Sad day....... Our final full day in New Zealand

Possibly the most beautiful waterfall we have seen in the whole year of adventure. Our intention was to visit this at the start of our time in New Zealand but we took a different route so we knew we had to catch it on our way back to Auckland. The Bridal Veil Falls is so called because the cascading water looks like lace in a veil as it trips over the narrow gap away from the cliff to drop 55 meters to the pool below. 

Looking down from the narrow gap at the top of the falls

In our opinion the most beautiful view of the falls about half way down the cascade

The rock at the top of the falls is volcanic basalt. To the left of the falls the basalt strata is vertical but to the right its in a fan shape from vertical to horizontal. The reason for this is underlying the basalt at the base of the falls is softer sandstone which is being eroded and causing the basalt to fracture away thus creating the Bridal Veil Falls. 

Dave looking "smart" at the base of the falls, at least he's tucked the front of his shirt in for a change. 

The last night in the campervan (big car, small campervan) it's given us some surprises along the way during the 3 months bumper blowing off, flat battery in the middle of nowhere, flat tyre in the morning, and numerous injuries to head and legs as we move around. But it's now done over 8000km with us and still going strong. Goodbye NZ. 

Chilax (whatever that means?) in Waitomo

We decided to spend a few nights in Waitomo as on our previous visit, 6 months ago now, the area looked so nice. So 3 of our last 4 nights were spent relaxing or chilling out (chilax). We did however, travel out and see some of the local limestone features and waterfalls. 

Tongariro Pass (aka MOUNT DOOM)

On our further travels we stopped at the Tongariro Pass. This had been planned from when we first arrived in New Zealand. The pass was used as a location for Mount Doom in the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy. We decided not to complete the whole crossing, we had no way to get back to the van as the end car park is 35km away, so instead we walked the first 2/3rds to the Blue Lake before returning on the same route. This meant we actually completed a lot more than the 19.5 km walk with lots of ups and downs instead of a decent after the Blue Lake. On our walk I discover a left over strange creature from the trilogy, not sure what it is, an hobbit maybe, but it was very rude and didn't like its picture being taken. See below.

Sarah at the foot of Mt. Doom

The caldera at the top of the Devils Staircase. Was there a moon landing here?

You can see in the distance on the left of the picture the Blue Lake our lunch and turning point for the day. A very steep decent (and later acsent) with skid, scramble. The Emerald Lakes in the right foreground are so called because they are bright green and similar to those found in Yellowstone across the Pacific in the US. 

The following day while travelling to Waitomo we took this picture of the two mountains and the crossing from some miles away. 

No wellies needed in Welly and the KOYLI connection to Whanganui

On our return to Wellington we planned to spend it at the top of Mt. Victoria which overlooks the capital city and the bay. However, would you believe it they celebrate bonfire night here, a little late, and they had closed access to the mount to residents only. Instead we returned to our previous free camp area on the banks of the bay. Last time we were here it was peaceful. However, when we arrived the car park was filling up with locals setting bonfires on the beach in preparation for the evenings 9:30pm bay firework display. Luckily we got a spot to camp for the night but needless to say it wasn't peaceful with festivities continuing until past midnight (Dave wouldn't know as he went to sleep and drowned out the fireworks with the sound of his snoring). 

We traveled northwards the next day to a place called Whanganui. Sarah took on the role of historical tour guide once again. We were surprised to find out that Whanganui had links with The Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI) which my Great Grandfather, Major Herbert Barker MBE, had served in. The fire watch tower below was built by the KOYLI in the 1860's when the battalion was stationed here the bell in the top of the tower was made in Sheffield and the clock that was later added from the town hall was also manufactured in Yorkshire. This area on top of the hill was the original locations of a Moari Pa (fortified village) and later the first European fort.  

Goodbye South Island

On our last day in South Island we went to Charlotte Sound and did our bit for the wildlife by saving a bee that had dived into the sea while we were sat on a secluded beach (the great full bee is on a stick below, still alive!).

We had our first night on the South Island at Whites Bay so it seemed fitting to spend one last night there too. The setting sun made a fitting end to our time here.

While having lunch at Aussie Bay Sarah (Dolittle) made another new friend Jemima who sat next to Sarah's legs, occasionally nibbling her shoe or trouser leg, for over 2 hours. It must be her new perfume! Jemima posed very nicely for her photograph. 

Don’t leave your lights on (especially if your car doesn’t have a warning system)

We traveled right up to the end of the road on the west coast then went off road for 14 km to visit the Oparama Caves an attractive set of limestone arches. We left the car park and went in one direction to visit the cave and arch below.

Then we walked back to the car park to head off in the opposite direction to visit the largest limestone arch in New Zealand (possibly) while walking to this cave Sarah asked me if I'd turned the lights off as we had had to have them on traveling through the forest. I replied "Of course I did" and we continued on our way. The second arch was a little disappointing but by this time I had started to have my doubts about the lights being turned off. So I ran on ahead only to find the lights were on their last legs, the central locking would not work, the car wouldn't start we were stranded in the middle of nowhere with little chance of the AA coming to rescue us in the foreseeable future................

Du Du Dah!!! 

What were we going to do, would we starve, No, would we die of thirst, No we had all the stuff we needed in the car. Luckily there was a dreadlocked NZ gentleman having a cuppa with his girl friend he had a set of jump leads and was able to start our Spaceship. We made a generous donation to their evening bar tab. We were so bothered about the flat battery we drove continuously for 3 hours without stopping, and when we did stop it was in a garage and we left it running until we checked they had jump leads. Sarah has made a big notice for on the dash board so I DONT forget again!

Once we were happy the Spaceship was OK we were able to go to our campsite. The following day we visited yet another set of waterfalls, Mauri Falls.

