Journals

Museums, Restaurants, and lots of Wind in Wellington

Dec 10, 2017

Every journey comes to an end eventually. After returning our campervan in Queenstown and an incredible flight along the Southern Alps we arrived in Wellington. We already passed by Wellington earlier on the trip but because our return flight is from Wellington and we did not want to leave the campervan unused for three days, we decided to only visit the New Zealand’s capital when returning from the South Island.

About Wellington

As compared to Auckland with its population of 1.3 million, Wellington is considerably smaller, and most important, the city is not as widespread as Auckland. The city center and the harbor can therefore easily be visited on foot and the airport is also only a short ride from the city center.

Wellington has a reputation of being a windy city due to its geographical location. We were told so by several people and also by travel guides. But we have been lucky with the weather the whole time we spent in New Zealand, and it was no different when we arrived in Wellington. There was basically almost no wind, making it very nice to go for a walk at the harbor front in the evening sun. However that day was the only wind-free day in Wellington. The next three days there was a strong northerly wind blowing through the city streets and over its hills. Luckily the temperatures were above 20° C and therefore the wind was not bothering us too much when sightseeing, but the evenings got quite fresh.

Bars and Restaurants

Wellington has a very diverse bar and restaurant scene, which made it quite difficult for us to find the perfect restaurant for dinner every evening. The main reason for that is because we often check the reviews on TripAdvisor first before going to a restaurant. But except for the first evening, we were happy with our choice. One evening we also had dinner on the Friday night market.

Te Papa Museum

I am really not too much into museums, but the Te Papa Museum for me was the highlight of my visit to Wellington. First, the entrance to the museum is free, and second, the exhibitions are very interactive and interesting. There was an exhibition about the natural history of New Zealand showing all its animals – the native ones, the introduced ones, and the extinct ones. The most fascinating animal displayed was a colossal squid that was 4.5 long and had accidentally been caught in Antarctica. Very little is known about those creatures as they normally live in depths that are not reachable by us humans.

Another interesting exhibit was about the volcanism that affects New Zealand’s life every day. It explained the different layers from the earth’s core to its crust, how the magnetic field is created, about earthquakes, volcano eruptions, and so on. Ironically, during our stay in Wellington we also witnessed an earthquake while being in our bedroom. When talking to New Zealanders about earthquakes, you realize quickly that they are all used to it and as long as nothing serious happens, people are not worried.

Then there was another section explaining New Zealand’s participation in the First World War from the perspective of six characters, some of them were officers, gunmen, or nurses. It was a very detailed and interesting exhibition, and at the same time also sad to see how many unnecessary lives were sacrificed in that war.

The Hills of Wellington

While the city center is located at the harbor and is flat, the suburbs of Wellington are very hilly. One day we hiked up Mt. Victoria to get a 360 degree overview over downtown, the harbor, the airport, and the Cook Strait. And another day we took the cable car up to the botanical garden to get a different view of the city and visited Zealandia, an ecosanctuary for mainly birds. We were hoping to also spot some of the native Kiwi birds, but we were told they are nocturnal and hence can only be seen on a night tour.

Middle of Middle Earth

We followed already a few traces of The Lord of the Rings here in New Zealand. In Wellington, there were the headquarters for those movies and there are plenty of tours showing the studios. We went on a Workshop tour at WETA where we could look behind the scenes of how masks, models, weapons, and other movie-related items are designed and manufactured. They also let us into some secrets, e.g. that for Frodo’s sword, there existed an original out of steel, but also some made of plastic. The trick is that you show the viewer first the real metal sword, and whenever the sword appears again, our brain does not perceive the sword anymore in such detail and hence we won’t recognize that the subsequent times the sword appeared it was actually a plastic sword.

Christmas Break for our Travels

After Wellington we started our long way back home to Switzerland. As we still had a backpack to pick up in Singapore because of the long story about Ilinca’s lost luggage, our route went from Wellington to Canberra, Singapore, Bangkok, and then to Zurich, with a night that we spend in Bangkok to hopefully deal better with the jetlag.

Back home we will celebrate Christmas with our families and meet friends that we haven’t seen for quite a while now, and our travels will continue on December 29 when we fly back to Bangkok.

