Down at the end of the South Island is Invercargill, a town about the size of Longmont. It’s an odd town, very spread out, with an old, dying main street that looks like many Midwest main streets, with lots of empty stores, sex shops and some cafes. The newer shops are on streets one or two blocks out from the main street. The town planners here really need to rethink things because the old buildings on main street could be really beautiful with a bit of work. The town has a huge and lovely botanic garden, and nice museum which also specializes in raising a rare lizard, the Tuatara. On Friday afternoons, it’s a big deal to watch the lizard keeper throw maggots to the lizards, which we of course we had to see. These lizards have long lives and they believe that Henry, who is quite famous, is about 120 years old. There is also a technical college here that offers free tuition to New Zealanders and they have students from all over the country. Apparently, the town controls all liquor sales, including those at restaurants and bars, and so reaps lots and lots of money to put toward gardens, museums and schools.

Our little studio in Invercargill.

But our real reason for being here was Burt Munro. Don’t remember Burt Munro? The World’s Fastest Indian guy. I’m not sure what came first, the chicken or the egg, but this is a town that loves speed. There were more guys revving motorcycles out on the streets, and there are a couple of different raceways out toward the beach, with a big race going on the day we were there. I believe I read that there were about 9,000 attending the race that day. Our host had two big garages, containing two very old Hillman’s, one of which was outfitted for racing, and a couple of other race cars under construction. But the highlight was E Hammer, a truly bizarre local hardware store. Envision McGuckin’s – your very big, local hardware store. Take out every other aisle of stuff and instead, put in a collection of very old motorcycles, and in the housewares section, add old cars and old trucks. And add the original World’s Fastest Indian motorcycle and various related Burt Munro motorcycles and stuff. The hardware store owner is a collector and has decided to display them in his hardware store, free of charge, in between all of the hardware goods. Spencer was in his element, as were a number of men of similar age wandering around the store, gawking and taking pictures – right next to the pots and pans aisle.

This hardware store was amazing.  The owner was clearly a good friend of Burt’s but also a lover of old, unique things.  There was one whole cabinet of old wood working tools which is also a love of mine.

This is it.  The REAL Munro Special.  The one that set and still holds several speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

The real deal from the front.

The real slip steam body.

This is the beach that was in the movie and the beach on which Burt did his test runs.

This is the old Chevy that Burt (Anthony Hopkins) bought in L.A. for the movie.

Burt, I mean Spence in the Worlds Fastest Indian.  This is actually a display in the Invercargill museum.  Yes it said you could climb aboard and take pictures.  Seeing all of the World’s Fastest Indian stuff and learning about Burt Munro was a real treat for me.

In addition to this, we went out and hiked around a large estuary and down to the ocean before driving down to the beach where Burt used to test his motorcycle. It is very hard sand and there must have been 50 cars parked out on the beach with people swimming in the surf. Burt would have had no room to ride out there now. So all in all, it was a slice of real New Zealand – not really a tourist town and fun to wander around before heading out on the ferry to Stewart Island.

After a nice 4 days in Dunedin, we headed off south on the Southern Scenic Route to the Catlins. The Catlins is a lovely area on the southeast coast of the South Island and was previously “unfound” by the tourists, but no more. Our first stop was at Nugget Point, a beautiful lighthouse jetting out into the Pacific on a beautiful shoreline. On the rocks below were a number of fur seals sunny themselves on a lovely day. Our final destination was Curio Bay, a gorgeous protected bay with a huge sandy beach, with a campground at the point. We stayed at a rather “rustic” cottage right on the beach, and from the lawn we could watch Hector’s dolphins swimming by on a regular basis. The cottage was adequate but the location was amazing, so my only real complaint was the scalded hands we went away with. For reasons I don’t quite understand, sinks in New Zealand often have a hot and cold tap. This is more often seen in the bathrooms but in this cottage, it was like that in the kitchen. But the faucets were very far apart and so close to the back of the sink that the water from the tap actually spilled onto the back counter. So you were either running very cold or scalding hot water while trying to maneuver a pot under a faucet jammed against the sink, while soaking everything else. Weird.

