The Scenic Route, Dunedin to Christchurch

From Dunedin we drove straight up Highway 1 to Timaru where we met Ross, our friend from Nelson, in the campsite we chose. Promising to call in to Nelson before going back to the North Island, we set off the next day on the scenic route to Christchurch. Along the way we stopped in Peel Forest and spent a few hours walking there, going to see the 'big tree' and the 'waterfall'. See the pictures - very exciting... When we set off again, Sean spotted a mountain biking track at Mount Oxford on our map, which we decided could occupy us the next day. Having spent the last while touring only, we were eager to get some exercise to break up the site seeing.




When we got to Oxford that evening we decided to drive up to the start of the track, which turned out to be through some private looking land. When we were there we saw another possible start on the map of the tracks, and thinking it might be a more normal access point we drove that direction. Having made it through four shut gates, 2 fiords and a very bad pothole filled track, we finally reached the start of the track! After enjoying the view we’d bounced so hard to get to see, we agreed that we could start from the first place the next day! The track itself turned out to be hard going for me. We spent most of the first 20 minutes pushing or carrying our bikes along the track, which I was not very pleased about! After battling on for about three quarters of an hour we turned around, and the downhill part of the track was quite fun! Sean even managed a good tumble, nearly taking me down with him, in front of two walkers we’d just passed, much to their amusement!



After dusting ourselves off we finally made it to Christchurch, planning on staying a little longer this time!

To Dunedin

From Hanmer Springs, we headed on down through Christchurch towards Dunedin. On the way we stopped to see the Moeraki Boulders, strange round boulders on the beach which scientists believe were not washed up, but rather were eroded from the mudstone cliffs behind. The boulders themselves have suffered more erosion with a strange network of cracks appearing.

When we arrived in Dunedin we met up with Kerry, an old friend of Sean’s who moved over here with her parents about 6 years ago. They had a lot of catching up to do so we stayed a few days. While there we went on a tour of the Cadbury World factory, which we got very excited about, looking for Oompa Loompas all around the factory! In the end, although they did give us some tasty chocolate, it was just a tour of a factory, so not something I’d rush to do again – it would be cheaper to just buy the chocolate from a shop than pay for the tour!

We also went to see the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame in the old Railway Building (apparently the most photographed building in New Zealand, though I have no idea how they would calculate that!) and it was well worth the visit. They pay tribute to sporting heroes of all sorts, in a great diversity of sports.

One fine day we went to Otago Peninsula to see the worlds only mainland Royal Albatross colony. Apparently they don’t normally nest on islands inhabited by humans. However, as it wasn’t a very windy day none of them were flying so we didn’t get to see much. Because they are so big, they need quite a lot of wind in order to get airborne.

Finally, we walked up Baldwin Street, the worlds steepest street, with a gradient of 1 in 1.266. It is very steep… We went the day before the annual Gutbuster Race, a race up and down the street. I’d say that’s pretty tough!

Bullerfest

We made our way back up to Murchison again in time for Bullerfest and met Larry Feeley and his family there. His son, Lorcan, races Wildwater with Sean. They are spending about 6 weeks here travelling around the country.

Bullerfest started on Friday with the Extreme Race. Sean and I decided to brave it in our slow boats so assembled at the start. The format is the same as the Boatercross at home. Usually four paddlers starting at the top of the rapid, and first 1/2 paddlers to the finish line go through to the next round. We all got a test run first and were then put into heats according to our placing. That was quite useful, as plenty of us had never even seen what was around the corner from the start, let alone knew where we should go down it!

For my first test run heat the starter was obviously getting a bit impatient and shouted “go” while the four of us were in random places on the river. I paddled off as fast as I could in the Scud (it’s a very very slow boat!) and through a bit of guile managed to knock one of the girls out and managed to come third. I was just happy not to come last! It turned out that the whitewater around the corner was fun but not very difficult. Sean came third in his heat too.

