Marine Mammal Encounters

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After a recommendation from Gina and Conrad, we went swimming with the seals in Kaikoura. The experince was so good, we decided to head out and try our luck again with the dolphins. I think these have been two of the highlights of our trip so far.

Swimming with the seals was one of those trips that doesn't generate the same publicity as swimming with dolphins, but it was a fantastic experience. We were lucky enough to have timed our trip with a spring tide, which meant we got a whole hour swimming with young male seals. This was because seals are very territorial, and the high tides mean a lot of that territory is under water. The older, more aggressive seals 'own' the other higher, drier rock area and so the young'uns have to swim around until their ground is uncovered again, rather than risk a fight.

Kitted out in super thick wetsuits, we headed out on a boat to the area where the seal colony is found. Nearby was a young giant petrel bird whose beak we all tried to avoid. Apparently he had been there a day or two, and some people noticed he was missing an eye, which suggested he wasn't finding it easy to leave. He was rather magnificent, photos will be put up at some point, so the size of the bird can be appreciated.

The seals themselves were very inquisitive and liked to swim to the side of you, watch you and then swim off. They would often put their heads up out of the water and take a 360 degree look around. Sometimes I would turn around to find a seal who'd be watching me from behind and we would both surprise each other. The most memorable things I'm thinking of at the moment, was the size of their eyes, which were like deep brown saucers, and their teeth which I didn't want to investigate too much!

Unfortunately during this time, the waterproof camera David had bought, turned out to be not so waterproof and died. We've spoken to Pentax about this, and trying to work out if this is a warranty issue or an insurance claim.

We had so much fun with the seals and the fish, that I was convinced we should try again with the dusky dolphins that we hadn't got to swim with when we were in Kaikoura with my mum. The chance arose after we headed to Murchison to start our paddling stint strangely. While here I toyed with the idea of getting some instruction from the New Zealand Kayak School, and after some pointers from Mick Hopkinson I quickly signed up for a course a week later. We left with the advice that I shouldn't paddle till the course(!) so that I wasn't practising my paddling bad habits. So after a fwe days on the West Coast which I'm sure David will write about soon, we headed back to Kaikoura, via Christchuch to drop off the damaged camera, and Nelson which means we have been to every page on our road atlas!

I was trying not to get my hopes up after the disappointment of last time, but David was convinced the extra chocolate in our advent calendar was a good omen! We had to be at the centre at half 8 (we didn't fancy the half 5 trip they run!) and again kitted out in extra thick wetsuits. Again we headed out on the boat, and were lucky enough to see more massive sea birds. This time there were giant petrels and albatrosses with their 3.5m wingspan. They were being fed as part of an “Albatross Encounter” and so we stopped closeby to get some photos of these impressive birds.

Pretty soon, we were being told to kit up and sit on the back of the boat ready to jump in. As we nervously sat on the back, we started to see dusky dolphins jumping in the boat's wake. The pointing and exclamations quickly built up, before the propellor was stopped and we could jump in the water. We'd been recommended to 'entertain' the dolphins which involved us making noises mainly – it was pretty funny to hear everyone sing, hum or squeak in their efforts. However we were rewarded very quickly when dolphins swam by very closely. It is difficult to work out who's more intrigued by who, since the dolphins will be clearly watching you as they swim, and that eye to eye contact is an incredible experience. The dophins are renowned for a game they like to play, they swim in circles around you with the idea being you swim round too. Then they get faster and faster to see if you can keep up, until they swim off and you feel rather dizzy! Sometimes they'll change direction too, I played this game lots of time, making the swimming with dolphins seem exhausting. The whole time in the water, I was humming my own tune of “Beautiful dolphin, please come and play with me” – I feel it was worthwile, I'm convinced the song worked! We would be called back on to the boat every so often, so that we could keep with the main pod which on that day was 200-300 dolphins in size. No wonder we got to see so many underwater! What really thrilled me was when a dolphin swam by, accompanied by a tiny baby one. There were several mums and calves so this happened on a few occassions much to my delight. One time I was swimming back to the boat, there were so many dolphins, with several circling me – words don't really do this credit, it was an incredible experience. After several sessions of swimming with these amazing creatures, we got changed and took the opportunity to take photos. What a difference from our previous experience! Apparently that time, the dolphins were likely to have been pre-occupied as that was their mating season. No wonder they didn't want to play with us. This time though as we stood there watching the dolphins jump and perform various acrobats, I had the hugest smile. David preferred swimming with the seals, but to me swimming with dolphins was an experience it'd take a lot to beat. However I think we were very lucky to have the opportunity to interact with both of these awesome animals, I'd definitely recommend both!

