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New Zealand 2019

February - March 2019
To celebrate Diane's retirement from the Lab, we are taking a 5-week trip to New Zealand. We'll bike, hike and kayak via tours and on our own through two World Heritage sites, several national parks and Hobbit-land. Hope you enjoy sharing our trip! Read more
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  • New Zealand 2019
    Day 1

    Arriving in Christchurch

    February 2, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 66 °F

    As we flew into Christchurch from our overnight layover in Auckland, we could see the rugged coastline and the distant Southern Alps, giving us tantalizing glimpses of sights we will see later in our travels. For the next few days, we are in the city of Christchurch on the South Island.

    Walking around the city, we were struck by how much the architecture and trees and gardens are similar to California. There are the turn-of-the century clapboard homes, or else newer large-glass window houses like you might find in affluent coastal communities. Similar to California as it may have appeared to us, Christchurch was modeled on an English city, complete with it's own river Avon, bordered by weeping willow trees and punters taking tourists out.

    We spent our first half-day walking through the botanical gardens and visiting the Canterbury Museum -- a treasure trove of displays about New Zealand's cultural and natural heritage.    Read more

  • New Zealand 2019
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    Day 2

    Particle Physics and Maori culture

    February 3, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 70 °F

    Today was a visit to “Rutherford’s Den” at Canterbury College, site of the gold foil scattering experiment by Ernest Rutherford in the early 1900s. These experiments led to our modern understanding of the structure of the atom with a dense nucleus. Rutherford attained a professorship at age 27 and won the Nobel prize at age 37.

    We spent a little more time walking around the city and admiring the public art, stopping at an outdoor public market for lunch. The weather has been perfect—sunny and in the low 70s.

    In the evening, we went to a Maori cultural center, which demonstrated village life and dances. We also enjoyed a Hāngi meal, traditionally cooked using heated rocks in a pit oven (think luau).    Read more

  • New Zealand 2019
    Day 3

    Architecture and the Antarctic

    February 4, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 82 °F

    We started the day on a walking tour of central Christchurch with Gordon, a retired architect, who talked about how the city responded to the devastating magnitude 7.1 earthquake in 2011. Most of the downtown buildings and surrounding homes suffered severe damage, which the city is still recovering from. Large open spaces, which appear to be nice grassy parks, are places where homes have been scraped away, and gravel parking lots abound where commercial buildings once stood.

    In the afternoon, we headed to the International Antarctic Centre, home to the joint Antarctic research programs of New Zealand, United States and Italy. It's a great museum, which chronicles the exploration and discoveries on Antarctica. We got a taste of what the Hägglund transport is like on the rough terrain (bumpy!), and watched penguins being fed and playing in the water. These are "Little Blue penguins," which have been injured and are unable to survive in the wild.

    Tomorrow we are off on our biking adventure!    Read more

  • New Zealand 2019
    Day 4

    Alpine Crossing

    February 5, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 64 °F

    Today is our first day on our Backroads tour. We met the 20 other travelers at the train station in Christchurch, then boarded the TranzAlpine train (note the ‘NZ’ they like to slip in whenever they can). We disembarked about 20 miles from the west coast and biked through constant rain for 20 miles. We rode through verdant farmland but didn’t stop for photos. Our hotel at the Arthur’s Pass National Park provided free dryers — whew! It took some work to get the water out of the shoes though.

    The others on the tour are mostly pretty avid bicyclists, but they are all friendly and well-traveled, and interesting to talk with.

    Shuttling up to the lodge after our ride, we were treated with some sunshine and a rainbow. A good omen for our next day!    Read more

  • New Zealand 2019
    Day 5

    Sunshine Ride to the Tasman Sea

    February 6, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 64 °F

    Today we shuttled from our hotel to the ride starting point, about an hour. We got to drive past what we couldn't see while biking in the rain yesterday -- green pastures, cows and the Southern Alps in the distance. The 17 mile ride, in comfortably warm sunshine (about 65 degrees), was on lightly trafficked valley roads.

    At one point, we rode past a couple of good Samaritans picking up the tire tread left on the road by a passing truck, but what we first noticed was the grouping of cows, all watching the action on the other side of the fence.

