New Zedland Trip: Civilization

So far, our posts about NZ have focused on the outdoors. Here is a taste of the human-made side of the South Island... since the latter helped us appreciate the former.

For example:

This is the view from our house in the Catlins, above the town of Papatowai. That's the sea in the distance.

We'll start with the less weird and move to the more weird...

Roads

We spent a fair amount of time on the road. Other than the occasional sheep-related interruption (see previous post), it was smooth sailing/driving.

Here are three places where the road became 'extreme' in one way or another:

1. We zoomed past this bridge, only just catching a picture of it:

What's special about that bridge is that it's where, according to our book, bungee-jumping was invented. Neither of us had any particular urge to give it a go.

2. The drive into Milford Sound wanders through valleys, and they suddenly plunges through a solid wall of granite. The one-way tunnel runs for just over a kilometer. Pretty impressive:

3. The city of Dunedin features the steepest street in the world (complete with black cat):

Buildings

Many of the buildings we saw were like buildings elsewhere, but a few stood out.

A museum in the cute coastal town called Hokitika:

The city of Queenstown is built along a lake, with buildings overlooking a sort of beach:

The (comparative) metropolis of Dunedin felt like an older European city:

It includes what is (supposedly) the most photographed railway station in the country:

And the interior:

On the shores of Lake Tekapo is a much-photographed chapel - it is, unsurprisingly, a popular spot for weddings.

Steampunk playground (?)

On our way up the east coast, we stopped in the town of Oamaru... which happens to be a center for steampunk fans. Here is the headquarters:

And here are two items from the local playground:

Weird.

Little Paradise

For our third night, Naomi found us a place called 'Little Paradise Lodge.' It lived up to its name.

Here's the view of the approach:

And the sign at the entrance:

The lodge consists of a garden and a house, all crafted by a couple who has lived there for 20 years (the man is Swiss, the woman Filipino).

The garden is filled with various sculptures:

The house itself is filled from floor to ceiling with creativity.

Much of the floor was tiled with wedges of wood:

Much of the furniture was carved as well:

This was our room, called 'The Swan Room':

Perhaps the most amazing room was the bathroom, with stone-tiled walls with wood inlay, moss around the tub...

...and a nicely-placed fishtank over the toilet:

The communal kitchen had the best view of any place Colin has ever done dishes:

Lost Gypsy

The most exciting unhinged creativity we saw was in the town of Papatowai (where our first photo was from). We'd been told that we had to visit the Lost Gypsy Gallery - a collection of creations by a guy named Blair Somerville with a knack for bizarre automata.

Here's the campervan that contains his workshop:

The entrance to the outside gallery:

A lovely sitting area (look closely at the details):

Here is one of Blair's creations. One adds some water to the pot and the whole thing begins to move:

Inside the gallery was a 'piano', with the keys connected to everything from electric shavers to bells to a head with beads that shook:

Here's a so-so video (not ours) that will give you some idea.

And here's us gazing at one of Blair's more other-worldly creations...

New Zedland trip: Animals and ocean

Mountains are great. After a while of wow-ing at mountain after mountain, though, one starts wanting something a bit more relaxed...

...like some cows by the sea:

...or some weird round rocks on a beach:

So this post will be about scenes of animals and ocean-related scenes. We'll start with the native wildlife. 

Glowworms in the forest

Our first night, we walked out into the forest (on a fairly) well-marked path to see glowworms. They looked like this:

If that's not impressive, turn off all the lights and then imagine you're in a strange forest in the mountains.

The glowworms' spot wasn't especially interesting in the daylight - just some bushes. If we'd been glowworms, we would have lived in a spot like this (which we walked by a few days later):

Birds

Unfortunately, we didn't see any kiwi birds... though they're apparently pretty reclusive. Nor, more surprisingly, did we see any kea - a mountain parrot that is not remotely reclusive.

But we did see this:

It's not a duck - the beak was too pointy.

We also saw this gull (who clearly has a taste for lighting) eating a crab:

The real excitement, though, was penguin-spotting. This is a yellow-eyed penguin we saw on the south coast:

The landscape here is significant - we'll talk about that later.

Seals and sea lions

The only native mammals in New Zealand are sea-related: either sea-ls, or sea-lions.

In Milford sound, we got to see seals hanging out on a rock:

Very cute.

Sea lions are less cute. We saw some in a couple spots, though there were signs warning one not to get too close - the recommended minimum distance was 10 meters.

Here's what we think are a parent and child:

The vast majority of animals we saw, though, were non-native. Normally, they wouldn't be photo-worthy, but with the right setting...

Non-human European mammal invaders: Sheep, cows, and hedgehogs

We learned that sheep farming is declining in NZ, due to less demand for wool. Many farmers are switching to cows.

But we didn't have any shortage of sheep. We even got to have the road blocked by them:

Most of the sheep we saw weren't on the move, though. They seemed to just be posing.

There were sheep of the mist:

Sheep of the lighthouse (that little thing in the middle):

And sheep of the mountains:

Cows were most places sheep were - we didn't see any obvious pattern about who went where. These cows are across the road from some rock art that we'll return to in a later post:

The biggest surprise was a hedgehog:

The internet tells us that they were introduced in the late 1800's to control garden pests. That plan, as usual, didn't work, and now they're wiping out lots of native species. But they're still awfully cute...

We'll finish with some sea-related landscapes.

Pancake rocks

On our second day, we took a detour north to see the 'pancake rocks' - so-called because (with some creative imagining), they look like stacks of pancakes.

Funky. This was where we saw the brown bird that wasn't a duck.

Trees by the sea

By the pancake rocks (and along most of the west coast) were these Nikau Palm trees. They seemed very self confident, like a new toothbrush:

These were wind-swept trees a bit to the south:

Scenes from the Catlins

The Catlins area covers most of the southern coast. It doesn't get as much attention as the western coast, since it's less mountain-y. But we loved it. It felt a bit like the end of the earth - it was the furthest south either of us had ever been:

Below, in fact, is the southernmost point in New Zealand. You can see that our shadows made it a bit further south than we did (the cliffs were crumbly):

Here is a petrified forest in the sea - you can still see the shapes of logs. This was where the above penguin made his/her appearance. Good taste:

One of the our favorite spots was a set of sea caves that can only be visited for about 4 hours during low tide. We were lucky enough to get the timing right. Here's a view looking out:

A view looking in:

And the view of Colin walking casually by:

The most dramatic spot, though, was called 'Nugget Point.' The point was at the end of a steep ridge, with mist racing up the side:

This is the view from the end - those rocks vanishing into the mists are the 'nuggets':

To round out this post - a classic sunset shot. We were lucky enough to catch this sunset - just the right mix of seamist and late light:

Next post: human civilisation....