With that run over, we hauled our boats back upstream, cursing the slowness of both our boats, ready for the next run. There was a great bit of banter amongst the paddlers as first runs were discussed, and plans made for the second run, some taking the whole thing a lot more seriously than others. Then I was up again. This time I was all ready at the line when we started, nearly too close though as I nearly got my head taken off by the starters rope… Not to be deterred I paddled like fury again, still moving quite slowly in my lovely Scud though… However, adopting the same tactics as last time I managed to bang into someone on the way and again not come last! Of course I didn’t come 1^st or 2^nd either though, so that was the end of my racing for the day. Sean also came 3^rd again in his run. The two of us are pretty sure we could have made it through the first heat at least if we only had a faster boat!!!

With that moaning done we enjoyed the rest of the racing before paddling the rest of the way down the river. That was nearly like a race in itself as we had Lorcan with us who decided to paddle the whole way down as fast as possible! We were trying to introduce the concept of eddies to him, but he was determined to get home for his tea! It was all great fun though. Oh, and it was on the Earthquake section of the Matakitaki River. The party that night was pretty good too!

Murchison, like the rest of the country, was pretty lacking in water at that stage, and the organisers were having some difficulty because of the low levels of the rivers. However, it started raining at last on Friday night. But then it didn’t really stop for a few days…

Saturday’s event was Slalom together with a Raft Race on the O’Sullivan’s section of the Buller River. Though Sean and I didn’t take part, we went down to have a look, until we got wet through and went back to our campsite for tea that is. The course was looking a bit hairy at that stage though. Two gates had been taken out of the course altogether. Apparently the water rose over 1½ feet over the course of the racing, and it had already risen quite a bit overnight, the course having been laid the day before. It was a hard course to run, though thankfully there were some fine slalom paddlers there to do it properly.

By Sunday, the rivers had swollen so much the planned Big Air competition was cancelled. Mainly as the organisers were quite worried that the ramp would be washed away. To explain to the non-paddlers out there, a big air comp involves paddlers going down a slide in their kayaks and trying to flip their boat in some sort of a fancy way before they hit the water. I was really looking forward to seeing it too! So instead, we all assembled for the prize giving, followed by the handing out of a massive amount of spot prizes. They’ve a huge number of great sponsors for this event, which is no wonder cos it’s a great weekend and well organised. Well done to all the lads and lasses who work so hard to pull it off!

After the excitement of Bullerfest we drove to Hanmer Springs and spent some time lounging (in the rain which still hadn’t stopped) in the hot pools for which the town is famous. It is quite a lot cleaner than the water in Spa Park (Taupo) but much the same thing, only this time you have to pay for it. It was a nice evening though and a good experience. We’re not the sort of people who would enjoy spending a day there though!

The West Coast

Feeling better again we drove to the west coast, starting at Westport, where we took a detour out to Cape Foulwind where there is a seal colony. Although we were quite distracted by the crashing waves on the coast we did get to see some seals lazing on rocks at the bottom of the cliffs, complete with young seals playing in the rock pools.

From there we went on to Karamea for the night, using it as a base to go to the Oparara Basin the next day to see the limestone arches and caves. It took us a while to get there though, as we had to pull an unfortunate American out of a ditch on the way there. The road up to the arches is one of the New Zealand speciality dirt roads, steep, windy and narrow. The American met two other tourists on the road and slipped into the ditch as they passed each other. A few minutes after we arrived on the scene a couple of climbers drove up, later followed by a couple in a four wheel drive. With the mix of us providing a rope, knots agreed on between Sean and the climbers, and the power of the 4WD we got the car out without a single scratch!

The arches and caves were pretty cool. One of them is called Moria Gate Arch, so of course we went to see if the Mines of Moria were there too (no, they weren’t). However, as usual, we got a bit distracted from the arches by the water flowing under the arches. The Oparara River rose by over 400mm while we were looking at the arches. When we checked the whitewater guidebook later and it turned out that the river had gone from below the lowest run-able level to above the highest run-able level in just 20 minutes while we watched! It’s amazing how fast rivers can change in this country.

