Kickin’ It With the Kiwis

Hello, friends, and welcome back to New Zealand. After spending the morning shooting around Jacqui and Richard’s farm, we hit the road and headed to the Maori Rock Art Centre in Timaru. Jacqui hooked us up with a 50% coupon too so that was even better.

The museum was very well done, beginning with a traditional Maori welcome,

followed by exposure to lots of Maori rock art found throughout NZ.

The space is pretty blinged out with videos and sound effects

But it also keeps it real for the kiddies in all of us with an art center allowing us to do relief drawings. I’m not sure what the technical word is for this, but basically you rub a crayon over a raised image and you get a replica of that image. Here’s my masterpiece.

As you can see, I stepped it up a level by going with not 1, but 2 crayon colors. Notice the layering of colors and the intentional roughness of the edges. Is it a stretch to call this piece magnificent? I think not…

Also, I wasn’t haphazard in my selection of which piece to rub. I thoughtfully selected this piece because of the hollow spaces. Anticipating that you’d want to know more about hollow spaces, I took this picture just for you.

After our tour through the museum we headed into nature to see the Maraewhenua Maori rock paintings first hand.

I have to be honest, the artwork in this cave left a little something to be desired, but the surrounding scenery definitely did not. It was gorgeous even with the overcast weather.

Our next stop was to Elephant Rocks, giant limestone boulders sculpted by wind, rain and rivers. Rob, AC and Satomi visited this little gem while they were traveling around NZ and highly recommended it.

It is definitely picturesque and a very unique landscape.

Time to hit the road again.

The above picture gives you a little glimpse into the driving part of our trip. Yours truly basically had to drive every waking moment of the journey. Thankfully I was kind of used to driving on the opposite side of the road from biking around Mae Sot, but it’s definitely a different ball game in a SUV and on windy mountain roads. Never one to shy away from a challenge, I rolled up my sleeves and did what needed to be done. I put in the long kilometers and made sure we arrived alive each and every evening. As for Raj, um, well, I guess his navigational abilities could basically be summed up with this picture.

Yeah, I think it’s safe to say that navigating isn’t one of Raj’s fortes.

Thankfully it’s one of mine so I promptly guided us to our next destination, the Moeraki Boulders.

As you can see, it’s a collection of massive boulders on this beautiful beach. It’s totally weird and therefore totally up our alleys.

Wendy, this move is for you.  Wendy and I used to do gymnastics and subjected our families to regular talent shows. 

I wish we could take the credit for this awesome shot above, but the credit goes to this girl we met on the beach who had seen it online and suggested it to us. Of course the trade off was that we take a pic of her as well. El gusto es mio. The pleasure is mine.

It’s a sweet shot and kudos to the creative person/people who thought of it.

After frolicking around the boulders we thought we’d pay a visit to the yellow-eyed penguin colony at Bushy Beach. Did you know that the aforementioned penguin is the rarest penguin in the world?

Yep, it is so I can imagine you are on pins and needles waiting to see if Raj and I were so lucky as to catch a glimpse of these rare and elusive birds and the answer is…

Hell yeah we did!

Those pics are taken from the official yellow-eyed penguin lookout tower. Not to diss it or the adorable penguin we spotted, but it wasn’t overwhelming so we thought we’d try the more rugged coastline path near the lighthouse and I’m so glad we did because we got to get up close and personal with these adorable, little guys.

Don’t worry, we weren’t inappropriate. There are signs everywhere warning you that these penguins are extremely shy and to give them their space, but having been on African safari, Raj and I were ready with our 300 lenses.

Behold, the rarest penguin in the world. (visually, I’d like you to be picturing a magician called Gob. If you don’t get that reference, run, don’t walk to your computer and download the entire series of Arrested Development.)

These little guys were so cute. The wind was kicking up a storm (it is NZ after all) but these little guys would just stand there and take it, alternating between open and closed eyes. They really are so adorable. I know it’s not allowed so of course I would never do it, but I REALLY wanted to cradle one of these guys in my arms. I mean, it’s insanely cute, right? Actually, the baby seals might have been cuter, but these guys are still pretty darn cute.

After leaving the world’s most endangered penguin Raj and I weren’t satisfied to visit just any tourist attraction. Oh no, we needed something special…something rare.

Our solution to this omnipresent desire for greatness?

Booyah! That’s right, it’s the Steepest Street in the World.

Don’t even pretend to so much as suggest to me that this street is not steep. 

It’s all I can do to prevent myself from falling backwards.

As I mentioned, I used to be a gymnast and it appears this gave me a bit of an advantage in the coordinated category. Um…Raj…are you OK? .

Just kidding! Raj was totally able to hang on the STEEPEST STREET IN THE WORLD!!! (now I’d like you to make the laugh like the Count from Sesame Street)

Obviously the bar had been set pretty high. I mean, after visiting the world’s rarest and steepest, we needed something major. 