The Nugget Point light house.

The shoreline below the light house was pretty cool.  As Barb said above we saw seal basking in the sun on the rocks.  It’s a tough life.  🙂

Our Curio Bay cottage from the road.

From the front lawn.

Speaking of a tough life.  🙂

 

This video shows the view of Curio Beach from our front lawn.

The next morning was fairly grey and cold and we had pants, long sleeved shirts and sweaters on (we spend many days here dressed like that). Our cottage owner operated a very small surfing school at the campground and I managed to convince a very reluctant Spencer to take a surfing lesson in the afternoon. Given the cold water, the cold and drizzly day, and our aging bodies, his reluctance was understandable. But I had never tried surfing and we could do it literally out our front door. So we signed ourselves up. Once the tide was up, the surfing dude drove onto the beach with his old jeep, with his trailer full of surf boards. There were three European 20 somethings joining us. The day before, the instructor had seen three Maori kids from Auckland struggling to surf on their dad’s old board, so he had lent them some boards and given them some instruction gratis, so they showed up again with big smiles on the faces, hoping to get another day on his boards. So he welcomed them in and started doling out boards. Spencer and I got the old people boards – about 10 inches of foam and VERY big. He was clearly a bit concerned about us but soldiered ahead.

Well, it was a blast. The sun came out, as did the Hector’s dolphins, who were surfing the waves with us. At one point, Spencer paddled further out and was within 3 feet of them, before he was waved back by the instructor. With the instructor’s help, I was able to get up and ride the “white water” (after the wave broke) in to shore twice and was quite happy with that. It was actually quite tiring, because even if you weren’t actually trying to ride the wave, walking out against the relentlessly bashing waves with a huge, floaty board was pretty wearing. And I managed to take a board in the nose and am still sporting a bruise on the nose. Spencer, on the other hand, was the star of the class, and got many good rides in. He actually got up on the “green water” (pre-break) and rode it in on his last ride. No one else managed to do that and the instructor could barely contain his glee. So that was really fun and we were both glad to have done it.

Sorry no pictures of the surfing.  We were too busy surfing.   🙁

That night around 9:00 , we headed down toward the point where there is a rocky section on the coast that actually contains many fossilized tree stumps. We actually didn’t get much of a look at the stumps, as the area was roped off for yellow-eyed penguin viewing. There were about 20 people down there with cameras and binoculars, as well as a DOC person there to manage the “larger wildlife”, and we all waited patiently and quietly while about 8 penguins made it out of the water and over the long rocky section back to the bushes and their nests and chicks. One pair gave us a great show, as the rope was about 10 feet from where they entered the bushes to their nest. I think it took these two about 45 minutes of back and forth and head-tilting greetings before they both made it to the bush. One of their chicks was getting impatient for dinner so it waddled out of the bush enough for us to see, before being shoo-ed back in by a parent. It was a really good viewing, as these penguins are very rare and very shy, and will often go back into the water if they are scared off by people. The DOC is very concerned about this, as then the chicks don’t get fed, which is why they put an employee out there to make sure that people behave.

The point just a short distance from the camp ground.  The rock shelve gets exposed at low tide.  The petrified tree stumps are out on this rock shelf.  It is also where the yellow eyed penguins come ashore.

This little one had crossed the rock shelf and was just about to enter the bush where its chicks were.  We saw the chicks and I took some pictures but they didn’t come out.  It was too dark and you can’t use a flash as it scares the penguins.

This pair kept passing one another on the rock and doing a little bonding dance.  It was very  cool.

The same pair passing on the rocks.

Trudging to the nest.  This was our best yellow eyed penguin encounter.

The next morning we packed up again and headed to Invercargill, for the next leg of our journey.

