Sailing to the South Island

Continuing with my time in Wellington… on the 21^st I woke up earlyish, made breakfast and a lunch (both involved bread and jam (sidenote: what we call a loaf of bread is called “toast” here… before it’s even toasted!)), and then caught the city bus to the Wellington Zoo. I had another very helpful bus driver who pointed out exactly where to get off, and where and when my return bus would pick me up. The day before my bus driver to Zealandia actually dropped me off between stops so I’d be as close as possible to the right street. How nice! Anyways, there weren’t many people there first thing in the morning, especially considering it was another windy and rainy day. But that was perfect for me – lots of good views of the animals that decided to brave the weather. The feedings definitely helped bring the animals out – first up was the otter feeding. They were so cute running and rolling around! And when I came back a few hours later they were all tuckered out in a cuddle puddle. Adorable. Another cool thing was the nocturnal exhibit for kiwis! They have an entire building with red lighting so that people can vaguely see the kiwis in the dark. Apparently they have half-hour transitions to simulate sun rise and sun set – that way the kiwis are on the same sleep schedule as people, but their nighttime is our daytime. It was really awesome being one of the only people there because you could really hear them walking around and foraging even when you couldn’t see them. It also helped to eventually spot them darting around in the shadows. They are hilarious looking birds – like beach balls with legs and huge bills.

One-legged kiwi hopping around in the nocturnal house

Emu

I saw the usual zoo animals – monkeys, birds, lions, red panda, giraffes, etc. They had an entire “Australian neighbors” section which was really interesting because many of the animals weren’t in cages – the area was surrounded by a big fence, but the wallabies, emu, kangaroos, and some ducks or something were all free to roam around, including across the people path! I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that at a zoo. The Tasmanian Devils were in their own section, and though one would occasionally snarl, they were nothing like I remember from whatever TV show they were featured in when I was a kid.

Tasmanian devils cuddling

The most interesting part of the visit was The Nest, which is where they do check-ups and treat injured animals. At 11:30 they were going to start a procedure on a Little Blue penguin that was caught in fishing wire. The wire was wrapped tightly around a flipper and its mouth, and the constriction caused muscle/tissue necrosis. They started by putting the bird under with anesthesia, intubating him, and getting all the probes and sensors in place. He was already not doing well with the pain killers, so they switched to a saline solution without pain killers and gave him more fluids. The vets talked to us via headset and speakers and explained what they were doing every step of the way, including putting the mic up to the penguin so we could hear his heartbeat. By this point most of the other visitors had left to go eat lunch or because they didn’t want to watch. Meanwhile I got comfy and ate my sandwich while watching. I think one of the vets was surprised when she looked up and I was the only one there… and I was eating while watching a surgery (years of watching Grey’s Anatomy finally paying off). They spent a while scraping away the dead/dying tissue around the mouth and flipper, and then sutured it back up. The poor thing took ages to wake up, much longer than normal, so they gave him more fluids and pinched his feet and moved his flippers, which apparently helps. The staff were very up front about the fact that he might not make it, which they actually mentioned a couple of times during the procedure and reiterated when he was taking a long time to wake up. It was really interesting that they performed this procedure in full view of the public knowing that there was a nontrivial chance that the patient might die. Anyways, at one point the bird kind of woke up and started gagging on his breathing tube, but then his heartbeat was not very strong without it and he was still rather unresponsive, so they intubated him again. A short while later he definitely came out of it, so they bundled him up and took him away to recover. The whole thing took about 1.5 hours, but it was really fascinating to watch a procedure on a bird in such a precarious state.

Fascinating… and FREEZING. Yes, I was sitting in a covered area so at least I wasn’t getting soaked from the rain, but the wind through there made it REALLY cold, and I was not moving the entire time. And that was even with a gloves and an extra layer than the day before! Fortunately the penguin woke up with enough time to grab a coffee before running to the giraffe feeding. I literally ran to the nearest café and said “WHAT IS YOUR LARGEST, HOTTEST DRINK?”

Seductive pelican pose

After the zoo I caught a bus back into town where I went to the Te Papa Museum. It’s huge and has entire floors dedicated to natural history, Maori culture, natural disasters in NZ, etc. I easily spent a couple hours walking around and didn’t even hit half of it. I timed it carefully so that I could get to the café with plenty of time to get the chicken and corn chowder – more comfort food. Of course, when I got there at 4:40pm, they said that the kitchen had already closed, despite the fact that the sign said they “serve until 5pm” and the thing that I wanted was literally ladled from a giant vat. What the heck!!! Come on, New Zealand, you are killing me in this one small but significant way. So I went back to Sweet Mother’s Kitchen for gumbo and cornbread. Not quite as perfect as the mac and cheese, but it was good.

