1 February 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
It was Sunday, but no rest for the wicked. We spent most of the day polishing the blue and white stripes on the water line. It’s a pain the neck (literally) because we had to do it by hand. When we apply rubbing compound, the blue smears across onto the white, so we had to do the blue stripes, trying not to smear onto the white, then do the white separately with a new clean rag. If there was the tiniest bit of blue on the rag and it would smear again…
By the end of the day we’d done both sides, so the top of the hull and the water line is now polished, which leaves the main white bit in between, which can be done using a polishing machine – we’re not looking forward to tomorrow.
2 February 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
There’s only one more day to go until we launch. I woke up worrying about the sea cocks that I’ve just installed and jumped out of bed early to inspect them. I gave them a good push & pull to try to loosen them and then looked at the outside fitting to see if the paint had cracked. All seemed well, but I noticed that there were some small gaps in the sealant on one, so I scraped the paint off around it and applied some more sealant - all before breakfast.
Glenys started polishing the remainder of the topsides using our small buffing machine and was on the job all day. Unfortunately, the yard team wanted to put us on the trolley so that we were ready to launch early in the morning - this kept disrupting her during the afternoon, so she only managed to polish half of it, so we’ll have to carry on when we’re in the marina.
I did some running about in the morning, obtained a quote for sending our life-raft down to Auckland, then packed it up and dropped it off at the haulage company. I nipped around to the chandlers and dropped off ten old flares for disposal. Most of them were dated 1992 and the others were 2006. Flares are only supposed to be kept for three years and, even worse, one of them had swelled, split its casing and looked highly unstable – a real fire hazard, so I'm glad that they’re off the boat.
We've received an outrageous quote for handling the shipment of our dinghy from Australia - the cost for freight & export documentation is £230 plus £175 for import clearance. Then we've still got to spend a day going down to Auckland to pick it up, which will probably cost us another £100 for van hire. So I've asked for a quote from a shipping agent here in Whangarei - hopefully it will be cheaper by having someone local handling it.
A guy called Rod (not the rigger) came on board to do some of our rigging repairs. He removed the fair-lead for the stay-sail halyard and pop riveted on a new one. This fair-lead is a small tunnel that the halyard passes behind to create a better angle for the roller furling. Rod managed to put the fair-lead in place without the halyard behind it – give me strength. To sort it out I had to tie on a thin mouse-line to the halyard and then Rod had to pull the halyard out of the mast, put it through the fair-lead and then pull the halyard back down the mast.
Our man then removed two plates on the intermediate shrouds and replaced them. There were only four holes in the new plates and six on the old ones, so he then started to attempt to drill through the 4mm stainless steel at the top of the mast. After 30 minutes of thrashing about, he’s blunted two drills and has now probably work-hardened the stainless steel making it even more difficult to drill. I'm not too happy, especially as this is the same guy that put the masking tape on our hull before painting and lost our white line. I'm going to talk to the rigger tomorrow before anything else is done.
The yard moved us to the top of the slipway and we’re scheduled to be launched at 0730 tomorrow, so we had an early night.
3 February 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
The alarm went off at 0630, so I jumped out of bed and started to run around, closing all the sea-cocks and making a little check list of things that my subconscious had reminded me about overnight.
Before we were launched, I had a word with Jerry the rigger, explaining that I wasn't too happy with the work done so far and would only be paying for 3½ hours of Rod’s time because I'm not paying for him to rectify own his mistakes. Jerry agreed that there was no point in drilling the extra holes in the backing plates – if the manufacturer supplied them with only four holes then four holes is good enough. We went through the remaining work – new running back stays and the repair of the rod kicker, which he will replace next week.
By half past seven, Alba was being slowly trundled down the slip way and I was checking that we didn't have any water rushing into the boat. I had a bit of a scare with the PSS seal which had a persistent drip, but I pulled the carbon bearing back to let a load of water in and the drip seems to have stopped – perhaps there was a bit of dirt on the bearing face. I’ll be keeping a close eye on it for the next few weeks.
