New Zealand South Island Part 1

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New Zealand South Island Part 1
Picked up campervan. Interior layout awful – we have never found anything as convenient as ours, which is why we continue with such an ageing vehicle.
Also we are having problems, water only luke warm, battery can’t last overnight so fridge defrosts and heating doesn’t work! Might expect these in our old vehicle but in a new one!!

Sunday went on the Weka Pass Railway ????. Great trip, views were great, Train seems to be in better condition than our hired vehicle.

Now en route to Akaroa, where we need to try and sort out a leisure battery problem. Depressing that these problems keep haunting us, we have so many electrical problem with our campervan, and no one else seems to.

Drove to Akaroa on a wonderful cloudless day. Scenically stunning. Akaroa is a basically French town from 150 years ago. Although now assimilated into NZ, all the roads are “Rue”, and the architecture has a definitely French character. And, we had an opportunity to go dolphin and penguin watching. It seems that Akaroa does small – both the dolphins and penguins are the smallest of their respective breeds.

This shot from trying to balance on the bow of a lurching boat, best I could manage.

After returning to harbour, bought fish and chips from a small kiosk on the harbour arm, and sat at the end of the arm in picture perfect ???? conditions. The fish was “Lemon Fish” ???? , and delicious ???? it was, too.

Writing this waiting in the campervan hire place, waiting for them to fix the campervan. Hope next entry is positive!
Two hours later, and all is “fixed”. We have had a new battery. Batteries have been the bane of my campervaning life, and I have been replacing at least one a year, for the past, at least, six years, probably more. It seems I have bought my jinx to NZ. Hope I leave it here, although I think ???? I was running into battery problems on our campervan when I left.

Also, we were told the water heater is only supposed to make the water tepid (not a direct quote – that is what it is supposed to do said the lady, holding her hand ???? under the “hot” water without flinching).

Drove to Timaru, where we went round an interesting museum dedicated to Maori rock paintings. One of the attendants was a Maori, and he spent some time explaining Maori culture to us. This was so interesting, and made so many things we had heard about make sense. Not least, that when they went fishing in rivers for Tuna, this is actually Maori for eels!

Timaru is one of the places where a small colony of Blue Penguins nest. The adults come out of the sea at dusk. We joined perhaps 50 to 100 other people to watch this spectacle. We saw half a dozen or so waddling very penguinish up the beach. Unfortunately, too dark to take a picture, and they don’t like flash. We decided to leave, and back along the road, next to a known nesting area with young, we were suddenly confronted with a penguin looking rather lost, standing on the pavement. Blue Penguins are very small, the smallest of all penguins. After watching him for a while, Sue went to get help – a person who knew what to do. (There were two ladies there, who were obviously making sure the penguins were safe, and us onlookers under control). It seems we had come upon one of the chicks ???? being inquisitive. She (The Person Who Knew What To Do) seemed very unconcerned, and shooed the chick ???? into the long grass at the side of the road. (Saying very softly, go home Mum will be back soon!) Exciting! Pity we were by now so damn cold.

Wed 7th Nov. Drove to Timaru, which is known for its Victorian architecture. What an astonishing time warp this place turned out to be. It was from here that the first refrigerated ship carrying NZ lamb departed for England in 1882. Two streets of commercial buildings have survived intact and unchanged, and most now house an eclectic collection of junk, artefacts, artist and the like. Really interesting poking around.

After that, drove on to Moeraki Boulders Beach, which has a collection of naturally formed round boulders. The explanation for how they were formed was neither lucid nor convincing, but the evidence is irrefutably there.

And then on to Dunedin. With no knowledge of Dunedin, I expected a small provincial town of little intrinsic interest. What a surprise! A bustling city with stunning architecture. This is the train station. Yes!! The train station. We are spending the night in the station car park, which is really convenient, if a trifle noisy. There are a lot of really long freight trains carrying containers. Such a daft idea. And to think all these containers could be on the back of hundreds of lorries, and we could all be a having a really jolly time sitting in the traffic jams thus caused.
Really looking forward to exploring tomorrow – and have a raft of exciting things lined up. At the moment, the temperature is 26 degrees, but rain is forecast ……..

And cummeth the rain. So we went to Olveston, a house built by a jewish entrepreneur in 1906. Was interesting, and warm, and dry.
Found out about the grey water system. On our campervan, we have an indicator gauge, and an overflow. On this hateful machine, it seems the warning gauge does not work, nor does the overflow, so it fills the wet room floor and one finds that out at two o’clock in the morning, when this is full of water when you want to go to the loo. And it is slashing down with rain.

It seems that Dunedin has a Cadbury’s chocolate ???? factory.
⬅️ I wonder if this is full of chocolate…….

⬅️ That is Sue.

In the afternoon, went on the Taieri Gorge Railway, two hours up a stunning gorge, to the flat pastures of central Otago.

Rain squalls.

Following morning, rain back again. A homogeneous cruise ship has arrived, disgorging 25 trillion people, so everything is booked solid.

Messed about a bit, went to Baldwin Street (according to Guinness Book of Records the steepest residential street in the world), then went to a castle.

Honest, went to a castle. A ridiculous bit of Victorianna, and hopelessly extravagant. Built by a wealthy banker in the late C19th. Called Larnach Castle, it fell in to disrepair, and has been rescued. Of passing interest, but at the end of the peninsular is a breeding site for Royal Albatross, the only mainland site where they breed.

⬅️ Royal Albatross incubating egg.

And weather improving. Only sporadic drizzly bits, but temperature has gone from 24 a few days ago to around 8 degrees today. In a camper no better insulated than a tent this is not nice!

But round the corner is a nesting site for Yellow Eyed Penguins. Very rare, and endangered, this is pretty much the only place where you can see them. Not bad for one soggy day!