Category: New Zealand

Mist and wonder in a magical part of New Zealand

Doubtful Sound is one of the 12 fjords in New Zealand and one of the two that you can visit by boat. All are part of Fiordland National Park, the southwest corner of NZ covering 1.2 million hectares, which was declared a World Heritage Area in 1986.  (In NZ, they named them sounds before understanding the difference between sounds and fjords, but they are all fjords so rather than renaming them all, they call the whole area Fiordland – and spell it differently just for extra confusion.) 

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Beautiful in its own right, this tiny town packs a punch in terms of access to greater wonders

Manapouri is a tiny town in Fiordland, about 30 minutes south of Te Anu which is the main Fiordland tourist base for trips to Milford sound. Manapouri is the base for trips to Doubtful Sound (which was our main draw) and also seemed less tourist crazy when I was choosing destinations for us.  It is on the shores of Lake Manapouri and has a dairy, two restaurants and a gas station.  And mountains everywhere of course.

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A relaxing week in a tourist town with good vibes

Wanaka is in the South Lakes region. Perched on the shores of Lake Wanaka, Mt Aspiring and its range rises in the background, flanked by smaller peaks around two other sides. With multiple rivers in all directions and flat plains stretching out to the east, it is a playground of hiking, biking, kayaking and beaching. 

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On Saturday 18 January, we set out to do the very promising Rob Roy Glacier hike which is lauded as one of the best day walks in the region and ultimately the country.  Unfortunately, on the drive there, we learned that hike (in a heavily avalanche prone area) was closed for 9 months due to erosion. 

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A short stay in the peaceful and remote south

The Catlins is the southernmost part of New Zealand mainland and relatively unspoiled, although definitely full of pastures and also with its fair share of campervans and bachs.  It consists of rolling hills, long empty beaches and beautiful coastline, with some rainforest sprinkled in for fun.

When planning our trip, I didn’t think it warranted a whole week so booked a partial.  Now I think we would have found plenty to do in 7 days and also enjoyed the sheer peace of the place for much longer. We have three nights here and then a full week in Wanaka before another short stay of four nights in Fiordland so I’m splitting these posts by location rather than Mon-Mon as is typical for us.

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Gaelic for Edinburgh

Dunedin, a city of around 130,000 people about 350 km south of Christchurch, is famous for its Scottish heritage, grand architecture, the oldest university in NZ, wildlife-filled Otago Peninsula and cold rainy weather.  Happily, we were able to experience and enjoy the first four of these without suffering too much from the last.

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Grappling with the twin horrors of natural and man-inflicted tragedy

With around 400,000 people, Christchurch is the largest city on the South Island and the third largest in NZ. The original people (around 1250) were hunters of Moa (giant birds) and then the English arrived in 1840.  They were well funded with a charter from the homeland to set up a “Perfect England” and created a grid-patterned city with the large and striking Cathedral at its center.  Situated on the east coast with the Canterbury Plains stretching out from the city, agriculture thrived here.

Christchurch has suffered from many disasters over the years since.  The country’s worst fire disaster was here in 1947 when 41 people died in a department store fire.  But what has shaped the city landscape today is the earthquakes of less than a decade ago and what has shaped its heart is the terrorist attack of 2019.

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Christmas in Christchurch

A home for Māori for about 700 years, Lyttleton was then a major gateway for colonial settlers and has since always been the port for Christchurch. The port is now the South Island’s principal goods transport terminal and a destination for cruise liners.  The harbor is massive and easy for you to see on the map just on the south side of the city and the north end of the Banks peninsula.  It is the crater of a volcanic eruption 11 million years ago that then filled when the sea rose 7000 years ago.

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Rainy week watching the ferry traffic and dashing out for fun when the skies cleared

Looking at the Marlborough Sounds on a map, you can’t help but want to go there – you can just imagine the blues and greens and endless views in every direction.  Though a relatively small area, the interplay of land and sea is so convoluted that the Sounds coastline has 1/5 of the length of New Zealand’s coasts. Per Wikipedia “The Marlborough Sounds are an extensive network of sea-drowned valleys at the northern end of the South Island of New Zealand. The Marlborough Sounds were created by a combination of land subsidence and rising sea levels. According to Māori mythology, the Sounds are the prows of the sunken wakas of Aoraki.”  In addition to Queen Charlotte Sound with Picton at its head, the other main sounds are Pelorus Sound and Kenepuru Sound.

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Once in Nelson for our 9 night stay, we realized it is just too far from the wonders of the far north tip of the South Island to do them justice by day trip. We calculated the cost of petrol for up and back drives in comparison to staying up there. Getting a spot for a night won out so I booked one in Collingwood, which is on Golden Bay between the two main areas we wanted to visit – Cape Farewell and the top portion of Abel Tasman National Park.

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