tomleslie.ca

Wash & Surf Laundromat/Internet Cafe
Te Anau, Fiordland, NZ
December 22, 2007, 5pm

Greetings from Fiordland! We arrived this afternoon after a pleasant but overcast drive from the Catlins, where we had a short overnight stay. After checking in to our B&B, we got on a boat and headed out across the lake to visit the local main attraction, an incredible underground cave formed fairly recently from glacier water carving through the local limestone. The cave is the home of the glow worms! The local tour company has a pretty good thing going taking squads of tourists out to see the little buggers, but it’s actually a really well-done tour and it was a great experience. Somehow, they built a sturdy metal walkway that extends several hundred meters into the cave, suspended above the rushing (frigid) waters of the underground stream. At the end of the walkway, past the rushing waterfalls, is a tranquil flooded cave. A hand-powered raft took us out into the middle and we were surrounded by a little galaxy of underground stars: tiny green lights from hungry glowworms, competing with each other to attract insects onto their thin little sticky fishing lines. Very, very cool.

Tomorrow, we’re off to Milford Sound at an ungodly hour: a 6:30 am departure! There’s a two hour bus trip each way, so it’s important to get off early to ensure we have a decent amount of time for kayaking on the sound. So far, the weather looks a bit iffy — there’s the occasional blue patch of sky, but by and large we’re looking at clouds. Still, the sound is supposed to be spectacular in any weather, so we have our fingers crossed!

December 20th, 6pm
Larnach Castle, near Dunedin, New Zealand
10 degrees Centigrade & cloudy

Well, at least it’s not raining any more. Our delightful spell of weather ended this morning with grey skies, which quickly turned to rain as we got out of the Banks Peninsula. We then spent most of the rest of the day driving through torrential downpours, which occasionally lessened to mere drenchings. We traveled on the Inland Scenic Road which, in fair weather, would have given us good views of the mountains seen in the backdrop of the Rohan scenes in The Two Towers, but… not so much today. Just walls of low grey clouds and mist, today. Can’t complain, it looks like it will brighten up for us for our Milford Sound trip and possibly for Christmas, so we’re happy.

On Monday we flew in a convoluted way from Auckland to Christchurch. We came out of the terminal building, picked up our car, and got on the road. We first went downtown for a quick look at the city and its famous cathedral, and a walk along the Avon River — very nice. We had a lovely early supper at the Viaduct, one of the restaurants beside the river, before retrieving our car from the multi-story carpark and getting back on the road.

Our destination was Akaroa, at the end of the highway, on the Banks Peninsula. The road started out flat, but as we got to the peninsula, hills rose sharply of our left. After skirting the base of a few the climb could no longer be delayed and we wound our way steeply up a hill to get our first of many amazing views. From the top the road diverged, and we chose, as it turned out, wisely: the tourist road. The road zigzagged across the windy summits of the hills surrounding Akaroa Bay and we had some spectacular views. My new digital SLR has the evidence, which I will post as soon as we get home!

We descended at last into Akaroa and checked into our B&B, the Wilderness House, a gorgeous Victorian-styled home with amazing gardens (featured recently in New Zealand House & Garden). Our hosts Jim and Liz were more than generous and gave us as warm a welcome and stay as could be wished.

Yesterday dawned fair and warm, and after a delicious breakfast we did an orientation walk of Akaroa, a small town founded by French settlers shortly after New Zealand was fully claimed by the English (with the Treaty of Waitangi between Great Britain and the Maori). We ended up at the main dock, where we found the Akaroa Black Cat Adventures offices. They set us up with wet suits and snorkle gear, and with 7 others and two guides we set out in a fast boat into the bay. Destination: wherever the dolphins were! And soon enough, we found them, lovely little grey, black and white coloured dolphins swimming up to the boat, and eventually, around us.

We had a magnificent and breathtaking close encounter with these wonderful creatures, who entertained us on the way back to shore with a remarkable, and very rare, aerial display of acrobatics! A fantastic dinner at the Harbour 71 restaurant concluded our best day in New Zealand so far.

For this evening, we’re staying in the (glamourous) Larnach Castle in the (distinctly unglamourous) stables. Tomorrow, we’re visiting a penguin sanctuary on the Otago Peninsula, then driving south to the Catlins for a farm stay night. Whee!!!

Addendum: the photos are from the Black Cat company’s web site, so thanks (and apologies) to them for the links. Here is a link to the originals, and you can get from there to their booking form, too: Black Cat Group.

Friday, December 15th
Great Ponsonby B&B, Auckland, New Zealand

Kia ora! That’s hello from New Zealand. We’re winding down after a fairly busy day, which started far, far too early in the skies over the Pacific as our overnight flight descended into Auckland International. Yesterday was our last day in Hawaii, and we took our last opportunity for really hot weather to go to the beach in Kailua for some ocean time. Then off to the airport, and now here we are!

At the Auckland airport we were met by the B&B’s driver “Uncle”, who drove us in through moderate traffic to the Ponsonby area, just west of the downtown core. The English heritage of Auckland was immediately apparent. Besides the blindingly obvious driving on the left side of the road, there were the more subtle touches: the cut stone curbs, the English-style road signs, the smaller cars, the narrow sidewalks and fenced-in front gardens, and the warm-climate cottage-styled houses. At the B&B we were given a quick welcome and orientation, and we were able to dump our luggage and have a very necessary warm shower before heading out for the day.

First order of business was getting Anne some comfortable sandals, which had proven an astonishingly difficult task in Hawaii. We walked downtown, about a half hour from Ponsonby, and before long we’d found a store with some solid but stylish Birkenstocks which suited the need. By then, it was lunch time, so we stopped in a little side alley for a wonderful cafe lunch. I had an absolutely delicious cajun fish burger.

Then we strolled back down the hill to the Britomart Transit Centre, where we picked up a bus out along the eastern harbour road. This took us to a wonderful unique Auckland museum, Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World and Antarctic Experience. There we got our first close encounters with penguins, who waddled through a carefully climate-controlled snow and ice habitat, and swam with amazing speed through the cold waters. We also went through Tarlton’s aquarium, which is built up around a long clear acrylic tunnel, so that the sharks, rays, turtles and fish swim all around you as you go through. Short, but sweet.

By the time we made it back to the B&B we were pretty wiped out, and we had a couple of hours of recouperation time before heading out for dinner on Ponsonby street, which is soft of a Queen Street West kind of area, with lots of interesting shops, cafes, restaurants and bars. We picked a Belgian beer garden and had some immense local mussels accompanied by a massive basket of french fries and mayonnaise.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, we’re headed to Waiheke Island, one of the gulf islands nearby. It’s a 45-minute ferry ride from downtown Auckland, and boasts of 18 wineries and some lovely hiking.