Akaroa & Pohatu Penguins

We awoke this morning after a mixed night sleep. The road was a little louder than first thought but generally slept pretty well! A few other campers had joined us in the night and it was great to have had a free nights camping!

We had a quick cup of tea and bowl of yoghurt and granola before heading over to the small town of Akaroa. As per usual the drive was absolutely spectacular with very different scenery to the previous days! Less mountainous but still hilly and gorgeous views over the harbour below.

Arriving in Akaroa we headed straight to the Penguin booking office to get on tonight's tour. It comes highly recommended and wildlife has provided the highlights of our trip so had to be done! I've had a few days without proper coffee so the next stop was the French patisserie for pastry and coffee!

Akaroa was originally settled by the French and the to this day has a very Gallic feel to it. We were served by a very exuberant French man in the cafe and most of the accents are French that you hear in the streets. It has a lovely relaxed seaside feel and is highly recommended if you're in the Christchurch area.

We wandered along the front and the views are spectacular the whole way along. The peninsula was formed by two volcanoes and is a series of small inlets. This leads to a striking view from Akaroa and a very calm harbour protected from the Pacific ocean.

The shops are a mixture of practical and tourist shops, a small supermarket and a very good tourist information where you can book tours to take in wildlife around the harbour. We enjoyed a stroll and popped in a few nick back stores before heading to the campsite.

With our penguin tour heading into the evening we decided to eat our main meal for the day at lunchtime. I was very happy with the spaghetti carbonara that was created in the campsite kitchen. Following lunch we chilled out at the campsite and organised a few remaining details for our trip to Fiji after New Zealand.

Heading back into town we had hoped to visit the small museum but being New Zealand it closed at 4:30 so we headed to the front to enjoy the late afternoon sun. On the beach we skimmed a few stones across the calm harbour. I have very fond memories of skimming stones with my Dad on family holidays down in Cornwall. I'm pretty sure my best today was a 9 or 10 but Carly thought it was a few less!!

We arrived for our tour at 5:30 and found out we were the only guests for the evening. We proceeded to have probably the best tour of our entire trip! As resident photographer I don't tend to get as much info as Carly so she'll talk you through the rest of the evening.

Our guide, Joey, was the daughter of the land owners where the penguins are found so she picked us up and drove us up the hill to their farm.

We are used to booking on tours, climbing into a coach, arriving at a destination and climbing back on having shared the photo spot with 20 other tourist. So to be picked up and taken to a family farm was a real treat.

We drove in the 4x4 up a crazy steep hill out of the crater. Joey pulled over and we hopped out to get an overview of the landscape. From up on the hill the view is even more breathtaking than down in the little town.

Akaroa stands for long bay and from the hill we could see why. The landscape was formed from a volcano, one side of which collapsed in to creat a very shallow harbour and a bay all the way to the sea. The water is that turquoise colour from the glacier silt which makes the Penguins more blue and attracts dolphins that prefer the silty water.

Joey drove us right to the top of the ridge and we dropped over on to the outside, the 'Wildside' as the locals call it. 'The locals' being Joey's mum and dad and their few neighbours.

The family farm, which covers most of the back side of the volcano crater and into the little penguin bay, was bought by her dad and his brother at age 21. He dad had the foresight to protect some of the land, there's a technical term that basically means that no one can touch it because it belongs to the Queen. The settlers destroyed all but 1% of the natural forest in New Zealand when they arrived and the forest her family now protects was part of that 1% so it has lots of original species.

They are a pretty amazing family who put their time into setting up conservation committees to protect the rare creatures in their area. When they found that the little blue penguin was decreasing quickly they used their own funds to set up traps for introduced predators (rats, ferrets etc bought over from England). They have been working, protecting and researching little penguins for 30 years. They almost lost the farm 30 years ago when the government were supporting cattle farming more so than sheep farming and there had been a major drought. 

The few farms along that side of the mountain came together and set up a walking trail, they put in accommodation and for £260 per person you can spend 4 days trekking along stunning untouched coasts. Each farmer will do a tour and explain their land so Joey's dad takes people to see the Penguins when they stay on their land. This saved the farms and since Joey's and her cousin have become involved with running penguin tours too. She explained that we were funding two new ferret traps.

As she drove us down into her family's bay she continued to tell us that they had petitioned for the bay to be a protected marine area after they noticed a decline in fish that they enjoyed fishing for. We drove through mountains sides of sheep, lambs, cattle and calves skipping around the truck overlooking a stunning bay of penguin filled water.

We pulled up outside this isolated cottage with a beautiful fenced garden and lots and lots of gorgeous black sheep and lambs running around. Turns out Joey's mum was a famous sheep breeding expert and now just has some interesting ones as pets. We were given food to feed the sheep and they rush round you in excitement! I loved feeding the sheep, they were great to see so up close.

Next I knew we were being dressed up in camouflage outfits and binoculars (not to sneak up or surprise the penguins but to keep everyone looking consistent for the penguins to adapt to us).

