We had a late pick up today (10.30) so after checking out of the hostel we sat on the bench outside as we waited for the bottom bus to pick us up and take us off to Dunedin.
Our first stop was overlooking the Clyde dam and then we drove down the hill to Clyde for a lunch stop. It was a pretty quiet town that had just us and a group of bikers there for lunch.
On our way into Dunedin we stopped at a view point to get a view out over the city. It looks just like how I imagine Edinburugh looks. I guess that's why they named it the Galiec for Edinburugh! Unlike most of the houses in NZ, the houses in Dunedin look like they belong at home! We then visited Balwin Street, officially the steepest street in the world and we walked up it! We were so out of breath when we got to the top and were so thankful for then water fountain they'd placed at the top. Looking back down the street part of it disappears from view it's that steep!
We tried to visit the Cadbury chocolate factory once we'd checked in but it and the cafe had shut at 4... 40 minutes before we got there so we had to make do with cadburys from the supermarket instead!
For dinner we cooked this amazing sausage pasta bake (yes I'm talking about food :p) before we went to the Speights brewery for the brewery tour. We had an hour tour around the old and new factory which was really interesting seeing how it's brewed and then we were shown how to pull a pint properly and then given half an hour, whilst they played their entire back collection of 'Southern Man' advertising campaign, to pull as many drinks as we liked for ourselves from the taps. There was 6 different drinks to try but after trying the gold medal ale I stuck to the cider.
Speights brewery
Poring a pint
Day 149: The Catlins and Invercargill
Today we went through the Catlins to Invercargill. The Catlins is an area of amazing wildlife and not on the typical backpacker route but absolutely stunning.
Our first stop was at Nugget Bay and we did a lovely walk out to an old lighthouse and on the rocks below us we could see seals chilling out on the rocks and the pups were playing in a little kiddie pool. Well, obviously not exactly a kiddie pool, but it was a small little pool of top of the rocks, filled by sea water but they weren't going to get washed away or smashed to pieces against the rocks. I guess that's why they were there.
The sheep around hill clearly don't see too many cars as everywhere we drove we caused a stampede of sheep to flee in the other direction.
Our next stop was Cannibal bay for a walk along the beach. It's amazing on that beach. The sea lions come onto the beach to sleep and so you can walk all around them. We saw one emerging from the sea true Daniel Craig James Bond style! I'm pretty sure they know everyone is photographing them so deliberately pose for the cameras!
We ate our lunch in a small town called Owaka which had a teapot garden. It was like the shell house in Southbourne (mum, dad and C you'll understand this) except rather than a collection of shells from around the world it was a collection of teapots! Next door was a collection of dolls but there was creaky music playing and we couldn't bring ourselves to go in there!
We drove around to Florence hill lookout point to get a nice view of the coast line and to hopefully see a blowhole but the swell wasn't big enough for that. We then drove to McLean Falls and went for a walk up to the waterfall. The last bit involved climbing up on the rock where the side streams of the waterfall ran and I found out my trainers are definitely not waterproof! Had a nice damp sock!
We drove further in the Catlins to Curio Bay and Porpoise bay. The cafe there had no hokey pokey ice cream left! Did they not realise that I was coming and order it in especially for me. Not sure what in going to do once I'm home and I can't have hokey pokey daily (fingers crossed it's appeared in shops since I've been away!). This area is famous for the hector dolphins (the worlds smallest dolphins) who play in this bay at high tide but unfortunately the tide was pretty low and we didn't get to see any. We did however see a yellow eyed penguin (the rarest species of penguin in the world) on the beach waiting for his mate to come home. Consodering the beach was massive, there is only a small section you're allowed to walk on to and there are only 8 pairs of penguins there seeing one up so close to us was pretty special.
We arrived into Invercargill pretty late in the evening so we just visited the supermarket to get dinner and for me to get supplies for Stewart Island before cooking dinner together one last time and then visiting the pub next door to reminisce about the times we've spent together as I was off to Stewart Island the next day so leaving the girls. We'd only know each other for about 16 days but that's the longest I've spent with people I've met and I knew I was going to miss them once they'd gone!
Day 150: To Stewart Island
In the morning I said goodbye to the girls which was pretty sad as I was off to Stewart Island and they were going to Milford Sounds. Last time we sai bye as we weren't travelling together we knew we'd be meeting up again in Queenstown. Now if we meet up again we'll be in England somewhere which is pretty sad.
I got picked up from the hostel after breakfast and transferred to Bluff to the ferry terminal. We were early getting there so the driver took us to see the start of highway 1 which stretches all the way from here up to the most northery point on North Island (with a little break for the ferry transfer).
