NZ Part 13 - Dunedin

dunedin is pretty charming, with several conserved buildings, a feeling that time stood still or passed by very slowly.



the town centre is located at the Octagon, which is a misleading name, cos silly tourists like me go looking for a octagonal-shape plaza, not knowing that it is formed by roads and there really is no sense of octagon spatially.











to identify the town centre, the easier thing to do is look for the conserved gothic building, St Paul's Anglican Cathedral. next door, on the right, is the Municipal Chambers, trying to squeeze into the picture. Once you find this, it will be easy to spot the Visitors Centre, which is near by.



















we had a few hours to spend in dunedin and decided to check out the botanic gardens.

some phallic-looking cactuses.






































close-up cactus.
















greenhouse where all the cactuses are grown.





















many native grey ducks 'Parera' at the pond. has a nice blue feather under his wing.















close-up















very cute maori boy,


















on his very cute bike


















another interesting characteristic of dunedin - some streets and houses are built on very steep slopes. the hostel we stayed in, Dunedin Next Stop Hostel, was on one such slopes.
















































love the murals on the wall.















random shot of random view

NZ Part 12 - We're at Catlins!

Curio Bay
These are not just rocks - it's a fossil forest. Can you spot the tree stumps? There were also some sealions lying around, looking like rocks.
























































Lots of fleshy bull kelp lying around. check out the thick yellow stem.




















there were several Oystercatchers, a native bird, foraging. has a sharp red beak, useful for picking up his favourite food.














an elaborate feature staircase (in nz standards, that is) leading to the fossil forest.


















we planned to catch sunset at Nugget Point, so we zipped straight off to Baclutha from Curio Bay without stopping. checked into our cosy hostel, Balclutha Backpackers, before dusk, dropped our bags and rushed to Nugget Point. what busy tourists we were...

on the way to Nugget Point, in close proximity, we chanced upon a penguin viewing hut. This bay is a fav hangout of yellow-eyed penguins. we were lucky to visit during the penguin nursing season. have to keep very quiet, and wait for the penguin parents come to shore, bringing food to feed their chicks, who wailed very loudly and pitifully.































we thought we would have a better chance of spotting them at dusk so we went off to Nugget Point. here's Nugget Point - breathtaking views!

















































golden brown chicken nuggets anyone?


















sun is setting, time to go check out the penguin parents returning home to feed their chicks.






























this is the quiet bay where we waited to watch penguins.








there they come! 3 penguins walking across the sand, can you see them?















very nice to settle into cosy room after such a busy evening. ours was a cat-themed room. so cute eh? the hostel manager even placed a candy on the bed, such a nice touch.



















neko-chan on the pillow














chasing a mouse














tiny kitty














having a conference around the fireplace















the chairman














sitting pretty on the sill














looking grouchy and sleepy


















pretty picture














we were supposed to meet up with the guys at the hostel but it was pretty late already and they had not arrived. we had a serious discussion about whether to head out to look for them. while we were discussing, they suddenly arrived at the hostel. it turned out that they had an accident - their car skidded and went down into the ravine. gasp! a couple of phone calls were made to the car rental company to discuss how to rescue the car in the ravine, and how they were going to get a replacement car.

so the next morning, we split up with the guys, heading off to explore the Catlins, while they stayed behind at the hostel to wait for the towing company to get the car out of the ravine, pick them up and send them to Dunedin where we would regroup. however, the towing company never came for them, they were chased out of the hostel by the very strict hostel manager who was adamant that the guests leave on the dot at the specified checkout time, and they sat outside the hostel in the cold, waiting for hours.... very pitiful but in cold-bloodedness, we ditched them to look for sealions.

the really helpful staff at the tourist information centre advised us to head to Cannibal Bay and Surat Bay at like 10am (or was it 11am) and we will get lucky because the sealions will be swimming out to feed. btw, the tourist information centre is worth a visit not only for the useful advice, it was a nice urban (re)treat in such a rural place. was pretty impressed with the effort put in details such as playing bird chirping sounds in the toilet...

