Hokitika, New Zealand

Our proprietress in Christchurch knocked on our door this morning and said, “We’re having a Northwestern wind today. That means it will be mostly dry here this morning and rainy in the mountains and on the western coast. I suggest you go to Willowbank and see the kiwis.”

She was right. As warm, moist air blows up the western slopes of New Zealand’s Southern Alps the moisture is wrung out and falls as rain. By the time the air gets to the other side to the east it is dry. And that’s what we experienced today. We spent the morning at the Willowbank nature preserve (really a zoo) and left Christchurch about 12:30. The moment we got near the top of Arthur’s pass we were in and out of light rain and clouds. Here on the west coast it’s foggy but the rain has stopped.

Willowbank was very nice. They have three sections: Wild New Zealand, with species introduced in New Zealand, Heritage New Zealand with domesticated species and Natural New Zealand with species native to New Zealand. All three were interesting and we took lots of pictures, including the under wing plumage of the Kea and even a nocturnal Kiwi. Willowbank has five kiwis and guarantees a sighting even though the exhibit is in extremely low light. (If you don’t see one a guide will point one out.)

The trip over the pass was very scenic despite the rain, a pleasant surprise since we had anticipated nothing but rain and fog. The road is good with lots of pull-outs for picture takers and slow-moving vehicles. We didn’t see much in the way of wildlife, including Keas, which I had hoped to have a go at for more plumage shots. Our friends David and Jean who were here in September purchased a very nice photograph of a colorful Kea. The challenge I set for myself is to equal or exceed that shot. I got a couple at the zoo but that really doesn’t count – I need one in the wild. I’m still on the hunt!

Lunch was a moving experience. We ate the entire meal in the car while traveling. Here is the menu, in the order consumed:

Trail mix (2 kinds purchased last night in Christchurch)
Chocolate (2 kinds, again from Christchurch)
Crackers and cheese (from Rotorua)
Oranges (from Rotorua)
Potato chips (Chicken variety, from Christchurch)

Since we haven’t done too well nutrition wise, we’re going for pizza tonight to make up. Maybe I’d better do a beer to make sure.

Upon checking in here in Hokitika we were awarded an upgrade to the Penthouse Suite. It is a fabulously nice room with a living room and separate bedroom that overlooks the Tasman Sea. We’re sitting in our living room scratching our heads at the election returns (it’s almost 7 PM here, 1 AM back home). But that’s a story for another day. We’re here for New Zealand.

Christchurch, New Zealand

It’s easy to forget that New Zealand lies atop an active thermal hot spot, part of the Ring of Fire that encircles the Pacific Ocean. The people of Christchurch didn’t think much about it either. They didn’t know that the city is situated on at least two fault lines.

Christchurch, New Zealand’s second largest city (400,000 population out of 4+ million in all of New Zealand) was hit by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake on December 4, 2010. No deaths resulted but significant damage to buildings in the central business district and elsewhere did occur. Then, after almost daily aftershocks, on February 22, 2011 a magnitude 6.3 earthquake took 185 lives and did even more damage.

Our mission today was to learn about the earthquake, the damage that was done and especially the steps that are being taken to recover from the disaster.

Christchurch has always been the most British of all New Zealand cities. It is home to the oldest school in New Zealand, Christ’s College Canterbury, founded in 1840. We learned today that students began their studies in Christ’s College while still on the ship sailing from England. The focal point of the Central business district is the Christchurch Cathedral. Construction started in 1864 and the place wasn’t completed until 1904. It was badly damaged, probably to point of no return.

Members of the congregation want to tear down and rebuild. Members of the broader community want to restore at least the exterior to maintain the city’s link with its past. What to do? In fact the city has been having a debate, some would say an endless debate, about the layout of the reconstructed city. One thought is to create focus points for different activities – government, arts, business, etc. The city selected a site for a downtown rugby stadium; the recently elected mayor said no, the rugby facility shouldn’t be in the Central business district. It takes up too much room for something that is only used a few times during the year. The subject is back under review.