Diving and Boat Cruise in Milford Sounds

Dec 6, 2017

The Fiordland National Park in the Southwest Corner of New Zealand is the most remote and inaccessible region in the whole country and home to fjords, high mountains, narrow valleys, dense forests, beautiful lakes, epic treks and the Kea, one of only few species of parrots that live in high-alpine regions. The most visited of the fjords is Milford Sound, and that’s also where we were driving our campervan to.

About Milford Sound

The most famous location in Fiordland National Park is Milford Sound, a fjord that begins around 15 km inland and ends in the Tasman Sea. It is by far not the longest fjord in New Zealand, but due to the existence of a good highway, it is the most accessible one. In addition to its reputation to be one of the most beautiful places in the country, it is also one of the wettest places on the planet with more than 200 days of rainfall per year. As Milford Sound lives from its scenery, a rainy day might spoil the whole experience.

We got to see both faces of Milford Sound: The rainy as well as the scenic one. The evening we arrived at Milford Sound there were some clouds, but the vertical cliffs that fall into the fjords were visible. We were looking forward to the next day when Ilinca planned a cruise and I went diving in the fjord. The next morning however the big disappointment: it was raining heavily for basically the whole day, making Ilinca’s scenic cruise a ride through the fog. The only advantage was that the waterfalls from the cliffs carried much more water than usual. For diving the rain was not too bad as I got wet anyway, but it was still unfortunate to not see the fjord in its full beauty.

After this frustration I had to convince Ilinca to try again next day, so we spontaneously decided to stay another day at Milford Sound. And it was well worth it, as the following pictures clearly show. It is really an amazing place, and even though there were quite a few tourist planes, boats, and helicopters around, we still could enjoy the magnificent views.

The Road to Milford Sound

It would definitely be wrong to only mention Milford Sound though. The whole road to Milford Sound, Highway 94, is basically a scenic route and driving this road in beautiful weather is a fantastic experience, even when driving in a bulky campervan. We were passing wonderful plains of pink and purple flowers, clear mountain lakes, dense forest, stunning rock walls, and waterfalls. And at some of the stops we even got a visit from the Kea, South New Zealand’s high-alpine parrots that are known to be one of the most intelligent birds at all and use their intelligence to damage cars by tearing up the isolation around the windows and cables in the search for food. Also, they are known for hitchhiking, meaning that they are not afraid of moving cars and simply sit on top of a car for a while to not having to fly the whole way.

Diving at Milford Sound

Since my PADI certification in Cairns I have not been diving anymore, and in order to keep up to practice I wanted to go diving again. I was very surprised when I saw online that there are also dive tours in Milford Sound because it did not look to me like an attractive diving spot, firstly because the water is only 17° C and secondly because of the boat traffic and the steep rock walls along the fjord. But I was so wrong about it. It was simply a fantastic experience. Not only did we see lots of wildlife, but we also were diving along underwater cliffs where the rock is disappearing in deep depths while we were diving only at 20m depth. While in the water we encountered a playful seal, lots of huge crayfish (a kind of lobster) hiding below rocks, shark eggs, and from the boat we also spotted a penguin and dolphins.

The most interesting aspect of Milford Sound is that the layer of water is actually freshwater. As freshwater is lighter than saltwater, it floats on top. It was very interesting to dive through the different layers of water, the freshwater being dark and blurry, and the saltwater below crystal clear. Due to the dark fresh water, less light reaches the saltwater layer and therefore corals and animals that usually live in depths or more than 40m can already be spotted at 10m depth, such as the black coral.

I wish I could share more pictures, but I still need to arrange some underwater photo equipment.

Sunrise Hike to Roys Peak at Wanaka

Dec 3, 2017

After crossing the Southern Alps via Haast Pass, we arrived in Wanaka in the early evening. Wanaka, just like its neighboring Queenstown, are two small cities at the lake side which compete for the tourists’ dollars with activities like kayaking, skydiving, and all those other things you basically can do at any other place in New Zealand. As I was not in the mood for any of these activities but still wanted to have some adventure, I decided late at night that I will climb Roys Peak, a mountain that rises about 1200 m from Wanaka and was said to be a wonderful place to experience sunrise.

Before going to bed at around 23:00, I quickly packed all the necessary things so I did not have to wake up Ilinca when getting up very early the next morning. Needless to say that I unfortunately could not convince Ilinca to join the adventure.

