Monday 31 October 2011

The Catlins and Stewart Island

Once Paul finished grading final tests, we headed for the Catlins at the bottom of the south island.  The Catlins is a scenic region with a lot of good things to see - waterfalls, coastline, caves, hill country, and interesting people.  We took the Intercity bus down from Christchurch to Dunedin, then rented a car and drove down through Balclutha and into the Catlins.

Our first stop was the Nugget Point lighthouse.  Nugget Point has a large number of boulders off the point (the nuggets) and a now-automated lighthouse to warn the coastal boaters.  It's another beautiful spot out of many on the south island.

We stayed at a backpackers called the Hilltop Accommodations just outside of the small town of Papatowai.  We were greeted by a field of sheep, and ended up being the only ones there that night.  The lower building is a wonderful old house high on a hillside, with a great view of the valley and out to the sea.

The next morning we went to the nearby Purakaunui Falls, which is a nice multi-tiered falls but probably more spectacular when the water is running at a higher volume.

We then visited the amazing Lost Gypsy Gallery in Papatowai.  Blair Somerville is an artist who blends various pieces of technology into artwork.  He has a museum of sorts in an old bus which contains many interesting windup creations, but the real treat is his outdoor theatre with some awe-inspiring larger pieces, including a piano with each key starting up a piece of technology to make an unique sound.  If you're interested in the unusual, the interesting, or the just plain fun, this is definitely worth a stop.

We then drove to Curio Bay at low tide to see a fossilised forest on the ocean shore.  Trees (both fallen and standing) were covered in sediment 180 million years ago, and you can see trunks and stumps petrified in the rock surface on the shore.

We were sorry to leave the Catlins, but had to leave other sights for next time.  We drove through Invercargill to the airport, and caught a short flight out to Stewart Island.

Stewart Island is the third largest island in New Zealand, about 30 km. off of the bottom of the south island.  It has about 400 permanent residents, and a small number of tourists when we were there (would be much busier in the summer).  About 85% of the island is national park, and there are a number of good walking trails both in the main settlement of Oban, in the surrounding area, and around the whole island.  We walked on two of these (the Fuschia Walk and the Raroa Walk) the first night, and saw both the local species of parrot (kaka) and the black and white tui.  The tui mimics other birds and also has a call that sounds like R2D2 from the Star Wars movies.

The next day we booked a half-day birding trip through Ruggedy Range Expeditions to Ulva Island, which sits in the middle of the Paterson Inlet that cuts into Stewart Island.  All mammals have been removed from Ulva Island (with the exception of periodic rat infestations that are controlled with traps and poison).  The Department of Conservation has reintroduced native birds that had been forced off the island by mammalian predators.  We saw the "big four" that our guide Furhana was looking for (birds with the interesting names of rifleman, saddleback, yellowhead, and a red-crested parakeet), plus a variety of others, including the New Zealand robin, bellbird, grey warbler, tui, brown creeper (different than the US version), and a morepork (a New Zealand owl whose call sounds like "more-pork").  We were on this trip with two birders from Wales who were in New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup (Wales came in fourth).

The second day we visited a local native-plant garden, and then did a half-day walk on the track from Half Moon Bay to Horseshoe Bay.  This is a beautiful walk that weaves in and out of bush and coast.

The third day we walked on another trail on the edge of town, hearing and seeing many more tui, before heading back into Oban.  We were hesitant to leave - Stewart Island is a beautiful and relaxing place to visit, and the people start getting to know you after only a few days in their community.  We caught our return flight back to Invercargill, picked up our car and drove back on Highway 1 to Dunedin.


Friday 21 October 2011

Food and Flowers

Since we last wrote:  spring has (really) finally happened in Christchurch; we've attended two pizza parties; we helped out at the Vegetarian Expo; Cindy made cookies with a local woman and her son; and Paul gave two final tests.  We also have been watching the All Blacks (New Zealand national team) advance in the Rugby World Cup.

As part of Open Day at the University of Canterbury, Okeover Gardens had a pizza party.  Everyone rolled dough and made their own pizza, which was then baked in the outdoor adobe pizza oven in the garden.



