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Category Archives: South Island
New Zealand South Island day 23 – Christchurch to Oamuru
The journey between Christchurch to Oamuru is flat and quite bland compared to the spectacular scenery we have become used to. We have decided to stay overnight in Oamuru for two reasons: there are colonies of the rare yellow-eyed penguins and the tiny blue penguins; and secondly the town has an historic centre containing a large number of 19th century limestone buildings
Penguins are nocturnally active on land. They leave the colongy before sunrise each morning and return at dusk each night and there are viewing areas for both the blue and yellow-eyed penguins on the edge of town. We decide to go to see the yellow eyed penguins which are supposed to come ashore around 7.30pm. But not tonight! We wait on the cliff top overlooking the beach where the colony resides in the wind and drizzle for almost an hour and not a single penguin comes ashore. Finally as we are leaving we spot the head of one penguin hiding in the bushes. Apparently, we later discover it is moulting season and the penguins stay ashore all day. Shy creatures they tend to stay hidden in the undergrowth particularly if they see or hear humans about.
We drive through part of the historic district which has a strangely incongruous feel; impressive and beautiful as they are, the buildings just don’t seem to belong.
New Zealand South Island day 22 – Christchurch
Today is a day for chilling and catching up with some administrative housekeeping. We have successfullys let one of our flats – quite a feat when we are on the other side of the world – and there is some paperwork to complete, sign and send off to our recently ensconced tenant. There are postcards to catch up on – ones we bought over a week ago when we were in Rotorua. It’s when we come to post them at the NZ PostShop we find out that there is more than one company provide postal services and the stamps we bought with the postcards are not NZ Postie Shop stamps and the cards have to be posted in a blue postbox a couple of streets away.
Another quirky thing about NZ is the provision of internet services. Download speeds are very slow and way behind anything available in the UK. Internet access is very expensive. Monthly subscriptions are over NZ$100 a month (£35) compared to around £18 in the UK and access at holiday parks (and internet cafes) can cost up to NZ$9 per hour compared to SE Asia where internet is widely available hostels, hotels and cafes free. Even more bizarrely internet services on the holiday parks (and possibly elsewhere) are provided by a number of third party companies who act as an middleman between the parks and the service providers – which must go some way to explaining the high charges. Using the internet at different parks can mean having several pre-paid accounts running simultaneously which can start to get complicated!
Phrase of the day: ‘Merge like a zip’ seen at the point where roads changes from two to one lane.
New Zealand South Island day 21 – Christchurch
Christchurch is known as the ‘garden city’ of New Zealand and for good reason; at its heart is the lovely Hagley Park and Botanical Gardens, a wonderful space full of majestic trees, lawns and flowers through which runs the small Avon River. The Christchurch Beautification Society (yes, really) works to enhance the attractiveness of the city including planting 1000s of bulbs in the park, regenerating an island that used to be the site of an old flour mill and sponsoring floating islands of flowers on the river amongst other not doubt equally worthy projects. There is a curously dated Englishness about Christchurch not least due to it’s Gothic stone buildings including the magnificent cathedral which dominates the city centre, historic weatherboard houses with their verandahs and delicate iron fretwork, the English-inspired street names, Cambridge punts complete with punters in straw boaters and blazers and old-fashioned trams providing tours of the city. This is a calm city – no hustle bustle here. As will the rest of New Zealand there is hardly any traffic giving it an eerily quiet almost deserted feel . We spend most of the day doing a walking tour courtesy of Lonely Planet taking in Cathedral Square, the river Avon which winds its way around the city centre, the high street and the fashionable drinking areas.
Thomas’ Hotel on Hereford is few minutes walk from Hagley Park in one direction and Remembrance Bridge and the centre of the city centre in the other. We are opposite the Arts Centre housed in a rather nice gothic stone building, which on further investigation turns out to been converted into an artsy-crafty shopping complex aimed at tourists, and a very popular micro-brewery. The location couldn’t be better.