The engine started okay and everything else looked good, so we slowly motored free of Norsand Boat Yard – yahoo! The bridge into Whangarei was closed from 0730 to 0845, while there was heavy commuter traffic, so we had to wait on their holding dock for 30 minutes, which gave me an opportunity to check our seacocks again. By half past nine, we were tucked up in the Whangarei Town Marina having a Second Breakfast of toast & marmalade with a nice cup of tea.
Glenys went into a cleaning frenzy down below – getting rid of the muck and dust that we’ve picked up after two months on the hard. Meanwhile, I spent morning rewriting lists and doing a few little jobs like recharging the fridges.
I contacted the local shipping agent about importing our new dinghy and his quote comes out at £500, but that includes delivery directly to Whangarei and there should be no hidden costs. It’s more than I expected, but I’ve told him to go ahead and sort it out. The dinghy should be delivered on the 5th March, a day after we get back from our road trip to the South Island.
In the afternoon, I ran around talking to various tradesmen. Our new window isn’t ready yet, but it should be done by the end of the week. I inspected the repair work on the sails and paid out £450 – they will deliver the sails back to us tomorrow. Then I arranged for a refrigeration engineer to come on Monday and take out the push-fit connectors, which I suspect are leaking. I called in at a fabrication shop - they can make me an aluminium plate for the radar radome, weld the oven door handle that had broken and can modify our pulpit so that our new Rocna anchor doesn’t hit it.
Back at the boat, I spent a couple of hours working out how to modify our pulpit and drawing the modifications. It’s a complex three dimensional piece of stainless steel tubing, so I hope that it will go back on.
4 February 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
I measured and drew an adapter plate to fit the new radar radome onto the old radar bracket. I then removed the pulpit, which like all things on a boat was not that simple. I first had to remove the wiring for the navigation lights, which thread through the deck to a junction box inside a cupboard in the front cabin. I then had to remove the safety lines (the turnbuckles were all seized up of course) and remove the actual pulpit. It absolutely threw it down while I was outside on deck, so I was soaked by the end of the two hour struggle.
I carried the pulpit and oven door handle over to the fabrication shop and he says that the radar adapter plate and oven door handle should be ready tomorrow. Unfortunately, the 6th February is Waitangi Day and a public holiday, so the pulpit won’t be finished until Monday the 9th.
I spent the rest of the afternoon pottering about.
5 February 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
Our sails were delivered, so I fitted the stay sail and then went up the mast. The top end of the staysail roller reefing has been rubbing on the halyard sheave, so I need to lower the extrusion. I’ve got at least a foot to play with, so I need to make my mind up how to do it.
While up there, I looked at the backing plates for the intermediate stays and it looks okay with four rivets although a few of the rivets heads are sticking out at odd angles. I’ve confirmed that the rigger will be here on Monday morning and he’ll have a look at them as well.
I cleaned up the old radar bracket, scraped out some areas of corrosion and filled the holes with epoxy filler. I need to paint it all now. Cleaned up the radar bracket and epoxied some corroded areas – need to paint it all now.
I jumped on my bike and picked up the radar plate and oven door handle, then rode to Norsand Boat Yard to return their key and collect $20 deposit. On the way back, I called in at the hardware store and bought £150 worth of tools and bits. Some of my hand tools are looking very sad after four years of abuse at sea, so I’m going through my tool bags and replacing the bad stuff. Today it was a new set of files, some mole grips and wire cutters.
Glenys and I have both suddenly taken a keen interest in Indian food, so she made a new version of Beef Vindaloo, which was very good.
6 February 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
I mounted the radar radome onto the old bracket using the new adapter plate and it all goes together well. I then spent the rest of the day wiring in our new chart plotter and sorting out the NMEA wiring, which links our GPS and other electronic equipment together – it was a mess. Two years ago, I ripped out an old Navtex console and hadn’t removed the wiring, so I did that as well. After six hours, including a lot of reading of manuals and checking wiring, I had the chart plotter installed and it talking to the AIS.
Glenys did some errands, continued organising our trip down South Island and made a fabulous Butter Chicken curry for dinner – two Indian meals in two nights – very naughty.