All of this we learned from our guide on the Red Bus Christchurch Rebuild Tour. The commentator was a young fellow, an employee of the Canterbury Museum, who was born in Boston and moved to Christchurch with his parents when he was 12. His folks (originally from Maine) went back 12 years ago but he stayed behind. He grew up in the city and knows it as it was before and as it is now.

The rebuilding process is massive, slow and expensive. Billions have been spent so far; the process is maybe half complete. Our tour showed us projects on virtually ever street corner. The city never experienced a recession like the rest of the world; construction spending led to over employment and an influx of workers from around the world.

We were impressed with the spirit and energy that the city seems to be putting into its recovery process. The Cathedral seems to be the real sticking point due to its central location and importance as the city’s image. It will be interesting to see what the city looks like 10 years from now.

One crucial objective is to restart the tourism business, which was brought to a virtual halt after the quake. A question in my mind is how the architecture of the new city will evolve. Will there be a consistent theme and feel to each section of the city or will it rebuild in a hodge-podge fashion. Only time will tell.

We met a lady at the ice cream stand who was walking her dog. We had a nice long conversation with her. She noted that reconstruction of residential housing was not moving forward as fast as it should. Insurance companies have dragged their feet in making settlements. People still live with inadequate water and sewer services.

Fortunately, the day proved to be absolutely gorgeous, a welcome relief after yesterday’s gloom, rain and high winds (and rough seas). We drove down along the coast from Kaikoura in about 2 1/2 hours. The GPS found the museum and we found a car park immediately across the street from the museum and our bus location. After the 90 minute tour we had lunch at the museum’s coffee shop and walked back down to Cathedral Square and returned to the museum. Finally we took a 45 minute stroll through the botanical gardens. Then, back in the car and a 30 minute drive to the suburbs to our B&B for tonight. Lovely place and we have a line on a restaurant our friends Jean and David recommended.

Tomorrow it’s off across the Southern Alps to the west coast. Unfortunately the weather forecast calls for rain for the next several days. Oh well, we’ll soldier on and count on the weather man being wrong once again.

Kaikoura, New Zealand

Lunch, that is. I gave all my lunch over the side into the South Pacific Ocean. It was a tiny boat, the waves came up over the mast and the Captain said he’d never seen it so bad . . . so far today. It was a fearsome gale. But nevertheless, with my eyes glued to the viewfinder, I pressed on to get a shot or two of the mighty Wandering Great Albatross off Kaitoura.

OK, it wasn’t that bad; no one else suffered like I did. The waves were maybe three feet high and I, like Lord Nelson, suffer from sea sickness on uncertain seas. And, without getting into too much detail, I was rather neat and orderly in my distress, heaving overboard and leaving no evidence that wasn’t immediately cleansed by the first wave when we were once again underway.

But what an interesting adventure it was, capping another different kind of day. That’s something Judy and I have noted: all 13 days in New Zealand has been unique. OK, sheep every day and magnificent views everyday but the experiences have all been unique. And if you’re keeping score at home, we’ve now completed 15 days of our trip (counting travel days) and so we’re over half way done in our 28 day journey.

We started the day after dawdling over breakfast. The jam was too good and the company too interesting to get away early as we’d planned. One couple at our B&;B was from the Czech Republic and were spending six weeks in New Zealand and Australia where their daughter and boyfriend now live. The other couple was from Medford, NJ. They are finishing a three-week trip and will have had 15 separate flights and are more than ready to get back home. They, like others we’ve met, are on trips set up by travel agents who, it seems, think that driving an automobile is something no self-respecting tourist would ever do.

We drove Highway 1 south from Renwick toward Kaikoura, a seaside town famous for seals, dolphins, whales and lots of birds, including the aforementioned Albatrosses, said to be the bird with the largest wingspan in the world. We stopped about 10 miles north of town at Ohau bay where we saw a number of fur seals lolling on the rocks, swimming occasionally and fighting among themselves frequently. Territorial squabbles, we’re told although no one animal seemed to dominate the rest nor was any real damage done. Seals have to have something to do while digesting their meal.

