Tongariro Crossing, Redoubt Walk, Swimming in Lake Taupo, Hot Water Beach, Huka Falls, Drive to Rotorua

Saturday we got up early to hike the Tongariro Crossing, a famous 11-mile walk up to the top of a live, steaming volcano. We looked down into the crater and could see another volcano 80 miles away on the coast. Ordinarily, one can walk across, but the volcano has been venting since Christmas and throwing the occasional hot rock into the air, so we could only walk to the top and come back.

Dawn bus ride up to the base

Volcanic formations along the walk up

Steep climb up to the top

Vent + Summit

This is where we ate our picnic lunch, overlooking these volcanic lakes. Note the steam rising from vents to the right of the biggest lake.

Jennifer at the halfway sign: 11.5 km, 3 hours 25 minutes from the Ketetahi Carpark, 8 km, 3 hours 10 minutes from the Mangatepopo Carpark

Rich on top

Steam venting from Tongariro

View driving down to Lake Taupo

We swam in the lake with bits of pumice floating in the water around us. It felt very good to get clean after our sweaty uphill climb. We  then drove around the lake to the north end and walked on a hot water beach, narrowly avoiding getting burned by boiling water bubbling out of the ground.

The outlet to Lake Taipo: Waikato River gushing down the chasm, Huka Falls

Another big day. After all that, it was again very late in the day, so we drove straight to Rotorua, reluctantly passing by some places we would have liked to stop.

Back to the North Island: Ferry from Picton to Wellington, Te Papa Museum, Best Fish & Chips in New Zealand at Wanganui, drive to Tongariro National Park

The ferry to the North Island leaves from Picton, deep inside a huge fjord with lots of islands and inlets. To reach our hostel in Picton, it seems like we drove endlessly up rivers and the long way around small bays. We got there in the evening to catch an early morning ferry so that we'd have time to see some of Wellington and reach our hostel near Tongariro before too late. Also, the inconvenient hours for the ferry are cheaper. However, because most people rent cars from Auckland and drive south, the rental car companies gives discounts to people who drive them back to Auckland, so the rental company paid for much of the ferry.

Sailboat on Queen Charlotte Sound, near Picton, South Island

Last view of the South Island

Dolphins splashing beside the ferry

No good pictures of Wellington. We spent more time than we planned in the Te Papa Museum, right on the waterfront devoted to New Zealand natural history and anthropology. I really liked this lighted physical geographic floor map of New Zealand.

Because we stayed so long in the museum, we were then in a hurry, trying not to get distracted by all the beaches we passed by. Finally, we stopped at Whangnui just to stretch our legs. We walked along the river, through a park with a memorial to a Maoris who served in WWI, and through the small, historic downtown. We had decided to eat some leftover picnic food in the car, but we passed a fish & chip shop that smelled so good we couldn't resist. It turns out that there was a long wait, but we enjoyed talking to the locals and the fish was great. Later we found out that this fish & chip is rated the best in New Zealand.

Historic paddlewheeler on the river on the Whanganui River

Jennifer next to a shaggy tree in Whanganui memorial park

Driving along the Whanganui River to Tongariro

Kayaking in Abel Tasman National Park, north side of the South Island

We spent a day kayaking in Abel Tasman Nat’l Park, paddling around 2 islands and stopping at several golden beaches, picnicking near an adolescent seal on Adele Island, watching shearwaters skim along the ocean, and admiring sailboats. This was something I'd daydreamed about for quite a long time, which sometimes means that one is disappointed when the experience doesn't live up to one's daydreams. But all day long I felt like I was in my best daydream of this place: clear, aquamarine water, perfect temperature, empty beaches, Winslow Homer-like white sails against blue sky and water. A little scary kayking through the big waves outside the island.

Our rental kayak on the beach, Adele Island in the background

Stopping by a stream on the way to Abel Tasman from Westport

We arrived at Abel Tasman in the afternoon and hiked part of the coastal track that winds along the cliffs and beaches before renting a kayak the morning. 

The sea is very calm, since Abel Tasman is located on a big Tasman bay sheltered from the huge west-coast ocean waves. Idyllic.

View from the Abel Tasman Coastal Track

Exploring some caves along the beach

Fern unfurling in the "bush" along the trail

Split Apple Rock

Happy Waitangi Day!

