Red fish and yellow-eyed penguins

Another week has gone by, rather quickly if you ask me. Work didn't go as well for me this week as last week, but it was still decent.

Today I was volunteering for Greenpeace for about an hour and a half. We walked from the Cathedral in the city centre to the Art Centre market and handed out Greenpeace's consumer guide how to avoid the most unsustainable seafood to people we met on the street. That is, the others were doing all the talking and handing out the guides, while I was having fun being our ocean's campaign mascot: Sammy, the semi-sad Orange Roughy fish. My upper body covered by the round red fish costume, I went with the flow, approached families, let children give me a pat (or a tug on the tail!) and posed for many a walker-by's camera.

JBB as Sammy, a semi-sad Orange Roughy fish.

It felt good for once doing something not as an employer and without any performance pressure, but simply for the importance and good of doing it.

A couple of days ago I talked to an elderly guy who had some very interesting thoughts on the origin of the climate change the planet is experiencing. Is it due to human activity since the Industrial Revolution? Because of the increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere? A consequence of deforestration and ocean pollution? No, no, no! There is a much more logical and plausible explanation.

The whole mess is the fault of the French.

You heard me right! The French have caused global warming! (At this point I should inform you that some Kiwis still hold a huge grudge against the French for bombing the Rainbow Warrior in the 80s.) It's all because of those countless nuclear tests the French did on the atolls in the South Pacific years and years ago. What happened, was that the series of nuclear explosions in the exact same spot over and over again, caused a change in the inclination of the Earth, thus changing the seasons and the climate we had up until then!

Proof of this can be found in the fact that the French eventually stopped their nuclear tests. Was this because of public outrage and environmental organisations like Greenpeace demanding the tests to cease and the Pacific to be made into a nuclear free zone? Again, no. The opinions of the little people don't matter. Governments will do as they want. The tests ended simply because someone way high up, had figured out what the nuclear explosions were doing, i.e. ultimately giving birth to the tool of our own self-destruction. (I'm still talking about climate change. And I'm serious.)

What a conspiracy theory. I was dumbstruck having heard that. What do you respond to something like that? It's not like you can convince someone that deluded of the truth. Poor humanity.

Alright, so that, I guess, pretty much sums up my week. In order for the blog to ever catch up with current events, I'm going to tell you how our journey continued from Dunedin, where I left you at the end of the last post.

The Southern Scenic Route is a coastal journey starting in Dunedin and ending in Te Anau, the heart of Fiordland (or the other way around). You can get the free map of the route at any information centre; it shows where all the attractions are located. There is lots and lots to see, but unfortunately many of the attractions are not located within easy access from the road; to some you need to walk for an hour or two to reach. Other attractions, like the Cathedral Cove, are only accessible a few hours every day due to the tide. Preferrably, you'd split the drive onto several days in order to see as much as possible. We, on the other hand, chose to drive the whole leg in one day. This made us miss some things, but ultimately I don't think it's something we'll regret.

What we did see though, was one of the many waterfalls in the Catlins region (negligible), the 160 million year old fossilised forest at Curio Bay, some yellow-eyed penguins and the Blue Rocks in Riverton. Curio Bay is absolutely worth a stop if you drive the route. The fossilised forest is viewable depending on the tide, and looks really just like imprints of tree logs in the rock cliffs of the beach. When we jumped out of the car to go down there, it was pretty stormy, so we also got to see some huge waves breaking into the cliffs.

Waves crashing into the cliffs in Curio Bay.

We were also lucky enough to spot two yellow-eyed penguins in the bay. They were standing further up the beach next to some low-branched trees and bushes. One of them frequently flapped its wings at a high speed drying the feathers.

A yellow-eyed penguin in Curio Bay.

Because the weather was less than enjoyable, we ended up driving all the way to Invercargill pretty much without further stops. Invercargill was a bit of a disappointment. The largest town in Southland and portal to Stewart Island lacks character and has the charming feel of an industrial town. It has enough promise to tickle one's tentacles of curiosity for an hour or two (at most), but to spend a day and a night in Invercargill would probably mean a day and a night that could have been better spent in a number of other places in NZ. Don't fall for it.