I read online that the climbing of the mountain would take between 2.5 and 3 hours, but usually these hours are very pessimistic, nevertheless I calculated with 2.5 hours. Since sunrise was at 5:48, this meant I should start to hike at 3:15. The trail head however was 5 km away from our campground, so I first had a short bike ride along the completely empty highway before I could start hiking. This meant I had to get up at 2:50.

As planned, I got up at the given hour and I arrived at 3:20 at the trail head. To my surprise I was not alone at all, I at least met 20 other tourists on the way up who had the same crazy idea. The hike was a steep and steady climb, just the way I like it and the way I usually hike back home. And as a wonderful extra: It was almost full moon that day, and I basically did not need my headlamp at all during the climb. I could even see my own shadow from the moonlight.

Progress was good, and I arrived on top after 1h 48 min, around 40 earlier than the estimate. This was on the one hand good because it meant I did not get completely out of shape on my travels and I had enough time to prepare my photo equipment for sunrise. But at the same time it was problematic because I did not plan to bring up enough warm clothes to spend more than an hour on the summit in strong wind and rather cold conditions. By the time of sunrise, my hands were really shaking and I was happy that my camera has a good image stabilization, otherwise many of my photos would have been useless.

Panorama

After a 1.5h descent, I reached the trail head again at around 8:00 and cycled back the 5 km to the campground to meet Ilinca for breakfast and spend a rather relaxed day. As Ilinca was anyway planning to spend a relaxing day at Wanaka village, it was good that I already used up all my energy in the morning and did not have my usual urge to be active. I’m sure Ilinca appreciated that.

In the late afternoon we also continued with our campervan to Queenstown, which is supposed to be a very nice place. Once having arrived there however, Ilinca and I were both not very impressed by Queenstown as it was basically full of tourists and agencies trying to sell you tours and activities, but the city did not have any charm and we both missed Wanaka which is still much more relaxed. Therefore the choice for us was easy to continue the next day towards Milford Sound.

South New Zealand’s West Coast

Dec 2, 2017

As we only had around 8 days left with our campervan, we had to decide whether we want to drive down the east or the west coast of the South Island. Both have its attractions, but because parts of the road at the east coast were still closed due to previous earthquakes, we decided to take the route along the rather wild west coast. On the way we were passing by the impressive Pancake Rocks cliffs and the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers, and in between there was a lot of nature along the road.

Winding Roads along the West Coast

Driving along the West Coast with a campervan is quite demanding, because first the road is quite narrow, and second because the road follows the coast line, which results in lots of turns, climbs, and descents. On the other hand it was also very beautiful because of the ever changing landscape, and our camping spot near Greymouth was simply awesome, as we were basically sleeping directly at the beach.

Pancake Rocks

One of the top spots along the west coast are the Pancake Rocks in Paparoa National Park. The name comes from the fact that the rocks look like stacked pancakes (with a bit of imagination I have to admit). Nevertheless, it is a beautiful spot where the wild Tasman See meets New Zealand’s west coast. During high tide, the water splashes through blowholes and high up into the air when hitting the rocks. It was definitely worth driving these additional 70 km from Greymouth, and that’s what probably the other hundreds of tourists thought as well.

Franz Josef Glacier

Driving the whole drivable part of the west coast in two days is a lot, so the next stop on the way south was Franz Josef Glacier, which is located in what they call the South Alps. Even though we still have plenty of glaciers back home in Switzerland, I still wanted to get a glimpse of New Zealand’s most famous glacier. There is a small village with the same name and existence is clearly due to tourism. As in other places, you could go skydiving, kayaking, and of course take helicopter and / or guided tours on the glacier. However, the prices were as usual at New Zealand standard (i.e. ridiculously high), so I decided to do glacier activities back in Switzerland. The only thing I did in the evening after a long day of driving was that I put on my jogging shoes and went trail running to the tongue of the glacier and back shorty before sunset. That was a wonderful experience, and on the way I met two Norwegian girls who had exactly the same idea.

The next morning I drove with the campervan to an easily accessible viewpoint so Ilinca also gets to see the glacier that I saw during the run. From there you could compare today’s glacier with pictures from past times, and nothing new here. The glacier is retracting at an unbelievable rate.

