My young tour guide

I spent part of the morning following my young friend Eden (2 yrs 2 months) as he gave me a guided tour of Massey University. His Mommy was attending a lecture. We wandered along the pathways, around the gardens, beside the roads. He wanted to touch every light along the path, and he told me the words for everything he saw: "Black bird!" . It was graduation day, and he particularly enjoyed watching the groups of young people in their long black gowns "Big people!" He had to climb the steps behind the Massey U. sign, even though the families were taking photos there. I wonder how many graduation photos were taken that will prove to have a small blonde head visible in the background.

Yes to Wind

New Zealand has been nuclear free since legislation was enacted in 1984, and therefore they have to look to other sources for energy. There are currently 11 windfarms around NZ, each having from one to 55 turbines, able to power in total around 145,000 average homes.

Five of the windfarms are located around Palmerston North where we are spending the final two weeks of our stay. They don’t offer tours, but we went to a viewing area for the Te Apiti Windfarm in the scenic hills above the Manawatu Gorge.

Surprisingly, you can only hear a slight swishing noise when standing right under the turbines.

Missing Lucia

It’s really been complicated to try to arrange a webcam call to visit with our 21 month old granddaughter in North America. By the time she comes home after daycare, it’s already the middle of the working day here. On weekends we have usually been somewhere without a good internet connection.

But this weekend we managed it. It’s the long Thanksgiving weekend in the U.S. and therefore she is at home during the day, and we were in a motel with a fast broadband connection.

Lucia had just woken up from a nap and was a little sleepy at first. I thought maybe she had forgotten us. But as she woke up she became more and more interested in playing with us. We were having our cereal so she had some cereal too, watching us between bites. When she finished her snack she got down from her high chair (“Out!”)and showed us her favourite books, carefully bringing each one to her Mommy’s computer and laying it on the keyboard in front of us. She brought us her mail from her toy house, showed us her elephant from the zoo, pointed to her nose (and our noses on screen) and finally started calling us by name: Pappy, which seems to have evolved from the Bapa she used to call us.

We miss you, sweetie.

Oversize artworks

We see this type of giant image everywhere we go in NZ. They're fond of outdoor art above shops here. The silver fish and the crayfish are obviously advertising what these two restaurants in Kaikoura each had on the menu, but the elephant was over a coffee shop in Invercargill. I don't know what elephants have to do with coffee.

Walking the clifftop

Kaikoura has an amazing clifftop walk, part of the Kaikoura Peninsula Walkway. It’s over an hour from one end to the other, and of course you have to go up the hill at each end from the car parks to the cliff top. The sign at the start said: “Experience panoramic views of ocean, rocky coastline, twisted limestone, seals and sea birds”. The views were so fabulous it was hard to pick a best photo.

We walked parts of it several times during our stay there, and on our last afternoon we walked it from the South Bay car park to Point Kean and back. We had to be careful to stay on the track, and to cross over every stile we found. Once we missed a stile and had to retrace our steps because we ended up in a field full of cows, and couldn't get back to the track. Of course, if we'd been paying attention we would have noticed that every time the path changed direction, there was a big metal pole. It took us 2.5 hours that day, and according to my pedometer, we walked over 11,000 steps, or over 4 miles. That’s a new record for me.

Kaikoura

Kaikoura is a town on the upper west coast of the South Island. The name Kaikoura translates (in Maori) to food/crayfish. You can buy local crayfish ready cooked from shacks along the State Highway north of town. Crayfish in New Zealand refers to lobster, although their crayfish does not have a large claw like our lobsters do, and therefore have slightly less meat.

Kaikoura is situated on a small peninsula and is surrounded by ocean and beautiful mountains. Offshore, the sea bed drops away rapidly to the Kaikoura Canyon which brings much sea life near the shore. It's renowned for whale-watching tours and swimming with dolphins.

Fur Seals

The north west coast of the South Island is a popular place for fur seals. The rocky coastline and well stocked ocean make for a wonderful habitat for the seals. You can see small groups of seals as you drive along the coast. We have seen some locations where you can walk almost up to the seals. Signs warn you to stay more than 10 metres away because they can bite if disturbed. However, the lazy male in the picture barely raised an eyebrow as people continually walked around him to get back to the parking lot from the limestone shelf around Kaikoura.

Swimming with the dolphins

Every trip has a highlight. When I had the chance to go swimming with the dolphins in Kaikoura, Sheelagh encouraged me saying, “You will really enjoy this”. And sure enough I did. The adventure begins by being fitted with a wetsuit, flippers, snorkel and mask. On our boat there were 13 swimmers and five watchers. Then we all get on a boat and head offshore to a place where there is a canyon under the sea. The dolphins spend their days here and search for food at night. They do not sleep but they do rest often during the day.