7 February 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
After breakfast, I shimmied up the mast and temporarily installed the radar radome and ran the cable back to the chart plotter to test it. It all powered up and seemed to run fine, but it’s hard to tell because there are so many boats surrounding us. At least there weren’t any errors on the chart plotter and the radar image was rotating.
Having tested all the radar parts, the next job is to cut the radar cable and run it down the mast and inside the boat to a junction box underneath the mast. The 15 metre cable cost a staggering £175, so I’ve measured everything three times already and will measure again before I cut it. Once that is all installed, I’ll get the radome back down and paint the bracket – what a palaver.
Our friends Bob and Sian came to visit us in the afternoon. They used to skydive with us back in the 1980’s and we haven’t seen them since they immigrated to New Zealand in 2001, so we had a lot of catching up to do.
In the evening, I had a long session on my guitar. My latest craze is the Delta Blues, in particular the music of Robert Johnson. This guy played in the 1930’s and is regarded by some as the master of the Mississippi Delta Blues. He only recorded 29 songs, but poor old Glenys has had to listen to them constantly for the past week while I’ve played them interminably. I’m getting the hang of the style on my guitar now, so Glenys is now doomed to hear me play the Delta Blues - badly…
8 February 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
There was no wind this morning, so we put up the mainsail and then I did some investigation work on the genoa furler. In my opinion, we have too much pre-bend in the mast caused by the forestay being too long. I dismantled the genoa furler, hoping that there was an adjustment screw on the forestay, but unfortunately there isn’t. I’ll have to live with it for at least another year and then maybe I’ll get it shortened in Thailand and have an adjuster installed.
I also had a look at the inner forestay furler and don’t seem to be able to get enough clearance at the top if I lower the extrusion, so I’ll have a word with the rigger tomorrow.
In the afternoon, after a few deep breaths, I cut the radar cable and ran one half down inside the mast which went okay. It was a bit more of a struggle to run the other half of the cable down a small duct behind the saloon cupboards, but we managed it. I ran out of time to connect it all – a job for another day.
9 February 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
The alarm didn't go off, so we slept in until 8 o'clock. Gerry the rigger arrived half an hour later, closely followed by a refrigeration engineer, so it was a little chaotic trying to keep these two expensive engineers busy at the same time. Gerry installed the new running back-stays and the rod kicker which he’s repaired. We had a discussion about the inner fore-stay and decided that the best course of action is for me to cut 70 mm from the top of the extrusion – but carefully…
The fridge guy removed the remaining three push -fit connectors from our two fridges. It all seemed to test okay, so he’s recharged it and left us to it. After he’d gone I measured the pressures of the two systems and I’ll monitor it over the next couple of days.
I've been putting off working on the engine, but ran out of excuses, so I removed the turbo, which went okay. It will be fiddly to put back, so I've taken lots of photographs of it being dismantled, so that I’ll know where everything goes. I then jumped on my bike and dropped the turbo off at an engineering shop to get it serviced.
“Laragh” arrived today, so we invited David and Katrina over for a beer or two.
10 February 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
I called into the fabricators to pick up the pulpit, but they hadn't finished it. They seemed to be doing a good job and have the whole thing jigged up, but it’s a complex 3 dimensional problem, so I'm praying that it will fit when they've finished.
Around midday, I went to the dentist to have a crown put on a molar, which had several cracks in the walls of the tooth. It was a very impressive and efficient process. Once the drilling was done, they took a few digital photographs with a special small camera and their computer system generated a 3D image of the tooth. Using this system, the dentist then generated a 3D image of the crown, which was downloaded to a clever piece of equipment, which machined the crown out of a ceramic cube. Fifteen minutes later, the crown was ready to be fitted and I was out of the place with a new crown within 75 minutes - I was also £600 poorer.
After lunch, the fabricators delivered the pulpit, which at first didn't fit. After five minutes of panic, I figured out that the 7/8” diameter stainless steel rod that the pulpit fits over was too about three inches too long because we’d put a 15 degree bend in the leg of the tubing. It took me 30 minutes with a hacksaw to saw the damn thing off. Once that was done, I fitted the whole thing in fifteen minutes. They've done a really good job and my new Rocna anchor doesn't hit it any more.
