Motueka and Abel Tasman Park

We took a 5 day trip over the last weekend with the end location being the Farewell Spit which is the northern most point of the south island. We were a bit uncertain on the drive time so decided to spend the night outside of Nelson at Motueka. The weather for the entire weekend was great - sunny, clear and in the 50s - great for hiking! We stayed at a chalet on a small hobby farm that produced hazelnuts, macadamia nuts and various flowers and greenery for florists in New Zealand.  We did buy a 1/2 kilo bag of dried macadamias in the shell that we will need to shell. While I love macadamias, there is a lot of work and time involved in getting to the nut. When the nut drops from the tree, one must collect them, peel off the green husk and then allow the nut in the shell to dry for 3 - 4 months before you can crack them with a hammer. It seems that they are so hard that nutcrackers won't work. I can now understand why they are so expensive!

Our chalet with the eucalyptus trees on the left

Macadamia trees

Eucalyptus trees

View from our front porch

Motueka is a big fruit growing area and there were apple orchards near this farm and also green and golden kiwi farms. In order to get to Takaka, we had to cross Takaka Hill. We weren't certain what to expect but did not really expect it to be a mountain since all the brochures called it a hill. It was only 30 minutes to cross over but the ice and snow on the mountain pass did not make it an easy drive. We stopped at Hawkes lookout. As I said, the weather was so clear that we were able to look across the bay and see Nelson.

 The white 'line' at the base of the mountains across the bay is Nelson.

Another shot from the lookout across the bay

 Snow of the trail - our first snow that we got to touch!

Don't these rocks look like the fake rocks you see at Six Flags or Disney World? These are real! They are karst.

 This photo is for Joelle. When she first went to New Zealand for her honeymoon, she brought me a bone carving necklace that looked like a snake. We used to play cards and board games quite a lot and I was usually pretty lucky. One night I was particularly lucky and someone called out "viper bitch." So, when she saw the snake necklace, she just had to get it for me. The shop owner was a bit dismayed that she was purchasing this for her Mom since it was a carving of taniwha. It seems that kids in New Zealand were warned about taniwha like we were when our parents told us the boogeyman was going to get us. She explained the card/game thing and they all had a good laugh. When we say this sign on the trail, Ernie insisted that we get a shot of this. So, here you go Joelle!

This photo of Mount Duppa is for everyone who know that we (Polish folks) call one's bum a duppa. Thought this was pretty funny.

That's all for this post - more about the trip in my next post.

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.

Not new - just some observations!

Most confusing being here in July and there's frost on the ground and we have to scrape the car windows. We actually went to a mid-Winter Christmas party the other weekend. In a strange way, it actually made sense. Christmas should be cold and snow and all the requisite stuff. But the real Christmas (by date) come in the middle of the summer in New Zealand thus a mid-Winter Christmas party so one can quasi-celebrate Christmas in the right season. The hosts did have Christmas lights in the garage but we didn't have turkey and dressing or Christmas cookies. And worse yet - no Christmas gifts! Oh well!

Speaking of cold and frost, the forecast for last Wednesday was possible snow and/or black ice. When we went to bed, I was hoping for snow (what can I say, I'm a sucker for snow). Unfortunately, no snow in the valley but there was snow on the mountains. Blenheim is surrounded on three sides by mountains. It was really cool to see! By noon, the sun had come out and the snow was melted. Everyone here says this has been one of the warmest winters on record. I'm holding on to the thought that winter is not over yet and I may get to see some snow before it is. Oh, that reminds me, we will be going to Hanmer Springs in 2 weeks. Hanmer Springs is a small town in the Canterbury region of the South Island of New Zealand. The town lies on a minor road 9 kilometres north of State Highway 7, the northern route between Christchurch and the West Coast via Lewis Pass. According to the 2006 census, the resident population is 729. The town is built around a popular hot spring which was discovered in the late 19th century. The hot springs were produced by the fractured rock bed along the Hanmer fault. Hanmer Springs is a popular tourist destination due to the thermal pools and the fact that there are two skifields in the Hanmer Springs area: the Hanmer Springs Ski Area and Mount Lyford. So I will see snow then!!!!

Still on he theme of cold, I am amazed at New Zealanders. They are a particularly hardy bunch of folks. They keep their homes pretty cold and it is not uncommon to see folks walking about in shorts and t-shirts (or even tank tops) when it is about 50 - 58 degrees outside. And I mean a lot of folks! I'm in jeans, long sleeved shirt and jackets and they are walking around like it's the middle of summer.

Oh, for those of you who have been following this blog, our goods have finally arrived in New Zealand!!!!! Yeah! Only 1 1/2 months late. We still have not received them at the house since they have to go through customs and quarantine. Basically, they will be pulling out our hiking boots and fumigating them. They will also be checking the dry goods we sent to make certain they are allowed in their country. We hope to have everything at the house next week. Finally, warm sock and winter clothes. Yes we took some winter clothes in our luggage but we shipped the majority of them. We've been learning a lot of lessons since we got here.

