Burma/Myanmar

We hit the ground in Yangon the capital in the early evening and caught a taxi to our first hotel. Of course, I scandalised Randi by immediately asking what the taxi driver thought about the political situation! However he was happy to chat, though he said a year or two previously he would have changed the subject rather than risk a knock on the door in the early hours of the morning! We found the hotel, an operation run by an Australian, Jeff, who runs bicycle tours and his Burmese wife Soe-Soe who runs the accommodation side. They were wonderfully hospitable and welcoming. Another part of the crew was Tony, a french pizza chef who had come to buy a bike and stayed. He knew exactly what it took to make a gluten-free pizza so we enjoyed the luxury of pizza on two of the three nights we were there. Gluten-free bread also appeared on the breakfast table, and there was discussion about whether the German or Italian gluten-free flour produced the better bread!!

Courtyard of the Bike World B&B	Tony the chef and Moe-Moe. We were sorry to leave them!	Going to the station	The train ticket was *very* cheap!
Train passing	Food sellers up and down the train during the trip downtown	Read the translation!	Downtown Yangon

NZ Day 27 and 28. Christchurch

The morning in Lake Camp Campsite showed 2 other campervans on a huge wooded site by the lakeside. A lovely place to stay and the rain was over! Headed back to the blacktop and then on to Christchurch, our terminus in the S. Island. The central area where Mt Sunday lies is a huge wild area, much of it ‘Pott’s Station’ for sheep grazing. Just at the end of the gravel road we came across another historic building, an old sheep station, I thought it was for Erewhon station but can’t find the proof!
Christchurch was devastated in an earthquake in 2011 which resulted in 187 deaths and the destruction, or semi-permanent evacuation, of most of the city centre. They are still reconstructing throughout the city, repairing damage and bringing structures up to a higher earthquake resistance standard. We followed a walking tour through the city centre, seeing the damaged buildings, the temporary ‘Container Mall’, temporary Cathedral (the historic one is badly damaged and the subject of discussions about whether it is better to repair and reconstruct or to demolish and build a new one. Is it an opportunity to make a statement for the future, or a tribute to the past?) The temporary cathedral was designed by a Japanese architect who has made a name for himself with disaster buildings – simple and quick solutions with a decent lifespan, 50yrs in this case.

Storage Container Mall, Christchurch	The Empty Chairs memorial. Each family provided a chair and they are all painted white. I found this a powerful statement.	Inside the cardboard tube cathedral!	The cathedral from the outside.
The old Cathedral, Christchurch	One of the old buildings downtown that survived. The one next to this had to be demolished.	Christchurch Streetcar	Christchurch mural.

We camped in New Brighton. Even the campsite had been affected as the service blocks – washrooms, showers, laundry etc. were closed from damage sustained in the earthquake and replaced by portacabins.
The final day we spent in the Christchurch Botanical Gardens. These were the best Botanical Gardens I have ever seen, They are imaginatively laid out and they have a huge assortment of trees I had never seen before, and some that I didn’t expect to see there, particlualry Giant Redwoods! Then it was off to the car rental, drop off the van, get to the airport and fly to Auckland. In Auckland the transportation options across town are numerous and we had planned on the airport bus downtown and then perhaps ferry onwards. However when I checked out the airport limo service the driver quoted $65 each door to door, which would have been more than a taxi. In the end he haggled down and took us both for $50 – a fantastic price for Auckland! I suspect he had 2 seats left to fill and that we might have been on his way home! So back to Innes and Rita’s and a chance to have a couple of days where we didn’t feel we had to DO things.

NZ Day 26. Moeraki Boulders and Edoras!

 
Waking to no rain at the DOC campsite at Glencoe in the Herbert Forest we found that there was actually a pretty river below the campsite.
On the road we backtracked to the Moeraki Boulders, strange spherical forms, from 3 to 6 ft in diameter, showing pentagonal fracture shapes on the surface and with the cracks filled with a yellow/orange mineral. There seemed to be a camera club of either Japanese or Chinese or Korean visitors since every view was blocked by tripods! We found one boulder ‘growing’ out of the cliff face! There are some very glossed-over ‘explanations’ of how these boulders form, but they are short on detail and very incomplete, eg. the Wikipedia entry.

The boulders litter the beach, but only along a specific stretch of ~1km

Some of the boulders have fractured, revealing the internal structure

Boulder being ‘extruded’ from the cliff!

The beach at Moeraki

Then up the road to Oamaru, a very small town but with with the larges number of listed buildings in New Zealand. The combination of a workable local limestone and an ambitious pair of architects resulted in some very European styles for many of the buildings on Thames Street, Tyne Street and Harbour Street.

Protected Buildings in Oamaru

Protected Buildings in Oamaru

Protected Buildings in Oamaru

Protected Buildings in Oamaru

Onwards to Timaru in steadily worsening weather and indecision about what to do. We decided to push-on with the scenic route to Christchurch to see how it went. Fortunately, the further inland we went, the better the weather looked in the distance and we reached the junction to the unsealed road to Pott’s Station in almost no rainfall at all. Then after a long drag on gravel road, much harsher than Canadian gravel roads, or maybe it was the firm suspension of the campervan, arrived at Clearwater lake fishing settlement and then onwards to Potts Station and Mt. Sunday, otherwise known by most of the Western world as ‘Edoras’.

