Me and my son went hunting for neon blue mushrooms in New Zealand
When each of my kids turn 16, they get to pick a place and we go, just me and them.
My oldest picked Japan because he wanted to see the snow monkeys 3 years ago. We had a blast chasing cherry blossoms, eating our way through Osaka, and getting immersed in Japanese culture.
So when my middle child picked New Zealand because he wanted to see the rare blue mushrooms that grew there, I was doing backflips in my head.
If I could only repeat one country, It’s New Zealand. If I could move to another country, it’s New Zealand. My expectations were high for my 3rd time there, and this place didn’t let me down.
Auckland and the North Island
Getting to New Zealand is no joke. ORD > YVR > AKL took over 24 hours and March 21st didn’t exist for us. We arrived in the morning and ideally had to stay up all day to avoid jet lag, which translated to pulling almost two all-nighters. (I can’t sleep on planes).
So day 1, we took it easy. Got acclimated, got some groceries, and checked out the giant gannet colony and black sand beach near our AirBnB in Murawai Beach. Ate in and mistakenly left a window open, so we got bit quite a lot by mosquitos that night.
With a full night sleep under our belt, we drove down to Waitomo Caves to see the glow worms. This was one of the things I was most looking forward to, and we chose black water rafting, floating through the caves on inner tubes.
It was like a teal galaxy was sprayed across the ceiling of the cave for a couple hours. The guides could have left me down there, and I would have been happy. I only wish there could have been more times where we shut off our head lamps and floated in pitch darkness.
We also went ziplining on the north island, which was probably the thing I was looking forward to the least. I’m a big scaredy cat when it comes to things like flying and roller coasters. I’d never been ziplining before, so I didn’t know what to expect. But this was one of the things my son said he definitely wanted to do, and this was his trip.
And I had a blast! The only part I didn’t enjoy was the abseil at the end. Just step off a 6-story platform for an instant of freefall before the ropes catch you. No thanks! Zooming through the forest was a whole new perspective.
Our guides did a great job telling us all about how their company is basically a way to fund removing invasive species destroying the forests in New Zealand. They also told us about how New Zealand place names are very literal, and for the rest of the trip we had lots of good chuckles at things like “Random Creek” and “Dead Dog Culvert.” Some of the Maori names were worth a laugh, like “Little Orangpuki.”
South Island and the hunt for blue mushrooms
There were no blue mushrooms.
It was hard not to mask our disappointment when the New Zealand Department of Conservation ranger told us that Abel Tasman had been pretty dry for a month, and that we were probably a couple weeks too early to find any blue pinkgills in the beech forests.
This was the main reason we came to New Zealand.
But, I’ve been dealing with setbacks like this for years. I quickly shifted into problem solving mode. After some more conversation, I got some tips on spots further south on the West Coast that might have Entoloma hochstetteri, the blue mushroom that only grows in New Zealand in certain areas during certain times of year. It’s beloved for its sky blue color, so much so that the kiwis put it on their $50 note.
I downloaded iNaturalist, a citizen science app, and looked for recent sightings. I changed our plans to head down through the Cantebury region and instead had us going down through Westland.
After a six hour drive, we hit our first potential spot, the Lake Brunner scenic trail near Moana. I tried to set aside my expectations. The last sighting was two weeks before. But after ten short minutes, we reached the GPS pin and there just off the side of the trail was our first blue pinkgill mushroom.
It was such a delight to find it. The color was as vibrant as we were expecting, and this tiny, fragile little fungus stood out on the loamy forest floor. Both of us geeked out and took lots of pictures of it.
The rest of that trail yielded four other mushrooms, one set of two was probably the brightest blue we saw. But it was also one of my favorite nights of the trip. Sharing this exciting, challenging find with my son is something I’ll always remember. We traveled halfway around the world to find something rare and ephemeral, something that neither of us had ever seen before.
When I’m old and reflecting on my life, this evening finding the blue mushrooms will probably be one of the memories I’ll come back to when I think about the time spent with my son.
Touching the untouched on Stewart Island and Doubtful Sound
We put loads of miles on the rental car during this trip. Miles in the middle of nowhere, sometimes we would go 200 plus miles without a gas station.
Something I learned on my first trip here was that food is often hard to find. You can drive for two hours between towns, and then there’s only one option for a restaurant. And things close early. If you want food after 5pm or 6pm in these remote towns, you’re out of luck. We were saved several times by grocery shopping by the airport and having easy meals of tortilla rollups or fruit and nuts. We both came back several pounds lighter.
After so much traveling by car, it was time to start traveling by boat. A bumpy crossing of the Foveaux Strait put us in Oban, a sleepy little town on Stewart Island. The type of place where there’s only a couple restaurants to eat, lots of seafood, and a short 5 minute walk puts you in the wild.
Most people come to Stewart Island for the kiwis, but our night time tour got cancelled due to rain. So instead we walked down to Horseshoe Point and Dead Man’s Cove. Whoever owns the house that sits above the beach on Dead Man’s Cove is winning at life, what an incredible place to have to yourself.
Our morning was filled with rare birds, we took the tiniest of boats over to Ulva Island with a guide and quickly became immersed in that world. Saddlebacks, Yellow and Red Crowned Parakeets, Robins, and even a tiny Rifleman. Our guide was in tune with the forest and helped us slow down and listen for signs of the birds.
Back on the mainland, we made a quick stop at a self-guided glowworm cave so that I could practice taking pictures of the little guys. I went in by myself, and quickly decided that it was a bad idea after I got lost even with a headlamp and reflective tape marking the path forward. Next time, I’ll make sure I have a guide.
From there, we headed to Doubtful Sound for an overnight boat cruise. This place is one of the most remote places on Earth. You have to take an hour long boat ride to reach a road that is only accessible by that boat, then drive an hour over a pass to get to another boat for a cruise on waters that are the definition of untouched.
The boat makes sure you get a lot out of this day, there’s a small kayaking jaunt, an opportunity to swim in the chilly waters, a moment where all the engines are turned off so you can hear how silent it gets, and the boat even gets under sail out in the Tasman Sea.
I’d done a boat tour like this before, and one of my regrets was not swimming. So this time I was first off the back of the boat. Before I jumped in, the water close by where we did the plunge started roiling and bubbling. I asked the guides what it was and they said, “Probably fish. Maybe eels. Nothing that can hurt you.” Was it foolish to jump into that? Maybe. But the dip was bracing and I’m glad I ticked that off the list.
