All Aboard the Taieri Gorge Railway!

Last weekend was a bit of a memorable one in many ways.  Not only did we have Liam with us after eight months apart, but Sunday September 24th also marked 20 years since my Dad passed away from cancer at age 57.  We wanted to do something special to remember him by, so when we heard that the Taieri Gorge Railway had re-opened just a few days earlier after extensive storm damage, we jumped at the opportunity.  For starters, most New Zealanders don't get to ride on a train very often; it's not a frequent or common mode of transport but the Taieri Gorge Railway is also not just any old train journey.  The six-hour voyage from Dunedin to Middlemarch is actually widely acclaimed as one of the top five train journeys in the world, beating Alaska and the Canadian Rockies!  Who knew!  We certainly didn't, but there was no way we were missing the opportunity seeing as we were right here.

Dunedin Railway Station - the most photographed building in NZ!

Upper floor of the station

The mosaic floor in the foyer 

Because EVERY station needs porcelain ticket windows!

It also gave me the chance to do something I had wanted to do for ages, which was check out the interior of the historic Dunedin Railway Station.  This is a seriously cool building - so cool in fact, that it is the second most photographed building in the Southern Hemisphere, second only behind Sydney Opera House!  Opened in 1906, the station is impossibly grand both inside and out.  With its mosaic floor, Royal Doulton porcelain balcony and surrounds and gold gilding all over the place, setting foot in it is like going back in time.  It felt even more so as we climbed up into our 100 year old heritage carriage, with its original wrought iron and varnished wood.  As we settled in to our seats for the next few hours, it was pretty exciting to think we were going to be travelling through miles of countryside where no other vehicles could go.  The line was originally begun in 1879 to service the goldfields, however it was finished too late for the miners.  It was used instead to open up the fruit and farming country inland at Cromwell and carried a lot of four-legged woolly passengers before losing out to road transport and eventually closing.  Fortunately, thanks to a team of passionate volunteers, it was later lovingly restored and resurrected as a tourist operation. Today, this 154km railway journey remains quite literally the only way you can see the things we were going to see!

All aboard!

Our cosy little carriage

The train pootled along at a leisurely pace out of Dunedin until we left civilisation as we knew it far behind.  We wended our way along the Taieri River, through the first of the ten tunnels along the way until we began to steadily climb the Taieri Gorge.  Considering how high up we actually were, the train managed the climb with ease and before we knew it, all three of us were madly pointing our cameras out of the window and scrambling outside to get a better view.  One of the highlights of the trip was the Wingatui Viaduct; a 197 metre long curved bridge which is not only a master of engineering but also the largest wrought iron structure in the Southern Hemisphere, built in 1887.  To give you an idea of the size of it; it's up there with the Eiffel Tower, except lengthways.  Incredible to think this amazing feat of construction was built out in this no-man's land, heaven knows how they did it!  As we crossed this viaduct, one of a dozen or more, and emerged through the tunnel into Mullocky Gully, we chugged along past a few quaint 'blink-and-you-miss-them' places such as Parera, Mount Allan and Christmas Creek, before making a brief stop in Hindon to stretch our legs and take photos.

Pootling along the Wingatui Viaduct (and trying not to look down!)

Stopping to admire the view at Hindon - and say hello to 'Sue'!

By now we were totally accustomed to 'ooh-ing' and 'ahh-ing' at every turn but the stop at Hindon was definitely a favourite moment for me.  As we piled out of our little carriage onto the platform and stood looking out over the countryside, along with 'Sue', the monument dedicated to all the sheepdogs who had worked in the area for over 150 years, I thought of my dad and how much he would have loved this journey.  I wished he were here to see it.  I didn't think the journey could get any better than this, but the best was still to come!

Boldly going where no cars have gone before

Rivers and waterfalls, bridges and tunnels, Taieri Gorge has it all!

