Penguin Place

I have a soft spot for penguins, and we got to see many different types on this trip. Well, okay, it was mainly four types. Regardless, this was definitely the best setup. Sometimes I have mixed feelings about animals in captivity, but these were free. In the wild, you often can't see them very well. We had excellent views. Getting too close to wildlife can be bad for the animals and the humans, but this was really low impact.

It is all possible due to an elaborate network of bunkers. Actually, I asked one of the guides if the owner was former military, and he wasn't, but the blinds do have military origins. I think they were bought as surplus. Anyway, the blinds are linked by covered trenches, so you are always underground. I don't think the penguins are necessarily unaware that they are being watched, but they are never touched or approached, and they seem to feel pretty comfortable.

The land was a sheep farm, of course, much like Hobbiton. However, it is also coastal, and Yellow-eyed Penguins would come ashore and breed. If I understood correctly, the sheep are still there, but routed away from that part of the property, and the shelters and tunnels went up. The breeding population has more than doubled since they started.

That is not a huge increase, but considering all of the issues that native birds have had in New Zealand, it is not bad. They are solitary breeders, so each pair wants a certain amount of space. Also, as the newly hatched birds mature, they may not all choose to come back to the same area to breed. Once they pick a breeding spot they will be very consistent, but I think they said that does not happen until the birds are three years old, and they can end up somewhere else. However, if one bird has been coming back regularly, and then stops, that probably means it is dead. The crew there keeps track of the breeding pairs, and hatchlings. (We also learned that the same pairs come together season after season, but "divorces" do happen.)

This is a great place to support. Not only do you see penguins, but they can use the money. Even though they are very much helping with conservation, it is a private endeavor, and so there is no government funding. They just love the penguins, and have a chance to do something about it. They will sometimes get an injured bird shipped to them for rehabilitation, and the government may do some compensation for that, but really, no one is turning a large profit here.

That is one thing, in that although generally it is hands off, if there is a sick or injured bird they will try to help, which is how they have some ability to treat penguins from other areas. It is very much wildlife rehabilitation though, with the goal of re-release. There are no zoo connections because there are none in captivity. Usually the penguins you see in zoos are more social varieties.

Even if they don't wind up in huge mob scenes like the Emperor Penguins, they can co-exist with another species. You may notice that one of the pictures is of a mother duck and duckling. The father and other ducklings were around too, getting some swimming in. One penguin approached the pond, and you could see he wanted to go in, but the father was eyeing him suspiciously, and he hesitated. Eventually he did go in, but not too close, and there were no confrontations. And, what surprised me greatly was that in this situation, the penguin swam like a duck. Usually I see them launching like mini-torpedoes, so it was interesting to see a different mode.

There is also a picture of how the landscape plays out, so you kind of get an idea of what you were walking through, and how far it extends, and yet it still doesn't stick out that much.

The other manmade intervention you will notice is that the birds are in nesting boxes. Some did just set up under bushes, but in general they seemed to be very comfortable using these wooden a-frames for shelter. Anything to make it easier, I guess. They are considered threatened.

http://www.penguinplace.co.nz/
http://www.penguin.net.nz/species/yep/index.html

Larnach Castle

Remember, this was still our first Saturday in Dunedin, and it was a day just jam-packed with activity. I took many pictures at the castle, and being limited to posting five per blog, wanted to give Larnach a fair shake. It still may be worth checking out the main photo site.

If you do, the extras will primarily be pictures of the different plants. The gardens have a large assortment of native plants, and then there is a section of more tropical/desert plants, like aloe vera, and other sorts of plants in between.

There is also a bit of an Alice in Wonderland theme. It is not overpowering, but in addition to the statue of Alice playing croquet, shown above, there is a Cheshire cat, the King of Hearts, and the Duchess, and there is a throne for the Queen of Hearts, which I photographed by itself and with Julie in it. (There are also two photos of Maria in a seat built from a stump, but I could not get her to stop laughing. Maybe I should have quit saying funny things.)

We just kept finding different things. There was a row of arches leading to the castle, but they were not in line with the parking area. Checking the other end, there is a duck pond, and a white statue that you would think is a sleeping duck or swan, but then you read the plaque and it was actually representative of the boat of the soul after death, or some such nonsense. It made so much more sense for it to be a duck. Incidentally, the ducks were busy grazing, and had clipped a narrow border around the pond. Well, why should they get out to eat if they didn't have to?

We wandered around a bit more, and found this small tent-like structure. We thought maybe it was for the ducks, and peeking inside we saw little white feathers, which seemed to back that up. However, turning another corner we found these fluffy white hens, and the tent was their home.

