Penguins!

Yesterday, we drove from Akoura to Oamaru.  It wasn't a very long drive (only 3 hours), but we did quite a bit of stopping along the way.  Per our traditional vacationing protocol, Liz and I did some light house hunting.  We spotted one in Akoura that had been been moved to its present location several years ago.  These lighthouses are endangered species and we are glad that they are being protected.  I'll have to post the light house picture when I upload all the pictures. 

Also, we stopped at 2 cheese factories.  One was on our way out from Akoura, which Liz thought was a bit disappointing due to its lack of curds for tasting and its limited supply of samples.  The other was in Oamaru, and was a little bit better.  The cheeses were fresh and tasty.  We'll probably have to buy some on our way out of town.

The highlight of yesterday was viewing the Penguin colony that came in to Oamaru after a day of feeding.  There are 2 types of penguins in this area.  One is a yellowed eyed penguin, which is a medium sized penguin that spends the evening on a southern beach in town.  You can watch them come in in the evening and gather on the beach below.  Unfortunately, we only saw one of these guys since we had to leave for our tour of the Blue Penguin colony on the northern side of town.  There is a protected area for viewing these penguins.  The facilities have viewing bleachers and a walkway around the penguin nesting grounds.  Each penguin couple even has their own man made nesting box, which they seem to enjoy a lot more than the open air. 

We sat and waited until dusk at about 9:30 when the first raft of penguins could be seen floating in.  After hanging out in the bay for a long time, there was suddenly a flurry of activity and 64 penguins started swimming towards shore.  The waves crashed on the rocks and as it receded, there were little penguins all over the rocks.  They waddled their ways up the rocks to the flat viewing area.  Then, as they gathered their courage, they raced across the flat area towards the fence and back to their nesting grounds.  Some of the penguins stumbled on the race, and others tripped up by the 2 inch high boulders in the path.  But they made it quickly past our viewing area do the safety of cover underneath the raised walkway, where they started preening and shaking themselves dry.  After a beautification session, they were off to their boxes. 

30 minutes later another couple of rafts of penguins came in.  They do this every 20-30 minutes and while we were there, there were about 201 penguins that made it to shore in our area.  One of the penguins was flapping his wings so hard that it looked like he was trying to fly up to the nesting grounds.  Another penguin tried to jump onto a 7 inch high box and instead hit himself right in the face with the side of the box.  The penguins were the comedic highlight of the trip so far.

From Kaikoura to Akoura

Today, we had planned to go scuba diving, but with the weather, and the limited visibility, decided to skip it.  The conditions were uncertain in terms of visibility and quality of sea life in the area.  We were a little sad to miss the opportunity but pressed on. 

On our way to Christchurch, we stopped by a couple of wineries for some tastings, but you can't do too many tastings before having to stop for a while, and we needed to get some driving done. 

After a quick lunch, we headed for Christchurch to see the old city.  Much of the place is still in ruins after the 2011 earthquake.  There are plenty of old brick structures that are fenced off and scaffolds around them.  Many have steel bars and supports latched to them to keep them from falling over.  The most notable condemned building was the Cathedral, which had lost its entire front facade and neighboring tower.  It was quite impressive to see that the old city has still not recovered from the quake 3 years ago. 

Christchurch had a beautiful botanical gardens which had many magnificent trees including a California redwood and a gigantic eucalyptus tree.  It was well worth the walk around.  After this, we headed for Akoura to check in to our place for the evening. 

Tonight, I am blogging from a farm.  We are doing something called a farmstay, where we are getting to stay in some cabins on a farm, complete with a henhouse, a milk cow, and lots of sheep.  It's a bit rustic since our electricity tonight is running from two car batteries underneath our shed, but it is actually quite fun.  We are heading straight to bed tonight anyway.

Why New Zealand has Earthquakes

I have noticed something rather curious and unique as we have traveled around New Zealand. In many small towns with old curches, the buildings are no longer utilized for religous services, but instead have been re-appropriated into galleries and boutiques. At first I thought this was a curiosity, but then I noticed that a second church in the same town had done the same thing. This led me to think this was a local quirk. But subsequently, we have seen several retail religious shrines. And now I have an explanation for why Queenstown almost fell into the ocean. God is punishing New Zealand for turning his houses into shops.

Becoming one with a dolphin

Late last night, we drove in to Kaikoura.  This morning, we got up early to do a tour where we swim with the dophins.  The business takes us out on a boat with full wet suit and snorkel and we find a pod of dolphins to join as they swim along their way.  After about 15 minutes, we caught up with the pod and all of us were slow to get in the water, being new to the activity.  But we still saw a couple of portly porpoises swim on by.  They definitely knew we were there, but I didn't sense that they cared that much.  The boat captain made the signal and we swam back to the boat to get ahead of the pod again.  The second time we tried, I barely saw a one.  There were a couple of dolphins and a little more mingling, but I didn't really feel the connection that I was promised.  So, we went back to the boat again to have another try.  The guides had instructed us to act like dolphins to be one with them.  We should be making noises, singing to them and making eye contact to become one with the dolphins.  Surprising, on the third attempt, this actually happened.  Liz and I jumped in together and found one large friendly dolphin to become our friend.  He swam by us as we were singing, me with the Star Spangled Banner, and Liz with something from ...  We made eye contact as he did circles around us over and over again.  I thought that we had finally made contact, as we were playing with him.  Then, I realized that I had it wrong.  At one point he dashed right at us and then swam away quickly, leaving a stream of pee behind him that was difficult to avoid swimming through.  I guess he was the one playing with us, and was making fun of our awkward swimming abilities.  Overall, the encounter was a unique experience and a lot of fun.  I took way too many pictures after we got back to the boat.  I got some great ones of the dolphins doing back flips in the water and generally having a good time. 

