Auckland Skyline and lots of sail boats.
On my previous trip to Australia I flew with Air New Zealand. For this reason I was offered a cheep trip to visit New Zealand. I took them up on it, and since I was in Los Angeles, I also bought a cheap ticket to Honolulu on Hawaiian Airlines..
First I was in Auckland, New Zealand. I could sleep in the airport since the plane arrived close to midnight.Next day I got a ride to the Youth Hostel in Auckland. There are two of them, and both are on a very cheap incline.
At the hostel I could order a ticket with Intercity Bus for 60 hours to tour the North and the South Island. Intercity does not stop at hostels like other lines do. Other than that the service was very good and the driver explained the cites we were seeing.
On my first day in New Zealand I took a bus tour of the city of many sails.
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Auckland Skyline and lots of sail boats.
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Next day I went with Intercity Bus to see the Northland. One of the first major stops was at Paihia at the Bay of Islands.
This is a busy tourist resort. Hostels were full, and in Auckland we made reservation for Kaitaia at the end of the line. We passed through Kerikeri where I saw orchards with citrus, avocados and others. Flowers were beautiful in all the gardens and especially in Garden Centers.
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Kaitaia YHA
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Next day I took the tour of the far north. First we stopped at a Kauri museum. Here one could by carvings made from stumps of these very old, nearly extinct trees. I bought a little Kiwi and two T-shirts.
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Stairwell carved out of a Kauri tree trunk
and Myself.
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The bus then continued North till the top of New Zealand. From the parking area we could walk down to the Cape Reinga lighthouse. Here the two oceans, the Pacific and the Tasmanian Sea meet. Sometimes there are strong waves here.
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Top of New Zealand with Lighthouse.
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The bus then followed the Ninety-Mile Beach. Before getting there, there some high sand dunes and some kids slid down them.
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Sand dunes at 90-Mile Beach.
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We saw a car that sunk into the sand, and driving ones car there is not wise! The bus driver, though, knew his route!
The next day, I had to take the same route South and spent the night in Whangarei. The hostel was nice, but the approach way was terribly steep. Also it rained that day.
From there I went down to Auckland again to wait for another bus that would take me to Rotorua. This also is a tourist place that geysers and hot springs made it famous.
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Rotorua steam
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Maori Marae
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The hostel had a swimming pool with steaming water. I enjoyed bathing in it, even thinking it would help my slightly arthritic fingers. During the day I took a walk to the beautiful Lake Rotorua. Black Swan and some ducks were in it. There was a sign not to feed the swans because they might attack little children. In Rotorua I also enjoyed visiting two geysers in the area of the Maori museum.
Leaving Rotorua we went by Lake Taupo, the biggest one in New Zealand. In this area you can bungee jump, do watersport and hike. A bit further we passed through what they call the desert and the vegetation was rather dry. Not too far away we could see snow mountains including the active volcano Mount Ruapehu (2795m). We passed through some National Parks. On the mountain slopes, I saw a lot of planted Pinus radiata which are the major lumber source in New Zealand. Lots of timber is being exported to Japan. New Zealand is rather mountainous. Eventually we reached Wellington.
Wellington is a very nice city and the capital of New Zealand. I walked through the city to the cable car which took me to the upper entrance of the botanical garden. While enjoying very interesting native and imported plants, many in bloom, I walked down the hill. Below I run into the Parliament building and the "beehive".
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Wellington, Beehive.
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I spent a couple of nights at the Wellington YHA. It has an elevator, kitchen, and rec. room. Right across is the large store New World. In it I could buy frozen TV dinner, bread etc. which I prepared for my supper in the kitchen. To get to the store, I had to cross a very busy street. This is dangerous and I found New Zealand usually don't stop for pedestrians!
In the Museum of Wellington (Te Papa) I saw a replica of the extinct Moa and also stuffed Kiwis. Incidentally Kiwis are nocturnal and shy birds, so actually I did not see a wild living Kiwi during my trip.)
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Moa, attacked by an eagle.