We were instructed to swim with our heads in the water (while breathing through the snorkel) and let the dolphins come to us. Apparently we have to make ourselves interesting. We were instructed that it was our job to entertain the dolphins, not their job to entertain us. I hummed music and while I saw plenty of dolphins up close, my music probably kept more of them away. The dolphins come so close they almost touch you. You feel a little like they are inspecting you. They move so gracefully through the water that you feel somewhat inadequate because you are so inept in the water by comparison.

I swam with Dusky Dolphins. These are small dolphins that are approximately five feet in length when they reached adulthood. Dusky dolphins live in large pods of 100 or more and are very social. They like people and they delight in showing off their acrobatic skills. They leap from the water and sometimes do forward or backward somersaults.

The water was listed as 15 degrees C but it felt more like 0. You really appreciate the warm shower and hot chocolate when you are finished. -Barry

Ferry across Cook Strait

We had a few days free after working in Wellington, so we took the Interislander Ferry to the South Island. Some call the South island the mainland, because it is slightly larger than the North Island. However, the South Island is much less populated (25% of the population) and much more rugged.

The Ferry crosses Cook Strait and takes about 3.5 hours. The last hour involves a scenic trip through the Queen Charlotte Islands and is simply breath taking. We arrived on a cloudy day but it was still quite beautiful. After we arrived in Picton (the ferry terminal) we found a small motel and took in the view from our window. The view included seeing the Ferry returning to Wellington. -Barry

Whitebait

There is a tiny little fish (5mm) that is unique to New Zealand and considered a delicacy. It has been referred to as New Zealand caviar. The locals go out to the mouths of streams in great numbers to catch the little creatures in homemade nets. Fishing does not require a license although there are some restrictions on the size of the fish (don’t know how they can tell). The fish is almost transparent. The delicacy sells in the supermarkets for around $130. NZD per kilo. The whitebait is eaten as is, bones, skins etc. We have eaten it in restaurants cooked into an omelet or breaded and fried.

Whitebaiting is a commercial industry and these nets were permanently located on the banks of the Tutara Stream in the Catlins. We took this photo to show the size of the nets. There were many small shacks along the banks of this stream, about the size of a ice fishing shack. The fishermen & women must spend weekends there waiting for the whitebait to come upriver.

Sandcastle

One of our favourite places to stay is the Sandcastle Motel. It is located on the Kapiti coast about an hour drive north of Wellington. The motel itself is really quite fantastical. It looks just like a sandcastle, with towers and turrets, but the rooms are decorated in early salvation army and nothing matches. But we love the location. Just a few steps over the sand dune puts you on a marvelous beach where you can walk for miles. You might see someone on horseback, or someone else walking or you might not.


The sunsets in the evening over Kapiti island are always beautiful. The owners have conveniently placed benches on top of the dunes for watching the ocean and the sunsets.

The smallest Library in NZ

On days when we have to check out of a hotel in the morning but can’t leave town until after the working day ends, I often go to the local library. There are usually comfy chairs in quiet corners, lots to read of course, and bathrooms. I settle in to a spot, and read my book or get out my laptop.

However, I don’t think this small library in Ferry Landing near Whitianga would have any of these amenities. It isn’t any larger than an average garden shed!

Whose President?

Our friends Harley and Lilian spent the weekend meandering down the South Island by car, before joining us in Invercargill. When they met up with us and said they had driven from Clinton to Gore, along the 'Presidential Highway', I was sure it was another example of NZ humour. “You’re putting me on, right?”

Well, I didn’t really believe them until I saw the sign for myself. We drove back together from Invercargill to Dunedin and there it was. Of course, this time we were driving from Gore to Clinton, but it’s the same highway. Do you think the U.S. would name a highway after a New Zealand Prime Minister and his/her Deputy Prime Minister?

Niagara Falls (NZ)

We had a free weekend while we were in the South Island and decided to go exploring the Catlins National Forest, near Invercargill. It’s isolated, and windswept; something like the East Cape, only smaller. We were told to be sure to pack a lunch because there are no cafe's.

On our tour map was a small town named Niagara. We decided we had to go there. And when we got there we noticed a sign pointing to Niagara Falls!

It turns out that the original land surveyor for the area (in the 1800's?) had previously visited North America's Niagara Falls and must have had a sense of humour, because he named the little rapids in the stream Niagara Falls. The town (one cafe and two houses) decided to capitalize on its fame(?) and posted a sign with a photo of our Niagara Falls.

In case the photo is not clear, it's taken from beside their sign with the falls showing over the top.

More on baggage

We have now flown three domestic flights and the joke's on me. After tossing all that stuff, our checked bags ended up each weighing 5 lbs under the limit. And nobody gave our small heavy wheeled carryon a second glance, nor our two backpacks containing our laptops.

I keep missing stuff that I know I brought with me to NZ. I searched all our bags today before I remembered that I left that item behind in Auckland. It didn't weigh very much, either. Oh well.