After our rainy stint in Franz Joseph, it was time to drive Mary and Bob to Greymouth, so that they could take the trans alpine railway back to Christchurch for their flight back to Canada. Once in Greymouth, we discussed quite a few different options for the beginning of our last few weeks in New Zealand. One option was to drive back down to Franz Joseph so we could finally, hopefully, if the weather permitted, go for a glacier hike. We could also head back up north to the wonderful hostel in Karamea, or book ourselves in for another scuba diving course in Picton and learn how to use Nitrox (an enriched oxygen air that allows you to stay underwater longer). However, due to stuffy noses, weather forecasts, the cost of fuel, and time constraints, we decided to drive Arthur's Pass, which is a road that loosely follows the famous trans-alpine railway line between Greymouth and Christchurch through some beautiful mountain scenery.
When we woke up in the morning and started packing up in Greymouth, the weather was doing what it always seems to be doing in this grungy coal town: raining. We didn't have high hopes for uninterrupted views of spectacular scenery along the highway, but we set off anyway. At first our concerns were justified, and what could have been views of high mountains, rolling pastures, and wildlife was instead mostly views of cloud cover. We chanced a pull off to a lookout anyway, though, and although we couldn't see whatever spectacular view they had built the addition to the road for, we did stumble across a group of keas. Keas are a large species of parrot found only in forested and alpine regions in the south island of New Zealand, and they are inquisitive little buggers. We had heard stories of keas ripping apart tents to find out what was inside while campers were off on walks, and just before we did the Kepler track, one of the campsites had been closed due to this issue. We hadn't, until now, encountered them personally. As soon as we stopped the car a flock of 10 or so keas climbed aboard and started picking at the windows, roof racks, and anything else they could get their beaks on. Poor Leo. But we were certainly enjoying their curiosity, and they were not at all afraid of us.
The keas paid us very little attention as we watched them chew away at the car and interact with each other, and one cheeky little bugger even tried for a free ride when we decided to continue on our way...
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| Brent saying goodbye to Senior Kea |
After leaving our own little parrot sanctuary, the clouds parted and we had a spectacular drive through the rest Arthur's Pass, albeit not as exciting as our cloudy pull-off. Here are a few shots from the road...
Christchurch
As is our way, towards the end of our drive and once we hit some cell reception, I phoned looking for a hostel to stay in for the night. Our first choice was completely booked up (Kiwi Basecamp, where we stayed when we first arrived in New Zealand), and the next few were closed due to earthquake damage, but we ended up finding a great little spot just outside the city center in a building made of, you guessed it, wood - which was therefore relatively undamaged from the big shake. This time around we had quite a bit more time to fully explore the city post-quake - those portions we could enter, of course, as much of the downtown core is still cordoned off with security at the entrances - and we spent quite a bit of time just walking around and standing in awe at the effects of the February earthquake. It was pretty sobering to see the collapsed buildings, buckled sidewalks and roadways that had caved in, particularly when you imagine the people that were inside and around all of the areas that were so badly damaged. It was also pretty inspiring, however, to see a group of people so badly hit from the quake looking to make the most of it and rebuild their city from the ground up.
Although we couldn't stay there, we did stop in at the Kiwi Basecamp to ask about our friend Marcus, who we met during our 2-week stay when we first arrived in Christchurch in November, and who was still living in Christchurch the last we had heard. As luck would have it, not only was he still in Christchurch when we arrived in May, he was also working at the hostel! And so we had a sweet reunion involving our old favorites of hard cider and the hostel patio accentuated, of course, by old friends. We ended up staying a few nights extra in Christchurch since we were having such a great time, sidewalk cracks and all.
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| "the gang" around the lounge room table at the hostel |
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| Sean (Marcus' roommate), Brent and I |
Kaikoura
On our way from Christchurch to Picton, we stopped for a night in Kaikoura, which is a small coastal city nestled next to some mountains. We didn't have much time or energy to properly explore the town, but we did take a walk along the main street and checked out the second hand book store, where we were hoping to find some good Kiwi authors. No luck there, but it was beautiful scenery..