Our admission to the grounds was included with the tour. We could have paid extra to go inside the castle, but ended up not doing so. I did snap a picture of the inside though, and that is up above. I'm sure it would have been fine, but we had places to go and things to do, and I've seen old furniture before.

http://www.larnachcastle.co.nz/index.pasp
http://harristravel.shutterfly.com/788

The Otago Peninsula

We really found that people in the hospitality industry will go out of their way for you. They kind of have to, but it can still be handy. So, when I wrote to Back to Nature tours asking about one specific day trip, Chris wrote back asking if there was anything else he could do for us at all. I had concerns about hitting all the different points on the south island, so I asked for some advice there, and he offered to book all transportation, accommodation, and tours. That is how we ended up with a personal guide.

The tour I was initially asking about was pretty much the Discover the Peninsula tour. It looks like they have made a few changes to the package, but the main points are the same, and that basically ended up being one day for us, our first in Dunedin. I'm going to write separate posts for Larnach Castle and Penguin Place, but this is everything else that happened that day.

We has spent the night in Te Anau, so we started the day with a three hour road trip. We needed to get it out of the way some time. We arrived in Dunedin right about lunch time. Chris dropped us off at a Chinese restaurant while he went to go make some arrangements for us. I wish I could tell you the name of the place, but seriously, the only English word I saw anywhere was "restaurant". It was an orange building, and reasonably priced, and might have been on the west side of town.

I almost forgot, our Dunedin Cadbury tour happened on this day also. Well, I already wrote about that, and suffice it to say that while New Zealand is wonderful and magical, Cadbury is much better in Tasmania.

Now, Chris was customizing things for us, so I may mention things that we did that are not normally done. A lot of their business is picking up cruise ship customers, where they have fairly strict time lines. Still, Back to Nature Tours is very accommodating, so it might be worth asking.

Right across from the Cadbury factory is the train station and other historic buildings, as well as a museum and Chinese garden. I will write about these more later, because we did some exploring on our own the next day. Chris also took us to the university campus to look around, and to see Baldwin Street, which he told us is the steepest street in the world. Wikipedia says there is some dispute about that, but as you can see, it is quite steep.

We started off for the peninsula proper, with Chris telling us about the local history and ecology. After Larnach Castle, we headed over to Sandfly Bay. This sounds like an unpromising name, especially as our bug bites from Kangaroo Island had barely stopped itching, but the issue is not sand flies. Instead it is that there are frequent high winds, and so the sand flies. This was definitely true.

In two of the photos you can see Lion's Head Rock, which is a local landmark. Some people also think it looks like a baboon's head, but the locals see a lion, and I can see it too, so that's what I'm sticking with.

As we approached the bay, we passed two men and a dog on a tractor. They were sheep farmers. When we came back, they were gone, but there was a sheep outside the gate, and it seemed disturbed to be separated from the rest of the flock. We are helpful people, and have a lot of compassion for animals, so we felt bad for the sheep and wanted to help. We asked Chris if he could open the gate for the sheep.

There was a look on his face which I did not understand. I thought perhaps it meant that we were overreacting, and the sheep would be fine without our help, and maybe he thought we were a little crazy. It was not that.

Chris tried to prepare us, that if we wanted to muster the sheep, we would all need to get out of the car, and close off different angles. It all seemed rather complicated, when I thought that all he had to do was go and open the gate. Still, this is what he said needed to be done, so we got out, and he moved a little forward, and the sheep bolted and completely escaped our perimeter.

I know sheep have a reputation for being stupid, and maybe that is true, as this one could not see that we were trying to help. What I will say is that they are skittish and fast, and that is why you need dogs. Three confused Americans? Not so helpful.

(Incidentally, we were told earlier that if you find a stray sheep, you can take it. You need to allow some time for the owner to claim it, but you can eat that sheep. Well, this law is less useful knowing how hard they are to catch.)

As stated, Penguin Place will be its own post, but there were a few other stops. One was the Royal Albatross Colony. This is another case where going a bit later could have been helpful. We were right at the start of the breeding season, so there were only two albatross there. That number would be increasing over the next few weeks. Still, we did see those two. (And sea gulls. Lots and lots of sea gulls.)

We also made a few stops for other bird watching at random places. We were on a peninsula, but rather than jutting out into the open sea, it goes out a little and follows the shoreline, so you have this rather large inlet with some good shelter, and you get all kinds of sea birds and shore birds. I can't even remember all the types we saw.

There was one bit of wildlife I will remember for sure though. At one point Chris got out of the car and found four little crabs so we could have a race. He drew a circle in the sand, divided it into quadrants, and set each crab in the middle. Mine was the first one to make it out.

