Gourmet (ahem...) road tripping

Having completed the Milford track in the far south, we then only had 2 days to drive the length of the island to catch the ferry north.
These days were spent driving with a few planned stops (incl. Dunedin), and a few unplanned ones (incl. Evansdale).
Setting off early from a campsite near Gore we were treated to a beautiful sunrise:

The next few hours were spent singing along to Flanders and Swann (somehow makes great breakfast listening) as we drove to Dunedin.
First stop was the Cadbury Chocolate factory.

In true Disney style we were met by a chap in purple dungarees who took us on a quick tour through the cocoa scented halls where we were given liquid chocolate to taste and a bag of goodies.
We then picked up a chocolate coffee in the cafe before continuing the drive north

As we drove we saw a little sign for a cheese factory which seemed worth a stop. After ringing the bell and waiting a while a chap called Les arrived to give us some cheese to taste. Turns out Evansdale make some really yummy bries (amongst others). We left with a wedge of the manuka smoked.

By lunchtime we'd made it to Moeraki where we saw the famous boulders and shared a blue cod burger at the Tavern.

We then had a fruitless search for some yellow eyed penguins before continuing up state highway 1 (sidebar: NZs biggest road state highway 1 is like driving along a scenic country A road in England, so the driving itself is not too onerous due to the lovely views).
By afternoon we'd hit Oamaru, a quaint little Victorian town where we had a wander through town and along the pier to see some blue penguins.

As it was a Sunday we'd unfortunately missed the Whisky tasting!
We spent the night in a lovely little campsite ~20kms north of Oamaru where they gave us fresh veggies from their garden! Only a snack dinner was needed given the large lunch and chocolate intake of the day.
The next morning was a long slog to Christchurch where we had lunch in beers and burgers and I can confirm, they have the best fish burgers on the South Island, and I know as I've eaten loads of them!
A few bits of admin in Christchurch then a long drive to Kaikoura where we picked up another yummy iced coffee- remember, the fantastic one I told you about 4 weeks ago from the why not cafe? Definitely worth repeating.
Yet more driving to get to a DOC campsite near enough for the 07.00 check in for the ferry at Picton. The burger and the coffee were enough calories to mean only an apple was needed for dinner!
Not sure how many calories have been consumed in the last few days (and don't want to), I do know how many calories have been expended sat in the car/driving (zero), and it doesn't take a maths genius to do that sum...but woke up this morning still full! Eek, diet starts today.

Something interesting

Or not if you're sober/ busy
We've noticed that all houses we see are bungalows.
When you think about it perhaps it is not that surprising. In a country with so much space and not many people, why build upwards?

Milford

The Milford Road
In the few days between running the Kepler track and walking the Milford track we decided to drive up the scenic Milford road.
With the Lord of the Rings sound track playing we set off along the road that was as scenic as it promised to be. We saw (in no particular order):
Mirror lake (shown here at about 08.00 in the morning when there had been ice on the bikes when we got up)

A chasm carved by the river:

Some craggy peaks and a great ridge (can't see it without wanting to be on it):

Milford sound itself bathed in sunlight (rare I'm told):

The Milford Track
The Milford track is probably the most famous of NZs great walks, which becomes apparent when you try and book the huts to stay in - we booked in September and the first date available was the end of March! You get dropped by boat and spend 3 nights on the track in wilderness huts before being picked up by boat at the other end. Having learnt lessons from our trek in Chile we packed light (except for the 1.5kg of sausage cassoulet we had made the night before which was supposed to only be for the first night but, as always Sam got a little over excited on the portions). So light in fact, we kept thinking we'd forgotten something. The good thing about great walk huts (which mean you carry less) is they have bunk rooms with mattresses (no tent or Thermarest required) and kitchens with gas (no stove required, only cooking utensils and food). Despite having light packs we decided against taking a bottle of Pinot Noir (probably a good excuse for a detox).
We set off from Lake Te Anau at lunchtime on a boat which drops you at the mouth of the Clinton river and is in itself a nice trip

A short 1.5 hr walk from the drop off takes you through some nice forest, over a good swing bridge and up to the first night stay at Clinton hut

Which is beautifully located so you can take a quick (cold) dip in the river (whilst trying to avoid being eaten alive by Sandflys):

