Yes, There is Fall in New Zealand

While Auckland almost always has temperature ranging from 50 – 70 degrees, the South Island experiences different seasons. It was cold at night in Queenstown and Wanaka when we visited recently and felt like a good New England fall day.

As we’ve been in New Zealand for nine months now, we’ve seen a good percentage of the country, but in my opinion Queenstown / Wanaka is the top of the list. It is something special being among the towering mountains and beautiful blue lakes. We were lucky to have three days of sunshine and took advantage with a number of great hikes.

Glenorchy – This is a small town 30 miles outside of Queenstown. We found a few good hikes outside of town:

Lake Hawea – This lake is on the road going northwest towards the Haast Pass and the west coast.  

Blue Pools of Haast Pass – This has already received plenty of press on the blog, however we visited again to walk among the Hoodoos.

Rob Roy Track – In my opinion, one of the top hikes you can take around Wanaka. Your long uphill hike is rewarded with amazing glacier views.

Northlands

By the name Northlands, you can imagine where this is on the New Zealand map. It essentially encompasses all the area north of Auckland. It’s also known as “the winterless north”, however that does not mean it’s immune to a good rain shower. We travelled up there to take in a few sites and encountered weather that was as unpredictable as we’ve seen in New Zealand. One minute  there would be blue skies and sun, the next rain. This pattern repeated itself for the three days we were there.  Highlights from our visit:

Shakespeare Regional Park

Known for its picture frame.

Anchor Bay:

Certainly the busiest beach I’ve been to in New Zealand. Mixed of beautiful surroundings and good surfing. We timed our visit right to capture some sunshine.

Cape Reinga

This is the tip of the North Island where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet. It is far away from civilization but gives you a unique sense of location when you are at the absolute top of a country. There is a lighthouse, waves from the Tasman crashing into waves from the Pacific and  hurricane strength winds.

Sand Dunes of Ninety Mile Beach

After climbing up a few dunes, you feel as if you’ve completely left New Zealand and have been transported into the Sahara. There were people ‘Sand Surfing’, which was essentially sledding on sand. We rolled down the dunes and left with sand covering every square inch of our bodies.

Other interesting stops along the way:

The Great New Zealand Muster

At it’s heart, New Zealand is a farming land, the landscape littered with sheep. In a country where the sheep to people ratio is 8 to 1 (and used to be as high as 22 to 1), it makes sense that they celebrate their prized animals. The small town of Te Kuiti has adopted the moniker “Sheep Shearing Capital of the World” and holds a four day celebration of various sheep related activities in April ever year. It’s officially called “ The Great New Zealand Muster” and if I’m comparing it to something in the US, it is a mix between a country fair (small town charm), a circus (the spectacle) and a rodeo (the manly pursuit of sheep shearing). People walked around with taffy apples, kettle corn and American Hot Dogs (really a corn dog) and enjoyed local bands blasting classics. There were three unique events that I won’t soon forget:

Sheep Racing – Think that sheep are lazy? Think again, these were some competitive sheep all vying for first place in the sprint. They even had jockeys pushing them to reach the prize at the finish line. The sheep even had cheeky nicknames such as “Lamborghini” and “Michael Jackson” (for the sheep that was both Black and White). The pre-race favourite with the green jockey showed good speed for a sheep and placed first.

The Great Muster – The New Zealand equivalent of the Running with the Bulls. Although instead of getting gored, you might get a little wool burn. The residents of Te Kuiti stand on the sidewalks while over 2,000 sheep make their way through the center of town. Sheep dogs help keep the order and the sheep headed in the right direction. The excitement doesn’t last all that long, the sheep have traversed the main street after about 5 minutes. However it is a thrilling sight to see a mass of sheep takeover the town.

New Zealand Sheep Shearing Championships – How fast do you think it would take you to shear a sheep? You’d need to be pretty fast to make the shearing championships……10 sheep in about 8 minutes. I attended the semi-finals where two heats of six competitors furiously attempted to shear as quickly as possible. The sheep selected for this event probably aren’t thrilled about being part of the competition. They get completely abused in that 45 seconds of shearing. The contestants don’t hesitate to throw the sheep around, putting them in extremely uncomfortable looking conditions. After the 45 seconds of sheep embarrassment they get a slap on the butt and scramble to get out of the way.

The competition is judged by a mixture of time and the quality of sheering. The time is the base part of the score and then points will be added if there are sheep to be judged to be not completely shorn or have nicks from the shearing. Lowest score wins. The competitors hailed from all corners of New Zealand and the sweat pouring off their face gave you a sense of the effort they put into this.