Gilmerton Cove and Craigmillar Castle - 4/11/2007

Brian and I explored a couple of places off Edinburgh's beaten track. Gilmerton Cove is a series of chambers carved out of the sandstone bedrock in Gilmerton, just off the main crossroads. Unlike the typical old stuff in Edinburgh where the history is well known, Gilmerton Cove's history is a bit of a mystery. Originally thought to be carved out of the rock over the course of 5 years by a blacksmith named George Paterson, people now believe that the work is much older than the 18th Century, which is when he lived and worked there. The pick marks are still visible on all of the walls. Drainage leads into the cove from a smallish tunnel that some theorise leads to Craigmillar Castle. Theories for the Coves original purpose, aside from unique 18th Century smithy, include a drinking den perhaps for the Sabbath, a refuge/place of worship for persecuted Covenanters and a smugglers lair. After Gilmerton Cove, we wandered over to Craigmillar Castle to see if we could find the other end of the tunnel. We didn't, but we did have fun exploring the castle ruins.

Gilmerton Cove is a series of chambers carved out of the sandstone bedrock whose history is not known fully. You would never know it's there just off the Gilmerton crossroads.

I had fun playing with the low light settings on my camera. The method that worked best was to put it on a ledge, turn the flash off, and use the timer so my unsteady hands were removed from the equation.

The "punchbowl" for a wee dram?

Perhaps the guards were smaller back then?

Kaikoura and Christchurch revisited – 29/10/2007

I awoke to the brightest, warmest play day in New Zealand the day I was expected to leave. Such a tease! With my flight leaving just before 7pm, I was determined to make the most of it and Kaikoura was a great place for that.

After a makeshift breakfast of fruit bars, tea and milk, I set off to harass the fur seals at the Peninsula seal colony. Given the signs that warned against annoying the lazy seals at the peninsula and especially at other Kaikoura beaches, I was surprised to see businesses like this one around.

The fur seals at the Peninsula colony were basking in the sun surrounded by tourists with cameras. Signs warned that the seals have sharp and pointy teeth and move far quicker than their appearance suggested. The seals at the colony were more interested in resting than anything else, so it was relatively safe to be near them. After a few minutes, I left them in peace with the other tourists.

I went back to the main street in Kaikoura and walked its equivalent along the waterfront. The tide was on its way out. The beach lacked sand and instead was a series of volcanic gravel shelves as the tide receded. The walk was challenging perhaps because I was walking as close as possible to the water and occasionally that shelf would collapse just as a wave crashed in. I saw some seal silhouettes in the distance, but true to the colony signs, they were on their way long before I crunched my way there. The seagulls couldn't care less if I was there or not.

The main street in Kaikoura is lined with the usual cafes, restaurants, "adventure" tourism businesses such as whale watching (by boat, plane, helicopter...) and dolphin/seal swimming, shops and a post office. I sent a postcard home to the family, did about half of my Christmas shopping inside of 20 minutes (yay for a small family!)

I left Kaikoura at 11am, guessing that it would be 2-3 hours back to Christchurch and giving myself some wiggle room in case of traffic or freak accidents that might slow me down. The drive took a little over 2 hours, including a few traffic stops where they were repaving the highway and both sides were limited to taking turns at the one open lane. I arrived in Christchurch in time for a late lunch and was very happy to discover a good Mexican takeaway. Dear LL should be excited for a taste of home so far from home, if ever she visits.

Touristy Christchurch was more interesting during the day than during the rainy evening. I enjoyed my lunch at Victoria Square and then found larger-than-average chess (Street Chess as I discovered later and apparently there's a schedule) at Cathedral Square.

Mid-afternoon arrived far too quickly and I headed for the airport. My time in New Zealand ended well too soon, but I look forward to future adventures there.

My motel room with a view.

A lazy fur seal and the beginning of the Kaikoura Ranges punctuate the Pacific at the town of Kaikoura.

These fur seals may look lazy, but you can still lose a finger...

Zoomed fur seal

Kaikoura's stony beach was a challenging walk. The receding tide made shelves of the stones, which occasionally collapsed underfoot.

Town centre Kaikoura is a bit of a tourist trap, but not overwhelmingly so.

Gorse is a non-native, invasive plant in New Zealand.

Christchurch city centre has an old town feel to it, with its trams...

...and penguin buses.

Christchurch city centres on the Cathedral and its square.

