Day 8 - Te Anau - Invercargill - Dunedin

This morning we left Te Anau with the aim of getting to Invercargill to have a look at Rugby Park Stadium.  It was amazing to see how the scenery changed as we moved south – gone were the brown mountains and in were the green rolling hills.  I know that we are only here for two weeks and I hope I am not putting the jinx on us but we have had such beautiful weather – it has been absolutely fantastic !!!  We have had a few patches of drizzle – not enough to stop us doing anything or make anything we wanted to do unpleasant.  The jackets and pants we bought to wear when we were at Invercargill were certainly not needed – the weather was just perfect.  In fact, when we were in the car, I had to take my two jackets off because the sun was shining in and it was too hot !!!! 

We drove through to Bluff thinking that was the most southerly point of the south island only to read on the way there that that statistic applies to a place called Slope Point along the east coast towards Curio Bay !!!!!!    We went and looked at it anyway before going to Rugby Park (Al said that it always looks like such a little stadium on TV and in real life it actually is just a little stadium !!!!).

View from Bluff

Sign post at Bluff

Looking back down on Invercargill

On the road from Invercargill to Dunedin

 

So then we decided to see how far we would get before stopping for the night.  We were on the scenic route and so continued.  We stopped at Slope Point, the most southerly point in NZ so we can now say that we have been to the most northern point of the north island and the most southern point of the south island !!!!!   Luckily we arrived there before 1^st Sept as we wouldn’t have been allowed to use the farmers field to get to Slope Point after 1^st Sep (until 1^st Nov) due to lambing !!!!! 

 

At Slope Point

 

Wind blown trees at Slope Point

View from Slope Point

Then we stopped at Curio Bay and saw the fossil forests which were amazing.  We walked down to the rocks and saw two yellow eyed penguins.  One we watched for quite a long time as he walked / hopped from the rocks to the sand and back again.  Then he got caught in a wave and we lost him for a while before he popped up and we saw him finally get onto land again.  The second one stayed quite far away and didn’t do much at all. 

 

Curio Bay

Penguins at Curio Bay

 

The next stop was at Purakaunui Falls – they were fantastic !!!  Apparently they are the most photographed falls in the whole of NZ and appear in many calendars each year.  They certainly were worth stopping in to see even though we did miss the turn off to start with !!!!!

 

 

 



At quite a few places we were able to appreciate the stillness and listen to the sounds of nature without any man made noises interfering – it was just great !

By about 6pm we were at Balclutha and so decided to drive through to Dunedin so that we have a full day there tomorrow.  We found a unit with a spa bath in for $105 and checked in – only to find that there wasn’t really enough hot water for the spa bath and then once we were in said spa bath found out that it didn’t work !!!!!!  Not sure if we will be staying here another night – may look for something else tomorrow as it looks like we might be here three nights in order to allow us to visit the Cadbury factory !!!!!  They run shortened tours on the weekend but I would love to see the production line in the factory so we going to see what we have planned for the next couple of days and if we can work it that we stay another night here we will do that.  I guess it just depends on what time the first tour runs on Monday because we will need to go straight through to Christchurch once that is over.  Al wants to do a Speights tour as well so will see when we can fit that in as well as a visit to the Larnach Castle and a look around the city.

While I am missing K and my folks, I am having such a great holiday.  It has done Al and I the world of good to get away like this !

Day 9 - Dunedin

Woke up this morning and had a bit of a slow start to the morning.  What I didn’t notice when we looked at the unit was that there were no mixers in the bath or basin – do you know how cold it is to wash your hair with only cold water in Dunedin when the temps outside are about 3 or 4 deg ?  Well it is bloody cold – not only was my head cold when I was finished washing my hair but my hands were freezing as well.  There was very little water pressure and no shower curtain so showering wasn’t really an option !!!

It was about 9am by the time we were in the car and we took a drive to the Otago Peninsula.  Well it looked like we were driving next to some mud flats.  We drove for ages along the Peninsula and got to the Albatross Colony only to find that it was closed for renovations !!!!

We drove around looking at houses – some old, some new, some that looked like they might be holiday homes.  We were going to stop in at Larnach Castle but it cost $27.50 each to go through it and we decided we didn’t want to see it that much !!!! 

 

We also drove around the University of Otago - such lovely buildings and all the cherry blossom trees around the campus were just lovely.

 



We also drove up and down Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world.  It was not the nicest road I have ever been on but given we have driven down Lombard Street in San Francisco (the windiest street in the world) we thought we had to do this one as well.  There was not much space to turn around at the top - guess the people who live at the top are fed up with everyone driving up and using their yards to turn around in !!!  I was very glad when we got to the bottom again !

 

Looking up Baldwin Street

 Driving down Baldwin Street

That took us a couple of hours and then we parked the car at the hotel and took a walk through town as some of the shops were still open.  Al saw a jacket that he thought was a good price at $100 for me – it was actually only $55 so he was even more pleased when he found that out after we had bought it !!!!  It is a longer jacket which covers my butt and it kept me toasty warm today.

I also bought a top for work and a circular scarf in a lovely green.