The ferry crossing was so smooth which as good considering all the horror stories I'd heard about when the weather was choppy and people throwing up all the time. Got to see some beautiful sea birds out of the window skimming their wings in the water.
Arrived at Stewart Island and it seems like such a lovely place (I'm assuming te fact there isn't a cloud in the sky is helping). The hostel I'm staying in for the firs two nights feels more like a B&B or a family home which is lovely. Was trying to book 2 trips whilst I'm here so I used their phone to ring up and then one of them called back the hostel as he forgot to give me some information so I had the girl who worked there walking up to me saying the phones for you! Doesn't soud that funny now I'm writing it down but it was!
Got chatting to one of the guys at the hostel and we went on a lovely short coastal walk through a little bit of forest and around past all these secluded bays.
We got back to the hostel and I just wanted to chill out for a bit so sat on their sofas and watched Anckorman. According to the guy who worked there that film had been on every day for the last week! He really needs to move it out of eye sight if he doesn't want to watch it again!
The kias come down into the garden every evening to be fed sunflower seeds.
In the evening I went out on a boat tour to try and spot Kiwis. We set out just before the sunset and so had this amazing boat ride out to the wharf with the sun setting behind the Island and blue penguin heads (the smallest penguins in the world) popping up around the boat before they disappeared below the surface again.
It was getting dark when we moored up and the skipper and the guide explained to us what we were doing and a couple of safety things for us (watch the long hanging branches) and for the kiwis (don't shine your torches in their eyes). We walked across through a track across the bush to Ocean beach. Once we were on the beach we turned our torches off and the guide used just his torch on a low brightness to scan the beach for kiwis.
We got so lucky. Pretty much immediately we saw a juvenile female eating the bugs that feed on the rotting kelp on the beach. It was such a cool experience to see one in the wild. Especially as 95% of New Zealanders haven't! Further down the beach we saw a mated pair (the junevile is one I their kids) feeding together. The guide said he never sees two kiwis in the same torch beam as usually they feed solitary so it was pretty special to see that and she (I know it was a female from the beak curvature!) kept putting her beak on his back. It was so cute. It was such a perfect night for kiwi watching. The moon lit up the beach and the stars looks incredible.
On the walk back to the boat we saw a juvenile male on the path infront of us before he darted off into a bus, a possum with its scary red eyes watching us from a tree and an owl! On the boat we were given hot chocolate and biscuits to warm up and then taken back to half moon bay.
Day 151: Stewart Island
Today we (my new German friend and I) took a ferry across in the morning to Ulva Island. Ulva Island is a predator free bird sanctuary and so full of all different types of birds, some only found on Stewart Island. You can do all the walking paths in an hour and a half but then you'd never see anything so we took it really slowly and it was amazing how many birds appear when you just stand still an silent for a few minutes. An inquisitive Stewart Island robin came right up to us and was pecking away at my shoes and then tried to fly away with firstly my shoelaces and then a piece of cotton hanging off my socks. When he decided to peck my leg I had to shake him off.
The ferrys are rather irregular but it was such a nice day we decided to spend the day reading on this one beach. Well that was the plan. When there was only 15 minutes until the ferry and we were half an hour away it started to rain! Awesome...
We walked back through the forest to one of the other beaches and luckily it was only spitting so I sat in my waterproof sheltered by a bush and did what I intended to do in sunshine and read! When we got too cold to sit there any more we walked to the lookout point over the ferry point so we could wander down when we saw it come in. Luckily the sun came out so we were able to warm up whilst we waited. We saw the little blue ferry come in but by the time we'd got down to the wharf it was full! After all that waiting we had to wait again for it to come back and pick up those it couldn't fit on first time around. This was actually a blessing in disguise as on the journey back over a Mollymork (a small albatross) came over and showed off her wings to us as she checked out whether we were a fishing boat and whether she was likely to get a scraps off us.
In the evening I didn't fancy cooking and since Stewart Island is renounded for it's seafood so I went down to the pub, the heart of this community, to have some locally caught blue cod and chips and then some chocolate mud cake. It was pretty fun chatting to the locals who one of the girls I met in the hostel had been out fishing with today. They really know how to wind people up. I said I was from London and they were like 'never heard of it', 'is it big' and 'is it near Scotland?'. I actually tried to explain where in the UK London was before I realised they were winding me up!
Day 152: Stewart Island
Didn't fancy an early start today so I had a bit of a lie in and read my book in bed for a while which was lovely. I had to swap hostels this morning but that only involved walking through the gap in the hedge at the edge of the garden. And it wasn't that much of a chain as the daughter ran the one I was originally in and her mum ran the one I moved to! I think the guy sitting outside on his balcony got a bit of a shock though seeing a girl loaded up with backpacks and a cooler bag emerging from the hedge!