    The bike ride took us to our lunch spot, where we had a pub-style lunch at Speight's Ale House. (Speight's brewery has a 150-year history in New Zealand.) After lunch, there was a choice of riding back in the shuttle, or biking on another 12 miles. We decided to go back in the van so we could spend more time on the seaside. The little town of Hokitika is an old gold-rush town, which boomed faster than San Francisco and Melbourne combined, according to one of the informative signs along the esplanade. We were delighted to run across a beach full of driftwood sculptures -- many representing Maori symbols. The sea is rough and there have been many shipwrecks over the years. Still, we did venture to put our feet in the water -- cold!

    We wrapped up with a delicious dinner at a working farm, enjoying wine and appetizers on the terrace among the pastures and alpacas.    Read more

  • New Zealand 2019
    Day 6

    Pastureland Cycling to the Rainforest

    February 7, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 54 °F

    After breakfast, we set off on a 28-mile moderately hilly ride through three different scenic reserves--dense forest and tree ferns, with mountain vistas and glacier-fed rivers. The forests gave way to open dairy farmland for the last third of our ride. We've still seen more cows than sheep here in New Zealand.

    Lunch was at the Pukeko tearoom in Hari Hari. We'd call it more of a cafe with delicious hot and cold lunch choices than a tea room. Diane's sourdough toastie was like a pizza on bread, that turned out to also have spaghetti underneath the roasted veggies -- delicious after a 28 mile hilly ride.

    After lunch, five of the men in the group decided to tackle Mt. Hercules -- adding another 20 miles and 1,000 foot climb to the day. The rest of us rode in the van and cheered them on as we drove by.

    We have two nights at the Te Waonui Forest Retreat -- a 5-star hotel and spa nestled in the rainforest with views of the Franz Josef glacier. Upon arrival in our sweaty biking gear, we were greeted with warm moist towels and flutes of refreshing kiwi juice at reception. They are very used to receiving outdoor adventure groups. Our dinner with the group was on the "Frond Terrace" of the restaurant — semi-enclosed seating among the ferns. After dinner, we explored the town -- both streets.    Read more

  • New Zealand 2019
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    Day 7

    From the Sea to the Ice--and Everest too

    February 8, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 59 °F

    Today offered several options. Some booked massages at the spa, one took a helicopter ride over Franz Josef and Fox glaciers (extra fee)—we get a glacier tour later in our trip. The rest of us took a mostly downhill 17-mile bike ride to the Okarito lagoons at the Tasman Sea. The scenery started out similar to the day before—ferns and forests, with the added treat of glassy smooth Lake Mapouriki and occasional views of the glacier across green valleys After a smoothie at a food truck, some of us took the van back, while others biked back to our hotel.

    Next was a hike to the glacier terminus, or as close as you can get to it today— about 400 yards. Franz Joseph glacier has been advancing and retreating over the years, but as recently as 2009 we could’ve walked right up to it.

    Dinner was on our own in a historic restaurant in town, and after dinner we got a treat! Backroads arranged for Mike Mahoney to talk to us about his 1977 expedition to Mt. Everest. He and seven others were the first Kiwis to attempt the mountain. Without sherpas or oxygen, they got to within about five hours from the summit before they decided to call it. They were the first expedition not to suffer any loss of human life, and certainly the smallest and lowest-budget group to make the attempt at that time. His slides documenting the trip and his passion for the success and safety of the ascent were palpable, over 40 years later!    Read more

  • New Zealand 2019
    Day 8

    Eels, Glow Worms and Avatar

    February 9, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 66 °F

    Leaving Franz Josef, we continued south along the west coast, pedaling 39 miles on a fairly level road, passing dairy farms with dramatic views of the mountains all around us. The threatening weather only brought a brief sprinkle on us. Later in the ride we came to more dense rainforest terrain, arriving at a salmon farm for lunch.

    Back in the van we drove about 40 minutes to Wilderness Lodge Lake Moeraki. Our lodge hosts -- Anne Saunders and Gerry McSweeney -- were instrumental in preserving these ancient forest surroundings from development, eventually earning it UNESCO World Heritage status. Soon after arrival, we joined a guided walk through the rainforest of 1000-year-old Rimu trees, tree ferns, silver beech and others native to the west coast of the south island. James Cameron liked one of these trees so much he had it digitized for the movie, Avatar.

    Our hosts encouraged us to pet the longfin eels, which they attracted near the shore by pouring blood into the water (from raw meat). We met 'Margaret,' who is about 5 feet long, and estimated to be over 50 years old. These eels can live to be over 100 and weigh more than 50 pounds. They are kind of doughy to the touch, but very slippery!!