anyways, we headed out to Cannibal Bay at the timing advised and true enough, saw our first sealion frolicking in the calm waters in the bay. he was very daring, swimming very close to the sandy shore, to our delight.

















we sat down far enough from the waters edge and waited. the sealion felt safe enough to get out of water and run about a bit. very fascinated with the fact that we were watching sealions in their natural habitat, running wild!
















this is as near as we got before he dashed into the waters.















next on our checklist was the waterfalls.

matai falls - check.




















short, pleasant trek through beech and podocarp forest to get to purukauni falls.




















purukauni falls - check. splendid!

NZ Part 11 - On the way to Catlins

From Te Anau, we headed to Catlins, passing by Manapouri and Invercargill on the way.

Manapouri is a serene small town, a launch off point to visit Doubtful Sound, which is much less commercial than Milford Sound. We only had enough time to stop for a while, run down to the lakeside, wet our feet in the very cold waters, took some pictures, then went on our way.























next was Invercargill, the southernmost city in NZ. it is an ah-beng town (in nz, ah bengs = racer boys), kind of rough. didn't take any photos there - scared to take! we avoided eye contact with anyone, had quick coffee at starbucks and left in one piece.

on the way to Catlins, passed by the beautiful landscape of Southland. rolling green hills and sheep and cows here and there. don't be fooled into thinking the yellow flowers carpeting the hills are lovely. it is actually an aggressive weed, Gorse.

















we stopped by at Clifden suspension bridge not because it was lovely (it was not) but there were no toilet stops for a long way and it seemed to have great potential for having a toilet!





















after great relief, we headed towards catlins, stopping by at Te WaeWae bay, straining our eyes to look as far as we could, hoping in vain to catch a glimpse of Hector dolphins, the world's smallest dolphin - no wonder we couldn't spot them. very windy and cold here!

NZ Where to Go

some places i enjoyed (in random order):

south island
-> Te anau - do the glowworm caves tour. very magical experience
-> Otago peninsula - visit Penguin Place, a conservation reserve where you can view yellow-eyed penguins up close. will be good idea to also stay overnight there - they have a backpackers hostel there with beautiful views of the fiord, has a cosy living room and is equiped with small kitchen. if you're lucky, you'll get the whole hostel to yourself cos so few pple know about it. before dusk, head to Taiaroa Headland, a short drive away from the hostel. you can see NZ fur seals and sometimes sealions in their natural habitat - the rocky shore. can walk up close, right next to them. at dusk, blue penguins come up to shore. needs a lot of patience as they are wary and get startled with slightest sounds and wait till it is all quiet and safe before coming up to shore. it gets crazy cold at night.
-> Catlins - can see Hooker sealions frolicking on the beach, swimming around. best to go to the catlins tourist info centre to ask where and when is best time to view the sealions. they give very good advice. i saw the sealions at Surat Bay at their most active in the morning - swimming around and running about on the beach. Also check out Nugget Point - best time to go is sunset. View of the Lighthouse at sunset is stunning. At dusk, head to the hide/shelter (short drive away) to view yellow-eyed penguins coming up to shore.
-> Catlins - Curio Bay - you can see fossil forest/petrified forest here, looks just like rocks though.
-> Catlins - a number of small but beautiful waterfalls - McLean Falls, Matai Falls, Purakaunui Falls. Not to be missed is the Niagara Falls.
-> Franz Josef and Fox Glacier
-> West Coast - Maruia Falls, Charming Creek, Fantail Falls, Thunder Creek, Blue Lagoon, Lake Matheson (best viewed in early morning)
-> Mount Cook. Can do a short trek, pack your lunch and picnic by the river.
-> Queenstown - touristy place with many touristy activities to choose from - skydiving, whitewater rafting, jetboating etc.

north island
-> rotorua to see geysers, boiling mud pools. check out the Waiotapu geothermal park

