Catching up from Christchurch

In a Starbucks in Cathedral Square, Christchurch

We've had a fun morning shopping at a street market in front of the Arts Centre followed by a tram ride around the city and now I'm resting while Catherine goes in search of more wildlife. Here's what I wrote last night:

Milford Sound, whether or not featured in LOTR, was spectacular. We entered the sound at about 8:00 am and believe it or not I was up and dressed and up on the 10th deck getting windblown and freezing and snapping away with the best of them. Knowing full well that the photos won’t begin to do justice to the grandeur of this place I spent a good bit of time just drinking it all in with my eyes. We saw some seals basking on rocks on the way in but too far away to get really useful photos. It took about an hour to get in to the head of the fiord and then we turned around and sailed out. The captain (and now I’m having déjà vu – I think I wrote about this already – if so I’ll edit later) practically pulled the ship right up to a particularly lovely waterfall and I nearly had a stroke as from my vantage point (by this time I was back in our stateroom on our “veranda” with Catherine) it looked like we were going to smash right into the damn thing. There must be a huge drop from the edge of the rocks for the ship to get that close.

Today, the 16th – god it is easy to lose track of time on this trip! – we arrived in Dunedin at about 9 am. We had signed up for a wildlife tour which got cancelled at the last minute. Instead we planned to take a leisurely stroll around the Octagon in central Dunedin. To that end we got a taxi at the pier/lumber yard in the port. Without a backward glance we abandoned our original plan and placed ourselves in the hands or our driver. Fortuitously he was willing to spend the day with us and after negotiating a very reasonable price we were off. We drove into town so I could see the university and the railroad station – great high-Victorian buildings! Oh, and we have determined that the correct pronunciation was Catherine’s – duh-NEE-din.

Then we headed out the Otago Peninsula on a fairly hair-raising road that twisted and turned along the harbor with not one guardrail in sight. I got fairly queasy I admit. But our intrepid driver, Alex, was supremely competent and we arrived safely at the Penguin Place, our first stop. The Penguin Place is a preserve that has been set up by a private individual who happened to discover the rare, and nearly extinct, yellow-eyed penguins nesting on his land. They have set up a very ingenious trail of covered and camouflaged hides that groups are led through in order to see the penguins in their natural habitat. We saw four penguins all together – a dad and chick together, an almost grown-up chick who was home alone, and a mom who was one her own, presumably chick was hiding. Both Catherine and I managed the walk without much problem which was great.

Tearing ourselves reluctantly away from the penguins we belted on down to the end of the peninsula to the Royal Albatross Colony. This was a lot of pain for not such great albatross viewing. The climb up to the damned observation point was like something out of San Francisco, very steep. Yes, Dunedin does boast the steepest street in the world, but this wasn’t it. I thought I’d die before I got there, but my 70-year-old friend with emphysema passed me going at a goodish clip and so I staggered on. Catherine too made it up and back but not without pain.

We collapsed back into the car and drove down to see some seals – they were at the bottom of the hill from the RAC in something called Pilot’s Beach. There were also about a million sea gulls – they have some interesting varieties here, particularly a nice red-bill version, but they still poop all over the place. We saw three BIG seals, up close and personal – two of them were so relaxed and blended into the rocks that I almost missed them. If they had had a few drops of bird poop on them I WOULD have missed them!

From the seals we went on to a short side trip to see Larnach Castle – another marvelous high-Victorian pile which has been lovingly restored and which has dazzling gardens. We didn’t linger here alas but pressed on back toward Dunedin and a late lunch. Our guide had suggested an ocean-side place in a neighborhood called St. Clair – right on the water, a place called the Esplanade where we had a simple but delightful repast. By the time we were done it was time to hustle back to the ship, snatching a few snaps of the railroad station as we drove by.

So all in all it was a great day for seeing the local wildlife. In addition to the penguins and albatri (?) we saw an Australasian Harrier Hawk (gorgeous!), a couple of Spoonbills, terns, Oystercatchers (Catherine says they’re birds not guys), some exotic black ducks – possibly Shelldrakes, and a colony of Shag (cormorant equivalents as near as we can tell).

We postponed our last dinner at the posh Italian place in favor or room service tonight and that was a very good decision. So, dear reader, we are retiring, tired but happy, deeply in awe of the beauty of New Zealand as far as we have come.

Jan. 17
Just in case I don’t have another chance for a couple of days, we’re in Lyttleton and on our way the Christchurch for the day. We’ve promised ourselves a less strenuous day than yesterday. So I’ll be in search of an internet café and Catherine will be shopping! And tomorrow we’ll be in Wellington. This part is going too fast and there is too much to see.