New Zealand Tour Guide: Part III (Akaroa and Christchurch)

Jo, Mary and I headed north to tour the south island. Akaroa was our first stop.  Holyfreakamoly - that place was AMAZING!  Just. so. pretty.

We drove along the scenic route and it was quite the drive! The switchbacks kept my passengers on the edge of their seats - they're not used to such narrow roads and driving on the "wrong" side of the road. The battery on my camera was dead, so I don't have pictures of the route (which follows the edge of a crater).  Unfortunately, by the time we got to our accommodation (a Top 10 Holiday Park) the clouds had settled in, so we couldn't see the pretty blue water.  BUT, the sun coming through the clouds looked really neat!

We strolled around town to find something to eat and search the town for French influences.  There was a little walk along the water and it brought us to this lighthouse:

Now, there is a highly recommended 2- or 4-day walk on the Banks Peninsula track (4 days starts at $230), but we opted to choose our own adventure.  (It would be really awesome if I could find someone to go back and do the track with me!) 

Our first walk was down Pigeon Bay.  This was a 5 hour walk in great weather.  We crossed mostly agriculture land and so the track wasn't too challenging.

We tried doing an hour of the Skyline Circuit that evening, but the weather blew clouds in (again). 

After our time was up in Akaroa, we moved on to Christchurch for a night at the Chester Street Backpackers.  It was really important to me that I share this part of New Zealand with my friends, so that they could see a city that they were helping rebound from the earthquakes by being there and spending money in town.  During the day we walked around the city (the container mall in particular) and checked out the cardboard cathedral.  

After our brief stay in The Garden City, we headed west to Mt. Cook National Park - my visitors' favorite place out of all the places we visited!  I'll post those pictures soon. :)

New Zealand Tour Guide: Part II (Dunedin)

Right here in Dunedin there is lots to do.  Jo and her aunt did the Cadbury Tour ($16), a trip on the Taieri Gorge Railway (trips start at $50), a walk up Signal Hill (free), a stroll to see the glow worms in Nicols Creek (free), meandered on St. Clair beach (free), and trekked to Tunnel Beach (free).  They stayed at the Arden Street House which is in a nice spot because it's a very short walk to New World (a grocery store) and the Botanic Garden (there's a free timed 5k park run through the gardens on Saturdays!) .  Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to check out Baldwin Street (the world's steepest street) or the St. Clair hot salt water pool. 

On Waitangi Day we drove to Moeraki to see the boulders.  We stopped at Katiki Point on the Moeraki Peninsula first.  I HIGHLY recommend this spot to folks who want to see wildlife.  We saw heaps of seals and two penguins. (Seriously make this place a must-do! We saw so many seals here that when we boated past a seal colony on the Doubtful Sound cruise we didn't get upset by the mad rush of other passengers to see them - our views were way better here!)  Unfortunately, we didn't stop at Fleur's Place for lunch or dinner due to the 20% holiday service charge. (*sad face*)  This restaurant is supposedly fantastic for seafood.

Penguin!

View from Katiki Point Reserve

Fur seals having a yarn

Moeraki Lighthouse

Moeraki Boulders

We walked from the carpark at one end of the beach to the boulders and back.  I can't recall how long it took us, but we had no problem with the distance (probably because we picnicked before walking out to the boulders).

Jo and Mary were super keen to see lots of New Zealand and do lots of walking, so we drove up to Banks Peninsula to start our tour of the south island.  I did most of the driving, but Mary had a few goes at driving on the left side.  I think it was quite the experience for her!  More details (and pictures!) to come.

New Zealand Tour Guide: Part One

Today, I went for a spectacular run along Swampy Ridge.  I started from home, headed up the Pineapple Track, turned towards the Swampy Summit track and then followed signs into the Silverpeaks.  This is the same route that I ran a few weeks ago when the weather was horrible.  I didn't go down Swampy Ridge because the fog was so thick, but today's view was amazing!

Pacific Ocean (center), Otago Peninsula (top right), Swampy Ridge track (foreground)

I was aiming for a 5-hour run as part of my Northburn 50k training. I finished it in 4 hours 20 minutes and felt great at the end. Not too shabby.

So, what did I think about out there all by myself?  Well, I reflected a lot on how my PhD is coming along (I've been here for two years and have one more to go!) and I thought a lot about how fun it was to have my friend Jo and her Aunt Mary in New Zealand. I loved playing Tour Guide for the two of them!  I hope to get pictures up from their visit soon because I'm leading a tramping trip this weekend and I'll want to post photos of that, too.

Before I do that, here's a quick, rough intro to their trip:

Days 1 & 2: Fly from New York to Dunedin, New Zealand
Days 3 - 7: Dunedin
Days 7 - 9: Akaroa (Banks Peninsula)
Days 9 - 10: Christchurch
Days 10 - 13: Mt. Cook
Days 13 - 15: Queenstown
Days 15 - 18: Dunedin

This trip was heavily centered around walking/hiking and I think we saw some really great places/scenery.  We spent 1-5 hours at a go on our walks (some days we had more than one long walk).  Some walks were flat and some were steep hikes with steps.  I would recommend this sort of itinerary for others who want to see a lot of New Zealand's south island on foot, but with some minor tweaks.  I'd cut a day off of Mt. Cook or Queenstown to go to Te Anau.  Fiordland is beautiful and I'm sad that Jo and Mary saw it mostly from the bus as we made our way to Doubtful Sound.

So that's the teaser for the next lot of blog entries. YAY!