New Zealand Road Trip - December 24, 2007 (21)

December 24

Auckland

So much to do, so little time! I had my agenda: see Auckland and finish shopping (which was actually to get gifts for family and friends). Not necessarily in that order. Keep in mind this was Christmas Eve Day and we were leaving Boxing Day.

Strategy is everything in a time crunch. And we had a strategy: bus tour of the city. Specifically the Auckland Explorer Bus. A shuttle bus picked us up at our motel and drove us to the Auckland Museum (Oh my gosh, another museum!). From there we got on the main tour bus, which took us around to the top attractions. The entire tour is two loops of about one hour each. So we did the entire tour, then doubled back to a trendy shopping area. We all had lunch together then Craig got back on the bus and went to the Museum. Joe and I went shopping for an hour or so. Then we walked back to the museum to meet Craig.

From our shuttle bus - our driver (Craig took this pix).

We saw quite a bit from the bus, but due to time constraints (we had to be back to the Museum by 4 pm to catch the shuttle bus back to our motel) we didn't get out much. So the pix are from a distance and show Auckland, not individual buildings and places as we could do in other places.

First - about Auckland - "City of Sails":

The Auckland metropolitan area or Greater Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest urban area of the country. It is also New Zealand's most populous city with approximately 1.3 million residents, over a quarter of the country's population, and demographic trends indicate that it will continue growing faster than the rest of the country. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world.

[from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auckland]

So here is Auckland from a bus tour...

Sky Tower - pix by Craig.

At 328 metres Sky Tower is the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere, offering breath-taking views for more than 80 kilometres in every direction.

[from http://www.skycityauckland.co.nz/skycity/auckland/sky-tower/sky-tower_home.cfm]






These "hills" are actually volcanoes - the city has grown up around something like 18 of them.

Museum grounds (pix by Craig).

Museum - pix by Craig.

Museum again (pix by Craig).

Joe and I didn't spend much time at the Museum, but Craig did and he liked it. He was also happy that he found an out-of-publication book by a paleontologist that he met at Te Papa. The book, naturally enough, is about New Zealand dinosaurs and other extinct NZ fauna.

A good thing about the bus tours is that they are pretty reasonable, you can "hop on, hop off" as long as the buses run and in this case, for another $NZ15 you can purchase a second day, which is what we did. Our plan was to "save" the things that were only opened on Christmas Day for the next day. So we went back to our motel with the plan to "hop on" the bus again on Christmas Day and resume our tour of Auckland.

New Zealand Road Trip - December 20, 2007 (17)

December 20

Rotorua

We spent the day in Rotorua. The day began with an overcast sky, but eventually the sun tried to make an appearance. Certainly an improvement from the previous day.

In addition to being the Maori cultural heartland (see Dec 19 post), Rotorua is also known for its geothermal features. If you've been to Yellowstone National Park, you will have an idea of what Rotorua is like (and smells like!). More on this in a bit. First, we started with the waterfront on Lake Rotorua.

There is a nice park and promenade along the lake front. The boats are strictly recreational in nature, or for tourist activities. There are also a number of float planes that are used for flying tours over the area. As with much of the rest of New Zealand, the landscape is defined by volcanic activity and Lake Rotorua is simply water that has accumulated in a volcanic crater (caldera). The hills in the area are old volcanoes. Given the geothermal activity of the area, I expect some of them are still active.

Black Swan.

Little Shag. This guy was very entertaining. It was swimming around and diving in the weeds. The water was only a few feet deep so we could see it grabbing some bugs or something and chowing down. It was very quick and would go 20 or 30 feet before popping up again.

New Zealand Scaup.

Black Swan with baby.

Lakeland Queen. This boat was built in 1986 and modelled after a Mississippi river boat. It will take you on dinner cruises.

We started up the hill from the lake to one of the city parks. The church is St. Faith's Anglican Church (built in 1910).

Panning to the left of the church.

In the park garden.

One of many geothermal mud pools found around the town.

This is the walkway up to the Rotorua Museum of Art and History.

The museum is housed in the historic Bath House building, located in the Government Gardens. Rotorua Museum opened in the South Wing of the Bath House in 1969 and Rotorua Art Gallery opened in the North wing in 1977. In 1988 the two operations combined to become Rotorua Museum of Art and History.

[from http://www.rotoruamuseum.co.nz/AboutUs.asp]

Detail of the entry fence. This is Maori design.

Gazebo in the "formal Government Garden" on the museum grounds.

There are also a number of croquet and bowling greens on the museum grounds.

From the top, this looks like several trees closely packed, but there is only one trunk at the bottom. They look like some kind of cedar tree.

Art in the museum grounds.

Getting closer - that's Craig.

Looking back from whence we came.

From the viewing platform on the top floor.

More geothermal activity.

Without too much exaggeration, it can be said that Rotorua is one of the geothermal wonders of the world. It is full of outrageously coloured pools and lakes and some really wild looking silicate and mineral formations. You can also see multi-hued lichen, moss and salt deposits. There are some exquisite rock structures and terraces that were formed by (and continue to be shaped by) centuries of volcanic activity. There are gurgling and hissing geysers, plopping mud pools, smoking craters (technically called "fumaroles") and hot springs. The whole place is charged with something of a primordial ambiance (if you can ignore the occasional sign of the tourism business) and features a range of natural phenomenon that challenge the auditory, visual and olfactory senses.

