Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOF)

The day finally came after more than a week in Dunedin to head to Clinton (an hour's drive) and begin work on the farm.  Not only was this to be the first time we'd ever worked on a farm, but it was the first time we'd worked at all in almost three months!  We went through a popular scheme known as WWOOFing and ran across the listing for a farm nearby called Wairuna Organics run by a guy named Shaun.  The photos on the website and the reviews seemed pleasant enough so we went ahead and emailed and low and behold he got back to us fairly quickly and affirmatively.

So there we were pulling up to his house feeling a mixture of nervousness and excitement.  We knew neither what to expect of him and what he would expect of us.  The property was what you might expect of a working farm - cluttered and chaotic, but somehow peaceful and steady.  We gave Shaun a ring to let him know we were out front and he came out to meet us in his farmer's garb looking as though he'd already been working all morning.  After introductions he showed us around the property and the accommodation he had for WWOOFers (of which he's apparently hosted many) and told us to get changed and ready to begin working.   A few minutes later and we met him behind the shed ready to go and he brought us out to the fields where other WWOOFers were already working and instructed us to begin manually weeding the carrots (this is an organic farm mind you).  So for four hours we sat on hands and knees with backs to the sky plucking weeds while carefully avoiding the stalks of the carrots.  What a way to earn your keep! 

To the fields!

The deal with WWOOFing is that you help around the farm typically four hours a day in exchange for food and accommodation.  Besides just being a way to live fat and rent free, many hosts offer to teach you things about gardening, farming, ranching, sustainability or anything else that the host may feel passionately about.  As you can imagine, plenty of travelers just use the system for the former, while many of the hosts use it for the work without doing any of the ladder.  This being our first experience, I'd say that overall we came out with a positive experience somewhere in between.  

We worked for a total of three days, one cloudy, one rainy and one sunny. Each day was spent unsupervised in the carrot field with the other WWOOFers.  We had intended originally to work for two weeks, but the strenuous work coupled with a restructuring of plans drew us out early.  We didn't see a lot of Shaun since he mentioned to us in the beginning that he had hosted over 2,000 WWOOFers in the last ten years and was taking break from cooking group dinners and whatnot (which is something he advertised on his profile).  Fair enough, the guy looked like he could use a vacation and he seemed nice enough.  That said, we didn't learn much in the way of farming or anything (perhaps we may have had we stayed longer).  Where the experience truly shined was in spending time with the other WWOOFers.

Shaun had hosted so many WWOOFers over the years that he had built a separate building to serve as the quarters for the workers called "The Station".  Besides that, he had a few old busses and such modded out to be little bedrooms strewn around the property.  They had just finished harvesting some 30,000 cloves of garlic and they were hanging from every ceiling in every building around the farm including the station.  We were very pleased to see that we would be safe from the grasp of any vampires that might be lurking about.  In our little garlic den was a few beds, an old iron stove for making fires, a dining area and a kitchen.  It was there that we spent most of our time off the field laughing, chatting and playing games with the other workers.  We even met a couple from San Francisco who'd been there for a few weeks when we'd arrived.  It was communal living and even in the short span of three days we made some really good connections with people.  It felt like a little family of sorts.  

The Garlic Den...ahem Station

I would definitely be down to WWOOF again, excited even.  I certainly see the appeal, though hopefully we'd be doing something less arduous than weeding carrots.

The Otago Peninsula

Extending from Dunedin like two tentacles reaching into the sea, the Otago Peninsula is known across NZ for its abundance of wildlife, its alternative lifestyle and its natural beauty.  Similar in geography to the Banks Peninsula near Christchurch, it is volcanic in origin and is split into a north and south arm by a long and narrow inlet with Dunedin itself sitting at the end of the harbor.  On the same rare sunny day that we took advantage of Signal Hill, we also leisurely cruised down waterfront highway of the southern leg of the peninsula all the way to its terminus at Taiaroa Head.  The mouth of the harbor is as stunning as most of the NZ coastline, but what makes the area special is that it is home to a breeding colony of Royal Albatross.  As luck would have it, we were able to spot some of the massive birds gracefully navigating the cutting winds high above and skip paying for the nature tour.  Unfortunately they were also very hard to photograph being so far away and so fast in the sky.  Regardless, it was impressive to watch them effortlessly maneuver where the other birds struggled with the wind, and if they got down close to the ground - WHOA! Look at that wingspan!

