Continuing on from our last post….

We left Abel Tasman and headed to Westport early in the morning, where the Wild West Coast starts. It’s called the Wild West Coast because of the wild weather always blowing in off the Tasman Sea that gets caught by the mountains. We made a few stops to break up the 4-hour drive. We had a picnic lunch about halfway at a fire station. This may sound odd, but in New Zealand they are great about providing public facilities like restrooms or toilets as they literally refer to them here. The owners of the café used to give Lauren a hard time when she said she was going to the restroom. They would jokingly call her a slacker always taking breaks in the “rest” room. Anyways we had lunch at a fire station because that was where we stopped to use the toilet and there happened to be a little covered picnic area there and it was around lunch time, so viola! The views were not bad from this stop either as the landscape had slowly begun to grow higher as we approached the Southern Alps. Further on down the road we took another short break at Buller Gorge to cross the raging river on the longest swing bridge in New Zealand. It was exciting as we bounced our way across the bridge about 30 feet above the churning water. Lauren caught our parents off guard with a couple of surprise selfies halfway across. Dad debated the zipline back across the river that let you fly across like superman, but their price was way too high for the length of the zipline.

We arrived in Westport in just enough time to check into our Airbnb and turn around to go see the seal colony before dinner. The seal colony is a short 20-minute drive outside of Westport and totally worth a visit. At the end of the short walk from the car park is an overlook directly above the seal colony and with gorgeous views of the wild west coastline. Peering over the edge we immediately saw two seals and were happy with that. As we looked longer, I guess our eyes started to adjust or got better at picking them out in the pile of rock because we started seeing them all over the place. They were seal-hopping around, going in and out of the water, and talking to each other. One seal was either constantly trying to get into fights or trying to mate we were not sure. We even saw some tiny baby seals on the rocks which must have been only a couple of weeks old as we learned they typically give birth late in November. We were having so much fun watching the seals we didn’t want to leave, but our grumbling tummies would not quit. On our way back through town we picked up some Chinese take away for dinner back at the Airbnb so we could finish our mountain of laundry.

We knew some rainy weather was on the way, as we had been looking at the forecast daily for Mom to know how to dress. Loading the cars the next morning for our drive to Franz Josef, we tried to time it in between the pockets of driving rain and gusting winds. A few stops were planned for the day with two of them being hikes, but we knew that would be weather dependent. The last I checked of the forecast for the morning it showed some severe weather warnings for heavy rain and winds in the Franz Josef area which worried us that we might not be able to do the glacier hike the next morning. The total drive time for the day was about 3.5 hours with our first stop an hour down the road at the pancake rocks and blowholes. I thought this stop was going to be super touristy and overrun with Chinese tourists, but it was quiet and quite interesting. The formations you see as the layers of pancakes are layers of compressed sediment, shells, and bones that fell to the bottom of the ocean millions of years ago. I think the sign said the oldest visible layer is from 26 million years ago and each layer took tens of thousands of years to create. Mom really enjoyed this area for the history and rock formations. My favorite part was the surge pool and blowhole which I took some great boomerangs of.

Our next stop for the day was a 45-minute hike to a viewpoint of Hokitika Gorge. On the way to the gorge hike we stopped to fuel up in the biggest little town on the west coast, Greymouth. I was feeling a little tired from the dreary day and called for a coffee break too. When I went inside to pay and order a coffee, I noticed some writing on a wipe board on the wall about several road closures but didn’t think much of it figuring it was out of date. Almost immediately after looking at the same sign Lauren asked the guys behind the counter what turned out to be the most important question of our trip, “Is this board current?” Ching went the till as I had just finished paying and was turning for the door. The man behind the counted responded, “Yes you can’t get south of Hokitika today there are 4 or 5 rock falls they are working on clearing and one roadblock that sounds very serious, part of the roadway may have slipped away.” A few seconds passed while we all absorbed this information and to give them time to say, ”Got Ya” if of course they were joking with us. No “Got Ya” followed, so we started to take them seriously. Of course, our immediate question was When do you think the road will be open again? They told us that rock falls are common and they typically clear those within a day or two depending on the size of the fall. However, the one serious alert that provided the least amount of information, he said in his best guess might be a section of road that slipped away which could take anywhere from a day to a couple months to fix. Next, I asked if he could show us on the map where these road blocks are because I had no clue where the towns were that he was listing off and God help me if I tried to spell them. We had about 3 road blocks between us and our destination for the night, Franz Josef Glacier. One of the three was the mysterious serious one. Beyond Franz Josef were two more rockfalls one before Haast, and another on the pass to Wanaka. We were completely blocked off from our next two days of travel plans!

