After leaving Christchurch, the next place I stopped was Queenstown. Actually, the rest of my trip was based out of there, but I took a few mini road trips to various places.
Flying into Queenstown, I was a little disappointed because I was sitting on the wrong side of the plane to get the views, but as we approached the airport, there was some circling around, and I was able to get a look at some of the scenery. Some big lakes and beautiful mountains. I took a bit of video from the plane...
The first thing I had to do when I arrived was pick up my rental car. It turned out to be a little white Toyota Yaris. This was my first time to drive on the left side of the road, and while it's not so difficult it took a day or two to get used to. The thing I had the most problems with was the signal switch. It was on the opposite side of the wheel from what I am used to, so SO MANY TIMES I wanted to signal but ended up turning on the wipers instead. I also rented a GPS which was very helpful, but the instructions were occasionally confusing. Mostly in regards to roundabouts. They love roundabouts in New Zealand. Why, I don't know, but they are EVERYWHERE. There are even double lane roundabouts. Anyway, rather than telling me to go straight or left or right, the GPS was always like, "Take the 2nd exit and...." Well most of the time that meant go straight, but sometimes it meant turn right because there was no left turn exit. SO CONFUSING!! But I kind of got used to it. After many detours to get back to where I was actually supposed to be after taking the wrong exits.
Once I found my way to my accommodation, I decided to do a bit of exploring. I was staying right next to Lake Wakatipu, and there is a walking/biking path that goes along the edge, so I checked that out for a while and found a nice warm and sunny spot to figure out what to do next. Definitely a nice change from the chilly weather in Christchurch.
This is the view from where I stopped. Not too shabby.
The tall craggy mountains are what are called "The Remarkables"
You might not be able to see it, but there was a truck that got stuck in the lake. No idea how or why, but they couldn't get it out.
After dinner I went to the far side of the lake and got a little bit of sunshine. This was around 7 or 8pm. So nice to have sun in the evening.
Since I arrived in Queenstown on Christmas Eve, I knew many places would be closed the following day, so I decided to go to a restaurant for dinner that night. I got myself a seat in a sunny spot out on the patio looking out to the Remarkables (a mountain range), and then I noticed there was a very pretty and well behaved dog out there too. Now, if you know me, you know I like dogs, and so I couldn't help but to look at her. Then her human started talking to me. He was an older man (maybe in his 70s) and he started asking me questions about where I was from, where I'd been and so on. Eventually, he told me he needed to go get something from another store and asked if I could keep an eye on his dog (her name was Saska) while he did that. I was quite surprised, but you know, dogs... When he came back he started talking to me more, and since it was kind of strange and hard to talk being at different tables, he and Saska came and joined me at my table. While I ate my dinner we had a very interesting conversation. He asked me about my travels and life and so on, and he told me about himself, apparently he had been a poet and did some photography (I actually googled him and found an article after I got back home). He also gave me some suggestions about places around Queenstown that would be nice to visit. One place he highly recommended was driving out to Glenorchy and Paradise. That turned out to be one of my favorite drives, but I will probably give it its own post. That being said, I am going to write separate posts for each of the various small trips that I took. Mainly so I can show you more photos without it being a total photo overload. hehehe.
If you want to read the article I found, I'm posting the link to it HERE. It's quite interesting. As an aside, when I searched for this article again to put in the link, there were quite a few new links to his name. Death notices. Apparently he passed away on January 12. That's really too bad, I would have liked to say thank you for the advice he gave me.
On Christmas itself, I didn't really do so much. I was quite tired and not really ready to try driving on the left side for anything more than a quick trip to the store. So, since it was absolutely beautiful weather, I took my book and found a nice place by the lake to read for a while. After that, I ended up walking the 7.5km along the lake into Queenstown (I was actually staying outside of the city). Also, apparently from what I could see, it is the New Zealand thing to hang by the lake with friends/family and drink or drink at the beach. There is one small beach in Queenstown, and from what I could see as I walked by, there was no space to move, it was so packed, and it seemed like everyone was drinking and there were police everywhere. Not really my idea of fun. I wandered around for a bit but, being Christmas not much was open, so I headed back relatively soon after. When I got back to my room for the night, I had a little visitor at my door. He was very curious about what was going on.
Christmas reading view
Queenstown Gardens
My little visitor
I'm telling you, he was so curious. Click here for the link.