The next day we attended a pizza party at Joff's house.  Joff is a programmer (system administrator) in Paul's department at University of Canterbury, and he's also vegetarian.  Every year Joff invites a bunch of people over, and makes pizzas all afternoon.  On the day we were there, Joff made a total of 16 vegetarian pizzas with toppings ranging from fresh garlic to asparagus to canned spaghetti (for the kids).


Last Sunday we volunteered in the kitchen and food area at the Vegetarian Expo put on by the Christchurch Vegetarian Society.  The event included information tables, product sales, food vendors, music, movies and cooking demonstrations, including a demo by Robert Jacobs, a young man who was one of the contestants in last year's "Master Chef - New Zealand".  Over five thousand people attended the expo, which we thought was quite impressive.



Cindy was asked by Marcela, one of the hosts of the university newcomers' group, to help her learn how to make cookies.  So Cindy, Marcela, and Marcela's seven year old son Orlando made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and lemon sour cream cutout cookies.  Orlando impressed Cindy with how well he learned to roll out the dough and cut out cookies.  His favorite was the rugby ball that Cindy made out of the leftover dough.


Now that we will be leaving, spring weather is finally here.  We only need to wear two or three layers of tops rather than four or five.  We've been able to do a little biking, flowers are blooming everywhere, and the birds are calling most of the day.  Soon we'll head out on our final trip - to the Catlins and Stewart Island in the south.


Saturday 1 October 2011

Banks Peninsula Revisited

After getting stranded on Banks Peninsula because of snow, sleet and ice the last time we visited, we've been wanting to go back to see it in better weather.  We got the opportunity last weekend when Paul's university colleague Brent invited us to their house in Robinson's Bay (where we'd stayed one night last time.)  Brent, his wife Suky, and son Hugh were fine hosts for an enjoyable Saturday night dinner on the peninsula, and we talked until midnight.  On Sunday morning we accompanied Brent and their dog Ellie for a walk around their hillside property.  Brent showed us a native stinging nettle that has especially large and irritating spines on the stems, the leaf edges and the leaf veins.  At noon Brent gave us a lift into Akaroa town.

We were met by a van from Pohatu Penguins, a combination tour business and penguin conservation effort run by Shireen and Francis Helps.  We opted for the Pohatu Package tour, which involved a 4WD van tour around the south end of the peninsula, hiking, exploring the penguin colony, and staying overnight in one of their farm cottages.  It turned out we were the only ones out there that day, so we ended up with a private tour.  The van driver was Shireen's niece, and she showed us several sights on the peninsula, including a high point on the former volcanic rim, a lighthouse and sea arch, and a hidden log with several weta (brownish native crickets that are being studied because of declining numbers).  She then dropped us off on a section of the Banks Peninsula track, and we hiked down along a stream on a two-hour hike to the Helps farm on narrow Flea Bay.  The hike actually took two hours and 45 minutes for us, as it had rained recently and the track was quite slippery in places, but it was a beautiful walk, with lots of foliage, waterfalls, and nice views of the coast.  We made it down to a little cabin on the farm that was our overnight residence, and at 6:00 PM we knocked on their farmhouse door.  We were first greeted by four bottle lambs, and then joined Shireen for an evening tour of their work with the penguins.

The Flea Bay area has been declared a marine reserve, which helps protect the penguins by restricting fishing and activities (such as netting and jet skis), that could harm the penguins.  There are two kinds of penguins here - blue (technically, white-flippered, a NZ subspecies of blue) penguins, which are quite small (about 9 inches tall, and 2 pounds in weight), and yellow-eyed penguins, which are larger and more rare.  The Helps have built many nest boxes for the blue penguins to encourage breeding, and now have counted over a thousand nesting pairs.  They have also built blinds so that visitors can see groups of penguins "rafting" into the bay before they emerge from the water, and can see the penguins coming up on land.  We saw several blue penguins up close as Shireen inspected the nests, saw a large group of about thirty blue penguins rafting in the water, and saw a group of six blue penguins come up the shore.  We also saw two different yellow-eyed penguins walking up the rocks.  It's amazing how these awkward looking birds can climb up over steep shoreline terrain to get up to their nests. 

The next morning we were hoping to kayak, but the wind was strong and there were large waves on the beach, so Shireen didn't want us to go out.  We explored the beach (spotting a few more blue penguins sheltering in a rock cave) before heading to Akaroa at noon, and wandered around town for a few hours before catching the bus back to Christchurch.