Dunedin to Milford

View of Dunedin from Tolcarne on Maori hill

February decorations Invercargil

Sailing into the Sterling waterfall Milford

Keeping the camera dry!

Milford sound - actually not a Sound but a Fjord

Entering Milford from the sea

I have to start with a correction. In my recent Dunedin blog I said I had located the house Tolcarne. But when I was leaving my Motel the owner informed me that I had gone to the wrong school - she insisted it was at the Girls school not the boys. She was right, I rushed off up the hill again and found the location. The house itself is no more, but the garden, the hill, the view and the bush are all still there. The site is now a boarding house for the school and must be total five star accommodation with the most stunning panoramic views of the city imaginable. i was welcomed in and invited to take photos and video footage. However this delay made me an hour late for my meeting in Gore with Lindsay and Sarah old friends from Yorkshire who happened to be passing through the same small town on their way to the World Gliding Centre in the McKenzie basin. From Lindsay I got more information about the huge herds of cattle I had been seeing all crammed into single paddocks ( fields) with totally empty fields all around. He says this is all about sophisticated grass management. Each day after milking the herd is turned into a different paddock. Apparently the Rye grass gives maximum nutrition between the 2nd and 3rd leaf stage. If it gets eaten down to the one leaf stage it takes too long to grow back and if it gets to the four leaf stage it is usually left and turned into silage. By rotating the entire herd they keep the grass constantly between the 2 and 3 leaf stage and thus get maximum nutrition from it. This can all be tested and shown in graph form so that the farmers can know exactly the state of their grass every day. Pretty sophisticate stuff, and the resulting milk products including dried milk powders are being marketed in China and the far east. I made a quick visit to Invercargill after Gore and was really amazed at its size. It has spread out for miles along all the incoming roads. But best of all here were the Christmas lights - still up at the end of February. What I find hard to understand is why they need them at all. Christmas here is in mid summer with bright nights so why the dreary British snowflakes and Santas? Connie said that at least at Invercargil there was nothing and no-one to see. She was a social person but clearly had her limits . Now I am in Te Anau after another long drive through rolling hills and open plains, I felt for Connie who did the whole journey on the box seat of a horse drawn carriage. Even she complained a little but could still appreciate the golden tussock. She would really hate what I am doing today. Tired of driving I have booked onto a tourist bus and boat trip to see the wonderful Milford Sound. Although she did visit the sound on board a cruise ship which offered all manner of entertainemnt, dancing, music, picnic, regattas and even a late night firework display with the firing of reverberating cannons set as a spectacle against the dark cliffs, still she said that though the trip was very well organised and though ' everything necessary is provided there is no herding, or abominable guides.' However she felt that the size of the ship and lack of time ashore meant that she did not experience the place as fully as she would have liked. I have to say that although i agree with her sentiments there was a shared experience of place and comraderie that came from our trip today. An in depth experience it was not, but is there another level of experience that is also valid, shared, caring, international and happening within a strict conservation programme. It rained and blew for Connie and it did likewise for us today. I have done this trip previously in perfect weather and I have to say that this was a more vivid experience, there was a greater feeling of the darkness, threat and grandeur than before. daily

Wildlife 2 Dunedin

Royal Albatross

Royal Albatross

Penguin burrow

Penguin nests in snady bank across the road

Sleeping fur seal

NZ sea lions on sandy beach

un squashed dead possum

Grandson Eddie sent me an email with my instructions of what I was to look for. To granny, thanks for your email. New Zealand sounds great and i hear that within one day you will head for the Southern islands. Well i wonder that you may see some marine life;i have done reasearch on animals in New Zealand and i think it would be great if you saw a Fin whale. Its about 20 metres long and 80 tons, making it the 2nd biggest animal on earth,and can be seen around the coast of islands. Another way you can tell it apart is that when it breaches (jumps out of the water), it can lift its whole body into the air like a dolphin. I would also reccomend the New Zealand sealion, which you can see easily if you canoe amongst them in beaches.However there is one animal i would reccomend a lot that is quite easy to see if you know where you can find one, and that animal is: a kea. they are a dark greenish colour, live in the mountains and can make a lot of noise and havoc! If you see any, please take some pictures of them if possible. Wishing you a great time in the South islands. From Eddie. I am afraid I havn' t been on the ocean to see whales or canoed among the sealions but I think Dunedin has put me a bit further up the in the wildlife credibility stakes. I declined to pay to look at a few captive penguins but by walking to the northern heads of the large Dunedin harbour I did see some yellow eyed penguins swimming among the seaweed. They are too nifty to get a photograph though. I did better today on the southern Taiaroa heads of the same harbour which is host to the only mainland colony of Albatross. These majestic birds sailed around the sky like huge gliders. While at the heads I almost tripped over a slumbering fur seal which seem to go into a total coma of sleep and are totally camouflaged in the rocks. Tourists were within about 1 metre and it kept sleeping soundly, infact the only way we even knew it was there was when it snored - probably just snorting actually. At that place little blue penguins have their nests and come ashore quite late every night. However when filming one of their burrows I heard the kitten like mewing which told me that there were babies inside and this was right at the side of the visitors car park. Wildlife and tourists really do have to accommodate each other here. Perhaps not such a good coalition is with possums. So far I havnt seen a live one but have come across a good few flat ones on the road. Today however I found one beside the road which had been killed by a glancing blow only, so at least I got a good look at its curling tail and wonderful bushy coat. Oh yes and I DID see sea lions at Oamaru on my way south and they were sleeping on sandy beaches. I wont see Keas until I get to Mount Cook but will keep looking.

