We left Queenstown on Boxing Day to begin our journey up the east coast, and ultimately to Fiji. The post Christmas lull/travelling wall/hangover hit us fairly hard that day, and was exacerbated further by arriving in Dunedin to grey clouds and rain. We decided to cure our melancholy with a Boxing Day Nando’s and a trip to see Star Wars – which was an excellent remedy.
The following day we tried harder to get back into traveller mode, so caught the bus to Tunnel Beach. We arrived to discover yet another hilly descent (when will they end?!). At the bottom, after a brief moment of confusion about whether or not there was actually a beach there or not, we found the entrance.
We milled around marvelling at various natural achitecture including sea carved sandstone tunnels and towering cliffs, and stuffed our faces with a “lunch’ that was 90% Christmas chocolate. We then somehow managed to walk/roll the steep incline back up to home, and got through the doorway about 5 minutes before the mother of all thunderstorms was unleashed.
We spent the next morning wandering around Dunedin doing a self guided Street Art tour with a map Frances had found online. She forgot to screenshot the information about each art piece, so we decided to just put our own interpretative spin on what we found. Which we suppose is what you’re meant to do with art anyway.
That afternoon we jumped on our intercity bus to Oamaru; the home of the little blue penguin and Victorian precinct.
We’d booked an evening viewing at the blue penguin colony; a thriving conservation project. At sundown rafts and rafts (raft = 25 penguins returning from out at sea) arrived onshore full of fish for their offspring. 170 penguins arrived home that night, and some even came straight through the viewing platform as a short cut to get back to their nest. Afterwards, it took us over an hour to walk back to our own temporary nest for the night, as there were still many penguins crossing the path back to town.
The following day we joined the locals at the Sunday market, explored the nearby Victorian steam punk scenes and visited the Whiskey Distillery.
We had planned to try and find the rarer Yellow Eyed Penguins that night, but our whiskey distillery friends had warned us there was only one pair in the region this year so our chances were slim (funny how many friends you can make after everyone’s had some whiskey). Instead, we decided to sit on the shore and watch the blue penguins with nests in town come home.
The next day headed back to Christchurch for the 2nd time, where we were due to celebrate Frances birthday and the new year. We had an apartment to ourselves for the first time – which meant homemade curry and a film! Every other place we’d been previously had banned cooking ‘strong smelling curries’ so this was a very big deal.
After very British greyness for at least a week, the sun decided to come out for Frances birthday, which we celebrated in the morning with pancakes and party hats.
That evening we found a Jazz Wine and Tapas bar where we seemed to be the only tourists (for once).
With wine jackets on we headed to a free NYE festival at Hadley Park. Kiwis seem to be keen on the Funk/Reggae music scene which suited us. After busting some moves, and a pretty impressive fireworks display we worked our way back to the apartment slowly – Andrew had to keep pulling Frances away from dancing in the street outside various bars with live music.
The next day we caught the bus to Kaikoura; a seaside town with an abundance of marine life. It sits next to a large underwater crater just off-shore where the sea suddenly drops from 75 metres to 1000 metres, which makes it ideal territory for big sea mammals. The first stop on our sea life adventure was Cooper’s Catch – a fush ‘n’ chups shop. TripAdvisor gives it a 4*, and we’d have to say it comes pretty close to the British version (Fish & Chips).
The next day we boarded a Whale Watch trip with a ‘severely strong seasickness warning’, which they mentioned around 20 times – if you weren’t seasick before, you definitely were after that. Our stomachs held strong (not everyone’s did) and we saw a pretty good spectrum of animals.
Pretty chuffed with the morning, we wandered back to our campsite to plan our next day. We’d had an extra day in Kaikoura as we’d been hoping to do a Dolphin Encounter trip, but when trying to book it last month we discovered it had sold out. Ever since we’d been sitting on the waiting list. There had been a brief spark of hope when the company tried to ring us while we were off-grid in Milford Sound, but unfortunately by the time we had signal again to return the call we had missed the opportunity. We’d heard nothing since, despite Frances using her birthday wish on it. The sight of the huge cruise ship we saw docked offshore on our arrival to Kaikoura had pretty much annihilated any remaining shred of hope that we had left.
So, we decided to come up with an alternative plan as soon as we got home. There was plenty to be entertained by for the next day, our campsite had a swimming pool/ jacuzzi.
Also our cabin had a resident Fantail bird that kept flying in to have fights with itself in our mirror everytime we opened the door. So much to do.
We’d barely got through the door of our cabin (the fantail had only just got its boxing gloves on) when Andrew’s phone started ringing. There were 2 spaces for the dolphin encounter that had just become free on the 5am trip. Whilst Frances remained professional on the phone, Andrew did a little dance around the cabin with the Fantail.
5am came around pretty quickly (which is mainly because it’s ludicrously early) and we got wetsuited and booted(/flippered) to brave the high seas.
Our skipper found a group of around 400 dusky dolphins who were super excitable after an overnight belly full of fish. They back flipped, dived and circled us as we tried to be as ‘dolphin like as possible’ in the water – which included making high-pitched screeching noises to attract their attention. Andrew, who we’ve always suspected wasn’t meant to be a land mammal due to his unrivalled clumsiness, was accepted into the dolphin community as one of their own – which made for some excellent GoPro footage.
We managed to turn our final day into a great bookend to the trip, and it featured most of the activities we’d been doing throughout New Zealand (namely seeing animals, alcohol tastings and local delicacies) and we couldn’t really have asked for a more amazing way to end 6 and a half weeks. We have now returned to Wellington for our flight to Fiji tomorrow, and a whole new set of adventures!
P.S, The kombucha fans will have noticed the content slowing recently, which is because I’ve exhausted the flavour range available. I’ve one last review to share before departing New Zealand. There is also rumoured to be a one last flavour I’ve not tasted, Blueberry, but I’ve not managed to find it throughout the whole of the south island. I can only assume it’s because it has had to be withdrawn because it’s too delicious for human consumption.
There & Back Again 