Our next stop on the southeast coast was Dunedin. Dunedin is a bit like the Boulder of New Zealand – about 125,000 people, a university town with about 20,000 students. It’s located at the inland end of a beautiful harbor – Otago Harbour. It’s a lovely town, with its Pearl Street equivalent – the Octagon, and lots of Victorian buildings on a gorgeous harbor. They say the railroad station is the most photographed building in New Zealand. We actually stayed about 12 miles from downtown, midway down Otago Peninsula in a teeny village called Portobello. There were two ways out to Portobello, the high road, down an effectively one land road meant for 2 cars, up and down and around these tortuous hills, hairpin turns, and beautiful scenery. Or the low road, meant for 1 1/2 cars, hugging (you hope) the shores of the harbor, with cliffs on one side and salt water on the other. Pick your poison. Getting back and forth to Dunedin was always an adventure.

Our little cottage in Portobello.

The view of the bay from our cottage.

The “low” road.  If you miss the turn, you are in the drink.  Driving here is really a challenge.

The most photographed building in all of New Zealand, the old train station in Dunedin.

We stayed 5 days and visited their lovely botanic gardens and their local museum. One evening, we hiked about 1 hour through some farmer’s sheep pastures out to Sandfly Bay to go up to the viewing hide to see yellow-eyed penguins. The way out to the beach had some sporadic green poles with orange tops, indicating the route, although it really wasn’t a true trail. While the South Island is renowned for its sandflies (we call them black flies in the U.S. And anyone who’s camped in the Maine in June and July knows the misery these small bugs can cause). However, Sandfly Bay is named for the amount of sand flying through the air due to winds being channeled in just the right way to send sand flying horizontally. Well, we were out there about 7:30 pm and the winds were calm. There were about a dozen people that had hiked in the more traditional, steeper route, waiting at the DOC hide to watch the penguins come out of the water and waddle up to their nests for the night. We saw one come out of the water, and over the course of 45 minutes, we watched in awe as it climbed a very steep hill that must have been a 250 feet high, going all the way to the top to its nest. Honestly, I would be amazed if I could have scrambled on hands and knees up that steep slope. And it does this every night to get to its chicks. Upon leaving, we saw another one waddling up the sand dune to its nest.

The beach on which the yellow eyed penguins come ashore.

This one we saw come ashore and climb this huge hill to it’s nest.  Amazing.  Remember this is the rarest penguin in the world.

The climb to it’s nest and chicks.

As we were heading back to the car, we passed a second penguin that had crossed the sand and was making its way up to its nest.

After making our way through the long path through the dunes, we came back to the sheep pastures. But this time, we couldn’t see the DOC poles and started heading off in the direction that we thought was correct. After about 15 minutes of walking, it was clear we had no idea which of the many hills we needed to climb to get back to our car. It was about 9 pm, the sun was starting to set and we’re standing around in the middle of sheep pasture. After some terse words back and forth, Spencer figured out where we needed to be, which did involve backtracking, but we made it back to the car before all light was lost and any permanent marital damage done.

The track on which we got lost.  There were several hills that looked like this and sheep everywhere.  As it got dark it was really hard to find our way.  I guess we’re lucky we’re not still out there wandering around.  🙂

On the end of the peninsula is a Royal Albatross nesting colony, and the land is owned and operated by a trust that likes to charge $50 entry fee to get in and see the albatross colony. As we had seen a number of albatross already, this wasn’t on our list, but we did fork over some money to see the Little Blue Penguins come out of water at their viewing site. This was actually pretty amazing. About 100- 150 of these tiny (about 13 inches tall) penguins come ashore during breeding and chick rearing season at dark – about 10 pm, and come together in what are called rafts – groups of 10 –20 penguins swimming together in a group toward shore. There was a viewing deck with just a few lights that allowed us to see group after group wading ashore and waddling up the scrub to get to their nests. They were harangued by some hungry chicks (some appearing bigger than the adults), charging after any and all adults that might have food to share. It was quite a sight to see, as these penguins were totally adorable.