We then set out around the immediate sheep paddock and slowly I realised that there were little low lying boxes everywhere. It turns out penguins and sheep live quite happily together. The sheep keep the grass short and so less appealing to the rats and other predators of the penguins.

She had her log books and we followed a couple of trails to check on nesting boxes. She would lift the lid, if there was a penguin we had to see how many eggs they were keeping and what species of penguin it was (blue or white tipped) almost the same as far as I could tell!! She explained everything to us before hand and made us feel like an important part of the team. I realised pretty soon that she wasn't relying on us too heavily thankfully as I was too busy enjoying the penguins to count eggs properly!

We saw a few penguins up close on their nests and then we arrived at a hive to watch the adults come in from the sea having been out all day fishing.

She had mentioned at the start that she was hoping we would spot a yellow eyes penguin, rarest penguin in the world, only 190 breeding pairs left in NZ. They had 4 in the bay but it had been two weeks since she had seen one and she was a little concerned something had happened. She didn't have to worry any longer!! As we sat waiting for the little blue penguins to come ashore a yellow eye penguin hopped onto a rock near where we were waiting. We watched as he hopped his way up the hill side, a beautiful bird, minding his own business and we (well mostly I) squealed with excitement!! Edd kept having to remind me to keep quiet!

Soon after we saw a few little blue penguins arrived too although Joey said they were behaving strangely and she went off to check if there was a seal along the cost putting them off.

We stayed until dark watching them in and out of the water through our binoculars before we headed back to the van. Joey drove us back and dropped us to our campervan. Strangely enough the most fantastic part of the tour wasn't the penguins (except the yellow eye, that was insane!) it was learning about the life of this farmer and his family, the conservation work they achieve, being shown around beautiful private land with sheep, calves and penguins.

We've just had dinner and need to get to bed as its now 11pm and the campsite is very quiet even though it's a Friday night!!

Christchurch via Arthurs Pass

Today was a travel day, we spent most of it in the car with a few highlights to break up the journey.

Edd was up earlier than me (surprise surprise) and whilst I packed away the bed he made us porridge so we sat out in the morning sun to have breakfast before hitting the road.

I drove to try and see if it would help with motion sickness, we had stunning views all the way of course. Through a very wide valley with big mountains around the edge. We climbed up quickly at the end to Arthur's Pass. I was adamant we had driven over it as we started descending again but we soon came to Arthur's Pass Village. We pulled up and followed the path to the Devils punch bowl waterfall. The walk was stunning through green woods, with every surface covered in interesting and different weird moss.

I decided on the way up to the waterfall that I am going to do a frame of green when I get home, I'm going to get a mount with 9 holes and fill them with different green foliage, arty!! That meant poor Edd followed me through the woods snapping anything I could find that looked interesting, he got into it too and it was great, we got carried away as everything was green and beautiful. I think the few people who passed us on the path thought we were mad taking photos of the ground whilst there was a stunning waterfall above us!

We arrived at the waterfall view point and were not disappointed, the waterfall was stunning, absolutely brilliant, 'arguably the best we've seen' according to Edd. I agree, the best by a long way, especially with such a lovely, deserted walk up to it.

We both really enjoyed our stop, a really special time out together with stunning scenery at every angle. Back in the car and the weather changed every corner, one minute beautiful sunshine, the next really heavy rain and even thick fog!

We stopped for lunch at a small town that is known for its famous pies. The plan was to pick up pies and find somewhere nice in the country to eat lunch but we ended up back on the road and it turned out to be difficult to pull over anywhere. Without much say in the matter we ended up in Christchurch through lack of stopping options. We parked up in the Park carpark and ate lunch there. The pies were definitely worth their reputation and we were both fairly full after all the rich gravy.

We left the car and wandered into town expecting a trendy coffee, cafe vibe. We had been told that it wasn't worth staying too long and there's wasn't much there. I have to say I found it really quite sad, I couldn't believe how damaged the town still is after the earthquake. Every street has building works, scaffolding and road diversions.

The earthquake was in 2011 and I naively thought that the city would be back to normal 5 years later. It really isn't. The 're:start' mall is where lots of the shops are and I was expecting a 'westfield' style shopping centre. Instead we found lots of porter cabins, brightly decorated full of clothes and some food vans selling ice creams etc in an attempt to make it an area for people to gather.

We spent the couple of hours we had wandering around discussing how devastating the earthquake must have been and how long it must take to come back from something so huge as a city. I hadn't realise the initial quake was on 22nd Feb, the aftershock that did most the damage was December 23rd. That's so long after, I assumed the aftershock was a few days later.

The cathedral in the centre was damaged badly and has been blocked off and stabilised, at some point it is due to be deconstructed and apparently there is great debate about what to replace it in that space. 

The big departmental store had a sign explaining its history and how it had managed to continue business even through 8 months of being shut after the quake. I imagine it was one of the first places to re open after the shock. I have to say we didn't see any houses still being repaired, just bigger main city buildings.

Having seen the centre of town we nipped into the Christchurch museum which was really interesting, explained a little of the original Maori lifestyle, then we went through a traditional Victorian New Zealand street and finally a exhibition about 75 years of Air New Zealand. We also saw the inside of a Kiwi couples' house, they had collected hundreds of thousand paua shells and had decorated the whole of their house. 