I spent the morning on beach reading my book and then went back to the hostel for lunch.
I set out for a short 3 hour return walk out to horseshoe point but ended up bumping to a couple of people from the hostel and agreeing to go with them to Maori Beach which, it turns out, is a looonnnngggg walk away. Think we must have walked for 6- 7 hours at a pretty good pace. No dawdling from us!
At horse shoe point we got a great view into the bay and out to see we saw dolphins swimming past a fishing boat below us.
The walk the whole way to Maori beach was up and down and up and down and up and down into all the little bays along the way which meant all the bits I enjoyed on the way there were painful and all the bits that were painful were now enjoyable! My legs ached a lot and it took a few mental battles with myself to get up some of those hills but I was so proud with myself once we got back. Maori beach was lovely and it did have a long drop toilet and drinking water, which I was super thankful for, but I'm not 100% the pain justified it!
Surprisingly after a shower and some food I felt alright enough to go out kiwi spotting with a few people from the hostel. We spent an hour wandering around on the fields the locals say they are often spotted. We were pretty sure we'd heard a female call and what sounded like claws scrapping at the leaves on the floor to get to the bugs but we never saw anything so we gave up and walked back to the hostel where we bumped into a local guy who pointed one out in the bush to us. After all that searching there was one a minutes walk from the hostel!
Day 153: Stewart Island and back to Invercargill
(Oops, I forgot to finish this the first time I published this)
I went out Kayaking in the morning. We paddled out hugging the coastline as our guide Phil pointed out sea horses, sea urchins, sea cucumber and a small shark. He pulled out a star fish to touch which was really strange as all the tentacles wriggled as I held it!
We pulled up on a beach and walked up to get a view out towards native island before paddling out to native island. Phil pulled seaweed and kelp out of the sea to try. Don't think I'll be eating that again. It may be full of nutrients but it tasted so rubbery!
We had tea and cakes on one of the beaches as a ream made by Phil's wife who is a gourmet chef so obviously the cakes were amazing!
We paddled around the rest on the Island and saw blue & yellow eyed penguins on our way home. My partner was an older guy and I guess he must have been getting tired on the way home so was just rearing his paddle on his lap. Which I wouldn't have minded except that it was dragging in the sea acting as a break! And at one point he started paddling backwards for some reason so I ended up doing twice as much work!
I went to the Bunkhouse theatre to watch a really cute film, told from the point of view of the dog, about the Island history and some of its stories.
I got the ferry back to Bluff which was slightly choppier than the way to Stewart Island but still not as rough as people said it can be and then was transferred back to Invercargill. It was a strange feeling being back there without the girls. Made myself some dinner and then watched a movie in the TV room whilst catching up on my diary. I thought I'd have lots of time to do it on the Island but ended up so engrossed in my book I didn't actually write anything in it!
Day 154: Milford Sounds
We left Invercargill and were taken to the lovely looking town of Te Anau for a quick stop before continuing along into the national park. We started off at this plain (who's name I know can't remember) that's 2km wide at its widest point and the mountain that surround it are 2km high at their highest point. I think that was pretty well planned!
Our next stop was at the mirror pools which are extra reflective because of the oil that's excreted by the trees that surrounds it.
We carried on driving through the national park to Homer tunnel. A tunnel cut straight through the mountain that's only wide enough for cars to go in one direction and it isn't lined so you can see the rock around you. Feels like you're in a mining tunnel that's being explored rather than a massively popular tourist route. When you come out the other side it's hairpin bends all the way down to the valley floor. So glad we had an experienced driver and we could just admire the scenery. Some of the campervans going along looked pretty dangerous.
We had a two hour boat cruise through Milford sound, which is actually a fjord technically not a sound. But whatever it should be called it's stunning. New Zealand definitely knows how to do beautiful scenery.
We were given our packed lunches to eat as we cruised long the fjord, out to sea and then back along the other side of the fjord to the ferry terminal.
It rained slightly on our way back but that didn't make Stirljng falls any less beautiful!
Milford Sound
Stirling falls
On the bus back to Queenstown pretty much everyone was asleep as we drove through venison country. In used to see deer roaming free in Bushey or Richmond park. It was strange seeing them in pens like sheep!
I had a totally cool evening sitting in the movie room and running out every 45 minutes to swap my laundry into the drier and then to hang it up in my room as it was warm but not totally dry. I got pretty creative with my hanging using a belt for my underwear and hand my t shirts tucked into the bars above my head! Clearly getting good at backpacking!
I had a catch up with Victoria, one of the girls from my bus, just in her room until the other people wanted to go to bed so I went back into my room for bed!
No comments:
Post a Comment