A Brief History of New Zealand

After visiting a few museums, and a few different towns in New Zealand, it has become clear that Kiwi's take their history seriously, and thus, in a short span of time, we have become intimately familiar with the important parts of New Zealands past. So, for those of you who are not familiar, here it is, in brief.

1. Gondwana. Long before human habitation, New Zealand was a part of Gondwana, a breakaway region of the supercontinent Pangea. Subsequent to its liberation from the Northern landmass, the southern splinter region proved unstable and further fractured into South America, Africa, Austrailia, Antartica, India, and of course, New Zealand. As a result of being part of the great southern alliance, flora and fauna unknown to the Northern hemisphere have made a suitable home in New Zealand, including the now defunct moa, a giant flightless bird closely related to the ostirches of Africa and emus of Australia. They are also the exctinc relatives of the nearly extinct, and much smaller kiwi bird.
2. Mauri. Scholars cannot quite agree on exactly when and how the indigenous people of New Zealand got here; you will get different accounts from archeologists and Mauri folklorists. What these two factions can agree on is that the arrival of the Mauri involved canoes, near-by islands, and potatoes (see #1 for an explation of how potatoes exist both in South American and pacific islands), and that this event happened some time after Gondwana, but before colonialization. In fact, the arrival of the Mauri happened so long before colonialization, that is has been established that they had lived peacefully and sustainably off the land of New Zealand for centuries before white people showed up. In this time, the Mauri developed a rich and unique culture which resembled that of many native peoples in many parts of the world. Notable contributions include intricate wood carvings, beautifully sculpted giant necklaces, and captivating sining and dancing.
3. Colonialism. Sometime in the nineteenth century scads of white people arrived from Briton to make their way in the novel and wild land of New Zealand. Similar to other colonists in other parts of the world, these arrivals constructed buildings with verandas (even though it is not that hot here), imported the latest styles from Europe, and were not very nice to the natives they encountered when exploring and constructing. To be fair, the Brits were nicer to the Mauri than they were to native Americans (small pox blankets, trail of tears, etc.) and they were definitely nicer than any white person ever was to any local they encountered in Africa.
4. World War 1. To defend country and crown, young men from every city and shire across New Zealand took up arms and journeyed across the world to where their valiant efforts were required. Some heroic mauri even joined the war efforts. Many lives were lost, many more returned home as heros. To honor the courage and sacrifice of these young men, a memorial, statue, or museum wing has been errected in every town across the land. 
5. World War 2. To defend country and crown, young men from every city and shire across New Zealand took up arms and journeyed across the world to where their valiant efforts were required. Some heroic mauri even joined the war efforts. Many lives were lost, many more returned home as heros. To honor the courage and sacrifice of these young men, a memorial, statue, or museum wing has been errected in every town across the land.
6. Earthquake in Christchurch. In the first decade of the 21st century a series of large earthquakes rattled the region near Christchurch (the largest city on the South Island). Despite being in a country known for its seizmic activity, it never occured to anyone that a large earthquake might hit Christchurch, and as a result, a centrally located 6.3 leveled the better part of the city center. The process of rehabilitating and revitalizing the city has been slow (read - 5 years later you can still find piles of rubble).

We Scared the S4!t Out of a Sheep...Literally

For our drive from Tongariro to Wellington, we decided to take the scenic route. This drive afforded views of lush greenery, daunting cliffs, and a winding river valley. As with all pastoral scenes in New Zealand, we also passed plenty of sheep. Because this was a rural country road wending its way through tiny villages, these sheep were not hampered by corrals or fences, and so, right outside one such diminutive hamlet we came around a corner and found ourselves face to face with an errant ovine. We slowed the car enough to not hit the creature, but fast enough, we thought, to run it off the road. Well, run it did, but instead of running off the road, that sheep made a complete 180 and ran down the center of road in front of us, dropping little sheep nuggets behind him. Finally, he realized that this trajectory was futile, and he turned yet again, passing our car, and heading right back where he came from, no doubt positioning himself for the next car full of tourists seeking a close encounter with the fauna of New Zealand.

Across Cook's Strait

Merry Christmas.  We are spending Christmas by making our way across Cook's strait on the interislander ferry.  Yesterday was pretty much a driving day.  We left Ohakune early to head south along the coast, hitting Wanganui along the way.  In Wanganui, there was a museum where we learned about the extinct Moa, a large flightless bird that lived in the region long ago.  They were able to find bones in a swamp close to Wanganui which preserved the bones over the years, much like La Brea Tar Pitts did to the animal bones found in that site. 