It might not look much different from a seagull from this distance, but its the best photo I could nab.  Notice the arch of the wings

The headlands at Taiaroa Head

Looking west down the harbor back towards Dunedin

The other notable excursion on the peninsula was to Sandfly Beach.  I know what you're thinking - why in the world would anybody go to a beach so ominously named?  Well, at this beach it isn't sandflies that you need to be worried about.  In fact, there aren't any sandflies at all! Why then is the beach named Sandfly Beach? Well it's simple, you see the beach sits in between 40 and 50 degrees latitude which is cursed (or blessed if you're a sailor) with horrific and powerful winds stirred up by the rotation of the Earth called the Roaring Forties.  The beach is called Sandfly Beach because the winds blow so hard that it picks up the sand on the beach so that it flies! No sandfly could ever live in such a gusty environment.  Of course this creates a whole new problem for the beach goer - if the freezing wind and ocean doesn't get to you then being sandblasted in the face surely will.

This part was pretty rough

What pulls people to this beautiful beach that sounds so hellish is actually the wildlife.  YEP, Sandfly Bay is another great opportunity to catch a glimpse of the world's rarest penguin (I promise the puns end there).  The only catch this time is that the penguins are not accustomed to people, so in order for them to come out onto the beach you have to plant yourself in a hide with some binoculars.  Not as cool as at Katiki Point, but what the hey, I figured I'd give it a shot even if I don't have a pair of binoculars.  I just ran into one teensy problem - stupid tourists.  (If you can't tell yet I'm dusting off my soap box so if you don't wanna hear it stop reading here)  

There are clear and firm signs up and down the beach explaining how you should govern your behavior with the wildlife at the beach.  As I mentioned before, the wildlife here isn't used to humans being around so they are a lot more shy than your average side of the highway point and click adventure.  In fact, the animals choose this beach precisely because there are no people there to disturb them! It's very annoying then to see people who clearly have no respect for either the animals or anyone else trying to observe them by crowding right up to the animals (in this case fur seals) and going snap happy while the animals are clearly distraught and trying to retreat away from the people, who keep advancing upon them each time to get a better shot.  Not only that, but it clearly states that if people are on the beach then the female penguins will not come ashore to feed their young who have been waiting patiently all day for them to return.  This is an endangered species for heaven's sake! Hope the photo was worth it! I left the hide and the beach as quickly as I could, disgusted.

Dunedin (pronounced duh-knee-din)

We were glad to arrive in Dunedin, the biggest city we'd seen since Christchurch.  Sometimes you need a break from the bush to rest up, clean up and eat up.  We'd planned on spending some time in the city or its outskirts to work for accommodation since we had some time to kill before we were due to be in Fiordland for our hikes, so the first few days were spent in recovery and searching for a place to hole-up.  We ended up not finding any opportunities in Dunedin, but scheduled to work at an organic farm about an hour outside the city in a small rural community.  With that taken care of we took to the city to see what it had to offer.  

Dunedin is known as the Scottish city of New Zealand.  The majority of the original inhabitants of the city were from lowland Scotland seeking asylum from religious persecution in the Old World.  Despite the Dunedin pioneers being lowlanders, this hasn't stopped the city from branding itself with all the celebrated icons from the Celtic culture characteristic of the highlands.  From bagpipes and kilts to the recently defunct Dunedin Gaelic Society, the city certainly seems to celebrate its (ambiguously) Scottish heritage with enthusiasm.  Like many cities in Otago, it grew quickly during the NZ Gold Rush era in the 1860's to become the largest city in NZ at the time.  In modern times the city is known primarily as a college town (ahem, city).  The University of Otago is the oldest university in the country and when school is in session the population swells by about 20,000.  *(Thank you to the wonderful Otago Settler's Museum for all the rad info!)

