I am Linda and along with my husband Richard and our dog Muffin we enjoy our summers on the UK's canal system

Tuesday 19 March 2024

The BIG One - New Zealand - Days 35, 36 and 37

 Wednesday 6th March - Curio Bay


We managed to get a bit of a lie in this morning but it was very cold, 11 degrees and I reckon it had been lower than that!


The site we were on was unusual as the motel rooms are all little chalets mostly done in a different designs.  You can see one in the photos at the end of today.


Our first port of call was Gemstone Beach where, if you are lucky enough, you can find some pretty gemstones.  We found some which, when polished up, might just look nice.  The beach was lovely with the snow capped mountains in the background.


We were driving the scenic route which I was worried might be a bit twisty but, in fact, they were mostly long straight roads.


We drove passed Invercargill which is the southernmost and westernmost city in NZ and one of the southernmost cities in the world.


We wanted to go to Slope Point which is the southernmost point in NZ.  We have now done both the northernmost and southernmost points in NZ. We walked out to what looked a bit like a modern lighthouse where we found the obligatory sign.


Our campsite was only about 10km from Slope Point and was almost on the beach.  Each pitch is divided off by some tall plants, I’ve no idea what they are, but it does give privacy though no view.  The site is right on the sea though it is rocky but we could see a lovely Sandy beach.


We drove through all kinds of different landscapes today, but the mountains seem to always be there. This area is the Catlins and must be home to about 90% of the sheep in NZ!  I have never seen so many along with an abundance of cattle.


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Thursday 7th March - Purakaunui Bay


We couldn’t decide where to stop tonight and ended up choosing a DOC site at Purakaunui Beach.


I had on the list three waterfalls to visit today.  We ruled out the first as there was hardly any parking and the entrance to the path was very steep.  The second falls was the McLean Falls, named after Alexander McLean, an Invercargill farmer who made visitors welcome to the area in times before easy access.  The path started out nice and level but soon got rough and stoney.  We had our walking poles with us so strode out to start with but soon slowed down.  There were lots of steps which weren’t easy.  We finally got to the falls and it was certainly worth the effort of getting there.  The return walk didn’t seem to be as hard as all the steps were going down!


Richard is suffering with his left knee so the one waterfall was enough for today.  My new knee is holding up well, but getting in and out of the van is the hardest and hurts a bit.


We pulled in at a scenic point which looked over Tautuku Beach.  It was amazing, the loveliest of beaches but no way down!  I found a sign with a few facts on it which I will impart with you.  The Catlins is sea, coast, forest and farmland.  If it is calm, the fierce southwest wind of the “Roaring Forties” will soon blow in from the sea, but if it wet or stormy, the sun will soon come out and everything will become mild again.  Here are some weather comparisons.  Temperature averages 11 degrees - London is 12 degrees.  Average rainfall is 1200mm - London is 615mm.  Average sunshine is 4.4 hours - London is 4.1.


The phone signal today has been the worst we have had which doesn’t help for finding our way.  I had a rough idea of where Purakaunui Beach was but I got signal just in time for us to turn off the main road and travel 6kms down an unsealed road - it was a bit rough at times.  We found the camping area and parked up looking directly at the beach.


While we were having dinner we watched a seal making its way down the beach, not sure where it had been, and it kept tripping over its flippers and would then roll on his back in the sand.  He appeared to be enjoying himself! He was too far away to take a photo of sadly.







Friday 8th March - Dunedin


We were off grid last night and once again I had a disturbed night!  This time it was heavy rain and quite strong wind which kept coming in, I think it woke me up about 5 times.  There were a few hardy campers in small tents and I was worried about them, however they were all still there in the morning.


We set off for Nugget Point Lighthouse but it was up a steep hill and Richard was worried about his knee and coming down it.  


We did discover that there had been a school at Nugget Point in 1906 for the children of the lighthouse keepers.  Before this they either had to walk 5 miles or be taught at home. As more fishing and farming families settled their children walked up to the Nugget school and in 1922 there were 17 children on the roll.  The school closed in 1936 due to concerns about it’s safety, in gale force winds class was held in the keeper’s house in case the building blew away completely!


We drove to Kaka Point as I thought it was an old port but I had got it wrong and it was Molyneux Bay next door that was.  The bay was named by Captain Cook in 1774 after his sailing master, Robert Molyneux, who died on the voyage.  In 1838 it became the site of a station with the first permanent European settlers, George Willsher and Thomas Russell who arrived in 1840.  Coal and gold mining led to an increase of the necessity for shipping and the harbour was built about 10 miles up the River Clutha.  The town thrived until a major flood in 1878 carried silt down the river and changed the river’s course.  Less than 6 months later a second disaster happened, there was an explosion at the Kaitangata coal mine which killed 34 miners.


We have been amazed at the beaches on the Catlins. They have been huge and gorgeous.


We stopped at Waihola Lake for lunch and watched the seagulls huddled down in the wind.


We had been seeing a lot of Triumph sports cars on the roads and discovered today that 15 of them had left Cape Reinga at the top of North Island to drive down to Bluff at the bottom of South Island - I think we must have seen all 15 of them.


We found our campsite for the next three days in Dunedin.  It’s not a bad site - we have stayed at worse!











 


Saturday 16 March 2024

The BIG One - New Zealand - Days 31, 32 and 33

 Sunday 3rd March - Cascade Creek Historic Campsite


We were up and away just after 9am.  First stop was the supermarket and the second was for fuel.


