The Popular Cousin

The day after Jeremy's brother and fam left, one of our state-side friends arrived for a shortish visit. Trying to give him the most bang for his time, we headed up to spend the weekend in Te Anau so we could be in great position to meander around the Milford Sound area.  The road to Milford Sound from Te Anau is magnificent. And dangerous. While it's clearly not as dangerous as Skippers Canyon, which is one of the Top 10 most dangerous roads in the world, it is one of the most dangerous in New Zealand based on accidents and death-rate. It is the only road to Milford Sound, and as a result is inundated with tourists, some of whom forget that we drive on the left here... and that you're supposed to stop before you gawk. 

Our first pitstop on the road was at Mirror Lakes. It's quite literally just feet from the road, so every tour bus on the road stops. It is a very cool spot, but my goodness, after living in our tiny town for almost 3 months now, I was a bit overwhelmed by the crowd and quickly felt claustrophobic. So we pulled a Chevy Chase and quickly moved on.

I will note that on our way back to Te Anau just before dark that evening, the roads were almost completely empty and all but deserted. What a difference a few hours makes.

The streams in this area are primarily glacial runoff, and are saturated with rock flour. This one is in the Marion Lake area. As it is a wee hike in, it is NOT as populous as the more easily accessible spots.

Rock flour is the super-fine rock dust that is produced when the glacier retreats across a rock surface, crushing everything in it's path. The dust washes into the waterways and is actually is suspended in the water. The rock flour is what gives it this aquamarine color, though it can vary from very blue to very green here.

The trail to Marion Lake follows this stream up to a series of waterfalls so powerful that every drop of blue water is churning white. From there, it continues another 2.5km steeply up to a hanging basin. We did not torture tiny legs with a forced march to the lake. This time.

Back on the road, it dead ends at the Sound, right in front of Mitre Peak.

The sounds, being open to the sea, are subject to the tides. When the tide is out, you can walk a fair distance on the sandy flat. You might be able to see the buoys that mark the channel to the right. Day cruises are easily accessible. The overnight cruises at Milford book up months in advance. 

On the peak to the right of Mitre Peak, Bowen Falls careens off the mountainside. You can see the pier jutting out, marking the entrance to the harbor.

The native forests here are magical. It was beech trees such as these that gave Peter Jackson the model to use for the Ents in the LOTR movies.

It's not hard to see why. More than once, I've looked over my shoulder with the feeling I was being watched. I guarantee I was, but probably not by the trees. Probably.

This is a large Podocarp. It is said that they can live up to 1800 years, but there is not solid evidence of that and the idea is somewhat disputed. Regardless, they are clearly ancient and majestic, no matter how old they might be. 

On our way out of Milford Sound, we stopped at a super cool spot called The Chasm. These next 3 pics are very disappointing. I knew they would be even as I was taking them. But I also didn't want to end up in this predicament. 

It's just a hard place to photograph. But so very very very worth seeing. Upstream, the water swiftly moves towards a section of rock that has been eroded into a series of tunnels. We were there on a low-water day, but I imagine that after heavy rains, the water is pummeled through all of these smaller tunnels.

This is about a 40 foot drop into another series of tunnels. Jeremy took this video while I was complaining that my pics would be bad.  The direction-sensor on my camera is acting a bit wonky, so be prepared to cock your head, but you'll still get the idea.

After a great day in Milford, we pulled back into Te Anau just as dusk was coming on. We had the conversation about which is truly more beautiful, Doubtful Sound, or her more popular cousin, Milford Sound. If I had to pick one, I'd have to say Doubtful, if for no other reason than it just feels less inundated with people. But for the record, they're both among the best of the best in the world.

Dunedin: Otago Peninsula

Back out onto the the nail-biting roads, we wound around and descended back into the lowlands.

Even on the low road out to the wildlife sanctuary, it's quite narrow and winding. In fact, it's built ON a retaining wall that was built out of the water to hug the hillside. 

This lime kiln sits just on the side of the road, it's fires long since out.

This fire is still burning. Or at least it's modern bulbed cousin is.

We disturbed this person from his nap. He told us what he thought about that. It might have made us jump and squeal.

One of the things on Jeremy's bucket list was to get to see an Albatross. This is actually a slightly smaller Albatross called a Mollymawk, though we did get some incredible views of the Royal Albatross that nest on the peninsula. The nesting ground on the Otago Peninsula is the only one on the mainland. Other than that one, they exclusively nest in colonies on off shore islands.

