NZ South Island, Akaroa to Moeraki via Mt. Cook

Fairlie

On this leg of our New Zealand excursion, we traveled from the east coast of the South Island and the little French flavored town of Akaroa southwest to Fairlie, Lake Tekapo, Mount John, Mt. Cook, and back to the east coast to the little fishing village of Moeraki.

The town of Fairlie is in the heart of the Mackenzie valley. 

It’s most famous or infamous citizen and founder, James Mackenzie, according to the historical monument acquired in the middle of the night 1,000 sheep from a region nearby to start his own sheep ranch.  Today Fairlie is a quiet little town.  We stayed three days in Fairlie walking along the stream, playing 18 holes of golf, and meeting the local folks.

On one of our walks we met Collin McKinnon, a Fairlie gentleman, pruning the trees in front of the Mackenzie Highland Pipe Band building.  Collin invited us to the band practice the following evening.  We returned to the practice the following evening and enjoyed the bellowing and piping of the band.  Most of the pipers were women.  Being inside during the practice was quite and experience.  I thought our eardrums would pop it was so loud.  The pipes were much more enjoyable outside and the pipers were very gracious in letting us visit them during their practice and their march down the road to a fellow piper’s home.  We especially enjoyed a duet by Collin (below) and fellow piper Ivan after the formal practice.

Front Row: John, Ivan, and Collin

The band leader was John Campbell.  Russ’s great grandfather was named John Campbell, so it was fun to talk with this man who might be a very distant relative and whose ancestors immigrated from Scotland to New Zealand in the mid 1800’s.

The following morning as we were getting ready to leave, Collin stopped by the campground with a bag of fresh vegetables from his garden – carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, and new potatoes.  What a delightful treat.  We stopped at the grocery store on our way out of Fairlie and bought some corned beef so that we could enjoy these vegetables properly.

Lake Tekapo and Mount John

We arrived in Lake Tekapo in the late afternoon.  It was spitting rain off and on.  The lake is glacial melt and has an interesting milky blue-green appearance.  We took a walk in the late afternoon and spent the early evening sitting in some lovely hot pools near the campground.

The following morning, we awoke to a gorgeous day.  We drove to the top of Mount John, just above Lake Tekapo and enjoyed carrot cake and coffee as we enjoyed the fabulous views, including our first glimpse of Mt. Cook in the distance.

Mount John Observatory

Orange juice, cappucino, carrot cake, and view.  What more could you want?

After our spectacular breakfast, we continued toward Mt. Cook. 

 

Mt. Cook

Our campsite had a fabulous view of Mt. Cook.  We knew that the weather was going to close in on us, so we took two walks the first afternoon to:

Mueller Glacier and Lake

 

 

and the second walk to the bottom of the  

Tasman Glacier and Lake Tasman where icebergs were floating in the water.

From our campsite, the sunset on Mt. Cook  was gorgeous.

Hooker Glacier and Hooker Lake Hike

The following morning, a high cloud cover was beginning to form and the forecast was for rain by late afternoon.  We got an early start for our walk up to the Hooker Glacier and Hooker Lake.  The walk was lovely and included quite a bit of rock hopping up an active stream bed. 

We tramped across the two swing bridges over the rushing glacial waters with gusting winds… chilling and thrilling.  We were glad to get across and put our feet on solid ground.

Clouds enveloping the mountain

By late afternoon, we had returned to our campsite.  We could not even see the mountain.  It started to rain during the night and continued for 24 hours.  We spent our last day on Aoraki/Mt. Cook in the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Center.  There is a wonderful theater and planetarium.  So while the mountain was shrouded with clouds and rain, we were indoors enjoying five presentations including a 3D movie of Mt. Cook, the biography of Sir Edmund Hillary, and 3 planetarium shows including one on black holes which was fascinating.

We left Mt. Cook around 4:00 in the afternoon and drove southeast for a couple of hours until we were back in sunshine.  We spent the night in a little campground in Omarama.  The river water was milky blue green just like the lakes and apparently the trout fishing was excellent.  It seemed odd to us that the trout fishing would be so good in the milky waters.  The fisherman certainly couldn’t see the trout hiding in the shadows, and it was surprising that the trout could even see the bait.

Omarama

When we arrived in Omarama in the late afternoon, it was 90 degrees, unseasonably warm.  By midnight, it was pouring rain and cold.  We left the following morning in the rain and continued on our way to the east coast, stopping several times to look at Maori cave art in limestone rocks and formations.

Does this look like a serpent head to you?

Oamaru
One of our stops was in the east coast city of Oamaru.  It is an old port city with distinctive Victorian era architecture in the original section of town.  Sandstone sculpture is one of the primary art forms here.  Some of the buildings are made of limestone which are slow deteriorating. 

Moeraki

We arrived in Moeraki Monday night February 7. 

 It rained again and we spent much of the late afternoon and evening in the communal kitchen chatting with other tourists from around the world.  The following morning we lounged about until late morning then hiked up the beach during low tide to the Moeraki Boulders.

Look!  It's a baby dinosaur.

These ancient egg shaped rocks are believed to have rolled around the ocean floors and deposited as the oceans receded.  Farmers often dig them up in their nearby fields.  When they crack open, they look like giant dinosaur eggs.  Some of them have very interesting patterns inside and out.

Late in the afternoon of the same day, we drove out on the Moeraki peninsula to the lighthouse and penguin reserve.  We had heard the best time to observe the rare yellow eyed penguin was late in the afternoon before dusk when they return from fishing in the sea.  It was quite cold and windy on the peninsula, but it was well worth the effort.   We were rewarded with several seal and penguin sightings and lovely scenery.

Still chick fuzz on the neck

My Mac is acting up and I think is dying.  I may not be able to post anymore photos for a while.  Fortunately, I had uploaded these photos to Picasa before Mac croaked.  We'll see what happens, but these may be the last photos for a while.  Other than that......

All is well with the 2 Sail R’s, Travel R’s, Camp R’s