1 décembre – 6 décembre – Christchurch

Our first days in NZ are to be spent in Christchurch working on the videos and articles we still need to prepare about our last weeks in Australia. Turns out in such a short time and in such a big country we learned so many things and have been to so many places, we have a lot of great footage and experiences to use ! Anyhow, we still take the chance to go out everyday a little into town. We are in a basic airbnb accomodation which is a little far away from the city center. We take note for future references to include the cost of transportation in and out of the city center when selecting accomodation. Christchurch has a very bizarre atmosphere. Huge earthquakes destroyed major parts of the city in 2010 and 2011. A lot of the areas are still under constructions, others are entirely new, other transformed into temporary art shows or green flat areas and some buildings are still waiting destruction for being so unstable. There are a lot of reminders and memorials about this time. It is bizarre as it is a city quite modern, with brand new shopping malls, still looking like it is trying to survive. We don't see many people in the streets either as if the settling back hadn't happen entirely yet.



7 décembre – 8 décembre – Akaroa


Early morning we arrive at the main bus station in Christchurch, we are happy to get moving again after these studious first days and eager to discover the grand landscapes we heard about New Zealand. And we are served with Akaroa ! The hilly landscape from above looks like a volcano erupted and gigantic lava flows went to sea and froze into place as is and then got covered in beautiful shiny green. The bus driver does the comment and we learn that the first settlers there were French, they arrived hoping to set up a French outpost but the English were already there so they just settled under English leadership. However, the names of the street are French and even the butcher there spoke to us in French. We spend a very nice morning hiking up to get a view and doing off track hiking through the cows field looking for the missing drone that the wind had blown away(thank you GPS inventor!). After more than an hour we are rewarded with the find and hike down to get our bags from the campinground and get back on time for the bus.


9 décembre – Christchurch

Back in Christchurch for a night, we stay in a hostel. We meet Roger, a maori from the Northern Island who is on a slow tour of the Southern Island. He is very kind and offers Tom to send him a lot of information on the Northern Island places. Tom is impressed as he receives the next day a super complete description of all the places we could go to, we are so grateful.


10 décembre – 12 décembre – Tekapo


Tekapo is first and foremost a magnificent lake surrounded by moutainous scenery. The water is crystal clear. We enjoy an icy cold swim and a nice walk on the nearby hights where stars observatories are set up. We set-up camp at the on-shore holiday park and make friends with two Australian girls cycling around (courageous!) and a French guy also on a long term travel with similar views of the world. It makes for a very pleasant dinner together. For the rest Tekapo is a tourist-only village and the people working there are less than agreable to borderline rude sometimes.


On the way to Mont Cook aboard the bus, we cross endless pastures filled with highly densed cattle and others with sheeps. Huge irrigation rigs are set-up over empty fields with flashy light green color. Our bus driver comments passing by that the farms have got so big some farmers cater to them by helicopter ! He also adds that this all used to be desert-type land and it was thoroughly changed with huge irrigation efforts. Later we are told that the cattle is moved every 8h from field to field to limit the damage to the soil and the pollution. Do the farmers have enough land to ensure proper rotation for soil recovery ? Does it change much at the overall pollution impact, what with the gas one alone ? Doesn't change much to the cows well-being anyhow, we reckon, being packed like this is a small field. What about the amount of water used to raise cattle in an area which originally would never have supported it ? Which water supply are they borrowing from ? Does it have an impact on the future ? Probably.


12 décembre – 13 décembre – Mont Cook


We leave the valley planes for the famous Mont Cook. Our bus drops us at the hostel beginning of the afternoon. It's all wooden, ski chalet in winter and moutain hostel in summer, it is very well equipped, there is even a sauna ! As we stay only an afternoon, we are not going up the moutain. Instead, we are walking the valley track to reach the foot of a glacier which drops into a lake where we can see icebergs. Strange atmosphere on this promenade where no one says hello to anyone even when the track is realyl busy. All this just to see a piece of ice floating in the water, not really worth it. Luckily, the sauna session gives us our smile back !

13 décembre – 14 décembre – Queenstown

We get to Queenstown on a late afternoon. The place is packed with shops selling adventure packages, all at the same prices, and with backpackers. The food is expensive and not that good. There is a nice view on the lake at sunset. We think about going mountain bike riding but the prices are quite prohibitive and the next day the weather is pretty rainy anyway so no regrets really. We pick up the car on the next day and leave the beaten paths for the south of the Southern Island.


14 décembre – 15 décembre – Milford Sounds


We arrive at Te Anau, a touristic city and departure points for the adventure into the last 3% of wild native forest areas left in New Zealand (the rest has been « exploited » for cattle mainly). We drive to the Milford Sounds themselves. Impressive waterfalls and glaciers ice. Beautiful scenery.