Word of the day: trundler = supermarket trolley
New Zealand, South Island day 20 – Hamner Springs to Christchurch
Hamner Springs is the main thermal resort in the South Island. Small (population 750) and pretty with mature trees lining streets of weatherboard houses it has oodles more character than the average New Zealand village. It is a favourite weekend destination for people living in Christchurch 85km further south. The large thermal springs have nine outdoor pools, three of which are sulphur pools, with temperatures ranging from 38 to 44 degrees C, heated swimming pool with slides, sauna, steam room, health and beauty spa, cafe and shop. We content ourselves with an hour-and-half moving between the hot pools relaxing and chatting. A couple from Buckinghamshire arrived in Christchurch a few days ago have come with only summer clothes and, disappointed by the grey and chilly weather, have decided cut short their stay in the South Island and leave for the North Island tomorrow. We leave Hamner Springs after lunch and arrive in Christchurch the most British of New Zealand’s cities by late afternoon. We are staying at Thomas’ Hotel. It is in an old weatherboard house on Hereford Street just a stone’s throw from the town centre and provides a common room and guest kitchen. The weather is sunny and warm when we arrive and we take a early evening stroll in the glorious Hagley Park at the end of the road.
We are discovering that the South Island has a very different character to the North. It has a much more lived-in feel which gives it more character; no artificial film sets here, only the natural ones that provided the backdrop for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Maori influence too is much less noticeable in the South; place names generally have a British provenance. In contrast, most place names in the North are the names given by the original Maori settlers. Maori account for 15% (565,000) of the total population of New Zealand,b but only 5% in the South and are consequently much less visible here. Maori culture is widely celebrated in New Zealand and the indigenous culture has a special and separate status within the country’s ethnic mix. Maori is an official language and there is a resurgence of interest in speaking it. There is also a separate electoral role granting Maori guaranteed parliamentary seats. The cultural mix in the South Island is heavily skewed with around 80 percent of European descent compared to Auckland where the figure is slightly over half which goes some way to explain the South Island’s a distinctly British feel.
Posted in New Zealand, South Island
Tagged Christchurch, Hamner Springs, New Zealand, South Island
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New Zealand South Island day 19- Kaikoura
The weather is considerably cooler in the South Island and wet. But according to the weather reports all of New Zealand is in a band of low pressure so the weather is probably little better in North Island. Kaikoura, on the east coast of the South Island started out as a sleepy fishing village famed for crayfish but an abundance of whales, dolphins, seals, penguins, albatross as well as some stunning scenery has put it firmly on the tourist map. It retains the air of a fishing village, but with a proliferation of wildlife tour operators, motels, holiday parks and shops that are aimed more at the tourist than the locals, as well as numerous seafood cafes selling, amongst other things, crayfish at export prices – no local prices here. A charming place nonetheless. The view of what should be the snow-capped Seaward Kaikoura mountains, unfortunately shrouded in cloud today, greet us when we emerge from our tent. Despite forecasts of rain we set off in the sunshine to do the two-hour circular peninsular walk, part of which is along the cliff tops. We make our way along the dark grey pebble beach which is littered with driftwood but soon decide to revert to the pavement to make easier and quicker progress. We can see the rain coming across the hills on the far side of the bay and soon we are donning our capes. The rain combined with the blustery wind and the fact that we left the map behind, make a cliff -top walk less appealing and we retreat to the car. So changeable is the weather that by the time we reach the car the sun is out again and blue skies have made and appearance. So we decide to drive round to point on the peninsular where the walk ascends the cliff top. Here there is another seal colony and we brave the winds to walk out across the rocks exposed by the receding tide. We can make out a handful of seals through the binoculars but this is a poor show compared to colony we stumbled on yesterday.
We are making our way south ultimately aiming to get to Milford Sound on the west coast and our next stop is Hanmer Springs. We might have spent longer in Kaikoura had the weather been better but the forecast is more of the same and swimming with dolphins in the cold Pacific is not proving much of a draw. The scenery between Kaikoura and Hanmer Springs is majestic – huge swathes of countryside with no visible signs of habitation and empty roads. Deep ravines, massive dried up riverbeds carrying shrunken rivers, sheer escarpments, plateaus, towering hills, rising up in folds created in an earlier age, milky rivers, mountainous backdrops, the peaks lost in the clouds. Shades of greens, browns and gold. Welcome to Middle Earth!
The approach to Hanmer Springs is dramatic as we descend into the valley of the Clarence River. A enormously wide and meandering river bed with a much-reduced milky blue river occupying only a fraction of it’s grey stony bed We treat ourselves to a kitchen cabin. It’s chilly and for the first time in our trip we turn on the heater!.