We got to the Albatross Discovery center at about 12:30 PM for a 1:00 departure. We signed in and got a bite to eat (MISTAKE) before meeting our guide, bus driver and boat captain Gary. There were three couples, one from the UK, one from Australia and us. The UK folks had actually met Gary in England when Gary was appearing at a bird watchers convention, promoting his company’s bird watching trips.

Gary looks the part of an aging sea captain: of ruddy complexion a lined face and a look that seems to be scanning the horizon for whatever might appear. He told me that he had circumnavigated Antarctica. “Took a year and oh, what a miserable trip it was. Heavy seas all the time. The calmest day was one with winds of 40 km/hr.” His trip was on a research vessel.

And yes, we did see three kinds of Albatrosses plus seven others. I’ll try to post a picture of one of each – I think I missed the Black Backed Gull buy hey, if you’ve seen one gull you’ve seen them all. We also saw some dolphins (“Don’t tell my boss I let you see dolphins. You’re not on a dolphin watching trip.”) And yes, we did get back to shore even though there were parts of the journey that I was sure it would never end.

Now we’re in our B&B with a sliding glass front overlooking the ocean. Unfortunately we can’t see the far side where, Julie, our proprietress, tells us, you can see snow-capped mountains. Maybe in the morning. Julie also mentioned that she had another couple staying with her who were on our trip. Sure enough, it’s the UK couple, Sylvia and Bret. We’ve hooked up and are going to dinner this evening. And it turned out to be another great dinner. Judy had the pork belly. I had some fish I’d never heard of but a very flavorful white fish. And there was hokey pokey ice cream, part of a three-ice cream medley homemade in the restaurant. I made a big deal about loving hokey pokey ice cream with the proprietress. When I paid the bill she gave a heaping cupful of hokey pokey as a take away gift. How am I, on my weakened and now stuffed stomach, ever going to down that tonight?

Renwick, New Zealand

. . . So the grapes will grow and they can make more wine. (Apologies to Dean Martin)

Yep, we did it – toured the vineyards around Renwick by bicycle today. We did about 20 kms (about 12 miles). And it did indeed rain while we were out, but not continually nor very hard. The temperature wasn’t too bad, some wind and so we had a good time.

Check out the video of Judy on her bike in the pictures.

We ended up visiting five wineries, sampling the goods at each. We took it easy on the quantity each time so we only weaved across the highway just a wee bit. Some of our route was along two-lane roads with no bike lane (some did have a bike lane) with the standard NZ rural speed limit of 100 km/hr (about 60 mph). But the locals are used to crazy Bike-2-Wine tourists so it wasn’t too scary.

In travel there are some constants, things that work the same no matter where you go. Today’s vineyard visits were just like those in California, New York, Virginia, South Africa and other places where we’ve tasted over the years with the exception that only one charged us a fee. Of course the wines are different. For one thing, the wines in this region are mostly whites. Pinot Noir is about as far red as they go and those are generally on the lighter side. But the souvignon blancs, pinot gris and Rieslings are quite nice. Judy had no problem finding several on the sweeter side that she liked.

There is one type of creativity (actually many types) that I’ll never master: picking out descriptions for wines. You know, “hints of mackerel, overtones of moth balls with a delightful compost heap finish.” That kind of thing. Where they come up with those descriptions is beyond me. It ranks right up there with names of paint colors. Every paint company has a never ending palate of colors, each with a name that suggests some feeling or taste that the color is supposed to invoke.

We’re off to dinner at a vineyard this evening, one we didn’t visit during the day. It’s supposed to be good (and having just returned, it was very good). Last night we had a fun dinner at the Keg and Cork British Pub right here in town. The service was terrible – it took over 40 minutes to get our lamb shank dinners. But the food was great and we really didn’t mind the wait since they had the Maori All Blacks (not the top All Black team – this team’s members are all Maori, some of whom play for the All Blacks) on the telly. They were playing a US team in Chicago. The USA team got whummped. Badly. This was apparently a demonstration match to garner interest in rugby in the US. We’ve got a long way to go to make it through test matches some day. We watch it every chance we get and it’s a sport that grows on you. I wouldn’t like my little grandsons playing it, however. Far too violent!