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| Kaikoura's main drag |
Back to the North Island
After leaving Kairkoura we spent one very short night in Picton and woke up at the crack of dawn to take an early morning ferry into Wellington. We knew from experience that there were no good hostels there, so we wanted a full day to explore before having to drive out of the city to find a nice and affordable bed to sleep in. The ferry ride over was largely uneventful, particularly for me, as I slept through the vast majority of it (curled up across a couple of seats while Brent read across from me), but towards the end of the ride Brent woke me up to see a large group of Dolphins that were jumping out of the water right next to the ship. It was pretty incredible.
Once in Wellington, we found a parking garage for Leo and wandered around the city for awhile, eventually finding our way to the national film archives, which offer free viewings of all kinds of interesting Kiwi productions. We watched a bunch of old public advertising commercials, a few old music videos from NZ bands, and then a feature length film called "boy" that was really well done and incorporated many of the idiosyncrasies and mannerisms of Kiwi culture. We then headed to our hostel, which we found only a 20 minute drive away from the city.
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| an image from the movie Boy |
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| the view from our hostel |
Napier
For our last few weeks in New Zealand, we wanted to explore the only remaining area of the two main islands that we had not yet had a chance to - that is, the east coast of the north island. Our first stop was Napier, where the best hostel we could find was a little one called "stables lodge" that did actually at one time house horses, but now mostly just has too many beds in too small a space. The city itself had more to offer though, with its main claim to fame being its plethora of buildings constructed using an Art Deco style of architecture, which was quite popular when in the 1930s when the city was rebuilt due to a devastating earthquake. There was also a huge sandy beach that ran along the outskirts of the downtown area and plenty of parks and green spaces, so we mainly just wandered through the town and enjoyed the beautiful weather and surroundings while in Napier.
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| mini-golf course next to the beach |
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| an example of some Art-Deco architecture |
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| sunset over Napier beach |
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Another thing we did in Napier was try our first burger from "burger fuel," a company across the north island of NZ and in a few other places in the world that do gourmet burgers, including some pretty tempting veggie options. What I was most excited about, though, was getting my hands on a "doofer," which is their specially designed burger-holding cardboard contraption that prevents spillage out the end while eating it, as well as keeps your hands relatively clean. I found this part interesting because when we were in Waitomo Caves doing the black-water rafting and glowworm cave adventure, our guide told us that "doofer" is Kiwi slang for something when you can't think of the word for it, the same way we would say "What-cha-ma-call-it," but taken from their burger brand. What, you're not excited about a small piece of cardboard? Ah well. We'll move on then.
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| the doofer! |
Gisborne
Next on the list was Gisborne, where we stopped only for the afternoon as it is not particularly the most exciting city in the world, but mostly because they only have one terrible hostel called "the flying nun backpackers." We had some delicious Indian food and wandered around the city, where we heard lots of Maori being spoken and saw a kid jumping on top of a bus stop roof. I thought the city center was pretty beautiful as it was all lined with large palm trees, but almost nothing was open because it was a Sunday afternoon, and so we moved on to...
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| one of the main streets in Gisborne |
Tokomaru Bay
Which is possibly one of the most beautiful little towns in all of New Zealand. Tucked away at the very east of the east coast, Tokomaru Bay is one of those places where the pace of life moves a whole lot slower and the people seem to really enjoy themselves and each other. We were the only guests at a great little hostel overlooking the beach (it's hard not to!) with a cat, a dog, and a couple of composting toilets. There was a traveler from San Francisco who was working there at the time, and so Brent and I took long walks on the beach (cue the violins) and read outside during the day, and watched movies and chatted by the fire at night with her. We asked about doing a horseback ride, which the town police officer (yes, there's only one) and his friend run as a side-business, and so we took a little stroll down to the friend's house to see if we could saddle up. He said the officer had all of the supplies, and so the next morning we got a personal visit, in uniform, to see if we still wanted to go. Unfortunately that was the day we were leaving, but I thought it was pretty cool how the whole thing went down.