Fast forward to New Years Day. (The rest of the days will have their own post). It was my last day in New Zealand, as I was leaving early the next morning. I had originally had other plans for the day, but the weather was cloudy and it tried raining on and off throughout the day, so I had to change my plans. I ended up staying in Queenstown, which I hadn't done since the start of my time here. I started the day doing a little hike up "Queenstown Hill" which although called a hill, had an elevation of about 900m. The first part of the hike wasn't so interesting, just walking up through the forest, but eventually you reach a clearing and get to the "Basket of Dreams". From there, you can take the path up to the summit and you get some really nice views. I had been considering taking the gondola (the next mountain over) to get some views, but I think this was better. It was higher up, free, and probably less crowded!
If you can't read it, click on the picture. Basically it says Queenstown Hill is sacred.
This is the "Basket of Dreams"
View from part way up the hill
Don't let this deceive you. It's steeper than it looks.
So colorful and pretty
Airplane over the Remarkables
Time to go back down...
I took a quick 360 from the top...if it doesn't work, click here.
After that hike, I went down into the city center. It took me quite a while to find somewhere to park, but when I did, I was pleasantly surprised to find that parking was free because it was New Years. Lucky! Guess if I was going to be spending time in the city, that was the day to do it! I say city, but to be honest, it is more like a town. It is not so big at all. The city center area is constantly packed with people, going into the shops, lining up outside restaurants, stopping at the offices of the many tour companies, and so on. I skipped over most of that and went to the Kiwi Birdlife Park. The entrance price was a bit steep at $55 to get in, but most things in New Zealand are quite pricey, so not much you can do. I also wanted to go here because the last time I was in New Zealand, I wasn't able to see kiwi because the places to do so were only accessible by car. When I went in, they had a conservation talk and bird and other animals show. Apparently it was also a special day at that park because it was the anniversary of the death of the man who built it. During the show I ended up with a Japanese couple sitting next to me (the first time in NZ!), and the wife was talking (in Japanese) about how she didn't really know where to go or what the area we were sitting in was for and seemed overall confused. So...I started talking to her in Japanese. I asked her if she needed any help and answered a couple questions for her. She was quite surprised to find this foreigner speaking in Japanese to her, and had to ask the usual questions about why I was able to do so. She also asked me the name of a couple animals during the show since they were talking too quickly for her to catch. After the show, everyone went into the kiwi houses, as they were going to feed their kiwis so that it would be easier for everyone to catch a glimpse of them. If you don't know, kiwis are nocturnal, and so it was very dark inside, pictures were not allowed, and you had to be as quiet as possible. I was able to see them, and I was kind of surprised at how large they were. For some reason I was expecting them to be very small, but they're actually a good size. I wandered around the rest of the bird park for a bit before going to Cookie Time.
It's a possum. They hate them in NZ, and try to get rid of them. Very different from Australia where they're protected.
Lorikeet. So many of these in Australia. Very pretty but so loud.
This is a Kea. Doesn't look like much here, but under its wings is orange and green. They're super smart too.
I'm not sure if this bird actually belonged here or not...
Cookie Time is a famous cookie store in New Zealand, and their selling point is that you get warm cookies. There are quite a few types, and you can also get ice-cream sandwiches, ice-cream (cookie flavors), milkshakes, sundaes, and so on. I really wanted cookies, but I ended up going for the Giant cookie ice-cream sandwich. You got to choose the type of cookies you wanted them to use and then you chose your ice-cream. They put about 4 scoops of ice-cream in it. After the second scoop, I wanted to tell them to stop, but they didn't. I could not eat it all. Super overload. Should have gone for the mini one, but then your only choice of cookies is chocolate chip. But since that's what I used anyway...oh well, never learn until you try.
So big. So much sugar.
I had one final adventure before leaving...On the 2nd, my flight back to Japan was at 6:40am, and so I got to the airport around 4. Unfortunately, what I didn't know was that the airport didn't open until 5 and you can't start the check in process until 5:20. I was not so happy. Especially because it was raining and I'd already dropped off the keys to my rental car, so I couldn't do anything but wait by the doors. Eventually staff started coming in, and a couple of them took pity on me, and let me go through the doors with them so I could at least go inside and sit down to wait.
First time to see a sign at the airport telling you to relax.
I'll be posting more about the rest of my mini-trips soon! Look forward to it!