Tomorrow we’re going seaside – Kaikoura and the Albatross Encounter boat trip. The forecast is for sunny skies, cool (60 degree) temperatures and not too strong winds. Should be fun!

Renwick, New Zealand

By google.maps.com it’s about two and a half hours driving time from Abel Tasman to Renwick, our B&B accommodations in Marlborough wine country. We managed to do it in six hours with frequent stops including a picnic lunch along the way. That’s a lot of picture taking stops.

And the big news of the day is that Judy took the wheel on lefty New Zealand for the very first time. And an admirable job she did too. (Her driving had nothing to do with the added time but she did ask me later on if I really enjoyed driving like a mad man all the time. “Yep,” was my reply.) I only yelled for dear life once or twice when she hugged the left side of the road too close, something I did when I first started. I will say she’s much more polite in pointing out the issue when I’m driving. “I think you’re a little close dear,” versus “Arrrgh (insert naughty word here). Watch where you’re going!!!

Someone once said that the best way to explore a new region is to get lost and find your way out. And Rebecca and Kevin, when they did this route seven years ago, reported that they were lost for a while and even worse, almost ran out of gas. We took that last thought to heart and filled up before leaving the Abel Tasman area. And a good thing it was too since we’ve yet to see a gas station all day long.

Judy and I tried our best, taking back roads, including a 15 km stretch of single lane dirt road that wound its way through a hilly section. But we’re too Type A, I guess, to just cut loose and follow our noses. We’d stop every now and then, get out the map and figure out which road would be the most interesting, twisty, out of the way route to take. But to no avail. We never were in doubt of our location and plan to reach the final destination.

Nonetheless, we did see more magnificent scenery. This time we followed the Motueka Valley Highway and the Kahatu-Kawatri Highway (the name alone is enough to get anyone lost). Both followed valleys between low mountain ranges on either side. There was, of course, lots of farms along the way but the farms, while neat and tidy, were a bit more on the hardscrabble side and the farm houses not quite up to the level of those found on the major thoroughfares. And of course we stopped to photograph lots of animals, including goats, alpacas and deer. Someone complained recently that we’d allowed a whole day – maybe two – go by without a sheep picture. There were lots of sheep, cows too, so we’ll make up for lost time today.

In the pictures you will notice a bright yellow shrub-like plant. We have been calling it New Zealand forsythia but our hostess just told us it is in fact gorse. Gorse was introduced by, who else, the Brits in the 19th century. It grows like a weed and takes over wherever it can. In the pictures you will see gorse competing with young pine trees. Other places it attempts to take over grassland grazing pastures. There is apparently no technological way to eradicate it. It is New Zealand’s number one agricultural weed. But in November it makes a magnificent accent to otherwise dark green hills of pine and light green fields of pasture.

At an overlook stop along the way where we had sandwiches left over from yesterday’s boat/hiking excursion, we met a couple visiting from Switzerland. She asked where we were from. “New Hampshire, how wonderful! I’ve been to New Hampshire a dozen times at least. Did you know it was a Swiss man who introduced skiing in New Hampshire at Franconia?” Small world.

We’re checked into the Olde Mill House B&B and Cycle Hire and starting to think about dinner. The choices are fine dining at restaurants reached by car or pub-style food within walking distance here in town. We haven’t set foot in a restaurant all day and our breakfast and lunch were modest so we’re due for something substantial but we’ll see.

And tomorrow is wine by bike. The forecast calls for 70% chance of rain, which doesn’t sound so good. On the other hand, weather.com says there’s a 60% chance of rain 13 minutes from now and it’s a beautiful sunny afternoon. Once again, we’ll see.