40 people a night are allowed at each hut so essentially you see the same people each day along the track and in the hut. We met some lovely Kiwi dairy farmers and some hilarious Aussie firemen, among others. At 5ish the hut ranger took us on a little walk and we chewed on some local leaves (very peppery), he taught us about other local flora, and he pointed out a glow worm cave which we visited again after dark.
Day 2 was a pleasant 5 or so hours up the valley to Mintaro hut, nothing particularly difficult. Along the way we pased a crystal clear 'hidden lake':

Day 3 from Mintaro over the pass to Dumpling hut is the jewel of this walk. The day started with a climb on some gentle switch backs up to ~ 1000m. The mist was rolling over the pass

As we emerged onto the pass it was covered in mist largely obscuring the memorial to the chap who'd discovered the route:

As we stood at the top in the wind, the mist blew away to reveal spectacular peaks with the valley still blanketed in cloud:

The clouds themselves were quite striking too:

Sam had been worried she'd been getting scenery fatigue given everywhere we've been has been spectacular, but views like this still take your breath away.
The other side of the pass was now cloud free with a lush jungle like covering:

If the view wasn't enough to make you smile they've built a hut with gas supply so you can have a cuppa at the top!

High on the views and whistling the 'Concerning Hobbits' tune, we started the descent on the other side. A series of boards and steps take you down next to the river which had some lovely little falls:

At the bottom we stopped for lunch before taking a side trip to the tall Sunderland falls. Unfortunately the top third of the falls were shrouded in mist but the remaining section was still thundering and worth a few minutes stop.
There followed some experimenting with shutter speeds, the results of which I'll share with you below.
The bottom two thirds of the falls:

With willing (and now quite damp) volunteer so you can get an idea of scale, this shows the bottom third only:

Splashing onto the rocks at the bottom:

Ghostly glow of the rocks through the spray:

Very quick shutter speed to capture the droplets:

A couple of hours more on the flat to Dumpling hut for the night.
Day 4 was a longish flat walk down the valley to catch a boat out at Milford Sound.
I don't know the difference between a forest and a jungle but this forest definitely looked like jungle....

The red beech trees were the only thing that stood out amongst the endless green (kept this way by an average 10m of rainfall annually!!)

5 hours later we arrived at Sandfly point (aptly named)

and hid in a hut until the boat arrived to pick us up for the short hop across the sound. Compared to our visit a few days previously a mist hung over the sound giving it an altogether different feel.

Compared to the Kepler our legs weren't even tired, but the views on this track had to be some of the most spectacular thanks to the mist.
Sidebar: Sam is not a huge fan of the wilderness huts, although can see the benefit in the wet/winter and to make these walks accessible to all. Whilst they are largely well designed you can be guaranteed that there is/are:
- a million Sandflys
- a snorer in your bunk room
- someone who thinks it is necessary/appropriate to get up at 05.30 and crash and clatter through the room. (On the last day everybody seemed so worried about missing the boat that they got up in the dark and rain, made huge amounts of noise, then left. When we got up at 07.30 it was light, it had stopped raining, we had the gas hob to ourselves, the track to ourselves and we made it to sandfly point with 20 minutes to spare, thereby not having to huddle in the hut for hours to avoid being eaten alive by these pesky blighters.)

Mosquitoes 3

Remember my ramblings about Mosquitoes? Well, it transpires that the Maori have a similar theory about sand flys....

The Kepler Challenge - part 2

We decided to run the Kepler great walk.
It is 60 km with big (c.4,500ft) hills, making it our biggest NZ running challenge yet. Looking at the profile and great walk information we thought this could be an 11hr trip....I, for one was a little nervous.

In order to break up the long flattish end section we started from rainbow reach car park at 07.30 (a mere 15 minutes behind schedule - which was a record).
The first few hours were a gentle undulating run through the dark forest as the mists cleared from the nearby lake:

Then followed a steep ascent until we popped out above the tree line and found the Luxmore hut (night one stop if you're walking) and our sticky bun stop, marking hour three of our schedule. (Sidebar: we've discovered Chelsea buns, late in life for such a discovery, but they are the food of champions). There were fantastic views:

The next few hours were undulating along the ridge line and this was the highlight of the track (we both love ridge running!):

The tops were tussocky and rocky, but on the other side were lush green valleys:

Here we encountered the line of folk who had started the morning at Luxmore hut.

A quick chat with a DoC ranger before the steep descent to the iris burn hut (night 2 stop if you're walking) at about hour 6.
We felt fine through that point, except for an attack by sandflys at the nearby campsite where we'd stopped to fill up water.
Somehow getting onto more flat terrain caused our legs to seize. What followed was a long and painful, gently undulating run down the valley. You can tell how painful by the look on Alistairs face when Sam asked him to stop and pose for a photo!