The rest of the afternoon was sent packing our bags ready for our road trip to South Island tomorrow.
11 February 2015 Whangarei to Christchurch, New Zealand
Our morning was spent tidying up and getting the boat ready to leave for three weeks. Mid-morning, I cycled down the road and paid the bill for the various fabrication jobs that I’ve had done. The biggest shock was the modifications to the pulpit which cost a staggering £325 - the anchor only cost £400, so it’s effectively doubled the cost of having a new anchor.
We caught the bus to the airport at eleven o’clock, which got us to the airport 2 hours too early – ah well… Then the flight was delayed for an hour. Then the flight was delayed again. We didn’t leave until 1600 - two hours late. This meant that we wouldn’t make our connection from Auckland to Christchurch and the only flight that the airline could get us on departed at 2045 – the last flight out of Auckland.
It was an interminable four hour wait at Auckland, before we boarded for the short one hour flight to Christchurch, which was thankfully on time. We picked up a tiny, compact-class car and arrived at our friend Charlotte’s house at the very unsociable hour of 2300. There was only time to have a quick chat before we all went to bed because Charlotte had to get up early for work.
12 February 2015 Christchurch to Arthur’s Pass, New Zealand
We got up early to have breakfast with Charlotte before she went to work and then started driving towards the west coast, but there was a loud whining noise from the front of the hire car. It sounded like a bearing or a universal joint and was driving me crazy, so we detoured back to the airport to change it.
After half an hour of hassle, we ended up at the main office of the car hire company and exchanged the car for one slightly bigger and a lot newer. It cost an extra £5 per day, but after driving it for ten minutes, it’s got to be the best £100 I’ve ever spent – the car is a pleasure to drive and has air conditioning.
We travelled to Arthur’s pass and checked out the various hikes that we could do tomorrow. It’s a very spectacular valley with very steep sided hills - I had my eye on a hike called Avalanche Peak, but it’s 6-8 hours of very steep hiking and we’ve bottled out because we’ve not done any serious hiking for months and months. We’ve decided to restrict ourselves to a shorter four hour hike up a ridge to get our legs back.
We checked in at the Otira Stagecoach Hotel, which has recently been bought and is being renovated. It’s a very curious hotel with lots of strange things dumped around the place that new owner has been collecting for years. This includes a collection of horse drawn carriages; stage coaches and lots of stuffed animals waiting for a place to be displayed.
Having had a look around the place, we jumped back in the car and went for a hike up the Otira Valley Walk. The first 30 minutes was a shock to our systems, but it turned into a very pleasant two hour hike with blue skies and a lovely cooling wind.
Back at the hotel, we went down for dinner. There wasn’t a lot of choice – all day breakfast menu, chips and burgers. We both decided to go for the fish burger, which was allegedly cooked in light tempura batter, but the fish (and the chips) turned out to have a month’s worth of saturated fat in them. We went for a walk after dinner to try to help our faltering digestion system and I managed to get two sandfly bites despite wearing long trousers and a long sleeve t-shirt – little buggers.
13 February 2015 Arthur’s Pass, New Zealand
It was an interesting night. The bed sheets were black bri-nylon and, every time we moved, we generated static electricity, which produced bright sparks. In addition, we could feel the wires of the electric blanket underneath us – very weird.
Still tasting the chip fat from last night’s meal, we skipped breakfast and had a banana butty in the car on the way back to Arthur’s Pass, where we had a nice four hour hike up Bealey Spur.
We stopped for lunch at a viewpoint overlooking the spectacular valley and, despite there being a strong wind, I managed to get another sandfly bite – that’s three bites in two days, not a good start. We haven’t yet arrived at the West Coast, which is notorious for aggressive sandflies, so I'm totally paranoid now.
In the evening, we couldn't bear to eat more saturated fat, so we drove back to Arthur’s Pass and had a tasty pizza in one of the cafes.
14 February 2015 Arthur’s Pass to Franz Josef, New Zealand
We had a rest from hiking and became tourists, walking around Hokitika and visiting its interesting museum. This small town grew in a matter of weeks in 1865 when gold was discovered in one of the nearby rivers. It soon became the largest port of the whole New Zealand with over 40 ships at the wharf in 1867.
