Address: 2 Lincoln Street, Hampden, Otago, NZ, 9410
Tel: +64 (0)3 439 4439
Website: www.moerakibouldersholidaypark.co.nz
Fee: $30 for 2 pax for powered site
Recommended by Ian from Glenmark Holiday Park, we visited Alex at Moeraki. We still haven't really seen much penguins and arriving at Hampden was our last hope.
The Holiday Park is very spacious and clean! It is located next to the beach, so the wind is always blowing and the temperature drops drastically at night. Gilbert was very impressed with the toilet actually, just because they provided a floor mat and a bench for you to put your stuff. The facilities are located in different buildings, so getting from the car to the toilet to the kitchen mean braving the cold and walking in the wind.
The kitchen has about 3 electric stove tops and just 2 large tables for dining. The kitchen walls are what made this holiday park so different. Lots of graffiti, drawings and messages were scrawled on every surface of the walls and ceilings.
One particular message was about how this family decided to escape the Christchurch Earthquake by having a campervan "holiday" away from all the disaster that have struck them.
Remember in Oamaru, we packed our chips from Fat Sally's to go? Well, a day's old chips are not edible, but we used them as bait!
We thought we could see the penguins come up to shore from the holiday park, but nope, we had to drive on a long, winding and narrow gravel road which leads up to a lighthouse.A short walk away from the parking lot, you'd reach a fork in the road. To turn right to head towards the lighthouse or to walk straight, past a fence and a door. We walked straight down the path instead.
Walking straight
Well, that's what they say about the road least traveled! At first we didn't see any penguins, just lots of fat and lazy seals. Slowly, as dusk approaches, one by one the yellow-eyed penguins came up. What a sight to behold. They'd swim up to shore, waddle a little and shake all the water off. I was freezing my ass off, I didn't know how they took to just standing there air drying themselves.
Penguin Burrows
As we walked along the path back up, we saw several burrows. In some, penguins were already nesting in them and building up their home with twigs and branches.
Moeraki Boulders are just located just 25 mins walking distance from the Holiday Park. Instead of walking, we just drove up to the beach in the morning. It's unique shape is formed by concretions that have been exposed through shoreline erosion from coastal cliffs that back the beach. They originally formed in ancient sea floor sediments around 60 million years ago.
Maori legend tells that the boulders are remains of calabashes, kumaras and eel baskets that washed ashore after the legendary canoe, the Araiteuru was wrecked at nearby Shag Point (Matakaea).
Alpacas
Moeraki Boulders also has a cafe, a gift shop and Alpacas! You can buy food to feed the alpacas and they're all really dense and greedy. We spotted them from afar and after shaking the bag of treats, they literally jogged to where we were.
We had a hard time squeezing our hand through the fence though and as the alpacas become more excited at the on sight of food, they'd bump our hands and the treats would drop to the ground. In the evenr that we were able to squeeze our hands through without them bumping our hands, they'd lick and use their thick lips to suckle every morsel from our palms.
On our way to Dunedin, we stopped once again to take pictures of the magnificent view that stood before us. How do you not love the blue sky and the mountains? I must say, in the pictures, everything looks so serene and like it is such a perfect weather, but in actual fact, the wind was howling and it was freezing!
Oamaru is a beautiful old town with amazing architecture. It is also the largest town in North Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand, is the main town in the Waitaki District. The locally plentiful limestone (Oamaru stone) lent itself to carving and good designers, such as Thomas Forrester (1838-1907) and his son J.M. Forrester (1865–1965), and craftsmen utilized it. By the time of the depression of the 1880s Oamaru had become the "best built and most mortgaged town in Australasia"
Old building around Oamaru
If you look around Oamaru, you'd notice most, if not all, of its building are made from stone instead of traditional wood as forests and trees were scarce and building with wood would cost more than taking the stones from the cliffs. Oamaru also used to be a port.