Higher and higher we gently climbed, heading out of the gorge and over the Deep Stream and Flat Stream viaducts.  Here the landscape became even more incredible, as we travelled through 'The Notches'; yet another mindblowing feat of engineering through seemingly impossible rocky formations. After stopping at Pukerangi, the rocks gave way to miles of open plains, dotted with sheep and cattle.  'I always wondered why people always went on about New Zealanders and sheep', said Liam.  'I never knew what the big joke was about, I've never even seen that many over here!  But now I've been to the South Island?  OK now I finally understand!'  The view was beautiful and made even more so by the snow-capped mountains in the distance.  However it was extremely barren and exposed and Gareth and I had a hilarious time trying to stay upright as we stood out on the little platform at the end of our carriage.  We had never known such ferocious winds!  At last we reached the end of the line at Middlemarch.  A tiny but friendly rural town, we had an hour to browse here at our leisure.  The railway does provide some small snacks and refreshments, however seeing as its a six hour journey we definitely recommend bringing your own food and drink as well.  Fortunately, the Strath Taieri Pub put on a warm welcome for hungry travellers and the food was both excellent and reasonable.  We loved the cosy atmosphere of this little place and its people.

The barren plains at Sutton

Middlemarch - a little town with a lot of character, including this pub!

Time to head for home

Tummies nicely full and photos duly taken, it was time to board the train once again for the ride home.  The journey was just as magical facing the other way and we all lost count of how many photos we took and how many times we said 'wow'!  A couple of hours later we emerged somewhat reluctantly back into civilisation.  It had been a full-on day and wasn't over yet, as we still had to take Liam to the airport to catch his flight home to Wellington.  None of us were ready for him to leave yet, we were all having too much fun and there was so much more we wanted him to see!  It was a shame that we wouldn't get the chance to raise a glass together that evening for my dad too.  As he made his way to the departure gate however, it seemed that Mother Nature had other ideas.  To all our joy, a voice came over the loudspeaker to say that due to high winds, Liam's plane had been unable to land.  His flight had been cancelled and he was unable to get home for another 24 hours! I'm not sure who was wearing the bigger grin, him or me!  So off we went back to the motel, to plan how we could make the most of our unexpected extra day together and to finally have a drink for my dad.  Crazy as it sounds, I couldn't help smiling a little to myself and wondering if somehow he had something to do with it!

Exploring the Otago Peninsula with Liam!

My word, do we have some catching up to do!  So much news I'm not sure where to start, I think I'm just going to have to spread it all out over a few blogs.  In case you didn't see our Facebook post, we went away last week for another trip exploring Dunedin and surrounds.  We always discover new stuff to do there, and every time we visit, we find more reasons to go back again!  This time however was extra special as my eldest, Liam was flying down to meet us for a long weekend.  It has been eight months since I last saw him and we were so excited; Liam doubly so as it was his first visit ever to the South Island.  Although I think he wondered where on earth he was going to begin with, as the plane flew right over Dunedin city before landing 30km away in the middle of acres of farmland, surrounded by spectacular mountain ranges!  'This is a bit different to Auckland and Wellington airports!' he laughed as he climbed into the van.  'That's the South Island for you, it's a bit different all over!' I told him.  Over the next few days, he was to discover just how much.

The Pyramids from Okia Reserve end

Liam and me at the top of the first pyramid, known as Te Matai o Kia

View from the top, towards Victory Beach

Looking out towards Margaret Hazel Slope

With Minnie safely in boarding kennels and the weather looking a bit iffy for the next few days, we wasted no time in doing what Liam had requested, which was doing as much hiking as possible.  Much to Gareth's relief, Tunnel Beach with its enormous hill was closed for lambing season but a quick visit to the Department of Conservation website left us spoilt for choice when it came to alternatives.  As far as we were concerned, the more we got to see the better, so we settled on an interesting sounding one called The Pyramids, along the Otago Peninsula.  These are situated at the edge of the Peninsula's most isolated beach and to get to them, we had to turn off at Portobello and drive out quite literally into the middle of nowhere.  Once there, we then had to follow a track through farmland for some time until we arrived at Okia Reserve and the base of the Pyramids.  As you might imagine, these are two perfectly geometric volcanic columns which look exactly like pyramids.  There was a track leading up the first one so we braved the wind and wound our way up.  It only took around 10 minutes to climb to the top and the view was impressive, stretching out across marshland and to Victory Beach beyond.  However both Gareth and Liam's eyes were focussed firmly on the second, much larger pyramid which stood adjacent to it.  There didn't appear to be a track anywhere for this one, most likely because nobody in their right mind would want to climb it!  The guys were undeterred however and set about finding a way to forge their own path.