We had pizza for dinner from Surfin Slice – one of the nicest pizzas I have had in a very long time. 

I also saw why the spa wasn’t working  - Al had a man look at the instructions on the wall !!!!  So we had a nice spa last night before sitting down to watch the rugby – what a disappointing game.  I don’t think we could have played any worse if we tried !!!!!  I hope we can pull finger before the next game.

Day 10 - Dunedin

Today we headed up the coast to Moeraki.  The weather was the worst it has been.  While there was a lot of mist yesterday – it was quite light when you were in it and we drove into and out of it quite frequently when we were driving along the Peninsula.  Today it was heavier and it didn’t lift at all – it hung around most of the day and when it did lift, it was just overcast as opposed to yesterday when it lifted the sun came out.  But it was all good.

We stopped to see the Moeraki Boulders which were amazing to look at.  We walked across the beach to them and the wind that was there was just icy cold – it certainly felt like it was coming straight from the South Pole !!!  Even with my three jackets on I was cold !!!!  The mudstone that is around that area was quite slippery and I was so sure I was going to see my butt at some point in our wander around looking at the boulders.  Luckily I didn’t.  We stopped off at the gift shop and had to strip the three jackets off because of the heating in there – that is the one problem with being in a cold place where everyone has heated shops – it is cold – hot – cold – hot and so the jackets (and gloves and scarf) are on – off – on – off the whole time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moeraki boulders at Moeraki

A good friend of ours had recommended having lunch at Fleurs Place and said that we would need to book in advance as it was so popular you couldn’t just turn up on the day.  I am so glad we went there – it is an amazing little place.  If you look at the sign on the main road and then see the outside of the place, you would never imagine how nice the food that they serve would be.  I loved the quirkiness of the place – the crockery and cutlery were all mismatched.  I loved the bone handled knives they had and the decor reminded me of Dale and Sophie from The Block !!!!!  We both had blue cod and veggies – it was the nicest piece of fish I have had in forever !!!!!!  Even Al enjoyed it and he is not normally a fish kind of guy !  Then he had banana and chocolate pudding and I had Christmas pudding – both of them were delicious as well !!!

Fleurs sign post on the Dunedin / Christchurch Road

 

Needless to say after that all I wanted to do was curl up and have a nap !!!!  I did doze a bit in the car until Al decided to stop to look in a shop called The Oddity which sold second or third or fourth hand things !!!  I bought White Fang for $1 – I can remember reading this book at a child and thought it would be good to have another read of it. (By the by – Al has been reading Jock of the Bushveld for absolutely ages and he took it on holiday with us – when I saw he had packed it I asked him how come it was taking him so long to read and he replied “I don’t think it is the same book” – I laughed because I don’t think there are too many books called Jock of the Bushveld !!!  Well after we got home and I had finished the library books on my eReader, I opened White Fang – I got about 40-45 pages in and I knew exactly what he meant – the story isn’t anything like I remembered it being.  Is there another version of White Fang out there that I read when I was at school ?  LOL)  I saw some lovely bone handled knives but at $50 for 6 they were a little out of my price range.  They had an eclectic mix of items for sale – some I thought at ridiculous prices but I suppose if he can sell them for that price he will be happy !!!!  I said to Al that my Upstairs Gran (that was how we distinguished which Gran we were talking about – we had Upstairs Gran (Dad’s Mom) and Downstairs Gran (Mom’s Mom) could have made a fortune as I remember her having bone handles knives in the kitchen (or I could have used them – except that years ago I probably didn’t appreciate how nice they were !!!)

We took another drive along the Peninsula on some different roads today – the tide was in and what a different view it was.  We also went out to St Kilda and St Clair beaches although we just looked at them from the car as it was too chilly to get out.

 

 View of Otago Peninsula from Dunedin

 

A house in Hoopers Inlet off the Otago Peninsula

Otago Peninsula



Sunset from Dunedin

 

View from Otago Peninsula

 



Got back to the motel and put a load of washing on before going to have dinner.  Got in touch with K to see if she wanted a jacket like I had bought (she didn’t) and now I am off to have a spa (thanks Al for folding all the washing while I was writing this up for today !!!!).  Tonight they are rebroadcasting the South Africa v Argentina game from 9.30 so I may watch a little of that – I only managed one half of the game last night but am quite glad I didn’t stay up given how badly we played in the first half !!

Day 11 - Dunedin - Christchurch

We woke this morning to rain – and that is what it did all day !!!!  I suppose we can’t really complain given the fantastic weather we have had since we arrived here.  We certainly weren’t expecting the good weather that we have had and we have certainly appreciated every minute of it.

We got up, packed the car and then walked into Dunedin to the Cadbury’s factory for our tour.  I cannot believe how manual so many of the processes are – I guess it keeps lots of people employed.  I also couldn’t believe the volume of chocolate that they produce each day / week / month / year – it was phenomenal  !!!!  We were given some chocolates and we bought some before we left – enough to keep us going until we leave the country I think !!

We left Dunedin in the rain and drove for 4.5hrs or so to Christchurch and arrived in the rain – it rained the whole way – definitely not used to that !!!