Leaving Invercargill not only improved the scenery, but also the weather. By the time we very briefly stopped in Riverton to switch driver and take three photographs of the curious Blue Rocks, we could almost discern Stewart Island 30 km out at sea.

The Blue Rocks in Riverton.

From there it only got better the further we drove north towards Fiordland and its main town, Te Anau. Gradually we passed into more and more mountainous terrain, eating up the miles with our green petrol-drinker. The sun didn't have much time left above the jagged peaks by the time we arrived in the cozy little town in the most iconic part of the country. Before finding our accommodation (Barnyard Backpackers, a very idyllic place we like very much) 9 km out of town, we quickly familiarised ourselves with the lakeshore and the shopping street, as this would become our base for a while. Te Anau, which lies on the shore of Lake Te Anau, the second-largest lake in NZ, is after all, the gateway to some of the best tramps in NZ, Fiordland National Park, as well as the magnificient fiords like Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound.

Dusk over Fiordland as seen from the Barnyard Backpacker's hostel.

If this text was more boring than usual, hopefully the next couple of entries will be more inspiring as I cover our first trip to awesome Milford Sound and our four day tramp on the Kepler Track! 'Til then, keep it real!

Some things old and some things new

Time ticks fast in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Trees have turned into crimson conflagrations and leaves are flying through the crisp, sometimes even cold air, falling to the ground and becoming every gardener's tedious chore. Autumn is here; progressing and slowly turning into winter.

The departure of the last of our Finnish visitors, Juuso and Eeva, two weeks ago in Queenstown, also marked the end of our 2½ month vacation since leaving Tauranga. We had to start searching for jobs for our last months in New Zealand.

As I'm publishing this, I sit at the desk in my new room in Christchurch. I'm sharing a flat with four other people the next 11 weeks, until early July. A week ago I started working for GP again here in Christchurch. Meanwhile, Giigan has our car and is still in the Queenstown area. He's looking for some steady work there, but has already done some sporadic work on a vineyard in Wanaka.

My room in Christchurch as captured by my lousy phone camera.

I'll tell you about the flat and post some proper pictures of it later, as Giigan currently has the camera. Before I go into telling you about how our road trip through the South Island continued from Christchurch two months ago, I'm just going to point out the new "current status" section below the map in the right column. As suggested by Juuso, we'll use that area to just very briefly comment on what's going on presently and what our plans are (since the events in the blog are lagging behind...).

Alright. Moving on to the old bits.

After Sanna and Kaisa departed Christchurch, Giigan and I headed towards Dunedin. Dunedin is the second largest city on the South Island and lies 5 hours south of Christchurch along the coast. The drive is pretty boring, especially the first 1½ hours. This is because the road goes through the Canterbury Plains, which is the largest area of flat land in NZ. The only thing you see is straight road, farmland and up to a kilometre long irrigation systems.

Things get interesting when you arrive in Oamaru, 120 km north of Dunedin. In the 19th century Oamaru was a thriving city, the wealth of which can still be seen. Namely, the old town centre is still full of old limestone buildings. Walking through the historic district you can admire the Victorian architecture while stopping at, among others, a second-hand bookshop, a stone carver's shop or the New Zealand Malt Whisky Company.

The buildings weren't the only old things in the historic district in Oamaru. The dog is alive of course, even though he looks stuffed!

As you may remember from the blog post about the whisky festival in Christchurch, the only NZ whisky in the world is available through this bottling company, which is based in Oamaru. Even though you wouldn't be interested in buying whisky, their store is worth a visit. The ground floor holds a café and a shop, where you can buy all sorts of nice trinkets made in New Zealand (besides the whiskies). On the first floor you can have a look at the festive Barrel Room (wouldn't mind attending a party there), and on the top floor there is an art gallery. The whole interior is very elegant.

The Barrel Room at the New Zealand Malt Whisky Company.

Oamaru is also known for being the childhood hometown of the famous Kiwi author Janet Frame. Furthermore, Oamaru is a great location to spot some penguins! There is both a Blue Penguin colony and a Yellow-eyed Penguin colony within just a few kilometres of the town centre. We have visited the Blue Penguin colony, but not when we were passing through Oamaru this time, so I'll leave telling you about it to another post.