This van goes anywhere!

Randi atop Edoras

The view from atop Edoras

View across Rohan!

It is now possible to follow the marked trail right to the summit, and this is what we did. WE met a Kiwi couple at the start who had a ‘Batch’ at Clearwater lake, but when they had left we were the only people there, and probably the only people for miles!
After hiking up and down we tried to stay at Pott’s Lodge, but couldn’t find anybody there so drove back to the campsite at Clearwater Lake where we found one other Jucy van. As I sit here now at 19:10 the rain is beating steadily down on the roof of our camper…

NZ Day 24 and 25. Alexandra to Dunedin, Albatross Colony and Blue Penguins

And so we left Clyde and headed towards the East coast and the town of Dunedin. The drive is pleasant, through the Roxburgh valley and through fruit growing country. We were told that some of the orchards are owned by Canadians from BC who can then operate their Okanagan orchards in the Northern hemisphere summer and the NZ ones in the Southern hemisphere summer.
The first think that surprised us in Dunedin was passing the city limit sign about 15kms south of any real sign of the town! Obviously planning for the future! Arriving in town and checking with the i-site we headed out along the Otago peninsula to the Royal Albatross Centre. The end of the peninsula has ~100 breeding pairs of Royal Albatross, though only about 10 were sited where they could be seen from viewing areas. The end of the peninsular had also been the home of some coastal defence bunkers and guns, again originating in response to perceived Russian threats at the end of the 19th century, and then maintained through the 2 world wars, but never used.

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After the Albatross, we waited for dusk and the return of the blue penguins from yet another day at sea. The penguins nest at the end of the peninsular but every day, before dawn, they take to the water and spend the day catching fish, up to 15kms offshore, returning to their nests just after dusk.

Monday! Rained overnight but not too bad in the morning. Nice showers at the Dunedin holiday camp ($40/night). Had a skype with Sean and Tristan who had just been rock climbing. Went into Dunedin and did our own walking tour, starting with Starbucks! Well actually staring at the old Railway Station, an attractive building, and outside is a glass encased steam train, built around 1950! and last used in 1970 (?).

Dunedin Station. You could believe you were in Scotland!

Steam outside Dunedin Station

University building, Dunedin

University, Dunedin

Started by walking East to the University, which is home to 20k to 30k students. The older buildings are very elegant. Then back along the main street to the Octagon and the Municipal building and St Paul’s Anglican cathedral. Unfortunately the altar end of St Paul’s is a new addition (which won architecture awards, but IMHO is a disaster. There’s no continuity with the old building style and the addition only serves to increase the separation between celebrant and laity.
Then a tour to find the street art which was a bit less interesting than, say, KL’s or Penang’s. Felt like they were jumping on a bandwagon. Then the Chinese Gardens, built in 2007, in planning for 8 years and actually built in Shanghai and then dismantled and shipped to Dunedin for reassembly. Pleasant enough, and peaceful etc. though IMHO spoiled by the concrete construction of the bridge and breeze block underpinning of the buildings. Later we visited the Chinese garden in Sydney, which is absolutely stunning. Finally the first cathedral, Presbyterian. The original minister was a nephew of Robert Burns.

Dunedin Street Art

Chinese Garden, Dunedin

Chinese Garden, Dunedin

At the top of Baldwin St., world’s steepest street at ~20 deg.

After this we visited Baldwin Street (just up the road from ****Street). Steepest road in the world at 20 degrees slope.
Out of Dunedin we headed north up the coast to get a few miles under our belts. We aimed for the round rocks at Moeraki. The weather got rainier and rainier as we went and I had the stupid idea that we hadn’t had many nights in picturesque campsites like the first DOC one in Rotorua. So we drove on and found one about 10kms beyond our target, but by then the rain had set in and there wasn’t really anything picturesque to appreciate in the dark!

NZ Day 23. Biking the rail-bike trail from Auripo to Alexandra!

Saturday dawned…sunny!!! and we headed off from Clyde to our 10am meeting at Altitude bikes in Alexandra for a day’s cycling. We were fitted up and the bikes loaded onto the car and we were driven out to our start point on the Otago Central Rail Trail at Auripo for our 42 km ride back to Alexandra. The section we were to bike is ~45kms and ALL DOWNHILL!! It’s also possibly the most interesting section of the route. We hit two tunnels and a viaduct in the first hour as the track wound through a gorge. The scenery was fascinating in its variety as it went from snow topped peaks, through autumnal changing foliage to farmland. The valley in which we started is one of only two in the world which drain from the centre, not one of the ends!

At the beginning of the bike trail

One of the 3 tunnels

Light at the end of the tunnel

Looking down on some other trail users. Their greeting: ‘jump, do it’

By the time we got back to Alexandra we were feeling the effects of the trail and Randi left me alone to cycle out along the Roxburgh Gorge trail for 10kms and back. Again, lovely scenery along the side of the gorge. Its an arid landscape, but a fast trail.

Coffee stop along the trail

Side ride to the old buildings in Ophir

Lunch stop overlooking the trail

One of the bridges. Note the wooden trusses

Roxburgh Gorge

Sampling the local cuisine!

Back into Clyde for the night and pizza out, gluten free!. Blues Vs Hurricanes on the TV, game in Dunedin so we missed that one by one day :( Blues seemed to be getting hammered by half time so we headed home for bed.