Day 16: Doubtful Sound

Everyone's heard of Milford Sound, but did you know that Doubtful Sound is 10 times as big (water area wise)?  We were up at 5:30 and departed a little before 7 to catch the tour bus outside Queenstown. Two plus hours heading south along the shore of Lake Wakatipu to reach Manapouri. Then a 45 minute boat ride across Lake Manapouri to West Arm. Then another coach trip up over Wilmot Pass and down to Deep Cover on Doubtful Sound, followed by a 3 hour boat ride out to the Tasman Sea and back. Reverse the procedure and get home by 9:30 pm.  We are pooped--someone forgot to tell us that it's hard work being on vacation!
It rains 2 days out of 3 on Doubtful Sound, so not surprisingly, it rained the whole day.

It had been raining for 24 hours according to the naturalist; the compensation was that we saw an endless array of waterfalls--we lost count--some of them cascading hundreds of meters down the sides of mountains.

Doubtful is the deepest of the fjords (about 1,200 ft) and is surrounded by towering heights, the tallest being Commander Peak at 1,200 m (3,900 ft).  It's very remote; you can't drive there, but must go by boat with the "Real Journeys" tour company. So it remains more pristine with some of the original forests and with several small islands (over 30), some of which have been rid of invasive species of predators and set up as bird sanctuaries. 

I hadn't really put it together that flightless birds evolved in NZ because, before humans arrived (the Maori) there were no natural predators here. The English brought the stoats, ostensibly to control the rabbits, which instead began decimating the flightless bird populations. So there are now efforts to trap stoats and possums to try and save the remaining endangered species. In fact, possum fur has become a profitable commodity and is used, often in combination with merino wool, for weaving. The local possum is considerably furrier than American varieties.
We met a really nice couple from Stowe (Staffordshire, England), Peter and Margaret, and are, in fact, meeting them for dinner in Wanaka this evening (it's Friday here). 

We also got to see a small pod (maybe 8-12 individuals) of bottle nose dolphins, but I only got one half-way decent picture.

It's amazing to see lots of big trees clinging to the sides of these shear cliffs, and it is a precarious existence. "Tree avalanches" occur when a couple of trees give way and carry everything down below with them into the water. The naturalist on board the boat said that, following an earthquake about 7-8 years ago, there were over 200 tree avalanches on Doubtful Sound alone.

The water pouring off the surrounding mountains percolates through lots of tree debris, picking up dark tannins and creating a layer of fresh water 5-7 meters deep floating on top of the sea water in the sound. The dark color also creates an artificial darkness in the sea water, causing deeper water species to live closer to the surface. Apparently the sound has a substantial population of black coral.
We're going to take it easy today, maybe go for a walk along the lake.

Day 15: A little bike ride...

If any of you are old enough to remember "Gilligan's Island" (TV series), you'll remember the opening song about this group of people who started out for a "3-hour cruise"... So we were going to go for a little bike ride along the lake. And the young woman at reception told us that we could go north (where we had driven a couple days ago) but it was quite hilly, or we could go south along the lake and then along the Clutha River that runs out of the lake and through Albert Town and back...just a 10 K ride and not very hard. Obviously she had never actually ridden a bike on this route, or her youth caused her to seriously mis-perceive the reality. The first 2+ hours were beautiful, with the landscape constantly changing as we worked our way around the south end of Lake Wanaka.

You can see from smiling faces that we were having a good time, enjoying the scenery and cool sunny day. Then we got to the outlet that initiates the Clutha River.

Now the riding got a lot more challenging: narrow single track much of the way, usually a significant drop-off to the river, sandy or unstable soil, rocks, tree roots...you get the picture. Ideal for hard-core mountain bikers or even for dedicated walkers, but tough for us. Pretty, nevertheless, with beautiful colors in the water.

We soldiered on and finally reached Albert Town which, we were told accurately enough this time, had a single tavern/cafe where we could have lunch and we did. We thought the worst was over since were were going to ride back on town streets from there to Wanaka. But she had neglected to mention the hills and we frequently had to walk the bikes, either because they were too steep for us to ride or because Hal just had to stop and rest. This is a picture as we crested the last major hill returning to Wanaka.

When we finally got back to our room--5 hours later--we were pooped and pretty much laid around til dinner time. Now for a shower and early bed since we are up at 6 am to head for Queenstown at 7 am tomorrow.

Day 14: Wanaka and Surrounds

Today we were picked up by Julie, the owner of "Funny French Cars" tour company and driven around in one of her vintage citroens.

We asked for a tour of wine country and art galleries. First stop was a photography studio and quilt shop. Gilbert van Reenen has several published books of his NZ photos, and there was a quilt in the shop that I would have bought if I were a rich person, although technically it wasn't even for sale. I did take a pic of a wall hanging representing a fern for friend Joan Starr.

Then we went to a woodworking gallery but resisted buying any of the really beautiful bowls there. Hal was hungry (surprise!), so Julie hustled us over to a cafe in Bannockburn for lunch. Then on to the first winery, Georgetown, where owner Ian poured for us and talked about his grapes.

 There are over 180 small private vineyards in the central Otago area and it is known especially for its pinot noirs and pinot gris, but also for rieslings and gewurztraminers. We tasted some yummy wine and then went on to see the old gold mining area around Cromwell.

 We then went on to "Old Cromwell Town" which is a restoration of the old gold mining town that previously existed in the late 1800's, but which was flooded when they built a dam to create Lake Dunstan. Saw several more art galleries here.