The Road towards Queenstown

Haast is the last village before the highway is turning inland. The coastal road would continue for another 30 km until Jackson Bay, but afterwards there is no more road as the coast gets too remote. Over the Haast Pass we were heading towards Queenstown, however decided to stop before in Wanaka.

Hiking and Kayaking at Abel Tasman National Park

Nov 30, 2017

Famous for its golden beaches, beautiful bays, rocky cliffs, and its marine life, Abel Tasman National Park is a paradise for exploration both on water and on land. The almost perfect weather during our stay in the park added up to the experience.

Tourism at Abel Tasman National Park

As in many places that we visited in New Zealand, also at Abel Tasman National Park there are tons of overpriced activities like skydiving, guided kayak tours, and boat rides. Even renting a kayak without a guide or voucher is NZD 150 per day. While I am usually not willing to pay so much for so little value, renting the kayak at Abel Tasman was the best decision for exploring the park. And I am very happy I did not join a guided kayak tour, because then you travel in groups of 8 or more people, and many of them have never kayaked before and hence slow down the whole group.

Hidden Bays and Seals Discovery by Kayak

I was really glad I could convince Ilinca despite the rather cool morning to join me on the kayak. After a (useless) one hour safety instruction, we started paddling towards Fishermen Island which has some lonely beaches that are only accessible by kayak and has some nice rocky cliffs to pass. We stopped at one of the beaches. If the water temperature had been a bit warmer, I could have declared it as the perfect beach.

After our first stop we crossed to Adele Island, a wild island with lots of forest and birds on top and with another beautiful and completely lonely beach. As we both had the need to go to the toilet we stopped at this beach quickly. Of course there was no toilet there, but plenty of natural opportunities. While trying to hide in the bushes next to the beach, Ilinca then suddenly spotted a large seal that was lying lazily on the beach. She was quite surprised, but happy to see the seals in their natural habitat. From that moment on we kept our eyes open and discovered another seal on that beach.

When continuing our paddles, we past a whole colony of seals, most of them on land, but some of them curious enough to swimm within about one meter from our kayak. Later on we had lunch on another lonely beach, and then returned to the village in the afternoon.

The whole paddling was for around 15 km and we were both quite tired when we returned the kayak, but it was worth all the effort. After an initial bad mood in the morning, Ilinca also enjoyed the animals and the nature that could be spotted from the kayak.

Hiking along the Coast

On day two, we took things a bit easier and went for a hike along the beautiful coast line to get the opposite perspective. From the cliffs we saw two stingrays floating along the beaches, and of course again many birds. On the hike we met quite a few trampers who started a four day trek with their heavily loaded backpacks, for us it however was only a half day trip. I cannot exclude however that one day I return back here to do the full trek, because nature is simply stunning here.

Off to the West Coast

In the afternoon of day two we continued our drive towards the west coast. It was a beautiful four hour drive over passes and through deep valleys, all in wonderful nature.

Crossing the Cook Strait

Nov 28, 2017

As the weather at Tongariro National Park was awful and the forecast for the next few days was not convincing either, Ilinca and I decided to travel to New Zealand’s South Island one day earlier than we planned. After a winding four hour drive down to Wellington and a beautiful three hour ferry ride over the Cook Strait we arrived Picton on the South Island where we continued driving our campervan.

Infamous Cook Strait

The Cook Strait between both of the Islands of New Zealand is known as a rough passage for the ferry to take and there would be lots of wind and waves along the way. When looking at the ferry at Wellington Harbor, it was clearly visible that it was made for tough conditions.

Calm Conditions over Cook Strait

On that Monday afternoon however, the weather goods wanted to make up for the miserable weather the past day at Tongariro National Park. There was no strong wind, the sea was absolutely calm, and the visibility was just fantastic. After crossing the strait, the ferry navigates for at least an hour through the Marlborough Sounds, which are kind of fjords, on the north of the South Island until finally reaching Picton. On there were many small bays with small villages and it was beautiful to observe how the humidity from the sea was blown over mountains, forming interesting clouds on the luv side and dissolving again on the lee side of the hills that surround the fjords.

Once we had arrived in Picton, we continued driving our campervan to Havelock on a beautiful scenic road which was barely large enough for our vehicle. Again and again we had beautiful views on the Marlborough Sounds and the Cook Strait.