Murchison and West Coast, pt. 1,

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Murchison probably has more river runs in close proximity to each other than anywhere else in New Zealand, so it didn't take much brainpower to workout where to go after we finished chilling in Christchurch. We were planning on camping at the paddler's campsite by the river in town, but before we got there we found the source of the Buller, flowing out of Lake Rotoiti; the lake is set amongst mountains near St Arnaud and make an idyllic camping spot. The Upper Buller was low, due to lack of rain, but was still a good, short warm up run. Talking to the staff at the NZ Kayak School in Murchison after finishing the run it seemed everything in the area was low, but most of it was still runnable. Mick Hopkinson, kayak legend and school director, offered Sharon a free 1/2hour of coaching and based on that she booked on to a 4 day training course. In the few days we had until the course started we headed down and met up with Simon and Cheryl and some of their friends on the west coast.

Some of the worlds best creeks are located here, but the area is so sparsely populated and the mountain valleys so tightly packed that there are no roads to the top of them. Unlike the UK where almost every river has a road running along side it, to get to the top of these you need a helicopter. As usual Simon had a plan for hitting some harder runs and luckily I was able to get a warm up with them on the Whitcombe before flying into the Upper Hokitika – I'd need it.

There's something surreal about jumping out of the helicopter, keeping your head low as you untie your boat from the skids and drag it out of the way before covering your eyes as Bruce flies his helicopter away, leaving you with only one way out – downstream. The Hokitika is a full on run, with numerous vertical walled canyons, house sized boulders littered everywhere and a lot of gradient. Simon brought had notes from the guide book, but after the first couple of rapids it was obvious they were useless – the river is always changing, with land slides and erosion constantly creating new and challenging rapids. The last few groups we'd heard about had attempted it a few weeks previously after heavy rain an had both been trapped on the river by nightfall after making slow progress when they needed to portage one of the blind gorges, we made sure we had much lower levels. The group was strong – one of Simon's friends from Vermont, Ed, was in town and we'd met up with a French Canadian raft guide, Mike, who joined us – but we were still feeling apprehensive as Bruce flew away.

The river starts with a pushy gr4 – 4+ 'warm up' before the lines narrow and the consequences increase. We made an early start and by lunch had made good progress through the first gorge and into the second, with minimal portaging and few hiccups. Just after lunch we had the first swim of the day and my first swim this trip. Within a few yards of the launching was a drop, the line was to boof off the middle and head right. That's not quite what I did – I started left to give myself momentum heading right, but failed to get far enough right and dropped off the rock just left of centre. I cleared the stopper at the bottom of the drop, but landed in a pot hole that feed back around into the stopper. I was alternately surfing the hole and then the cushion wave in the pot hole, taking a roll every few recirculations. Ed was doing his best to get close enough to pass me the bow of his boat, but couldn't. As I felt my self tire, I pulled my spraydeck's release cord and abandoned ship, while I still had the energy. Timing my exit for the outer most point of the recirc., I pushed off the bottom with my feet and came clear of the hole, straight into the eddy, a little shaken and out of breath but otherwise unhurt. Ed attached himself to the end of a throw line and jumped in to grab my boat once the others had successfully run the drop. The rest of the river was filled with more tight lines and sticky holes and interesting portages. The entrance to the third gorge was messy, there were two boulders each the size of a large car in the middle of the river with unrunnable drops on the left and right. With the sheer cliffs either side, the only portage option was to catch a micro eddy in the middle above the drops and seal launch off the second rock. The rock would have been under water with more rain, so this was where the previous groups had had to walk around.

It was a tiring day – the committing gorges pushed us mentally and physically more than any other river I've paddled and we were all glad to see the impressive gates of Argonath and the last rapid, Fat Lady, almost had us singing. From Fat Lady we were on the lower Hokitika and pleasant warm down for a few km and then after the confluence with the Whitcombe we were on a flat paddle out for an hour or so – glad to be exiting in the Sun light.

