2024 New Zealand: Days 16-17 Queenstown

We drove through light rain to Queenstown, the Adventure Capital of New Zealand. We’ve been pretty lucky with rain so far, generally having it only at night or during transition days where we weren’t counting on being outdoors anyway. 

Queenstown is a lovely little city, pop. 20,000, that sits on the shore of yet another cobalt blue lake, Lake Wakatipu. It hosts 3 million visitors a year, with the district population tripling on an average peak summer day. We encountered our first real NZ traffic jam here, though the drivers were unfailingly polite in letting people merge, turn across traffic, etc. Parking is also a bit of a challenge (I had to parallel park our jeep for the first time - on the “wrong” side of the road on a very steep hill.)

We took a boat tour on the TSS Earnslaw steamship, a 121 year old coal-fired passenger steamship. It operates with twin locomotive-type boilers. There’s a three-story caged opening in the center from which you can watch the engine room, as the crew feeds the furnaces, and pistons, cranks and belts work away.

 Low cloud cover precluded fine views of the surrounding mountains, but we had other nature shows to watch. 

A squall across the lake, accented with a very low rainbow. 

And further along, another rainbow.

We disembarked at the Walter Peak High Country Farm, where we enjoyed (read: overate) a huge barbecue meal, walked around the grounds and saw a sheep-shearing and herding demonstration. Then back on the boat to return to Queensland.


These recently shorn sheets were hyper aware of anyone approaching and skedaddled if one got too close. Fortunately, they have to endure shearing only once a year.

Day 2 - To Arrowtown and Glenorchy

Arrowtown was a booming gold rush town in the mid-1800s. Instead of decaying into a ghost town like most of these boom towns, it somehow held on and is today a quaint little town with preserved buildings lining its main street. A community of Chinese settlers lived on the edge of town, mostly men from the province of Guangdong who were hoping to earn enough money to return to China and buy a piece of land there to homestead. There are a few buildings remaining from this settlement, and several interpretive signs in Mandarin and English talking about the lives and living conditions of these immigrants.

We came to Arrowtown primarily to rent mountain bikes and ride the Arrow River Bridges Trail. It’s a scenic trail alongside the deepening gorge of the river, crossing several suspension bridges until it ends at the Kwarau Suspension Bridge. We realized early on why most bikers we saw had e-bikes, and why they recommend 2-3 hours for a one-way 8.25 mile trip. We stuck it out and both we and our bikes made it round trip only a little worse for wear in 2.5 hr.

Greg crossing the first suspension bridge.

Looking down into the gorge, same bridge.

Me on another bridge

We passed mountains and vineyards, goats and alpacas and sheep. There’s a trail extension to some vineyards - we’d probably still be walking back if we’d done any wine tasting. The steep gravel sections and the areas without guardrails were intimidating enough without alcohol. Also, the front and rear brakes were reverse sides from US standards. 

The Kawarau Suspension Bridge opened in 1880 to great fanfare, solving a big problem for travelers and shippers who needed to cross the Arrow River. It closed in 1963 when a steel beam bridge opened upriver. Twenty-five years later, an entrepreneur requested permission to open the first commercial bungee jumping site. My sister jumped here 35 years ago. The concession is still going strong. 

The Arrow River gorge from the bungee bridge.


If you can find the bridge in this picture, you may be able to spot Greg.

We left Arrowtown to drive about an hour to Glenorchy. The drive came highly recommended, apparently one of the top ten scenic drives in the world. It’s not for people who get carsick easily, but as that’s not a problem for us, it was pretty fun to drive. It was a gorgeous road on a gorgeous day. Glenorchy is the gateway to Titiea/Mount Aspiring National Park and great hikes for all levels of ability. The area has been used is several films, including the LOTR trilogy. Plus, we found ice cream there!

2024 New Zealand: Days 14-15 Te Anau - Glow Worms and Doubtful Sound

We drove across southern NZ today, crossing from Dunedin to Te Anau, a small town with a big profile. It’s the gateway city to Fiordland National Park, New Zealand’s largest national park (3.2 million acres), and one of the largest in the world. This area has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990. 

The park is packed with tight, steep dramatic crystalline-rock mountains that are resistant to erosion. It gets 23-39 ft of pounding rainfall annually, but its mountains and 14 fjords bring adventurers, trekkers, cruise boats and people like us who just like the outdoors. Most people come to visit the only easily accessible fjord in the park, Milford Sound. We’ll be heading to the second most visited fjord - second by a big margin. But more on that tomorrow. 

We arrived in Te Anau in early afternoon, and walked a km along the lake to the National Park headquarters. This is a great place for hiking. Unfortunately, we have other plans and a relatively short stay. We’d booked a late-afternoon tour to the Te Anau Glowworm caves. Glow worms are found only in New Zealand and Australia, and the species in this cave is unique to New Zealand. They are the larval stage of a fungal gnat. We were shown several rather gross videos of them vomiting up sticky filaments to capture flying insects, and sucking out the eyes of a captured moth. The filaments are pretty, like beaded single-strand spider webs. But oh so deadly to an insect drawn to the glowworm’s light. 