Oamaru Public Gardens
You'll feel the magic of Oamaru Public Gardens the moment you enter the
classical main gates on Severn Street. Started in 1876, these gardens
are a botanical expression of Oamaru's Victorian history. Spring is in the air, and you can smell it! Fresh flowers are blooming and different sections of the gardens boasts different themes. We did not wander far from the main gate because we were running out of time, but we visited a section named "Chinese Garden". They should rename it "Asian Garden" because there was a mix of Chinese, Japanese and Korean relics and flora. Perhaps the Botanists were confused and lump all Asian flowers and decor as "Chinese". It probably seemed all the same to them.
Nonetheless, I've never been able to catch Sakura in full bloom when I was in Japan or Korea, and I was in awe of the magnificent sight that stood before me. I've never seen so many pretty tulips and daisies and so many beautiful flowers all at once!
Singapore's weather is just too hot and humid to grow such flowers and the flowers we get from florists wilt within 2 days.
We were buying small knick knacks from a cute little budget store selling souvenirs and Halloween decorations and we asked the kind lady where she'd recommend us for lunch.
Fat Sally's it was!
I ordered Fish & Chips and Gilbert ordered an open Steak Sandwich. No Regrets.The table next to us ordered some mains and we saw how large the portion was. We were actually discussing what we'd eat from the plate and how we'd pack the rest back.
My Fish & Chips came with 2 large slabs of crumbed fish, green salad with vinaigrette and tons of chips. Gilbert's sandwich came with a huge chunk of beef slab on soft and toasty bread, green salad and TONS of chips.
We obviously couldn't finish the chips. We packed the chips for later!
Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony
PENGUINS!
Address: Waterfront Rd, Oamaru 9400, New Zealand
Tel: +64 3-433 1195
Website: www.penguins.co.nz/
Tour: $10 student rate for day-time behind the scenes tour
Our main intention of visiting Oamaru was for penguins! We stopped by Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony to try our luck to spot some. Apparently, it was still too early to see any. Penguins only come ashore during dusk, and they return out to sea at dawn. Think of penguins as human workers, they leave for work in the day and return home only at night.
We went on a day tour to see the penguins through a viewfinder. That was the only way to see any Blue Penguins during the day time. There were chicks and a female penguin sitting on an egg!
Yellow-eyed Penguin Colony
Yellow-eyed penguins
Address: Bushy Beach Reserve
Fee: Free
Bushy Beach
Because we didn't see many Blue Penguins, we wanted to see more! Headed to Bushy Beach Scenic Reserve. Admission is free as you're not guaranteed to see any penguins. The outlook is perched up high on a cliff and you look down on the beach. At that time of the day, there were NO penguins and not even seals!
After about 15mins, we concluded that we were too early for their return and left. There were plenty of farms with sheep and cows to entertain us though!
What will I do without you? I'd get lost, I'll be cold, I'll most probably get eaten.
You're my best travel buddy and thanks to you, I've climb my first mountain (although to you it's just a very small one), I went diving, I went on a helicopter, I went Bungy jumping, I went skydiving, and the list goes on.
You encouraged me, held my hand and wiped my tears when I was afraid I'd get swept away by the river. Then you gave me a cookie and told me I was the bravest girl you ever knew.
I know I'm not that brave. It took me many attempts to jump of the ledge.
But..
What will you do without me? You'd forget things, you'll have crisis after crisis because you won't think about it until it happens or you'll burn all your food.
We complement each other, and I'm so thankful for you each and every day. So this post to dedicated to you, my favourite travel buddy.
Here is to you, more laughter and adventures to come.
Happy birthday my love. Hope you had a blast in New Zealand.
Date of travel: 8-11 March 2014
Location: Krabi, Thailand
Occasion: My 25th Birthday! Yay!
If you've read my previous post about Krabi, you'd know this is not my first time there. In fact, it is my THIRD time in Krabi. I love how the streets are so clean (as compared to other parts of Thailand), its pretty quiet (as compared to Phuket) and THAI FOOD!
