Milford Sound is one of the world’s greatest natural settings. Until recently, the only ways in were by boat or to take the 3 day Milford Track. For the last few decades, ever since the Homer Tunnel was completed, the sound has been accessible by car or bus. With that access has come more opportunities to see the sound, such as ocean kayaking. During our visit we spent a full day kayaking the sound and experienced the full range of weather it has to offer up to and including hail and very strong gusting winds. It is the sort of place that lets you know that NATURE is in charge, not you.

Rafted up in the middle of our trip, we enjoyed a snack and a wonderful view. This image was taken looking towards the Tasman sea.

During our day of kayaking we experienced Sterling Falls from up close as well as New Zealand fur seals playing in the water and lounging on rocks. The operator we chose motor boated us out 6 km and then we spent the day paddling back. Many of the other operators have you paddle out and back so you only get to experience half the area we were able to explore.

Highway 6 threads its way up the west coast of the south island of New Zealand. This is the least densely populated portion of an island with extremely low population density to begin with. At times, highway 6 travels along flats just off the beach. At others, it clings to the side of cliffs 10s or 100s of meters above the ocean. If you are lucky, there is a guard rail. Locals and tourist don’t really seem to pay much attention to the center stripe in the blind corners. And of course, the west coast is a rain forest so wet roads are the norm.

At Punakaiki

Along highway 6 you find gems like the Pancake Rocks of Punakaiki, Barrytown Knife Making (my post about it), Cape Foul Wind and finally Karamea (the end of the road). Some of these towns are little more than a backpackers lodge and few houses clinging to a small spot of nearly level land between the Tasman sea and the mountains. All along the highway is some of the most rugged and beautiful coastline I’ve ever seen, despite the rainy overcast weather.

At the north end of the south island, along the west coast, quite nearly at the end of the road, is Karamea, a small town. Like most places on the west coast, it could be used as the definition of laid back, friendly and small. It is the sort of town where the farmer who’s farm stay you are sleeping at calls the restaurant to make sure you can get a seat and that they are serving food.

Just a little way north of town along the only road, and just a few kilometers shy of the very end is a turn off leading east into Kahurangi National Park. A windy washboard dirt road leads away from the coast and up into the mountains for 15 odd km. At the end of this road lie the arches and caves of Oparara.

HDR Panoramic view from inside the Moria Gate, the smaller of the two arches. Below is a view you can scroll and see at higher resolution.

New Zealand is one of those places where quirky and fun home businesses have a chance. It is the sort of place where you drive 10km down a back road that leads no-where and find someone selling the best honey you’ve ever had, or sweaters, or whatever. This post is about something in that vain, although, it is quite popular and well known. I didn’t think of it as distinctively New Zealand before my trip, but now I do.

Steven instructs one of the students taking park (like myself) in how to heat the steel before forging the blank into a rough blade.

Lonely Planet listed a little place called Barrytown Knife Making in Barrytown (map) on the west coast as something fun to do and I thought “why not, I’ve got the time,” so I signed up. It is a full day event and you literally go from mild steel to a finished knife all on your own.

In addition to my dolphin tour, I went on the Albatross Encounter offered by Encounter Kaikoura. Kaikoura is home to many species of Albatross including the wondering albatross as well as many of the “smaller” species (which are still huge). In addition to Albatross, you see many other terrestrial as well as pelagic sea birds. On our trip, the ocean was nearly flat with very little wind. This was good for keeping the camera study, but not so good for seeing albatross in the air. They need the wind to get air born. Most of the great and wondering albatross were just bobbing about on the water. We did see many of the smaller species in the air though. They seemed to be less picky/lazy.

A Salvin's albatross soars low over the water.

The albatross were something between amazing and totally comical. Their wings are so huge, even compared to their large bodies, one wonders how they don’t break a wing frequently. Their landings on the water are essentially a mild crash (they don’t seem to go much for style points) and they often unfurl their massive wings during squabbles so that two or more birds have the 1 to 2 meter wings sticking straight up while they snap with their beaks. However, while in the air, the efficiency of their bodies can be seen. They rarely flap their massive wings and glide very low over the water. I routinely saw them drag wing tips in the water while turning.

One of my stops in New Zealand was Kaikoura. It is a very popular destination for tourist, and it isn’t hard to see why. The terrain is rugged and beautiful (it reminded me of northern California in many ways, only much prettier). The ocean is teaming with life including seals, dolphins, whales and terrestrial and pelagic sea birds. The only drawback to the area was its popularity. It was a bit mobbed with tourists.

Dusky's jump in the distance.

I took a dolphin tour and swim with Encounter Kaikoura (I also went on the albatross encounter, but that is for another post). They operate environmentally responsible dolphin tours that take you to see wild dusky dolphins in the waters around the peninsula. A few people (first come, first serve) are allowed to swim with the animals. They are wild and whether they give you the time of day, or simple continue to swim on ignoring you depends entirely on their mood that day. In our case they hung out and observed us (what are theses strange splashy black sausage things?!?!?) while they socialized. Dusky dolphins are one of the smallest dolphins, but also the most naturally acrobatic. It wasn’t long after the tour started before dusky dolphins were jumping and flipping all over the place.

I looked forward to my trip to New Zealand for many, many, many reasons. One of those reasons was that rural areas of the south island are some of the least light polluted in the world thanks to the low population density and fact that it is an island in the middle of a vast ocean. I wanted to take star trail photos. And since I was going to be there for almost a month, I would be there for a new moon, which is the idea condition.

The weather, however, had different plans. Still, I did get a few nights of clear skies.

The first of my clear nights occurred while I was in Hamner. Lewis pass is about an hour back towards the west coast so I headed there to take some star photos.

New Zealand is the land of birds and ferns. Before the Māori arrived 800 or so years ago, the only land mammals on the islands of New Zealand were several species of now extinct or severally endangered bats. As a result, New Zealand was and still is a land of birds and ferns. Of course, I’ve already posted about kiwis. Here are the rest of the terrestrial birds I managed to photograph. There are of course, other birds that I didn’t manage to get a decent (or any) picture of.

Keas

The kea (Nestor notabilis) is an alpine parrot endemic to the alpine areas of south island of New Zealand. Keas are intelligent and curious, like most parrots and are known for pulling the rubber from parked cars. They have also been known to steal sunglasses, cell phones or just about anything else.

Keas are very curious and will investigate you if you allow them. In this case, the kea is investigating the camera.