Leaving the Little Blue Penguin of Oamaru behind, we hoped to see some again later on our journey.
So after two hours driving south we arrived at our lunch stop in Dunedin, a lovely little coastal town with beautiful buildings, boasting a proud past with its large modern early settlers museum on the sea front, we could have stayed longer exploring more of the town, however a 4 hour drive to Te Anau beckoned, our destination for the following two nights.
Turning west and inland towards Te Anau, the road took us through the hilly southern end of the South Island, the drive made longer by our multiple stops to take in the views, ("oh what a beautiful vista") and adding to the many photos already captured.
It was more noticeable in the South as we ambled along, that state highways have other names in place of their route number - like the Thermal Explorer Highway in the North, and the South Island seemed more prominent with its descriptors, we started on the Southern Scenic route moving on to the Great Alpine Highway.... perhaps to give you an idea of what to expect along the way!!
After a lovely drive, we arrived in Te Anau, part of Fiordland, which sits on Lake Te Anau, again the areas are also descriptively labelled!!
We chose Te Anau, as it's the closest town to Milford Sound (in Māori - Pipiotahi), which we wanted to spend time at, a further hour's drive along a very scenic route.
Milford Sound covers 1.2m hectacres (same size as Qatar) with just 300 people living there permanently, it's fairly remote as the other closest alternative town to stay in was Queenstown, where a number of day tourists came from, but that was two more hours on from Te Anau.
By staying local it gave us more time to explore the area, plus we would be moving on to Queenstown a few days later.
Our first night at our accomodation in Te Anau, (Anchorage) we had a barbie... Jo being the queen of the BBQ - and in her element.. a lovely meal enjoyed with a glass of the local grape produce.
Up early the following morning, we were picked up by Nigel, our local tour guide for the day, who was a revelation, firstly he picked us up in his Tesla X - with its batwing doors and panoramic windows, so throughout the drive we had some excellent views.
As a local he gave a very informative commentary throughout the 120km drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound.
Secondly, on one of his informative stops about the area for a lovely view or at a point of interest, (mostly all off the beaten tourist track), he produced what he called a "thermy" aka a bush kettle, whereby he lit a fire inside the appliance, and a couple of minutes later, coffee and home made muffins, we were enjoying a mid morning tea break in the sunshine with the most amazing views. (NB: more about the "thermy" later)
Other stops along the way included Mirror Lake and the very lovely Lake Gunn, before we went down through the sloping Homer Tunnel, a 1.2km hand excavated tunnel that had started in 1935, finishing in 1952 (excluding the war years). Its width only allowing a line of single file traffic through the granite mountains, the modern addition of a set of traffic lights holding now back the oncoming traffic.
Mirror Lake did as it implied, the reflection of the rugged mountains on the water was impressive, as seen below...
Approaching the Sound, we were informed that we had formally crossed "The Divide"... the place duly named where the water falls on one side of the mountain out to the Tasman Sea, the other side water flows into Lake Ta Anau, a glacial lake formed 150 million years ago.
(NB: Milford Sound got its name from Milford Haven in Wales, (welsh Influences - more of that later!!) eventually found by Cpt James Cook, after he missed it on two previous sea trips navigating the South Island, due to the overlapping mountains facing out on to the Tasman Sea it did not seem worth exploring!
Once inside the Sound it is a huge expanse of water with towering mountains, waterfalls and some of the world's largest sea cliffs including Mitre Peak rising to 1,711m. (Ben Nevis by comparison is 1,345m)
We finished our exploring of the Sound by taking a 2 hour boat ride around the waters, the photos below just give a small snapshot of the stunning views, waterfalls, wildlife, and fabulous scenery during our trip. (Ps plus a photo of the thermy)
The following day we were heading for Queenstown, before that we would be taking another boat, this time across Lake Te Anau towards the Murchiston Mountains, to a glow worm cave.
The boat took about 25 minutes to cross the lake, landing on a small jetty at a protected area, which could only be reached by boat.
An interesting fact about Lake Te Anau is that it crosses the 45 degree Mercator line, meaning the lake cuts through exactly halfway between the equator and the South Pole.
