Category: New Zealand, Winter 2020

The drive from Mount Cook National Park to Kaikoura is about 6.5 hours.  Still, with some of the beautiful scenery along the way, it was way better than driving from the Bay Area to Los Angeles, which is one of the most horrifically boring drives on the planet.  Driving on the moon would be more scenic….wearing a blindfold!

Kaikoura is a stunning peninsula surrounded by crystal clear water that has at least 5 shades of aqua.

There are multiple fur seal colonies on the peninsula, but most of them are smart enough to find a spot where you have to wade across the water to get to them.  This guy obviously took the short bus to school.

This Oyster Catcher was giving me quite a speaking-to since I was too close to his?/her? chick.  I don’t know who wears the pants in the Oyster Catcher family.

Punakaiki has their pancake rocks, but here, the rocks are sideways.  Same limestone formation, just uplifted differently.  So what do we call these?  Taco rocks?  Let me know your thoughts.

There is an overlook at the top of the peninsula that shows off this beautiful small town.

Speaking of beautiful, we ate at Zephyr, and it was so damned good.! Wish we had a place like this in Livermore!  We actually do have a “Zephyr” restaurant, but it couldn’t compete with this place.  Click the above link and go if you happen to visit, but make a reservation…they turned away a lot of people while we were there.

At the beginning of the track on the south bay of Kaikoura, there is this Maori archway.  We saw a lot of these dotted around NZ.

About 20 minutes north of Kaikoura is a spot on the road called Ohau, not to be confused with Oahu.  There is a huge fur seal colony on the rocks here that stretches for miles in either direction.  Lots of fur seal pups playing in the water as well.  Well worth a stop!

There had to be several thousand seals along this stretch of the coast.

Across the road is a hidden trail to Ohau Falls.  I had picked this spot out to visit a long time ago based (apparently) on an older blog post.  The trail has been closed due to large rock slides from the Kaikoura earthquake of 2016 (a 7.8 quake!).  Our B&B host told us the trail was still doable, so of course I sought it out and went for it, with Kim in tow.

There is a gate to go through (to the right of the above sign), and I worked to free the chain to open the gate, not realizing there was no fence on the right side of the gate!  I only discovered this on the return trip.

The trail was fine for the first third, and then a rock slide clearly stood in the way.  We made it across the rock slide, but then there was a fairly vertical drop of about 50 feet that would not have been safe for Kim to navigate (not that it was safe for me, but life on the edge baby!).

At the bottom of the steep hill were pools of water with about 6 fur seal pups playing away!  No sign of adult seals anywhere.

Shortly after the playful pups I came upon a very battered bridge that had this fur seal pup blocking my path.  I kicked a few sticks in his general direction, but he was not moving….no way.  After a few minutes of hand gestures and tossing sticks I gave up….as Kim was waiting up above.   I never made it to the waterfall, and I have this little guy to blame.  He’d make a nice jacket!  Or maybe a shawl?

Here is a photo from the internet of what the little guy was blocking me from seeing.  Apparently there are usually fur seal pups right under the waterfall.  Maybe next time we get out this way!

Yet another beautiful beach on the way to Picton.  The beaches here are so plentiful and beautiful.

We arrived in Picton and walked around, and there isn’t much here.  This is primarly just a transfer point to get on or off the ferry, as well as a cruise ship port, but the bulk of cruise ship passengers better have excursions or they will quickly bore of this little city.

Here is a Manta Ray swimming along the waterfront….excitement……finally!

We had to be in line for the ferry at 6:30 AM.  I don’t think we’ve woken up by 6:00 AM since we retired!

Next up, Covid-19 changes our plans!

 

On Day 2 we did a hike that is considered the best in the park, the Hooker Valley Track.  This track (all hiking paths in NZ are called “tracks”) follows the path the Hooker Glacier left behind as it receded up the valley.  Here is a shot from the beginning of the hike looking back towards our hotel.  You might need to click on the photo to see it!

The hike is 10km long, but it’s mostly flat, so it’s really quite easy.  You cross three swinging bridges along the way.  When there are multiple people on the bridge, it feels like you are walking during an earthquake, or after 8:00 PM for me!  Did I mention I like my wine?  Maybe I shouldn’t advertise that.

The views the entire way are just breath taking.  Around every bend is another “wow” view.

At the end of the trail there is a picnic area viewpoint of Hooker Glacier and it’s lake.  Much smaller than Tasman Glacier, it’s only 11km long, and nowhere near as wide.  You can barely make it out in the below photo.  The glaciers coming off of Mount Cook are covered in rock as they have been melting from the top down as well as at their terminus.  All of the sediment carried in the ice ends up on top, making the glaciers appear like part of the rocky landscape. The lake started forming in the 1970’s as Hooker Glacier retreated.  If they had just put up some red lights I think the Hooker would have been happy to come forward, but this isn’t Amsterdam.

These Paradise Shelduck’s came flying up to the picnic area looking for a handout.  They were very tame, so their begging must be effective.

A river of glacial melt running under the 2nd swing bridge.  That’s a lot of melt, and it wasn’t really that hot.

The hanging glaciers near the beginning of the trail.  Even though the exposure is off, I loved the dichotomy of the ice versus the green landscape.

We got take-out pizza from the Old Mountaineers Cafe adjacent to the Hermitage Hotel and had that in our room while watching the sunset.  Excellent pizza to go with excellent NZ wine and views!

We had 2 days of perfect weather in the park.  Just as we were packing up to leave, we saw this wisp of fog rolling into the valley.

By the time we started our drive the entire valley was shrouded in fog, and as we drove south it became a combination of fog and fully overcast with low clouds.  We lucked out!  Mount Cook will likely not be visible for the next day or two.  Our guide at Tasman Lake told us that Mount Cook is obscured about half the time, so we are thankful we got to enjoy it while we could!

Next up, Kaikoura and Picton.