More NZ sightseeing

[Ianab]

Went out for a drive around some of the local back roads today, just to check out the sights.
As you know - "no pics, didn't happen", so here are the pics  ;)

This is the view of the forest around the Whangamomona saddle. Some people consider this the middle of nowhere (it's official name is the "Forgotten Highway")


This is one of the tunnels on the road.


It's even named.


Then we turned off the main road and took to the lesser used trails. It's a 20 min walk across a farm and thru some bush to this waterfall. It drops 74m straight down.


The view down the valley from the falls.


The track thru the bush, all treeferns in this spot.


Closeup of a treefern beside the track.


Fungus growing on a dead kamahi tree.


A nice rimu tree beside the track. It's about 4ft dbh and 50ft to the first branch.


Some of the roads we were driving on, although this is one of the better spots, a couple of miles were first and 2nd gear stuff.


The view from the road in the last shot. This is one of the locations that the movie The Last Samuari was filmed at.



Hope you enjoyed the tour.

Ian 

[Bill]

Cool -

How close/far are you from any cities/towns ? ( I didn't notice any other travellers let alone a stop sign )

[JimBuis]

My wife and I had a beautiful vacation on the South Island of NZ in 1999.  Unfortunately we only travelled the South Island.  I must say though that New Zealand has some of the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen in my life.  If I were a single guy without many ties, it would not take anything at all to persuade me to move there.  The land of the long white cloud is a wonderful place.  I took hundreds of photos.

Since the proof is in the photo, try this one.


Jim

[sawguy21]

Jim, that looks much like our north coast, especially the clouds.That is incredibly thick undergrowth in Ianab's shots. Wow. Beautiful country.

[SwampDonkey]

Looks like Eden to me Ian. 

Jim if you want clouds, mist, rainforest and mountains, go to the Charlottes (The Misty Isles), land of the Haida Gwai. 

[Ianab]

Cool -

How close/far are you from any cities/towns ? ( I didn't notice any other travellers let alone a stop sign )

I think it was about 100km (60miles) out to the waterfall. We did a big loop around the back roads, about 250km and arrived back home. So it's not really remote as such, just off the beaten tracks  ;) We did meet 2 other cars, a couple of quad bikes and a tractor. Main traffic hazard was sheep, cattle, wild goats and turkeys.

Jim, Thats NZ's most famous tourist spot I think  ;) Milford Sound down in the South Island, but it's an amazing place. That little hill in the middle of the picture is Mitre Peak, it rises about 4,000 ft straight out of the sea. The tour boats stop at the bottom about 50ft from the cliff and you just look straight up it, and the Capt tells you  the water is still 1000 ft deep under the boat! Any place with a 1900 ft waterfall has to be pretty impressive.

Cheers

Ian

[JimBuis]

Ianab,
You are exactly right.  I took this shot then we drove on around a couple of more twists and turns in the road, parked our car, then we took the boat tour of the Sound to which you are referring.  Here are some more Milford Sound shots.

Milford Sound parking lot


Milford Sound tour boat.  This was a good sized boat that holds about 100 people.


Milford Sound waterfalls from about a mile away.  The falls are the white line at bottom center.


The falls from up close.  Their size is deceiving until you realize that the trees at the top are about 100 feet tall.

I hope to return there one day, but if I don't make it there I will still never forget it.

Jim

[SwampDonkey]

On Porcher Island, there was a lake up in the top of the mountains and a falls coming out of it similar to Jim's picture, dropping into the ocean. Someone told me there were fish up there, didn't know how they could get up there unless some bird had a nest near the lake and dropped the fish. But, seems far fetched. But, in Goat Harbour there was a 100 foot falls and above that their where trout in the stream. I don't know how they got up there, the falls is a verticle drop. Nature's mysteries.

[Tom]

You live in a beautiful place, Ian.

[Ianab]

Another weekend, another walk 

This one is along the coast of North Taranaki, the whole walk is signposted as 4 1/2 hours, all up and down hills. We never intended to do it all, but did manage the first hour, all uphill. After that the troops sat down for a rest.  :D


From this point the track went downhill, but as we had to retrace our path we decided we had had enough. This is the view out over the next part of the track.



The view from part way up the track looking down on the beach / cliffs.



Down on the beach, next time we are going to pick our time better and take the easy path along the beach, high tide today = need to swim.



Lil checks out a seacave in the cliffs.



Cheers

Ian

[sawguy21]

Great pictures. I find the flat pasture right up to the vertical cliff intriguing. The stairs crossing the fence are a neat idea.

[wesdor]

Like others said earlier, you live in one of the most beautiful places on earth.  I was able to spend a few days on the south island in 1986 while on a business trip.  The trip included 2 nights and three days on a sheep ranch not far from Mt. Cook (Omarama sp?).  We also drove to Dunedin and then back to the ranch. It was early August and the weather was clear but very cold. 

