7.5 earthquake and tsunami alerts

Watching TV this morning and the show was interrupted for breaking news about a tsunami alert as a result of the 7.5 earthquake in the Kermadec Islands (about 500 miles north of NZ). We were all glued to the TV waiting to hear about the expected time of arrival of the first wave. Found out the tsunami was expected to hit the north and east side of the north island and was expected to be a meter high (about 3 feet). Needless to say, we were all laughing at the breaking news. I don't know if it's a matter that there's not enough happening in the world to report (doubt that) or just the with the recent (and horrible damages to Christchurch), everyone here is ultra-sensitive to any semblance of quake news. In fact, 2 days ago, we felt an earthquake here in Blenheim. The quake was centered 150 kilometers below the surface at Lake Taupo which is in the sourthern part of the north island. We felt two tremors and they were very quick and very short in duration. In fact, if you didn't have your hands on the table or see the wall mirror, you wouldn't even know it happened. So the good news is that we are all fine and the folks on the north island are also fine.

Speaking of earthquakes, the next town over from Blenheim is Renwick and we learned that the Wairau fault line runs through Renwick. In fact, we were house sitting last week and we drove past the Mahi Winery which sits on one side of the fault like. The photos below show the winery and the hill behind it (about 25 feet high) is the other side of the fault line.

 Leaves one feeling a little unsettled!

So, our goods finally arrived on Tuesday - only 1 1/2 months late! What a joy to get my heavy socks and my winter clothes. While I took some in my suitcase (not a total dummy am I), I didn't pack that many and I've regretted it on a lot of days here. Ernie and I have unpacked our stuff and Joelle will probably get to her things this weekend. It turns out that she had more boxes than us and that's just fine with us! She gave us a shopping list of food items to send since there are some things you just can't get here or are not the same as what she was accustomed to in the US such as corn Bran cereal, Cheerios, marshmallows, corn candy, Girl Scout cookies. We told here that we opened the box with the food and she requested that we not bring the entire box into the house, just ration it out since she doesn't know the next time she'll get more. We have friends that are coming to NZ for a couple of weeks later this year and they've already offered to bring stuff so we know she'll get one more "care package."

We took a ride to Kaikoura on Monday and had a great day. We stopped for lunch and I got crayfish, which is a actually spiny lobster, Ernie ordered a venison casserole with roasted vegetables. Imagine his surprise when he got his lunch and found out it was venison liver chunks in a gravy. Thankfully he likes liver and his lunch was quite good. One never knows what you're going to get with some of the food items here. We went to the seal colony and walked around since it was low tide. There were a number of seals that were sunning themselves on the rocks. There are signs all over advising that you should keep a 10 meter distance between you and the seals - at least 10 meters - and that they will bite. There was a group of younger folks went up to one of the seals and sat down by it and the guy was getting ready to pet the sleeping seal. We took off - just couldn't see wasting time watching a fool! Here are some photos we took that day:

 Couldn't believe this kelp. I've seen kelp fields from a boat but never this close. This stuff feels like leather. Don't know if it would last like leather. I guess if it did, someone would have already started making kelp clothes and shoes.

This guy was sleeping very peacefully.

 Then someone woke him up and he started to give everyone the evil eye. I wish you could have heard him barking at everyone.

Ernie found this paua shell laying around. It was quite large and Joelle said it was a really good find!

 More kelp. Obviously I was really fascinated with the kelp. Just look at how big one of the main stalks is.

 This is the seal that was sleeping and the one guy sat on the bench and leaned over the seal for a photo. He was then getting ready to pet the seal when we left.

We took the walk over the bay and the seal colony. Looking out of this area, I can't imagine that this was a result of volcanic activity.

This sign explains the look of the bay

Halfway up the walk!

This is the part that gets me. We're standing at the beach, looking across the bay at the snow covered mountains. What an amazing country!















One other thing we noticed here, New Zealanders eat a lot of game meat. We went to the Farmer's market a few weeks ago and bought some wild rabbit. So last night was braised rabbit and polenta night. It was our Italian night. It was great! Exactly like the rabbit and polenta we had in Bergamo, Italy.

Well, that's all for now! Have a great night.