Dunedin, or at least the area, is really deserving of its own post but lack of time meant that we didn’t really do justice to this place and so it’s one place in New Zealand we would like to return to.

This is a University city known as the Edinburgh of New Zealand with Edwardian and Victorian architecture and a young person vibe to it – i.e. lots of students around ! Whilst it is Otago’s commercial hub and its second largest city, it is quite small and so we didn’t plan to spend too long here; the attraction as always in New Zealand, is not in the city itself but its environs.

Dunedin is the gateway to the Otago Peninsular a rugged finger of land with steep hills left behind by a volcano.The place is famed for its beauty and wildlife and especially its bird life, notably yellow eyed penguins and Royal Albatross – there is a Royal Albatross Centre Close to Larnach Castle which is the only real man made attraction on the peninsula and the only castle in Australasia. The peninsula is an area often overlooked by tourists because it’s rather out of the way although it’s fair to say that as it’s quite small, a driving tour of most of it can be done in only a few hours.

We had left Kaka Point on 11th March on a sunny morning, quite sad to be leaving such a lovely place so soon. We had tried to extend our stay but unfortunately the unit was booked up for the next few days.

The drive North from the Catlins was as lovely as ever and we arrived in the city centre around noon. We spent three hours seeing as many of the ” must sees” as possible ( there really are very few ) including an hour or so in the definite must see Museum of Settlers which was very interesting. By 2.30 we were more than a little peckish and grabbed a quick Chinese lunch which was our first Chinese meal in New Zealand – pretty good it was too.

 

 

After our late lunch, we decided we should book into our accommodation before driving to the peninsula. We had originally booked 2 nights in a Motel near the city centre but had re-thought this, cancelled the booking and booked a suburban house instead. I figured the house would be nicer accommodation (it was a Victorian villa) and handier for the Peninsula and for a quick getaway from the city when we left on the next leg of the journey.

This change of plan turned out to be a poor decision by me as the “substantial and well fitted holiday home” described in the marketing blurb ob-line turned out to be a backpackers kip miles north of the city. I had totally mis-read the map !

We got to the house about 4.30pm and what a find it was – a beautiful timber building painted pastel blue, albeit in need of repainting, with verandas and balconies and a very pretty english garden complete with sleepout. The owner had left the keys under the mat as promised and so we showed ourselves around. She, the owner, had mentioned in an email that the house had just been sold and we could see why someone would want to buy the place – but we could also see why someone would want to sell it! The place could be absolutely stunning and must have been in years gone by but now it needed a total renovation with probably dodgy wiring, ancient and backpacker battered furniture, a not terribly clean kitchen, suspect bed linen and an absence of the advertised wifi, it was definitely not for us!

I phoned the owner but with no reply despite a few attempts. After 20 minutes or so of waiting I sent a text explaining why we wouldn’t be staying in the house and eventually a couple of hours later I received a reply which suggested the owner wasn’t too surprised at our decision!

The only saving grace in this episode was that the owner had asked me to pay by cash on the day and so we hadn’t lost out in cash terms. However, we had lost a few hours and by now it had turned 5pm and we had nowhere to sleep! A quick surf of the net told us there was little accommodation available in town that night and nothing which would give us the two consecutive nights we needed.

We ended up booking the very same motel we had first cancelled – but only for one night.Our decision was to take the one night only and do a quick tour of the peninsula in the morning and then set off for Mt Cook, the next highlight of our journey. This left us with a night to fill and so we reviewed our journey plan and decided to take a more scenic and circuitous route via Central Otago rather than the quicker more direct route via Omarou as per our original plan.

After a long and messy drive back through Duned city centre we eventually landed at the Beach Lodge Motel. Not the prettiest motel we had seen but it was clean and everything worked and it was very handy for the Peninsula. We spent the evening in the motel dining on cheese and wine and caught up with some paperwork and blogging.

An early start ( for us) the next day saw us onto the Otago Peninsula very quickly. The scenery is truly magnificent. Its a very hilly place and the hills are seriously steep with hairy horseshoe bends one after the other – it does mean that the driver is very much focussed on the road rather than on the scenery but even so it was very enjoyable.

We decided to give Larnach Castle and the Albatross colony a miss due to lack of time but we saw enough of the place to want us to revisit and stay a few nights to do some walking if ever we get chance.

We left Otago Peninsula not long after noon for our journey to Mt Cook.

