We left Barrie at minus-20 Celsius, setting our home thermostat at 16 C to reduce gas consumption and headed to Pearson airport.
Eight hours later, we were greeted in Victoria, B.C.’s delightfully small airport by an old friend, and stayed for several days. Victoria wasn’t warm, but a clear improvement on Barrie.
Our destination was New Zealand. We flew from Vancouver to Auckland – a 13-hour flight, but first had to get to Vancouver.
On a Sunday, there was just one ferry and bus combination able to get us there on time.
Sadly, we had to arrive nine hours before our flight – too brief to visit the city, but a very long wait at an airport with nowhere to leave our luggage.
Once on board, our flight was delayed an hour due to a service truck stalled under our wing. We couldn’t “push back” until it was towed.
Auckland is a big city – 35 per cent of New Zealand’s five million people live there. Downtown Auckland is packed with imaginative and attractive highrise architecture.
Unfortunately, I was so “jet-lagged” I forgot to photograph the skyline as our ship sailed.
Wellington, New Zealand’s capital, has a population of 450,000. Our day ashore suggested a lovely place to live – good public transport, courteous folk, imaginative architecture. It was “high summer” and it was a sunny and pleasant 20 C. Winter temperatures drop to around 10 C – like our spring or autumn!
I was curious about Wellington, because 55 years ago, I had been offered an academic post at its Victoria University. On the same day, I was offered another job at Southampton University in the United Kingdom. I chose the latter – closer to Canada and my parents in Montreal.
Had I gone to Wellington, my life would have been very different. I might not have married my old (Montreal) friend. (No worries, Elaine, you’re the best wife ever!)
From Wellington, our ship called at three small ports: Picton, the terminal for ferries from Wellington, plus Kaikoura, and Akaroa, both destinations for tourists and New Zealanders with holiday cottages. Quiet, pretty towns, they have attractive seafronts. There were people on the beaches, but only small, hardy children braved the water to knee depth. I ventured into the sea to ankle depth – it was seriously chilly.
I was warned that sunning yourself in New Zealand was hazardous due to the “ozone hole” above the Antarctic. Decades of releasing “freon” refrigerant gases (chlorofluorocarbons and hydrochlorofluorocarbons) from refrigeration systems had depleted the stratospheric ozone over the South Pole (somewhat less over the North Pole).
Stratospheric ozone blocks the sun’s ultraviolet (UV). By preventing UV from reaching the Earth’s surface, ozone protects plants and animals from its damaging effects. However, freon molecules disintegrate on exposure to UV, releasing chlorine and fluorine atoms. These destroy ozone, allowing UV to reach the Earth’s surface.
In 1987, the Montreal Protocol, phasing out the manufacture of freon refrigerants, was ratified by 197 nations. Stratospheric ozone is still recovering, however, New Zealanders and Australians are wary of sun exposure — they wear protective clothing, or cover themselves with sunscreen.
Anyway, despite knowing this, I managed to fall asleep beside the ship’s pool without UV protection, grilling myself to crispy perfection. (My wife, who had been beside me, retreated to the shade, but didn’t bother to wake me!)
I intended to go ashore the next day in Timaru, a small town about the size of Orillia, in search of vitamin A. This prevents and even reverses some effects of UV exposure (sunburn). Sadly, it was raining that day and I never left the ship.
Three days later, I was still crispy. Lesson learned!
Our next port of call was the tiny village of Oban on Stewart Island. This southernmost New Zealand village has a population of just 460 souls. The island has lovely sea views and splendid beaches – again, only hardy souls and children enter the water.
Up to this point, we had seen inviting ports – small towns which were great places to live; nothing to attract a tourist from distant Europe or North America.
Then, we arrived at Fiordland National Park. Initially, we entered a narrow channel in a cloud-shrouded shore. As the clouds dissipated, majestic, towering mountains, dwarfing our ship, appeared. The channel was 750 to 1,500 metres wide. By contrast, Kempenfelt Bay is 2,500 metres wide, surrounded by puny hills.
These mountains rose steeply from sea level to 1,500 metres. As moisture-laden winds from the “Roaring Forties” hit these mountains, the air is forced upwards, cooling. Cool air cannot hold as much moisture, so the cooling creates rain. Fiordland’s annual rainfall averages seven metres. By comparison, Barrie receives barely a metre of rainfall each year.
Over many millennia, heavy rainfall caused erosion to create the fiords. Fifteen fiords penetrate this coast, some as long as 40 kilometres. Mountains in Fiordland’s south are 1,500 to 1,700 metres tall. In the park’s north, the mountains are more than 2,000 metres high – and spectacular. We saw snow-capped mountains from Milford, despite it being high summer.
Abundant rain creates a temperate rain forest supporting exotic bird life like the kakapo, a flightless parrot, the kiwi, New Zealand’s national (also flightless) bird, Fiordland’s crested penguin, and many others. There are also New Zealand’s marsupials. Unfortunately, the introduction of rats, cats and deer threatened these indigenous species, many of which have vanished in other parts of New Zealand.
After eradicating rodents and cats, New Zealand transplanted threatened populations to some Fiordland islands to preserve them; they have done well.
We did not see these any of these shy, nocturnal creatures. However, we were treated to many dolphin pods cavorting around our ship. These were not the large dolphins most of us imagine. They were small (quite rare) Hector’s and dusky dolphins. We also saw seals, albatross, cormorant and other sea birds, plus the occasional whale.
Although we did not venture inland, we know New Zealand has other spectacular attractions to tempt tourists. There are 13 national parks, the majority in South Island’s mountainous west.
North Island has some beautiful volcanic peaks. There are dozens of lakes, smaller than our Lake Simcoe, but far deeper. The country has many hot springs. One created a “hot water beach.” Most sea water around New Zealand is “refreshing” — this beach, offering warm bathing, is popular.
A great way to see New Zealand is by rail. The Trans Alpine Train traverses the Southern Alps, via impressive bridges and tunnels. Friends plan to rent a camper van and drive themselves around New Zealand.
New Zealand’s best feature may be its remoteness from the world’s trouble spots: Middle East conflicts, Iran’s sabre rattling, Africa’s sundry rebellions and Russia’s totally unjustifiable war with Ukraine. Coupled with a benign climate (ranging from subtropical north of Auckland, to temperate on South Island), this fertile and beautiful land is capable of growing almost any crop you can imagine.
Political events (tariffs) could reduce New Zealanders’ prosperity. However, they would still eat well, clothe themselves and build houses. Their lamb and well-respected dairy products find ready markets in the Arab world. They are well placed to survive less contact with the rest of the world than they currently have.
In a world threatened by the unpredictability of America’s newly elected president, New Zealand seems uniquely blessed.
Peter Bursztyn is a self-proclaimed “recovering scientist” who has a passion for all things based in science and the environment. The now-retired former university academic has taught and carried out research at universities in Africa, Britain and Canada. As a member of BarrieToday’s community advisory board, he also writes a semi-regular column.