Where in the World is Saura

All the images are linked now, and it is sickeningly easy now that I know what to do.

Well, we went through the Catlins faster than expected since we decided to scratch the multi-day tramp. Its a really lush place, the greenest I’ve seen so far, and we have already had our fair share of rain. I think they could use some a little farther north. We walked along a remote beach and let Saura run along unleashed. She really seems to love the beach and I know there were plenty of new smells to keep her interested and happy. We also walked to a few of the many waterfalls in the Catlins, and they just roaring from all the rain. We spent one night at the picninc area at the trail head of one of the falls, and we spent last night at an overlook in Bluff, the southermost city of the South Island. It was alittle nerveracking since it was windy and rainy all night, with many brutal periods of hail. And we were reminded that today is the 7th when a woman drove up and knocked on our window at about 7:30 AM. At first we thought it might be a cop telling us to move along, but it was in fact a very friendly census taker. They really cover their bases here! I’ll end this post, from the world’s most southern Starbucks, with our pics.

Picnic Point
           

This is for Josh:

We are using this great guide book on New Zealand to help us out during our travels, and it lead us to this great free campsite at Lake Pukaki, known to the locals at “the Pines”. I’m not exactly sure who these locals are, since there was not a dwelling to be seen in the area. I believe there are a few high country sheep farmers around and there is a bit of fishing in the area. It was overcast when we arrived, but that didn’t cast shadow on the incredible hue of the lake. Sediment from the glacial waters that feed this lake create this wonderfully opaque pastel green aqua color. The first color that came to my mind was seafoam green. Although I tried, pictures do not give it justice. Stone alters line the rocky beach of the lake, made by the many campers before us. Of course we had to make our own mark, but we don’t have a snapshot since there was a couple cuddling by it when we where heading out. We opted not to disturb them and decided it was meant not to be documented.

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We are sitting in a cafe surrounded by a wireless hotspot, in Twizel of all places. The town does have an interesting history. It was founded in 1966 as a construction town to build the dam and hydro system in the area, and was slated for destruction upon the completion of the project in 1985. To the protests of the town, it was saved and acts as a stopoff spot for tourists seeking the majesty of Mt Cook.

We began just a few days ago, and spent our first night at Lake Coleridge. I liked it even better the second time, and we had the pleasure of viewing a night sky that had been previously obscured by a full moon. The stars were so amazing, and bright, and numerous. We’ve never seen the Milky Way in such detail, and there were millions more stars than I’ve ever been able to view in the States. With this amazing view came extremely strong winds, which continued to the morning. We quickly packed up and headed off. Oh, and we finally christened our van. I knew her name would come to us once we got on the road, and her name is now Betty. Good ole Betty hasn’t let us down.

Our next stop, after making lunch at a picnic stop at the Rakia Gorge, was Timaru. That stay was fairly uneventful. It is on a bay and the town seems to shut down about five o’clock. This is where we spent our second night before moving on again. We went to Lake Tekapo and met up with the other caravans and charter busses at the Church of the Good Shepherd, touted as the most photographed church in New Zealand. On a clear day a window at the back of the church frames Mt Cook over the lake. Unfortunatley it was cloudy and we missed out on that one.
   

We thought briefly about staying in Tekapo for the night. There is an observatory there and a company does star gazing tours. We really wanted to do this, but it was expensive, and since it was overcast we decided it may not be worth it. Best to experience somthing like this on a crisp and clear night. Plus, we figured that Dad would love to do this, so we’ll just take you when you come over. Since the star gazing was out, there didn’t seem to be enough left to do to get us through the day, so we kept on trucking to Lake Pukaki. There was a free campsite by the lake waiting for us there.

I’ll just throw this one up on the blog and continue in a new entry, just to split things up. I also want to apologize about the small picture size. We haven’t been able to figure out how to manage them since the site that hosts out blog changed the software, but we’ll get them changed as soon as possible.

We are finally off on our road trip around the south island.  We were put off our schedule a bit on Sunday when we went to an outdoor concert at the university, but it was worth it.  As all the Ashevillians will understand, dreadlocks and the smell of cloves really made me feel at home.  It was a beautiful day without a cloud in the sky, and with all the great music, we really could have been in WNC at a show.  I guess that style translates well here.  Anyway, now we are set to go.  Alan is packing up the van, I’m seasoning our new little dutch oven, and we’ll soon be on our way.