After a wildlife talk about the glow worm at the visitor centre and what to expect, small groups of 12 were taken off and up a narrow wooded track and into a cave by our wildlife guide.
Initially, it seemed like a caving experience minus the hard hat (which would have been handy) as there was a fair bit of ducking to get through the mouth of cave, in some places the height being around 4ft.
We were required to keep silent and stay in single file, accompanied only by the noise of gushing icy waters coming down from the mountain, amplified by the cold granite walls.
Luckily, no need to get soaked as we were on a narrow walkway, the noise of the waters shutting out the eerie darkness. One small dim light was produced to get us into a cozy little wooden boat and then the absolute darkness commenced.
We did note our guide was wearing a lifejacket - however none of the tourists were offered one.....the little boat a bit unsteady as we banged along the cave walls.
The guide pulled the boat slowly by hand along a rope for what seemed like ages, we found out afterwards it was only about 100m.
In the dark cold silence we bobbed along, no idea of the depth of water or size of the cavern, (maybe some pondering the lack of lifejacket option) ... whilst looking up at the many little glow worms that lit up on the cave walls, the cave ceiling about 6 feet above us, it was a mesmorising natural phenomena.
After returning back across the lake and lunch and before we left for Queenstown, we visted the reserve of a Wildlife Centre on Lake Te Anau, in search of the local Takapo, an elusive protected non flying bird, luckily we found a couple at the centre who were not in hiding, they are best described as a big wingless turkey - and quite camera shy, we headed off and left them in solitary peace.
The road to Queenstown was another treat to drive, the views of the lakes and mountains, one range known as The Remakables, hosts the Devil's Staircase, (photo below) along Lake Wakapitu, getting its name from days when the road was walked, before the invention of the motor vehicle.
At Queenstown we stayed at Whistler, and had a great view of the hills and gondola in front of us.
The second day in Queenstown was our first day of rain that we had experienced since the tropical showers of Fiji, so we decided on doing some local sightseeing, a trip around the shops and a visit to the old gold rush town of Arrowtown.
Arrowtown was interesting, a 20 minute drive took us to a heritage village dating back to the 1860's Gold Rush, where the settlers came in search of Arrow River gold.
When the gold ran out the town became a fading backwater, seemingly there was no pressure to replace the old, in doing so it has kept its look of the 1860's. Now a working village with shops and cafes behind the old street facades, it's also a popular ski location in the NZ winter (June) and used as a winter training camp for European and US ski teams.
Back at Queenstown, home to the original bungy jump site by AJ Hackett over the Kawarau River, it was not a temptation for either of us, to try, so we were both happy to give it a miss.
On our final morning before leaving Queenstown we took a trip up the gondola, to take in the views and watch the numerous sky divers, before our next destination of Lake Tekapo, a 3 hour drive north.
Lake Tekapo, (in Māori it means"to leave in haste at night") .......what a place....
Our stay was for 2 nights on the edge of town at the Cairns Alpine Resort, (a collection of 6 lodges all different).
Initially we booked for just a night, later deciding to stay for another, however due to availability we needed to move lodges between each night.
The first night we stayed at the Barbara Hay, a spacious lodge looking over Lake Tekapo, the second night we were in The Red Hut, previously a shepherd hut with views of the mountains. Both were fabulous... and very different.
Because of the different locations we experienced two equally different and brilliant night skies, Lake Tekapo is a reknown place for dark skies, and we were very lucky to have clear night skies and all of its twinkly magic, sitting just in front of us on our cabin porch.
On the other edge of town was the highly photographed Church of the Good Shepherd, where we visited just before sunset.
The other thing about Lake Tekapo that some people may have some familiarity with, is the jetty image made famous by a poster from a big swedish shop.
A small petting zoo was also on site, and we were given food each day to feed to the animals..... rabbits, pigs, sheep, ducks and Hector (cow) and three alpacas (Al Pacino, Tu Paca, and Pacamon). Hector being a real character and extremely noisy and friendly when food was available.
