South Island Road Trip - Part 2

12.13.2013 - 19.12.2013 South Island Christmas Holiday Road Trip:

Certain aspects of our last road trip were thwarted by poor weather and road closures. This trip was a completion of unfinished business. Our first visitor from Canada, Stephanie’s mom Elaine, was to join us this time around. Also, it now being summer, the Hartlen’s were now going camping!

Day 1: 370km Christchurch - Moeraki Boulders - Shag Point Dunedin
 I have decided to abbreviate much of what I have already written about this trip, (and others) since I am already way behind, and I now have legitimate designs on publishing it all one day. Day 1 though, brought us to the Moeraki boulders (pictures below) and to Dunedin, possibly the most beautiful city from an architectural standpoint in New Zealand.
Day 2: 534 km Dunedin - Otago Peninsula - Nugget Point - Balclutha The morning brought the Cadbury factory for Steph her mom and the girls, I had to take care of business that required a computer so I missed out. But, the girls were especially excited about the liquid chocolate that they got to drink, and the mountain of chocolate that they got to see grow as they demanded “more chocolate!”
We had glorious weather for this trip, and after a quick stop at the Dunedin train station (the second most photographed building in the southern hemisphere) and Baldwin Street (the steepest street in the world, we were off to New Zealand’s only castle on the Otago peninsula.
Larnach Castle, was built for William Larnach, a late 19th century businessman and politician. He built the castle as his residence. It is high on a hill, and has stunning views of Otago harbour. At least two ghosts are said to haunt Larnach castle, and the gardens outside have some truly bizarre, yet beautiful plants unlike anything I have seen before. The gardens are so spectacular that they are one of only five in New Zealand to have been awarded “gardens of international significance”,by the New Zealand Gardens Trust.
The castle itself is more of a self indulgent mansion. It is well worth the visit, if not for the gardens, then for the grounds and the cautionary tale that money can’t buy happiness. For although initially successful, William Larnach ended up in dire financial straits toward the end of his life. Depressed, he eventually holed up in a council room at Parliament and shot himself in the head. The cause of his depression was likely two-fold. His financial state, and the rumours circulating Dunedin at the time that his favourite son Douglas was having an affair with his young third wife.
Elaine (Stephanie's mom) had come to New Zealand with two definite must do’s on her list: the Chocolate factory, check, and sighting a yellow eyed penguin in the wild. In an effort to achieve this second goal, we drove out to Nugget Point, which is one of the south-eastern tip of New Zealand’s south island some 148km south West of Dunedin. We had been told of a penguin viewing hide by our Czech roommates Jan and Zuzana. I also was keen to to see the oft photographed Nugget point lighthouse, which sits at the end of a long and lonely road jutting out into the sea. We were toward dusk now, and it was prime penguin viewing time. The short coastal drive was nice, running through a series of small fishing villages while maintaining serene ocean views for much of the drive. The Nugget point hide was easy enough to find, and we did not have to wait long to see the famed yellow eyed penguins. In all we saw four stumble into the protected alcove. More importantly though, we met a French traveller who told of us his day at Curio/Porpoise Bay, farther to the south in the Catlins region, which was our next destination. He had been doing a trip similar to ours, but he had come the opposite direction going counter-clockwise, whereas we had come down the east coast en-route to an eventual clockwise loop around the island. On his trip, just the day before he and his British travel companion had been hanging out in Curio Bay/Porpoise Bay, and had seen yellow eyed penguins from a distance of about five meters, much closer than the 150 or so meters we were presently observing the creatures. Not only that, but he also had been out swimming in porpoise bay, when a pod of hector’s dolphins came and swam with him  at very close proximity. I was in New Zealand more for the landscapes than the wildlife, but to have a chance to swim with dolphins in the wild would be something! On our way out to find our first DOC site of the evening, we stumbled across Hillview campsite run by Kevin and Sue, for $15 we were able to camp and for a few extra dollars we had hot showers. Kevin made a batch of hot chips, and gave us a free bottle of homemade cider!

Day 3: 847 km Balclutha - Purakaunui Falls - Mclean’s Falls - Curio Bay - Porpoise Bay - Kingston

The Catlins are somewhat of an unknown entity on the tourist zone that is New Zealand. It was not until about the last twenty or so years that tourism took off, and even then, it is still much less visited than its surrounding regions. This was once upon a time due to its accessibility by road, and in part because of the extreme weather that plagues the region during the winter months particularly. We were here for a chance to see the penguins at Porpoise Bay, Purakanui Falls, and the Cathedral Caves.

