A summer job in The Catlins

Following my meltdown post surgery number three, I retreated back to The Catlins south of Dunedin to recuperate. The ideal combination of ocean energy, tidal movements, wildlife on your doorstep, and verdant green forests to walk through, is the best medicine for my soul. This time I decided to stay at a backpacker lodge out of town by the sea lion beach at Surat Bay and what a great decision that was.

My hosts were a welcoming couple who love a good chat, and within days they had offered me a job working at the lodge in exchange for board and lodging. I've done this before, so after my two week eye clinic checkup in November passed without incident, I rang Jack and Esther to confirm that I would return for the summer.

My home for the next two months was this awesome place looking out on the Owaka River Estuary. It's right by the beach at Surat Bay and it's not uncommon to watch the sea lions at play whilst changing the linen in the bedrooms.

I'm glad I made the decision to stay put whilst my eye healed, and to limit my physical exertion to walking and house cleaning. Even though I followed my surgeon's advice regarding physical activity last time, this time I kept away from cycling or any activity where the residual gas bubble got to bounce around inside my eye. I kept up a much more frequent application of steroid drops for much longer, and slowly the inflammation settled.

I had my own little self contained flat beside the reception office, which I rarely needed to share with other helpers, as Jack and Ester usually house the helpers at their place down the road. I did my own cooking rather than share meals back at the house, mainly because I'm a bit of a whole food nut and it's just too long a period to be eating someone else's diet. Ester gives me money for food, or buys groceries for me, so the arrangement works fine. And there are seven friendly chooks for fresh eggs!!

The work is pretty easy. I usually start the day by feeding the chickens and collecting eggs, then check the computer for bookings, reconcile the bookings, change the beds after checkout, clean bathrooms and kitchen, do some laundry, hang it out, and later bring it in and fold it and put it away. Then there are check ins to do, chat to the clients about what's to be seen in the area, and show them around the hostel. Most of the work is done before lunch, and I share this work with one other helper and Ester, so I often go off on trips for a few hours or a full day. There are only seven rooms and three bathrooms, so it's pretty cruisy indeed.

Being in the Catlins a bit longer allowed me to do a few more walks, and to visit some of the attractions limited by the tides. For instance Cathedral Caves, a huge cave you can walk through at low tide only.

We were lucky enough to be there when a local farmer and his wife decided to make a flying visit. It's a pretty impressive hangar until the ocean comes back in again, and then it better be a seaplane! They flew off well before then...

Cathedral plane from Naomi Brooks on Vimeo.

I'm loving the temperate rainforest here, with huge tree ferns, lots of mosses, lichens and worts. Plus a few fungi if you look close enough. Occasionally you can find a big tree which was spared felling due to being too imperfect for timber. The same for the forests I walked through on the Bibbulmun Track, the only remaining giants were the ones the loggers didn't want. It's really hard to imagine what the forest must have looked like 200 years ago....

One day I headed down to Curio Bay, to swim with the Hectors dolphins that hang out in the sheltered waters there. It's a very scenic horseshoe shaped bay, with a sandy beach and rocky headlands, with a campground and a bunch of accommodation options along the beachfront. Personally, I prefer the sleepiness of Surat Bay to Curio Bay, which I'd considered as an alternative summer job option, but the beach at Curio Bay is definitely nicer, and safer, for swimming.

Also at Curio Bay, is the petrified forest, a collection of petrified tree trunks which you can see at low tide. It's not overly impressive to look at, but the science/history/geology of it is pretty cool...

Across from the stone forest is a live forest, but only small with a grove of Manukas, attracting quite a collection of birds. Nothing like a little birdsong to lift the spirits.



One of the nicest walks I've done is a section of the Catlins River Walk. This walk follows the Catlins River upstream for 12km, passing numerous small waterfalls and crossing suspension bridges. There's an opportunity to make it a loop walk by following some old logging roads back rather than returning the same way, but I only went half way, deciding to lie on a rock in the sun for an hour or so instead.

But all the walks are good. A bit of river, a bit of forest, a bit of ocean....

Besides sealions and dolphins, there are penguins, and the best time to view them is late evening when they return to their nests, or first thing in the morning when they leave for the day. There is a hide at Roaring Bay, just below Nugget Point, so one morning we amused ourselves watching these little fellows.


Yellow eyed penguins going to sea from Naomi Brooks on Vimeo.

I also got to know a few of the locals at Surat Bay and Papatowai, where I'd go for coffee at Peung's coffee caravan at The Lost Gypsy Gallery. I particularly liked the community at Papatowai, which has a bit of a hippy vibe, without the actual hippies. I might even have made a few friends...

After 8 weeks it was time to leave. I needed to return to Wanaka to pick up my ski gear, get a contact lens for my injured eye, and get fit for my upcoming trip to Japan.

That's next....

Traipsing around Wanaka

Here's a little commentary, complete with photos, of some of the walks and cycle trips I've been doing in the last few weeks.

Mt Iron is a piece of left over glacial debris sitting at the head of Lake Wanaka. I'm pretty sure it isn't made of iron or it would have been mined into extinction by now! Well that's what we do in Australia at any rate....

Being a mere 500m above sea level, and about 240m above Lake Wanaka, it's an easy climb to capture great views right up the Lake, and also overlooks Albert Town and the Cardrona River. It forms the backdrop to my rear garden and is the only mountain my eye surgeon says I can climb at the moment. It's also a favourite for exercise training amongst the super fit Wanaka locals. The climb is short but steep in sections, and the preferred option is to run it. I'm sticking with walking myself!!