Now. Please note the road in this pic. You've got about 1 foot of shoulder in any given place before you go off the side. I had my fair share of tummy butterflies on this drive.

But my goodness, it's worth it.

There are sweeping views of the entire area.

I was hoping that's what he was going for...

and not this.

The kids were trying desperately to make friends.

Unfortunately, the sheep felt otherwise.

Dunedin: Larnach Castle

As you travel the narrow ribbon-like roads higher into the hillside above Dunedin, the clusters of buildings and then houses give way to grazing land.

When you reach the top, you come to Larnach Castle. While it is touted as "New Zealand's only castle," it's never been used as a fortification or fortified house. I'd call it a folly really, as it was only built to LOOK like a castle.

It is, however, being lovingly restored by a family that took a chance on a dilapidated ruin, and chose to make it their life's work to save it.

Preservation and re-purposing are huge issues for me, so of course I applaud them profusely for their productivity.

In all seriousness though, they are doing a magnificent job, and are quite generous in sharing it with the public.

There are a series of gardens, each more beautiful than the last.

This. I am completely in love with the clever whimsy of whoever chose to place Alice next to the red roses, with the white roses in the background. 

The lawns, as with most lawns in New Zealand, look more like putting greens.

Now, I need to talk about this structure for a minute, because I find it absolutely brilliantly fascinating. Disgusting, but fascinating. It is a Methane Plant.

Composed of 3 rooms, there is a small privy at either end where you would take care of your "business," and the center room was the production room. Basically, all waste would be "deposited" into a central collection tank underneath. Livestock manure was added too to give it an extra oomph. In the production room was a large glass sphere that was placed over an opening to the collection tank to collect the methane.

From there, the methane was piped back up to the house underground in copper tubing, and used to fuel the gas chandeliers. Pretty ingenious.

One of the open air cellars. This one happens to have a mischievous looking fellow lurking in the shadows. I'm rather fond of mischievous looking fellows lurking in the shadows.

The annex to the Master Gardener's office.

This is one of the garden residents. As much as I do not love spiders, I was captivated by how it has adapted to the EXACT colors of the flower. 

The fog rolling in was so thick that you could practically grab it. 

You know what you have to do on super-fine poop-free lawns, right? 

Even if you're at a castle.

Dunedin: In and Around Town

While Jeremy's brother and family were here, we packed in as much as we possibly could. I've been trying to wrap my head around the most logical way to show what we got up to. Still might not be very logical, but here goes. This chapter: Dunedin, the In Town section.

Let me say straight off the bat, I LOVE Dunedin. Like, I could happily live there. Carved straight into the steep hillsides of a peninsula, you get sweeping views of the sea on one side and the harbor on the other. It has the feel of a European seaside town, but it doesn't take itself too seriously, as you can see in the pictures above.

The architecture is mostly mid 1800's and has been preserved, but in a very used and usable way. 

The University of Otago is here, with around 20,000 students. The town is young and vibrant.

Restaurants and shops offer just about anything you could possibly be looking for.

This one is pretty self explanatory.

Know what else is in Dunedin? The Cadbury factory. There was no way the kids were letting us leave that town without going on a tour.

These animatronic displays tell the story of how chocolate as we know it came to be. 

This is as far as cameras were allowed into the factory. It felt very Willy Wonka/Slugworth-ish.

 It actually IS very Willy Wonka-ish. Huge color coded pipes run along the ceilings, transporting thousands of gallons of dark, milk, and white chocolate from the mixing room to the various other moulding rooms. Oh, and there is a chocolate waterfall. 

 Know what ELSE is in Dunedin? Yep. The WORLD'S STEEPEST STREET.

If you make it to the top, there is a bench for you to collapse on. Apparently, there is an annual Jaffa race! This is what it looks like.

The children ran down. And impressively, walked back up. We did drive to the top, even though the sign clearly states "no exit" and "no turning." How could we not? But what goes up, must come down, and I don't think there was a single person in that car that didn't squeal just a wee bit.

It's hard to convey in pictures just how steep it is. I was a little off kilter just taking this shot. Line up the chimney in the background to vertical, and you'll get a better idea.

Another one of Dunedin's attractions is the gorgeous train station.

It is still fully operational. The day we were there, there was a baroque flautist taking advantage of the fully ceramic tiled and mosaic'd space. It was absolutely magical.

After a brief interlude and respite, we're off again. Next up: Dunedin part 2.