[from http://www.rotorua.nz.com/geothermal.aspx]

Croquet or bowling "green" in the foreground. I don't know much about either of these activities, but my guess is that this one is undergoing some maintenance. These greens are immaculate - they are tended like a golf green. Downtown Rotorua is in the background.

A volcanic hill.

This reminded me of Calgary sky when a Chinook arch is coming in.

Pukeko.

Common Myna. Apparently these are not found on the South Island.

Rotorua is yet another interesting place and another on our "next time" list. We liked both the cultural and geological aspects of the place, but didn't have enough time to delve into either in a serious way.

New Zealand Road Trip - December 8, 2007 (5)

December 8

Invercargill

Invercargill is the most southern and western major centre in New Zealand. At 50,000 people, it's a bit less than half Dunedin's population of 115,000.

The thing that struck me about Invercargill is that it is FLAT. When there, you would be forgiven if you thought you were in a prairie town, grid streets and all. In Dunedin you would be either going uphill or downhill. There is no "flat."

We stayed at a really nice motel - argueably the nicest accomodation of the trip. We found they have a pleasant custom of walking you to your room with a pint of milk for your morning tea. We stayed at the Tower Lodge right across from the water tower shown in the previous posting.

Southland Museum and Art Gallery (Invercargill)

New Zealand is home to a "living fossil" - the tuatara.

The tuatara is only found in New Zealand and is in danger of becoming extinct! It is a reptile but not a lizard. It is the last remaining member of the ancient group of reptiles, Sphenodontia. Tuatara is a Maori word meaning "peaks on the back". It is easy to see why. The tuatara is famous because it is a very ancient – it is the only survivor of a large group of reptiles that roamed the earth at the same time as dinosaurs. It hasn't changed its form much in over 225 million years! The relatives of tuatara died out about 60 million years ago which is why the tuatara is sometimes called a ‘living fossil’ - cool.

(from http://www.kcc.org.nz/animals/tuatara.asp)

Naturally, with Craig along, we HAD to go see the tuataras housed at the Museum.




This one is not real - it's about four feet long.


These are the real ones. There were a couple of adults and a few younger ones. They look just like the four foot statue! But they are shorter - the adults we saw looked about 18 - 20 inches, the younger ones were half that.



Another tuatara website.

There is also a botanical garden and an aviary in Invercargill, hence the following pix.

Bluff

We left Invercargill late in the morning and proceeded further south. We were so close, we decided we should go to Bluff, which is THE most southerly point you can get to on the South Island. I expect it's the furthest south on the planet that I shall ever be. Joe too, since we usually go together. Can't speak for Craig.

The Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter is located at Bluff.

At the southern tip of South Island is a large aluminum smelter which processes bauxite from Queensland using power from nearby hydroelectric stations. The output from this smelter accounted for 4.2 percent of exports in 1999.

(from http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Asia-and-the-Pacific/New-Zealand.html )

To make aluminum, aside from the bauxite, a lot of electricity is needed. We were able to tour the impressive hydro electric facility referenced above - this will be featured on another day's post - stay tuned. And given that the aluminum production comprises 4.2 % of exports, it is also useful that the smelter is situated at a port site.


Mary and Craig.
Joe and Craig.



This was taken from the Bluff lookout.


Lookout again, with Stewart Island in the distance.

Leaving Bluff, Heading North

Our goal was to get to Te Anau by the evening. Craig had booked a couple of tours for us, which began the next day so we had to get there. The next two pix indicate the sort of landscape we were passing through.

In this pix, it is really clear that the island is volcanic. The hill in the distance is the classic volcanic cone shape. There is a herd of cows in the forground. For the most part, it was very green in this part of the country.

If you look closely on the top of the ridge of the hills, you can see some wind turbines. We saw wind farms in a number of places throughout our travels. Our experience suggests that New Zealand certainly has the potential to develop a significant amount of wind power - it was very often windy!

At the end of 2006 the total installed and operational capacity of wind turbines in New Zealand was 170.8 mega watts (MW). According to Ministry of Economic Development data in 2006 these turbines produced 617 GWh of electricity, or around 1.5% of New Zealand’s total electricity generation. This is enough electricity to provide for the annual requirements of around 77,000 typical households.

151 MW of new capacity has been installed during 2007, nearly doubling the total installed capacity in New Zealand to 321.8 MW. While this will lead to a proportionate increase in the amount of electricity generation from wind power the percentage share is unlikely to rise as 385 MW of new gas-fired generation has also been installed this year (E3P at Huntly).

At the start of 2004 the total installed wind generation capacity was just 36.3 MW, so this total has increased by a factor of nearly 10 times in the last 4 years. Most of this growth occurred in 2004 and 2007.

While wind energy’s growth in NZ has been highly variable (i.e. little growth in 2005 and 2006 and only modest growth forecast for 2008) the industry has ‘taken off” internationally. The total worldwide capacity has grown at a compound rate of around 25% per year for the past six years. The global total is now over 70,000 MW, leaving New Zealand (at less than 0.5% of the total) some way behind the installed capacity for other developed countries. In 2006 over 15,000 MW of new wind energy capacity was installed worldwide. This is nearly twice NZ’s total capacity from all sources.

(from http://www.windenergy.org.nz/FAQ/proj_dom.htm#current)