Impressions from the South Island
21 December 2015 | Whangarei Harbour Marina, Town Basin, Whangarei, New Zealand
Photo: Entering the Hall Arm of Doubtful Sound, Fiordland, South Island, New Zealand
Finally, all of my blog entries from our three week trip to the South Island are now loaded starting on November 16th, 2015. I may need a little more time to load some galleries with more of my photos which will help to illustrate the many, many cool places that we visited.
We have enjoyed being back on Tregoning in Whanagrei and she seemed to cope with our absence quite happily. We have spent the last couple of weeks preparing for our trip to the USA in mid-January to mid-February (making appointments and ordering stuff), with Randall busy working on boat projects (including getting our dinghy repaired so no more wet feet), and with me writing the blog. There have also been some local distractions of holiday parties, carol-singing, and decorating Tregoning for Christmas but, before I return to reporting on life here in the North Island, let me reflect on a few of our impressions from our whirlwind tour of the South Island.
The diversity of the landscapes in the South Island is particularly impressive given its size of 151,215 sq km (58,973 sq miles) which would rank it as the 25th largest state in the USA (between Georgia and Illinois) and the same as the combined size of England and Wales. We did not see the highest point on the island, Aoraki (a.k.a. Mount Cook) which is 3,754 m high (12, 316 feet) but we saw snow-covered peaks in several areas that were well over 1,500 m (4,921 feet) so higher than the UK's leader, Ben Nevis at 1,344 m (4,409 feet).
The parks and reserves appear to be very well managed with excellent trails and signs. We did learn that the times indicated for how long a trail would take to complete were based on a very hyperactive, 20-something athlete. If it says 20-minutes round-trip, allow an hour to include stops for views and photos. Of course, we are also starting to appreciate just how fit many New Zealanders are and how much they, and many of their visitors, love outdoor activities. Camping and the use of campervans is very popular and there are many well-equipped campgrounds, including those with cabins (of highly diverse natures). The cabins allow people on a tight budget to drive cars and stay in the wilder areas without having to pay the expense of hotels.
Along the trails and at lookout stops, there are good railings and cautions where needed but there do not seem to be the endless warning and prohibiting signs that have mushroomed lately in the litigious USA. Most prohibiting signs in natural areas are related to protecting the habitat and wildlife, not the visitors, and we were impressed at how much information is provided about invasive species control. This is not all with the approval of everyone and we saw many signs protesting the use of certain poisons for the control of mammalian pests. However, it was impressive to us that the general public in New Zealand has a sophisticated understanding of the issues related to non-native species and their impacts. Having said that, I was surprised at my own reaction in some areas, such as the flatlands in the valleys of Fiordland, where I found myself scanning the horizon for large mammals such as deer, elk, or bears because I might expect to see them in similar habitats in the northern hemisphere. Given that instinctive reaction, it is somewhat more understandable to me why European settlers felt so compelled to introduce species to fill what seemed to them to be an empty habitat.
We were very surprised by the number of deer being farmed and by the larger proportion of cattle than we expected on the farms. Still, there are a lot of sheep and the importance to the nation of agricultural exports becomes blindingly clear when the extent of livestock farming is compared to the country's population of only 4.47 million people (2013).
The low population density, especially in the South Island which has 23% of the population in 56% of the nation's area, was highly conspicuous on the deserted roads. Of course, we deliberately spent much of our time in National Parks and we knew that these would fill-up with many more Kiwis once the school holidays began (mid-December) but outside the urban areas there are just not many people. Outside the towns and national parks, there are the obvious, widespread impacts of people, given the incredible proportion of land that was converted to agriculture or commercial forestry in such a relatively short time in the 19th and early 20th centuries but the population density is very low in these areas.
In the preserved areas, we were surprised by the density of the beech forests and how very different the southern beeches with their tiny leaves are, compared to the northern hemisphere beech species. Outside the preserved habitats, the size and importance of the nation's forestry industry was evident in the many logging trucks on the roads and the massive, raw areas that had been clear-cut. We were also surprised by how widespread was the use of trees as windbreaks. While we understood the challenges that the strong winds present to sailing around the South Island, we had not related this to the exposure of many landscapes to those same frequent and howling winds. In the most exposed places, it was astonishing how severely the winds had sculpted the natural, coastal forests or planted, windbreak trees. Some particularly windswept communities looked like really tough places to live.
In terms of difficult places to live in New Zealand, the city center of Christchurch has to have been one of the most challenging in the last five years. While volcanism is evident as a much more ancient influence on the landscape of the South Island compared to the steaming central area of the North Island, the frequency and impacts of earthquakes throughout New Zealand are much more significant than I had appreciated. I cannot quite imagine where all of the money for reconstruction in Christchurch is coming from and whether the city will truly recover but there is no doubt that many Kiwis seem to have very stoical and resolute attitudes about such natural disasters.
We drove on plenty of gravel roads and very few multilane highways. Most of the main roads outside the largest cities were two-lane roads (one lane each way) which would be frustrating with a higher traffic density but there were plenty of passing lanes, especially on steep or twisty sections. Most of the slower vehicles (like tourists in campervans) were very good about pulling-over to let local traffic pass and the faster vehicles were generally very patient, which all made for surprisingly relaxed driving conditions.
As a nation, there is no doubt that Kiwis are generally very friendly and helpful. On much of our trip we probably interacted more often with other tourists or tourist-industry workers from overseas than with residents and, in particular, there seemed to be many young people taking a "year out" who were traveling, like us, or working for the summer. We anticipate spending more time with New Zealand residents while we are staying in Whangarei and, in the North Island, we look forward to learning much more about Maori history and culture, since the Maori influence in New Zealand remains strongest in the Northland.
The windy conditions convinced Randall and me that we made a good decision to visit the South Island by plane and campervan rather than by boat. Maybe we would consider sailing in Marlborough Sound during benign conditions but more likely, if we go to the South Island again it would be by car (and cabins) or campervan (we need to look at the economics of both options and I will be happy to let those interested know our conclusions). It seemed as though we saw everything but we did leave a few things to come back to (north to south): Cape Farewell; the Oparara Valley and its blue ducks in Kahurangi National Park, near Karamea; a seabird-watching boat-trip off Kaikoura; Arthur's Pass National Park; Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park; return to Dunedin city and a visit to the nearby Orokonui Ecosanctuary a predator-free, cloud-forest haven for birds; and Stewart Island / Rakiura National Park. Hmmm, that pretty much covers the whole Island again...so who wants to join us on the South Island if we come back to New Zealand next year?