10th - 15th April Lake Takepo (Mt. Cook) to Dunedin

Days spent:
Lake Takepo: 2
Oamaru: 1
Dunedin: 3

It was a long journey to Lake Takepo from Akaroa, and didn't get there until 4pm that afternoon. We stopped off a Geraldine for lunch as it was suppose to be a lovely town, but we had seen better.

We were lucky with the weather and it was still sunny, so all the mountains were looking their best. The lake, as with most water here in NZ, was a light spearmint colour and exceptionally clear against the dusty brown/orange hills.

We were told by the campsite manager at Akaroa that we should visit the small church by the lake because of the spectacular stained glass window. When we got there, we could see why, the window was clear and you have the stunning view of the lake and mountains in the background.

Our campsite had a similar view, perched on the lakeside, in amongst the Pine trees and only a stone's throw from the water's edge. The evening was spent sitting admiring the view, feeding the local ducks, and drinking the free beer (see last blog) until the sun set.

Our plans were to see Mount Cook or the Maori name, Aoraki (highest mountain in NZ). We hoped for good weather so that we could get a good view of it, but the morning started off really cloudy. The road to Mt. Cook was 100km and as it was a dead end it was practically empty of other cars.

We arrived at Lake Pukaki and could see the top of Mt. Cook poking out of the clouds. We hoped that the clouds would stay away so that we could get an even better view as we still had around 50km to go. When we arrived at the mountain visitors centre we found that there were a few walks that you could do in only a few hours, so as it was turning into a nice day, we thought we'd do one. One thing that's great having a campervan, is that you take your home with you where ever you go, so we had all our stuff already at hand and got suited and booted and were off up Searly Tarn track. See pics.

The trek took 3.5 hours and we reached a height of 1250m, giving us great views over Hooker Valley, Lake Mueller and the glaciers. Because we hadn't had anything to eat, our legs were a bit wobbly by the time we got back to the bottom so we stumbled into the café and had tea and carrot cake to give us energy back.

The next stop was Oamaru, where we could see Yellow-Eyed Penguins. These Penguins are so rare that there are only thought to be 3000 left on the planet, most of these colonise the NZ southern island coast.

On the way there we drove through a mountainous area that never seemed to get much rain, as all the fields were irrigated (by very long crane-things ) for the sheep and cattle.

We arrived at around 12:30, made sarnies (coz were good like that, no cafe food for us!), and walked through some lovely botanical gardens into the town centre. By this time it was only 2pm on a Saturday afternoon, and to our complete surprise, the town was dead and most shops were closed, even the hairdressers! It felt like we'd stepped back in time. I don't think that the British economy would survive if people couldn't shop on a Saturday afternoon, what else is there to do??

The old part of the town, was of a bygone era of Edwardian England, which you wouldn't really see at home on this large scale. See pics.

We had been told that the best time to view the penguins coming out of the sea to their nests was around dusk. So we wrapped up well and waited around an hour to see a couple of penguins come out of the sea.

The conservation around penguin viewing is very strict as it has been proven that they stress easily, even by just the sight of a human, therefore they have hides, viewing platforms and restrictions on beach access - which is fantastic really.

It was quite amazing seeing them in their own natural habitat and see how they venture up stupidly steep and high cliffs to reach their nests (how do they do that with no hands and stumpy little feet?). One even popped up right in front of us, only about 2 metres away, giving us a great opportunity for a photograph.

It was just a short drive from Oamaru to Dunedin so we stopped off a couple of times along the way on the tourist drive that took us so close to the sea that some of the road had collapsed into the sea.

One of the stops was at Moeraki Boulder (see pics). They're a bit of a phenomenon, these perfectly round boulders, but the (scientific) story around them isn't so fascinating, in fact, quite boring, much prefer the Maori story for their existence, where a Māori canoe ran ashore at Matakaea (Shag Point), Otago. The cargo of sweet potatoes and eel pots turned into the boulders.

We arrived at Dunedin in the afternoon. The place is huge, seemed even bigger than Christchurch, but sit on hills overlooking the sea and the Otago Peninsula. It has a more sophisticated feel, as the streets are wider and the buildings grander, and the place thrives with students from, what seems a multitude of universities and colleges.
We got lost as soon as we arrived as the roads are very much like home and have many one way systems. We accidently found our way to the view point that overlooked Dunedin and could see where we needed to be, just getting there was another story.

Finally we found our way to Anderson's Bay (everything's called Anderson with its Scottish heritage), and St. Kilda's beach to our best campsite so far. The beach was really nice, the best we'd seen so far too. There were people surfing, but not as many as you'd expect considering the waves.

Our plan for Dunedin was to explore the Otago Peninsula and see the Sea Lions, Yellow-Eyed Penguins, and the Royal Albatross. Taiaroa Heads (tip of the peninsula) is the only place that the Royal Albatross colonise on main land, in the world. To see them standing on terra firma is something that is so rare for anyone to see. Once they've fledged from the nest, they spend around 5-7 years flying around the Southern Ocean (eating and sleeping on the wing). Therefore, it was something you had to do while you're there.

We drove all the way to the end of the peninsula (60km) and on the way back we stopped off at Sandy Mount Point and walked up to the view point and watched the sun set (again). On the way back we realised that we were almost out of diesel (the fuel light was on) and we knew there were no petrol stations until Dunedin. Opps, we had to free-wheel down all the hills, holding our breath and quietly hoping to ourselves that we'd get back, as it's too big of a wagon to push! We did make it, luckily the last bit to the petrol station was down hill all the way.

The next day, was a chores day. Vik got her photo's burned onto DVD, and we both bought thermals in anticipation for the Milford Sound Trek. Late afternoon, we went back to the peninsula to Sandfly Bay to see the penguins and the Sea Lions.

We arrived just before dusk and had time to watch a huge male Hooker Sea Lion come out of the sea and meet with his lady Lion on the beach, where they both wriggled about in the sand to cool down. We were really wary at first (as they're not scared of humans and have been known to chase), but they completely ignored us so we got up really close and got some photos.

We then went up to the hide and watched some penguins come out of the sea. They seemed quite tired and just stood on the rocks for a very long time.

Vik had a bath that evening for the first time in 7 months - absolute bliss!

The last day in Dunedin was spent blogging, then going to see the Albatross. Unfortunately you can't get really close to them, as they are well protected and managed by a conservation group. This is a bit of a shame because you can't really get to appreciate the size of the birds and their chicks (which there were 3 visible). Vik had her picture taken with a model of the actual size (see pic), and to get an idea of the size, they are roughly 2 of Vik in length.

It was windy that day, which meant it was a superb day for view the adolescent (in love) pair of Albatross gliding in the air together, which is quite unique as they only ever normally skim just above the ocean and never get as high as they did here. We could also see the chicks, which were huge and were only 4 months old, but they didn't do much.

Our next stop was Te Anau to get ready for the Milford Sound Trek.