 

On the way back we pick up a hitchhiker, Pietro. Pietro is italian, has been several times already here in New Zealand for work, he is also an expert rock climber and convinced too that the capitalist economy system has ran its course. He lives without much in a van in Italy, near the Dolomites, happy and simple, a very nice example of a solution to the world's problems at the individual level. We talk about Berlusconi and how he rose to power and his intelligence even when devoided of morals it seems, we talk about the new movement of the five stars which seems to give hope for change in a country still very corrupted by the old mafia ties. Good talks !


The next day we start on a taxi boat to the start of the Kepler track. It is one of the « Great walks » which means it is pretty busy with tourists but also that it is beautiful. We start with a few hours on a gentle slope going steeper and steeper in the forest.

 After 2h-2h30 of forest, we are pretty happy to come out onto open land. The views are pretty limited to the next bushes with the heavy fog surrounding us.

About 45min later we arrive at the hut, about 1h earlier than expected, good time to stop for lunch. Someone outside is watching us through the windows. A Kea ! The only Alpine parrot of the world. And as you can see it is a good mix of a parrot and an eagle though its behaviour resembles more that of a parrot, cute and funny, cocking its head listening to us, interacting. We later meet a guy who tells us they are super intelligent and can even open a zipper if they think there is food in the bag !  

After a quick lunch with our homemade sandwiches, we follow two Polish trekkers who decide to take advantage of the extra time and go up Mont Luxmore before going back down. The fog and clouds play a funny hide and seek game, we can sometimes enjoy a very nice cleared glimpse of the landscape. Having in mind the story of the two poor young Canadians who died under an avalanche, walking our path during snow time, we notice all the unstable rocks laying around.

 

 

Nearing Mont Luxmore summit, we meet some trekkers doing the three day long trek who tell us not to go up into the fog but rather to continue for a few twists in order to get a cleared view down into the valley below. We follow their advice and we are rewarded by an incredible view down on a lake, light shining through, clouds bracing the rocks and framing the cleared area. It is surreal, one of the most beautiful views we have seen so far, up there, with no one around, we breathe wide.  




Tom has contacted several farms in the South, finding them on the local markets' websites. One of them answers. Strawhat Gardens, small scale, set up according the JM Fortier market gardening system. When we pass by, they have only started for three months ! And their first market was the week before ! Incredibly, they are already very productive. We let you discover Jennifer and Mike and their bountiful garden, HERE.

 

 

After this visit and a bag full of vegetables, we leave a big smile on our face. It feels good to take up the farm visits again and the exploration for the Alterculteurs after a week of tourism.


We are stopping in a farm not too far from Slope Point that offers accomodation. We see right away we are in the south of the south and that it is less touristy. There is vacancy first and then it is two times less expensive than the previous areas we have been to. We sleep in a comfortable room close to the sheeps. The kitchen is nice and super well equiped for a change, we are going to enjoy cooking our fresh vegetables there !

 

 

We drive to Waipapa for the sunset. There is a lighthouse there and... fur seals playing in the shallow waters and an enormous sea lion laying lazily on the beach. We spend a little hour watching them. Last to leave the beach, we are looking back at the moment when the biggest of the fur seals comes onto the beach. Impressive !


16 décembre – Curio Bay

At Curio Bay, we are on our way to meet the blue hector dolphins. Very rare and relatively shy from what we've gathered.

 

On the beach, it is very sunny but a chilly wind is blowing. Facing us, across the ocean, the South Pole. Curious feeling.

 

Suddenly three Chinese tourists tell us passing by : « Dolphins ! ». There they are, if you look closely, you can see three dorsal fins surfacing above the water from time to time, not too far from the shore.

 

Tom urges me on. « Come on, get in your swim suit and hop in the water, go see the dolphins, you are not as sensitive to the cold as myself . » Ok we did live in Brittany, Saint-Malo so the water of the South Pole ocean... Well is it still very cold !

 

One foot, two feet, three swearing words. I go in very slowly. Nobody else is in the water at the moment. We were told not to go look for the dolphins, they come to us when they want to play. So I wait while I progressively lose all feeling in my lower limbs.

 

One fin, then another get closer and then they are there, swimming a few centimeters from my legs. I am beside myself with joy!Here they are in video ! Look at how cute they are !!!!

 

 

Apparently here you also can see yellow-eyed pinguins, however, we won't be as lucky as with the dolphins and they will remain for now some of the rarest of the world for us too.




Wandering in Otago, we come up to Nugget Point where there is a beautiful lighthouse. There is also a hide overlooking a protected beach wich enables to finally get a glimpse of the famous yellow-eyed pinguins !

 

We are camping in the field of an Irishman who put up some basic amenities and offers cheap camping rates. Weather is fresh but at least it's not raining.