I knew our route options would be limited given that there are only really three passes through the mountains between the Wild West Coast highway, we were on, and the rest of the island. The first pass was back the way we came and goes more north than east taking us further out of our way. The second is the pass between Haast and Wanaka which was closed for rock falls. The third and final option was Arthur’s Pass midway between the other two and the turn off for the pass was only 30 minutes down the road. This sounded like a great exit plan as it leads directly to Christchurch. Then the gas station attendant shattered our dreams when he said, “Actually I think they have Arthur’s Pass closed too for a rock fall.” Lauren asked them how often they update the reports and if they could check for us on this one. The other attendant obliged and came back with a glimmer of hope. He said, “It looks like they opened Arthur’s pass back up recently, but it is only one lane. Sometimes they close it again if the weather gets worse, but if you hurry you might just make it through.

It was right about this time that our parents really started appreciating the millennial generation as Lauren and I pulled out our phones and in about 20 minutes helped Mom C sort out cancelling the next two night and book a hotel in Christchurch plus find some things to do while there. The drive time was about 3.5 hours to Christchurch and around 250 kilometers which we know was at the edge of Pumpkin’s range, so we prayed for a gas station a little way outside of the city for us to coast into if needed.

Arthur’s pass is the one road on the South Island I feared because of how steep I have heard the road is. I just prayed that Pumpkin could make it because we really didn’t have much choice but to cross the pass in the storm. We drove down windy country roads for about an hour through the pass and all the while I wondered when we would start climbing and where the rock fall was that could stop our progress. When we started the climb, it was a little dramatic with the steepest grade we have seen in New Zealand and we through a tunnel and under a manmade waterfall chute. Pumpkin chugged along and got us up to the top revving high in second gear and guzzling fuel. About halfway up the steep grade we saw a backhoe parked on top of a huge pile of big rocks piled high behind the guardrail which we could only assume was the road blockage we had feared would turn us away. Shortly after reaching the crest we entered the little town at the top of the pass where we hoped the one gas station on the way might be open. Our hopes fell when we saw the one gas pump from the 1980’s out front of the closed general store. Oh well it’s mostly downhill from here! In the distant sky ahead, we could see it looked like the weather was breaking. It took us about an hour to drive across the high elevation pass which winded through valley’s with massively wide braided rivers surrounded by mountain peaks. It was an absolutely beautiful drive and even more so when we finally reached the edge of the angry clouds and felt the sun. Lauren and I decided on the drive that we would come back here to spend a couple days hiking in the area. On our way down the other side of the pass we had a nail biter looking for a gas station to stop at. We finally got into Christchurch around 8pm and quickly checked our parents into their hotel and found us a place to park for the night so we could eat as we were all starving. Lauren found a cool place that everyone could agree on because it was a hip food court called the little high eatery. Our parents were so appreciative of how we millennials handled the change of plans in a relatively stress-free way they decided dinner would be their treat. So naturally we wanted a beer too.