No photos are allowed in the cave, so there’s nothing to show beyond the scenic 30 minute boat ride out to Te Anau Caves. “Te Anau” (rhymes with Keanu) means “cave of rushing water” in Maori, and it’s appropriately named. We were divided into groups of 12, and led in a crouch through a meter-high opening into the cave. A wildly rushing stream of waterfalls , rapids and whirlpools ran next to us, but we moved through the cave safely on a metal platform path with handrails (needed, as it was very dark in the cave). No talking is allowed, as noise can stress the glowworms and cause them to dim their lights. No lights, so smart watches have to be covered and cell phones turned off. We boarded a small metal boat, six to a side, sitting back-to-back in total darkness. Our guide propelled us through the cave by pulling a chain above the boat, while hundreds of glow worms shown on the ceiling and underside of ledges. We hadn’t known what to expect, but it was quite the experience. My mother, a cave junkie, would have loved it.

Looking west on Lake Te Anau.

The Dr. Seuss-like takahē that lived in this area was believed to be extinct, after the last 4 known specimens were taken from Fiordland in the second half of the 19th century. Then in 1948, they were rediscovered by a doctor exploring in the region. This colorful, flightless bird is about the size of a Costco chicken, weighing in at up to 6.5 lbs. They use their wings only for courtship displays or to show aggression.

The takahē population is slowly recovering, breeding both in the wild and in captivity for eventual release. Their population is up to around 500. 

Fun fact: they need to eat all day to get enough nourishment, and accordingly, eliminate on a prolific scale. They produce between 20-26 feet daily of grassy, cigar-shaped poop. (I would think this fact alone might have made them question to original extinction theory.)

New Zealand is home to many species of flightless birds. The only native mammals here before humans arrived were marine mammals like seals, and two species of bats. There were no natural enemies for the birds. The arrival of stoats, rats, ferrets, cats, possums, etc were devastating to the avian population. We’ve seen stoat traps on farms and hiking trails; there is a determined effort to eradicate all these foreign mammals from NZ. It’s met with some success. Possums will be gone by the end of the year from the peninsula we visited yesterday. Some of islands in this area have successfully removed all of the predators and the bird populations there are recovering.

Day 2 - Doubtful Sound - which is technically a fjord (a glacier valley) not a sound (river valley), is NZ’s deepest.

To get to Doubtful Sound, we took a 20 minutes bus ride from Te Anau to Manapouri’s Pearl Harbour. Next was a 22 mile boat ride across Lake Manpouri, followed by an 13 mile bus ride along an unpaved road across Wilmot Pass to Doubtful Sound. With the exception of the crew who built the road, the area between Lake Manapouri and Doubtful Sound is untouched. There are no homes, no other roads, no development. It’s pristine, impressive and lovely.

Our route today - the black line.

 

On Lake Manapouri

The one-lane road was built between 1961-1963 to carry heavy machinery from Doubtful Sound to the construction site for a power plant on Lake Manapouri. Today, it’s used for traffic to and from Doubtful Sound. The vehicles and fuel for them are brought by barge to the dock from which we departed. The road is in good shape, but a little unnerving with 20% grades and no shoulders. 

Doubtful Sound from the top of Wilmot Pass

About 2+ hours after we left Te Anau, we boarded another boat at the Sound for a three hour cruise. We traveled almost 30 miles out into the Pacific Ocean. The steep sides of the cliffs average nearly 4,000 high.

Trees cling improbably on the steep cliffs. When the heavy rains fall - sometimes 20 inches in a day - most of it is absorbed by the trees and moss.

And finally, out in the Pacific!

And then the whole trip was reversed. 

2024 New Zealand: Days 12-13 Dunedin

Today is Waitangi Day, a New Zealand national holiday commemorating the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1849. The treaty was an agreement towards British sovereignty between representatives of Britain and indigenous Maori chiefs, and is considered a founding document of the new nation. 

We drove southeast from Mt. Cook National Park to Dunedin, transitioning from the southern Alps to rolling hills to pastureland along the ocean. We stopped at the quirky town of Oamaru. It’s the self-proclaimed steampunk capital of New Zealand. (I had to look it up - “a sub genre of science fiction that incorporates retro futuristic technology…inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery”)

The town has preserved a Victorian district, several blocks of original buildings. The facades open to warehouse and graineries that have been converted to dozens of shops, craft stores, nano breweries, etc. 

Two penguin colonies were nearby. The little blue, or fairy, penguins, return like clockwork to their dens at dusk. But we couldn’t stick around until 8:45 pm to watch their parade. We decided to try the Bushy Beach colony of yellow-eyed penguins instead. The yellow-eyed penguins, the rarest penguin species in the world, are native to New Zealand. They live in dense coastal forests, and are so shy that they won’t return to their nests if they see or hear people on the beach. The beach itself is closed except for 9 - 3, but there are blinds built on the cliffs to watch for them. 

We went to beach at 2 pm, and were watching sea lions when we spotted a molting chick waiting in the woods for its parents to return.

We were far away -  didn’t want to disturb it. And that’s the extent of penguin viewing today. 



