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My New Zealand trip inspired 28 pages of journal and hundreds of photos. I had to select among the photos. The last shall be first on this blogsite, so to follow my progress day by day go to number 1 in the New Zealand theme.. Each text page is followed by a photo page.

(continued)   Near the mouth, almost at the Tasman Sea, is a beach where Maori used to go for Pounamu. Some of it is in the form of large boulders and the Maori had no tools to break it into transportable sizes. They lit fires under them and heated them for days then rolled them into the cold water where they split into many pieces.

There they are!

My biggest thrill came near the underwater observatory. We did not stop there but I spotted dolphins in the distance and quipped to other passengers that New Agers think dolphins are telepathic so if we put our hands on our foreheads and concentrated hard we might be able to attract them. Of course I didn’t put my hands on my forehead but I tried and the school began to come nearer. Suddenly one large bottle-nosed dolphin burst from the group and started swimming straight towards the spot on the deck I was standing on. It kept on coming and I could hardly believe it. In the end it dived under the ship below me and swam away on the other side. I got a good shot of it. It is not every day at Milford that people even see the dolphins.

Playful creatures, eh?

What can I say about the scenery at Milford Sound? It is best if you just look at the photos. This is one of the world’s most superb places.

That smile’s for me, I’m sure it is.

On the trip back to Te Anau we stopped at more good spots. Les gave an interesting account of the building of the Homer Tunnel, 1270 metres through solid rock. Later he took us on a walk through a forest that some of Tolkien’s characters would have felt at home in. It is beech forest, the dominant forest on the East Coast of New Zealand. Moss covers everything with a thick coating of rich green. Even what looked like fairly fresh log falls were covered in thick moss. Les told us how to identify the two types of beech there, silver and red. They are nothofagus species, like the Antarctic Beeches of South-east Queensland.

I arrived back in Te Anau very happy and about 350 photos richer. I thought that even if I had 50 good ones it would make me contented (for a moment or two at least). I did a first inspection and deleted 50. Then I went on a food recce and found a Chinese restaurant full of Chinese tourists. Taking that as a good sign I went in and had my chicken and corn soup followed by beef and doufu (tofu) in a clay pot.

Day nineteen

It was a frosty 1 degree C morning as I made my way to the bus stop, wearing my heavier rain jacket. The driver of the intercity bus to Dunedin was a good friendly fellow who did his best to warm the bus up quickly. On this trip there was no interaction between the passengers, the landscape was less spectacular and the commentary less inspired. It was a good time to catch up on sleep.

Why is it that all of these early morning bus services proceed as if all passengers have had breakfast before embarking? Shops in New Zealand don’t normally open before eight and not everyone is able to have food at their hostel. The first meal stop is usually three hours or more after departure.

The amusing part of the trip for me was the Presidential Highway. Please excuse my cynicism but the driver said the road was named that because Bill Clinton travelled along it years ago and I thought of it as low-grade opportunism. I was unable to confirm the story of the Presidential visit on the internet but did find that the road traverses the area between the towns of Clinton and Gore, which were named long before those two American politicians took office.

I arrived in Dunedin at a quarter to one and I asked a helpful young man at the bus depot where I could go to find a hostel, not too far away and not at the top of a steep hill. He checked his computer and circled three locations on a map for me. He told me his favourite and said it was only fifteen minutes away. Maybe on his bicycle! Half an hour later, still carrying my pack and dragging my case and day pack, I spotted Betty’s Backpackers in a side street and made a beeline for the door. It wasn’t the one he recommended

Most of the hostels have some workers on working holiday visas and Betty’s was no exception. A beautiful German girl took my money and showed me to my dorm. I wanted to rest my bones so refused a tour of the facilities and sat down on my bed. (to be continued)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 at 11:31 pm and is filed under New Zealand, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.