New Zealand Road Trip – Wandering LeFebers

Bagpipes and Penguins – Dunedin

May 13, 2019 wanderinglefebers3 Comments

When we told people we were visiting Dunedin (a city in Otago, southeast on the South Island), people often responded with raised eyebrows and a polite comment, “Why would you go there?” Small and less swanky than Auckland and Wellington, Dunedin is often left off tour itineraries. But we wanted to see the city’s University of Otago, where our daughter had studied in 2017. We discovered a city that reminded us of Tacoma, Washington (my hometown, so I can poke fun at it)—a bit faded in places but full of cultural, historical, and natural gems.

Dunedin was founded in 1848 by settlers from the Scottish Free Church (Presbyterians). The day they arrived they organized a town and the First Church of Otago. The church is enormous and beautiful, crafted from local stone, featuring high wood ceilings and colorful stained glass.

Note the Oregon Territory wood (info below)

The church still adheres to its Scottish roots, which are reflected in its alter decor and a bagpiper who played several hymns at the conclusion of the service. Scottish hospitality still reigns; we were invited for “a cuppa” by the many kind congregants who greeted us during the service.

FUN FACT: The wood in the ceiling and floor of First Church of Otago came from the Oregon Territory. There was plenty of wood in New Zealand, but it was not seasoned enough for construction. Oregon timber, after its lengthy sea journey, did the trick.

The Scottish influence is also on display in the architecture of the University, the Catholic church, and the train station. We loved the tile floors and windows in the train station with their detailed mosaics of train scenery.

The Otago Museum is outstanding and had the best natural history display of all the museums we visited in New Zealand. The life-sized dioramas of native birds and mammals are excellent.

Little Blue Penguin Diorama (my grade school shoe box dioramas never looked this good)

Hungry? Dunedin had plenty of restaurants, but we especially enjoyed the fresh food at the colorful farmer’s market–and walking around with a cup borrowed from the cup lending library!

Unfortunately, the roads did not mimic Tacoma’s wide, nicely shouldered and guard-railed highways. Like the rest of New Zealand, the roads are curvy, cliff-like, and feature guard rails made of toothpicks and dental floss.

However, the perilous drives are rewarded with spectacular scenery just east of Dunedin. Beaches, rolling hills, and nicely flocked seagulls are on display on the Otago Peninsula

The Otago Peninsula also features really fun wildlife. There are large sea lions snoozing on sandy beaches. They look like logs until you get close. But don’t get too close—we watched one angrily chase two girls. Who knew those awkward bodies equipped only with flippers could move so fast?!

They dig resting indents and flick sand on themselves to rid themselves of flies

We were fortunate to see several enormous Royal Albatrosses fly very close to us. Their flight is elegant, nearly effortless.

The frosting on the wildlife viewing cake was watching seven tiny blue penguins swim out of the surf and waddle to their nest boxes in grassy banks. They are only about twelve inches tall and could not have been been any cuter.

For all these reasons we are very happy we defied quizzical looks from other travelers. Dunedin is charming, and worth every moment we spent there.

As always, thank you for reading this and looking at our photos. We really do appreciate it!

FUN FACT NUMBER TWO: Cromwell is a city about 125 miles northwest of Dunedin. It is well-known for its giant fruit sculpture, but it SHOULD be known for the world’s best cinnamon roll. Seriously, if you are near Cromwell, find the historic part of town and indulge. It is well worth the calories.

The Wild West

April 10, 2019 wanderinglefebers2 Comments

The South Island’s West Coast is marked by spectacular mountain, river, and coastal beauty. The Southern Alps range runs along most of the coast. Its rivers and rain forests tumble dramatically into the Tasman Sea. It is no wonder we passed through four national parks while sight-seeing this area: Paparoa, Westland Tai Poutini, Anraki Mt. Cook, and Mt. Aspiring.

Highway 6 twists between the Alps and the Tasman Sea. We nicknamed it “Harrowing 6” because it was curvy, narrow, devoid of shoulders, and had minimalist guard-rails. It is also punctuated by long one-way bridges. Drivers are alerted to the right of way by signs approaching the bridge—the bigger arrow wins. But sometimes it was difficult to see the other end!

On a sad note, several days after we left this area it suffered a 100-year rainstorm. The storm washed out the only bridge south of Franz Josef. The result is a twelve-hour detour to reach anything south of the area. This has, of course, had a severe impact upon tourism and daily life in the surrounding communities. For dramatic photos (I couldn’t get the link feature to work on this blog, sorry!) search “Franz Josef bridge washout” on Google.

The highway connects a series of small towns. Today most survive on tourism and some dairy, but many were founded on a gold. We could still see glints of gold in the sand and stones. We loved every town, but our favorite was Hokitika. It was founded in 1864 when gold was discovered. In just three years it was the number one port in New Zealand, with records indicating its river port harbored 41 ships–rapid growth! (For a vivid description of the Hokitika gold diggers’ wild lifestyle, read the mystery The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton—it’s fun!)

There are unending scenic gems along the West Coast. There are quiet coves, long beaches, dramatic coastlines, and a series of unique cliffs made of thin rock stacks, appropriately named “Pancake Rocks.”

The rivers are turquoise with glacial flour—fine particles of rock ground by glacial action. The rain forest is dense and rich with plants and bird life which we discovered while kayaking on Okarita Lagoon.

The Alps and Mt. Cook tower over the forests and rivers, jagged and intimidating, and their glaciers are impressive. We enjoyed hiking as far as we could to see the Franz Josef Glacier, but were discouraged by how far this glacier has receded in recent years.

Best of all, the West Coast offers some of the most scenic picnicking imaginable. New Zealand provides picnic spots every few kilometers, many nicely marked. We thoroughly enjoyed our outdoor lunches, but I will probably never eat another peanut butter sandwich. (We tried to add variety with the popular local spread Marmite, but that was a failure.)

Fun Fact: The McDonald’s menu in New Zealand (yes, we did cave in to an American food craving after the Marmite debacle) includes a Kiwi Burger. It has a fried egg and beet slice on it!

Thank you very much for taking a look at this–as always, we appreciate your sharing our travels! Love, Bob and Sally

JODI not FOMO

March 30, 2019March 30, 2019 wanderinglefebers3 Comments

Today is our last day in New Zealand. We will not have reliable WiFi for a week or so, so we will have to complete our blog journey later.

We will leave you with the biggest Travel Lesson we learned here. FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is real. Sally continually worried about missing a “must see.” But this is a big, wonder-filled country. There is too much to cover in four weeks. So we learned to embrace JODI, the Joy of Doing It. We ignored the pull of “don’t miss this” and simply loved and appreciated the experiences we had. We are grateful and humbled by all these experiences–JODI!Thanks for sticking with us–we’ll add a few more posts a bit later.