It is interesting that although Connie was a keen sailor and spent a lot of time in New Zealand on the water she never mentions sea life or even native animals at all. From her diary her passions seem to have been food and plants in that order!

Kaiteriteri to Dunedin

Lewis Pass

Holiday Park cabin Rakaia

Boulder with cracks filled with crystals

Moeraki Boulders

Olverston House

The title of this blog indicates a journey from the top to almost the bottom of the South Island. Connie traveled to Christchurch by steamer and then on to Dunedin by train so I didn't have many specific places to visit . From Kaiteri I traveled south via Murchison and the Lewis Pass with a lunch stop at Hamner Springs. Weather damp. I decided to by-pass Christchurch because I was invited to take a seminar at Dunedin College of art.

I hadn't intended to drive quite so far but I just didn't find a suitable place to stop. Eventually I found a great cabin at Rakaia Holiday camp south of Ch Ch about 9 hours after I set out. These cabins are very well equiped clean and cheap a real feature of New Zealand. Next day it was an easier drive to Dunedin via the amazing Moeraki Boulders, great mud balls being exposed by the sea from the mudrock cliffs. It was difficult finding a room in Dunedin, apparently this is the main tourist month in the south so I am now trying to book rooms ahead. A piece of advice for travelers if you are coming this way, do pack a wide variety of clothes, it will be hotter than you expect, colder than you expect, wetter or greyer than you expect, and thats probably all in the same day!

Dunedin offered me some more answers on Connie's trail. In Dunedin she stayed at a house called Tulcairn which is now a boarding house at Chalmers School. It seems to have had a good few additions over the years and the surrounding bush has certainly disappeared although the steep roads she records are still as heart-stopping. During my trip I have also been trying to find out more about a painting found in Connie's house. I had identified it as coming from the brush of Dorothy Richmond who we know had stayed at the House at Arisaig and whom Connie had first met when staying and travellng with members of the Richmond family in New Zealand. I had seen a very similar painting at a temporary exhibition at Te Papa Museum on a previous visit to NZ. I hadn't really made the connections then but had noted the work. This visit I hoped to find out more. In Dunedin I decided to visit Olverston House a large Edwardian home with all original contents. Now this whole story is full of co-incidental events to the extent that this one seems almost inevitable. When I had visited Maggie Atkinson in Nelson she had a book about New Zealand' most famous woman artist Frances Hodgkin and in it I found the very painting I was looking for. The book ascribed it to the Theomin gallery in Dunedin, but I could find no record of this gallery. From visiting Olverston I not only found the actual painting hanging on the walls but also discovered that its then owner David Theomin had commissioned the work from Frances when he met her on a cruise in the Mediterranean in 1902. Still be be discovered is when and why Dorothy painted exactly the same orange seller in Tangier because we know that she was not there at the same time. We know from Connie's journals that Dorothy was very friendly with Frances and that they both visited Tangiers although not at the same time Not only that, but at Olverston I found a large etching exactly the same as the one now hanging in the front porch at Arisaig , and orginating from Connie, by Scottish artist James McBeth a really gloomy prognosis called the " The harbour of refuge'. I never liked it but now at least feel I should look after it a bit better, Just how and when did it come to his home in Dunedin? via Dorothy or Frances perhaps or could he have known Connie? Well tomorrow I am off to Te Anau intending to meet up with friends Lindsay and Sarah Maclane from Yorkshire for a lunch at the tourist centre in Gore! The weather forecast is for torrential rain over the whole country.