I will not go into details like where I stayed at (the same place) or what I ate (the same things), but I would like to tell my story of how my friends and I almost drowned.
Unlike my 2nd trip, we went white water rafting and 1 hour of ATV ride. Now, this is not my first time rafting. I did it during my first trip to Krabi and once more in Bali (down a mini waterfall no less!). Of course, it is not those hardcore ones you see in Nat Geo Adventure or what, this is just a guided rafting experience (probably half or a third of the thrill as those on Nat Geo) led and controlled by two highly skilled Thai Rafters.
My bf brought along his Polariod Action Camera and although the video is super shaky (no thanks so his lousy filming) and super low quality (cos my computer kept crashing when I tried to edit the HD clips!), I hope you're able to see our fun and what we did!
In Singapore/Asia, we're experiencing a 'drought' and it hasn't rained in 1.5 months. I'm pretty sure Krabi is experiencing the same thing. For white water rafting, someone somewhere up the river is collecting all the water in a dam and releasing it according to a time schedule, and people wait till those time to raft down the river. My theory is that because it was the dry season, the dam is not collecting enough water as expected, the current and water flow is slower than usual. Also, due to the high peak season, there's actually a lot of rafts on the river! About twice as much as the first time round!
White Water Rafting in Krabi!
Anyhow, If you watched the clip, at one point at 1:46, you can see how jam packed the whole river is. We had to climb out the raft several times, push the raft past some rocks and continue our way.
There were 5 of us on the raft, excluding the two Thai Raft Guides. We met this Filipino American and he too, experienced the same thing as us.
To cut the story short, we were basically stuck between a rock and other rafts, probably due to the high number of rafts on the river, and the weak current/flow of the river water. This other raft comes charging at us at high speed and knocks into the side of our raft. Naturally, the raft flipped sideways.
The last thing I saw was Russell's shorts. Yes. The bright blue one with flowers!
I immediately panicked in the water, trying desperately to resurface. I've seen enough Nat Geo & Discovery & whatever nonsense to know that it's no joke to be thrown into a river with strong currents. I remember during the previous rafting sessions, the guides were saying that if you fall into the water, just stop fighting the current and try to float on your back (because you're wearing a life vest) till you're able to swim to the river bank. I tried to. Really, I tried.
I then realized something or someone was on me. When I stretched out my arms, I couldn't even break the water surface! I decided there and then that I wasn't going to die that day. I used all my strength to push that thing/person away, steady and shoved my feet into the ground and used my entire body strength to push myself up. The river wasn't deep. I was just stuck.
I managed to push that thing/person away. Than I realized to my horror, there was something else on top of me. It was the capsized raft.
River jam packed with rafters!
Again, I shoved my feet into the rocks and tried desperately to shove the raft away. I think at that point, someone saw the raft moving (or I succeeded in shoving the raft away) because the guide and tourists from another nearby raft grabbed onto my life vest and pulled me up their raft.
While I was gasping for air and getting my bearings, I turned to look at my saviors. The guide looked calm, while the group of Russian girls on board looked totally freaked out. They probably looked more scared than I actually was. They kept asking if I was ok, kept holding onto my arm and kept asking me to hold on to the rope on their raft.
I looked around and with a sigh of relief, I saw all my friends alive and on other rafts and the river bank. Again, the first person I saw was Russell (thanks to his bright blue shorts) on the river bank, than Yuyi who was behind me on the same raft, than the other guy (who's name I forgot! Sorry!), and finally, Gilbert who was on another raft meters away!
After we got back to our hotel, we were talking about the incident and let me recount my friend's experiences to the best of my abilities.
White Water Rafting
Yuyi:
Hers was pretty straightforward and less scary. I think she was one of the first ones to get pulled out of the water. She said that after she fell into the water, she just froze. Naturally, she floated up (I think face forward though) and she got pulled up onto the same raft as I did.