In the morning Lauren and I enjoyed the large grassed park we spent the night at by going for a short run and getting some stretching in after all of the sitting in the car over the last several days. When our parents joined us we sorted out their Airbnb for that night down in Timaru so we could start working our way south towards Wanaka for a couple days of shorter drives. The main draw for us in Timaru was to see some penguins which typically come ashore late in the evening so we decided to see as much of Christchurch as we could in the morning and afternoon. Lauren knew a bit about Christchurch from the research she did in planning Aunt Helen’s trip to New Zealand, so she was our tour guide for the day. We started with the trolley for a relaxing and fun way to see the city. There are three different trolleys on the tracks, each with its own history. The first trolley we got on was from Philadelphia, and we all immediately pointed out the made in the USA stamp! We rode about half the circuit and hopped off for some shopping and lunch. On our walk to the next trolley stop we saw the devastated church in the center of the city still standing for the most part, but severely scared from the 2011 earthquake. At first, we didn’t think the damage was that bad and wondered why it had not been fixed yet when set among so much new construction. As we walked around the front of the church we understood why when almost the whole wall on the entrance face of the church was toppled over as we peered inside the church from the street. They are still raising money for the repairs. We rode the trolley the rest of the circuit and back to where we started by the botanical gardens, our last destination, before leaving town for Timaru. Pulling up to our stop we overheard the trolley driver say to another passenger something about being surprised that both bridges were closed going south. Again, I believe it was Lauren that caught this first and immediately looked up the road status on our new favorite website. Sure, enough what we overheard were our worst fears come true we could not head any further south, cut off from our destination again. We helped cancel another reservation for our parents and book another for that night in Christchurch with no idea when the roads might reopen. Both bridges were closed due to flooding which was caused by the runoff from the mountains where the awful weather that we escaped was lingering. After taking care of the reservations for the night we decided not to think about it for the moment and go enjoy the botanical gardens before the worrying set in that the roads may not be open tomorrow either.

We would highly recommend a visit to the botanical gardens as they are free and gigantic! We only saw a small percentage of the mammoth gardens and loved all of it. We spent most of our time in the rose garden enjoying their beauty and my Dad and I hunted down the fragrant smelling ones. A short aside while on the topic of flowers that I want to share after living in New Zealand for several months. I swear it must be incredibly easy to grow just about anything here because in the front yards of most homes all over the country people grow dozens of beautiful flowers, roses included, and even fruit trees! I tell Lauren all the time I think they must have a seed mix at the hardware store that everybody buys when they move into a new house and on moving day, they nonchalantly toss the seeds and never think about it again. Six hours later poof! They have an amazing garden. Okay back to the botanical gardens. We also got really into another section of the gardens in the green houses where they have a bunch of carnivorous plants. My favorite was the pitcher plant which had these hanging jugs filled with sweet smelling acidic fluid to lure the insects and then digest them. We were so enthralled with our noses pressed against the glass that we didn’t notice until we turned to leave, they even had them hanging right above our heads!

              After the botanical gardens we went to check our parents into their hotel for the night and then had them over for dinner at the park since we had already bought the food together for our planned nights in Franz Joseph and Haast that obviously didn’t happen. As we ate dinner packed inside pumpkin to hide from the chilly breeze, we decided to wake up in the morning and just go for it hoping one of the two bridges would be open by the time we made it there. Our confidence for getting across had grown after speaking with a couple locals on their walks around the park while we were camped out in our folding chairs. Every local that we talked to while camping out by their park was so friendly, one lady even offered us her driveway for more privacy and a shower if we wanted it! I hope that wasn’t a polite way of telling us we smelled. The locals shared with us some insight that the bridge on the main route floods and closes all the time but the upstream bridge on the scenic route rarely closes. A couple said they can’t think of a time in the last 20 years when both bridges had closed. We told one local we saw a couple cars cross the upstream bridge on the traffic cam, but the status was still closed with no info on when it would reopen. He was not surprised and said that’s typical of them to reopen a road but not bother to update the website for some time. So, with all that considered we got an early start out of town the next day hoping to make it across and meet back up with our plans.

It was a two-hour drive to the bridge, and we left a little before 10am. We checked the website again in the morning before we left and saw no updates. About an hour into the drive Lauren decided to check it again just for fun and wouldn’t you know it they had an update. It would be open at noon with limited capacity, whatever that means. We hoped our early start before the news broke would put us in the clear to get across before the traffic built up. We humbly accepted we were not the only brilliant ones with the guts to chance it that morning when we ran into the traffic about 5 kilometers before the bridge. Creeping along for an hour and a half we finally made across the one lane bridge and did a little dance halfway across. Of course, traffic was built up just as far on the other side of the bridge and so we drove another half an hour to try to escape the crazy frenzy of people trying to picnic right past the crossing. We had a quick lunch in Farlie and then got back on the road as we had another 3.5 hours to drive.