Thirty minutes south of Oamaru are the intriguing Moeraki Boulders. The giant spherical stone boulders were formed 60 million years ago from prehistoric marine mud that was buried in the cliffs.  Circulating groundwater containing calcite formed a cement-like substance around shell fragments or pebbles. The boulders grew as the process continued for eons. Cracks were filled by calcite crystals, creating patterns on the otherwise smooth surfaces. As the cliffs eroded, the spheres rolled out. The boulders are up to 2 meters in diameter and weigh up to several tons. About 30 are scattered along a few hundred feet of beachfront.

The tide was coming in, submerging their lower halves.

They break into honeycombed pieces. 

We got into Dunedin and immediately headed for Dog with Two Tails, a highly recommended restaurant. The restaurant turned out to be permanently closed. The highlight was parking on this street, from which we walked to the former restaurant. Greg was more unnerved than I was, though it did feel like the car might roll over.

Day 2 - We did laundry at the hotel this morning, then headed to the oldest geocache in New Zealand. After a successful find, we hiked up to Dunedin Botanical Gardens for another round of caches. They have an aviary, which focuses on rehabilitation for injured native birds, and breeding program for native parrots, parakeets and other birds. The breeding birds are housed so that their young do not see or interact with people, so that they can be safely released to a nearby ecosanctuary. 

We took a nature cruise on the MV Monarch, a 70-year old former fishing vessel which has been refitted to take passengers to see wildlife and scenery near Otago harbor. The ship provided good binoculars, big warm coats, and hot beverages. 

The Otago peninsula is part of an extinct volcano, stretching about 22 km northeast from Dunedin. 

The tip of the peninsula is home to a breeding colony of Northest Royal Albatross. With a wingspan of almost 10 feet, they are impressive both from a distance and up close. A couple are gliding above the lighthouse above. 

New Zealand fur seal pups were on the cliffs, as were nesting colonies of Little Shags (cormorants). We saw swimming seals skimming the surface, lots of birds, no penguins. It was a nice day to be out on the water. 

Harbor view towards the Pacific. 

2024 New Zealand: Days 10-11 Mount Cook National Park - and Fairlie

Today was a driving day of contrasts, from flat plains to alpine mountains. Temperatures ranged from mid-70s to freezing. 

Of course we had to stop in Fairlie. Originally it was named Fairlie’s Creek, after Fairlie, Scotland, where some muckety-muck with naming rights had gone on his honeymoon. With a population of 950, it’s considered a rural settlement. I’ve been to Fairlie, Scotland, and my sister was here decades ago. It was fun to take in all the namesake locations: a golf course, petrol station, a very popular bakery, health clinic, etc. 

We had meat pies from the bake shop - the best lunch I’ve had here so far. Greg had creamy chicken and I had ultimate steak, a tasty concoction of beef, mushrooms, peppery gravy and a cheese crust. 

The startlingly blue waters of Lake Tekapo are about 30 minutes north of Fairlie. The color comes from finely pulverized glacial rock suspended in the water, with shading provided by clouds or sun. A small stone Anglican church sits on the shore. It was constructed in 1935, two years after the vicar of Fairlie (whose territory extended to Mount Cook Village, where we are staying tonight) suggested it was needed to serve the Mackenzie Basin. The Church of the Good Shepherd was built to commemorate early European settlers. It’s one of the most photographed sites in New Zealand. 

Lake Tekapo

Church of the Good Shepherd

Lake Pukaki

Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. The namesake mountain, the tallest in New Zealand, is in the V above. 

After dinner at the Old Mountaineers Cafe, we impulse-decided to take the Kea Point trail through alpine meadows to a viewpoint. 

We were not excellent signpost readers and ended up on the most difficult trail. After avalanche warning signs, we clambered (or crawled) up lots of steep wooden steps until we decided this couldn’t possibly be the trail (rated “easy”) we’d intended to take. Greg continued on for another few flights before we turned around and got back to our hotel shortly before dark. At least there were good views.

We were scheduled for a 12:30 AM stargazing experience at the Aorangi Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve, but it was too windy to set up the equipment. 

Day 2 - The Tasman Glacier is New Zealand’s largest and longest glacier. It starts at nearly 10,000 ft, running 17 miles (and nearly 2,000 feet deep) until it terminates in Tasman Lake. In the winter, the lake freezes over. In summer, it’s punctuated with icebergs that break from the 650 ft high moraine. 

We traveled by coach and then walked a mile in to Tasman Lake, where we boarded small MAC boats for an hour on the lake. The UFO cloud formations were amazing.

The grey mass at the water’s edge on the right side is the debris-covered Tasman Glacier terminal moraine, looming 650 ft above the water. The winds blow loose rock onto the surface. The glacier has retreated 5 miles in the last 35 years.

The blue facing is where glaciers have recently calved. 

According to staff here, Mount Cook sitings can be as elusive as Denali. It’s Maori name, Aoraki, aptly means “cloud piercer” We had clear views most of the day. 

The Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Center is located here, with memorabilia from the Kiwi climber and several films about the park, Hillary, alpine rescues, etc. He learned to rock climb here and summited several of the peaks, including Mount Cook, gaining experience for his 1953 summit of Everest.