Our next port of call was Kaka Point, an out of the way small town on the South East coast and we would follow the Southern Scenic Route to get there. We left Te Anau around 8am on 9th March for the drive South to Invercargill, New Zealand’s most southerly city. Te Anau to Invercargill is around 160 KMs. With an early start and virtually no traffic on the road, we made good time. The weather was fine and the scenery as pleasant as ever with a constantly changing landscape; through forest one minute then hill farms, sheep and cattle and occasionally deer or goats and eventually long straight roads through wide glacial valleys. There are very few settlements on this route but one that we were looking forward to was Tuatapere, Sausage Capital of New Zealand. We hadn’t had a fry-up since we stayed at Shady Rest in Takaka several weeks ago and so the thought of some gourmet sausages was quite appealing. We were quite excited as we came into Tuatepere but sadly our hopes were dashed and our hearts sank when we found the shop closed and no sign of opening hours. Gutted!

We carried on to Invercargill stopping only for fuel. We had been advised that there would be nothing to keep us in what was a fairly large but uninteresting town and so we went straight through getting to the Catlins around 1pm and ready for some lunch. The Catlins is a largely agricultural area with lovely hilly countryside and lots of rivers. There were a number of small settlements on our route to Kaka Point but most of these settlements comprised a small cluster of houses and nothing else – we couldn’t find a cafe, restaurant or shop anywhere and before we knew it we had arrived at Curio Bay famous for it’s 18 million year old petrified forest. This was one of the places on our “to visit” list. The weather was changing by now and at this point rain had started to fall but we decided to look at the petrified forest rather than make the journey back at some other time. Sadly conditions were not good for photography and also the tide wasn’t fully out which meant that we couldn’t see the old logs at their best – nor did any penguins show up!

We got back in the car and pressed on. An hour later we still hadn’t found an eatery but found ourselves passing a sign for Purakaunui Falls, another of our “must see” places in the Catlins. The rain had stopped and despite our hunger pains we decided to take a look. Sure enough it’s a lovely spot but not really something to go out of your way for. We were glad to be able to tick this off as done rather than drive back later. After waiting for several minutes whilst a group of Japanese tourists rudely hogged the viewing area and view by posing, re-posing and re-posing, we eventually managed to get a snap.

By 2pm we were within a short distance of our destination, Mike and Jenny’s Unit at Kaka Point ahead of schedule, needing an ATM and lunch – we paid a visit to Balclutha where we enjoyed our best curry so far at the Raj Restaurant. Balclutha is the largest town in the Catlins and has nothing out of the ordinary but it is one of the main trout fishing centres in South Island with a number of famous fishing rivers in the area. Unfortunately on this occasion we didn’t have time to cast a fly as we had to get on our way. Replete with our Jalfrezi and Madras, we headed for Kaka Point and Mike and Jenny’s Unit – which in this case was a one bedroom apartment underneath their home. The unit was a tad old fashioned in its furnishings but spotless and very comfortable and Jenny gave us a very warm welcome. I had noticed her vegetable garden and greenhouse as we parked the car at the front of the house but once we got to the back of the house, we were gob smacked by the view – absolutely stunning. As we unloaded the car, Jenny asked if we liked fish. Having confirmed in the affirmative, she offered to cook an evening meal for us which was delivered to us late in the evening. An excellent meal with fish they had caught that morning with potatoes and salad including edible flowers – everything freshly picked from their garden. One of the best meals we had on this trip to date. At the end of our first evening we were already regretting the fact that we hadn’t booked longer than two nights.

Essentially we had only one full day at Kaka Point and so it was as well that we had managed to see Curio Bay and the waterfall the previous day. The other must see was Nugget Point Lighthouse where penguins can be seen in the early evening as they return from the sea to their nests as night falls. We had already researched this beforehand and decided that we would not drive the dirt track to the lighthouse as a number of reviewers on-line had described this as dangerous. We had decided to walk even though this would mean that we would not get to see the penguins, hey ho…

So most of our one day at Kaka Point was spent walking to and from Nugget Point, a total of 16KM. We packed a picnic and were lucky to have a nice day for our walk although it did threaten to rain on and off. We walked almost the entire walk on the beach but in some places where it’s necessary to get up onto the road to continue. On the first of the road stretches we spotted a car that had gone off the road and over a rocky edge onto the beach below. On the next stretch a little further on, a car had also gone off the road and rolled down the beach turning over onto its roof; this had happened within minutes of us reaching the scene and the Japanese family, seemingly all unscathed but very much in shock, were struggling to get their belongings out of the overturned car. The police had been called and a local was looking after them so we continued on our walk thinking we had made the right decision to walk rather than drive.