Arthur’s Pass and Greymouth – 28/10/2007

My weekend holiday in New Zealand became drivers education as I kept chasing the bad weather. I drove across to the West Coast to check out Greymouth and perhaps head south through “Edoras” to the glaciers. Greymouth is a useful staging area, but not a very exciting place to be on a Sunday. Catholic region? Everything was shut save a few restaurants and the train station. After a beautiful, bordering on warm drive through Arthur’s Pass, rain, fog and wind greeted me in Greymouth. I had found the bad weather again. I changed my mind about the glaciers, figuring visibility wouldn’t be great and the hikes wouldn’t be as nice as they could be. I headed back to Arthur’s Pass to explore the hiking trails. The visitor centre had some really great maps and route information. I decided to attempt two easy walks on the western side of the village, Punchbowl Falls and Bridal Veil Falls. The signs called for the two to be 2.5hours return, 1 hr for Punchbowl and 1.5hrs for Bridal Veil, so I would be flirting with sunset toward the end of the walk.

After crossing over the river, the trail crosses a creek, the top of which is the “bowl” where Punchbowl Falls lands. The trail was fairly built up even after the creek crossing. It had many wooden staircases built up along the steeper bits, perhaps to improve accessibility. I passed a few people on the return journey and at one point, found the old trail to the bowl. A “10mins to falls” sign was stashed up there. Up and down some more stairs and the trail reached a viewing platform at the base of the falls. The falls were quite spectacular, even at a trickle relative to what snowmelt might bring. Most of the height of the falls was a sheer drop and then a cascade into the bowl.

I followed the tourist route back to the trailhead and set off to Bridal Veil Falls. I think every English-speaking part of the world with waterfalls has a Bridal Veil Falls. Some are quite spectacular runs in a kayak. This one was not. The trail to get there was much less built than Punchbowl. It wound through forest and across bridges of dubious quality past several fake falls before reaching the Bridal Veil overlook. A sign beside the overlook said “1min to falls” which for a moment I thought meant 1min down the trail to the base of the falls. Retrospect suggests that they meant to the overlook it was just beside, because it would have been only a minute if I threw myself down the hill to get there. It took me about five cautious minutes to reach the base. Unlike Punchbowl Falls, there was too much vegetation, earth and rocks in the way to see to the top of Bridal Veil Falls. I followed the trail across the bridge and up the other side before remembering that the trail went to the road about a mile too far from where I meant to be. The walk back along that road wasn’t enticing, so I turned back and followed the trail back to the carpark in Arthur’s Pass village.

I must confess to being a little disappointed with my second free day in New Zealand. My parents sort of complained about their Scottish Highlands trip as being a little boring. The Scottish Highlands are pretty empty, so if you’re not into doing something active (hillwalking, cycling, canoeing, climbing, etc), you have to appreciate the history, the village way of life and/or the scenery and accept that there isn’t much else to do. Northern Scotland is pretty empty. Inland New Zealand, at least on the South Island, is emptier. Emptiness doesn’t really bother me. The Kiwis are a people of extremes – they don’t do anything lightly. As a consequence, with most activities, you’re either in or out. At Akaroa yesterday, I wasn’t up for mountain biking down from the big (extinct?) volcano, so I wasn’t up for cycling. With only one road in and out of the village, there wasn’t much road cycling to unless I wanted to commit to a hard core climb up from the village. At Arthur’s Pass, I found a similar feeling. I wasn’t up for the 1600+m hike up one of the surrounding peaks, so my choices were limited to the tourist trails at the base, complete with stairs and handrails. Both hikes were very pretty, but I was hoping for a little bit more. A little bit didn’t exist. All or nothing. For that reason, rather than stay overnight at Arthur’s Pass, I chose to make Sunday more of an epic driving day and headed north to Kaikoura.

The scenery was amazing, and when I arrived in Kaikoura, I was very grateful I made the drive. It was the right balance of town and nature crammed into the tiny amount of Pacific coast available before the mountains took over.

The Waimakariri River was one example of the very blue rivers in New Zealand. It made me wish I had a canoe with me.

I found the bad weather again in Greymouth, so changed my plans from glaciers to Arthur's Pass sunshine.

Punchbowl Falls, as viewed from the bowl.

The Bridal Veil hike was less "built" than the Punchbowl Falls hike, but included traverses across several bridges of dubious merit.

Every English-speaking part of the world seems to have a Bridal Veil Falls. This is the tail end of the Kiwi version.

Mystery Machines seemed popular forms of transport, especially outside the cities. I felt boring in my misnamed Swift.