They had decided to let tourists in and for years coach loads of people had visited them. They died in their late 90's famous in NZ, their son donated their lounge to the museum. The museum was really lovely, if not a bit random, we got kicked out at 5pm so we walked through the botanical gardens and back to the car.

Tonight we are freedom camping properly. We have to park near a public toilet as we don't have one onboard and are not allowed to go anywhere without a toilet but we are in the middle of a field with nothing but a little drop loo. No water, no showers and no cooking area. It's sort of cool and free! 

We spent the evening here enjoying the sun setting and eating left overs from yesterday. We are the only ones here, private camping! There's a campsite across the road that's further away from the road and has a few more facilities but we visited and didn't feel so comfortable with the other trailers that were staying there.

Since then we have been sorting blogs, photos etc and when Edd needed the toilet I jumped at the opportunity to be accompanied over the field so I didn't have to go it alone!! We stepped out of the van to the most stunning star studded night sky! We have just spent the last 15 minutes sat in the van with the windows down staring up! 

I'm very proud to say I found the southern cross on my own (knowledge from when we came here 15 years ago!!) and pointed out the Milky Way to Edd too. The sky is incredible, I can't understand how it's so much better than England but I guess partly they don't have so much light pollution here with such a small population comparatively to us.

Bed soon, I'm going to struggle to take off my down jacket tonight and I've already warned Edd that if I need the toilet in the night he may get a wake up call!!!

Driving the West Coast

We made the most of our hotel this morning, enjoying the warm bed and free wifi, checking out at 9:59! Carly had a lovely catchup with Hannah before leaving to discuss the wedding and hen do plans! I vividly remember still planning our wedding, it's such a fun time and you get to spend a lot of it with family!

We set off just after 10 with Carly driving to see if it helped with her motion sickness. My turn to sit back, navigate and look at the views! We didn't have too much planned for the day but in New Zealand the drives are as much about seeing the landscape as getting from a to b. It's a lovely sized country for getting around and totally stunning! The morning fog lifted as we left the glaciers and it turned into a beautiful morning!

Our first stop was Hokitika Gorge. We'd been warned by friends that the sandflies here were particularly bad here so the zip on legs were attached to my shorts before leaving the car! The sandflies weren't too bad in the end but I was grateful for protected ankles!

The attraction to the Gorge is the stunning turquoise waters! The water is this brilliant colour due to years of fossil decay mixing with glaciers melting and rainwater. The result is truly spectacular! We enjoyed the wander down and took a few snaps before the sandflies started to get a little close for comfort! Back in the car we headed to the town of Hotikika.

The west coast is famous for its whitebait patties, although they tend to get mixed reviews from tourists! They're currently well in season so when in Rome! We managed to find a fish and chip shop in Hokitika that sold the infamous pattie so parking up at the beach we headed to the shop.  

The pattie is essentially an omelette with whitebait dotted through it! I have to agree with the general consensus that while inoffensive they're on the bland side! The chips we shared however were delicious, very crispy, proper chip shop chips.

The tagline for this part of the west coast is "Holidays like you used to have, but with better coffee!" It does sum up this area in the positive and negative sense! Very relaxed and gorgeous scenery, today with blue skies! But also the feel of a slightly tired English seaside resort! Either way lovely for a stop for lunch and wander around the small town.

After lunch we headed into town to explore the art shops. The towns along the coast are all historically gold mining towns and are also rich in other minerals. Mountain jade appears to be the main stone with every other shop selling the stone in various guises. 

We then stumbled across a stunning shop selling wildlife photography. The gallery was run by a very entertaining German guy hellbent on a perfect trip advisor score. His work was all stunning, mainly local bird life. He gave us some tips on the local area and some amusing stories on people who'd dared to give him lower than perfect scores! Carly was particularly touched by him not believing she was older than me! The beard is getting a little out of hand!

Following our wander we topped up our supplies at the supermarket and headed up the coast to Punakaiki. We stopped at a campsite on route to book a spot for the night and headed up to the pancake rocks.

Punakaiki is another small town on the West Coast, this time famous for its pancake rocks. Geologists aren't actually sure why the rocks take on the shape they do (like a stack of American style pancakes!) It's a pretty unique view although I'm not sure Carly was overly impressed with the view for a 90 minute round journey!

Following the advise from our German friend we headed further up the coast to a short stroll along Truman Walk. The walk took us through rainforest with beautiful birdsong and out to a deserted beach. The noticeboard informed us that the beach is a known spot for penguin breeding at this time of year but sadly there were no sightings for us tonight. The walk and views however were well worth the trip and it was a lovely end to the day.

Back in the car we headed to our campsite and I hurriedly got dinner on the go. The distances aren't as great as Australia but the drives still take a while and it was 8 before I started cooking. We had kitchen facilities on site so I was able to spread out more than in the van and was pretty chuffed with my cous cous, ratatouille and fried halloumi.

Back in the van tonight and another day on the road tomorrow as we head over to Christchurch.