Week 9 - 19 & 20 Nov

Dunedin
Friday Nov 20th, 2009

We are up at dawn and off on the scenic tour towards Dunedin. The Catlins is the area we want to visit as it is suppose to be beautiful.

The first stop is a river leading up in to the Catlins. On the river are hundreds of little huts with nets out front. Fishing must be popular and it is white bait season.

Our next stop is tunnel hill to see the hand built railroad tunnel. In 1891 this area was prosperous with the lumbering industry cutting in the area.

Heading down the road again, our next stop is Nugget Point. This nice feature includes a beautiful walk to a little light house and some spectacular seaside scenery. Off the point we can see interesting rock formations, seals, a large sea lion swimming around and shore birds. What an amazing view.

On the way back we find another narrow gravel lane and there we can view the penguins. One couple on the way out say there are no penguins to be seen so they are heading out but I has spotted something unusual on the hill about(10 metres up off the beach, so we head down to check it out.

For the first few minutes there is no sign of any penguins, and then out of the brush emerges two yellow eyed penguins. They hop down a steep slope to the beach then over the stones and swim away. Once they are in the water we think that is the end, but we waited a few minutes anyway. Five minutes later, one little bird emerges and stands on the shore to take in the sun. It is there for about 15 minutes when finally another emerges from the water then they both stand and sun for a while. Eventually then begin their uphill journey to the nest where this all began. What an amazing sight.

Dinner was at the historic restaurant, downtown Dunedin, the Wig and Pen. This is the law district by the courts. I had the best lamb shanks ever!

Our last stop for the day is the Dunedin Rail Station. This is a beautiful, majestic building built at the turn of the century. Inside the floors and walls are all covered with ceramic tile and what a beautiful sight.








Invercargill
Thurs Nov 19th

We packed up this morning and had a leisurely scenic drive from Te Anau to Invercargill. We stopped at this unusual cave. We couldn’t go down it as it went along the hill side for quite a distance before you came out the other end. You were required to carry two flashlights per person and we only had one tiny one.

Here we met a school trip that was exploring the cave. They were taking 22 grade 10 boys to camp in the bush. On their trip they were going were caving, shooting 22’s, orienteering,, abseiling through the trees, trapping, skinning, cooking and eating possums. They take them every year when the senior students are writing their exams. Sounds like fun!

The drive quickly led us out of the mountains to a very hilly landscape. Eventually we ended up on the southern coast that was windswept. As there are no bank machines in this part of the country we cannot stop for our flat whites…we had forgotten to get money this morning. It is very important in this area to always have a full tank of gas…and cash!

Tonight we are again in a very nice cabin. They don’t have the regular type of accommodation so it is costing us $18 NZ extra a night. The cabin we are in has bunk beds a queen bed, small fridge, kitchen utensils, plates etc., along with a table and chairs and a tv. Tonight we will stay in rather than compute in the tv room.

Week 7 - 7th Nov

Saturday 7th November - Happy 24th Birthday Lisa!!

Went back to Rawhiki caves. I had dropped my sunglasses and we decided to go back in the morning to look for them. The hike was much easier in the morning. It was cooler. The cave was even more amazing as the morning sunlight was shining in the cave. This certainly is the place to visit. Even the bees were quiet. We found my glasses inside the cave.
Inside the caves the water has dripped down forming terraces of solidified rock.

Onward to Tataranui. This is part of the national park the Abel Tasman. We began the drive from our cabin heading north past Pohara harbour.

There are signs to watch for the penguins. We haven’t seen any. I spoke to a local and apparently they nest on the other side of the road away from the bay and are often hit in the evening and early morning. The town has put up penguin boxes down in the harbour to encourage nesting there.

To get past the harbour you end up driving through a hole in the rock. It is quite pretty.

To get to Tataranui we travel on a very windy, narrow road with steep edges to the sea. Then with 10 kms to go, it turns to gravel! There are warnings posted that there are slips along the road … rock slides. Also, this even more narrow and has areas that are barely one lane wide. It was interesting.

We decided to take a 4km detour to see Awaroa Beach. It turns out to be more of a boat ramp and drop off for hikers than a spot to explore. We then head 8kms back to Tataranui beach.

At Tataranui beach the sand is golden orange. It is beautiful. The pictures don’t pick up the turquoise blue shades in the water.

Alan and I hike for half an hour up the Abel Tasman trail to Skinner Lookout. Here we can look back at Tataranui beach. The trail is quite easy to traverse unlike the cave trail.
Hiking a bit further along the trail to the next beach we have to cross two rather large washouts. That was scary as sand was running down one of them. Of course, I had to return the same way. The coast line is breathtaking with stone outcrops into the sea and beautiful beaches with palm trees.

Week 7 - 6th Nov

Takaka Museum, Rawhiti Cave, Wharariki Beach - again
Friday Nov 6th, 2009

Today we stopped into the Takaka Museum. Here we read about Takaka’s rural backcountry and waterfront history. While in the museum, Alan notices a picture of a beautiful cave. After quizzing the clerk, we find instructions on how to get to the Rawhiki cave. We are going to make this our afternoon challenge.
At the Rawhiti cave, we easily find the farm yard where the trek starts and park the car. The trek sign indicates that the cave is 2.2 km’s in and will take 60 minutes to climb, so off we go.

The first part traverses a dried up creek bed into a mountain valley, then we reach the end and the sign points up. Up we go, and go, and go. We stop numerous times as the trail is very steep and the afternoon is hot. It takes us about 45 minutes to reach the summit of the trail and what we see is unbelievable.