There’s a horrible looking sand bar protecting the entrance of the river, with breaking waves and, in the first three years, 108 ships went aground with 32 ships lost. The prospect of crossing the Hokitika bar was terrifying to the gold miners rushing to make their fortunes, but that didn't deter the tens of thousands who set up claims along the various rivers.
The early Maoris had no interest in gold, instead they searched the rivers looking for Greenstone (known as Pounamu in Maori), which they revered above all else. We know it as Jade and Hokitika has several factories manufacturing jewellery and shops selling the stuff. Glenys dragged me into every single shop until she found a nice pair of earrings made from the local stone. The Maori tradition is that Greenstone has to be given, so I paid for the earrings and I've hidden them away until her birthday in three weeks’ time – present sorted!
For lunch, I had a Whitebait Sandwich, which is a speciality of the area. I was expecting a pile of crunchy pan-fried fish, but it was more like an omelette –the locals call them patties. Late in the afternoon, we drove for two hours to Franz Josef Glacier, which is a small, but bustling tourist town and checked into the Glacier Gateway Motel which is very nice.
15 February 2015 Franz Josef to Fox Glacier , New Zealand
We walked up the Franz Josef Glacier Track, which is a well-worn path, packed with coach loads of tourists, clad in shorts and flip flops – we felt very overdressed in our mountain boots and rucksacks. To make the route even more surreal, there’s the constant drone of helicopters flying overhead as they take even more tourists on excursions over the glacier.
It takes about 45 minutes to walk to the end of the trail, which stops 200 metres from the glacier. I suppose that if you've never seen a glacier, then it would be interesting, but we've done so much mountaineering that it was a bit of a disappointment to us.
After a 30 minute drive to the Fox Glacier area, we walked around Lake Matheson which is supposed to have fabulous views of the Southern Alps reflected in the mirror calm waters. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and windy, so the mountain peaks were hidden and the water was a long way from being reflective. Ah well, at least it was a pleasant one hour walk in sub-tropical rain forest.
We checked into the Ivory Towers Lodge (another nice place) and then walked up to the Fox Glacier. This route was only 30 minutes long, but again was packed with tourists and the remorseless helicopters buzzing overhead, but it was a more interesting path and we got a little closer to the glacier.
16 February 2015 Fox Glacier to Wanaka, New Zealand
It was a clear morning, so we drove to a view point outside town to get a view of Mount Cook and the surrounding peaks where we had a long chat with an old guy who had climbed Mount Cook in the 1960’s. He’d been dropped off on the glacier by a light aircraft and even then took three days to get up and back down with one epic night trapped in a blizzard.
We drove along the West Coast, stopping briefly at Haast, which has a reputation for ferocious sand flies, so I was putting on DEET before I got out of the car. Glenys was under strict instructions to get out of the car and close the door quickly to stop the little buggers getting in the car. You might call me paranoid, but I haven’t been bitten for the past three days because I now only wear long trousers, long sleeved shirts and coat every exposed bit of skin with insect repellent.
We checked into the Lake Wanaka Lodge in Wanaka which is a very nice hotel, a five minute walk from the centre of town. Wanaka is a tourist town with beaches along the lake front and all sorts of activities and bars – after a couple of beers in the bars, we treated ourselves to an Indian meal.
17 February 2015 Wanaka to Glenorchy, New Zealand
We drove from Wanaka to Queenstown via Cardrona Valley Road which is a fabulous, twisty road through some lovely scenery. On the way, we stopped off at Arrow Town, where some of the Lord of the Rings was filmed, but the most interesting part was the reconstructed Chinese Village, which was occupied by Chinese miners during the gold rush.
Often victims of discrimination they lived on the fringes of European settlements and in isolated gullies close to their mining claims. By 1885, the Arrowtown settlement had grown to consist of about ten huts, a large social hall and at least two stores. There was also an extensive garden area. A range of construction techniques was used for the buildings, including mud brick, mortared stone, wood, corrugated iron, and canvas. Some buildings were thatched while others were roofed with corrugated iron.