When we happened upon the scene the students were just coming back from holiday, as we saw many an old couch being hauled across the busy street carried by a group of overzealous young adults.  There were two things about they city which we took note of almost immediately - the city has perhaps the most interesting architecture in all of New Zealand and the weather is reliably terrible.  Many of the buildings in the city were built in the Edwardian fashion (if you don't know what this don't feel bad) to resemble those left behind in the mother country and we didn't let the weather stop us from walking around the city to explore them.  The farmer's market nearby the railway station was an awesome chance to sample tons of local foods and even some NZ whisky! The organic farm we were scheduled to work for had a stall open at the market as well, but business looked brisk so we decided to put off meeting until the time came.

The Railway Station

The First Church of Otago

Downtown

Moving outside the city center, a tacky but fun landmark of the city is Baldwin Street.  The Guinness Book of World Records claims Baldwin Street as the steepest residential street in the world (some streets in San Francisco and London contest this).  The street has a 35% grade at its steepest point and is so steep that it is paved with concrete as opposed to asphalt since on the rare warm sunny day in Dunedin asphalt would run downhill!  Check out the photos!

Further up the hill from Baldwin Street is the cities mountain lookout, Signal Hill.  We were lucky enough to get one sunny day while we were in Dunedin to see the lookout at its best.

Penguins in New Zealand?

The long road back to the coast from Mt Cook National Park doesn't offer much in the way of attractions, but it sure is a beauty! On the southern end of the Mackenzie Country we stopped at the Clay Cliffs just off the highway near Omarama for more arid wild west style badlands landscapes.  A little farther and we crossed into Central Otago which is known as New Zealand's gold country where a few beautiful man made lakes painted the region with deep blue hues to contrast it's natural brown and green foliage.  Pressing on just a bit more and we hit the East Coast again in funky little victorian Oamaru about an hour north of Dunedin (interesting fact - Oamaru was growing up around the same time as Los Angeles and at one time was the more populous city of the two!). We made an unplanned pitstop to wander around the wonderfully preserved Victorian style buildings in the town's historic district and came upon an awesome little museum dedicated to Steampunk art.

Clay Cliffs  

On the road once more we closed most of the remaining distance to Dunedin before coming to camp for the night in Moeraki Village.  Just outside the village is the Katiki Point lighthouse and nature reserve, where we were to get our first glimpse at some of NZ's rarest wildlife - penguins. If you'd have asked me previously I'd have told you that penguins could only be found in the world's coldest regions, mainly areas on and around Antarctica.  Low and behold NZ has a small but healthy population of penguins to call their own!  In fact, NZ is home to a number of penguin species from the blue penguin to the rarest penguin on earth, the yellow eyed penguin (aka YEPs).  This reserve specially tends to the needs of these YEPs and is one of the easiest if not one of the only places in the world where you can see them in the wild and for free.

When we first arrived at the lighthouse and began the walk didn't anything beyond a few empty artificial penguin shelters hidden in the shrubs. The wind was gusting something fierce, dealing penetrating lashes of Antarctic cold right through "protection" of your clothes.  I could see why a penguin might like it here.  A bit farther along the landscape opened up to reveal a large colonies of fur seals which struck me as a bit strange since I thought seals are infamous predators of penguins.  Maybe that's sea lions… Anywho, there were pockets of other tourists in this area gawking down at the rocky headlands, so we joined in.  Upon closer investigation you could see a few distant penguins with arms open to catch the wind resting peacefully right next to the colony of seals.  Being that we didn't have binoculars we walked on, almost tripping on a seal resting within arm's reach of the trail!  The seal didn't seemed concerned with us in the slightest and just kept on snoozing, so we took some sweet photos before moving on to the end of the line.  There we found more seals, this time with pups, and our first ever glimpse of a bull.  

When we'd had our fill we started on our way back to the car figuring this penguin experience was going to be remembered mostly as a seal one.  When we came up and over the first crest we were surprised to see all the tourists huddled together in a semi circle excitedly snapping pictures of…penguins! They had come up from the beach onto the grassy area adjacent to the trail to cool themselves in the freezing wind!  The pair proved quite photogenic as they lazily adjusted their angle to optimize wind catching and we walked away with some fantastic close ups of those nice yellow eyes!