The BIG pyramid, aka Pu-Wheke-o-Kia

Off to climb a mountain

Where the bloody hell ARE we?!

Here ensued a lengthy detour up Margaret Hazel Slope, squelching through boggy marshes, and clambering up hills teeming with wild rabbits and high country sheep, as the three of us did our best to work out how the heck we could navigate our way around the swamps to reach the fence which surrounded the giant pyramid.  In the end, the three of us had to admit a wet and muddy defeat - but it had been great fun trying!  From here we turned our attention back to the main task at hand, which was continuing our way through Okia Reserve and onto Victory Beach.  As well as being the most isolated, this beach is also the longest and most spectacular beach on the Otago Peninsula.  It was named after a ship called the Victory after it became grounded there by a drunken sailor in 1861 and you can still see parts of the wreck at low tide.

Mother Nature at her best - completely untouched and unspoilt

Victory Beach.  Well worth the walk, even without the seals and penguins!

Being in such a remote location, Victory Beach has remained absolutely untouched and unspoilt, with its pale sand and 3.5km of pristine coastline.  It's also home to many sea lions, fur seals and both blue and Yellow Eyed penguins.  Unlike other places we have visited with sea lions, the barreness and isolation of this particular place made me super conscious that this was very much THEIR territory and making our way through the dunes was really quite nerve wracking, knowing of the possiblity of an enormous and possibly aggressive male sea lion could waltz out in front of us at any moment!  Whilst we were teased upon arrival by the full length imprint of a seal in the sand, its owner was nowhere to be seen and the beach was devoid of both seals and penguins.

The long walk back.  We recommend sturdy waterproof footwear!   

With daylight starting to draw to a close, we made our weary way back through the dunes and onto the reserve track.  It had been a great start to our trip and thanks to our spontaneous detour, my pedometer was showing we had walked 13.5km!  'So what do you think of the South Island so far?' I asked Liam as we arrived back at the van.  'I rate it pretty highly!' he answered in his usual frank manner, as he took one last look around.  But as he - and us too - were to find out, this was really just the beginning!

Bouncing back into Spring

Wow, has it really been a month already since my last blog?  I have no idea where the time has gone! Needless to say, it's a bit late but SPRING IS HERE!  We made it through the whole Southland winter in our little van!  I am so proud of us - but to be honest, it really wasn't that bad at all.  I'll be honest, I was absolutely terrified at the initial thought of it.  Once Minnie got sick and winter approached, I didn't really know what to do.  The plan had always been to wend our way back up north before the harsh weather hit but now it was on its way I wasn't sure which was the best option; to risk battling Mother Nature back up across the whole country, or to simply hunker down and hibernate for a few months.  The thing was, we were so happy here, we really didn't want to leave!  So we hunkered and we're both so glad we did.  Despite the initial damp and mould trials, our first van winter really was quite a breeze.  We were cosy and warm throughout and while the rest of the country struggled with endless rain, flooding and storms, the weather here was ridiculously kind to us and to this day we continue to experience hardly any rain.  Who could possibly ask for more?  Sure, it will no doubt catch up with us in the end, but for now we continue to enjoy the sunshine.  In fact the temperature has already hit 18 degrees in the past few days!

Our colourful spring campground

Our campground is looking a picture at the moment.  I say 'campground' but it's really so much more than that.  At around 40 acres in size it's more like a giant parkland, combined with a working farm. There are gardens all over the place and at the moment we're being treated to bright splashes of colour wherever we look, from camellias and rhododendrons to weigelas in every shade and variegation. Let's not forget all the traditional spring flowers too, the daffodils, jonquils and snowdrops which are dotted everywhere.  Next to Brian and Evelyn's bus there is a huge daffodil bed just waiting to burst into flower, we can't wait for them all to come out!

'Norbert' the tiny orphan lamb having his first bottle!

And, being spring and being a farm, there are adorable little lambs scampering around everywhere, usually in twins or triplets, following their mums.  We were even lucky enough to look after a couple of orphans for a few days and bottle feed them until they were found new sheep foster mums!  Not a day goes by that we don't feel truly blessed to be here and to have found this place.