We followed the southern scenic route south and west from Owaka to Purakaunui falls, and on the way we happened upon a Tunnel Hill, which is an old abandoned train tunnel that had not been used since the 1970’s. It now makes for an interesting pit-stop amid some very dense New Zealand Rainforest. You can see a faint glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, but are otherwise walking in sheer blackness, good family safe adventuring. Purakaunui falls was the next stop, a wide 10m high fall cascading into a river about  two minute walk into southern rain forest. None of the waterfalls in New Zealand are truly epic by world standards, but I have realised that I have developed somewhat of a waterfall obsession in the last year or so, and with my recently learned photography skills, these ones would have to be captured.

After our waterfall viewing we carried on down the southern scenic route to the petrified forest at Curio Bay, and were hopeful that we would see more of our penguin friends. The forest itself is quite interesting also. Prehistoric trees and other plant life became petrified on the beach here. Massive sheet floods of volcanic debris, perhaps triggered by heavy rain on a barren volcanic mountain, are believed to have destroyed the forest. At this time in history new Zealand was the Eastern edge of the jurassic supercontinent Gondwana. New Zealand then drifted north to its present location where over the past 10000 years its southern coastline has slowly been eroded to reveal the petrified forest. It is about 20 square km of forest, makin git one of the largest jurassic geological sites, significant also becuse is is relatively undisturbed. In this case, it is also a safe haven for the most endangered penguin species of them all, the yellow eyed penguin. Knowing that they do not typically come in from the ocean until closer to dusk, we were not expecting to see any on this afternoon, but it was also nesting season, so there patterns are much less regimented. As luck would have it, we were able to see one lovely specimen up close and personal, from a distance of about 10m as he sauntered in from the ocean and hobbled along the petrified forest. Brynn and Aurora who were down on the beach with me were absolutely delighted to see such a creature at such a close range to the point where I had to yell at Brynn to stop chasing the penguin, who standing up was about half to three quarters Brynn’s height. We had lucked out in this instance low tide not only enabled us to see the petrified forest which lay on the beach, but also the penguin.(pic below)

Day 4: 1149km Kingston - Queenstown - Glenorchy - Paradise - Luggate 
As luck would have it, the weather sorted itself out and the very scenic road to Glenorchy along the banks of Lake Wakatipu. I was happy for a redo of the overcast drive I had completed earlier in  the year in the pouring rain, affording little to no views of anything. Little did I know on that drive, or presently, that mountainous views to my left as we drove northwest toward the western reaches of central south island civilisation were the famed Misty Mountains from the Lord of the Rings films, known more commonly in New Zealand as the Remarkables. This was not to be the end of our film experiences for the day either, for the road to Paradise, was actually the road to Isengard, and Lothlorian, had I known it at the time, I would have no doubt done some cheesy re-enactment of the film, it is probably best for all concerned that I remained oblivious on this occasion.
We had done no research into what lay beyond Glenorchy, but having been at least as far as Glenorchy before we knew there were astounding Mountainscapes to be had. I was particularly hoping to capture the dock into Lake Wakatipu, with the monstrous Mt. Bonpland’s 2347 m as a backdrop. Beyond that, there is not an awful lot going on in Glenorchy itself, though it is a beautiful setting for a town; however, knowing that Paradise was just around the corner, why not continue on and drive right into paradise.
I would not recommend this drive in the winter, nor in the spring when the various creek and river crossings are liable to be quite treacherous. The road meanders through farm land until it reaches a very mystic forest, it is in this forest where scenes for the Lothlorien elven territory in Lord of the Rings were shot. Before we could literary, we first had to get biblical.
In the book of Joshua, its namesake leads the Israelites across the river Jordan with the Ark of the Covenant to a supposed better life on the other side. In the Bible, twelve priests stand in the middle of the river whilst the surging river flow rears up and stops allowing all of the Israelites to pass safely to Canaan. On December 16, 2013 the Hartlen family, like Joshua before them, would also cross the Jordan river, to decidedly much less fanfare and historical precedent.
In New Zealand, there is a small creek that goes by the same name as its biblical counterpart, similar to the Bible there is no bridge. We had no need of 12 purified priests halting water on our behalf, all that was required to cross this “river” was a little blind faith. This river crossing was just a warm-up for an unnamed river crossing we would have to make toward the end of the road.
About 300 m before the end of the road, the faint hearted may be turned back, we saw at least one car holed up on the side of the road, apparently the driver ventured forward on foot, not bold enough to attempt a river crossing with his/her car. We of course, were none so timid. The water was probably only about 50cm deep , but the current was quick and it certainly looked impressive. I did of course take a video, but given that this is print text, you will have to suffice with a satellite image of the area we crossed. Those were just some of the highlights of our pre-Christmas road trip, we travelled on through to the West Coast, North and then back East of the next three days, but I have droned on long enough I think.