 

Blue Penguins coming ashore.  This is two videos spliced together.  The first part are the parents “marching” ashore.  The second is of two little chicks “attacking” some unsuspecting parent coming up the hill.  I don’t care if you are not one of my parents.  If you have fish, I WANT IT!  🙂

Another day we did a beautiful day hike out to a beach that was basically deserted for our first hour there, except for the few fur seals sleeping on the beach. It was a truly spectacular beach. It seems that everywhere we go, there are miles of beautiful, empty beaches. But the water is cold and the weather has usually been in the 60’s, and when it makes it into the 70’s, there is a cold wind blowing off the ocean. So swimming is rarely appealing. But on that day, we did stretch out on the beach and spend some time catching some rays before walking down the beach. After saying goodbye to our motel’s UK hosts, who were really wonderful, we headed of down the Southern Scenic Route to our next stop, Curio Bay.

 

The hike to the private beach.

Look at this beach.  It looked like this in both directions.  Not a soul, but us.

Well, we did have to share this beautiful beach with this big fat fellow and one other.  Geez, for crying out loud

After driving down from the mountains, we headed to Moeraki, a small fishing village on the eastern coast. We stayed at a small motel overlooking the bay in a lovely little village. The next day, we laid low, allowing Spencer to recover a bit from the flu bug and his fall the prior day. The following day, we headed over to see the Moeraki Boulders, a strange collection of spherical boulders on the beach up the road. These boulders are incredibly round and scattered over the beach and in the water, the result of an accretion process similar to the development of a pearl. There are many tourists there to see the boulders, but it is still worth the visit, as these are truly strange.

Our hotel is the building in the foreground on the right.

The hotel from the road looking out over the bay and Pacific,

The view from our balcony.

It is a very picturesque bay.

Barb working on where we are headed next.

The Moeraki Boulders.  Very strange.

Some of them are almost perfect spheres.

After our visit to the boulders, we headed to Fleur’s Place, a renowned restaurant in Moeraki Village. It is a cute, rustic restaurant, right on the harbor, that specializes in fish that is delivered straight from the fishing boats 50 feet away. We really didn’t know this restaurant was right there but we were able to walk to the restaurant from our motel for a very delicious lunch. That afternoon, we went to Katiki Point, again about 1 mile from our motel, to see the very rare and endangered yellow-eyed penguins. The penguins leave their 2 chicks up on the hills during the day, while the adults go out to sea for the day to get food. The hills were fenced off for the nesting grounds, but we were able to see three sets of chicks who were waiting in the bush (next to the fencing) for momma and poppa to come home with dinner. As it started to rain, we left them for the warmer motel room for the evening.

This is the only picture I have of Fleur’s Place restaurant.  The restaurant atmosphere was very rustic, but pleasant.  And the food exceptional.

A yellow eyed penguin chick waiting for mom and/or dad to bring dinner.  Remember, these are the rarest penguins in the world.

Here are a couple of Yellow eyed penguin chicks making there way somewhere.  Who knows where.  These are fairly mature chicks.  We saw some a few days later that were just balls of brown, fluffy feathers.

The next day, we drove back up to Oamaru, a strange town that has a few blocks of older Victorian buildings. It also seems to be home for the New Zealand Steampunk culture, with its own “museum”, or whatever you might call it. We wandered around the old part of town, looking at little artsy shops in the renovated old buildings. After lunch, we got back in the car for the trip down the coast toward Dunedin, our next stop.

The Steampunk museum in Oamaru.  We did not go in as admission seemed a bit high.

A rather strange steam engine sculpture out front of the museum.  Barb read on the internet that one of the earliest appearances of Steampunk was in the 1960’s television show, “The Wild Wild West”.  Remember that one?  The show was set in the old west, mid 1800’s but had some rather modern and futuristic twists to the weapons and contraptions both the good and bad guys used.  I loved that show.