Our second morning we opted to visit the nearby St John's Summit Observatory, (part of the Univerity of Canterbury) located half a mile out of town.
Getting to it was interesting, paying NZ$8 (£4) at the bottom to drive up the protected hill, which hosts to a number of large telescopes took a bit of time, as we waited patiently at the bottom in a queue of 5 cars for about 25 minutes.
When we reached the gate, it was made more obvious the reason for the queue, finding out that access is affected by the number of vehicles able to park at the top.
The gate ranger was rather bemused and perhaps a little frazzled, explaining there was normally around 30 spaces available at the top, but due to some erratic parking (he could see by CCTV monitor helping control the traffic flow), he could only let up around 23 cars up, it was a one in one out arrangement particularly until the untidy parkers had departed.
Once at the top after a fairly steep 2km drive up, with just a few passing places, we could then walk around the 5 self contained observatory's all facing in different directions, the vista was superb as the hill was compact and quite conical giving impressive 360 degree viewing.
After a good walk around, we departed back downhill to find the queue a little longer.
We were next heading south towards the small town of Twizel (pronounced locally as Twy-zell) childishly we opted to refer to it as "Twizzil".
Just before Twizel, we took a right along Lake Pukai towards Aoraki, a mountaineering settlement at the base of NZ's highest peak, Mount Cook (3,724m / 12,218ft).
The drive towards Aoraki was picture perfect....
Aoraki also hosts the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre, (a Kiwi who used Mount Cook as training for his Mount Everest climbs), whilst there we spent time pottering around, visiting the museum as well as admiring the many stunning views of the mountain range and glacial fields.
There were a number of great trails and walks around the base of Mount Cook, we took just one of the shorter trails, as we had spent so much time in the facinating museum with its Maori history, as well as re-creations of what life was like for Cpt Cook up the mountains.
In the valley leading to the mountains, Māori say their first explorers moved inland from the east coast up the broad valley of the Waitaki River, due to the abundance of food they could hunt (moa, waterfowl and weka), and the spiritual beauty of Aoraki as they first saw the mountains beyond covered in perpetual white (whenuahuka) or snow land.
This led to the mountains being a spiritual place and thus held sacred, the Maori people did not undertake mountaineering, for they considered mauka (the mountain) to be tupuna (ancestors who could not be walked upon).
Today the area is still considered to be significant in the development of spiritual enlightenment... it is just beautiful.
The following day we were off to Christchurch staying in an AirBnB for 2 nights.
The drive back north was just as scenic, many winding roads before leaving the mountains behind as we went through Burke's Pass, before joining the main highway back towards the city.
On the way down to Oamaru, (the place of the little blue penguins) we passed through Chertsey which brought a smile, having spent many hours in the town of the same name in the UK whilst commuting to and from work, this Chertsey had a lot less traffic and no theme park!
Once in the city, we took a stroll into Christchurch's CBD, which had changed significantly since the 2010 earthquake, as Jo's last visit in 1997 was not the quaint city she recalled. The devastating impact meant changes to the centre of town, many empty spaces now lay where buildings once stood. The city centre is effectively still a huge building site 14 years on, with a lot of work still to take place, the city's cathedral expecting to reopen in 2027 after extensive repairs.
Our morning took us out to the International Antarctic Centre near the airport, (Christchurch is one of 5 Antarctic gateway cities in the world, where you can book a trip to the South Pole) it is also a research and base station supporting the work done at the Pole, a C5 Galaxy plane from the US for missions to the Pole was loading up just across the road.
We fortuitously arrived just as it was penguin feeding time, where 18 little blue rescue penguins now calling the Antarctic centre their home, all with names and different personalities their keepers knew all about.
As part of our ticket, a group of 8 got a little closer as we went into their enclosure with the keepers, getting a great commentary on why and how the penguins had ended up at the Antarctic Centre, mostly all rescues or had the inability due to injury to be released into the wild.
A highlight was going into the penguin health check room, where it was little Fred's day to get his check up. Fred was very curious and friendly in his little isolation pen for the day, the keepers telling is that his issue was a twisted beak, so would not survive in the wild. Thankfully he's got a home for life at the centre, and a health check every 18 days.