Our walk otherwise was without incident and at different spots we were lucky to see a couple of sea lions that came out of the sea on to the beach as we were walking along – amazing. There is also lots of bird life (mostly unidentified by us) and we saw plenty of fur seals on the rocks far below the lighthouse but alas no penguins…

We lunched at the lighthouse and walked back to find a vehicle recovery contractor removing one of the wrecked cars from the beach. He had already removed the first one. Seems he is regularly called out. He told us that the Japanese family we had spoken to earlier were already on a bus to Queenstown to continue their holiday! We enjoyed a couple of beers at the pub/restaurant next to the the Unit and retired, knackered, for an early night mindful that we were back on the road the following morning. Next stop Dunedin.

On Friday 6^th March we continued our anti clockwise tour of South Island with a visit to Te Anau. It was a rainy morning and the three hour drive didn’t seem as spectacular as we had come to expect although that might have been down to the dismal weather. Happily the rain dried up as we arrived in town to check in at the Aden Motel for a three night stay giving us two full days here.

Te Anau is a small town on the shores of Lake Te Anau which at 65 KM long is the second largest lake in New Zealand after Lake Taupo and the largest lake in South Island. It stands at 210m above sea level and has a maximum depth of over 400m meaning that much of the lake bed is below sea level. These are facts that you will hear from anyone you might meet working in the local tourist industry.

The town is the gateway to the Fiordland National Park and the jumping off point for many visiting the famous Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound. It is also the launch pad for two of New Zealand’s multi-day Great Walks, the Milford Track and the Kepler Track. Other activities available here include kayaking, cycling, jet boat rides, fishing and hunting and seaplane/helicopter scenic flights. Fiordland National Park is over 1.2million hectares of truly spectacular wilderness country.

The town centre shopping and entertainment area is pretty much contained within a single street a couple of hundred meters long. There’s much to distinguish it much from other towns we passed through. That said, there’s an impressive giant sculpture of a Takahe bird standing in a prominent position near to the Miles Better Pies Shop – No. 3 on Tripadvisor’s list of  Te Anau eateries behind a caravan kitted out to sell crepes and an Indian takeaway operating inside a petrol station!

The Takahe is possibly Te Anau’s main claim to fame given the area is home to this much endangered indigenous flightless bird which is very much localized to Te Anau and the nearby mountains – its numbers are believed to be only in the region of 200 or so.

Our reason to visit the area was to take a trip to Milford Sound which we had already arranged from Queenstown. We spent our first day walking in Te Anau area, completing a couple of easy tramps including one to the Control Gates which controls the water flow from Te Anau Lake to Lake Manapouri and also marks the starting point for the Kepler Track.

Our trip to Milford Sound on 8th March started soon after 8am when we were picked up by
Ray of Fiordland Tours. We were part of a group of 12 and we had chosen this particular tour because of the small group number and the fact that they visit a number of picturesque and historic places of interest en route which other operators don’t.

Scenic Stops on the way to and from Milford Sound

Gunns Camp

A quirky collection of buildings that began life as a Public Works Department in 1938, situated down a remote rough track in the Hollyford Valley. Construction workers families lived here at the time the road to Milford Sound was being built. WW2 interrupted the works and the camp was abandoned.

The site has a long history going back to a Maori settlement in 1650 followed by Pioneers searching their fortunes from timber and in the belief that there was gold, iron, copper and zinc to be be mined in the area – and with the promise of improved access roads. In the event, improved access never materialised and the settlement was doomed.

Davy Gunn, quite a character by all accounts, bought the abandoned site in 1952 to develop tourism. The Camp was managed by the Gunn family until 2005 and is now managed by a Museum Charitable Trust. There is a small museum and shop and for those not camping in tents, there are several small cabins with beds but not a lot else! There is no electricity except for a few hours in the evening but there are showers, flushing conveniences, a large communal kitchen and a dining room where we were served tea and scones. There’s also a petrol pump but no phone signal! This place is definitely off the beaten track.

Milford Sound

Milford Sound is actually a Fiord and was mis-named as a Sound. It’s the northernmost of 14 fiords making up the coastline of Fiord National Park and it’s the only one accessible by road. Milford Sound was twice missed by Captain Cook when he sailed by as it is hidden from view from the open sea. It was John Grono who discovered it in 1823 and named it after Milford Haven, his home town in Wales.

It’s approximately 16km from the head of the fiord to the open sea and there are a number of cruise boats that provide trips. Seals, penguins and dolphins are often seen on this trip but sadly we were not blessed with the best of weather for wildlife or photographs and we only got to see seals. In truth, we could consider ourselves lucky that the day kept dry – this region is the wettest inhabited place in New Zealand and one of the wettest in the world with an average annual rainfall of 6,813 mm on 182 days of the year!

We got back to Te Anau around 6pm. It had been a long day but well worth it. This was an excellent tour with a very entertaining and informative Driver and Guide. Milford Sound is truly awesome but the many picturesque and interesting stops en route to and from the Sound add to it enormously.