A view from our new “home” in Portobello just outside of Dunedin.

Our cottage.

We are running a couple weeks behind in our posting as I’m still not feeling 100% and we have had VERY spotty internet connectivity.

Spence

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After our Peel Forest farmstay, we headed back up to Arthur’s Pass Village, in the middle of Arthur’s Pass National Park in the Southern Alps. It’s about in the middle of the country, due west of Christchurch by about 2 hours. The village has two cafés, a couple of backpackers/motels and the DOC visitor’s center. Oh, and one gas pump. We stayed at our first hostel/backpackers. It was a nice cottage with 3 private bedrooms with a nice kitchen and common area. We met a couple from Auckland that had just gotten off an 8 day backpack. The woman had been at Voli Voli in Fiji last July, so she and Spencer spent the evening looking at his pictures of diving at Voli Voli in Fiji. On the door of the hostel, a note asked us to keep doors closed, due to mice. Well, not just mice – a mouse plague, and I’m not joking. The next door neighbor had trapped over 2,000 mice in the prior month. The Auckland couple had mice running over them all night as they tried to sleep in the bedroom next door. They got so desperate that they left a plate of milk powder outside their door, in the hope of luring the mice out of their room. We saw one running around in our room, so we moved all of our food into the car for the night. Either that deterred them or we slept so heavily that we didn’t notice them. The hostel owner told us that some vacation cottage owners in town had to literally throw out everything, including furniture, due to mouse gnawing/crapping, etc. all over the house while the house was empty.

The next day, we hiked up to Temple Basin Ski Area, right outside of Arthur’s Pass Village and near the pass. This is the strangest ski area I have ever seen. To get there to ski, you park at the road and hike up 1300 feet, up to 4360 feet, and it is pretty straight up – a steep hike, in snow. It took us an hour in summer with hiking boots. The first 1/3 is what they call a Jeep track, and the rest is literally a normal hiking trail. I’m sure crampons are required for the winter. There is a goods lift that hauls up your gear, and then you stay overnight there. It has three rope tows, and lodges that look like Mohawk Mountain in the early 60’s. Apparently, they can house up to 120 people and they have a chef that provides dinner, etc. We were worn out after just hiking up and down – can’t imagine doing it in snow and then skiing all day. But it is spectacular up there. We then retreated to the village café for coffee and ice cream and to take some pictures of a kea parrot dancing on the roof of our car.

Temple Basin Track is the hike up to the ski area.  Note the time, 1 hour 30 min. JUST to get to the ski area.  That’s before you can ski.  I’d be dead by then.  🙂

Temple Basin Ski lodge.

I will say that the ski area is in a beautiful area.  Can you image all of these peaks snow covered.  It must be stunning.

There is still a bit of snow up there in what would be our July.

If you expand the picture and look closely you will see one of the lifts.  It starts in the lower right of the picture and heads up to the rock outcrop in the center of the picture.

I have no idea what these were but they were beautiful.

Kea parrot on our car.  Very inquisitive birds.

That evening, trouble enters. Spencer wasn’t feeling well and clearly had a fever and went to bed to bury in the covers. In the middle of the night, he got up and in the living room, fainted and crashed with a heavy thud. Not good. I got up to help get him back to bed. In the morning, we assessed the damage. He had an incredible shiner from hitting his head near his eyebrow, a nasty bruise on each elbow, and some back and neck soreness, not to mention an ongoing fever and stomach distress. On the one hand, we were lucky that he didn’t have a serious injury from the fall, but he was still a hurting puppy. So we loaded up the car, and I drove off south and east, back to the coast, while Spencer tried to sleep away the effects of the night before.

The real truth is that I was being a jerk and Barb “clocked” me.  🙂  I will say it was not one of my better nights.  Thank goodness Barb was there to pick up the broken pieces.