What makes the Tunnel Beach Walkway fit our criteria is that a blanket of opaque fog enveloped the air around us, making visibility practically nonexistent. Not letting something like a lack of vision get in our way, we hiked down this steep and muddy cliff only to discover that the closer we got to the sea, the better the visibility.

It was actually quite stunning in the rain with the wind causing the Pacific Ocean to smash against the cliffs.

After tackling this we powered on to Sandfly Bay for a walk along some dunes.

Next it was time to power further down south to the rugged Catlins. The Catlins weren’t originally on our list of places to visit, but we met this German camera man at our backpackers in Abel Tasman who showed us some insane pics of the Catlins so here you go. I’d like to provide a disclaimer that my pics basically suck next to the ones he showed, us, but this is the best I could do with the rain and gusty wind.

I present to you…Nugget Point.

It’s kind of like Stonehenge in the sea, huh?

Next we powered on to the bustling metropolis of Owaka where we’d be spending the evening. To give you an idea of how cosmopolitan Owaka is, I present to you…

Yes, it’s exactly what you think it is.

I have no evidence to prove this statement, but I bet the owner of this property has somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 cats.

The same owner also owns the adjacent Dollyworld. (insert knife slashing music and a visual of Jack Nicholson in The Shining)

Not wanting to spend too much time at either of these destinations, we powered on to Surat Bay in hopes of seeing sea lions.

Yay!!! I’m loving the pounding rain and wind. I’m actually doing spirit fingers under my jacket.

It was worth it though because we didn’t have to battle the elements long before catching up with some sea lions.

We had read that sea lions are a bit more aggressive than your standard seal and they weren’t kidding.

I don’t think this guy was actually pissed. I think he was merely trying to scare us because he promptly turned around and I swear I heard him laugh and call us punk ass bitches as he sauntered back to the ladies.

Jerk!

Next we decided to view some water. Fist we visited the Purakaunui Falls,

followed by Matai Falls.

Raj and I both experimented with a little trick we’ve been wanting to try, which is to slow down water so that it looks all smooth and flowy. I wouldn’t say that I’ve mastered it yet, but here’s my best attempt thus far…

Oooh, aaaah. Yeah, not really, but kind of fun to experiment with in some random, beautiful park on a rainy day.

Next we visited Curio Bay, which is famous for its fossilized Jurassic-age trees. These are the pics that actually enticed Raj and I to visit the Catlins, but it turns out that the fossils are tidal dependent and we were several hours on the wrong side of the tide so we had to bail. I did snap this nice pic of a seagull though.

I know, I know after the world’s rarest and steepest this is a small consolation, but it’s all I’ve got, folks.

Actually, I also have a picture from our backpackers to share. It’s pretty gorgeous, huh?

Despite the less than fabulous weather, we decided to roll the dice and power on to Milford Sound. I didn’t feel like a visit to NZ was complete without a little Milford Sound action so keep your fingers crossed that the weather improves. This is NZ so the weather can definitely change on a dime.

Wait just a minute, it seems like the sun is starting to come out. Oh yeah!

Pretty great, huh? I’m so glad we powered on to Milford because we lucked out with a perfect day. Woo Hoo!!!

After that we backtracked, taking our time to stop at various places along the road between Milford and Te Anau.

The is the forest you walk through on the Chasm Walk.

These are the Mirror Lakes

and this is the Divide.

What makes the Divide special, you ask? It’s the lowest east-west pass in the Southern Alps.

And here are some pics from the car on our drive to what is often described as the most beautiful place in NZ, Queenstown.

Yes, these pictures were taken by me. I may have stretched the truth earlier when I indicated that I did the lion’s share of the driving. To be fair, I actually only drove twice on the entire journey throughout NZ with the aggregate time behind the wheel over the course of 5 weeks totaling something in the ballpark of maybe 4 hours.

It’s not that I didn’t want to help with the driving, it’s more a product of Raj insisting that he drive. I’m sure it had nothing to do with me flying into the unstable shoulder atop a sharp and curvy cliff on more than one occasion or me subsequently driving like a grandmother to avoid further mishaps.  Nah.  Oh and as for my navigation skills, I think I would have to give them a NI (needs improvement).  That was an actual grade in elementary school, btdubs. 

In any event, check out the stunning scenery as we made our way to Queenstown.

This picture makes me think of the following movie quote:

Max and Jinx…friends for-ever. 

Do you know what movie that’s from? Yes, quoting it makes me kind of a loser, but whatevs. It’s Space Camp and since I know what you are thinking, yes, I’ve eaten astronaut ice cream and I promise it’s been a long time since I wore a diaper and drove cross country with a knife and garbage bag in my trunk. Really…

Well, folks, on that note, I’m going to let you run.

I leave you with the following 5 words: crampons, chisels, and iceberg graveyard.

So, basically. if you are fanatical about ice, then you are going to LOVE the next post.