First we are heading inland to Lake Coleridge, then we’ll make our way down to the coast to Timaru, then we’ll head back inland to Mt Cook.  Our grand scheme is to go down the east coast, around the southern tip, then up the west coast in a month before Alan has to be back for the poker championships.  We just found out that the Australian who won the World Series is playing at the event, as well as a few other big name pros.  So this will be a great experience for Al.  Well, we must be going, kia ora mates!

Al wanted to get some pics of our trip to Lake Coleridge up before we leave for Wellington tomorrow, so here’s another update.  Over Valentine’s Day we decided to go on a short camping trip to test out the van and use our new camping equipment.  Lake Coleridge is about a hour and a half out of Christchurch.  On our route there, we drove over a mountain pass and rode about 20 km or more down a bumpy gravel road through the hills to get to the lake.  It turns out there is a much easier way to get there, which we took on the way back.  The campsite there is very remote, but they had drinking water and composting toilets, which was very nice.  It was only $5 and there were many sites where people pay annual fees and just leave their caravans.  It is on a 37,000 merino sheep farm, and yes, we did see many sheep.  There was even a herd that grazed around our campsite.  Here I had Alan rock out in front of the herd after we settled in.

The lake was a stunning blue, and the water was very choppy as the winds where gusting almost the entire time.  During the night, we were awoken about every hour to gusts of winds that screamed all around us and shook the tent.  Saura also kept hearing little critters outside and tried to jump though the screen door on one occasion.  When I woke up in the morning the views were just beatiful.  It was cool and crisp and the clouds were spectacular against the rugged landscape.  I also ran into that herd of sheep again.

We only stayed one night, but we’re going to come back through this area on our trip.  There are some nice hikes that go up and around the mountains that are supposed to offer some terrific scenery.  I hope everyone enjoyed their Valentine’s Day and we’ll be back with you soon.

We just returned from Mona Vale, a historic manor and gardens between our house and the city center. The Avon runs through the grounds and people come to stroll, enjoy the gardens, and feed the ducks. My previous experience with duck feeding is from Tanglewood, where the ducks are pretty aggressive when the food comes out. These ducks that make their summer home along the Avon are not so people aggressive, and they mainly stayed in the river while we threw bread at them. This was partially due to two of the dominant males coming up onto the bank and chasing away any other ducks that tried to get out of the water.

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Its been a few days since my last post, and there’s quite a bit to catch up on. Alan played in a tennis tournament last weekend, and made it to the quarters in his singles and to the finals with his doubles partner, Adam. They played in the finals against the No. 1 and 2 in New Zealand, and put up a great fight, winning the first set and almost taking down the match in the second, but unfortunately their opponents got a bit of momentum and ended up winning. I was very dissapointed, they played so well, and the guys they played were, well, assholes (sorry, but they were). Anyway, Al and Adam put on a great match.

After a day or so of rest time, we went on a hike going about 4 km out of Christchurch and back, with some views of the distant mountains, and of Lytteltom Bay. The walk is from Sign of the Takahe to Sign of the Kiwi. I believe there is a loop back, but we just followed our tracks back from this point.

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Yesterday we finally went into the Botanical Gardens in the center of Christchurch, contained in the huge central park, Hagley Park. There was alot to see and we only wandered around part of the gardens, concentrating mainly on the rose garden. There were many sections to the gardens and if you wanted, you really could walk around all day. The Avon River, which meanders through the city, also winds its way through the gardens. One of the first things you might notice when entering, via a bridge over the Avon, is the very large number of ducks. They are everywhere, and they certainly don’t confine themselves to the river. There are packs of ducks in almost every meadow, and they don’t ever seem to be short of a good meal (all the ducks are fat).

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Alan played in tennis tournament in Hagley Park this past weekend. He played very well, but unfortunately the matches where very hard on his body. He cramped alot and now he’s struggling to move. He has signed up for another tournament this weekend, and hopefully his legs will be well enough to play. Right now his calves are swollen to about double their normal size. I haven’t quite gotten the knack of taking good tennis photos, but here is one presentable take:

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Al and I went out to the beach on Tuesday. Its a great drive, only about 15-20 min away and there’s great views of the hills along the way. There is a resturant called On the Beach, that we didn’t try but will go to soon. It has a patio that looks out over the ocean, but we need a nice sunny and fairly calm day so we’re not eating sand along with our fish. As we got close to the ocean we saw a bunch of people parasurfing (I think thats what they call it) in a bay area. Then we just walked down the path along the beach and took pics, so here they are.

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