South of the South

Finally we reached Slope Point, the southernmost point of New Zealand. Wild, wet and windswept, it is a place to see once and then never come back.



Slope Point

A short drive along the southern coast brings you to Invercargill. It’s a city, but a fairly bleak one with little to recommend it except its proximity to cool places such as Stewart Island and Fiordland National Park. The nearby town of Bluff, better known as the ‘Arsehole of New Zealand’, is New Zealand’s southernmost town. We stopped in for a drink in the local pub, expecting to meet some Bluff locals. We ended up talking to the barkeeper, who was Australian, and a farmer from the UK. A sign of how multi-cultural New Zealand has become.

We didn’t linger in the far south, but instead pointed the car northwards and set off on the scenic route to Te Anau, 150km away. It is the gateway to Fiordland, the largest and most spectacular wilderness area in New Zealand.

The Catlins

Reluctantly, we left Dunedin behind and continued south. The backroads from Dunedin to Invercargill pass through a region known as the Catlins, home to some of the most beautiful scenery in the country. It is famous for its remote little fishing villages, rainforest coming right down to the coast, deserted beaches and abundance of wildlife – seals, penguins, dolphins, sea lions and sea birds.

Two of the highlights were the evocatively named Nugget Point and Cannibal Bay.



Coastal rainforest in the Catlins





The lighthouse and the 'nuggets' at Nugget Point



A sea-lion at Cannibal Bay

Dunedin and Port Chalmers

Dunedin is the largest city in the province of Otago. Known as the Edinburgh of the South, it has a beautiful setting at the head of Port Chalmers, a long inlet flanked on either side by rolling green hills. In perfect weather, we drove a winding, narrow, coast-hugging road out to Akaroa. Akaroa will be forever famous in New Zealand as the site of worst mass-murder in New Zealand’s history. After some searching, we finally found the poignant memorial to the innocent people who lost their lives to a crazy man named David Gray back in 1994.



Sheep near Port Chalmers

Dunedin is also the origin of the Kiwi half of my family, descended from Scottish and English settlers. My grandparents grew up in the Leith Valley, where the camping ground we were staying at happened to be. Nearby is Baldwin St, the world’s steepest street and on my granddad’s old paper delivery route. We paid a visit to one of my relatives, Russell, who is my mother’s cousin and a retired cinema projectionist. He took us on a short walking tour and was able to pass on a wealth of information about Dunedin’s fascinating history. On Russell’s advice, we drove out to St Claire for a walk on the beach and then to the beautiful fishing village of Portobello, where we camped for the night.



St Claire Beach

Christchurch to Dunedin

We were happy to leave Hamilton behind. It was hot and incredibly dry, with no rain since Christmas, and the water level in mum’s tank was getting pretty low. In Christchurch it was a bit cooler and a bit greener, but not much. We didn’t linger. After picking up the rental car, a gutless Nissan with automatic transmission, we headed south following the eastern coast of the South Island. It began to rain.

Our first night was spent in a backpackers in Timaru. Our only company was a dear old lady with a black eye and a bit of mental problem, who insisted on washing our dishes and worrying about whether we were warm enough. She was very sweet and when we left the next morning, her parting gift to us was a bunch of lavender and some cherry tomatoes.

We made a fleeting stop in architecturally-blessed Oamaru, one of the few towns in New Zealand where a sizeable number of turn-of-the-century buildings have been preserved. Further down the coast we came to Moeraki, where large near-perfect spherical boulders litter the windswept beach, many with a diameter of 2 or 3 meters. Set against a wild sea, they are a spectacular sight. Their origin is debated, but it seems they were eroded out of nearby cliffs.



Boulders at Moeraki

Near the town of Moeraki, there’s a nice peninsular where you can see seals and yellow-eyed penguins. We were lucky and saw many of both.





A seagull, a yellow-eyed penguin and a seal

Southbound

With a bit over two weeks until my job begins on 1 March 2008, we’ve decided to fly down to the South Island for a last hurrah. We’ll take the tent and rent a car. Our planned route is shown in the map. Starting in Christchurch, we’ll drive down the eastern coastline to Dunedin, then further south through a beautiful region known as the Catlins to Invercargill. From there we’ll head north again, via Te Anau, Milford Sound and Mt Cook. We have a flight from Christchurch back to Auckland booked for 25 February.



Map of our route

Success!

I've been offered the job in Lower Hutt, near Wellington! Start date will be March 1, 2008. I have one month to face up to the realities of re-entering the workforce...

A Visit to the Capital

Wellington, the capital, is about 520km south of Hamilton, so we decided to set off early and do the journey in stages. Our first stop was at Napier in the Hawkes Bay. We did a nice coastal walk to the gannet colony at Cape Kidnappers. Gannets are interesting birds because they nest only in certain spots in Australia and New Zealand and they make a very difficult migration across the Tasman Sea and back when they are just a few months old. Only around a quarter of the birds survive the 5400km round trip. They are excellent at fishing and can plunge into the water to catch fish at depths up to 5m.





Gannets nesting. Nice to look at but actually very stinky

Near Waipukerau, we spent a couple of relaxing nights with some friends on their massive 600ha farm. We then headed on to Wellington. Again we were lucky enough to be able to stay with friends, this time with a spectacular view of Wellington's harbour. Wellington's weather was excellent for once - if only it was always like this!



Panorama of Wellington from Mt Victoria