We did survive another 2 days of re-labeling (more working for wine). We're getting pretty good at this. Oh the other thing we've learned is that we could make a pretty good life out of house sitting. Currently we are house/dog sitting for the owners of Forrest Wines (the company that Trevor works for). When folks at Joelle's winery heard that we are open to house sitting, they invitations started pouring in. I think we could probably start taking bids for our services. You know, what type of food will you have available, what kind of wines, what are the amenities at your home (hot tubs and definitely a plus). That sort of thing! Seriously, it's a nice break for Joelle and Trevor. While staying with Joelle & Trevor is great and we are all learning how to live with each other again and move around each other, we all know what it's like having company. Even the best of company gets old after a while and I think the change has been good for them.

Well, that's all of my musings for now. I need to get ready for company tonight. It's our last evening in the house with a not tub from hell (6 ft. x 12 ft.) and we've invited Joelle, Trevor, Jasmin, her friend and another friend of Joelle's for dinner and hot tubbing. There is a great 'outside' room here (fully enclosed) with an enormous fireplace and outdoor kitchen. Ernie will be starting a fire this afternoon and we will do the pork steaks on the fireplace. So think about us tonight - good com[any, good food, great wine, kick-ass hot tub and an amazing evening sky - including the Southern Cross!

Y'all have a great day!

Volcanic ash cloud and olive picking

I'm sure you all have read or heard about the volcano in Chile and the effects of the ash cloud. Here is New Zealand, the effects are playing havoc with Air New Zealand and Quantus. One would think that Ernie & I would not be affected by that since we are not flying anywhere. Au contraire, Our goods have been sitting in Singapore waiting for the ash cloud to dissipate and allow flights into New Zealand. So the saga of our goods continues! The way it is going, we may receive just as we are ready to return to the US. Oh well, what is traveling without some hiccups. That's the only way to view all this. Speaking of the ash clouds, take a look at the photos of the sunrise we had on Friday:

 These were taken from Forrest vineyard where we are house/dog sitting for the next 10 days. Absolutely spectacular. Oh you should see the night sky here. I'll try to take some photos of the sky. I just know they won't be a replacement for actually being here.

So yesterday we went to Huia vinyard where Joelle works for the annual olive picking. Unfortunately Joelle wasn't able to participate since she was in Nelson with Jasmin on a St. John's camping weekend. St. John's is an international organization that provides medical and emergency care. They also runs a youth program where young people from six to 18 years can learn first aid, health care, self-discipline and general life skills in their communities. I was originally going to go to the weekend as a volunteer when we found out that the olive picking was scheduled for the same weekend. Of course you can understand my dilemma - be a volunteer victim for the entire weekend for kids 7 - 16 or pick olives which will them be cold-crushed to provide olive oil for all the workers. Seeing as how I might never again have the opportunity to pick olives, my decision was obvious.  Also obvious, Joelle was not happy with my decision as she also would have rather been picking olives. The joys of being an involved parent and we are very proud of her dedication. There were 11 of us picking and we picked almost 1000 kilos. We were armed with sticks (to beat the olives out of the trees), plastic wide toothed rakes (to rake the olives off) and our gloved hands (to simply run down the branches and 'pop' the olives off). Yes it was work and yes we had a great time. We started at 9 a.m. and quit when the light faded, around 5:30 p.m. Thankfully, the house we are staying in has an enormous hot tub and we fully utilized it last night.

Today is a day of rest and Monday and Tuesday we are labeling again. Time to work for wine again. No, we haven't finished off the 1 1/2 cases we received for our earlier efforts but one never knows!!!!

Bubbly (the champagne equivalent) being riddled - a 6 week process

Four racks and the cases behind waiting to be riddled

Laying out nets to begin the olive harvest

A great example of beating, raking and hand picking

A few of the trees were tall enough that we need the ladder to beat the olives out

Olives are gathered in the net and stems and sticks are picked out before putting into the small bins

Smalls bins being carried to the large bin for unloading

Lunch in the vineyard for a bunch of great olive pickers

At the end of the day, we filled two of these large bins each holding about 500 kilos of olives.

At the end of our picking day, the olives were going to the presser and they will be pressed Sunday evening. What a phenomenal experience. Well tonight we'll try to get some evening sky photos from the hot tub while we're finishing a couple glasses of wine. Hope y'all have a great day!