Between Oamaru and Dunedin we stopped at the Moeraki Boulders, which are huge mud and stone spheres that lie on the beach half sunken into the sand. We were favoured by a low tide, so we got to see the boulders very well. They are naturally formed and quite peculiar, but I won't try to explain their origin to you. You can click the link to read up on it if interested.

Giigan by one of the Moeraki Boulders.

Once we got to Dunedin, we ended up staying there for about four days, since we liked the city so much. This wasn't only because the hostel we stayed in (Hogwartz) is one of the best hostels we've been to, but because the whole city has such a vibrant feel to it. Maybe this is a result of Dunedin being a university city and there are lots of students there, maybe it's the architecture which sets the city apart from all other cities in NZ. With its many gothic churches and dominant stone buildings, Dunedin feels like a city in Scotland. In fact, Dunedin was the destination of many Scottish immigrants, and the name comes from Dùn Èideann, the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh.

Besides just walking around the beautiful city centre and the university campus, we (naturally) had to visit the Speight's Brewery, established in 1876. We went on a brewery tour and learnt, for instance, that the brewery is one of only a few gravity-driven breweries in the world. Moreover, we learnt that the water comes from a spring deep below the brewery (even though the brewery is located in the city centre), and water from the spring is available free of charge for the public through a tap outside the brewery. The water's claim to extraordinary purity has made it hugely popular; there was always some people on the street by the tap filling up huge plastic water bottles!

After the tour we got to quench our thirst by tasting the full range of Speight's beers.

Dunedin lies at the head of the Otago Harbour, a long and narrow bay formed between the mainland and an equally long and narrow peninsula called the Otago Peninsula. Driving to the tip of the peninsula makes a good day trip from Dunedin, but you need a car of your own as there is no public transport there. At the tip of the peninsula there is an Albatross Centre, where you can visit a museum-of-sorts about albatrosses, pay $45 to go on a tour to the Royal Albatross colony (100 metres away), or just stand outside the centre and wait for one of the giant birds to soar by and watch it for free.

Larnach Castle, which is New Zealand's only "castle" also lies on the Otago Peninsula in a breathtaking location. Budget travellers like us can choose to only visit the garden surrounding the castle. This is a good option if you're not so keen on paying the high entrance fee inside the castle, even though it's not completely free either. But if it's a sunny day, you can borrow a petanque set (free) from inside the castle and play in the petanque court after having walked through the colourful garden with its many native plants and flowers. The Larnach Gardens are, for instance, the only place where we have seen a young Kauri tree. In its youth, the Kauri bears little resemblance to its older self (we saw thousand year old Kauri trees on the North Island).

View from the gardens at Larnach Castle.

You can watch yellow-eyed penguins at Sandfly Bay on the peninsula too, but the walk to the beach is rather long. They are best viewed either at dawn or from 3 pm 'til dusk. We didn't venture down to the trenches and hides on the beach as we were hungry and wanted to go back to our hostel and cook some food!

On our last full day in Dunedin we played a round of golf for the very first time in New Zealand! The course was Chisholm Links; like the name says, a true links course by the windy ocean. The course was very much to my liking, and Giigan wasn't complaining about the view and layout either while playing his very first 18 hole round of golf!

Chisholm Links, Dunedin.

In the evening we drove to Baldwin Street, which is the world's steepest street according to the Guinness Book of Records (some controversy exists around this, of course). It has a maximum gradient of 19° (quite steep, I assure you). The street is a few kilometres from the city centre. We also drove to the top of Signal Hill, from where you have a fabulous view of Dunedin, spreading out on the steep slopes of the hills leaning down into the Otago Harbour.

You'll hear a bit more of Oamaru and Dunedin when we write about Giigan's parents' visit to NZ, so for now this will have to do. In the next blog post I'm going to tell you about the southernmost part of the South Island; a road called the Southern Scenic Route to be specific. Meanwhile, you can sign this online petition to put a stop to genetically engineered (GE) rice being allowed in the European Union! And people in Finland/Helsinki: the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior 2 is visiting Helsinki next Sunday (26th April). Doesn't happen too often so take this opportunity! Everyone is welcome onboard!

MORE PICTURES from Oamaru and Dunedin are available here!

