eventually couldn't be bothered, so took grocery shopping back to the hostel and mooched for the afternoon - reading, sorting photos out and uploading them, that sort of thing.

Just got back from blue penguin watching. There's a colony out by the harbour and they've built a viewing gallery with orange lighting - so you can see the penguins coming ashore after a day's fishing. :) It is extremely cute to watch them waddling up the rocky ramp and across the path to their breeding colony. They're quite noisy and a little smelly (not so bad though). Also, lots of rabbits and a lone seal that didn't bother the penguins much. The lady who owns the hostel said I'd see penguins walking back afterwards, but I didn't. I was annoyed about the no-photography rule at the colony however. In the past there's been too many idiots with flashes they couldn't turn off, so they've banned all filming and photography, which frankly is seriously irritating for people who can use their cameras properly. So, no pics of cute little blue penguins unfortunately.

Tomorrow, onward to the Otago Peninsula via the Moeraki Boulders, and more penguins - another yellow-eyed colony.

Penguins!!

Today it didn't rain too much - at last. This was good because it meant that I was able to do stuff en route to Oamaru (though I've gone for a backpackers instead of camping because rain is still forecast, and there's no point being masochistic in order to save a few dollars). Once we'd got up in the morning it began to clear, so I jumped in the car and drove to the Tasman Glacier. I wasn't very impressed by the not-at-all Blue Lakes (green ponds) but the glacier and the lake were stunning with lots of atmospheric stormy light and clouds - and the top of the mountain clearing. Highly worth seeing. After that I drove out of the park, stopping a couple of times to snap the peak of Aoraki emerging.

I had lunch in Omarama then turned off SH83 at Benmore Dam, which is New Zealand's second-largest dam and Lake Benmore the largest manmade lake. It's a phenomenal piece of engineering, with a massive earthworks and gallons and gallons of water. I was quite impressed.

Unfortunately I was less impressed with the Takiroa Maori rock art I briefly stopped at - scrawls on a wall, not much to compare with older rock art such as that in France or Aborigine art. Later on I paused to look at the Elephant Rocks, a location in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe that seemed bigger on screen. Still, odd-shaped rocks are always worth looking at.

Got to Oamaru about 3.30pm and checked into my hostel, which is one of those slightly eccentric ramshackle ones. However it's clean and the owner is friendly and it's right in the centre. Had dinner out because I couldn't be bothered cooking and then went to see the yellow-eyed penguin colony. I've got the wrong week really as apparently they're moulting, so most of the penguins aren't leaving their nests. Accordingly I only saw two or three in the hour I shivered in the hide, buffeted by a very strong wind, but it was worth it and the volunteer keeping an eye on things was highly knowledgeable and very entertaining (also, Scottish). He had lots of stories about penguin antics and explained how they climb up the cliff from the beach to their nesting spots. Incredible really. I got a couple of blurry pictures with my telephoto. Tomorrow I'm going to see the little blue penguins in the evening, after a day exploring the delights of Oamaru - it's your standard Kiwi town really, with some old interesting harbour buildings and a cheese factory and a museum. I might go swimming too, because there's also an aquatic centre that looked nice from the outside.

Still raining ...

Still in Mt Cook. It's still raining. :( Nevertheless we went for a walk this morning to Hooker Lakes, which have icebergs in them from the Hooker Glacier. We could just see the glacier and the lower slopes of the mountains. Unfortunately the new cushions for my heels failed to work and I have blisters again - am hoping my skin will toughen up before doing the Routeburn.

Pictures now on Flickr.

Officially on holiday

Update from Mount Cook, which despite being in the middle of nowhere has good fast internet. :) Unfortunately it's raining quite hard so the mountains are mostly hidden in mist, but the forecast is better for tomorrow so we ought to be able to go for a walk.

Nationals are now over - they went okay, better than we originally expected. We came fifth in the club coxed four final, after a nightmarish run-up including an injury to our stroke two weeks before the regatta. It was a reasonably close race and we rowed it well, so we were pleased. On a club level we picked up two medals (gold in the men's club double, silver in the men's club quad) but missed out on a few more quite narrowly which was a shame. However everyone had a good time I think. It was a shame the weather turned nasty on Friday, with the nice sunshine of earlier in the week turning into heavy and cold rain, and wind too. They managed to get through the whole programme eventually by squashing Saturday's racing together, so we didn't have to race on Sunday (phew). Party Saturday night was a lot of fun.

Plan for the week is a day here tomorrow, hopefully a walk to Hooker Lake, then down to Oamaru and Dunedin afterwards.

Quick update from Twizel

Twizel, despite being in the middle of nowhere, has a wifi internet thing which I can just pick up from the lovely house we're staying in. It's a bit unstable though and I'm having issues with Gmail (which I'd put into "offline" status, and now I can't get online again), but it's better than nothing I suppose.

Anyway, the weather so far is okay though the wind got up yesterday afternoon and made the lake unrowable for a while. It's warm and sunny however. It's weird rowing here on a lake of such extraordinary turquoise colour - it's like Tekapo and Pukaki, which you pass on the way south, something to do with sediment coming down from the mountains in the glacial water. I've taken pictures but will wait until I have a better connection to upload them. Between rows we're chilling and popping into town for coffee and cake; yesterday we went for a swim in a swimming hole nearby. Cold, but nice. Racing starts tomorrow. Eeek. Will try and get online again later in the week.

Quick update from Twizel

Twizel, despite being in the middle of nowhere, has a wifi internet thing which I can just pick up from the lovely house we're staying in. It's a bit unstable though and I'm having issues with Gmail (which I'd put into "offline" status, and now I can't get online again), but it's better than nothing I suppose.

Anyway, the weather so far is okay though the wind got up yesterday afternoon and made the lake unrowable for a while. It's warm and sunny however. It's weird rowing here on a lake of such extraordinary turquoise colour - it's like Tekapo and Pukaki, which you pass on the way south, something to do with sediment coming down from the mountains in the glacial water. I've taken pictures but will wait until I have a better connection to upload them. Between rows we're chilling and popping into town for coffee and cake; yesterday we went for a swim in a swimming hole nearby. Cold, but nice. Racing starts tomorrow. Eeek. Will try and get online again later in the week.