Gilbert:
Now, his story was pretty scary and amazing at the same time. He said after he fell into the water, he was also caught under the raft, just like I did. He kept floating upwards, but he couldn't surface. After pushing and kicking, he manged to get out under one raft, resurface for a second, and he was under the next raft again. He said he didn't know how long he was under, or how may rafts he was stuck under, but it felt like forever. After a while when he resurfaced, a rafter pulled him up their raft. Apparently, he said that the first thing he looked for was sadly, not me, his girlfriend of 7 years. It was his slippers. Which was also locked in the lockers back on shore. When he finally realized that we didn't even bring our slippers along, he started looking for us. That explains why he was so far away.
Russell:
I think Russ's story was pretty simple too. As I've mentioned, the last thing I saw was his shorts flying towards my face (thank God, no broken nose). So I think that the thing/person on top of me may or may not be him. If I am not wrong, he said he was near the surface and he just swam towards the river bank.
Although it was totally not the guide's fault, I mean, they can't really control if another person steers their raft towards us right? They kept apologizing and and even helped us apply medication to our wounds once we were back to base. I nearly cried when he applied the alcohol to my wounds.
I got a long and big wound on my lower back from scraping the rocks and my foot had a big graze from the rocks too. It was only the next day I found an angry bruise on my right thigh. Gilbert said he was still holding onto the ore when he fell into the water and it pulled his shoulder because it was yanked in a different direction. Yikes!
I was actually very surprised the camera made it out alive too. I guess when the raft flipped, the camera flew in between my body and my life vest and got lodged there. Thank God I clipped it to my vest.
ATV!
After all that ordeal, we went back for lunch and finally to the ATV! Apprently, they only have 3 ATVs for us to play and wanted to separate us into two groups. But because I was so tired and drained from the rafting experience, I just told them that I didn't mind being just the pillion and entertained myself by filming and taking pictures!
So I hopped onto Gilbert's ATV, and off we went! We did a small loop around the base camp to familiarize ourselves to the ATV. When we finally did leave the base, we went down this slope which was pretty scary. At the end of the slope, was this barb wire fence with rubber tires lining the side of the dirt road. Because Gilbert's right shoulder was injured, he didn't had the strength to steer left (by pushing it using his right arm), we kindda crashed into the fence.
That wasn't the bad part. The bad part was that the ATV continued moving and the front right wheel of the ATV went up the 'curb'. Gilbert managed to jump off, while I just... fell off.
ATV
I know, I am a klutz. I would love to tell you about the story of how I fell off a snow mobile in Hokkaido, but that's a story for another time.
My Dad called me a watermelon. :(
The fence we crashed into.
Gilbert said he managed to stop the ATV, turned around expecting to see me on the ATV, but I wasn't there. This time he panicked when he saw me on the ground. He said that most people would injure their palms or hands because they would break their fall by sticking our their arms. That is actually also how people break their arms. But he said I fell nicely and was in a fetal position, rocking....?
What do you mean rocking? I still have no idea until today.
But anyway, my ass hurt cos that was where it broke the fall. That actually resulted in a smiley face bruise on my ass cheek. My elbow and ankle was cut and bleeding, but I was gung-ho. I didn't care.
I just dusted myself off, and I just walked over to Russell's ATV and rode with him. HAHAHA. That made Gilbert super guilty. But hey! I managed to weasel out lots of pancakes from him!
Snorkeling!
What an adventure just for one day! The next day, we went snorkeling! Just imagine what all the salt water would do to my injured and bleeding body. I just tried to snorkel once, endured the pain, than tried again, trying to stick my elbow and ankle out of the water, than I gave up and just went up the beach to take a nap. I was sleeping so soundly, I was even dreaming. Imagine the feeling of waking from a deep slumber on the beach! LOVEEEE IT!
Double dating in Krabi!
After reading my experiences with White Water Rafting, please do not deter from trying it out yourself! No doubt, there will be some risk and danger involved, but that is also where the thrill comes from. The guides will do their very best to keep you safe. After all, your safety is of utmost importance to them and their business. Trust me. It is worth a try!