All in all, it was a very good day. We did a lot of different things and had a great time--so much so that it will require three posts total to do it justice (four if you count the Cadbury one).


http://www.backtonaturetours.co.nz/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin_Street,_Dunedin

Milford Sound

At some point I will sum up the trip, and give general tips, and I may make the point that combining New Zealand and Australia may not be the wisest idea. Sure, they are in the same general area, but they are different enough to have quite different weather patterns. If we had gone later, Australia would have been too hot, at least in parts. However, waiting another month or so might have been good for the New Zealand side of things.

Milford Sound is so beautiful that Rudyard Kipling called it the eighth wonder of the world. Mitre Peak is considered to be exquisitely shaped. The Maori say that the creators of the area had been practicing making all the other mountains and lakes, but this area was the last they created and was perfect.

We never saw Mitre Peak. The clouds never lifted enough for it to become visible. As you can see from these pictures, it was quite cloudy and foggy, and there was intermittent rain. Many things were hidden from view. As it was, we were lucky. Our initial plan was to kayak on the sound, but we started to have doubts about this being the right place to learn how to kayak, so we changed to a boat tour. If we had kayaked, we would have been nearly drowned by the rain, plus having a good chance of drowning ourselves anyway, so that worked out.

The reason we wanted to kayak is because tourism sites will frequently show pictures of dolphins swimming among kayakers (actually, there may only be one picture that gets shared), and you think, oh my gosh, what an amazing experience. It would be, but it also has kind of caused this myth to develop that the Sound is full of dolphins and you will definitely see them if you go. That is not true. Chris (who has kayaked with dolphins), says he sees them about every fourth trip. That is not bad odds at all, but you need to have expectations set appropriately. The only wildlife we saw on the cruise itself was a single seal.

That should in no way be seen as a criticism of the trip. It was not what we expected, but it was still beautiful. Often the fog made it eerily beautiful.

We got on the bus in Te Anau, but there were only five of us there (us three and a couple on their honeymoon). Everyone else had started in Queensland, and then returned there, which must have added four hours to their trip. I'm glad we did it that way. The downside is there was not much choice of seats left. I did not end up near my sisters, though we saw each other on stops.

There are several points of interest along the way. I think there normal plan is to do all the stops on the way when everyone is fresh, and then go straight back on the return trip. Some of the scenic viewpoints were so fogged in on the way, that we made a few extra stops on the way back. Again, I kind of liked it. That picture of the kea on the branch up above is one of my favorites. It's like something out of another world.

We saw many kea. We learned a bit more about the birds. One thing to know is that they are inveterate thieves. They will steal food of course (which is not healthy for them, but they'll still do it), but they will also go for shiny objects. So, you can shake your keys to attract them, but do not let them grab your keys, or you have just stranded yourself.

Some of the stops include Knob Flats, where you have glacier deposits, and the cataract, where the running water has carved twisted, fantastic patterns.

There are mountains between Te Anau and Milford Sound. There is dense vegetation below, but the timberline is fairly low, so you have trees, and then an abrupt stop to where it is almost all bare rock. I am probably not describing this well, but there are two related things that I want to describe. One is that at the upper levels there is nothing to absorb rain, so during rain waterfalls show up everywhere. That is unless it is windy, in which case the wind blows the water streams into the air, so you just have a valley full of misty bridal veils.

The other point of this is that apparently even the lower vegetation is not rooted very deep, so when a slide is triggered, it really clears everything away. We passed a recent slide, and one that had been there for a while, and I took pictures, but they just did not do it justice. There's a link to the main photo site if you want to take a look, but it just does not capture the scope.

You don't go completely over the mountains, as you pass through the Homer tunnel. This was another case of not being able to take an adequate picture. I wanted to convey how small it looks. And really, I guess it is not that small, because our driver told us that the bus could pass a car, though it is a bit touchy, and certainly two cars can pass each other. If two buses enter from opposite ends, someone will need to back up. (Once you emerge, you start going down steeply winding roads, and we actually did pass an accident, though we managed to get down safely).

I have mentioned before how having a guide with a personal connection can make a difference, and also how we had a certain amount of luck with our timing, like with the takahe and the echidna. We kind of hit the motherload here.

Our driver was Sam, and since he was a broadly built redhead, he can introduce himself as Samwise Gamgee and it seems reasonable, though he would be a bit tall for a Hobbit. He was holding a baby during the layover in Te Anau, and he said it was his baby, but then she was being held by a woman in the middle of the bus, so I thought it had been a joke. Then she was being passed around among a few other passengers, and she did get brought up to the front, and I thought, okay, she is his, and the passengers are all helping, which is nice. Will I get a turn?