We couldn't resist stopping off to have a look at the E.J. Hackett bungy jump. This was the first commercial bungy jump in the world and is from a bridge over a fabulous steep-sided gorge. I only had to see one person do it before I’d made my mind up that I just HAD to do it. Glenys was a little more reticent, but was soon persuaded. She did a very elegant jump and enjoyed it. It’s a fabulous location and a great rush to drop down towards the river 43 metres below in the narrow gorge.
Having had our adrenaline rush, we carried onto Queenstown which is a mega-tourist town. The place is heaving with cars, vans and coaches full of people coming for the high adrenaline “experiences” – want to bungy jump or skydive or ride a fast jet boat through a narrow canyon? Then this is the place.
After a walk around the town, lunch at a sushi bar and a quick trip to the supermarket, we were glad to leave the chaos behind and headed up to Glenochy. It was a fabulous 45 minute drive alongside the lake with some magnificent views of the surrounding mountains.
We’re staying in Glenorchy Cottages which is a small self-contained “Bach” - New Zealand for “holiday home”. It’s a small wooden building with a lounge, kitchenette, bedroom and a bathroom, but it’s beautifully laid out.
18 February 2015 Glenorchy, New Zealand
We went horse riding with Dart Stables. We were a bit worried about this trip because when Glenys booked it they wouldn't let me go on the three hour experienced ride because she initially (truthfully) said that I’d only done 50-100 rides. They’d put us on two hour “mixed” ability ride, which meant that there was a good chance of total beginners in the group, so there would be no cantering.
When we got there (looking all experienced with our own riding boots and half chaps), they paired us up with another couple and let us go out on a longer ride, which was great. We had lots of opportunity to do some long canters as well as fording streams and walking through dappled woods. The Dart valley is one of the film locations used for the Lord of the Rings and some of the stable’s horses were used in the Rohan battle scenes. The mountains over-looking the valley are the Misty Mountains that featured in the film.
This was our first horse ride in over year, so we were pretty tired and spent the afternoon chilling out and napping.
19 February 2015 Glenorchy, New Zealand
It absolutely threw it down in the morning, so we went for a hike up Mount Alfred, which we spotted on our ride yesterday. It’s a small 1375 metre hill, but with a start altitude of 350 metres, it gave us a reasonable 1000 metre ascent. The first hour was up a zig-zag path in a lovely forest carpeted with ferns and looking very primeval. The second hour up to the tree line was very steep, taking a more direct line up the hill.
Once clear of the trees, the faint path meandered up through very steep grassland; then led up scree and beneath a cliff up to a nice ridge to the summit. Well it would have been nice if we hadn't had 25 knot winds and driving rain. By the time we got to the summit, we were soaking wet through and shielding our faces from the pounding, cold rain – we only stopped for about 20 seconds and then turned tail and headed down.
By the time that we’d reached the tree line again, the clouds had parted and we were bathed in sunshine – if we’d left an hour later, then we’d have summited in sunshine – ah well, at least it was a ”quality” mountain day. It took us a total of five hours to get to the top and back to the car, so we were absolutely “cream-crackered” and spent the rest of the afternoon in an exhausted stupor.
20 February 2015 Glenorchy to Te Anau, New Zealand
We packed our stuff into the car again and went back to Queenstown, where we signed up for a jet boat trip. I was a little unsure about paying £65 each to go on a boat, no matter how fast, but it was brilliant fun. These jet boats take fourteen people and, with 700hp of engine power, blast through the narrow Shotover Canyon, sliding sideways in water only inches deep, just inches from rock faces, with the occasional 360 degree spin thrown in. The whole thing lasted 30 minutes or so and was well worth the money.
Having had our adrenaline rush, we drove for a couple of hours to The Village Inn, Te Anau ready to go sea kayaking in Milford Sound tomorrow. The motel is very pleasant and has an interesting façade above all the rooms, which mimics an old gold mining town.