From Albert Town there are a series of tracks radiating up and down the various rivers that meet there. There's the Hawea River Track which crosses a swing bridge and then follows the Hawea River (funny that!) up to the small township by the lake's edge. I love the serenity out at Lake Hawea, though I am reliably informed it can get hellish windy and not bad for kitesurfing and windsurfing either. Brrr!!! I'll stick to my warm ocean wave riding back in West Oz thank you!

Travelling in to Wanaka from Albert Town you can either ride around the base of Mt Iron (the quick way in) or take the much more scenic Outlet Track, which is a fairly narrow track heading upstream next to the Clutha River to where it begins at Lake Wanaka. From there you ride along the lakeside with spectacular views across the water to snow capped peaks on one side, and jaw dropping mansions on the other. And most of those mansions are holiday homes of the rich lying cruelly vacant. Sigh....

A third and fourth alternative from Albert Town is to follow the Clutha River downstream. There is a choice of tracks either side of the river as it flows swiftly southward. Both tracks (Newcastle on the true left, Upper Clutha on right) finish at the Luggate Red Bridge which makes it a good 26-28km round trip. Considerably easier to do on a bicycle, but I decided to walk it! Bit of preparation for some long day and overnight walks I have planned. Aside from sore legs and a blister on one little toe, I nailed it.

Across the Albert Town bridge on the other side of the Clutha River is Deans Bank. This is a more technical mountain bike track so I've been holding off on riding it until my vision is a little better. Now that the gas bubble in my eye has mostly reabsorbed I am left with a thick cataract that limits my ability to see with clarity in that eye. But I have enough vision to have better depth perception than is possible with just the one eye, meaning I'm now overtaking and passing others with ease, and downhill riding is no longer a completely terrifying experience.

Aside from Deans Bank, there's the Dublin Bay track, a rutted and at times steep, sandy and still terrifying for me downhill run out to the tranquil waters of Dublin Bay on the eastern side of Lake Wanaka.

I'm yet to tackle the more serious mountain bike tracks in Wanaka, of which there are many that I haven't even mentioned. Tackling the tracks out to Dublin Bay via Deans Bank were a bit challenging so perhaps I shall leave the others for another year, when my eyesight is fully restored.

On that note, yet another eye review has been and gone, and I am happy to report that there is a slight possibility that my two remaining operations will be done before Christmas to restore my sight back to what it was. In fact better than it was as the plan is to correct the myopia so I won't need to wear a contact lens in that eye!

Right now I'm preparing a list of all the things I need back here for the summer and the following year in NZ, because soon I'll be jetting home for a few days of sun, sea and surf, bookclub and catchups.

Woohoo! The grounding is over!!!!!!

Conquering Roy

I have come to Wanaka for 6 years in a row. Admittedly I only came for 2 weeks the first two times, and in 2010 I broke my arm, but I have no excuses for 2010 onwards.

This year, I donned the trainers, packed the daypack and headed up the hill. The long, winding, switchback track that is the climb to Mt Roy.

There are two reasons to climb Mt Roy: for the exercise and for the view. If there was a gondola option, I'd take that.

But if you're a Wanaka local you do Mt Roy as a training exercise for your next mountain race. I counted no less than 5 hardy souls doing the up and down run, god love em!

Aside from the fact that the walk is steep the entire way, with no respite at all in the gradient, it offers spectacular views over the lake and surrounding landscape.

 A little snow up the top made for some careful stepping, and the view at the top made the long slog so worth the effort.

And as for the walk back down: no comment!!

Explosion at Waterfall Creek

A glorious sunny day in Wanaka doesn't have to be spent skiing the white stuff on the hill, although it's pretty tempting to do just that. But this year I told myself I'd do more than just ski, that I'd try and be more of a tourist as well, so last Friday I hired a bike and headed off around the lake to cycle to Glendhu Bay.

Glendhu Bay is a sheltered inlet which hosts a caravan park and not much else. Spectacular mirror like reflections of the surrounding peaks, a vista of snow covered mountain ranges and Mt Aspiring in the distance make this bay a really popular summer holiday destination. But at this time of year the water temperature is a chilly 10 degrees, so the caravans sit in abandoned rows waiting for Spring.

A trail exists from the town centre all the way to Glendhu Bay, so with a packed lunch, the iPhone and Olloclip I headed off for the day. I cycled along the shore to the solitary spindly willow in the water (google Wanaka and you are sure to see a shot of this tree) and dutifully took my own mini series of photos, before heading off again.........only to find I had a puncture.

Since I was still in town it was a mere 15min walk back to the hostel to grab another bike, then I was off again. The path meanders along the lake shore, through some small forested areas then joins the lake again at Waterfall Creek. I'd jogged out to here last year, from now on it was all new territory.

Crossing the creek on a bridge, the path begins to climb as it hugs the cliffs above the lake. Formed by glaciers, most of the lake's circumference is steep and rocky, with only a few small beaches and inlets. It makes for great elevated views and a fairly rigorous ride. But flying down a hill and around a corner I am suddenly brought to a stop by a very loud explosion! I look around to discover nothing more spectacular than a full blowout of my rear tyre. Bummer!!

Still within mobile coverage I call the hostel, and soon Ian drives out to try and fix my second puncture in an hour! A new inner tube won't solve the problem of a rip in the tyre, so I abandon the bike with Ian, and continue on by foot. Much slower, but in actual fact easier to appreciate the magnificent scenery.

Lunch is enjoyed at a picnic table down a minor track with a million dollar vista.

A cliff walk above a rocky shoreline with two shags drying their wings - I would have appreciated the zoom lens for that shot.

A secluded beach

Mt Aspiring peeks out from some wispy clouds

At the end of my walk it's a simple matter of thumbing a lift back into town from one of the many cars returning from the ski fields.

links to all the rest of my New Zealand pictures here