Settling In and Venturing Out: Wanaka and Dunedin
9/9-9/17 (N-Zed dates)
On the ninth, we got up in the morning and drove to Dunedin. On the way, we stopped at Tunnel Beach. It was a long, very steep downhill hike down to an overlook off some cliffs. It was really awe-inspiring. Dad made this remark to me the other day about it being easy to imagine fantasy creatures living in a place like this. I can easily imagine hobbits or dwarves living up in the mountains in hidden caves or Ents hidden in the big forests. The Lord of the Rings especially comes to mind, but it just seems to be too beautiful for just humans. It looks like the roaming grounds of giants, elves, centaurs, without all the houses and power lines, of course. It makes me wonder if places like this and the national parks and other wild places are what whets the imagination of fantasy writers. Anyway, we went down some stairs in a tunnel to a small sheltered beach. The previous owner of the property had the stairs carved so his children and the rest of his family could reach the beach. We got a lot of pictures and began the long trek back up the slope.
We drove from Tunnel Beach to the Penguin Place, a preserve for yellow-eyed penguins. When the tour began, there was a small lecture beforehand. Yellow-eyed penguins are only found on the west coast of New Zealand and some small islands around that area. New Zealand has no native land-based animals except for bats, so every squirrel, rat, mouse, rodent, farm animal, and predator in this country is an invasive species from another place. Many native birds and reptiles were not used to the increased competition and predators, so many animals that belong here have become extinct, endangered, or threatened. Along with the invasive species, human expansion has caused much more damage to native populations: overfishing, habitat destruction, introducing new invasive species, et cetera, et cetera. There are just around twelve hundred yellow-eyed penguins left in the whole world. After this dispiriting information, we went on our tour.
They had constructed tunnels throughout the preserve so we could see the penguins in their native habitat without disturbing them. We could see them through gaps about three inches tall. This made us appear much smaller and less threatening if the penguins spotted us. Right before we went out, the guide told us not to expect too much. We would be lucky if we saw two penguins, very lucky if three, very, very lucky if four, and so on. We ended up seeing six, five close up!! It was definitely too bad that we weren’t residents of New Zealand, or we would have bought a lottery ticket. We also saw some fur seals, which were humongous. Nothing I had ever done before quite compared, except for the orca tour near Victoria. It was really cold but definitely worth it. We saw two penguins coming in from the ocean, two in their nesting box, one in his lone nest box, and one more from a distance in the ocean. We also saw plenty of little blue penguins in their nest boxes, right next to the trail.
We stopped in Portobello (yes, like the mushroom) for hot drinks and food. We stopped by our hotel and then went to Luna’s for dinner. Mom and I split a pumpkin, spinach, and feta risotto. It was so, so good!! It was sweet from the pumpkin, but the feta balanced it out with some saltiness, making it perfect, with an amazing flavor.
The next day in Dunedin, we ate breakfast in town at Nova’s, where I got banana bread french toast. It was delicious and a genius idea. We headed down to the historic train station, Dunedin Railway Station. It was really attractive from the outside because it wasn’t completely symmetrical. We went to the New Zealand Sport’s Hall of Fame, where I got an All Blacks toboggan. The most shocking thing was a display of the long jump record set by Yvette Williams at the 1952 Summer Olympics. It was so far; I couldn’t even jump half the distance.
We went back to the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. My favorite painting was one of three polar bears (I can’t find anywhere online what it was called). There were two landscape paintings of places we had been: Lakes Wanaka and Hawea. We went by the rugby store after that and we got a ball to play with at the park. We drove to the Otago Museum, which was like a national history museum. The creepiest thing was these moa birds that were the size of dinosaurs. It was so creepy: their claws were the size of my face. They’re the only birds that ever evolved to not even have wings. After the Otago Museum, we drove to a fish and chips place for lunch, which was pretty good. On our way out of the city, we drove up to Signal Hill, which had an amazing view of the whole city of Dunedin.
Back at Wanaka, we had leftovers and played Scrabble. The next day, we hung around the house, catching up on schoolwork, and went to the park across the street. The twelfth was more of the same, but I had field hockey that night. It was really fun again, hanging out with kids my age for once. We got dinner at Trout’s with a charcuterie board for the table and I got a small thing of grilled risotto. We got to take a break from schoolwork the next day. After hanging around the house through the morning, we walked into town and got gelato from Black Peaks (salted caramel for me). After eating dinner, we watched the Goonies, which my dad brought with us. It was such an amazing movie and so hilarious. We watched the UNC vs. Wake football game. It was tense the whole time (rivals), but we finally won!! I had been cautiously optimistic beforehand, us being favored and having the home-field advantage, but it’s always fun to watch anyway. We drove by a brewery and a winery in the afternoon for drinks, views, food, and conversation.
The next day was the Sports and Recreation Festival at the Rec Center. They had a bunch of booths for all different kinds of sports, popular and diverse. I tried a rowing machine, did a 1K run, and played flag and touch rugby. Back at the house, we ate lunch and then dropped Dad and Jackson off at the golf course. Mom and I went downtown and walked through a bunch of shops. I got some dangly silver fern earrings; silver ferns are the national symbol of New Zealand, and they represent the national women’s rugby team. We dropped by the house to get dressed and went on a short run by the lake. We picked up the boys from the course. Dinner was ham and egg cups with salad. We played Hearts afterward and I Shot the Moon in our last round of the night. It was lucky but still felt great. The Broncos played the Bears on the sixteenth. It was never close, but when Jackson and I put on our Bronco’s shirts, we scored a field goal and touchdown to make it 12-13, us down one. We were going to go for two, but then a delay of game penalty moved us back and we were going to kick the extra point. But then, one of the Bears went offsides and we got the yards back. We went for two and scored with some finally good passing. The Bears made a field goal with one second left in the game, which made me kind of mad after our comeback, but it was okay. We hung out at home and played Hearts after dinner again. I won, which felt good since Dad usually won.
Yesterday, we got up in the morning and drove to Arrowtown, about an hour away. In Arrowtown, we ate lunch at Slow Cuts. I got fried chicken and salad, and we had macaroni and cheese and fried pickles for the store. We went into a bunch of shops, where I got a sticker and a Wanaka bookmark. We walked around town for about two hours. We went down to a river walk and walked around for about an hour before starting to drive back home. We drove to the bridge that Dad was thinking about bungee-jumping off. We watched a woman and a teenager only a few years older than me. I felt bad because even though I knew it wasn’t really dangerous, I don’t think I could ever be brave enough to do anything remotely like that. We drove back home and went to Amigos Mexican for Taco Tuesday. I got a pork belly one with pineapple salsa and coconut shrimp with orange salsa. Back at the house, we packed quick for Fox Glacier and went to bed early, so we could get up early in the morning.
“You cannot put a price on experience.”