There in the side of the hill is this cavernous opening like a great jaw waiting for food to enter. The opening is all covered in stalactites and they run down the opening as far as we can see inside. The bottom is very dark.

At the entrance of the cave there is a bee colony buzzing around, so we quickly skirt the trail and find another way inside. Alan and I climbed a little way down into the cave, but it was quite slippery as there is a constant drip of water from the stalactites. I stop and take pictures while Alan goes further down. He has to stop as it is getting too dark and much more slippery. While he had his flashlight with him, he felt proper gear was needed to go down further. We couldn’t see how deep it went. What an amazing cave. We were the only people there. We had our lunch at the opening before returning to the car. The return trip was much easier. At the bottom, I realized I had dropped my sunglasses…I decided it was not worth climbing all the way back for them…we went on.

To finish out the day, we race back up the coast (45 min drive) to Wharariki Beach to catch low tide. At Wharariki Beach we attempted our third visit. The first rained out, the second we had not kept the tide times in mind and now this one that gave us two hours before low tide. We hiked over the green sheep covered hills, through a kanuka forest and across the sand dunes to reach this magnificent beach.

We are successful and this time we take the beach trail to the beach. The trail starts the same, but quickly leaves the rolling hills and arrives at the north end of the beach. Our last trip we entered via the sound end. This end is composed of rolling white sand dunes and we walk for a long way through the dunes.
Alan eats the last cookie from Yummie Pleasures in Newcastle. The cookie was still delicious even after all this time!

In front of us are huge rock pillars jutting out of the sea. We take numerous pictures and walk up the beach toward the south end seen yesterday. It is still a gale force wind and the sea is boiling but the scene is so unbelievable that we lap it up.

We wander the beach for two hours walking in and out of the caves created by the sea. The rock cliffs are made of conglomerate and look like someone poured concrete a thousand years ago and the sea has been washing over them ever since. The beach is flat like glass and every now and then you find these filled crystal clear pools reflecting the sun and sand movement around the rocks.

Finally, on the beach we find a seal sunning himself on a rock and since the tide is going out we see the mile of flat, very flat white sand.

We don’t want to leave, but the tide turns at 19:30 and it is nearly that now so we wander back up to the North beach entrance where we came in. Along the way we take pictures of the amazing blown sand art. Nature is so creative when left to fend on its own accord. We have had a beautiful day and what beautiful sights we have seen today!

Week 7 - 5th Nov

PuPu Hydro, Wharariki Beach

Thursday Nov 5th, 2009

What a wonderful day. PuPu Hydro has a walk up and around the whole instilation. We walked on a narrow wooden bridge between the water race and the outside of the cliff. There was a small railing to prevent you from falling. Oh and it was 1.7 km long. We had no idea that this was at the top of the tramp. Alan was quite impressed.

Alan and I head back to PuPu Springs and on to the PuPu Hydro trek. The trail is more like a four wheeler road that we take up to the top. It is an hour’s hike to the top but the road goes up forever and we are wondering if it will end. It is very hot out and this is a sunny hike so we stop frequently to cool down. Finally, we are at the top of the hill, but it looks like we have to go down the other side. Not far down we find the end and this beautiful pool with a direction weir and a race way off the side. We stop and have lunch here.

The water race snakes all along the mountain for 1.7 kms before arriving at a head pond where the water is filtered prior to the dropping to the valley below. As was mentioned in the display boards, this water race was originally built by the Takaka Sluicing Company for sluicing gold from river gravels. At that time the race was 3.7 km long and the end of the hose was used to wash the side of the hill down while looking for gold bits. At the end of the gold rush, possibly around 1929, the water was converted into hydraulic pressure for a generating station and the people of Golden Bay were connected to the grid.

We walk the now converted water race (1.7 km) and upgraded piping to the generating station and the trail is beautiful. It follows the side of the mountain, and at some points the trail is only wide enough to walk on. The water race is beside the mountain and there is a narrow one foot wide path on the outside in wood to walk on with a railing between you and the cliff. At first this is a bit nerve racking. At the end we were both in awe at what they had accomplished with their engineering feat at the turn of the century.

The trail down the hill was a bit dicey, we were glad we went up the other way.

We are off again, this time we headed back out to the coast and Wharariki beach.

We arrived at the parking area and the gale off the highlands just about blew us back into our car. Alan and I put on every jacket and sweatshirt we could find. Then we crossed the stile to get to the lower trail we headed out across the sheep field. Up, up, up we go but thankfully the trail is wide and an easy climb. We do have to shoo a few sheep and cattle off the track, but eventually we get to the end of the trail and follow the sign to the beach. Over another stile, up the hill. This is a sheep hill with little pathways going across it. They are very narrow.

Over the hill, down the other side, over another stile and wow……..we are at the opening to Wharariki beach. It is unbelievable with its white, windblown sand, the raw weathered look of the sea caves and cliffs, and the deep blue pounding surf. We wander for about one hour in and out of the caves then the tide turns and we start to head back to the car. We will have to come back to this again.

On the way back Alan wanted to find the hill trail, so we head out through the sheep fields and walk to the crest of the hill rather than follow the trail. It was quite difficult climbing up and down the hills as it is vertical. The little sheep pathways are narrower than my foot. The trek proves interesting till we get to the end of the hill, then we have to find a way down thorough the bush. Eventually after much climbing we do end up back at the parking lot and after a long day we are glad to be back.

See the pictures on a later blog.