Campervan Day 4

Finally a nice, cloudless day!!  It was nice to be able to see the view when we woke up in the morning.  Our Holiday Park was right near the ocean with a great view of the mountains as well.  We decided to go and get an activity booked before starting our exploration of Kaikoura.  Because the conditions were near perfect, all the whale watch tours were completely booked for the day.  We decided to add ourselves to the waiting list for the 4 afternoon tours because the guy said the chances were pretty good if we came back at that time.  We then drove out to South Bay to begin the peninsula walk to see the entire peninsula of Kaikoura along the coast and right out to Point Kean and the seal colonies out there.  The views were beautiful but some of the hills were pretty steep as we had to get up onto the cliffs that overlooked the ocean.  We had some pretty close encounters with a couple of seals and boy are they smelly!!  Usually, in low tide you are supposed to be able to walk around the shore a bit after climbing down some stairs out on the tips of the peninsula and eventually find the stairs to get back up again.  Well the tide had come up far enough so that we weren’t able to get all the way around.  By the time we were informed of this, we had walked so far from the place we had gone down onto the shore we just decided to find our own way up.  We started on what looked like it could have been a path used a couple of times, but close to the top as it go steeper the gravel and sand had slid down making it pretty difficult get a grip with our shoes.  We made it to the top were some people sat wondering where we’d come from!  by the time we had finished this section of the walk we were getting pretty hungry and we were running out of time before we had to go back to the whale watch place to see if we could fit onto one of the tours.  We had to be back there by about 3pm.  After a slight delay following a supposed walking trail to take us back to where we’d parked the campervan, only to find out it led us no where, we decided to walk straight to the cafe where we’d planned to have lunch, and worry about getting the van later (though we’d end up a few miles away from it at the cafe).  It turned out this was a great plan in the end!  We ate a pretty yummy lunch.  I had the vegan option of a lentil burger made with cashews and coriander served over toast with hummus and a small salad topped with avocado and beet root chutney.  We made our way back to the whale watch place from there and there was space for us on the 3:30 tour!  It’s possible that the worsened sea conditions and their warming of a high chance of sea sickness is what turned people away.  Being a water-loving family we weren’t scared away by it.  The swell was pretty large out on the water and there was quite a lot of sitting and waiting while they were trying to locate the whale.  About half of the boat were sick...I definitely would not have liked to be the “sea crew” on that vessel!  One guy’s job was basically to pass out sick bags and collect used ones and clean up after people who missed and try to keep people as comfortable as possible...yuck!   We were all fine, but at one point when we had to come back inside the boat and sit down it was not fun having to listen to all the seasick passengers!  On a better not though, we did see a massive sperm whale!  He was at the surface when we first went out and dove down showing a nice view of his fluke.  We also saw lots of playful dusky dolphins and an albatross while waiting about an hour for Tiaki (that was what this particular whale has been named) to resurface.  We were lucky enough to see him again and then dive again before we returned to shore (though I’m sure there were many passengers who wouldn’t have minded missing the second viewing)! 

Luckily, the whale watch departed from South Bay (where we had abandoned our campervan earlier) and they bused us over there!  So we just didn’t take the bus back and saved probably an hour long walk.  We instead hopped right on the road to Christchurch, about a 2.5 hr drive away!  Making a quick pitstop at McDonald’s to use the free WIFI (when I posted yesterday’s blog, it’s really a day or so behind...) we arrived around 11pm, checked in and went to sleep!  Finally, we had a nice full day of activity with nice weather, but it was pretty exhausting!

Home in Kaikoura

couldn't go up the path cause the tide came in and blocked our way!