And a lavender shop with a lovely wee garden out back.

 We went to visit Lowburn Lavender farm, where we talked to the owner, got a small tour of the farm and I bought some rubbed lavender to bring home.

Our final stop was really the best--a second winery called Pisa Range Estate (after the Pisa range of mountains that back the property). Again tasted some wonderful light gewurztraminer, pinot gris and a couple vintages of pinot noirs. Owner Ginny and her dog Pinot are seen here in front of a shearing shed converted into a most wonderful home, where we tasted wines at her dining room table, while we talked about her experiences living all over the world, since her husband was with the NZ Foreign Ministry.

 Overall a fabulous outing with a great guide we'd recommend to anyone!

Day 13: Lake Wanaka

We had a leisurely morning. Here's Hal sitting in what the staff refer to as our "wee back garden"...aka the patio of our studio condo.

Rain or shine, the lake and surrounds are very scenic.

We walked into town (pop = 7,000) which took about 30 minutes and went to the "i-Center" to plan out the rest of the week and book excursions. Ridiculously expensive, but after we have blown all this money getting here, doesn't make sense to miss out of what is worth seeing. By the time we finished, it was raining pretty hard so we wandered around until we found the restaurant recommended by the staff at the i-Center and waited out the worst of it while we had a bite to eat. Wandered around town a bit, then headed back out to the resort. Hal took a nap and I read. Then at 4'ish we got in the car to just go drive around the northern shore.

As you can see, the sun had come back out and we just wandered down every gravel track we saw off the main road out of town. This picture is for our friend, Joan Starr, because we think this is definitely the place to be a sheep rancher!

Day 12: To Queenstown and Wanaka

Up early and dear Josemi had a nice continental breakfast all laid out for us and was up to say good-bye. Night owl Art was still sleeping when we left ;-) We returned the car to the airport and made our way to the gate about 2 hours before flight time as directed by the Air NZ person on the phone--no security checks at all for the local flight and we really just cooled our heels the whole time. Picked up our car after a 2 hour flight and drove into Queenstown for lunch. Beautiful setting for the town on a lake surrounded by mountains; we'll come back and take in the sights at a later date. Couldn't find the grocery store so just headed up to the Crown Range highway, a series of steep switchbacks over the mountains.

Arrived in Wanaka late afternoon, did grocery shopping and a couple of errands in the town and then checked in, unpacked, and relaxed. Hal even walked over to the little bar on site and fetched me a gin and tonic--heavenly. Fixed scrambled eggs for dinner and then slept a good 10 hours.

Day 11: Wellington

After all that driving and experiencing the rather exciting challenge of driving the windy, narrow and steep streets of Wellington, we decided to use public transportation for our one day of tourism here. We caught the bus just up the street from Art and Josemi's and went first to the major art and historical museum downtown, Te Papa. We wisely decided to take a paid tour and Phil--our 1/2 Chinese, 1/4 Maori, 1/4 English guide--did a wonderful job talking about geology, history, and culture.  We had a bite of lunch in one of the museum cafes, took a simulated submarine ride down into the ocean trench extending north from NZ and met up with a small band of cave trolls.

We wandered around the water front a while; there was some amazing public sculpture around, including a sphere suspended between the buildings that appeared to float in air.

It was really windy--which we understand is the norm in Wellington--but sunny and beautiful. Then we headed uphill on a cable car to the Wellington Botanic Garden. Big rose garden, swaths of agapanthus/Century plant (which they consider to be weeds), and whole hillsides of different colored hydrangea. Really beautiful. Also incorporated an old cemetary.

We walked down the hill into town, waited a very long time for the right bus, and eventually made it back to Art and Josemi's house. Took the car out to top off the tank and went home to a delicious dinner of fish, quiche, onion pie and salad. Josemi had made an orange cake for desert. Here are our wonderful hosts.

We had to finally curtail another fascinating and wide-ranging conversation to finish packing and get some sleep before our early departure the next morning.

Day 10: To Wellington

This was a long drive; the kiwis must drive much faster than I do (yeah I know, hard to imagine!) because they said 5-6 hours, but we left at 9:30 and arrived at 5:30--on a Friday, so extra good timing for traffic ;-)
We had really nice scenery most of the way.

 There are no real freeways through the countryside so we occasionally stopped in the widely scattered small towns for ice cream or to eat our cheese sandwiches. At one road side park, we found this rather interesting large sculpture of a "gum boot" made from corrugated metal, which seems to be popular sculpting material here!

We drove alongside Lake Taupo which was very long and very pretty but, alas, I have no good pictures. Wellington is a hilly city like San Francisco except that the streets are really narrow. Houses are perched on hillsides, cars park on the 2-lane streets which makes it especially exciting to come around a curve and encounter a city bus coming toward you. Remember, always yield to uphill traffic. We did finally make it to Art and Josemi's house which also hangs at the top of a hill providing a beautiful view of Island Bay below.

We took Art and Josemi out to dinner at one of their favorite restaurants for Moroccan food--it was delicious. Drove up to Mt. Victoria after dinner and I have mentally kicked myself for not having my camera because the panorama were 360 degrees of spectacular. Home for ice cream and lots of good conversation. Art (friend Marianne's brother) is a professor of Islamic Studies at the university in Wellington, and Josemi works at the Brazilian embassy downtown.