Dunedin

Otago Penninsula, outside Dunedin

Tuesday May 3.  Hogwartz Backpackers, Dunedin.

The rain outside thwarted our albatross and penguin sighting, though I stubbornly attempted none the less.  The result? Cold, wet and tired with a mild bit of ennui mixed in, Caleb and I returned to the backpackers that used to house the bishop.  Tea, granola bars and books will be my dinner tonight, as I our late lunch sated me and the rain dissuades me from another outing to the grocery store.  Tomorrow we leave Dunedin after breakfast and one more tour of the city, climbing the steepest street in the world.  We have been gone for 10 days now, and I am ready for my own bed, food, and clean clothes. 

Dunedin is a small city, where many Scots settled, at the neck of a peninsula jutting into the Pacific.  Rolling hills of the Otago Peninsula are dotted with sheep.  The coast is home to the yellow eyed penguin, blue penguin, and Royal Albatross.   We ventured to the Albatross Center, but missed the last tour of the nests where two albatross chicks can be viewed.  We were able to watch video footage of the fluffy gargantuan birds. The parents soar above the cliffs, dwarving the seagulls that usually are found careening about the tip of the peninsula.  We also visited the St. Clair Sea pool, but it was closed for the season.  The pool sits above St. Clair beach, and pictures when the pool is open show waves curling up over the wall and filling the pool.   We walked down to Tunnel beach, where a tunnel has been hewn out of the sandstone cliffs, yielding access to a beach from which to view the beautiful rock formations that is home to many shag and other seabirds.

Tunnel Beach

 Sketchy looking tunnel to the beach

 Although it is a small city, Dunedin boasts a museum, university, and botanical Garden, whose aviary served as the turn-around point of my run this morning.  We looked at the University of Otago and, on a whim, asked about medical school for international students.  We were told that they do not accept any international medical students.  In a country that is stricken by a diminishing medical student applicants and an increasing demand for medical practitioners, it is an enigma why they limit the field of applicants. 

Having evacuated Caleb from Japan due to concerns over potential radiation threats, I feel somewhat responsible for the predicament he now finds himself in.  He had a plan for the year, and a job.  When he left Japan, he had three days to tell the company if he planned to return.  Information about the radiation was slim at that point and all that was known was that Japan was not revealing the extent of the true issue.  The US had evacuated the diplomatic corps from Nagoya, where Caleb lived.  He decided not to return to Japan.

Start of the Kepler Track: one of the great walks in NZ

The issue of what Caleb should do next has been niggling.  One option is medical school.  New Zealand does a better job of providing doctors with a balanced lifestyle than the US medical system.  But for Caleb, he now needs to consider what he wants out of life, asking himself deep questions: Who am I? What do I want from my career? What kind of life do I envision for myself? Where do I want to live? How do I want to live?  What are my strengths, weaknesses?  What is my passion?  How do I wed all of this into the fabric of my life?  I too have been asking these questions, but have yet to refine the answers.  Let me know if you have…

"hut" to hut camping on the Kepler

Coming down from the hut, overlooking Lake Te Anu.  The Kepler track is one of NZ great walks and is so popular, reservations must be made up to a year in advance to hike the track.

Tomorrow we begin to wend our way to Christchurch and the end of our vacation.  The vacation has been a good mixture of visits and activity.  We hiked 28k of the Kepler track, one of the great walks in Fiordlands, kayaked Milford Sound, and took a cruise down Doubtful Sound.  In retrospect, the trip has been a lesson in geology, from the visiting the Fox and Franz Joseph glaciers, to seeing the results of plate tectonics in the mountains of fiordland, which continue to rise 1cm annually.  New Zealand is a place rich with natural history. The south island is much less populated than the north.  Lessons in biology, predators, prey and biodiversity  underlie  bird and marine life viewing.  In the kayak in Milford Sound, the caucophony of birdsong reminded me of childhood birding excursions to the Everglades.  It also came as a bit of a surprise that I have not heard its equal in many decades, a testament to the loss of songbirds in my lifetime.  

End of our hike: Lake Te Anu at Sunset.

Milford Sound by kayak.

Here in Milford Sound, small niches exist.  There is one valley known as Sinbad Gully, for example, where the Sinbad Skink lives.  No other place on earth can this particular skink be found...

Caleb in the bow; kayaking Milford Sound

A peaceful, quiet and personal experience of Milford Sound can be had via kayak.

Thus the vacation has been a perfect mixture of adventures, reflections, thoughtful discussions and reunions with friends.  Now, the weather has turned toward its usual winter pattern here, and urges me to return to my usual rhythm of work, rest, reflection, and play.  A good, strong rhythm with which to dance my life.

Early morning mist on Lake Manapouri, the gateway to Doubtful Sound.

 

Doubtful Sound is more remote and 10 times larger than Milford Sound.  We took a boat across Lake Manapouri, a bus over the pass, and boarded a second boat to cruise Doubtful Sound.  Captain Cook named this fjord "Doubtful Harbour" as he was not convinced it was navigable.

 The water of Doubtful Sound has a layer of fresh water on top.  This layer does not mix with the saline water below.  Tanins in the fresh water filter the light.  Many deep sea creatures are found in Doubtful Sound as a result.   When they turned the motors off, and quiet reigned, the sound was at its most beautiful.  If I come back this way, I would like to kayak Doubtful Sound as well...