In reality, yes, she was his baby, but also riding along was Sam's wife (the child's mother), and both sets of grandparents. That's kind of a sweet thing to have happen anyway, but also, the wife's parents had raised their family in the area, and had gone camping in Fiordland many times. Her father told stories about the area, and we got to see pictures of floods and avalanches that had occurred.

Sam's father told us he was one of the few births resulting directly from the Homer tunnel. The tunnel was a public works project started during the depression in 1935 (that was not just the US, much like the current financial hardships are not just us). His father and his uncle worked on the tunnel, his uncle bringing his father along on days off, allowing his father and mother to meet. Anyway, it all just added some extra color, and the baby was cute.

One other possible useful tidbit. Trekking is a very popular activity in New Zealand in general, and specifically in the Fiordland Area. You would think that the Milford track would be the big one, but the heavily recommended one is Kepler. Probably worth checking out.

http://www.kiwidiscovery.com/index.cfm/milford
http://www.fiordland.org.nz/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_Tunnel
http://www.newzealandnz.co.nz/great-walks/
http://harristravel.shutterfly.com/700

Te Anau

Te Anau is the closest town to Milford Sound. It's not even that close (about 75 miles) but staying anywhere closer means camping, or possibly staying on a boat, so Te Anau gets a lot of its traffic from that. I suppose there are hotels, but it mainly vacation homes and rentals.

We had driven in the night before, and were going to catch a bus to Milford Sound for a boat cruise. We did not need to meet the bus until 11 (I think), so Chris wanted to show us the area around the lake.

This gave us a chance to view many native plants and scenery, but there were a few other enrichments. At one end of the trail there was a rehabilitation area for different birds. Most of them were species that we had seen at Rainbow Springs, but this was another view of them. We saw our beloved kea again, but I took so many kea pictures on the way to Milford Sound that I am holding off on that. Instead I have a picture of a kaka. (Most New Zealand bird names are taken from the way their calls sound: ke-a, ka-ka, more-pork. Of course, translating bird calls into human phonetics is open to wide interpretation.)

Probably the most interesting bird we saw was a takahe. This bird is highly endangered. It looks rather similar to the pukeko, but we found a sign that listed the differences between the two birds. Probably the best indication is that if you are seeing it in the wild, and not in a pen labeled takahe, then it is a pukeko. Takahe are just too rare.

Even with one in captivity, we were lucky to see it. Since the focus of this place was rehabilitation and then release, as opposed to display, the bird has plenty of places to hide and often chooses to do so, which is completely allowed. Chris had been there twice before without seeing it.

For some reason, for our visit the bird was running up and down the hill. I suspect it was some kind of pre-nesting behavior. I did not get great pictures due to the constant movement, but I do have one up here, as well as a picture of the giant takahe statue in the middle of town.

Looking at the photos, you can see the gorgeous scenery, and also how marshy and wet everything is. I liked the way that the water came right up to the trail, but it was not merely that. In addition, the grass was quite wet, and the area was fairly hilly.

Maria was still sporting a wound on the back of her heel, making anything other than flip-flops too painful to wear. Things were not quite as steep as Hobbiton, but evidently it was more treacherous, or the fact of it being milder lulled her into a false sense of security. She did a really spectacular slip, getting mud all over and around her pants.

Chris was amazed at how ladylike she was over it, not swearing at all. He has no idea exactly how miraculous that was, but it was the calming spell of the South Island (and the Scottish tour guide).

Not to worry. Chris ran ahead to get the vehicle back, and we rushed back to give her a chance to change before boarding the bus. He did not ask for it, but I took one of my handy emergency ponchos as we wrapped her in it, protecting the car interior.

I said there were two enrichments. At the far end of the trail (at least as far as we went, but you can keep going quite a ways) there are the bird pens. At the near end there is something like a discovery center. They have displays of plants and minerals, and information on the history and ecology of the area, including native lore.

We were able to pick up quite a bit of information here, and it also started one of the strangest odysseys of our trip. They have this series of educational children's books featuring native creatures learning things or resolving issues. Maria noticed one in particular, 5 Kiwi in a Kombi (this appears to be what Kiwis call a VW bus), that she felt was perfect to take back to her kindergarten class.