Creatures of the depths

The drive south from Blenheim to Kaikoura is scenic to say the least. On one side you have the impressive Kaikoura Ranges with peaks towering to altitudes well over 2500 metres, and on the other side you have heaving blue waves as far as the eye can see. It is a good leg to have a private chauffeur for; me and Giigan certainly weren't complaining as Sanna drove!

Kaikoura is a picturesque, smallish town located at the foot of a peninsula shaped like the tail of a whale. At least if you have a bit of imagination. If it wasn't for the rich marine life of the waters off the coast, Kaikoura might very well just be a drive-through place for tourists. As things are though, Kaikoura is a lively tourist town, most famous for being the place in New Zealand if you want to see whales. Whale Watch is the only marine-based whale watching company in the country. They operate around the year and have a 95% success rate of spotting Giant Sperm Whales. If you're lucky you might see other whale species too, depending on the time of the year.

Together with Sanna and Kaisa, I went on a whale watch tour in Kaikoura. It's not the cheapest thing you can do, but worth every dime without a doubt. We were blessed with fine weather (once again): the sun was a lonely fiery eye in the cerulean vastness of the sky, there was hardly any wind and the sea was calm. A perfect day to spend a couple of hours on the waves spotting the magnificent creatures of the depths that whales are.

As the ship set out, we quickly got to see our very first Giant Sperm Whale because another ship had discovered it bobbing on the waves, preparing for its next dive. Every once in a while we got to see a fountain of spraying water push into the light sea breeze, as it breathed out and the water in its blowhole was cleared. Otherwise it just seemed to float there, content and utterly oblivious to the two floating pieces of aluminum shadowing it. To us, it appeared very much like a gnarled old tree trunk, albeit one shrouded in an aura of suspended vehemence; like any moment, this gentle behemoth could erupt in an awesome display of power, so perilous for the early whalers. Although only a fraction of its immense body was visible, you could feel the "iceberg" looming underneath the rippling surface. Primeval. Majestic in its solitude. A conqueror of the abyssal darkness beneath, whose roof we were traversing like a satellite across the starlit celestial sphere this very instance...

Having oxygenated its blood, it took speed by arching its back once, twice, thrice, and exposed its tail in a graceful motion, rivulets of water running off the triangular flukes like rain on canvas as they rose from one element to another. But before you knew it, this grand gesture of farewell had been substituted by a foam-tipped whirling disturbance in the ocean's natural sinusoidal, tender roll. The whale had blessed us with its presence and now sped on its inchoate descent towards the silent depths. The beautiful monstrosity was returning to its hunting ground.

The Sperm Whale raising its triangular flukes high out of the water before a deep dive.

Reverberating, its engines coming to life in a rumbling roar, our vessel turned around and rapidly gathered speed moving away from where the whale had disappeared. The crew informed us we had plenty of time to try and locate another whale. As Sperm Whales only surface for an average of 8 minutes between their up to 90 minute dives, technology is used to track diving Sperm Whales, anticipating their ascent. Because Sperm Whales use echolocation to navigate and find food, the whales can also be roughly located by listening to the beam of high-frequency clicks they produce while submerged. So every once in a while, our ship would stop and turn its engines off to let the captain lower a hand-held sonar into the water. Through the headset he was wearing, he listened for the clicks as he turned the sonar in various directions.

Through this method we did get on track of another Giant Sperm Whale, but ultimately it wasn't the modern device that spotted the whale. It was one of the crew keeping a lookout on the sundeck of our vessel, seeing the misty plume of the whale's blow in the distance.

Another Whale Watch catamaran and a Giant Sperm Whale clearing its blowhole. The Kaikoura Ranges and Peninsula in the background.

So we got to marvel at another one of these giants, this time a lot longer since it had only recently surfaced. The hissing clearance of its S-shaped blowhole. The lazy sunbathing like forgotten flotsam, a dark void in the glimmering sea. The smooth "wave" of the tail which is the finale of its show; the courteous gesture of parting. "See you again."