Our motto is now never get the car cleaned or check tyre/ oil levels as this is a foreboding sign of imminent disaster. 

OH NO the car must have sensed our lack of trust so we woke up this morning to a flare tyre. So much for doing a kind deed as yesterday we gave a lift to two Swedish people whose transport hadn't turned up at the end of a day's trekking. 

Pancakes for Breakfast

Continuing our travels up the west coast we stopped at the Punikaitaki Rocks more commonly known as the Pancake Rocks. With their impressive blow holes and thin pancake layering of the limestone they make deep rumbling noises followed by an explosion of water, at least when the tide is high.

Glaciers and Gloworms

Fox and Franz Josef are the only two temperate forest glaciers in the world. Both are retreating fast up into the central mountain spine of South Island. The current car park in 2007 was under the glacier. Now you have walk 45 mins. to get to within 200 meters of the glacier. At this rate in 10 years time there wil be no visible glacier from Fox or Franz Josef.

Most of the water now runs as beautiful waterfalls

Glowworms - while camping in Fox we took a twenty minute walk to look at the glowworms, a 20 mins. walk turned into a two and a half hour photo fest. If you look carefully into the hole you can see the fine strands that the Glowworms set to catch insects which they attract with their glowing bums. 

Top Gears new presenters on their first assignment

Sarah and Dave aka "The Hamster and Captain Slow" (neither of us wanted to be the twelve month pregnant Jezza) about to race three motorbike scramblers and a four by four in a "Spaceship" down Nevis Road the highest drivable dirt track (road) in New Zealand. Possibly!

On your marks, get set, Gooooooooooo........

This is the view from the top 

Milford

Once again we made our way to Te Anau this time though we continued onto the Milford road and down towards the sound. Our intention was to view the great scenery that this acclaimed area of New Zealand has to offer, although we did not intend to go out on a boat into the sound itself. We walked a little of the Routeburn track upto Key Summit and then walked along the Gertrude Valley upto the base of Gertrude's Saddle amongst other short walks, lookouts and points of interest.

We saw lots of Kea birds (flightless and always hungry, we didn't feed any) quite big fells these. The area has tremendous views every where you look. We spent the night in Edlington Valley which although nice had the smelliest drop toilet Sarah had ever had the pleasure of going near, she wretched for half an hour afterwards then crossed her legs for the next 12 hours!

View from Key Summit with a little tarn on the top. This may not look like a long way up but it's high above three separate valleys. Each valley has an individual river that comes from one source but they run in different directions. 

View from Gertrude Valley towards the saddle

Milford Sound when the tide is out. This isn't a view you often see, most images show the tide in.

Kea on the prowl

Fosicking

We've got gold fever look at the real estate we were able to purchase with our prospecting find.

It's not a yellow brick or gold road for those immigrants who traveled the long distances to take part in the 1860's gold rush. The land road you see here wasn't completed until 1965. 

European miners first started in Otago and then moved to the west coast leaving the chinese miners to continue panning for gold. Their accommodation was little more than a tin or wood hut to see them through the extremely cold winters. They were so small Sarah could not lay down in one. The miners general store only closed down in 1926 when the chinese owner died. Recently the New Zealand government, belatedly, apologised to the Chinese miners families for their mistreatment. 

Chinese miners settlement in Arrowtown. 

We managed find the assayers office in town he had to brush the cob webs off the scales (or did he?) as this is what somebody had managed to buy with their finds. 

They are still finding gold now in fact in the office we saw four gold nuggets that had been found as recently as 2013. They were all oddly shaped and worth as much as $20,000 each which does equate to much when you see the work that's needed to extract it. 

“Artiste” at work

Many an hour is spent waiting for Dave taking umpteen photographs of the same thing. He's working hard on his artistic image which now includes, if you look carefully, a toupe called Cyril!

The Catlins and Roaring 40’s

Dunedin was our next stop a once rich gold mining centre. On our first day we visited the Saturday Farmers Market which was a bit of a wash out and rather underwhelming with it much hyped advertising but few stalls. So we had a coffee and let the sun come out and appreciated the architecture which includes this beautiful train station. Sarah once again did a wonderful job with our guided city tour of the historic buildings.

We also visited the Settlers Museum, Ottago Museum and the Dunedin Art Gallery. All of these were free (tight fisted ain't we?) but informative. 

On the last night in Dunedin we added the sleeping awning to the back of the car. Big mistake, Gale force winds, the car nearly took off during the night. We thought we would have to explain why the car had scratches on the roof after it had tipped over. Sarah also had an early morning shower as the rain blew in through the awning! It's not called the 'Roaring Forties' for nothing.

The Catlins are famous for there extreme winds, wild life and Invercargill, the main sheep exporting location in the Southlands. 

We went to Bluff the southern most point in South Island. 

The South Pole may be nearby and warming up but it's still too cold for these Yellow Eyed penguins we watched at Curio Bay. 

This was our second set of penguins as we had seen Blue Penguins nesting in Omarau, courtesy of Deisel Don. Yes they are blue and it's not from the cold, we'll show the pics when we get back. 

Moeraki boulders

Jurassic Park comes to life these boulders form in a similar way to a pearl the rock layers build up around a small piece of debris in this area and after millions of years they form very large circular rocks.

Look what came out of this one!

Unfortunately it did not come with a return label. 

Look at the mess he created. This member of the public rang the DOC to complain about the damage tourist create. 

Dave can learn anything using YouTube.........

Dave claims he can learn anything just by watching it on YouTube. Evidence of this is him "surfing"(the web)

Happy Birthday Grandma 103 years WOW!!!

Grandma have a great birthday and many more. Hope you have relaxing time and plenty of visitors. All our best wishes.

Sarah and Dave
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Mum please let grandma know we have wished her a happy birthday.