Maria asked me to buy it for her, but I had left my wallet in the car, and did not want to go get it. I said it was clearly a common book, as part of this series, so we would just buy it somewhere else. Well, let me tell you, we looked in every bookstore we encountered across New Zealand, including three in Queenstown and five in the Auckland airport. We saw many books in the series, but not that one. Eventually Chris needed to order it for her and forward it to the States when it arrived. Crazy.

http://www.fiordland.org.nz/Explore-Fiordland/Places-to-visit/Te-Anau.asp
http://harristravel.shutterfly.com/700

The turning point

One of my favorite sites has been Television Without Pity, and one of my favorite recappers was Miss Alli (there have been a lot of changes now). Anyway, she would do the recaps of The Amazing Race, and she coined a term: Killer Fatigue Syndrome. She would use it to explain how people who had been good racers and good human beings would just start falling apart at some point. We may have been feeling this a little bit.

There had been many good moments on the trip, but there had also been disappointments, and frustrations, and things that went wrong. Certainly, there was some accumulated tiredness. After all, we had planned a very ambitious trip, being gone for a month and having activities or travel on every day, but when you are flying halfway around the world, you want to make the most of it.

Even though we had loved Tasmania, the stolen wallet made for some problems, and then after leaving there we had our issues with Southern Australia, and Julie and Maria were already talking about changing the flights and going home early. We made it out of Melbourne, and we had some good times on the North Island, but there was also getting soaked and stung in the Bay of Islands, being left behind by shuttles and getting catcalls in Auckland, and getting soaked again (differently) in Rotorua. Things were just starting to build up, and they were really skeptical about whether the South Island would be worth it.

That day did not start out auspiciously. There was a surprise airport fee, then a new change in the flight itinerary where we had to go through Christchurch before reaching Queenstown, and due to a grouchy old lady who seemed to have an issue with her seat on the already crowded plane, we arrived in Queenstown quite late.

Still, this was going to be the stop where we were met by a personal guide holding a sign with our name, and then we had rides and lodging all set. We got of the plane, and there was no sign saying Harris. We went to baggage claim--still nothing. The airport emptied out, and there was no one there.

I had been mostly responsible for creating the entire trip itinerary, so any time my sisters were not having a good time I felt guilty, and possibly hurt. Now they were really irritated, sure we were stood up, and would we really feel safe leaving the airport with some stranger anyway? It was not looking good.

It started to get worse as I realized that the paper I had saved only had email and web information, but no phone number. I had not really been thinking about phoning, because we didn't have cell phone access, and after all, he was going to be there, but there are times when it can be important.

I asked at the desk of another tourism company, and they had never heard of Back to Nature Tours. We asked for a phone book, and they didn't have one, but we found one somewhere else. There was no number. (I think the issue here is that we were in Queenstown and Back to Nature is based in Dunedin.)

Fortunately, they felt bad for us, and the started up the computer so we could get the phone number off of the web site. Armed with a small amount of change, I went to the pay phone, and I got a hold of someone. Chris was in town, but because the flight was late he had gone somewhere, and she wasn't sure, but she gave me his cell phone number. I called that, and it was busy, but I was sure the office was calling him, and if I just waited and tried again, he would answer. I paused, dialed again, and before it could connect a man walked around the corner and asked if I was Gina. Saved! Chris had been told that the flight was canceled, so was really unsure what to do, but he had been in the airport.

Even though I considered this to be a good development, I was worried about my sisters. They were in a foul mood, had just been talking about not trusting the guy anyway, and really wanted to go home. As we loaded into his rental, I was very concerned about how things might go. I was missing one completely important factor though. Chris was a delightful male with a Scottish accent.

Chris has lived in Louisiana, Scotland, and New Zealand, but listening to him it is the Scottish element that you notice, and indeed, all of his family is there. Our captain at the Great Barrier Reef, Gordo, was also Scottish, but at the time we were just thinking about how wonderful guys who flirt can be, and not giving enough credit to the Scottishness, which is extra wonderful.

My sisters were completely won over. Not only was there the accent, but Chris was smart, with a sly sense of humor, had a great knowledge of the area, and could converse well. He was a nice guy too, and I don't think that was just because he was paid to be so.

Therefore, even though we encountered more rain, cold showers, long restaurant waits, getting lost, and falling in mud (all or most of which shall be recounted), they never complained to him, or even very much to me, and it was a wonderful last leg of our trip.

I must give some credit to the South Island itself. It is such a beautiful place, and even the air you breathe is wonderful. I guess it is just very pristine. Everywhere we looked was so beautiful. There were mountains everywhere, and water. We drove from the airport to Te Anau that night, and halfway there we had Lake Wakitipu on one side, which seemed to go on forever, and then just as it ended Lake Te Anau popped up on the other side. Plus there were lambs everywhere, running around wagging their tails. So, really, we should have been able to enjoy it with or without Chris.

That being said, it does not hurt to have an intelligent, humorous guide along, and that goes double if he's Scottish.