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| the view from our hostel, at sunset |
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| freedom camping permitted |
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| the beach |
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| part of the town, next to the beach |
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| lazy fishing days (a local we walked past) |
Long Drive to Raglan
We left decently early the day we took off, as we were planning on driving all the way to Hamilton, which is quite a distance in NZ terms, particularly with their windy roads and seemingly never-ending highway construction. Our plan was to make it as far as Hamilton, stay at a hostel for the night, and then drive to Raglan the next day to meet up again with our friend Andy, who was staying at a friend's bach (pronounced "batch," the Kiwi term for a holiday home) in the city. However, on the way, we contacted Andy who said that he had changed his plans and was leaving in the morning to go to the South island with a friend, and so did we want to come meet him in Raglan and stay at the bach for the night? And so we pushed on through to Raglan and made hot and spice noodles with Andy and caught up with each other on our travels from the last few months. It was such a short visit that we didn't get any photos, but I do have a few from the drive up and an old one with Andy and his now-deceased van...
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| sunset that we pulled over for, as we couldn't see the road |
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| farmland along the highway |
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| Andy and the Ol' B**, from when we first met him in Christhcurch |
Back to Oparau
You didn't really think we could resist one last visit to our NZ "home away from home," did you? This was our longest stay yet, and we were very grateful for the home base and local knowledge as we tied up all our loose ends and attempted to sell the car before we took off back for home. We didn't burn any paddocks or make any wine this time around, but we did poster the small community, along with Kawhia, with "for sale" signs for Leo, attended the local quiz night (we didn't win), saw a "classic rock cover band" (Brent, Elle, and Sheena did, I was a little, ahem, under the weather), had a great time at the birthday party Elle hosted for herself, and attended a bus burning. That's right, a bus burning. Elle's friends (and neighbours) Arthur and Carey had an old house bus that they lived and partied in once upon a time, that has now become quite old and doesn't work any more. Their solution to get rid of it was to host a good ol' fashioned bus burning, to take out all of the interior, and leave the metal frame for later demolition. And so we all piled into the car and drove out to their property where they kept the bus, went for a short tour inside where the magic once happened, and then set 'er ablaze. It was certainly an experience I will not soon forget.
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| the bus, pre-blaze |
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| Arthur lighting the fire |
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| the bus, as it starts picking up speed |
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| fully engulfed |
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| the kids, hitting the back end with sticks as the blaze dies down |
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| remnants of the bus, post blaze and stick assault |
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| everyone (minus Brent, taking the picture) in front of the bus |
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We did manage to sell the car before we left New Zealand, although we were sweating it towards the end and didn't make the sale until 2 days before we boarded the plane. Apparently our postering worked, as an elderly man from Oparau noticed our sign at the local convenience store and dropped down to take a look at the car. He bought it that day and we drove to Te Aramutu to exchange the money and the ownership papers. It all worked out fairly well for us in the end, really.
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| Brent preparing the car for sale |
Auckland
Now car-less and with way more baggage than when we first arrived in New Zealand, Brent and I booked bus tickets from Hamilton to Auckland, and caught a ride in to Hamilton with Elle on her way to work. We looked pretty funny waddling around with our excessive luggage through the city streets and onto multiple busses in Hamilton first and then Auckland, but we did manage to make it to Gary and Amy's place outside the Auckland city center with everything - and everyone - intact. There was one heartbreaking moment, however, when after we had carted everything on to the city bus, driven half an hour to get to our stop, and then waddled up the street, both laden with our large backpack, shoulder bag, and additional suitcase(s), and finally, finally, made it up the steep driveway, I put my suitcase down on the ground at such an angle that it quickly rolled all the way back down the driveway. Sigh. We brought our bags in and hung out with the dogs while preparing a homemade paneer Indian feast, and then had a wonderful few days in the city with Amy and Gary, who we know through Elle and Sheena, and who have a holiday bach in Oparau that they go to on weekends.
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| Auckland skyline |
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| intersection |
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| harbour view |
After a couple of days of exploring the city and picking up last minute odds and ends (merino tights, tim tams, and vegemite mostly) and a couple of fun nights hanging out with Amy and Gary, they drove us to the airport and gave us VIP lounge access tickets and a greenstone (jade) ring for safe travels. We waited for our plane in style with champagne and delicious food before boarding our 12 hour flight into LA.
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| one small portion of LA, as seen from the plane |
Thus ends our New Zealand adventure and begins our cross-Canada escapade. Goodbye New Zealand, I will miss your pristine beaches, beautiful rain forests, quirky accents and mannerisms, home grown wines, paddocks upon paddocks of sheep, delicious pies, and mostly your people. Hello Canada, it's good to be home.
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