After leaving Kaikoura, we headed south and west toward the interior of the South Island, to the Peel Forest Farmstay. When we arrived, we were greeted by Steve, our host, dressed in a Scottish kilt and sporran. This is his usual work attire, and at greeting, he was also wearing Ugg slippers. These were, at other times, replaced with Crocs or boots. The farm was a small working farm that took in backpackers and other wandering souls. It was quite rustic and it was Steve’s boyhood home that had been added on to over the years. There was also a separate building as a hostel/backpackers. At the time of our arrival, also there was Emily, a Danish girl about Hannah’s age who had arrived the day before to work as a WWOOFer – someone who works on a farm for room and board. She was staying a week and then a Japanese girl was arriving. Emily had no car and seemed to have no idea where she was headed next, and talked about hitchhiking. Ick. Also there was another girl about Hannah’s age with a 4 year old daughter, and she had been living there for three years and was introduced as their “adopted” daughter. While we had some tea in the kitchen, three young people arrived, two from the US (one living in Melbourne and one living in Japan) and girl from New Zealand. We all had a meal of meat pies and veggies from their garden that night.

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Welcome to the Peel Forest Farmstay.

Steve, our host bringing the cows to be milked.

The house from the driveway.

Masha, Jenny, Zanna and a little friend of Zanna’s and Chomper in the front.  Masha is Steve and Jenney’s “adopted” daughter.  Zanna is Masha’s 4 year old.

Emily, the Danish girl milking one of the cows.  This was her first time on her own.  Steve had just showed her.

The milk Emily got was put into this contraption that hung on the fence that fed the calves.  Not sure why he did this.

The next morning Spencer and I had our usual slow start. He watched as Steve showed Emily had to milk the two cows. We then had breakfast and went up to hike Little Mt. Peel, although in the end it didn’t feel at all little. It was about 6 miles roundtrip but about 2500 feet of elevation gain and most of it was in the blazing hot sun. Luckily when we arrived at the top, we found that they stocked drinking water. Shortly after we made it to the top, two men about our age stumbled up from another trail. They had apparently left a hut around 8 am (this being about 3:30 pm) and had only taken two liters of water for two of them. They were cramped and shouting and hadn’t had water in over 3 hours. It was all very odd, as they clearly knew the trails in the area but certainly didn’t take enough water. They seemed to recover after collapsing on the benches in the shelter and downing a few quarts of water.

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Little Mount Peel – “Little” my ass.  This was a very hard climb.

There was a section in the top third that had these boardwalks.  We figured they were there to reduce erosion.

We made it!

View from the summit.

That’s where we were.  The hike went up the ridge on the right.

The next morning, we took a short walk through Peel Forest, a 1,700 acre preserve of old growth podocarp trees. There are some massive totara trees and if you believe the internet, one of them has a girth of 28 feet. Apparently there are also 1/3 of all New Zealand fern types found in this little forest. It was literally in the backyard of the farmstay. We then packed up and headed off to the nearest grocery store to stock up for our next stay at Arthur’s Pass National Park.

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These are very big trees.

Who’s that handsome guy by the tree?

 

We have been busy for the past couple of weeks but between non-existent or very limited internet service and my getting sick, AGAIN we have fallen behind in our blog.  Sorry.  Barb wrote this nice post and I’ve done the picture thing.  Enjoy.