Before returning to port, we got to enjoy the sight and acrobatic skills of the highly gregarious Dusky Dolphins. The crew estimated that there was about 500 of these playful mammals in the pod. Like most dolphins, they weren't shy of the ship, but came close and rode in our bow water. Further out at sea a couple of them were creating huge splashes as they momentarily soared above the waves like low-flying albatrosses, only to be pulled back into their aquatic home by the chains of gravity.

Playful Dusky Dolphins.

Such was our excitement watching this congregation of sleek beauties, that we were truly disappointed when the ship had to turn back to port. Oh well.

Moving on from Kaikoura, we followed highway 70 inland towards the alpine town Hanmer Springs. Hanmer Springs is a popular weekend destination for people living in Christchurch, since it's only 1½ hours drive away. Hanmer Springs is the main thermal spa resort on the South Island. Besides getting your skin revitalised you can also do a number of walks in the mountainous terrain and ski in winter. Our options turned out to be pretty limited as there was no snow (February, d'oh!) and EXTREME fire danger in the whole area had forced the Department of Conservation to close all walks in Hanmer Springs. The temperature on the day of our arrival reached a staggering 35 degrees (Celsius)! The fact that the air was hardly moving at all between the rocky slopes of the Hanmer Range made our stay nearly suffocating, but we didn't let it deter us from having a good time.

There are excellent views of a broad river valley if you drive towards Lewis Pass from Hanmer Springs for half an hour. The valley is probably at its best in spring when the snow on the mountains melts and comes roaring down, however, it wasn't bad for us in the middle of summer either. In the evening we enjoyed a delicious self-put-together cheese platter and local wines at our hostel, the Kakapo Lodge, before suffering a poor night's sleep tossing and turning in the heat.

Group photo by the river valley of Waiau River.

Next day (9th Feb) Giigan and the girls tried out the spa (which they were very pleased with), before we drove on to Christchurch in the afternoon. We had dinner and spent a nice evening at the cosy Italian restaurant Café Valentino on Colombo Street. Beware, their Apple Crumble Cheesecake can prove to be a bit too much even for the most devoted cheesecake lover!

Dinner at Café Valentino in Christchurch.

Tuesday 10th February was the girls' last full day in Christchurch before their flight back to Wellington, and ultimately back home from New Zealand. The day was spent sight-seeing and shopping in downtown Christchurch, and ended with a successful dinner (beer and lamb stew) prepared by us two travelling amateur chefs. In a game of Risk at our hostel - the Foley Towers - something unprecedented (and nearly unspeakable) happened: we were both beaten by the girl team in this game of conquest and war, and neither of them had ever played it before! (A clarifying note to all of you feminists reading this: it wasn't the fact that we were beaten by two creatures of the lovely opposite sex that upset us, but the fact that we were both beaten by at-first-reluctant novices, period!) Well done girls! Your skills on the field of battle have been duly noted. We won't make the mistake of underestimating your prowess again ;-)

Time flies when you're having fun, but sooner or later today's date matches the one on the flight tickets. We thoroughly enjoyed having you Sanna and Kaisa visiting us. It was good to see some other familiar faces besides our own, and to share more than a few laughs at the peculiarities of life here on the other side of the planet. The telling in this blog of our road trip together should give our other readers a pretty good idea of what you have time to do in New Zealand on a two week holiday. We sunbathed on the best of beaches, swam in crystal clear seas, got cultural at the national museum, had our taste buds challenged touring wineries, felt the pulse of a capital, admired beautiful endangered species, indulged ourselves at a spa in alpine views, walked through vibrant native forests, goggled at some of the largest creatures on Earth, and much much more. Quite diverse activities if you ask me.

We hope you enjoyed travelling with us and liked what you saw of New Zealand, because (as Giigan and I have been able to ascertain later on) you haven't even seen the best this country has to offer yet; Te Anau, Milford Sound, Doubtful Sound, Queenstown... you won't run out of things to see and do if you decide to return in the future, that's for sure.

We are falling behind in our writing quite a lot, but we'll try to catch up as best we can. It's just that too much has happened during the past two months, and there isn't that much time to write, organise pictures and prepare the blog. Anyway, next time we'll tell you about impressive Dunedin, the university city that has a Scottish vibe to it!

MORE PICTURES from this last leg of our journey together with Sanna and Kaisa are available by clicking this link. Enjoy!