The following day called for a lie-in before we headed to Christchurch to return our broken waterproof camera – it turned out not to be so waterproof and then we headed up the coast. Sharon will write up the seal and dolphin swimming, along with Nelson and the winery, but we're now back in Murchison and she's on her course while I catch up with some work.

NZ Fiordland quick update

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Just a quick update (more detailed one to follow):

We've spent the last week in the Fiordland area, amidst some of the most beautiful scenery I've seen. Apparentlly it's one of the Southern Hemisphere's premier wilderness areas and has been recognised as a World Heritage Area (WHA).

We went to Milford Sound and saw seals and penguins playing around – spending a night in the tranquility of the sound was awesome. No sooner did we return to land than we booked ourselves on one of New Zealand's Great Walks, the Kepler Track. It's a 4 day hike taking in the full range of the scenery in the WHA, from almost a full day above the tree line on a still snowy alpine ridge path to days walking through native bush with plants that have survived almost unchanged since Gondwana. (Gondwana is a much harked about time when all the southern continents (Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand, etc) were joined in one land mass over 100 million years ago).

The hike is probably a highlight of my trip so far and we'll post photos soon. After recovering from the walk we drove to Christchurch where we went to see Muse play and unfortunately we're having to say good bye to Vicki now, who is heading home in time for Christmas. Sharon and I are continuing North from here, to the only page in our NZ road atlas that we've not been to yet, Able Tasman/Nelson/Murchison area, but we've planning the rest of our trips, moving our flights to their proper dates and booking some tours in Australia, India and Nepal…

Christchurch

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For those who haven't been to Christchurch, I think it would be fair to say they may be surprised by just how quaint and English style the whole city is. We took full advantage of the tram in the city centre that takes tourists to some of the major attractions – I think we must have gone around the loop at least half a dozen times in the end! The Art Gallery confused me a little, I was convinced I hadn't seen it despite having stayed on that street before. However it opened in 2003 and I was last here May 2002, so that helped explain the mystery. There are some architectural delights including the old university buildings which now hold the Arts Centre with several arts and crafts shops, a theatre, a cinema and a ballet company. Close by is the Botanical Gardens and the museum. Since David and I are returning to Christchurch at the end of our time in NZ, we left our visit to the museum till then, but we strolled around the gardens, smelled the roses and climbed a couple of trees. We also saw ducklings on the river, which is punted in true Cambridge style. Instead of being able to have a go yourself though, “Edwardian” gentlemen take you for a tour complete with full outfits and plummy accents. In the Cathedral in the centre of the Square, we were treated to singing from a female choir while looking around – next time I think I would like to walk up the spire, as I remember the views being great but this time we ran out of time.

Just outside of the main city was the Antarctic Experience. Apparently Christchurch is where many of the planes bound for the frozen continent leave from, and various countries including the USA and, unsurprisingly, New Zealand base their preparatory areas here. It was an interesting place with a chance to experience an Antarctic storm – we wrapped up in borrowed jackets and entered a freezer where the temperature was -18

Double Decadence in Dunedin

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Dunedin is Gaelic for Edinburgh, and is a city in the south with a rather Scottish air – not really very surprising when you consider this was a large settlement for many Scottish immigrants. It was the first city in the South Island, with a cathedral that was constructed in two parts due to money restraints. This has led to a gothic building with the altar area being in a rather more modern 70s style, I understand architectural styles change over time but it does seem somewhat of an unfortunate mismatch. There are other lovely buildings in Dunedin, including the train station with its stained glass windows. However train travel has been surpassed in New Zealand by roads, maybe a little shortsightedly in my mind, and now only a tourist train, which leads to a dead end because of the removal of track, is the only visitor to this prestigious building.

However two areas of industry that are continuing to do well in the city are the Cadburys factory and the Speights brewery, both of which offer tours and both of which we decided we couldn't miss. The Cadburys factory was busily making Easter eggs when we were there, apparently they make them between June and January each year and it takes New Zealanders the whole of a week to eat all this chocolate! We were encouraged to listen to the talks and video presentations since correct answers to questions led to prizes of chocolate. I think David did the best out of this by 'looking sweet' as our tour guide and being awarded chocolate anyway. The smell around the factory is one of the most tempting you can imagine, but we managed to resist buying too much in the shop. In fact, our surprising bargain was some waterproof trousers they had on sale for $25 and which have been much in use already! We actually found out that the local supermarket was doing a better deal on Dairy Milk than the factory shop.