Kaiteriteri

Having just had a remarkable and perfect day I can see exactly why Connie devoted so much of her diary to this area. On one hand it is quite like the west coast of Scotland at Arisaig which she so loved but you have to add sun, azure sea, subtropical bush, and sandy beaches and coves that seem to go on for ever. This day more than any other made me contemplate the differences between then and now. Then, I think that destination was what mattered, now, it is the journey. Then, they took time to savour the experience to enquire about and remember the details , now we see the spectacle, experience the thrill of a short engagement with the place and the achievement of having been there. I wonder if as a humanitarian, and as an arts crafts follower she would be able to see how in sacrificing the depth that was enjoyed by a few privileged individuals then, we now can offer this experience to the much wider and international community now.

One great excitement today was when our catamaran tourist boat was joined by a dolphin riding in front of one of our twin bows. He - or maybe she- had so much fun swimming at speed on its side, upside down and rolling over and we passengers were allowed on to the bow of our boat to take turns to watch. When we eventually speeded up the dolphin went under the boat and re surfaced at the stern leaping in the wake of the boat before finally giving up. For us it seemed very special but in reality I think it happens almost every day. We also saw some baby seals but at Arisaig they are so much closer and more numerous.

Our boat visited all the bays and island that Connie mentioned but I didn't get ashore. I did however decide to get off the boat and walk one section of the long Nelson walkway. I chose the section described as the most beautiful but what it didn't say was that it was also the steepest. taking so much time in photography I decided I would have to really push on if I was to get to the boat pick-up in time, only to discover that I had actually done it in far loess than the allocated time. Surely i will have a lost a few pounds there! But striding through the bush, even if I didn't have time to sit and stare and sketch and contemplate, I was accompanied all the way by the songs of the cicadas and the occasional burst of song from the bell-birds and the frequent interruptions of the cascading streams bursting their way through mossy rocks and fallen logs.

Now I have been asked to give a talk to students at Dunedin art School in 3 days time . I am in the far north of the south island and that is is in the south so now it means a couple of days hard driving. Connie travelled this part by boat so it is also a blank in her diary.

I will be back in touch soon

Nelson

Fairfield house

Me on the balcony at Fairfield

Catherine and Cindy

Between Cable Bay and Bishop rock

Cindy was a delightful host in Nelson and I really like her abstract photographic images printed directly on to brushed aluminium. Like me she studied art later in life and is also interested in finding new ways to think about and present her work.
In Nelson Connie stayed with the Atkinsons at a house called Fairfield. This house has been conserved by a group of community supporters and is now a Community house being further restored entirely by its supporters. It hosts all manner of events. Because I was with Cindy who the custodian Catherine knows, I was invited to 'take tea' in exactly the place where Connie had done on the balcony. We re-created the old photographs
We sat and read from Connie's diaries about the sweet peaches and plums that came from the orchard on the bank behind the house and Catherine told us how this is right now in the process of being restored into an Open Orchard one of a series being funded by Health and Welfare as a community asset, a place which the community can care for and then walk to and pick the fruit for their own use. I feel that would have been so much in line with the arts and crafts movement of Connie and her friends. And while Catherine has done an amazing job with organising the re-planting of the garden as another co-incidence it was Cindy's late husband Ron, a landscape gardner, who marked the notable trees in the garden as part of his project to recognise and mark beautiful large 'notable' trees.
I was also entertained by Maggie Atkinson who took me from her house which is completely enclosed by a beautiful tree rimmed garden, to see the Bishops rock and Cable bay area that Connie had painted. We sped there in 15 minute or so but we felt that in Connie's day this would have been a popular days outing by horse and trap and her hosts -the unrelated Atkinsons- would have taken her there as a special treat. It was a beautiful day for our visit and I was regalled by all of Maggie's deep knowledge of the science and history of the area. I realise that it isn't what you see that matters most it is who you see it with. Cindy and Maggie a deep thank you.
With the weather forecast looking really good I decided to set of for Kaiteriteri to make a boat trip up the Nelson coast to try and revisit the bays and island Connie recorded with such obvious love.

Wellington

I am afraid I am falling behind with my blogs. That's partly because the long distances to be travelled leave me with little time, but also it does take such a long time to do. Writing involves the awful decisions about what has to be left out, then all the images have to be uploaded from the cameras, then selected , re-sized etc, then I have to find an internet cafe with facility for using a memory stick to transfer the information then of course I am subject to the usual slow speed and sticky software of these places. It can take an hour to upload one blog. Anyway tonight I have set aside an evening to catch up so here goes.