Oh, also random piece of information: this has been my 100th blog post!
After a very long series of flights, many of which were unfortunately not on schedule, I arrived (2 days later with the time difference) in Christchurch for the second part of my winter vacation. It was warmish and mostly sunny! Opposite of when I left Canada. And I was quite happy as the forecast for Christchurch had been for rain for the time I was supposed to be there.
When I arrived at my hotel and went into my room, I found that they had given me a larger room than I had actually booked. Lucky! After dropping off my things, and changing into more weather appropriate clothing, I went to go explore and stretch my legs. I ended up coming across an international food truck market event that was happening, and there was also some live music going on. After that, I visited the information center, and then continued on to the botanical gardens, where I got some lovely sunshine. While I was wandering around in the city, I noticed there are still many buildings that are damaged from the earthquake in 2016. A lot of them are abandoned and graffitied, which gives some areas of the city a kind of ghost town feeling.
Lots of old buildings like this in Christchurch. This was home to the information center and some shops.
Just sleepin'...
So green
You could ride in a boat down the river if you so chose
So peaceful
Something we don't see so much of anymore...
I like this color
Memorial
Memorial in front of shopping area
The Christchurch tram
The next day, I took the bus out to the Christchurch gondola, and I got to see some absolutely amazing views, and did a little bit of walking as well, as they have some tracks around the the area. On the way back down the mountain, the attendant asked me where I was from, and when I said Canada, he tried to sing a little bit of our song. It was completely wrong but it was amusing. Both this day and the previous I didn't do so much in the late afternoon/evening for a couple of reasons. First, I was jet-lagged and got tired by 3 or 4, and second, it got quite cool with the wind and poured and poured from around 4 or 5 all through the night.
For my final day in Christchurch, I wasn't actually in Christchurch. I took a bus for about an hour and a half out to the coastal town of Akaroa. This area's main attraction is it's different type of dolphins that apparently live in the bay near where the town is, so there are many tour boats that take you out to see them. However, that being said, I did NOT go on a boat. I did the dolphin thing the last time that I was in New Zealand, and this time I wanted to do something different. Not to mention the weather was (according to the locals)-- winter-like. It wasn't even 15 and there was a strong wind off the water. I imagine it felt even colder if you were on a boat. What I did instead was a little bit of exploring. I went to the lighthouse, a forest path referred to as the "Garden of Tane" (recommended by the bus driver), a very odd place called the Giant's House, and then I went to go see the little (blue) penguins!
The Giant's House is this garden created by a horticulturist/artist, where there are all kinds of weird and interesting mosaic creations. Look at the pictures. I don't know how to explain it.
The Giant's House itself
The best part of the day was definitely the penguins, although it was a somewhat different experience than what I was expecting. We drove to the location, Flea Bay (not the best name, I know), with a couple photo stops on the way, and along the way we learned a lot about the penguins and the area, and where they live, how they act and all sorts of interesting things. Did you know these particular penguins dig holes to nest in? Well, apparently they prefer to steal or find pre-made holes, or nest underneath of things like houses, kayaks, and so on. And they can go quite far away from the water to do so. Apparently the strongest ones get the spots closest to the water, and the weaker ones have to go farther away.
Views from the road
This and the one above: The bright blue is the Pacific Ocean
View of Flea Bay
Penguin hole...
Once we got to the bay/farm, our guide fed the sheep (and let us help) so that they wouldn't bother us later. Then we went in the yard, where they were keeping the penguin chicks that they rescued and were waiting to release back into the wild. They fed the chicks (and that was how we got to see them. Apparently at 8 weeks they are the size of an adult and should be ready to be released back into the water. And we were also told it's better if they try to bite the people (so they're strong and independent), and around 8 weeks they should stop wanting to be fed (they're ready to go out on their own).
8 week old (adult size): was getting released that night...
When we visited one of the nesting boxes, we saw two little 3-4 week old chicks. There were no adults around, because at that age the parents can leave them on their own while they are out getting food. From what we were told, from when they hatch to about 3 weeks, one parent always stays with the chicks and looks after them, but at 3-4 weeks, both parents go out to the water before the sun rises, and come back when it's dark to regurgitate and feed the chicks for 2-3 hours before going back out to the ocean. I also found out that this type of penguin usually have two chicks an A and a B. The B is apparently the spare, and survival rate of chicks is around 50%. I learned all of this and more!