21 February 2015 Te Anau, New Zealand
I must admit to groaning when the alarm clock went off at 0515. The kayaking company picked us up at 0550 and we had a two hour trip to Milford Sound – mostly in the dark. We were soon kitted out with wicking long johns, shirts, fleeces and spray jackets. Getting dressed was challenging with clouds of the infamous Western Sand-flies swirling around us, searching with their malevolent eyes for an unprotected bit of skin to pounce on. My insect repellent spray was used liberally.
We had a minor bit of instruction on how to paddle and how get out of the kayak if capsized, then we were sent out onto the water. The weather was much better than we’d expected and, while it was very overcast, it didn't rain until the last 30 minutes of the four hour tour. Milford Sound is impressive with steep sided granite hills coming down to the water, but it looked very gloomy with the low cloud.
We were lucky enough to spot a pair of Fiordland Crested Penguins. The current population is only between 2500 and 3000 breeding pairs and has been in decline since the 1950s. We also saw quite a few New Zealand Fur Seals, which were nearly driven to extinction until they were protected in the 1970s. Before the arrival of humans a population of about 2 million Fur Seals inhabited New Zealand. They were taken as food by Maori, and the onset of European sealing for meat and pelts in the 1700s and 1800s nearly wiped them out. There are now over 200,000 in Australia and New Zealand.
By the end of the four hour paddle, our legs had seized up and it took a few minutes to get life back into them. Getting changed out of our wet clothes was again challenging with even more clouds of the damn sand-flies.
On the way back to Te Anau, the guide stopped off at some interesting places and at one car park we finally got to see a Kea. This is a large species of parrot found in the forested and alpine regions of the South Island. About 48 cm long, it’s mostly olive-green with a brilliant orange under its wings and has a large, curved, grey-brown upper beak. The Kea is the world's only alpine parrot. They are very curious and have become used to humans, visiting tourist car parks and begging for food. In some places they actually cause damage to cars by peeling off rubber from around windscreens.
22 February 2015 Te Anau to Dunedin, New Zealand
We spent most of the day driving 300 kilometres from Te Anau to Dunedin. We stopped off in the town centre, which was crowded with tourists. A large cruise ship was in the harbour and had discharged 2000 people onto the streets. Dunedin was originally settled by people from Scotland and much of the culture has a Scottish flavour – there was a Scottish pipe band competition in progress in the main town square.
After wandering around a while, then picking up some groceries, we drove onto the Otago Penisula to our bach (holiday home). It’s a very nice place with a stunning view over the bay out of a picture window.
23 February 2015 Dunedin, New Zealand
The weather was overcast with drizzle in the morning, so we chilled out reading and staring out of the picture window across the bay – it was nice to have a rest day.
In the afternoon, we went to the Royal Albatross Centre where there are about one hundred Royal Albatrosses in residence – twenty couples are currently raising chicks and the rest are juveniles looking for mates. It was exciting to see Albatrosses flying overhead and the compulsory £20 tour was very informative, but I was very disappointed that the only view of the nesting Albatrosses was from a totally enclosed glass windowed hide – a long way from the nests. Not quite the close experience that we had in the Galapagos.
24 February 2015 Dunedin, New Zealand
It was a nice day, so we went visiting a few beaches, where we were hoping to see some wildlife a bit closer than yesterday. Our first stop was at the Okia Reserve. The one kilometre walk to Victory Beach was pleasant – we climbed a small hill called the Pyramid and then followed a pretty track through wet lands.
We were very lucky because we walked 100 metres along the beach and came across a Yellow Eyed Penguin resting on its trek to the sea from its nest somewhere in the sand dunes. These penguins are one of the rarest penguins, with only 2,000 breeding pairs in the world. Most are found further south in sub-Antarctic Auckland and Campbell Islands, however around 500 pairs breed on New Zealand's South Island. The one that we saw had an injured leg, so I hope that it survives.
Further along Victory Beach, we came across a few groups of Hooker Sea Lions, which are another endangered species. They are very large and, at the moment, it’s the breeding season so the males are a little tetchy, so we kept well clear of them – apparently they run very fast over short distances.