The scenery was still lovely and in stark contrast to the open ridge:

If the crippling knee pain was not enough, Sam thought she'd add some more sore bits by tripping on a root and hurling herself down the track (no photos of that unfortunately, figured it would list in the 'bad husband' category). Once we'd brushed off as much mud as would come off and descerned surface wounds only, we continued the painful slog to the finish at 9.5hrs, a good bit ahead of schedule (sidebar: you probably think we are a little/lot insane for subjecting ourselves to this - but there are madder people who can somehow complete this in just 4 1/2 hours!).
Through happy coincidence the campsite for the night was the only one so far where hot water was free and not restricted to 5 minites, so after a long hot soak, dinner was:

Followed by a long nights sleep.
It's a scientifically proven fact that the best way to follow a day in the hills is brunch:

Mmmmmmm....

The Kepler Challenge - part 1

Ouch - My legs hurt....that's all I can manage right now, more later....

The Otago Central Rail Trail - more than just a bike ride.

Back in the 1860s they found gold in them thar hills......'them thar' being the hills and plains of central Otago. That brought with it the creation of a railway line which traversed the otherwise sparsely populated region. When the gold was gone, and with the increasing popularity of motor vehicles the railway closed in 1990. The department of conservation took control of the line in '93 and removed the line but resurfaced the track making it rideable. It is now 151km of cycle friendly terrain from Clyde to Middlemarch that takes you through some teeny tiny settlements and a journey through history.
So it was that we parked up Gertrude in Clyde and started the cycle (with four days of clothes and 1 day of food on our backs with the aim of purchasing more along the way)

Having not got very far Alistair decided on a diversion to do some single track biking up the Poolburn Gorge walkway which was covered in wild thyme, the smell of which made Sam hungry (whilst we can cook lots on two burners we can't quite stretch to thyme roasted veggies). We then found what looked like a bmx track in the hillside which we played on for a while before continuing the cycle along the rail trail. A lovely old station we found intact was Galloway:

 

Along the way are information stops inside old gangers sheds. Gangers were the folk employed to keep the line free from obstruction (informative this cycle as well as pretty and good exercise!)

Further along the trail we found some clumps of apple trees that had apparently grown from people throwing cores out of the carriages (I've always wondered whether that would happen.....), and it would have been rude not to pick a few....

Nearby to the camp site we were staying in the evening (in cute little huts as we didn't have any panniers in which to carry a tent) we passed through historic Ophir:

Before a quick bite of fish and chips and a sneaky drink in the local in Omakau, followed by a dark (we forgot torches) cycle back to the campsite.
Day two was sunny and consisted of:
- tunnels (~200m and tricky without a torch)

- passing the 45th parallel (being half way between the equator and the South Pole) twice. Which is apparently the same latitude as Bordeaux and Alsace.

- A visit to the old progress mine:

- A lunch stop (pie) from the general store in Oterahua (population 23!!!!).
- And a detour off the trail mid afternoon for a little town called Naseby which advertises itself as 2000ft above worry level.
We were the only people in the Royal Naseby Hotel....(not surprising given the size of the local populous I guess).
One reason for cycling the extra 14km to Naseby was that in the evening we went curling in an indoor curling rink (yep it's ~25 celcious outside and frozen inside) which was great fun.

Back at the hotel my entire plate at dinner was deep fried (they even deep fry crab sticks?!?!) which again is perhaps not surprising given visitors seemed few and far between.
Day 3. The second reason for going to Naseby was the local forest offered some great mountain biking. So before setting off on the day's 48km of rail trail we went biking on the single track. This was fun, if a little muddy after the overnight showers, but true to form the NZ sun was out again giving us great weather to cycle in.
Back on the trail we passed:
- More remnants of the railway

- And more beautiful scenery

Until it got so hot we had to stop for a dip in the river

Which turned out to be quite fast flowing...
Dinner and sleeping were at the Central Otago Hotel in Hyde which is the only place in the area so was full (~20) of people cycling the trail. This hotel was great and they fed us with more salad and veg than we'd seen in days (which Sam was very grateful for) and roast beef for those who partake (which Alistair was very grateful for).

Day 4 was an easy downhill 30km to the end of the trail at Middlemarch. Here, with slightly tired legs we had a yummy lunch before being split up into different buses (each only had 1 space) for the trip back to the start, all the more knowledgable about the history of the area.