We found ourselves an interesting little campsite in Seddonville for the night. It’s a quiet area and we only found the campsite by following a few signposts. When we got there the place was deserted, everything was open, and there was a note on the door sending newcomers up to the local pub to check in. We found the landlady there and she just told us to make ourselves at home. We had to go looking for her the next morning to give her money for our lodgings she was so relaxed. Another great place to stay! Quite different to the regimental attitudes of some other campsites here.

Before we got back to Westport we stopped off in the ghost coalmining town of Denniston. It turned out to be a very interesting spot with plenty of information about the mines and all that went on while the town was flourishing as the largest producer of coal in New Zealand. Particularly interesting was the Denniston Incline, an engineering feat for its time, whereby the coal trucks were hauled up and down the side of the mountain at a gradient of one in one in places (which is really steep to you and me). There were a good few deaths caused by runaway trucks over the years. We had actually gone up there to do some mountain biking as there are a few good tracks around. We tried out an intermediate track, which was so hard it even pushed Sean’s limits, but it was fun, once I was happily back in the van and out of the rain!

After spending the night in Westport we continued our trip south, stopping in Punakaiki to see the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes. By good luck we arrived just before high tide when the blowholes are at their most explosive. Some day I’ll get pics up on the web so you can see them! They’re well worth the visit.

Further south, we met up with John the Swede again in Hokitika, along with Malin, a Swedish girl visiting for a couple of weeks. Malin had never paddled before coming over, so with just a flat-water lesson from John under her belt we all set off to do the Lower Whitcombe from the normal get out down. Malin did so well we carried on to the Milltown Gorge section of the Lower Arahura. For the latter river we met up with some American friends we had paddled with in Murchison. They had arrived at the get on a bit before us and had started hiking further upstream. When they saw us arrive they got on the water above us. Although we went as slowly downstream as we could they never caught up with us and it was nearly dark when we got off the river. After waiting for them to arrive and doing the shuttle to pick up the cars left at the start we weren’t home for dinner until 11.10pm! Fortunately the campsite staff had left the kitchen open for us to cook our dinner, as there’s no hope of getting dinner out, or a take-away, that late at night anywhere in New Zealand bar the cities! It was a fun days paddling though, and Malin paddled really well. She was totally wrecked the next day though!

Mount Cook to Christchurch to Murchison

Feeling like being a bit touristy again for a while we hit the road from Queenstown towards Mount Cook. We thought it had been pretty cold the night before. That was confirmed by the fact that three centimetres of fresh snow had fallen on the higher mountains overnight. That’s quite unusual for the middle of February here, which is supposed to be a very hot month! It did make the views impressive though as we drove through the freshly snow dusted mountains towards Mount Cook. Mount Cook itself was beautiful surrounded by the other impressive mountains in the range.

We headed on from there and stayed in a really good campsite in Fairlie for the night – the Top 10 campsite, I’d highly recommend it! After a good nights sleep (not quite so cold this time) we drove on to Christchurch and found the two paddling shops that there are there, finally managing to stock up on airbags and various other things for paddling.

By that stage, JP and Liz had arrived in Murchison so we went back there to join them, with Alan and Aisling arriving later in the week. Over the next few days we had some runs on the Doctors Creek and Granity Creek sections of the Buller River, both pretty easy but really nice runs. All the paddling caught up with us by the end of the week resulting in Sean and I spending a day at the campsite nursing our colds after waving goodbye to the other Irish as they headed towards Auckland airport and home.

Queenstown again

When we got back to Queenstown I finally got myself back into a boat again and ran the Dog Leg section of the Kawarau River with the others. It’s a great run, with an easy enough shuttle, and a fantastic couple of big water rapids at the end. I started off following Sean down through the first one, but quickly decided to make my own way down after coming over a wave and seeing him heading straight for one of the crashing waves, just for the fun of it, and capsizing! I had a great run down it though, taking a more sensible route!