You might enjoy the fact that while waiting in the airport in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a local asked us where we were going.  When we told him Australia and New Zealand, including Christchurch, he shook his head and just whistled.  He came back a few minutes later and asked if we were missionaries.  When I asked why he would wonder that, he said, "well, you are going to Christchurch".  We got a big laugh out of that.  When we boarded the plane in Los Angeles the third person in our row was a Micro Biologist from Canterburry University in Christchurch.  He got quite a laugh out of the question we had been asked.

As Jim said in an earlier post, if I didn't have so many connections here at home, I would move to New Zealand if they would have me.

[Den Socling]

We have been kicking around the idea of a 'winter' home in NZ. The question is 'where'? Christchurch sure is nice. Napier is unique and beautiful. Auckland has everything. or one of the small towns??? We can rule out Wellington - on the fault line - Pacific ring of fire fame. We can rule out Rotorua - too stinky.  :D That's from geysers and bubbling mud belching hydrogen sulfide.

[Den Socling]

Yo Ian,

I thought you would jump in with pros and cons. Too much traffic in Auckland? Too cold in winter in Christchurch?  ???

Den

[Tom]

Your kidding!   They actually have a Roto Rooter in NZ.   :D

[Ianab]

I thought you would jump in with pros and cons. Too much traffic in Auckland? Too cold in winter in Christchurch?

I think you have the general idea... no one goes to Auckland for a holiday :D
Well unless living in the rat race is your idea of fun.
One of the regional towns would probably suit ya better, take your pick of fault lines / volcanoes / a climate the same as Scotland (complete with bagpipes  ) .

I think you just need to spend a bit more time on the road around NZ, hire a campervan and spend a couple of weeks wandering around. HUGE difference in house prices between the 'fashionable' places and some of the smaller centres, so some bargins can be had if you get off the beaten tourist trails.

Ian

[Den Socling]

Hi Ian,

I found this bagpiper in Christcurch.



Don't know what he was doing there besides buzzing, squeeking or otherwise bagpipin'.  :D

For those who don't know, a campervan is a motorhome. And a car park is a parking lot. And a panelbeater is a bodyshop. It's strange talking to people down there.  :D

And, Ian, I know I have to get out into the country. I will rent a car next time. But in Christchurch, I kept looking at cars and trucks zipping through those roundabouts and thought about the disaster I could cause behind a wheel on the wrong side.  It took us more than a week just to get used to looking the 'wrong' direction before crossing a street. 

Den

[estiers]

I also have had the priveledge of travelling NZ.  Back in January 2000, travelled the north island by car.  Very different driving on the pther side of the road.  The biggest problem I had was that my brain thought everything in the car should be mirrored, since I was sitting on the other side to drive.  This caused many problems as I often tried to get moving only to realize that I had the car in 5th gear!!  I also turned my wipers on alot when my aim was to turn on my blinker.  ;D  Twas a really beautiful place. I got no pics for you though due to the fact that I have no scanner and they are all taken the old fashioned way.  The most interesting place we visited was a Maori village that has hot springs as the crust of the earth is only a few feet thick there.  Dont remember the town, but thought it was fascinating.  Hope I get to go back and experience the south island one day.  The people there are really great too.

[Ianab]

The most interesting place we visited was a Maori village that has hot springs as the crust of the earth is only a few feet thick there.  Dont remember the town, but thought it was fascinating.

That would be Rotorua, home of the Peterson folks. There seems to be a boiling mud pool or a hot spring on every 2nd street corner there  :D
South Island is most definately worth a visit, totally different scenery again, and the mountains are amazing.

Cheers

Ian

[Ianab]

Starting to become a habit here.
Another weekend, another walk.
This place is about 10mins drive from home, and I'd never been there  :-[
It's about a 2 hour walk around the lower slopes of Mt Egmont.
This is the remains of an old quarry / stone crusher built there about 100 years ago. Stone was then carried by rail to New Plymouth and used for extensions to the port and roads there.





The track then heads off up the old railway and water race path.
Over this stream.





This old sluice gate aand valve were part of the controlls that directed water down a race / pipes to the water powered crusher. This was abandoned in the 1920s and has been sitting here in the bush since.





Then the track heads into the forest, past this big Rata vine.



And on up the old railway path, now a small stream, and over a swing bridge where there once was a railway line.





The track back down runs thru original forest with a lot more 'old growth' trees.
This is a large Rimu.



Lil checks out a Rata (left) and Rimu (right), and gets into a bit of tree hugging  ;)





This is a entrant for the gnarliest tree around  :D



Final pic of the Mt from home, getting toward sunset and the high cloud is moving in, weather not looking so good for tomorrow, but you cant have rainforest without a bit of rain.   :




Cheers

Ian