Tiaki

Campervan Day 3

The rain continued to fall pretty hard this morning and our Myths and Legends Eco tour people called and said it would probably be an experience we could do without in the weather...luckily as we headed down to Blenheim it brightened up and warmed up a bit for our wine tasting at Wither Hills.  It was delicious and we ended up with 3 bottles, the 3 that were for sale at the cellar door only.  We chose the Riesling, a Sauvingnon Blanc (a different one than we had at the restaurant yesterday) and the 2003 vintage Pino Noir.  The building certainly was as described in the book, “an architectural gem!”  They dining room was all booked for the day for lunch, so we continued on to Cloudy Bay winery for another complimentary tasting.  There we tried some of their famous bubbly, some more Sauvignon Blanc (including their oaky Te Kako), Chardonnay, Riesling and Pino Noir.  We also tried some extremely sweet vintages of whites that tasted almost syrup-like!  We asked for a place they recommended for dinner, and looked through some menus to find this excellent-sounding Italian place.  When we found it in town, we were surprised to see they were already open mid-afternoon (because we were expecting to have to wait until dinner time).  Turns out, they didn’t have much of a lunch menu at all and weren’t even open for dinner tonight, but tomorrow night they would be....so far, not our day for finding a place to eat!  Oh and before that, we though we’d try to find a bakery that the Lonely Planet book recommended and walked up to the street to address.  We ended up asking a guy at a motel desk...turns out it was on Main Rd of a town about 40km away...oops, it was just listed with places in the region I guess!  So we continued on our drive south to Kaikoura.  It was another really pretty drive, especially when we got to the coast and saw the huge surf!  It was extremely windy and by the time we got here the rain had picked up again and was really coming down hard.  We parked and plugged into power then made a run for it to a recommended cafe right across the road.  Turns out they were booked for the night as well!  We’re learning that apparently we need to make bookings for everything!  We tried the place next door and luckily they had space for us (although they did ask if we had made a booking as well).  The food at Tutis was actually pretty yummy and filled us right up!  The rain had stopped by the end of the meal and by nightfall the skies were crystal clear, hopefully a sign of a nice, warm, sunny day tomorrow!  Tonight is still pretty chilly outside but I’m hoping we get some more summery-feeling weather soon!!  I’d actually like to have to use my sunscreen please.

Campervan Day 2

Rain, rain, GO AWAY!  Well, we had a pretty wet day for exploring today!  Coming in on the ferry was really pretty, but would have been way nicer if the sun was out.  After we’d got settled in our campsite and had some breakfast it started to rain, so instead of heading out for a little hike we just explored the shops in the town.  There were lots of nice souvenir shops in the town center for browsing in and lots of nice cafes along the way.  We came back to the dry campervan for a bit and then decided to head back to try out a place for dinner.  We ended up trying a cafe with a nice view of the harbor, Cafe Cortado, and had some delicious pizza and a sauvignon blanc made here in Marlborough.  The sun even looked like it wanted to come out as we were finished eating!  We made our way to this little aquarium that is supposed to have a penguin parade with lots of little blue penguins, but they don’t have a large population at the moment, so we just got to see one of their babies who they are trying to train to swim by watching an adult they are rehabbing.  He was a cute little guy, but we only got to see him being held, not waddling or attempting to swim or being fed.  Oh well, hopefully on our Eco-tour tomorrow, weather permitting! 

As the weather looked like it was trying to clear up, we decided to hike some of the Snout track anyway, starting at about 7pm, but shortly after we got going into the woods on the trail it started raining harder than it had all day!  We carried on to about halfway, but seeing as we could barely see down to the water due to wind and rain and nightfall, we decided to turn around, head home and dry off and get a good nights sleep for tomorrow’s adventures!  It seems as though the country has sensed two new people who are supposed to be having winter now and cooled down and given them some rain instead of snow!  Hopefully it changes its mind and returns to that nice hot sunny weather they had on arrival day! 

 Hopefully some more pictures taken from Mom's fancy camera will follow soon...McDonald's free WIFI won't let me use that much data!  This country needs to get up to date with their telecommunications speed and such!

Headed to Wellington

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Ferrying to Picton

Rainbow from the ferry to Picton (unfortunately that meant rain...)

Picton from the ferry

Our home in it's 2nd campsite

Daddy and Peanut, bird at Eco World in Picton

Baby blue penguin just learning to swim

Part of our hike on the Snout track in Picton...in the rain...

Would have been a MUCH nicer view if the sun was out!

Campervan Day 1

Julia gave us a lift to pick up our campervan this morning, leaving the house at about 8:15.  The pickup was a LONG process!  We didn’t end up leaving the place until about 12 noon.  We had to watch a video about how to work everything in the van and then wait for someone to help use, get the paperwork signed, have a tour of the van, check for any preexisting damages.  When checking out the roof, Dad spotted a tool in the middle.  When the guy came with a ladder to get it down it was an extremely rusty set of pliers that looked like it had been there quite awhile, so apparently they don’t check all that thoroughly!  When we finally got on our way, the first stop was in Otorohanga, to the Kiwi bird house to see some real live kiwi birds.  They are noctournal so you have to look pretty carefully in the dark enclosure they have, but we saw the 14 year old male and one year old female.  We walked around the rest of the place and saw some Pukeko birds and some other native kiwi birds and then got back on the road again to head to Wellington where we would spend the night in a camping park close to the ferry terminal.  Leaving at about 3:30, our arrival time in Wellington was 11pm!  The roads were winding and very hilly for most of the way.  We stopped in Taumarunui to stock up on some groceries and get some lunch/dinner at a cafe.  We arrived at our camp site after office hours so they put a sign on the reception door telling us which site we were in.  I’m pretty sure we were the last people in at night and then the first people out in the morning!  We couldn’t figure out how to get our little storage place open where our power cord and hoses were kept.  The guy locked it before we departed and I guess he really struggled with it.  There were quite a few keys to chose from and none seemed to do the trick!  I even snapped one off in the key hole while trying at about 11:30 at night in the dark...luckily the piece came out, we’re just hoping that wasn’t the one we needed to get it open!  So far, we only know that the broken key locked the top lock on the door into the living cabin, which has another lock as well, luckily! 