After that run, Sean and I got on the road again heading towards Mount Cook. However, on the drive from the river towards Queenstown we decided the groaning from our brakes could be ignored no longer and had to be fixed. So, we booked the van into a garage and stayed in Frankton again that night. Frankton is just beside Queenstown and seems to be the more practical town, complete with supermarkets and other such shops. The campsite we were in was by the lake and overlooked by the Remarkables, an amazing mountain range that has a very surreal look. It felt like a giant cardboard cut out of mountains to me, but I was assured that they are real and are great for skiing in winter.

The next day we got up bright and early and got the van to the garage. By the time it was fixed I’d woken up enough to wish Sean a happy birthday. We got in touch with Alan, Aisling, Swede and Alaska as we figured they hadn’t moved from the get out of the Dog Leg since we finished the river the day before! There is a nice quiet free camping ground there with a long drop toilet and a ring of stones for your campfire. We found them there and decided to have another run on the Dog Leg, which again was great craic. We spent a good bit of time playing on a wave half way down the river too, which mainly involved rolling practise for me!

After that run, the boys decided they’d like to run the Citroen rapid, a bit further down stream so off we went. Aisling and I did the shuttle and waited patiently for them to arrive back. And waited some more. And then thought that if they didn’t arrive back by 8pm we’d start to worry quite a bit… Finally the Swede came running towards us from up the road. They’d completely missed the take out and nearly run another rapid, Retrospect, further down. Thankfully they made the last eddy before it and realised their mistake before running it! There’s more detail of the fun they had paddling back upstream and then beating their way through 50m of bush for an hour to get out to the road on Sean’s blog if you want to take a look. Anyway, Swede, Aisling and I hopped into the vehicles and started driving down to where the others were waiting. On the way I met a pretty nice looking Porsche with hands coming out the windows flagging me down. I was a bit confused but pulled in anyway and out hopped Sean with the biggest grin possible on his face, delighted with getting a spin in a Porsche and completely amazed that a Porsche owner had given him a lift while in his smelly wet paddling gear!

We packed up pretty quickly and made our plan for the evening, agreeing to stay at the Dog Leg get out. First, we drove the van back to the get on for Citroen and filled it up with wood that was lying around there as we’d used up most of the wood lying around at the Dog Leg already on our campfires. I had also got my first lesson in back woods cooking when we stayed there before when Sean and I cooked steak, spuds and veg in tinfoil on the fire. A new experience for me! Having gathered wood, we car pooled into Queenstown and got a good feed at Fergburger, a brilliant burger joint that is well worth the visit. Their burgers are heavy to lift there’s so much food in them! We followed that up by getting icecream in Lick a few doors up the road. They make their own icecream, putting out a different selection every day, and it is delicious! To finish the day off we went back to the campground and lit ourselves a campfire. Nice!

Sandflies

Sandflies are just little small flies that are nasty biting buggers! Apparently only the females bite, but there are plenty of them around. Sean has had very little bother with them but it seems my blood was much tastier than his. I had some big reactions to them on the North Island and finally found out that if you take Vitamin B your blood stops tasting as nice so you don’t get bitten as much. I am now a dedicated Vitamin B capsule taker!

Everyone warned us that the sandflies on the South Island, particularly the West Coast, were much worse than the ones on the North Island, so I was quite worried about the trip South. However, by the time we got there I’d finally built up a bit of immunity and learned not to scratch them. If you scratch at all they just get worse and worse, till you find yourself waking up in the night in mid scratch! Also, I wasn’t plagued by them much at all as we had the two other Irish girls, who hadn’t yet learned about vitamin B, with us down there. They were being bitten constantly and having the same reactions as I had before! Milford Sound is so full of sandflies you see people standing talking on the street waving them away constantly!

So, while they are not a reason not to come here, I would definitely advise a dose of vitamin B before you make the trip!