Queen Charlotte Drive & Picton

I realized after I published my last post that I never said anything about our road trip around the Queen Charlotte Sound. We had heavy rain all day Saturday and Sunday which meant flooding in the area between Blenheim and Nelson. Since we weren't heading in that direction, we didn't worry about that. We headed out around 10:15 Monday morning and were planning on driving all around the Kenepuru Sound and back again winding up in Picton. The plan was for an all day road trip ending up at Seamus's Irish Pub in Picton for supper and staying for the jam session of traditional Irish music.

When we put the info into our GPS for Linkwater to Kenepuru Head and we would then double back to Picton. The GPS said it would take us 3 1/2 hours to get to and we were a bit surprised since it is only 41.7K. Use the link to see what the road actually looks like on Google maps.

http://maps.google.co.nz/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&source=embed&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=108330471466062217291.00044e734074214354d9e

Once we started driving from Linkwater, we understood the situation. Here's a photo of a short section of road on our GPS.

We made the left turn onto Kenepuru Sound road and came to a sign that read:  SEVERE FLOODING ---- PROCEED WITH EXTREME CAUTION.  We went a little bit beyond the sign and passed 2 road graders and and few plows that were heading down the road - in the same direction that we were headed - and they were covered in mud and spewing mud everywhere. We decided at that moment that discretion is the better part of valor and chose not to go on the Kenepuru Sound road and took the Queen Charlotte Road instead. The sights were stunning! I've placed several photos below. So we were feeling pretty good about our decision and looking forward to an easier drive. What a surprise! The road was a series of switchbacks on switchbacks on switchbacks. Is it possible to have that many? Don't know but it certainly felt that way. We were shocked and concerned when we came on the first mudslide on the road. By the time we passed the 5th one, we stopped counting. Most of the slides only covered 1/2 of the right lane. While we were concerned with the slides, we got rather complacent about them. When we came on the first caved in road, our concern was again raised. But, like the mudslides, you get complacent after the 4th or 5th. Just a leisurely drive to Picton - until we came to the tree that slid down and totally covered both sides of the road. Obviously it had been there for a few hours already because folks had simply drive off the road onto the mud and created a new 'road' around the tree. Thankfully there was room enough to do that on the left side of the road and we were not on a cliffside.

Spectacular isn't it!!!! This is what we get to see every day as we drive around here. Since we were in Picton earlier than originally planned, we had lunch and decided to see their aquarium. When we got to the aquarium, we noticed that it was the aquarium and Picton Cinemas. since the aquarium was on the small side and we had time to kill, we bought the combo-ticket (for the aquarium and a movie). Our timing for the aquarium was great. We got in just when two New Zealand penguins were taking their quarter hour swim.

Here's info on this little blue critter taken from http://www.penguin.net.nz/species/blue/index.html:
The blue or little penguin (Eudyptula minor), also known in Maori as korora, can be found in many places around New Zealand and Southern Australia and is the world's smallest penguin. They only come ashore under the cover of darkness and live underground in burrows. Although quite common, its small size and unusual habits make it rarely seen.

Physical characteristics
The blue penguin stands just 25 cm tall and weighs a little over 1 kilogram. The plumage is slate-blue with a bright white belly. Juveniles are indistinguishable from adults. Both sexes are alike, although the male is a little heavier and usually has a larger bill.

There are several distinct races of blue penguins and some argue that they should be split up into sub-species. Perhaps the most distinct is the "white-flippered" penguin of Canterbury, however genetic tests have shown it not to be as distinct as its plumage would suggest.

We also saw a most unusual fish - the gurnard. This fish has large pectoral fins that spread out like wings and are irridescent. My picture doesn't do it justice so please check it our on the internet.

Now, I have saved the best for last. When it was time for our movie, the ticket seller located us in the aquarium and advised us to take the ramp over the fish tank and go through the door and up the stairs to cinema 2. If we wanted snacks, we had to return through the aquarium to the gift/snack shop. I will not describe the theater other than to tell you that we have a private screening of the movie. I will let the photos tell the rest of the story:

With this, I will say good night to all!

Omaka Aviation Heritage Center, Queen Charlotte Drive & Picton

Blenheim is fortunate to have a world class museum of World War I aircraft and memorabilia. Some of the planes exhibited here are reproductions but a number of them are original equipment. The displays are amazing and so realistic. I've  included several photos but encourage you to go the the links provided to get more information. For my friend Robert, eat your heart out! Ernie & I kept talking about how much you would enjoy this museum.

http://www.omaka.org.nz/
http://www.omaka.org.nz/exhibits.htm

Etrich

Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a

Story of 'Grid' Caldwell's Great Escape

Nieuport 27

War Saving Service Poster

 

The planes are displayed in an unheated building and we were given hand warmers when we entered and told that we can out to the gift shop/dining area as often as we need and get fresh hand warmers whenever we needed. While one is going through the museum, they are playing excerpts from pilots regarding the different aircraft or various mission reports. If you are ever in Blenheim, this is a must visit!