I arrived in Wellington in torrential rain and it didn't improve. However my main purpose was to visit the Turnbull archive where I found interesting letters written by Margaret Shaen, Connie's companion, to the Richmond family in New Zealand . Margaret just features in the diaries as M with only glimpses of her personality, so it was good to get a feel of her character and interests . The staff there were most friendly and helpful unlike some national libraries I have been in.
I also visited Te Papa the National Museum of New Zealand . On a previous visit I went there after it was first opened and wasn't too impressed, however now I take that back. It is a great place. they have a different t way of presenting material and artifacts from the usual, and use a lot of interactive and media presentation ,which was all working - again unlike some places I have been to.There were two cruise ships in town , it was tipping with rain and the information bureau was sending everyone to the museum because all the tour busses were full , but the spacious museum coped brilliantly, I didn't feel crowded at all. Again the staff went out of their way to be pleasant and helpful.`this si something I am really picking up on as I travel - tourists matter here and I am feeling welcome.
I was really indebted to Maureen for setting up a meeting with Awhina Tamarapa the curator of Maori artifacts at Te Papa - although she told me that hey don't like that word since all the `Maori objects still have living importance within Maori culture. Indeed after we visited the store room of all these precious treasures I was taken to the water fountain to wash my hands and sprinkle myself with water as a purifications process. They don't just house and record the Maori culture but they keep it alive through respect. I had brought photographs of the Maori artifacts we still have which Connie collected in 1988. Her diaries make this clear. And as a woodcarver she was choosy when it came to quality. I had always assuemed these were standard tourist fare but Arwhenea thinks not so I am to send her more detailed images and sizes to see what more can be fount out. We certainly didn't d]see anything that matched them in the store. Awhina has been to Perth to ostudy the Maori items in their collection some of which have alreday been re-patriated.

My departure from Wellington on the car ferry to Picton in many ways mirrored Connies. It was grey and wet with a crisp wind. It was also totally overcrowded. While for her night time journey she requested another cabin, this journey was capacity with all seating full and young people sleeping on the floors wherever they could find a suitable space.
The entry through the sounds to Picton is specatcular whatever the weather and the torqouise colour of the water just magical. On land I headed for Nelson where I was to be hosted by artist Cindy Flook.

Wildlife

This is really a page for Eddie and Angus. Hi boys, I am sorry to say that I havn't seen a single New Zealand mammal or reptile yet but I have seen a few birds.
The Kiwi's are more plentiful in the North Island than I had imagined. Of course being nocturnal I havn't seen any, but even the researchers counting their number do so by recording their calls rather than by sightings. I did see some road signs telling drivers to be careful for Kiwis on the road though.
i heard a Morpork at night which is a small owl whose call is just as its name suggests - More Pork More Pork More Pork!
At the hot springs at Rotorua there were a pair of pied stilts working the edge of the hot thermal pools. I cannot think what they found to eat as I am sure no fish could survive in such hot water. I also saw some black swans but they are more common than white ones here.
On the road south from Ruapehue I saw an eagle but am not sure what kind and also two groups of Pukeko's which are large black birds with big red beaks. The Australian Magpie is also around in large numbers, its exactly like our crow but has black and white patches like a magpie.
I was in Te Papa the National Museum of New Zealand, you would REALLY like that place it has some amazing displays. Best of all you would like the Giant Squid. It is 4,2 metres long and weighs about a ton. It was caught by New Zealand Fisherman who brought it back specially for the museum. They had a video camera on board and filmed it being caught. I have bought the DVD and will send it to you by post whenever I can get to a post office. Tomorrow morning I set off early on the ferry to the South Island. It should be a fabulous journey with a chance of seeing dolphins etc, but right now the weather is dreadful so I don't know if I will see anything at all it might be very rough which I wont like at all.
Anyway keep watching my Blog and you will find out in due course.

Pipiriki and Wanganui river

Well apart from a few well timed moments, the rain didn't ease. It just came down in buckets. I got to Pipiriki, a few deserted houses and a lone lost Frenchwoman whose story I still havn't fathomed, was all I saw there. The country to get there was pretty but strange, huge clay cliffs and peaks that must have been the softest rock imaginable.

From Pipiriki the road went through a large bush area following the Wanganui river. Huge tree ferns, tall trees dripping with rain and cloud. The good tar sealed road gave way rather unexpectedly to a very rough gravel road with the worst corrugations imaginable - going in all directions at once. On flat land the best way of dealing with corrugations is speed - just hit the tops and dont go into the troughs, but here with wet clay and gravel on the surface, a water and clay filled ditch on one side, a ravine on the other and the narrow road twisting up and down steep hillsides that clearly wasn't the right option. The few local vehicles I passed were all going at a similar slow speed and they were all chunky 4x4's. Clearly a rented Toyota Corolla with automatic gear shift is not the vehicle of choice in these parts!

