Nearly Neutral Travel

Having left Stewart Island and bid a fond farewell to Mario, we took a shuttle north to Queenstown, New Zealand’s adventure capital.

Since the start our our trip, Sara had been excited to try out a via ferrata and we’d planned to do this here, but unfortunately it was mysteriously closed for bookings. Our other picks were paragliding or luge (think gravity-powered go-karts), but both relied on Queenstown’s gondola, which was undergoing maintenance during our visit. Not such an adventure capital while we were there! Instead, we used our time in Queenstown as a base for hiking and an opportunity to plan the rest of our time in New Zealand, as well as our upcoming trip across North America.

We were fortunate enough to have sunny and mild weather on our only full day in town, so we decided to take a hike up Te Tapu-nui (also known as Queenstown Hill) to a viewpoint overlooking the city and lake. The hike got off to a strong start when Sara noticed a beautiful cat in the bushes beside the trail, who was shortly joined by three other members of its family. Sadly, they didn’t all stick around long enough to take a photo once they’d seen us approaching. Still, we were delighted with the sighting, even if feral cats are pretty unpopular in NZ.

The route up to the summit involved over 500 m of elevation gain, mostly climbing gradually (and not so gradually) through pine forest. The forest was so dense that at times it felt more like dusk rather than midday on a sunny day.

As we approached the summit, we emerged above the tree line and were greeted with a stunning panoramic view over Queenstown, across Lake Wakatipu and to the mountain range beyond.

It made an excellent spot to enjoy a few of Fergbaker‘s famous pies, or at least two of the three pies that made it that far up the trail. The summit also had an awesome view of Queenstown airport, so we watched a couple of planes take off and land between the mountains.

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Despite appearing on most South Island itineraries, Queenstown isn’t a big city. In fact, with an urban population of just over 15,000 people, it doesn’t even make it into NZ’s top 20 largest cities, but it does occupy an enviable location beside Lake Wakatipu and surrounded by mountains on all sides. Besides adventure tourism, most of the city’s attraction is the lakefront promenade and park where we enjoyed an afternoon stroll to take in the views. That is, until we tried to pick up a coffee and were turned away by every cafe – apparently coffee simply isn’t available in Queenstown after 3pm 😱

Instead, we jumped at the chance to try some Bluff Oysters from Erik’s Fish and Chips van, having heard so much about them on our way to and from Stewart Island. While I’m not normally a huge seafood fan, I think I’d try just about anything if it was battered and fried with a squeeze of lemon on top. I enjoyed it way more than I’d expected – it was salty, meaty and, most of all, extremely fried!

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Leaving Queenstown, we took a ferry across the bay to the suburb of Frankton…

…to the airport, to begin the next leg of our journey. Not on a plane though, but via camper van! We’ve rented a converted Toyota HiAce, featuring a height extension for extra headroom and storage. Apparently it has space to sleep 3-4 people, although this would be quite a squeeze! And while it has a fairly impressive kitchen and fold-down table and bed, it doesn’t have much in the way of a bathroom, so our plan is to make the most of camp sites as we go.

A diesel-powered camper van isn’t exactly nearly neutral, but it does give us the opportunity to explore the wild west coast at our own pace. This has been on our bucket-list for a long time, so we couldn’t travel all the way to New Zealand without giving it ago. #vanlife awaits!

From Dunedin, we travelled by bus to NZ’s southernmost city of Invercargill, where we stayed the night before continuing our journey by shuttle and ferry to Stewart Island.

We stayed in the main town of Oban, which has just 300 permanent residents and is pretty much as far south as you can get in NZ while still sleeping in a comfy bed.

That afternoon, we headed out for a walk along the coast. Even though we were still near the biggest (and only) town on Stewart Island, it was immediately apparent just how unspoilt the surroundings are – there was so little development, and in fact 85% of the island is devoted to Rakiura National Park.