Spence

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Day 2 Kaikoura started out grey and windy, with an invitation to go lobstering (or cray-fishing as they call it). Our cottage host invited Spencer and me, as well as two French guests, to join him in his small boat to check on the three lobster pots that he has. Apparently anyone (including non-residents) can put out 3 pots without any license, and can pull up 6 full size lobsters per day. There was a good chop and Spencer and I were glad to have our rain jackets on although the rest of Spencer got soaked by the spray and we were all pretty wet by the end of the trip. Graeme took us out between some rocks and pulled up the first pot. It must have had a dozen lobsters in it, a few looked like they were up to 2 lbs. He saved the biggest 6, after delineating for us the anatomical differences between the males and females and the different size requirements to keep each type. We then checked on the other two pots, again hauling up about 6 lobsters each, and he deftly sorted through the keepers and those to be returned to the sea for another day. He apparently goes out about 200 days per year, trailering his little boat in and out each day. I’ve never seen someone get a boat in and out of boat ramp area so quickly in my life – this guy was a pro! He motored us over to an outcropping where some seals were snoozing and into a lovely cove, before heading back to shore. It was a great experience, although I was certainly hoping he might donate a spare lobster or two. He can’t sell any of the them, so I have no idea what he does with 1000 lobsters a year!

 

Our hosts little boat.  5 of us went out in this thing.  It was a blast.  There is nothing like the salt spray on your face your jacket your pants and your socks.  🙂  We were pretty went when we got back but I loved it.

Video of our host pulling up the first pot.

After showering and warming up, we headed back down to the boat launch area, where we picked up a trail that heads up and around the cliffs of the peninsula. Much of it was walking through cow pasture overlooking the Pacific but midway through the walk, we could go down to beach level, where we ate some lunch while watching a big colony of red-billed gulls. Again, there were a number of nests and baby chicks, and a whole lot of squawking going on. Back up we went and around to the other side of the peninsula, to another seal viewing area. This one had lots of tourists and almost no seals, and those seals that were there seemed fast asleep or very bored with all of the tourists. So back we went up the cliff and around to the other side where we started.

red-billed gulls nesting area.  These are very noisiest birds.  Squawk, squawk, squawk.  It you expand the picture you might see a couple chicks.

A new chick with it’s proud parents.  🙂

This is just a nice view from the top of the cliff on our Kaikoura peninsula walk.

Day 3 was another day of early starts but this time for a whale watch. Kaikoura has really transformed itself into a summer tourist mecca, due to all of the marine life in the area. Our tour started with a short bus ride, with the bus filled to the max, to the boat launch. We went out for about half an hour before they started to look for whale spouts. There was another tour boat out looking and a helicopter and plane flying overhead with tourists, looking for sperm whales. We found one and motored along side it as it went wherever it was going, before it finally dove down and disappeared. We then stopped to watch a number of albatross and I managed to get a good video of one trying to run itself into the air. They are very big birds and they need a running start to get airborne. Then came a pod of about 10 dusky dolphins who clearly liked hanging around the boat. They swam around and around, and a few put together a string of front flips for our cameras – a most impressive acrobatic show. They told us on the boat that they think that the big splash made upon re-entry scares the little fish down, where other dolphins are waiting for breakfast. Then off again to track the signal of another sperm whale. Again, we followed along side for about 10 minutes, before the whale decided to dive below viewing sight. So back to the harbor we went. It was a great show on all fronts. And it’s nice to see that communities are creating a strong economy by keeping all of these wonderful animals protected and here for us to see.

The main attraction.  A sperm whale diving.

Note a bad shot if I do say so myself.  🙂

Some of the side shows.  An albatross just taking off.  These are magnificent birds with the largest wing span of any living bird.  Ranging from 8 and 11 feet.

Great video Barb took of an albatross taking off.

They are so very graceful.  Look at that lower wing tip.  It’s microns above the waves.

A pod of dolphins put on quite a show.

Another one of Barbs great videos.

After doing a few errands, we then headed up to Mt. Fyfe, to a short 2 km loop hike. It started out in a VERY crowded cow pasture. It felt like Moses, but instead of parting the waters, we were parting doe-eyed cows. So after tramping through their pasture, we went over the fence to a lovely loop hike through a forest, over a suspension bridge, down and back out through the pasture. It started to rain as we got into the car. For dinner, Spencer went out and picked up some very excellent blue cod fish and chips, wrapped in paper and eaten out of hand at the little cottage. Next morning, we packed up and headed SW to Peel Forest.