After dinner we headed back in to town to the Speights Brewery, this was the only brewery to still use wooden gyles for brewing some of their craft beers. Apparently there had been one other near Portsmouth but it had been recently bought out and so the tradition went with the exchange of contracts. It was a gravity based brewery which meant all the ingredients were put in at the top of the building and the process continued as you headed downstairs. At the end of the tour, we all had chance to taste a selection of their brews, and were able to pull our own mini-pints! This wasn't something I'd ever done before and I was pretty chuffed at my efforts. While we were supping the beer, some of the brewery's adverts were played including their birthday advert in which sheep and a dog sang them happy birthday, one I could easily imagine being rather popular.

Te Anau

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As we drove up the Southern Scenic Tourist route's final leg, to Te Anau, the clouds lifted and the sun lit up the surrounding mountains. This was the first sun we'd seen in days. The rest of our trip from Christchurch to Dunedin and on to Invercargill has been wet, cold and made us doubt the existence of summer this far south. We've stood, rain-lashed on the South Island's most southerly point and could visualise the air blowing straight off the Antarctic ice and through our clothes. The animals either don't mind, or have got used to it: the ubiquitous lambs and calves have never been too far away, and we've also managed to get pretty close to some less usual wildlife, yellow eyed penguins; nesting pied shags with their chicks as well as a colony of NZ Fur seals. Watching from a Department of Conservation approved hiding area, it was harrowing to wait for the penguins' return after a day catching food for the young – a stoat had found and emptied a couple of nests while the parents were absent. There was nothing we could do from our vantage point but hope for the swift return of some of the penguins. We saw one arrive and waddle up the beach, pausing to stretch and dry out in the wind – he seemed to pose for the gathered crowd. Being so close and seeing the world's rarest penguins in the wild was an awe inspiring experience, this penguin's fragile existence only underlined by the presence of the predators that man unleashed.

The penguin wasn't the only endangered animal we've seen. Not far from Christchurch, an extinct, collapsed and now flooded volcano cone forms the harbour for the small and surprisingly French town of Akaroa. It's the site of the attempted French settlement of South Island – this failed when they were 4 days slower than the English frigate that raced them from the North Island – but more pertinently it is the current feeding ground for the smallest and rarest of the world's marine dolphins, the Hectors. The boat tour of the harbour took us up close to these extremely cute animals.

The area's natural wonders were unconcerned by the elements – the smooth rock orbs of the Moeraki boulders are still lying where they fell when the cliffs around them eroded away and the fossilised remains of an ancient forest still lies in the same rock it did 180 million years ago. The long gone trees have left embedded in the rock wood grain so perfectly detailed that you need to touch it to be convinced it isn't wood. It really isn't hard to imagine the stumps and logs being trees in a great forest.

We've left the coast behind us and headed into the Fiordland, an area of mountains and lakes. Tomorrow we will visit the famous Milford Sound (named after Milford Haven in Wales, but with a reputation for being much more beautiful!), to fully appreciate the area we're booked on an overnight tour and will sleep aboard the sight-seeing sailing ship. From there, the west coast will be our playground.

Coral Warning

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After I told my sister I had been scuba diving and snorkelling in Fiji, she promptly told me to watch out for coral and make sure any scratches I had were checked out. I didn't really think too much of this despite having scraped my leg twice on coral, but figured I'd keep an eye on it. Sure enough most of it looked to be healing absolutely fine, apart from one area, Using Inadine (an iodine soaked dressing) to keep the wound clean, it surprised me how the scratch didn't improve. Soon after arrival in New Zealand, I visited a pharmacist who sent me straight to the doctors. He was originally from Dorset and had worked lots on the windsurfing champion circuit. Apparently hydrogen peroxide is the best weapon against coral poisoning, and it can be very serious. He told me that it wasn't that unusual for people not to think about it and end up in hospital because the wound ulcerates. Thankfully he told me my wound looked pretty good – the Inadine is good stuff! But still I had to be put on a course of antibiotics for 10 days, apparently a week's worth is not enough to shift the infection caused by this innocent looking animal/plant. I've finished the course and my leg looks fine now, however I thought it'd be worth warning others how mean coral can be!