Driving for hours through such untouched bush one inevitably fixes on the human anomalies. A sign giving a temporary speed restriction of 30k in a place where more than 10 would be impossible anyway, and an open road limit of 100 km where more than 20 would have been suicidal, and the only cleared paddock in an hour of driving with a hand painted sign declaring No trespassers and Dogs will be shot. In one place lower in the valley and after regaining tarred road a washout was being fixed in the torrential rain . The workmen said I would have to wait about 15 minutes but they had to wake me up 50 minutes later when it was finally passable.

Connie spoke about all the Maori villages and canoes on the river but now there is just one Maori Paa, very friendly inviting visitors in, with just one large old canoe bow on display. It seems the only way of experiencing the river today is on a jet boat offering 30 min to 2 hour 30 min rides. The area will be far less populated now than then. Only the road signs in the softer lower parts of the valley indicating that some kind of settlement exists, I passed Athens, London and Jerusalem!

What this trip did remind me of is how many wild and remote places still exist in New Zealand within quite short distances of towns and major through roads. It is probably just this lack of adequate road networks that keeps them that way. I will happily suffer the bad roads.

As the weather got even worse I decided to head directly to Wellington, stopping at Levin on the way to visit my fathers grave for only the second time. The rain stopped while I was there and resumed again as I left.

Mt Ruapehu

Mt Ngauruhoe

Cabbage tree fern

Smoke ring cloud over the active Mt Ruapehu

Looking out from Mt Ruepehue ski ground

Chalets on volcanic rock ski fields

Travelling down the side of Lake Taupo we stopped, as Connie had done, to collect pumice and other rock samples. At least the pumice is light enough to make it home. We also found a track beside Pumice cliffs to experience the white dust of the road and reflect that she would have travelled this on the box seat of a horse drawn carriage through streams over rocky outcrops and in the full blaze of the sun. We just blessed our air conditioned car.

Tokaanu, a simple spa with free bush walk was indeed the wonder that Connie described. Our walkway protected us from the deep clear boiling water pools just feet away, and the ominous plopping sounds from tiny mud pools completely hidden in the roots of the vegetation. To have ventured in here without well marked paths would have been nightmare stuff. Indeed one of Connie's fellow travellers did put a foot through the fragile crust.

On 'M's' very good advice we booked into the Skotel on the slopes Mt Ruepehu. this is dual purpose tiny resort, skiing in winter walking in summer. sandwiched between the perfectly formed Mt Ngauruhoe and the still active Mt Ruepehu which we watched putting up smoke signals yesterday. Last night a full moon over Ngauruhoe was an inspiring sight, tonight the heavens opened and we have nil visibility. Nothing by halves here.

(Actually writing this a day later, Maureen has just made contact from Auckland and wonders if the strange red night haze to the west on the night of the full moon was actually caused by the dreadful Melbourne fires which we now know had broken out that day. Even more strangely, writing in 1887 Connie tells of the dark skies over New Zealand caused by smoke from Australian bush fires)

Before 'M' left on the bus back to Auckland we managed an early morning 2 hour walk to Silica falls up through the bush and back over the high hillside where the plant life was unbelievably diverse. Scotland has something to answer for here though as some enterprising fellow introduced both Ling heather and game to these parts last century. The game failed to survive but the heather is actively spreading over all the hills. Thankfully the mountain daisies are still surviving in abundance and a type of white moss in large clumps that 'M" referred to as vegetable sheep.

With my background in textile and dye research I much appreciated "M's' knowledge about the useful plants we passed on the subtropical bush of the lower slopes. For example the sculptural Cabbage tree leaves were used for weaving a Maori warrior's cloak then dyed black for night time camouflage . Some trees wore broad metal bands to stop the possums from reaching the rare mountain mistletoe. We drove up the Bruce Road to the skiing resort set in and on the jagged boulder fields of volcanic outpouring. In this season it is hard to imagine the depth of snow that must fall to make this into safe ski-ing. Its like an imaginary moonscape in summer.

As a postscript, if anyone is coming this way, do make a point of stopping at the National Parks Station cafe which we discovered this lunchtime . Why Oh Why can't we have simple cafes for travelers with this level of food and friendly service.

The next stage of my journey takes me to Wanganui via the Wanganui river gorge which Connie went up by boat as far as Pipiriki . Lets hope the rain eases.