It was slow going because of how incredibly beautiful the scenery was. Our first pit stop was as Lake Tekapo to take in the glacial blue lake set in front of snow-capped peaks and surrounded by purple, pink, and white flowers. Close to the edge of the lake sits the Church of the Good Shepard built in 1935 as the sole church in the area and is still the primary place of worship for locals. A little bit further down the road is lake Pukaki and Aoraki (Maori name) or Mount Cook, the tallest mountain in New Zealand. To answer your question, it is 12,218 feet at the summit, and we had a wonderful clear day where we could see the top of the pointy peak at the end of lake Pukaki. Lauren and I have plans to return to this area for some hikes and to see some stars. There is a dark sky reserve around Mt Cook and Tekapo that covers 1,700 square miles making it the largest in the world. Our parents ended up being quite pleased with our detour. They don’t have anything but scenic drives in New Zealand, it is almost impossible to not be constantly surrounded with beautiful views. When we finally made it to Wanaka after over 7 hours in the car we went straight to dinner before checking into our Airbnb. After a good meal and a beer, we were all ready to get some rest after a long day.

We followed the self-check in instructions for the guest house connected to the host’s home. There had been some serious flooding in Wanaka too around the lake and our hosts were concerned for us making it across the bridge, so they came to welcome us and check to see if there was anything we needed. Our parents conversed with them while Lauren and I continued to bring bags in from the cars and unpack. Halfway through the conversation we all heard a beeping that sounded like a fire alarm battery needing replacing. The husband checked the alarm near where we herd the beeping. He said his brand new 10-year battery seemed fine. Dad C still questioned the battery. We hear the beeping again in a different location. The husband checked the other smoke detector and it was fine too. We heard the beeping again from another location. This continued for about ten minutes as we all milled about trying to track down the source of the beeping. The hosts were moving furniture trying to uncover the source. We were walking in circles around each other stopping suddenly like musical chairs every time we heard the beep, straining to determine what direction to move in. Finally, I got lucky and heard the beeping quite close to me, so I stopped and waited for it again to home in on the location. Dad heard it too and stopped next to me. The next series of quick beeps was all I needed to piece this puzzle together when I looked down and saw Dad’s backpack on the ground as the location, I heard the beeping come from. I told him I thought I heard it come from his backpack and right away he knew what it was, their carbon monoxide detector. Because everyone should travel with one! We all burst into laughter when we figured it out and what made it funnier was when we realized why we had such a hard time finding the source. All the while that we were looking around Dad kept moving the backpack around because it kept getting in the way of whatever furniture we thought we needed to move to find the source. Our hosts got a good laugh out of our stupidity and probably thought we were a little bit crazy too for what we had put them through. We all slept very well.

The next morning, we saw a bit of Wanaka before we left wishing we had more time to spend in the cute lakeside town, but given the recent flooding there was not as much to do with many roads and shops closed. But of course, before we left, we had to see the Wanaka tree! Honestly didn’t really get the hype it’s just a tree growing off the shore of the lake. The view from the lake edge is pretty and that’s what we enjoyed the most about Wanaka.

On our drive for the day to Te Anau we made a couple stops to break up the four-hour drive. First, we made a pit stop at one of the many vineyards between Wanaka and Queenstown. We chose to visit Mt. Difficulty vineyards for a tasting and enjoyed their wines enough to leave with a bottle of rosé. We spent the afternoon in Queenstown for lunch and some skydiving. Just kidding we did some shopping and explored the town. Fair warning before going Queenstown is extremely touristy so Lauren and I ended up liking Wanaka better. We did plan to come back to Queenstown for the new year to do some partying because it does have plenty of bars, clubs, and a hip early 20’s crowd to keep us feeling young. The drive from Queenstown to Te Anau was very pretty as we passed by the Remarkables mountain range. When we got to Te Anau we were all very happy to be in one place for a few nights after so much driving in the last couple days, but we didn’t have much time to rest with our day in the Fiordland National Park starting early the next morning.