After a night on a campsite in Havelock, we continued our scenic drive towards the west via Nelson to Abel Tasman National Park, our first planned destination on the South Island.

Hidden Volcanoes at Tongariro National Park

Nov 26, 2017

Everybody who has seen The Lord of the Rings knows Mordor with its volcano Mt. Doom. While the volcano in the movie looks slightly different than Mt. Ngauruhoe, a perfectly shaped volcano, it served as inspiration for director Peter Jackson. And many other filming locations for Mordor also lie within this National Park.

For those who have not seen the movie, Tongariro National Park is also known for its beautiful volcanic landscapes and some beautiful multiday treks along the volcanos. One of those is the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a one day hike between volcano craters and along beautiful lakes. And another one is a four-day circuit that is quite popular. We met many trampers along the way.

We were really lucky with the weather so far in New Zealand, but the day we spent in Tongariro National Park was the first day with bad weather. It was not really raining a lot, but the clouds were hanging very low and the view to the volcanos was blocked. Only at 6 in the morning I could quickly take a look at Mt. Ngauruhoe, a few hours later it was wrapped in clouds again. In this weather we did not really feel like hiking a full day inside the clouds and potentially rain, so we only went on a short walk to some waterfalls. One of those waterfalls was used in the movie as Gollum’s Pool. The vegetation on the slopes of the volcanoes was very diverse and interesting, so after all even in the cloudy weather we had a nice time at Tongariro National Park.

As the weather forecast for the next days was the same, we decided to move on towards Wellington on the same day.

Mud Pools, Geysers and Champagne Pool at Wai-O-Tapu

Nov 25, 2017

In the vicinity of Rotorua, there are several thermal hotspots where you can witness the volcanic activity that once formed New Zealand that that still causes volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. One of those hotspots is Wai-O-Tapu.

Wai-O-Tapu Active Volcanic Zone

The earth’s crust at those hotspots is very thin, therefore we strictly had to walk on the paths to avoid cracking through the soil and getting burnt in boiling water. There are several deep holes next to the path where the rock collapsed on its own, some of them were just steaming, and others were filled with hot water or mud. So I followed the instructions and stayed on the path at all times.

Even though I have seen such a volcanic zone already in Yellowstone NP and in Iceland, it is still fascinating to see it again at some other place. Steam that smells like Sulphur is coming out of small holes, mud pools are boiling, rocks are colored in yellow, orange, blue due to the different minerals, and there is a small lake named the Champagne Pool where clear hot water is rising from the depth, giving the lake a deep blue appearance. And as the name indicates, there are small bubbles of carbon dioxide released at the water surface.

For once I was really happy with what was offered for the money. And because the park is quite big and you are allowed to walk freely, I did not feel bothered by all the other tourists.

Natural Spa

All those natural hot pools made me feel like going for a swim in a hot bath. But 80° C was a bit too hot. Fortunately I received a more or less secret hint in a blog that only 500m from the visitor center of Wai-O-Tapu there is actually a creek where you can go for a swim where hot water is entering into a cold river, so when staying at the right location inside the river, the water temperature was perfect. I spent at least 30 minutes if not more in this natural spa, got a mud treatment as well, and best of all, there were only around 5 other tourists there and it was completely free.

Glowworm Caves in Waitomo

Nov 23, 2017

Because we only have 17 days to get from Auckland to Queenstown, we do not have many days left on New Zealand’s north island. After leaving Auckland, we were heading south towards Rotorua but on the way we stopped first at the Glowworm Cave in Waitomo. As no photography is allowed inside, there are no pictures of that cave, however there are plenty of pictures available on the web.

Seeing the glowworms in the dark cave is very beautiful. Glowworms have organs that emit light whenever they are hungry, the brighter they are, the hungrier they are. This light attracts insects which get trapped in the threads that hang down from each glowworm. Once trapped, the glowworm simply has to pull up the thread and eat the insect.

Once in the boat in the cave, over your head there are thousands of small lights appearing slowly after the eyes get used to the darkness, and because nobody was allowed to talk or take pictures, this part of the tour which lasted about 10 minutes was really enjoyable.