    After dark, Gerry walked us down the road to view thousands of glow-worms in the steep hillside along the road. Glow-worms are the larvae of any of four types of beetles--among them, the firefly. They are 1-2 centimeters long and only the width of 2 human hairs, growing to 5 hairs before they form a cocoon in preparation for their 2 days as adults before they mate, lay eggs and die. Gerry is quite a character, and very knowledgeable -- it was a magical evening!    Read more

  • New Zealand 2019
    Day 9

    Grab a Paddle, Reach for the Stars!

    February 10, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 64 °F

    Today was a day out of the bike saddles -- even the die-hard riders opted to enjoy the on-foot and on-water activities offered by the Lake Moeraki Wilderness Lodge. In the morning, three of us went with Backroads guide Laura on a leisurely hike through the podocarp forest to the sea. Podocarps are a type of conifer whose cones have modified over time to be more like berries. The berries are attractive to birds, which help to spread the seeds. Some say podocarps are from the time when New Zealand was part of the giant continent of Gondwana, over 85 million years ago. We heard several different bird calls, and spotted a few. The New Zealand fantail was probably the most impressive.

    On the beach, we hunted for jade stones. New Zealand doesn't have jadeite, the stone we usually associate with jade, but they do have two other mineral forms of jade, or Pounamu (Maori name), also just called 'greenstone.' Gerry had given a presentation on jade the night before, and said he might find one piece a day, so we weren't too hopeful. Darryl may have found one, and there are plenty of green rocks to be found, which are generally serpentine.

    In the afternoon, we did a combination hike and kayak. One of the lodge biologist guides took us through the forest, where we crossed a stream on a cable bridge (like Cazadero, Erin & Ryan!), showed us the eels again, then set us up with kayaks. We paddled maybe for 45 minutes past structures set up for whitebait fishing when they are in season. Whitebait are any of several types of small freshwater fish that are popular on menus in the south island. We haven't had a chance to try it yet.

    Wrapping up the night, we couldn't resist joining Gerry's night walk again to see the glow-worms, and because the night was clear and this time we would be able to take in some serious stargazing. Gerry pointed out the Southern Cross, with its pointers -- Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri. The Milky Way was vast and clear, and we also spotted the constellation of Serius, with the dog star (dog days of summer). We saw 8 satellites and 4 shooting stars. Another great ending to a day in this wild land on the west coast!    Read more

  • New Zealand 2019
    Day 10

    Wind, Waterfalls, Wanaka

    February 11, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 72 °F

    Leaving behind our gracious hosts, Ann and Gerry, we shuttled a half hour down the road to the town of Haast, where we set out on our bikes. One of our solo travelers, Scott, was greeted with a decorated birthday bike by the crew! The ride began inauspiciously, with high winds blowing fine dust across the flat Haast River Plain. Not only did it feel like we were climbing a hill for 2 miles on the flat, our teeth were gritty with dust. Glasses were a must!

    Eventually, we made it into the Mt Aspiring National Park -- a forested area that was more protected from the wind. Still following the aqua-colored river, we were treated to the most spectacular scenery. River and river valley on one side, craggy mountains behind it, lower mountains on our other side, and waterfalls of all sizes and shapes every few kilometers. Only moderate ups and downs on that 28-mile stretch, so very pleasant. The lunch stop at a roadside picnic area was quick, as the sandflies were biting. We jumped in the van for a 30-minute ride over the Haast pass (thank you!), in part because of the 1,850-foot elevation, and also because it would be very hazardous road riding.

    Back on our bikes, we took the last 16 miles up over steeper rolling hills (6-7% grade at times). It was challenging, but the stunning scenery made it so much easier. It was our longest biking day but our favorite day of riding, we think because of the expansive views, and frequent waterfalls. The biking ended just before we could be rewarded with the lovely downhill ahead. We drove the rest of the way because traffic was increasing as we began to enter the lake town of Wanaka.

    Not only is Wanaka always a popular destination in the summer (think Tahoe), but visitors are also arriving for 'Challenge Wanaka' -- New Zealand's largest triathlon festival. Our hotel is on the edge of the lake, about a 25-minute walk from town, so we are out of the fray, but close enough to enjoy it. Dinner at the hotel with our gang was fine dining in a beautiful setting.    Read more

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