Akaroa to the Southern Alps

Akaroa was settled by the captain of a French whaling ship in 1840.  The heritage was apparent from the street names (rue ...), shops (boulangerie) and even the police station (gendarmerie).  We drove out of town onto the Canterbury Plain on what our children called "spaghetti roads" in Switzerland.  The main exports of New Zealand are milk products (mainly to China), lamb, and lumber.  The vast stands of Monterey pine are not indigenous to New Zealand but are planted as a 25 year crop.  We also saw vineyards and olive groves. After a one and a half hour drive, we were half way across New Zealand's south island.

At Rolleston, just outside of Christchurch, we boarded the TransAlpine Express. We travelled along the ice fed Waimakariki River into the Southern Alps through miles of native beech forest.

 The first part of the journey was through farmland on the plains.  We saw sheep, dairy cattle and deer for venison in fields.  Also hay, potatoes, peas, wheat and corn.  Gradually the mountains came into view.


The scenery was more spectacular at every turn.  We travelled through tunnels, and viaducts over deep chasms.  Eventually Mount Cook was visible with its snowy glacier on top at a height of 3724 metres (12 000 feet).

We left the train at Arthur's Pass.  Our bus then took us to Homebush Farm where the Deans family oversee 1350 acres and 4000 sheep.  There we had "lunch" - a buffet of salmon, lamb, beef, vegetables, salads, bread and rolls, fruit, cake, wine, tea, coffee.  After lunch we watched a sheep being sheared and saw the resident dog Jim, a bearded collie, round up the sheep.

It would have been difficult to stay awake on the ride home except for the steep roads and sharp curves we negotiated on the way back to the ship.

Penguins in the clouds

On Sunday, Feb. 11th, we docked at Port Chalmers, the active port for the city of Dunedin.  We were met by Mark from "Back to Nature Tours".  Port Chalmers was founded by the Scots in 1848.  Three hundred settlers were sent out by the Scottish Presbyterian church to found the Free Church of Scotland in New Zealand.  They probably felt at home in the rugged rocky countryside.  After a short ride into Dunedin, we stopped at the railway station built in the Edwardian style from basalt, granite and limestone.


At the harbour mouth we admired the Harbour Mouth Molars - a rather controversial art installation.  Doesn't every city have one of these?  On a clear day we would have been able to see our ship.  Unfortunately we were experiencing the other end of the spectrum from the beautiful clear day we had in Fiordland.  For most of the day, we were driving in a cloud and walking in a steady drizzle.  To his credit, Mark did his very best to keep us cheerful in spite of the weather.

At our first stop the plan was to tour the gardens at Larnack Castle.  We were fascinated by the name as it is so similar to our home county of Lanark, also settled by the Scots.  In order to get inside, we opted to pay for the entrance fee  to the "castle" itself.  William Larnack made his money in the gold fields and built the "castle", a rather grand house, for his beloved wife Eliza between 1871 and 1883 using 200 tradesmen from Europe. After 6 children were born, Eliza died, as did his second wife who was Eliza's half sister.  His third wife was much younger and ended up running off with his son.  William committed suicide, the other children were living in England, and eventually the house was sold and fell into disrepair.  In 1967, Barry and Margaret Barker came upon the house while travelling in New Zealand.  They purchased it and have been committed since to restoring it to its original grandeur.  It is now being managed by their son and family as a tourist attraction and boutique lodge receiving visitors from all over the world.

Next stop was Penguin Place, home and rehabilitation centre for yellow eyed penguins, the most endangered species of penguins in the world.  They are native to the southeast coast of New Zealand and some off shore islands.  They reach a height of 65 cm  (a little over 2 feet) with a yellow band of feathers extending from the eye to the neck.  There was a hospital on site where injured penguins are treated for wounds from barracuda and dogs and orphaned chicks are raised to be released when strong enough.  We walked to the beach to view penguins and also found lots of fur seals resting in the rain.  

Finally we were hoping to see albatross at the tip of the peninsula at a breeding colony.  Although Mark was not hopeful as the wind was not very strong, we were thrilled to see them soaring overhead as soon as we arrived.  We returned to the ship in late afternoon, soaked to the skin but happy with all we had seen.