On my last full day in Wellington (9/22) I decided to hike around Mount Victoria, which is where some iconic scenes in the Lord of the Rings were filmed :D Remember the scene in the Fellowship of the Ring where the four hobbits hid from the Nazgul under a giant tree root? That was filmed in Mount Victoria, along with a few others. There were a couple problems, though: firstly the park is huge, and secondly the map in the LOTR filming location book (this is a thing) is AWFUL and does not even remotely match the actual park map. So I wandered around for a solid 2 hours before coming to the conclusion that I had passed where the spots should have been, but that after 10 years it’s safe to say the landscape has changed. Shucks. It was nice getting some solid exercise, though.

Pretty sure this is the spot where Frodo says "Get off the road, quick!"

To celebrate my exercise I ate an absurdly unnecessary brunch consisting of waffles with bacon, bananas, maple syrup, and an iced mocha. Oh man, if you ever come to New Zealand you have to get iced mochas. They are different at every place, and they are ALL DELICIOUS. I’ve had one with marshmallows and m&m’s one in a huge glass bottle with chocolate syrup drizzled around the inside, some with cocoa powder sprinkled on top, and all of them have homemade whipped cream. In fact the whipped cream is like the iced part of it – it’s really cold and there are no actual ice cubes in it. It’s phenomenal, and I crave them now. But whatever you do, do NOT get an iced mocha at Starbucks. It’s heartbreaking.

After brunch I went back to the Te Papa museum to check out a temporary war section that they had on display. It was actually really interesting, and they had these giant statues that were five times the size of people, and they were incredibly realistic! They also had these awesome 3D maps of the terrain that lit up to show troop movement with accompanying narration. It was a really cool visual. I retained about 1% of it, but it was really interesting!

The next day I headed out early to catch my ferry to Picton and start my adventures on the South Island! We had a decently smooth crossing, despite the high wind and rain. I talked to a guy a couple days later who said he crossed in horrible seas, so half the people on his ferry were sick. That sounds like my nightmare. But I braved the weather to get some fresh air and admire the scenery from the top deck. There wasn’t a whole lot to see as the clouds were covering much of the Queen Charlotte Sound, but it did make me realize that had I not broken my ankle, I would’ve been hiking on the hills we were passing at that very moment, and I would’ve been very sad and wet. So maybe this was a good thing…

First view of the South Island... how inviting

Passing a section of the Queen Charlotte Track...
I could've been hiking in this!

When we got to Picton I immediately caught a bus over to Nelson. Apparently the rain had been terrible on the South Island, because the countryside outside of Picton was flooding! Streams and rivers were actually overflowing onto farmland – it was pretty crazy to see! The ride was beautiful, as every bus ride has been. A bit drizzly, but Nelson was fortunately dry (yet overcast). I got an unexpected ride back to my hostel (The Palace Backpackers). It seemed like an interesting place, but I was too tired to really socialize. I booked my day trip to Abel Tasman at the iSite and got a semi-healthy pasta salad from Robert Harris. I chatted briefly with two girls in my room, but that was about it.

The next morning (9/24) I got up early (I keep saying “early”… maybe that is actually just “normal”) and ate a free breakfast at the hostel – two bowls of corn flakes and a pizza roll thing from a nearby bakery (they apparently bring their leftovers to the hostel every afternoon, so that’s cool). I was THRILLED to see that it was a beautiful sunny morning – my first in over a week! I walked to the bus station and had a beautiful ride up to Kaiteriteri where I boarded a boat to cruise around famous Abel Tasman. The boat ride was great – the captain kept announcing things to look at that were referenced in our interpretation guide, and the scenery was gorgeous (and sunny!). We stopped at a couple places to drop people off depending on the hike they chose to do, passed by a seal colony with a few seals hiding among the rocks, and rode over some fun, bumpy sections! It wasn’t nearly bad enough to make me sea sick (though another passenger wasn’t looking too good), but it was more like a roller coaster.

Split apple rock

I bought the extended cruise and hike, which was perfect because there was a large school group that was on our boat, so they got an hour head start while I had an extra long cruise. Once the school group left I had the entire top deck to myself, so one of the boat hands was really nice and immediately came up to chat. Eventually they dropped me off at my stop where I had a nice two-hour hike through forest and beach. There were very few people (compared to the peak season, I hear); I was walking along near two others, and I only passed two pairs along the way. I saw some really nice views of the ocean from above, a nice waterfall, some streams, and I walked across a suspension bridge. It was all very cool! My hike ended on a beach where I relaxed and enjoyed the sun while waiting for the boat to pick us up. When I got back to Kaiteriteri I had a little while before my bus back to Nelson, so I sat on a bench by the beach and consulted my bird book to look up the birds I saw throughout the day. I had a nice nap on the ride back and grabbed a quick dinner at McD’s right by my hostel. What a fantastic (and sunny) introduction to the South Island!