New Zealand- South Island (Part 2)

 

Aoraki (Mt. Cook) was definitely a highlight!

Now on to more photos and memories from our second week on the South Island, during which we visited Curio Bay, Moreaki Boulders, Mount Cook, Lake Tekapo, and Lake Wanaka before returning to Queenstown to fly back to Australia. 

Curio Bay

Curio Bay is located on the rugged and wild coastline in the Southland district of NZ (the far, far south east part). It is best known for having a fossil forest (one of only three accessible fossil forests in the world). Curio Bay is also known as a protected nesting ground for yellow-eyed (Hoiho) penguins (we didn't see any) and the residence of pod of rare Hector's Dolphins (Upokohue) (that we also did not see).

  

Curio bay was gorgeous. However, we did get there on a particularly windy day.  It was CRAZY windy. So windy that the camper van was rocked by the wind all night while we listened to the waves crashing onto the rocks.  It was a bit hard to sleep.  Shannon also noted signs all around Curio Bay warning of the tsunami risks.

According to https://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/faq, there are about 20,000 earthquakes in and around NZ each year.  Most of which are too small to be felt, but NZ will experience roughly 250 earthquakes will be big enough to be felt each year. Some members of our family found these facts, plus these maps to be a little anxiety-inducing when the camper van was rocking throughout the night. Obviously we made it through, so it was all just wind. 

We stayed in Curio Bay a couple of nights and had a good time exploring the area.

They spent some time trying to build a shelter.

The seagulls here were jerks but made that way by people.

This is Sammy the seal. Mike and the girls were worried he was dead or sick. They checked with holiday park. They said Sammy just likes to sun himself in that particular spot

Girls made up a game and Mike played it.

Views of the 180 million year old Jurassic fossil forest that gets exposed when the tide is out. Mike was very excited about all this.

Lauren went out a little far and the tide came back in. It was nerve wrecking waiting for it to go out enough for her get back to shore

Our time at Curio Bay ended a little rocky.  Poor Caitlyn accidentally poked herself in the eye that evening.  It was all bloodshot, and she had difficulty keeping it open.  It was bad enough that we had to call a nurse line. Thankfully, the nurse did not think we needed to take her to ER, but did advise us to have her seen within 24 hours. That was early Saturday evening, so it meant going to urgent care on Sunday. That ate our Sunday. We spent three or four hours in an urgent care in Dunedin. Luckily it was just a small scratch, and nothing that a little antibacterial drops couldn't fix. 

Moreaki Boulders

The next day we traveled to Moreaki to get close to the beach where Moreaki Boulders are located. The Moreaki Boulders are a group of large spherical "stones" on Koekohe Beach bear Moreaki. They are believed to be concretions that have been exposed through shoreline erosion on coastal cliffs. It was pretty neat to see. So much about NZ just doesn't feel real.

Aoraki/Mt. Cook

Mt. Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand. As of 2014 it's height was listed as 3,724 meters (12,218 feet) and sits in the Southern Alps. One of the best things we did in New Zealand was drive to the base of Mt. Cook to hike the Hooker Valley Track. It is a 10km return (five km in and five km out) that gains only about 100m in height (from 760m to 877m) and is a well formed track that can walked by basically anyone of any fitness level. So we thought it would be perfect for the kids.  Another really special thing about this hike is that it has three swinging bridges.

Every part of this walk (and even much of the drive) was beautiful. It did turn out to be just a hair long for our smallest, so the last bit of it was tough to get through, just because little bodies were tired.  Maybe some older bodies were tired too.  I am so glad we took this hike.  As you will see the views are just gorgeous.  We saw mountain valley, a glacial lake (Lauren even touched it), saw small icebergs in the water, and even saw a small avalanche (from a great distance).  The avalanche sounded like thunder, and I was so happy to be very far away from it.

The pictures from this walk cannot do it justice, but it is all we have.

We finally remembered to bring flat Mrs. Harkness somewhere else :)

Making Lauren read the danger sign before she touches the glacier lake.

 We stopped to take more pictures of beautiful scenery near Mt. Cook too:

Lake Tekapo

We stayed at Lake Tekapo for two nights (the day before hiking Hooker Valley Track, and the night we did the hiking). The area near Lake Tekapo is a dark sky reserve, so it is known for stargazing. Mike got some great photos of the beautiful night sky.

We really enjoyed our stay at Lake Tekapo.  There were a lot restaurants in the area, and the holiday park we stayed at was pretty nice as well and even had a couple trampolines for the girls.

Wanaka

The night before we left Queenstown to return to Australia we stayed in a resort town near Queenstown. Wanaka is a beautiful little town on the southern end of Lake Wanaka. I really wish we had more time in the quaint little town. We found a nice little bookstore here and had a relaxing walk near the lake. Of course we also stopped to see "That Wanaka Tree", also known as the Wanaka Willow. The tree sits alone in the water. It is estimated to be 70-80 years old. 

Our three weeks in New Zealand were truly extraordinary!  It is somewhere neither Mike nor Shannon ever thought they would live to see.  We know how lucky we were to be able to spend three weeks here, but it really was not nearly enough time to see all that we wanted.  We're still not entirely sure we did it right. At a lot of the places, we really would have liked to have had MORE time to enjoy the area, BUT, if we took more time at each spot, we wouldn't have been able to see as much.

It was also our first experience in a camper van. It was a great way to move from place to place. It was also really nice to not have to repack and move hotel rooms all the time. It wasn't without its challenges though.  It was tight quarters for the four of us (which got tigher with each passing day), and never having traveled this way before, we could have packed more efficiently. Shannon thinks that we would have enjoyed it more if we weren't moving locations as often, since it was a decent amount of work to ready the camper to drive, but our list of places to see was long and the time finite.

We hope to have a chance to return to New Zealand one day so we can see even more of this amazing country! And also go to Milford Sound again!