South Island
Since I fell so far behind on our travel timeline, I’m going to do a little reset, and group some of our different experiences into their own entries. We have been home for about a week now, and as we reflect on our trip, what had the biggest impact on us in our nine week journey was the different forests we explored.
Probably the most enjoyable, restorative, and interesting aspect of New Zealand were what Barb and I started to refer to as our “forest walks.” Wandering around in the ancient forests was guaranteed to put us at peace. It may surprise you that we would ever feel any stress during nine weeks of travel, but no matter how much Barb would get on my nerves, a quick stroll into the dense, ancient forests, would give me the strength I needed to endure 🙂
Our first stop on our trip was the Banks Peninsula, which seems to be overlooked by travelers to the South Island. Most people make a beeline for Queenstown, or, if they fly into Christchurch, they seem to head over Arthur’s Pass, or straight to Wanaka. Barb was intrigued by the French settlement that failed to take hold in Akaroa. It was relatively close to Christchurch, so we thought it would be a great place for us to start our trip. Refer to my earlier posts about driving for the first time in New Zealand before you make the choice to undertake a drive up, over, and through a dormant volcano.
On the way to our first nights camp in Pigeons’ Bay, we spied a small trail on the side of the road. The next morning, when we were on our way out, we decided to check it out. It turned out to be the Hay Scenic Reserve. You’re really never sure what you’ll find when you head into the woods, turns out, the Hay Scenic Reserve is a fairly small chunk of land, 15 acres, that was preserved from logging by the Hay family for 100 years before it was gifted to the government of New Zealand. They weren’t a perfect family, they did clear most of the valley for grazing, but we are grateful that they preserved some of the old forest from getting harvested. It was our first introduction to the podocarps of New Zealand, and the first place that we started to get a real feel for the forests in New Zealand. It is home to one of the last remaining Miro Trees on the peninsula, which we didn’t know to look for until reading the Wikipedia page.
I do carry binoculars around most of the time while I pretend to be “birding,” but I’m pretty lazy, and get pretty frustrated trying to identify all the little, fast, grayish, brownish birds. I like to focus most of my birding time on bigger, slower, and more colorful birds. Our little walk we were delighted almost immediately by the New Zealand Fantail. With its big tail, it can really preform some arial acrobatics, and is practically able to hover. I was quite frustrated at first trying to get a closer look at it, but they soon came very close to us, and seemed to be checking us out. We learned later, that when one walks through the woods, we stir up insects which the fantails are more than happy to swoop in and eat. There weren’t any other people around, so we were creating quite the smorgasbord for the little buggers. We quickly became familiar with the Bellbirds, which are everywhere, and simply fill every space with its pretty and highly variable song. In our little walk, the reserve is only 15 acres, we also ran into the New Zealand pigeon. They sound just like a regular pigeon, but unlike the pigeon you are used to seeing, they are quite large and colorful. White chests, with green and bronze feathers covering the top half and its wings.
If you like birds, on the drive over from Christchurch, we saw Great Crested Grebes, and Black Swans. At our camp, we had White Faced Herons, South Island Oyster Catchers and, Variable Oyster Catchers. Nice, big, easy to identify birds. My favorite.
At this point, we were still unaware just how special the forests were. After Akaroa, our drive took us to Peel Forest. It was almost chosen randomly on the map based on having showers, and being about the distance we wanted to travel that day. Peel Forest is another scenic reserve that was saved from logging. Unlike the little Hay Reserves and its’ 15 acres, the Peel covers 1900 acres. It also had the handy feature of putting plaques on its, large, 1000 year old trees. We quickly became experts in telling the difference between Totara and a Kahikatea trees. The Peel also has unique undergrowth not seen in other forests. I learned that from Wikipedia after the fact as well.
Leaving there, and traveling to Mt Cook, Wanaka, Arrowtown, and Queenstown there was plenty of scenery, but they were lacking in the “forest walk” department. It’s more shrubby, and has more of an alpine feel. In the case of Arrowtown, it is faced with “wilding pines,” invasive pines which have choked out most of the native ecosystem. In Wanaka, I did force Barb to make a quick stop to see “That Wanaka Tree,” but do to low water levels, and the line to get a photo with it, it was pretty disappointing. Wanaka is a great place to visit if you are looking to see some of the most photographed places in NZ. We were very glad to experience some places that were off the beaten path before venturing into these areas.
We did get to explore some of the forests in the Fjordlands, and it was home to Barb’s favorite all time hike up to Lake Marian. The forest is predominately made up of several varieties of beech tree. Hiking amongst the fjords is steep. The fjords themselves are primarily granite that you wouldn’t think could support much in the way of greenery. With the immense rainfall the area receives, moss starts to grow first on the rock, followed by ferns and other undergrowth. Huge totaro, rimu, miro, and beech take hold in the accumulating hummus and clings to every nook and cranny it can find. It’s incredible that a forest can hold onto such steep faces with only a few inches of hummus. Wind events, earthquakes, or large rainfalls can dislodge huge swaths of the forests in what I learned was called a tree avalanche.
Surprisingly, Barb’s favorite trail featured lots of crazy areas that were super steep, but featured great handholds from the many roots.
Our trip to the west coast had us taking a trip up to Kahurangi National Park, we thought we would mostly be looking at caves, but since it is the second largest national park in New Zealand, it is a pretty good place to touch bark.
Further up the west coast, still a ton of beech trees, but we started to encounter the Nikau Palm trees on our walks.
Our trip to Totoranui, was focused mostly on beaches and water, but there were hikes to be had as well.
Milford Sound, super pretty, but it’s mostly been logged.
Phew, I bit off more than I could chew. The North Island is a bit more exciting with it’s Kauri Trees. I’ll get to work on that next!
Barb and Jay (Mostly Jay)