Another glorious day in Gore

Now the weather is warming up, we're starting to see the odd new visitor coming to stay for a day or two, including a couple of overseas ones, which we haven't seen any of for months.  I had a lovely surprise the other day when walking out of the grounds and a couple in a motorhome said 'Are you Jackie?'  They introduced themselves as Katherine and Lloyd, who have been following us through this blog and Motorhomes, Caravans & Destinations!  It was so wonderful to put some real faces to names.  If you're reading this Katherine, we must catch up for a glass of Peter Yealands before you move on again!  After two and a half years here, Brian and Evelyn are looking to go travelling again soon but at the moment it's just us and Debra, the lady I mentioned last time who is living in her car. She goes off travelling and sight seeing in a new area for a week or so, then pops back here and catches up with everyone for another week or two before going off somewhere else again.  It's such a free way to be!  It really is like having a little family here; everyone helps each other out in any way they can.  Just this morning Evelyn popped in to us for a tutorial on how to use her new Smartphone before she and Brian we going to the library to meet Debra for some computer lessons!  To think we would never have met any of these lovely people otherwise.

So where are we going from here?  We're not sure, at the moment we're quite happy here!  Despite being cooped up in the van throughout the winter, it's actually been a really busy time and we're using our time at the moment to just chill out, take stock and enjoy life.  Much as working from home is a blessing, it's also still possible to burn yourself out if you don't balance your time wisely.  I was writing for a lot of other people, as well as myself and was literally spending hour after hour, day after day writing my bum off.  It started out fine; I mean it was freezing cold outside, what else were we supposed to do?  I decided that if we were going to be stuck inside for the next few months, I might as well try and be as productive as possible. Gareth and I are both creative souls and we understand the need for each other to immerse ourselves in the things we love, so that's what we did, quite happily. However as winter was coming to an end, I found I was putting myself constantly under pressure to make the most of each day, to cram in as much as I possibly could, to achieve achieve achieve.  Which is really stupid because at the end of the day, nobody else expected it of me, only me of myself!

In hindsight it was probably a good thing that I got the measles because it forced me to stop.  And once I stopped, I found that I didn't want to get going again.  All the passion and inspiration I had for writing had just gone, I couldn't even think of anything to write about any more, there was nothing there.  As spring approached my measles was replaced by a severe case of cabin fever and I couldn't bear to be inside any more.  So I just stopped writing. Instead I spent my time walking, cooking, listening to music, feeding lambs and just spending time with Gareth and I quickly felt so much better.

Sometimes you just have to stop and smell the polyanthus!

It was during this time that I also decided to become vegan and shortly after, Gareth did too.  Now THAT was a surprise.  While I'd been vegetarian on and off for years, I could never imagine him not tucking into big slabs of meat and having cheese on everything, not to mention chocolate!  We both envisaged him being constantly starving and impossibly grumpy but it's been quite the opposite, we both love our new lifestyle and the food is brilliant!  Besides, as Gareth has discovered, you can get dairy free chocolate in the supermarket and it's not bad at all!  Funnily enough it was this change of lifestyle which brought back my enthusiasm for writing again.  Now I know that veganism isn't for everyone and this blog is essentially a travel/van life blog so that won't change, I'm not going to start harping on about it now or in the future.  However we do enjoy cooking a lot more these days and take a lot of joy and pride in it, so we started a Facebook page purely to indulge our love of vegan food and to share recipes.  You're welcome to check it out any time here and see what wonderful culinary creations we are able to come up with in our tiny kitchen.  People think that being vegan must be soooo difficult and soooo hard but if we can do it, anyone can!

Other than that, we're just cruising along at the moment.  Poor Gareth got hit pretty hard with the measles and is still recovering but hopefully is coming out the other side of it now.  I have also made the decision to leave Simple Savings, which is a wrench after 13 years and I will miss the unique community but I know it is the right one.  I might live in a mobile home but that doesn't mean life is meant to be spent going in a million different directions!   I am fortunate to still have a lot of writing opportunities which I am really excited about and you'll still be seeing us in Motorhomes, Caravans & Destinations each month.  Talking of which, if you live in NZ and have the opportunity to grab this month's issue, do have a peek at the three-page special on what life is like travelling with a dog, as well as Minnie's favourite dog-friendly destinations.  It really is the cutest thing, hopefully other dog owners will find it helpful too!