NZ Part 10 - Milford Sound

from queenstown we headed to te anau and spent new year's eve there. there was a potluck party which we decided not to join cos we were being selfish. we figured these young backpackers staying in the hostel wouldn't be very capable of cooking up some gastronomic delights and we would be at losing end if we contributed our delicious chicken curry. very kiasu.. hahah...

we monopolised the space in the kitchen, cooked up a storm, seemingly for the potluck party, but then secretly carting all the cooked dishes back to our private room, which came with an attached dining room, kitchenette and balcony overlooking the lake. we had our selfish private new year's eve party, ate to our heart's content and all felt very pleased... by the way, we checked out what was offered at the potluck party and were very convinced that we made the right decision.

we joined the gloworms cave tour on our first night at te anau and it was a fantastic experience. the tour included a cruise across the Te Anau lake to an obscure location where the cave was. in the cave, there were waterfalls and whirlpools - the lighting was done beautifully to highlight these. the main highlight of the tour was taking a short boat ride through the dark grotto, surrounded by hundreds of gloworms. the experience was surreal. no photos allowed though.

the following day we headed to milford sound. there was only 1 way to get there and it is via the Milford Road, a one-lane road. we had to set-off early to avoid the hordes of tourist buses headed there. along the way, we passed by Mirror lake (which is really just a very still pond with a fancy name), a big field of vibrant-coloured lupins, and a stopover point called Kea point (for a reason). At Kea point, we had some encounters with alpine parrots called Keas, one of which tried to attack/eat my car and i had to shoo him off. he dropped a feather on my windscreen in the face-off. it was pouring when we got to Milford sound and we decided not to take the cruise cos the views would be obscured by the heavy rain. we had coffee then headed back, stopping mid-way at the only clean flush toilet stop along the 2 hour Milford Road route. I have attached the picture of the toilet stop so you can recognise it and not have to hold your water for 2 hours.

NZ Part 9 - Queenstown

we stopped for lunch at lake wanaka then headed to queenstown. arrived at the YHA youth hostel in queenstown in the evening and were miffed that they gave us a shared bunker room. we kicked up a big fuss becos we booked private rooms. we managed to cancel the rooms without paying any cancellation charges and headed off to the next door Rydges Hotel. it was even cheaper than what we would have paid in YHA! becos they had a 4-bunk bed room in the hotel - surprise surprise.... the room had carpark view but at the rate they were charging, no complains.

we went whitewater rafting at shotover river the next day. lovely scenery and water was so blue - different from rafting in southeast asian waters which was usually brownish water.

we were planning to do skydiving in queenstown but weather was not good. pity. the other touristy thing we did was the luge. had to take a gondola up a hill, where we could get a bird's eye view of queenstown. very touristy but view was spectacular.

NZ Part 8 - Haast and other West Coast delights

we arrived at Haast so late (becos of the Bee Farm incident) that the hostel gave up our room! we were not able to contact the hostel cos there was no phone signals. so in the end, we took a smaller room with 4 beds and put 1 mattress on the floor. ah well.... btw, i found a picture of the bee farm.




















and the lonely west coast road devoid of traffic, such that we could not flag down any help...

















anyways we did get to haast eventually, in one piece. haast is a good stopover place to rest before heading off to explore the waterfalls, rivers, lagoons in the west coast.

the thunder creek falls























































passing through the gates of haast where a gorge rages below
















































































































































































































fantail waterfall, i s'pose named after the fantail bird cos it flares out like the bird's tail?





























a dead tree installation getting in the way of a good picture.






















santa's helpers here to remove it















































having a cold dip















































































walking though temperate rainforest to get to the Blue lagoon.


































































for those collecting bonz's funny shots, here's one of the best. to prevent sandflies (very ferocious in this area, worse than tropical mozzies) from biting the tummy.
























that's all of west coast pics. now heading off to lake wanaka. some miscellaneous shots along the way.