Today is some kind of a holiday and we've been warned that not much will be open, even gas stations. I think you would like this country. People at all 3 universities we've visited say that people work hard, but not as hard as in the US. People tend to work till 4:30-5:30, definitely closer to the latter for researchers, but don't take so much work home and don't come back in. Sarah, the chemist from Edinburgh we visited in Christchurch, said that when she interviewed she asked if there was a system for signing in and out of the building after hours like in Edinburgh, and the prof gave her a blank stare and didn't really grasp what she was talking about. He said people just don't stay into the evening past dinner time. Someone said that it's the most child-friendly country he's lived in, and I see that born out in a box of toys in every restaurant and wonderful playgrounds with clean toilets in even the littlest towns. Lots of public libraries with free wi-fi.

We had a big day yesterday, trying to do too much and driving too late, but there is so much to see here and we probably won't be back. 

We're pleasantly out of touch.  I don't know who won the Superbowl. The national news here is a joke: major headlines about the Christchurch Vegemite factory being closed since the earthquake leading to a shortage of vegemite!

Christchurch

Monday in between rain showers, I had 2 hours of dry to explore the botanic garden. Before and afterward I enjoyed the local museum with lots of artifacts from Antarctic expeditions. I would have liked to see Christchurch downtown before the earthquake, but one can't even walk through it now. Across from the botanics was a wonderful-looking art museum, but the spire is sitting on the parking lot and it's covered in scaffolding. 

The whole town is one big construction site, but they are doing something fun by sponsoring art in the empty spaces and murals on the walls of buildings that are tumbled down.

In the afternoon, after Rich's talk, since it was raining and clearly not an outdoor day, he and I went to the air force museum and then started up to Arthur's Pass. It was pouring and windy, so we only squinted dimly through the rain at Castle Hill rocks, where we had hoped to hike . 

We expected the morning to be rainy, but it was crystal clear with fresh snow up on the tops of the mountains. At the top of Arthur's Pass, we stayed in one of the cleanest, homiest youth hostels.I got up early and explored the small town. Right behind the chapel beside Avalanche Creek Waterfall, there was a quote from Job on a brass plaque on a rock that expresses the awe I feel while experiencing this beauty and magnificence:

Job. 26:14: "And these are but the outer fringe of his works;
how faint the whisper we hear of him!
Who then can understand the thunder of his power?”

Before heading down to the coast, we hiked to 3 waterfalls, including Devil's Punchbowl, through mossy forests with wonderful views of snow and glaciers on the peaks. 

After we came out on the west coast, we drove south to do a walk up to a Franz Josef glacier. 

Walk up to Franz Josef Glacier

Then we drove up the coast with wonderful views of sea stacks and crashing waves, reminding us of the Oregon coast. Just at the end of sunset, we got to Pancake Rocks, a walk along the cliffs with some distinctive rock formations, and thunderous booming waves making mist.  

Sea stacks along the west coast, Tasman Sea

Sunset at Pancake Rocks

We didn't eat dinner till 11:00. We're off to Abel Tasman National Park this morning.

Karitane to Christchurch: Shag Point, Kaiki Lighthouse ( yellow-eyed penguins), Moeraki Boulder beach, Timaru art gallery

We left Karitane to drive north along the coast to Christchurch. We drove to the lighthouse at Shag Point to try to see penguins. There were signs warning not to get within 10 feet of the penguins to avoid disturbing them, but the penguins hadn't read the signs and got closer than that to us. We saw several cute pairs very close to the walking trail out to the point and down to the beach. 

Kaiki Lighthouse 

Yellow-eyed Penguins

We almost passed up the Moeraki Boulders, but we're glad we stopped. Nothing seemed to be too touristy or crowded, although there were other people on the beach, but nothing in New Zealand was anything close to crowded. One Kiwi told us that if a New Zealander told us that if he sees someone on a beach, he just drives on to the next one. So perhaps a local would have found it too full of people.

Moerarki Boulders

Rich with one of the boulders

Some were cracked open with tidepools inside: nice starfish

A long drive to get to Christchurch, trying not to stop. We stopped to gawk at the Steampunk Museum in Oamamaru and stretched our legs by walking through the free art museum at Timaru.

Steampunk Museum

Karitane, Dunedin, Otago Peninsula: Victory Beach, Albatross Center, Little Blue penguins at Pilot Point

We're staying for 4 nights near Karitane in a professor's house with a great view of a beach and headland. The first day we slept in, had a several hour walk along an estuary, headland, and beach, went swimming, and then Rich worked on his talk. 