This was the reason we were here, as determined efforts to reduce the population of non-native predators have really paid off, giving us the opportunity to meet some wildlife that is all but extinct elsewhere in NZ. We’d already had a taster of just how seriously biosecurity is taken when we had our boots inspected on entering the country, but this was conservation on another level. Visitors were instructed to check carefully for rats and seeds, boats and fishing equipment needed to be scrubbed before moving to a new area and there were rat traps everywhere. Later on, we even saw a predator fence that runs across the island, theoretically splitting the landscape into where there are rats, possums, stoats, and the like, and where there are none. We never did quite work out which side was which…

Although we had mixed feelings about NZ’s vigour towards eradicating wild mammals (I think rats are pretty cool! 🐀), we had to admit we were quite excited to see some kiwi birds. That evening, we headed out to try our luck. Despite being the national symbol of NZ, these flightless, nocturnal birds are notoriously difficult to spot because of their declining numbers, and Stewart Island is one of the few places where we apparently stood a good chance of seeing them in the wild. Being nocturnal, we needed to go out at night armed with a red torch, as this would allow us to see the birds without disturbing them (they don’t see the red light).

As we headed to meet our guide, Dan, we were astonished to see someone pointing a beam of red light at a kiwi in town! Just as we were grumbling about how we’d just paid an extortionate amount of money for a guide to help us spot them, we realised that it was in fact Dan who had arrived early and knew exactly where to look for a town-dwelling kiwi who had been spotted in recent months. It was a great start, and we watched for a while as he (the kiwi, not Dan) shuffled around in someone’s front garden, using his long beak to dig for worms.

Next, we headed to Mamaku Point to see who else we could spot. It was absolutely pouring with rain, but Dan assured us that this was good for the kiwi as it softens the ground and helps them find food. In fact, he told us that they are often so intent on feeding that they will bump right into people without noticing. They have no natural predators here, and they really act like it! Dan spoke with great affection about them, telling lots of stories about how they are real characters and full of contradictions – fearful yet curious, strong yet clumsy. He was recently telling a group just how sturdy a kiwi’s legs are when the one just next to them tripped and fell flat on its face, apparently without noticing!

We spent the evening tramping up and down a steep hillside in long, soaking grass without having much luck. Just as we were leaving to try another site, a kiwi popped up right next to us, so close that we could hear him snuffling in the earth while feeding. He seemed to come out of nowhere and we only saw him as we turned to leave, but Dan thought he might actually have been following us around – apparently they sometimes do this. Maybe it’s not the usual response (I should probably say something about the amazing success of conservation efforts on Stewart Island), but my takeaway was that they are SO cute, with their comically long beaks, big round bottoms and clumsy demeanour.

The next day, we headed to another conservation success story: Ulva Island. This is home to a number of rare bird species, some of which are extinct elsewhere. To get there, we hopped on a small ferry, where to our amusement (and bemusement), our boarding passes were made out of leaves. Was this for real?!

Mario headed off on a specialist birdspotting tour, but our budget didn’t quite stretch to this so we opted for the self-guided approach. I don’t think either of us had high hopes that we’d see very much as we’re not exactly ornithologists in our usual lives, but it was a strangely magical experience. Before long, we’d seen rare South Island saddlebacks, red-crowned kākāriki, kākā (possibly…), fantails and, our favourites, lots of charming little South Island robins.

The island itself was beautiful too, with lush untouched forest and deserted beaches.

We actually spent most of our time on Ulva Island dodging the cheeky weka, flightless birds who were very persistent but very entertaining. Despite not being able to fly, they still managed to follow Oli out to a rock off one of the beaches, where he’d taken a flying leap in order to try and eat his lunch in peace. No such luck, the weka wanted to be friends!

To complete our successful day of birdspotting, the skipper on our return ferry pointed out a mollymawk albatross who had come to say hello.

Our time on Stewart Island also marked the end of a brilliant few weeks travelling with Mario, and after a ferry crossing that I’d rather forget (!), we said farewell in Invercargill. Mario was heading back to Auckland to begin a 31-hour journey back to Berlin, and we were headed to Queenstown. Mario – thanks so much for joining us for a month of cycling, hiking, wildlife, wine, trams and Tim Tam Slams. I guess it was alright if you like that kind of thing 😉

After cycling the 152 km Otago Central Rail Trail, we took a transfer from Middlemarch to the city of Dunedin. We were pretty knackered by this point, and just about managed a takeaway pizza at our apartment before falling asleep.