After a couple of hours wandering around this area, we drove to Allan’s Beach, where there was some very photogenic Kelp swirling in the water. As I was scrambling over the slippery rocks, I very nearly stood on a Sea Lion hidden amongst the sea weed, which could have been interesting…
25 February 2015 Dunedin, New Zealand
We were out of the door at seven o’clock, driving 90 kilometres up to Middlemarch to cycle one section of the Otago Central Rail Trail. Our bikes were hired from Trail Journeys who were very efficient, issuing us with a pair of good quality mountain bikes and transporting us up to Waipiata. The drive up to the drop off point seemed to be a long way and it was with more than a little trepidation that we started the 52 kilometre ride back to Middlemarch.
Following the success of the Otago gold rushes in the 1860s, the Central Otago railroad was built to help farmers get their stock and produce to market in Dunedin. However, it took 42 years before New Zealand’s longest branch railway line reached its final destination at Cromwell in 1921. The railway became uneconomic as road transport became more efficient and the rail track was ripped up in the 1980s and 152 km was converted to a bike track in the 1990s.
The first half of our trip from Waipiata to Hyde was very nice, passing through gorges, over bridges and through a long tunnel. It was slightly downhill for the most part, but at times, it was tough going on hard packed gravel.
The second half from Hyde to Middlemarch was horrific because we had a 25 knot wind, gusting 35 knots directly against us. The route follows the bottom of a wide glacial valley and there are some very, very long straight sections. The damn wind was so strong that some gusts were blowing us sideways and our speed dropped to a crawl – it was literally faster to walk (which we did quite a bit.)
The last ten kilometres in particular was arrow straight and totally demoralising. We had a few group screaming sessions, slipping into the vernacular and telling the wind to “go away” - we were very, very lucky to get to the end of it without a divorce. After 5½ hours of hard slog, I think that we’ve learned that a 52 km bike ride on a gravel track is a little bit too much for us.
26 February 2015 Dunedin to Kurow, New Zealand
Yesterday took its toll on us, but we managed to drag ourselves out of bed , pack and leave the bach by ten o’clock. To leave the peninsula, we drove along High Cliff Road, which is a brilliant, twisty road with some great views down both sides of the Peninsula.
After a couple of hours drive north, we stopped off at the Meraki Boulders which are an interesting bit of geology. They’re large, two metre spherical rocks, which are formed over millions of years by a process called concretion, which is similar to the way that a pearl is formed, with a small nucleus. The rocks in Meraki are not unique, but they are unusually large and it is rare to find so many together in one place. They look like some giant’s marbles cast across the beach.
We arrived at Macgregor Farm Stay in the late afternoon. This is a working sheep farm with over 2,000 animals, but they also do B&B. We stayed in their old sheep shearers’ quarters, which were basic, but fine for one night. Despite have had a power cut for most of the day, the landlady produced a marvellous meal of venison, beef and vegetables for over fifteen people.
27 February 2015 Kurow to Twizle, New Zealand
After a huge breakfast at the farm stay, we went horse riding. The owner, Peter only has four horses, so there was just Glenys, me and Anna who is working at the Farm Stay. It was an interesting horse ride along river beds climbing high into the surrounding hills.
It was very hard work for the horses, stumbling among the big rocks and boulders, so we only had a couple of canters. Nevertheless, it was challenging just staying in the saddle while the horses climbed up and down the steep river banks.
We were totally knackered after three hours riding, but it only took an hour to drive to Twizle, where we have rented a bach for four nights. It’s a large house with three bedrooms and we’re renting it for only £65 per day – not bad.
28 February 2015 Twizle, New Zealand
We had a very late start and didn’t get out of the house until half past ten. It took us 45 minutes to drive to the Mount Cook National Park, where we were hoping to do a hike, but the weather in the mountains was horrible – overcast with rain and high winds. Instead, we went to the visitor centre where they have some interesting exhibits about the history of mountaineering in the area.
Mount Cook is only 3,800 metres high, but the very changeable weather & technical routes make it very difficult and not a mountain to be taken lightly – nearly 200 people have died while climbing it. We decided not to try and went home to read a book and chill out.
David and Katrina from “Laragh” arrived in Twizle this afternoon and are staying with us for a couple of nights – we polished off a few bottles of wine catching up on our respective adventures.