We were heading for Milford Sound for another boat trip.  Our journey took us through a glaciated valley and the scenery was awesome, as the New Zealanders would say.  We found the campsite where we were to stay that night and had a coffee before heading off.  The road got quite windy and the mountains became higher and closer!  When we got to Homer Tunnel the traffic light was on green so we were able to go straight through.  The Homer Tunnel was opened in 1953 after taking 19 years to build.  Before it opened there was no road access to Milford Sound.


We arrived at Milford Sound and had our lunch before checking in for our boat.  I was surprised at how many different companies operated boats on the Sound and we got a bit muddled up as there were so many people queuing for boats.  It is a great place for coach trips so you can imagine half a dozen coaches coming in all at one time and disgorging their passengers.  We were lucky as we didn’t have a coach load on our boat, in fact there were only about 25 people so there was no scrabbling for photo opportunities.  We went out as far as the Tasman Sea where it began to get a bit choppy and I began to get worried about sea sickness but we turned and headed back along the Sound.  We stopped by some rocks where a few New Zealand Fur Seals were dozing.  It is an area where the juvenile males hang out so they don’t get bullied by the adults.  Apparently they hunt and eat all night and sleep all day - perfect for sightseers.  Of course we had to do the traditional getting wet under a waterfall!  The skipper did warn us that unless we went down below we might get wet and wet we got!!  We turned into a small cove which is called Harrison Cove after John Harrison who invented the marine chronometer - it was great for us as Richard is a descendant of John Harrison.  The last waterfall was the best I thought.  As the weather has been so dry a lot of the waterfalls were a bit puny, but I think I would rather have dry weather than lots of waterfalls.  We have been lucky with the weather so far 😃 


Back on terra firma we drove back to our camp site for the night.  It was a Department of Conservation site.  It’s a big area and you have to pay so it’s not freedom camping but there is no electricity though there are toilets!  We chose a spot just as we drove in right beside Cascade Creek.  It was a bit windy and the rest of the area looked to be a bit exposed so we thought we were in the best place - we will know during the night!  Third time lucky for camping off grid.
























Monday 4th March - Manapouri


Ha, ha, ha!!  Third time lucky my foot!  We had just got to bed when the rain started and boy did it pour, it seems to make a different noise on the motor home than it does on the caravan and I just couldn’t get to sleep.  I eventually nodded off but kept waking up all the time. I still don’t know if it was the rain or the lack of my sleep machine that caused my insomnia, of course Richard slept through it all.  


We had decided to have a leisurely morning but when Richard woke up about 7am he heard the rain and rushed to the front of the motorhome to see what was happening with our lovely gentle creek and yelled out that it was a raging torrent and that we needed to moved quickly.  Now I’m not a morning person and those were not words that I wanted to hear!  Somehow I pulled my clothes on and got myself ready only to find that the creek was, in fact, at least 18 inches below the bank!  Talk about being over cautious!




We drove towards Te Anau looking for somewhere that was above water level, finally finding somewhere where we could continue getting on with our morning.


We hung around in Te Anau until it was a decent time to have an early lunch.  We found a little pizza place and had really crispy pizzas.


We then moved on to Manapouri where we were to stay for two nights while we took a trip to Doubtful Sound.  Our pitch was a “scenic” one and we certainly had a lovely view over Lake Manapouri but the rain just kept on coming down and the clouds were so low that it was rather difficult to see the view!


Every little stream in New Zealand has a name which is displayed on a board as it goes under the road.  These are very frequent.  I saw two names today which made me smile, Dismal Creek followed by Dizzy Creek!  Then you come across a boring one called Creek Number 128!





Tuesday 5th March - Manapouri


Well if our helicopter flight was a WOW then today’s trip was a WOW AWESOME!  We were up at 6.15 to catch a boat at 7.30 which took us across Lake Manapouri - this was before sun rise!  The journey took 45 minutes. From the other side we took a coach across Wilmot Pass to Deep Cove, this also took 45 minutes. We then boarded our boat for the 3 hour cruise to the sea and back, going into smaller fjords on our way. We were so lucky with the weather after all the rain yesterday and actually saw blue sky at times. Yesterday’s rain had made lots of temporary waterfalls - I have never seen so many waterfalls  before.  We have got quite used to mountains disappearing into lakes but the pure scale of Doubtful was just mind blowing and these mountains were all snow capped thanks to yesterday’s rain. Even our guide was awestruck at the snow at the beginning of March. The sea outside the Sound was rough and we didn’t venture out there thank goodness.  On our way back we were joined by some dolphins who wanted to play (dolphins are very difficult to photograph!).  Today’s trip was more than I could ever have expected, the magnificence of it was just breathtaking. 


Not long before we got back to Deep Cove the skipper said that he was going to stop and turn everything off.  He asked passengers not to take photos or use their phones, just listen to the sound of silence.  It was a wonderful few minutes.


The trip to Doubtful Sound is courtesy of the Manapouri Power Station.  This is an underground hydroelectric power station, the largest hydroelectric power station in New Zealand and the second largest power station.  Construction began in February 1964 and it opened in September 1971.  Everything needed to build the power station had to be taken over the lake by boat, but when it came to the 7 turbines they were too big, so a road was built from the power station across Wilmot Pass to Deep Cove and the turbines were taken by ship through Doubtful Sound.  The electricity is created by a 750 foot drop between the lake and Deep Cove and when the water has done its job it is released into Doubtful Sound.


Some of the power station workers live by the station, but the RealNZ (the company who run the trips) workers go over daily. Everything that is needed to run trips, especially diesel, is taken across the lake by barge once a week.