The Little Blue Penguin are known as Kokora in Maori, (sometimes Fairy Penguins in Australia), their Latin name is Eudytula Minor meaning "good little diver". Fun fact....we also found out that the universal name "penguin" came from the welsh language as explorers used to call birds of similar look as "pen gwyn" meaning "white head".
Just outside the centre we got into a Hagglund BV206 (amphibious all terrain truck developed by the Swedish army in the 1970's) for a drive around a simulated track. Climbing in, seatbelts and headphones on, before getting thrown around on the bumpy terrain for around 15 minutes, at the end - we concluded that we did not envy those at the Pole taking these trucks on their long travels... a chiropractor's telephone number may have been useful though!!
The centre was facinating, with many other experiences and areas to learn about or to take part in, one was a recreation of Antarctic conditions, where you put on a thermal jacket and over shoes (to protect the snow) and enter a snowy room complete with igloo, ice blasters are then turned for about 30 seconds giving a wind chill of -18 degrees and rather windy conditions - whilst still wearing shorts as it was 32 degrees outside.
Our final experience was a screening of what life is like at the South Pole in a 4d extreme theatre - think IMAX with 3d glasses, moving seats, with water and cold air being blasted over you in conjunction with what was on screen!!
In the afternoon as tourists we took the Christchurch tram, an old fashioned carriage taking in a large loop of the city, and enjoyed a bit of leisurely city exploring, the hop on - hop off ticket being really helpful in getting a great sense of Christchurch, and its continuing revival after the 2010 earthquake.
Whilst pottering around Christchurch we noticed a large plume of smoke rising high into the sky above the nearby hills, the smoke was widespread and clear against the clear blue sky. We later found out via the TV news that sadly a large bush fire was raging in an area called Port Hills, later that night we could see about 5 helicopters and a couple of planes circling the area a sea of bright orange and smoke.
We left New Zealand from Christchurch Airport - now probably a favourite airport, the bean bags, outside space, sofas and comfy arm chairs replacing the norm of rows of soulless uncomfortable seats at gates!! You certainly leave New Zealand feeling quite chilled out!
Our next destination Melbourne, and the Great Ocean Road....
New Zealand... you were outstanding and beyond fabulous .. we both agreed our favourite place was the north of the South Island around the Nelson / Marlborough and Able Tasman areas.... hopefully one day we'll be back.
New Zealand - A Short Summary
Miles Driven
1,196 - North Island
1,603 - South Island
Places Visted / Things We did - (Our Top 10) in order of preference
Able Tasman National Park
Milford Sound
Oamaru - Little Blue Penguins
Whale Watching - Kaikoura
Mount Cook - scenery
National Antarctic Centre- Wellington
Mapua - the location
Te Anau - Glow Worms
Rotorua - Māori Experience & Luge
Cook Strait - Interislander Ferry
New Coffees Tried
Fluffy (Black coffee with milk foam)
Vienna (2 shots & whipped cream- all mixed)
Beers
North Island -Auckland Steinlager NZ$11 (£5.50)
South Island - Speights NZ$9 (£4.50)
All Locations Stayed At- in order of our preference
Lake Tekapo - dark skies and location
Mapua - fabulous location & lovely hosts
Bay of Islands - the view & location
Wellington - penthouse upgrade & great views
Oamaru - accommodation & location
Queenstown - location
Te Anau - location
Christchurch (2nd Visit) - AirBnB
Rotorua - with Colonel Boris
Blenheim --erm just a stop over
Christchurch (1st visit) we cancelled our planned 2nd visit - nuff said!
NB- Re the "thermy" - or thermette as it's officially known as - Nigel (our Milford Sound guide) informed us that during the war the Germans thought the kiwis had invented a new weapon and were baffled by, due to the vast number of perfectly small round burnt patches of ground, a thermy was an army issue to make a brew. Jo being impressed by the look and ability to make a cuppa so quickly was on the internet when back in town to order one!!
You’ve definitely convinced me that NZ needs to go up my travel list. Sounds like you’ve had an amazing time