I am so thankful that we stopped at the Moeraki Boulders yesterday as it would have been bloody miserable going to see them in the rain today.  We had thought about going to Lake Tekapo on our way to Christchurch but with the weather the way it was, I don’t know that we would have seen much.  Between the rain and the mist we couldn’t see too much for most of the way anyway.

We found one night’s accommodation in Christchurch.  Tomorrow we are going to look around town and the drive down to Akaroa and possibly stay the night before heading north of Christchurch on Wednesday and then back to Christchurch on Thursday by lunchtime for our flight home in the afternoon.

We had dinner at Robbie’s – I had a chicken and bacon stack with mash and roast veggies and Al had a great steak and chips.  It was so filling I didn’t even have room for dessert which I was rather sad about as they had a lovely gingerbread pudding that I had already decided on before I had chosen my dinner !!!!!

After dinner we drove around Christchurch itself – so sad to see these absolutely beautiful old buildings that have been shored up or fenced off with signs saying they are now a demolition site – so very sad to see that architecture lost forever. 

We have had some really lovely accommodation on this holiday.  It has been so far out of my comfort zone – coming on holiday with only the first night’s accommodation and the timeshare booked – but it has been great because it has allowed us to change plans as things came up that we hadn’t thought of doing i.e. going to Doubtful Sound – definitely one of the high-lights of the trip.

Day 12 - Christchurch - Akaroa - Hanmer Springs

This morning we set the alarm and were up and moving before 7am.  Lovely man that I married heated the stainless steel shower floor up for me before I got into the shower – man it was cold before he warmed it up – thanks Luv !!!!  We drove into Christchurch – what a sad situation.  So many of the old beautiful buildings no longer there and in the process of being demolished.  So many empty blocks.  So many buildings fenced off and looking desolate and like a ghost town.  We couldn’t believe the difference from when we were here in 2004 – so very sad.  But, the locals that we spoke to all seemed really positive about the rebuilding process although one lady told us that she had spoken to two locals yesterday who had come into Chch for the first time since the earthquake in Feb 2011 and only because they had visitors from overseas who wanted to have a look around.

We went to a shopping mall that has been built from containers – it was amazing and a great concept for businesses to be able to continue trading when there is such a shortage of usable trading areas.  They join two 40’ containers together and put windows in – just amazing what people can do and made me think of the saying “Necessity is the mother of invention”.



 Loved the words on this ad

 Container mall in Christchurch

After that we stopped in at Westfield Riccarton before heading off to Akaroa.  We had planned on staying there over night but there were quite a few large landslides on our way over the mountains and Al was worried that there might be more if we had more rain tonight so we had lunch there, walked around the quaint little town and then got into the car and headed up to Hanmer Springs.

View of Akaroa Bay at lunch time

Al at lunch

Some of the visitors we had a lunch time

Helping himself to the sugar in the sugar bowl - so funny to watch and listen to

We found another lovely little unit and dropped our bags off before going into town for dinner and to check out the thermal pools here.  Tomorrow Al has suggested a relaxing day although I am not sure how that will work out – he wouldn’t know relaxation if it bit him on the butt !!!!  I really can’t see him spending a few hours at the thermal pools – maybe he will prove me wrong !

The further north we drove the more little lambs we saw – they are sooooooooooooo cute – frolicking around in the fields.  The smaller ones stay really close to Mom but the ones that are slightly bigger seem to be quite happy to chase each other around and butt heads together.  I got so excited every time we saw more lambs.  We had seen some when we left Christchurch on the Friday after we arrived here but the further south we went, there weren’t any.  I think it is too cold further south and those sheep are waiting for it to warm up before lambing starts !!!

Some of the lambs we saw outside Christchurch

Al has such a dry sense of humour and never ceases to amaze me with the one liners that he comes out with – without even a flicker of a smile from him most of the time.  When we were in Akaroa, we saw an old enamel jug for $40.  I remember we used to have one of those when I was growing up and I said I must remember to tell me Mom how much she could have got when she got rid of it as I am positive she doesn’t have it anymore.  (While we were talking to my folks about our holiday when we were back I told them about the jug and the bone handled knives and next minute she is out of her chair and comes back from the kitchen with ‘our’ enamel jug – she still has it so am going to leep an eye out for it in the future !!!!) Actually, maybe I should check in case she does still have it and can sell it and make some money on it because I reckon she wouldn’t have paid more than $1 with the exchange rate and inflation being what it is / has been !!!!!  The same as the bone handle knives that we saw yesterday for $50 for 6 – I am positive that my Gran had heaps of those – wish I knew what happened to them.  Maybe I should have asked for them as well as the Cheaper By The Dozen book that I asked for when Gran died – she always used to read it to me and I just loved the stories.

 

Views of Akaroa

 



Well two more sleeps before we go home and, while we have had the most amazing time, I am ready to go home now.  I want to sleep in my own bed with my own pillow.  The first 8-9 days I was sleeping pretty well but the last few nights I am back to my horrible sleeping pattern – hopefully I will have a good sleep tonight and a lovely sleep in tomorrow.  I am missing my on-line friends as well – feel a little disconnected not knowing what they are all getting up to and if they are all OK.