The Doubtful Sound, and all of the other sounds in the Fiordlands National Park including the Milford Sound are actually not sounds at all. They are Fiords which makes much more sense with the national park name. When James Cook discovered and mapped the region, he gave names to each of the waterbodies and guessed them to be sounds. They are similar water bodies, but the difference is a fiord is created when ocean water backfills the area carved out by a glacier after it recedes.

The Milford Sound is by far the most famous in New Zealand mostly because it is the only one that can be accessed by a road which they cut straight through a mountain. The Doubtful Sound is more remote and requires a couple hours on a boat and bus just to get to the dock that the cruise departs from. It is also known for being more beautiful than the Milford Sound and much quieter with fewer boats on the water. Less than a minute after leaving the dock we jumped up and rushed to the deck after hearing the captain announce he spotted a Fiord Crested Penguin in the water nearby. We caught a glimpse as he popped his head up to breathe and saw the yellow coloring around his eyes before he dove back under avoiding all photography and not to be seen again. The cruise took us out to the mouth of the Doubtful Sound where we saw a seal colony and learned why it was named such by James Cook. As they sailed up to the mouth the winds seemed to only carry in towards land. The name came because James was doubtful, they could ever get back out if they entered. We also saw the only hotel in the Fiordlands National Park as it took advantage of a quickly closed loophole in the rules. The hotel was built for fisherman who worked the area with a helipad to get their fresh catch out to market. They built it above high tide taking advantage of a loophole in the rules. On the way back, we cruised up a few of the arms branching off the fiord to enjoy some more waterfalls and cliffs. The scenery was stunning for the whole cruise and on the bus and boat back. The Fiordlands are a truly special place.

The next morning, I dropped our parents off in town for their bus to the Milford Sound for their second cruise. Lauren and I wanted the wow factor of the Milford Sound to hit us at the end of the Milford Track, so we opted not to join. Instead we spent most of the day tracking down a couple key items I needed for some small repairs to Pumpkin after her breaking in period. It took us about a half a day just to find the 5/8 self-locking nylon nut I wanted for our whirly bird vent so I could rest easy that it would not fly off the top of the car in one of the frequent 100/kph wind gusts. I picked our parents up later in the evening, and while they enjoyed their Milford Sound cruise, they were exhausted from another 10-hour day of sightseeing and travel. Lauren and I really needed a down day to relax after all the running around we all had done over the last two weeks. We were really impressed our parents had the energy to keep going strong the whole time they were here!

On our way out of Te Anau we stopped by the bird sanctuary with the hope to see a Takahe. It is a rare flightless bird that only lives in a couple of secluded areas of NZ and was thought to have been extinct until 1948 when a deer hunter swore up and down to his friends, he had seen one walk by him in the woods. Sure, enough when the Department of Conservation went to the area, they found one very secluded valley with a small population of Takahe living there blissfully happy and unaware they were extinct to the rest of the world. They immediately quarantined the valley to any visitors and have kept a special watch on them and started a breeding program to bring their numbers back up. The bird is such an important species because is it prehistoric. It is believed that it flew over to NZ from Australia about 25 million years ago and between then and now lost its ability to fly because there was no need with the bountiful food found on the ground in NZ. It eats the tussock grass which is plentiful, but very low in nutrient and energy so it spends much of its day eating.

The two takahe birds we saw at the sanctuary had such funny personalities as we watched them feed. The male bird was much bolder and steadily snuck his way to the feeder while we all watched inside his fence. We learned sweet corn is a special treat for takahe and sure enough the first thing he went for was the ear of corn. Once he had it in his beak he retreated with his prize. Before the female could work up the courage to approach the feeder the male had already scarfed down the second ear of corn meant for her and when he came back the little piggie had corn bits all over his beak!