But the whole rest of the tour was just so typical of New Zealand’s way of squeezing out every cent of the tourists and promising much more than you actually get. First, we were entering the caves in groups of 40 people who each paid around CHF 40 for an advertised 45 minutes tour. But out of these 45 minutes, only the last 10 minutes were really about the glowworms, the rest was waiting, waiting, and waiting again until the other groups of 40 people ahead of us moved on or stopped singing inside the caves, and waiting for a boat to be available. The upper part of the cave which was illuminated had some stalagmites and stalactites, but it was completely unimpressive as there are definitely more impressive caves around the world.

Luckily I had a free entry from our car rental company and we only had to pay CHF 40 once, but for the full price I would not recommend going to Waitomo, because the amount is too much for 10 minutes of glowworms and it is quite far away from other attractions. And there are also many other places in New Zealand where you can see glowworms.

Eating Raclette in Auckland

Nov 22, 2017

Our 3.5 hour flight from Melbourne to Auckland was the most comfortable flight ever, because we received a free upgrade to business class in Emirates A380. Once in Auckland, we met our friends Antoinette and Mike who settled down in New Zealand about 4 decades ago and spent two wonderful days at their home in the hills near Auckland.

Business Class to Auckland

A very pleasant surprise on Sunday Morning at 5 o’clock when heading towards the airport in Melbourne: I checked again my seat numbers on the Emirates App, and discovered that I no longer had the seats in economy class that I selected the day before, but some seats in the upper deck in business class. We must have been upgraded to business class. I don’t know the reason why we were the lucky ones, because we never flew Emirates before and we also booked the cheapest tickets available, but of course we accepted it.

And wow, this business class is something! I already flew business on Swiss and Lufthansa before, but Emirate’s business class is on a different level. Most notably was the friendliness of the crew and the sky bar at the back of the upper deck, where I was drinking excellent 25-year old port wine. I especially liked the bar because people in the plane started talking to each other and there was suddenly life in the plane, and not like on other flights where everybody is focused on their screens with the headphones on. Too bad the flight was already over after 3.5 hours, I really would have liked to stay a bit longer on that plane.

Warm Welcome in Auckland

Antoinette and Mike, our friends that we know through my aunt, picked us up at the airport and we drove around 45 minutes to their home. There we got a nice taste of the hospitality in New Zealand, and one evening we even had a Raclette for dinner, which is a traditional Swiss cheese-based meal. And because Antoinette is Swiss, the cheese was of course imported from Switzerland. We both had a wonderful time and would like to thank our friends again for the warm welcome.

Exploring Auckland

In total we only planned one full day in Auckland, mostly due to recommendations from friends who suggested that there is nothing that special in Auckland. However, we think differently and we really regretted that we did not at least stay one more day in Auckland. The city is beautifully located between the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean, and even though downtown is not that large, it is definitely worth a visit.

Special about Auckland is that there are several small hills in the middle of the cities. These hills are actually small craters of volcanos, one of them was Mt. Eden. They are only slightly higher than 100m, but they really add to the already beautiful scenery of Auckland.

When driving through Auckland by car, we experienced how large Auckland really is. Even though there are only 1.5 million people living in Auckland, the city is the third largest in the world measured by its area. Getting from one end of Auckland to the other can easily take 1.5 hours. Having your own car here is an absolute must.

Piha Beach

Upon recommendation, we also visited Piha Beach just NW of Auckland with our campervan that we picked up earlier that day. It is a beach with black volcanic sand, embedded into rocky cliffs and hills full of forest. And in the middle of the beach there was Lion Rock. Because there was a path up that rock, I also had to climb it. I was rewarded with another beautiful perspective of the beach.

Because we liked Piha Beach so much, we decided to stop for today and we put our campervan on a beautiful campground right behind the beach and spent our first night ever in a campervan.

Waiheke Island

The next morning we then started heading south east and visited Waiheke Island. Because the ferry for the campervan would have been too expensive, we decided to go on a day trip. On the island, we visited two wineries and walked though green fields and along beautiful beaches. It indeed is a beautiful place, but I am not absolutely sure if it is a must see if you only have 17 days like us to get from Auckland to Queenstown.

Leaving Auckland

Piha Beach as well as Waiheke Island were both basically part of Auckland. Now it is time to go south, so our next destination will be Waitomo Caves where we expect to see some glowworms inside a cave (for a ridiculous price however).