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Kiwis
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From Wellington one takes the Inter-island Ferry across Cook Strait which takes 3 hours.
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Me crossing Crook Strait
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Picton, South Island
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Entering the fjord, between several islands and peninsulas, was very scenic. In Picton, an Intercity bus was waiting and took me to Nelson. We passed through Blenheim where I saw very extensive old and new vineyards. I can attest that Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc are among the best wines. Nelson is another nice city. It lies on the Tasman Bay, and many people buy real estate to build expensive houses. I easily found the YHA where I had reservation like at all other hostels. I found it very convenient to know that I had a bed when I get there.
From Nelson, the next day, I rode the bus further South. There were very many scenic spots. Among them were the pancake rocks near Punakaiki on the Tasmanian coast.
Two
pictures of Pancake Rock
The road often passed on one lane bridges over coastal rivers.
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Several rest stops were made where we could have coffee or other food.
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We also stopped in Hokitika. Here some of us passengers admired green stone or green jade which the Maori made into interesting jewels. This was also the area where gold was found. At several tourist places one can even pan for gold.
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From Hokitikia it was another two hours till we reached Franz Josef. By this time and the next day it was raining, and we saw nothing of the Southern Alps nor the glacier. Too bad, it is beautiful there, but it has about 4 meters of rain per year.
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Two days later, I walked through the rain to the bus stop for continuation. We passed by Fox Glacier, but could not see the glacier. Haast is an interesting little town near the sea. The bus made a brief stop and then took us through mountains to the Haast pass. It is a rough road, and the pioneers had it difficult to cross the Alps. Through beautiful scenery we traveled through the eastern slopes of the mountains. Several beautiful lakes were passed.
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Next day the weather turned nice. I went on a bus trip to Milford Sound. We had to travel quite a bit south first along Lake Wakatipu to Mossburn and then to Te Anau, a beautiful resort, also.
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From here we went North along beautiful Lake Te Anau and then through pastures and a National Park. Southern beaches were among the major trees there. We also stopped at a swamp surrounded by New Zealand flax (which Maori used a lot for weaving).
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All over New Zealand I saw lots and lots of sheep, lots and lots of cows, and the same with deer. Unfortunately the bus would not stop for me to take pictures of these farm animals. We know about wool, milk and dairy products are exported, and deer is liked ad meet (venison) in Germany and fancy restaurants.
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After a few stops to wonder about the Alps, some snow and many waterfalls, we arrived at Milford Sound. Several ships were there, and several buses brought loads of passengers. It cost 60$ to go for a boat trip, which in nice weather is well worth it. The trip lasts about one hour, and the captain explains what we saw. A woman then said the same thing in maori language - which I am sure nobody understood. Passengers came from many countries, many from China and Japan.
Here are my pictures taken during the Milford Sound trip:
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Scenes from Milford Sound (really is a fjord).
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Next day I was off again, South again. The first part was the same as yesterday till about Mossburn. Our bus had to stop because a Tour of South New Zealand was passing by.
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The bus' end-station was Invercargil at the bottom of the South Island. The first day I went to the Queens Garden, and one major subject there was the old, nearly extinct Tuatara.
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| Tuatara, Invercargill, maybe 110 years old . | Tuatara YHA hostel, Invercargill |
The real bottom of the South Island is Bluff. I went there
by bus, and then took the 1 hour ferry to Stewart Island. Now
this was real exciting. It is rather mountainous. First I climbed up on
the Fuchsia path. There I entered a tropical forest with very large
fuchsia trees. This is a plant I know well as a potted plant with red
and purple flower. In the thick forest were all sorts of interesting
fairly large birds who made an interesting noise. A New Zealand pigeon
also was close by. I took a 45 minute trail hike which I found very
tiresome. There were 35 steps up, level, 35 steps up, level 9 with a
super nice view of the Halfmoon Bay, and then steps up, steps down and
level. It was exhausting for me.... but I made it. Somehow I must have
lost the film I shot on this interesting island. This is as far South
as you can go. Actually I was very far South on a previous trip to
Chile in Fireland. But in South America the climate was much colder
than on Stewart. Soon after I finished my major hike, rain started, but
I have seen a nice bit, and got on the 3 o'clock back to Bluff and then
to my hostel in Invercargill.