We also saw some Kaka’s and Kea’s which are the alpine parrots around NZ. The Kea is known for possibly being the smartest bird in the world and I have met many people here who believe it with how much trouble they get into. Seriously google Kea intelligence test, there is a YouTube video that is unbelievable. Mom made friends with one of the Kea’s as she was sweet talking the bird almost nose to beak.

Lastly, we saw some parakeets who were equally as playful and quite smart. We watched them devour the small pieces of beet, holding the chunk with their foot while they took bites of it.

We drove two hours to spend the night at Curio Bay for the sole purpose of hopefully seeing a penguin. We got there a little after 5 pm giving us time to catch the penguins between 6-8, our best guess based on internet research. We saw a note on the front of our Airbnb that the host had misplaced the key to the house and apologized for the inconvenience. We didn’t really worry about it much as we were in a remote area of a very safe country. We started unloading and shortly after getting the first few bags inside Lauren had scouted the place and realized it was a hostel that I had booked on Airbnb. At first, I think our parents were a little horrified but after they took a look around and saw that everything was clean and tidy, they seemed to enjoy the experience. The host was even kind enough to have a fire already set up ready to light.  

We drove 10 minutes down the road to Curio Bay and asked at the café where the best penguin viewing spot was. A short walk down a level trail ended at a staircase down to the petrified forest on the tidal shelf. Lauren and I went down the stairs to get as comfortably close to the penguins as we could while our parents watched from the platform of the stairs with binoculars. We got there right at 6pm and it was quite cold with threatening clouds on the horizon. From our research we expected to see penguins around 7pm which was also confirmed by the café staff who told us they could come in anytime between now and 7. We watched patiently scanning the water for any sign of the goofy birds. We were fooled countless times by seaweed bobbing in the waves rolling to shore. That damn penguin seaweed! We were rewarded though by an orca whale swimming by hoping for some penguins to feast upon. It was really cool to see the tall straight dorsal fin and hear the water spraying from its spout as it swam the length of the bay. Ten minutes till 7 some rain showers rolled through and chilled us to our core. Shortly after the rain we were rewarded for our patience, not with penguins, but with a double rainbow! I willed the penguins to arrive in that moment with all my heart. They didn’t show. The minutes went by slowly as we froze and people around us began to give up. We were determined to see a penguin mostly for Mom because she wanted to see one so badly. We agreed that at 8 we would give up before frostbite set in.

I asked Lauren if she could see a little white area in the middle of the seaweed far out on the tidal shelf? I thought it looked too large to be a seagull and asked for her camera with the zoom lens to take a closer look. When I saw him through the zoom, I was sure he was a penguin and took a couple of pictures. As I was taking pictures of him, he quickly disappeared, and it looked like he fell flat on his face tripping over some seaweed. We scanned the area for the next few minutes and Lauren only believed me after looking at my pictures with zooming in on the screen of her camera. She was the one who spotted him the second time as he made his way up onto the rocks for his first few wobbles and hops. I immediately looked back to make sure Mom C saw him, but I couldn’t make her or Dad C out on the stair platform. I told Lauren to stall the penguin while I went to go find them. I ran up the stairs and didn’t see them, so I raced back along the path towards the café where I ran into Dad walking in my direction. I exclaimed a penguin just came up and asked why they had left. He said they gave up around 7:30 from the cold and went back for a coffee. I ran into the café and practically dragged Mom out because she didn’t believe me at first, and I didn’t know how long the penguin would be out there. Luckily there was a closer viewing area just a 2-minute walk from the café entrance which ended up having a better view of the penguin than where Lauren and I were sitting down below. It took a while to point out the penguin to her but once she locked in on him with her binoculars, she was elated watching him hop and wobble up the rocks towards home. With all of us satisfied and humored by the goofy little guy we went back to warm up in front of the fire. In the morning we said our goodbyes as our parents left for the Queenstown airport for their flights to Cairns Australia for the Great Barrier Reef and the last leg of their journey down under.