The start of our 2 km loop hike.  Up over the fence on the right and straight through the herd.  Watch where you step.

Friday, we started the true vagabond stage of the trip. We went up to Amberley for two nights, did a wonderful hike up Mt. Grey, and stayed in a lovely B & B in sheep country. Yesterday, we went to the Pegasus Bay Winery for a beautiful lunch. There are many wineries near Amberley and this one served a fabulous lunch outside on their beautiful grounds. Midway through our meal, our B & B hosts arrived to deliver a sweater I had forgotten and joined us for coffee on the lawn. We then drove up to Kaikoura on the east coast, about 2 1/2 hrs north of Christchurch. It’s a beach-y, resort-y town, with a bit of a Cape Cod-y in the summer feel. Lots and lots of tourists. The mountains come right down to the Pacific, with big stretches of beach interspersed with rocky outcroppings in the water. We are staying in a cottage on the south bay, right on the water. We’ll be here 4 nights before heading south again.

Today, we drove north about 10 miles to an overlook above a NZ fur seal colony. There must have been 100-150 seals there, many of them pups. They were quite active, with the pups in particular meandering around the rocks like all children, moving for the sake of moving. Big males would periodically chase after another male, pups were still suckling on sunning mommas, and there were many swimming around in the seaweed. We hung around and ate our lunch, watching for an hour the free show down below. Then we drove 1/2 mile up to a 5 minute walk to a lovely waterfall and pool. Apparently from June – December, there can be up to 200 seal pups up there playing in the pool. They seem to congregate there while mom goes off fishing. I’m sorry we didn’t see it filled with pups. It would have been amazing.

After throwing a load of laundry in, we walked down to the beach for a “swim”. One of our neighbors in the next cottage said that the water would “wake us up – fresh from Antarctica!” The “beach” was very weird. The “sand” was comprised of little round, flattened black stones. It was literally like walking through lentils two feet deep. You sunk up to your ankles. Spencer managed to take two very quick dunks in the water while I watched from the lentils above. The view is wonderful but that water is VERY cold.

We’ve been invited by the owner of the cottages to go cray fishing with him tomorrow morning. What they call crayfish are much more like our Maine lobsters, but without the big claws. We will head off in his little boat tomorrow to pull up traps and collect crayfish, assuming the weather is good. And he said we could also take some time and go see more seals. Hopefully it won’t be too windy. We’ll then take a hike around the perimeter of the peninsula. Wednesday we are scheduled to go whale watching. There is apparently a deep cold ocean trench near here that attracts all sorts of sea life. There are whales here year round, many types of dolphins, birds, etc. You can do swims with dolphins or seals, whale watch from boat or air, do guided stargazing at night, as well as fishing and many other activities. It’s quite the place for viewing wildlife.

Well, time to get some dinner going. Hope all is well in Colorado and that the weather has warmed a bit.

Barb

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Ohau Seal Colony

Seal pup

Mom

Nursing pup.  The white on the mothers belly is milk. This was really cool

There was a protected pool where a bunch of pups had gathered to play and learn to swim.

Young male.

Hello all. You are all probably celebrating New Years Eve as I write this. Do have a happy and safe new years eve. And for those of you on Illini court please do not burn the neighborhood down. 🙂 We had an early night last night. We each had a drink then watched a Monty Python special and were in bed by 10:30. Whoppie!!!!

I am writing this to let you all know that the blog is very likely to slow down a bit. We are leaving Christchurch and the cottage we’ve been staying at tomorrow morning and hitting the road. So we do not know what kind of internet access we will have. So if you want to get a hold of us, email will work best as we both have cell phones now. Yes I broke down and now have a cell phone. So until our next good internet access. Be safe and have a great prosperous new year.

Barb and Spence