We're in Nelson. Bill is packing the bikes, and I am trying to stay out of the way. Our hostel room is the size of our dog's kennel, roughly 8 by 10 square feet. It's our last night in the south island of NZ. We drove from Christchurch today and splurged on some of the finest Indian food we've ever tasted here. So now I'm in a food coma and Bill is the only one motivated to pack.
To recap the last several days:
Shaken City
Last night, while lounging on a couch in Christchurch (ChCh), we heard some strange thumping and then our couch began to rock back and forth. Turned out to be a 4.0 earthquake. Our B&B bordered the "red zone" of downtown, and we could easily see the damage to the city center from the 7.1 and 6.3 quakes (and their aftershocks) over the past 18 months. A massive crane that resembled a large iron dinosaur was busy chewing on a tower while we watched during the daylight. Our time in ChCh was short, but we didn't want to hang around to watch the depressing business of flattening a city.
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| Crane cleaning up wreckage in downtown ChCh after 2010 & 2011 earthquakes. |
Boulders on the Beach
The Moeraki Boulders are located on a beach just out of ChCh. They are strange large, round boulders that look like they've just been plunked down onto the sand.
Adrenaline Junkies in Queenstown
"Q town" was a wild and fun city, full of energetic young backpackers with their minds set on beer, sex and adrenaline. Our hostel was a high rise in the middle of the city. We got our Queenstown adrenaline fix on a jet boat ride up the Shotover Canyon. The boat got up to 40mph while shooting through the narrow, winding rocky canyon. I about peed my pants. Here's their promotional video, and it well represent the crazy boat ride we had. Apparently, the jet boat was invented in NZ in the 1950's, so they have an inherited right to drive them like maniacs and charge money to people dumb enough to jump aboard and nearly smash their heads into the cliff walls. But it was so awesome.
To the Fiordlands
We drove (no more biking from here out) the Milford Highway to Milford Sound. Beautiful steep rocks, misted peaks, waterfalls, seals...even parrots! A ferry ride through the sound to the ocean was spectacular,with Mitre Peak tolerating us to pass beneath it's towering heights.
The sand flies reappeared here, after the brief reprieve we had in sunny Wanaka. Captain Cook reportedly called these little buggers "the most mischievous little animals" when they ate him alive during his voyages around NZ in the 1700s. An information board at Milford Sound states: "It is small comfort to know that only female flies depend on a diet of blood and water...Maori legend lays responsibility for Te Namu (sandflies) with the goddess of the underworld, Hinenuitepo. As she gazed at the beauty crafted by Tuterakiwhanoa, the carver of Fiordland, she became fearful that humans would not want to leave such a paradise. The creation of Te Namu was her reminder of our mortality and a warning not to linger too long."
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| The Bush Parrot, or Kea, in the mountains of the Fiordlands. |
Wildlife on the Otago Peninsula
Here we saw such crazy creatures as albatross (with up to 10 foot wingspan, soaring above us), shags, tarapuka, and writhing bull kelp in the sea below. We missed the timing to see any penguins. On the domestic side, I thought this sheep lived in a pretty wicked setting and couldn't help snapping a shot.
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| A contented sheep. |
Drinks in Dunedin
Unfortunately, our kayaking trip through Doubtful Sound (Milford's southerly neighbor) was cancelled, so we made it northward to Dunedin early. We filled the day with a great tour through Speights Brewery, which is apparently the only remaining operating gravity-fed brewery in Australasia. "Gravity fed" means the whole process starts up on the top floor of the brewery and works its way down to the bottom; Grain on top, beer on the bottom. They operate out of the original factory built in the 1800s. At the end of the tour we got to pour and taste our own pints. Bill bought the classy souvenir pictured below. Interestingly, the neoprene glove only comes to fit the left hand. The clerk explained that, traditionally, you drink with your left hand to leave your right hand free for "your cigarette, your horse, and for scratching various bits of your anatomy." Here are some Speights ads to make you smile.
A word about the NZ dialect. This post's title is in reference to deep fried fish with fries, along with freshly ground pepper. We had to ask for "come again"s more than once, but we found the dialect delightful.
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