 

Middle Earth (aka Mackenzie Country)

Not wishing to spend another night in sandfly hell, we zoomed out of Arthur's Pass as fast as Velma's little wheels could carry us.  To break up a rather lengthy drive we stayed over at the Rangitata River Gorge in a beautiful AND cheap riverside camp.  Wow! Maybe we should have ventured away from the DOC sites sooner? Anyhow, back on the road we entered into the high desert area of New Zealand.  This massive basin is known as the Mackenzie Country to locals and is the primary source of eye candy delivered to international audiences in the form of blockbuster movies.  If you've seen a movie filmed in NZ, you've probably seen some part of this vast, spectacular and empty landscape.

The view from our campsite!

For our part, we took it upon ourselves to visit Mt Sunday, which served as the location for Edoras in the LOTR trilogy.  A long and semi hazardous dirt road brought us to the middle of nowhere where Mt Sunday, which is really more of a hill than a mountain rising alone in the center of a large plain surrounded on all sides by mountains.  It didn't take much imagination to picture an orc horde storming across the plains.  Unfortunately nothing remains of the set built atop the mountain, but somewhere amongst the mountain backdrop is the site that was used as the backdrop to Helm's Deep which was created entirely by CG.  The scenery is the real deal though, and it was fun trying to scan the mountains for where it could have been placed - all from the top of Mt Sunday of course! As an added bonus we met a woman as we were leaving who featured as an extra in the film during the exodus scene in Edoras! Awesome!

The top of Mt Sunday 

LOTR landscape

Further along down the highway and into the heart of the Mackenzie Basin lies Lake Tekapo.  Being just off the busy highway towards Queenstown, it's neon blue hue pulls tourists in for a quick stop.  We decided to stay for a few days however, as we were running high on time and found a sweet lakeside campsite to hole-up in for a few hot summer days in the basin.  We first made the mandatory photo stop at the uber-scenic Church of the Good Shepherd before driving up to the Mt John Observatory for the 360 degree views of the basin and its lakes.  The area is one of the world's few dark sky reserves, and from the top of Mt John you can see why.  For all the miles and miles you can see in every direction there is only one settlement: Tekapo with a population of 303.  The only other time I'd been in a dark sky reserve it had been a cloudy starless night, so I was pretty stoked for nightfall.  Can you guess what happened next? Clouds.  Gotta love it! (Don't worry, I finally did get my clear night the 2nd day)

Church of the Good Shepherd - I'm sure plenty of marriages are hosted here!

"Tekapo Blue" from Mt John

After a few days spent lazing around the lakes we hit the road again, this time taking a little detour out to the Mackenzie to do some hiking in the Mt Cook/Aoraki National Park.  Now I know I said Arthur's Pass was our first look at the Southern Alps of NZ, but let me tell you this - Arthur's Pass is like a pudding to Mt Cook's tiramisu.  It's that much better! The namesake of the park, Mt Cook, is the highest peak in all of Australasia while Mt Sefton gloriously presides over the village center with its milky blue glacier cap shining in the sunlight.  Of course, we could see none of this when we drove into the park for it was once again cloudy.  Green bush clad hills rising into the clouds was our first glimpse at the epic valley.  

While we waited for the sky to clear we took a hike to the Tasman Glacier which proved a good enough distraction while we waited for Mt Cook to show its pretty face.  It was the first time I'd ever seen the terminus of a glacier in person so I was pretty stoked.  The top of the glacier is so dirty and covered with debris you'd never know it was a glacier if it wasn't for the jagged blue edge fronting the glacial lake.  A nearby plaque showed that a mere 14 years ago the lake and valley in front of us didn't exist and instead was completely covered by the glacier! Global warming sure can be a drag…Anywho the sky still hadn't cleared by the time we got back to our car so we drove back to the village and waited and waited and waited until finally around 2:30pm the sky opened up and VOILA! I've never seen mountains so magnificent (sans perhaps Yosemite Valley)! We sped to the Hooker Valley trailhead that we'd been waiting to tramp all day.

The Tasman Glacier and lake

When we got the trailhead there were already paragliders floating down from who knows where making for some excellent photo opportunities in front of Mt Sefton's glacier.  All the way down the trail and into the Hooker Valley the views never ceased.  It was constant epic glaciated mountain vistas culminating in a spectacular view of Mt Cook over the Hooker Glacier and its lake at the end of the valley.  Easily the best day hike on the South Island so far!

Mt Sefton

Mt Cook & The Hooker Glacier