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| Fuchsia tree trunk and flowers | |
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| Pigeon | Golden Bay
with Iona Island |
My next goal was a visit to the city of Dunedin, a few hours North. This is a university city, a rather nice one. My major interest was to visit the botanical garden. I was there at exactly the right time because of the flowering Rhododendrons, Azaleas, primroses and even tulips. Those Rhododendrons were simply unbelievable. Imagine a medium-sized tree in full flower.
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From the botanical garden in Dunedin.
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From Dunedin it takes a few hours and one is in Christchurch. Halfway in-between is Timaru where I took a picture of the ancient shipping house.
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It also has an interesting botanical garden where I saw a living Kauri tree.
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Kauri tree and me.
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Kaikoura
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Kaikoura
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From Kaikoura the next morning when we could see the snow mountains, I took another bus North. One could have taken a train, too, but I found out that it is a bit more expensive. In Picton I had to wait a bit to catch the ferry back to Wellington. All went well.
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I stayed the night in Wellington, and left again next morning. In Bulls I had to change buses.
After a while I saw the base of Mt. Egmont, but the top was in clouds. We arrived in New Plymouth in the early afternoon. The YHA was described at being ten minutes from the bus stop, but it was a lot longer than that, and I had to climb some very steep hills. A car gave me a lift part way. Nobody was at the YHA. A sign said to make myself at home and take a cot.
I walked a bit to buy some groceries. At 5 PM the YHA manager came and I could check into a room.
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Some people use New Plymouth as a starting point to hike on the volcano Mt. Egmont. Of course I did not. I did not even see Mt. Egmont, because it was raining when I was there. Adjacent to the YHA grounds was a creek with 3 foot long eels which we fed with bread.
So at 7 the following morning I checked out to walk to the bus. The manager showed me a short cut so I could avoid part of the steep exit. But my luck was bad, the short cut was filled with "No Trespass" sign and two gates, the last of them being so high I could not climb over it and had to retrace my steps and climb the steep hill. I was getting anxious that I might miss the bus, because I had to go to Auckland to catch my return plane. Things went OK, though. I had to buy a new bus ticket, because the 60 hours I paid for before had expired.
The bus shopped in Te Kuiti which had a statue to the champion sheep shearer.
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The bus passed through Hamilton and arrived in Auckland at around 2:30 PM The stop was at the Skytower, and I had some time to walk around. I caught sight of a jumper from the 192 meter Skytower.
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New Zealand map with my route
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After this, I took the Air Bus to the airport and waited till I could get on my flight back to Los Angeles. The flight was terribly long.
In summery: What is good? YHA were priced between 18 and 24 New Zealand $, they were clean, kitchen allowed us to cook. Every time I could reserve and pay for another YHA for next night.
Intercity was a good bus. Atomic and Magic, though, take people exactly to the YHA. This saves a lot of walking steep streets, which was a major pain for me. (Steep are: Auckland, Whangarei, New Plymouth, Dunedin....) Staying at a Backpackers place at a less steep location might be easier. But once you pay for a hostel, you are stuck.
Drivers are bad, they seem to like to run over pedestrians. They drive around you and don't stop where for you, even on a pedestrian stripe.
People are friendly, no doubt about that. I did take a bottle of wine to a restaurant (many say BYO) and had to take 5.25 $ de-corking charge. This turned me off for restaurants, and I had my meals with wine in the hostels. Seniors get discounts, but not everywhere.
Spring (End of November, start of December) is the very best time to visit New Zealand because of the gorgeous flowers that can be seen.
After this trip I visited Hawaii, and I will tell you about this later.
For other travel stories, please click: http://www.freenet.tlh.fl.us/~heinisj
you may e-mail me at: jheinis@nettally.com