It was a short night for sleeping, since we had to be up and moving by 4:30am!  Final check-in for our ferry across to the South Island was at 5:05am with a 6:05 departure time.  Currently, we’re making the 3 hour trip across and will arrive in Picton with a full day ahead of us to spend exploring!

Merry Christmas

Thursday I picked up Mom and Dad from the airport and we went straight back to the bed and breakfast to get checked in.  It was a very nice little place right down the street from my house so just a convenient little walk down the street.  They really enjoyed Gordon and Leslie’s company as well, the owners of the home they stayed in.  We then went down into Devonport to purchase a few supplies from the supermarket and then headed back to shower and freshen up.  We caught the 1:25 ferry across to Auckland and walked around the Viaduct and then to a Mexican restaurant for lunch right across from the sky tower.  They couldn’t have arrived on a more beautiful day weather-wise.  It was extremely sunny and hot and humid.  After lunch we wandered down Queen St and did a bit of shopping since there were some nice Christmas sales.  We made a gelato stop as well for a nice afternoon snack to cool us off. 

Friday, we started the day with some Christmas cookie baking.  Snowballs and Chocolate Peanut-butter Pinwheels were the ones I chose.  Libby was excited to help with the baking and Tessa got involved as well, luckily towards the end when most of the mixing and work was done already.  When rolling out the peanut-butter batter for the pinwheels, Mom left Libby to do a bit of rolling on her own for less than a minute and about half the dough ended up outside the wax paper and smeared all over the counter top!  She was trying to roll it really flat apparently!  After baking we went to Takapuna, trying to have lunch at this supposedly delicious Italian place, Boticcelli, but it didn’t open until 5:30 for dinner.  So we had a delicious salad at a cafe and then went for a walk on the beach.  We ended up getting rained on a little bit, but it was still a very hot, humid day.  We went into the mall and did a bit more shopping to get out of the rain and then by the time we went to dinner the sun was starting to come out again!  We also took some photos of the town’s Christmas decorations, Santa’s carrying surf boards and laying in hammocks!  Dinner was very yummy, so I’m glad we waited to eat there! 

After dinner we went back to the house to visit with John, Julia and John’s brother Peter and sister Linda for awhile and we showed them some of the barefooting footage from camp and also on the CT river right before I left for NZ.  They enjoyed some of the crazy wipeouts!  Right before bed, we headed down to the marina to take some pictures of the city skyline with the sky tower all lit up for Christmas with red and green lights! 

Christmas morning came and went before I even got out of bed (round 1 at least).  I awoke around 6:30 but didn’t hear too much commotion and ended up falling back asleep until about 7:20.  Turns out that’s when presents were being opened, at least stockings from Santa.  When I went downstairs at 7:20 everything was opened and being played with already.  We started to prepare the snacks and food (which was cold meat and salads mostly) and waited for everyone else to start arriving around 10:30.  Julia’s brother and his wife and 2 kids ages 3 and 1, and her parents came over for the next round of presents which was madness!  I got some nice Kiwi souvenir items from each member of the family.  From the Clinton’s I have a nice painting of Devonport with Rangitoto in the background.  From Linda I have a small photo of the Mount on a board.  From Peter, a cute little hairy kiwi bird.  I also received a few beauty products and then some things from the kids.  Reuben chose a nice little class kiwi bird for me which apparently he spent ages picking out.  Libby chose an I <3 NZ bear key chain and this pack-away carrying bag with a little sheep on it.  And from Tessa, which I assume was picked out by Julia, was a blue t-shirt with a kiwi pattern on it.  Very Tessa though, since anytime you ask her what color something is the answer is always blue!!  It was a nice afternoon, followed by some traditional kiwi desserts including pavlova, but our cookies were a HUGE hit!  Actually, I don’t think any lasted past the day!  Later in the afternoon we walked down the street to the park and played some cricket and with some of the other new toys.  I ended up taking a nap after that and then had to pack for our campervan trip!

Someone jumping off the sky tower

Ferrying back to Bayswater

Cooking baking with Tessa and Libby

Surfing Santa on a lamp post in Takapuna

"My house" or house of choice on Takapuna Beach

Harbor Bridge by night

City Skyline with Christmasy sky tower

Christmas morning round 2

Playing in the park Christmas afternoon

Pohutukawa tree flower