Crashing a winery:
Along the road, Liz saw a winery sign and we decided to stop.  The place appeared closed, as there were no cars in the parking lot and no signs welcoming us in.  So, we knocked on the door and were greeted by the home owners, who promptly set up shop for us.  I guess they didn't expect any Chistmas Eve visitors.  The winery produced lots of different fruit wine and very few grape wines.  We tried a honey meed, a plum wine, and a ginger wine among some others. 

Bog of Eternal Stench

When planning our trip to New Zealand, I knew that we would be rewarded with loads of reminders of the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, given New Zealand's pseudonym, Middle Earth. To be sure, even in our first three days here, we have had Hobbit Related experiences in abundance. For example, on our first day in New Zealand, we took a tour of the Hobbiton. Literally, we toured the actual Hobbiton where the actual LotR and Hobbit movies were filmed. The next day we took in breakfast at a lovely Shire themed cafe. Today, we climbed Mount Doom.

And so you understand, we expected to often be reminded of these classic fantasy movies while touring Middle Earth, and our expectation has been surpassed. What I did not expect was to come across regular reminders of other fantasy movies as well. On our first day, we visited the glowworm caves. This tour included the typical education about stalactites and stalagmites, but it also included a boat tour of a part of the cave festooned with glowworms. The glowworms are bioluminescent larvae which cling to ledges above water, and glow to attract meandering insects into the sticky threads they dangle below them. In order to experience the full effect f the luminescent larvae, it is important to have silence and darkness. So, we floated slowly through a cave that was pitch dark, save the eerie green glowing spots above us. As we bobbed aimlessly, I expected the creepy quiet voice of Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka to begin singing, "there's no way of knowing which way we are going..." Thankfully for us, the boat ride ended gently at a dock right at the caves entrance, rather than in a room full of Oompah Lumpahs who turn annoying children into blueberries.

Yesterday, we encountered what can only be described as both my favorite and least favorite fantasy movie reminder of the trip (so far). As many readers probably already know, I am a HUGE fan of movies created by Jim Henson and Brian Froud, including the Labyrinth. So, you can imagine I was delighted when we unexpectedly stumbled on The Bog of Eternal Stench. As you can also imagine by its name, that I was not completely delighted to have all five senses able to experience said bog. What we had come across was a highly active geothermal mud pool, with boiling water bubbling through murky clay, emitting its sulphurous gases in sometimes violent erruptions which splattered mud through the pool. Despite the odor, the visual input was mesmerizing, it was a wonderful and unexpected site to stumble upon.

Tongariro Crossing

Today was the big hike for the North island.  We got up super early and did Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a 19.4 km trek up and over some volcanoes in the Tongariro National Park.  I started out the day thinking to myself that this should be a pretty easy hike, and now that I am ending the day, and my legs are sore all over, I retract my previous statement.  I'd compare It to half dome, and actually, it's quite a bit shorter since Half Dome is 16 miles.  But it is steep and all hills.  There are at least three uphill battles one has to do.  The first is obviously the toughest, but the trail is very well maintained and the trekkers are numerous.

Upon reaching the top, the view of the whole area from whence you came can be enjoyed.  We were very lucky to have a clear day, so we could see the summit and the valley below.  You get to climb over another ridge, and see below a beautiful caldera of red and gray rock, an opening to the mountain's fury below.  Coming down from that ridge, you are greeted by a treacherous downhill of soft sand and loose rocks.  But below are 3 wonderously green lakes at the bottom which are the source of the water for the various rivers flowing down.  Up another ridge and you get a view of the most recent lava flow and the other side of the valley. 

And at this point, there are still 8 km to go.  It's endless steps and switchbacks for the next 3 hours, and by the end of it, I feel week and sore, but it was definitely worth the adventure.  I can see why this hike is so popular.

First day

We had a really packed first day in New Zealand  After hopping in the car, we raced down to Waitomo caves and saw two set of amazing caverns.  I was really impressed with Roakuri caves.  The walkway that was built into this cave made it wheel chair accessible and extremely easy to walk through.  It was a fun cave with glow worms and a river that ran through it.  People were even inner tubing on the river.  The formations were very awesome too, including a large ribbon formation that extended all the down one wall. 

The next set of caverns were the glow worm caves.  The highlight of this was a boat ride through some very dark rooms lighted by thousands of glowworms.  It was really really impressive. It reminded me of a Disneyland set like Pirates of the Caribbean, but was perfectly natural.

Later, we raced to Hobbiton to try to catch our hobbit town tour.  We missed the first part of it, but got caught up quickly.  It was a very picturesque village with lush gardens and all the hobbit holes in the movie. We plan to see the third hobbit movie while down here.

Off to New Zealand

When off to New Zealand, you know that tomorrow is only two days away.  The flight takes about 14 hours, but after leaving on Friday night, we got to Auckland on Sunday morning.  It was a long haul, but nonstop, which makes it tolerable if you can get some sleep.  I got the bare minimum, and had a first day that packed in the maximum.