With only 48 hours in Dunedin, we split our time between a road trip around the Otago Peninsula and a street art tour of downtown Dunedin.

Day 1: Wildlife spotting on the Otago Peninsula

We set off bright and early to pick up a hire car for a one-day mini road trip around the Otago Peninsula.

Our first stop was Tunnel Beach, which appeared to be plucked straight out of a Famous Five novel. We followed a track down from the cliff top towards the sea, before the path ended abruptly at a 72-step tunnel straight down through the rock to a hidden cove. Sara (our local Enid Blyton expert) deemed that this was almost certainly used by smugglers.

The sound of the waves crashing against the rocks echoed around the cliffs surrounding the cove, making the noise almost deafening. We enjoyed climbing onto the huge sandstone boulders, which had a few convenient steps carved into the sides to make for an easy ascent. As with so many things in New Zealand, it was both stunningly beautiful and almost empty.

That afternoon, we headed along the peninsula to Allans Beach, with the hope of spotting some sea lions. The drive along the coast was stunning, and the road signs confirmed that we were on the right track.

We traversed a couple of sand dunes and immediately spotted some sea lions snoozing on the beach (below left). Although they weren’t particularly energetic, we did catch them yawning, covering themselves with sand, and twitching their whiskers while dreaming. After a walk along the predictably gorgeous beach, we returned to the car to continue further along the peninsula, before spotting a handful more sea lions on the beach at Harington Point (below right). These were much more active, with a couple of males fighting for mating rights with the female sea lions nearby. We were particularly tickled by the group of females who weren’t at all impressed and slept through the whole altercation.

The last stop on our road trip was Taiaroa Head, where we were hoping to spot both Royal Albatrosses and Blue Penguins. We didn’t have to look very hard for the former though, as we spotted our first albatross even before getting out of the car and got a great view of many more as they flew right past the Waiwhakaheke Seabird Lookout. We later learned at the visitor centre that the Royal Albatross is the largest sea bird in the world, with an average wingspan of just over three metres. They looked absolutely majestic soaring effortlessly over the cliffs, and made seagulls look the size of a sparrow in comparison.

Last on the day’s itinerary was a trip down to a viewing platform on the beach to watch the Blue Penguins’ daily commute back from the sea to their burrows in the dunes. Making the dash across the beach is actually the riskiest part of their day, which is understandable given that they’re only about 32 cm tall on average. To mitigate the risk from predators, they collect together to form a tight group, which is delightfully known as a “waddle” of penguins. Once the group is large enough, they dash across the sand before splitting up to find their own burrows. When they reach the relative safety of the dunes and nearby burrows, the penguins stop for a chat and a rest, before turning in for the night. It all added up to make an insanely cute ritual, and somehow, we managed to prevent Sara from sneaking one into her backpack before finally returning to Dunedin.

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Day 2: Street art walking tour in Dunedin

Having spent two nights in Dunedin but seen very little of it, we were keen to make the most of the morning before our departure. We were staying in an apartment on Dunedin’s “High Street”, which turned out to be named after its steep gradient more than its eating and drinking options. Still, it was absolutely surrounded by street art, where anything from tiny alleyways to huge buildings had been given a quirky facelift. I’m sure some of the art’s subtlety was lost on us, but we still very much enjoyed it at face value.

Dunedin boomed during the gold rush era of late 1800s, and in 1874 it surpassed Auckland to momentarily become New Zealand’s largest city. As a result of this influx of cash, Dunedin is home to plenty of beautiful municipal buildings and regional headquarters, many of which have been beautifully restored. The jewel in Dunedin’s crown is its train station, although today its handful of services are largely both weekly and seasonal. Upon arriving in Dunedin, our shuttle bus driver proudly announced that the city’s train station was one of the most photographed buildings in the Southern Hemisphere, which sounded only slightly more impressive than the record held by Picton’s Edwin Fox. Unfortunately, the station building was shrouded in scaffolding when we passed, but we still took a couple of photos to do our bit in maintaining its (definitely questionable) record.

Dunedin made it onto our itinerary largely as a jumping off point for the Otago Peninsula, but we were very glad to have lingered long enough to take in the city’s sights too. Next, we set our sights on the southernmost destination of our NZ adventure; the ecological reserve of Stewart Island.