Jennifer & Rich on Karitane Headland

Karitane Bay

Sweetpeas & Seashells

The friendly neighbor gave us these sweetpeas. The shells were collected on our beach walk.

We ate dinner with 2 Claremont professorss on sabbatical in Dunedin, Steve Adolph (Mudd lizard guy) and Karen Parfitt (neuroscience professor doing research on Alzheimers and proteins) and 2 sailor guests who'd sailed here from Seattle. It was still light when we drove home last night at 10:30, so basically we were out all day long hiking and driving and looking at beautiful beaches, forests, mountains.

Yesterday Rich gave his talk in Dunedin and I just went to the botanic garden. In Dunedin, all the place names come from Edinburgh: Portobello, Musselburgh, etc., but it's a bit jolting, since the places don't match, although there is a lot of basalt here. 

After Rich finished with his talk and post-talk socializing, it was only 4:00 p.m., so we decided that we had enough daylight left to see at least part of the Otago Peninsula, sticking out from Dunedin. The drive is windy, narrow roads, with gorgeous views of sea on either side. It reminds me a bit of Point Reyes in Marin County, north of San Francisco. Anyway, we bought some cheese at a local market and headed out to Victory Beach alongside an estuary. From the car park, it was about a half hour walk beside sheep pastures and over stabilized dunes to a big empty beach with blue water and crashing waves. We walked to the north end of the beach and saw some fur seals and possibly a sea lion. 

Sheep on the walk out to Victory Beach

Victory Beach, Otago Peninsula

Then we walked back, drove to the end of the peninsula to Taiaroa Head to the Albatross Centre, which the guidebook said was open till dusk, but actually closed at 6:30. Since it was 7:30, we just walked out to the cliff edge and saw tons of seabirds screeching and flying on the edge of the cliff face above the sea. Wonderful views of royal albatross flying overhead and beside and below us quite close. Spoonbills, cormorants, and lots of gulls.

Sunset, Otago Peninsula

Then we walked across to Pilot Beach, where we had heard we might see the little blue penguins, the 3^rd kind of penguin in NZ, since we’d already seen the fiordland crested and yellow-eyed. They were just closing the gate to the beach, so we were disappointed, but the guard said that you could only see them at dusk, about 9:20, on a paid tour and that the other night 140 had come ashore. We decided to make our cheese and crackers and other bits and pieces from lunch do for dinner and paid for the tour. Since Rich had stayed up till 3:30 the night before, waiting till 9:20 seemed a bit of a stretch, but it was a clear night, not too cold, no rain, and probably our only chance. I wish everyone could see these little blues come ashore. We were standing at a platform just above the beach enjoying a gorgeous sunset view of Otago Harbour and peering into the sea to catch the first glimpse. Suddenly a dark v-shaped patch in the water a ways offshore approaches moving very, very fast, and through the binoculars one can see that it’s the first batch of penguins, in a clutch of motion, what they call a raft, and it zooms up to the beach and suddenly 25 small penguins tumble out of the surf and start walking/hopping up the shore to feed their babies in their nest. Enthralling. No problem staying awake. The babies are 3 times the weight of the parents and one nest was close enough to see the wrestling match of the baby forcing the parent to feed him. The parents feed them every half hour. Between wrestling matches, the parents run away for a bit of peace. 4-5 rafts came ashore over the course of the hour/154 penguins in all. One baby positioned itself right along the path where the parents streamed ashore and accosted other baby's parents, trying to force them to feed him. 

We also saw the southern cross for the first time walking up to the parking lot, since it’s been foggy or too light to see stars. Very hard to stay awake on the sharp curves driving home, but well worth staying up for. 

Today we’re back at Karitane,our last night here. Rich finished a letter of recommendation, so we’re at the local library for some internet access and then we'll walk through an estuary to a beach. We tried to sleep in, but the sunshine pours in starting before 6:00 and shines in our eyes before 8:00. Doing laundry, since tomorrow we’ll have been on the South Island a week, and it’s our last night in this house. Tomorrow we drive north up the coast to Christchurch and stay with friends from David Rankin’s lab in Edinburgh and Rich gives a talk on Monday. We also need to plan the rest of our vacation and book the ferry and hostels until we return to Auckland next weekend.