Wildlife of Timaru

Our curious friend here was at Caroline Bay in Timaru I think he's a cockatiel. Dad you let me know if that's correct. 

This Elephant Seal and her pup may not seem big but she is massive. The mother comes on shore to give birth and then rarely moves for 10 weeks until the pup is weaned and she leaves the pup alone forever. The pup remains on shore for another 4 weeks then once strong enough takes to the sea. They have a 24 hour guard to protect them both while on shore you are not allowed any closer than 50 feet to observe. 

Camped at Whaiti Gorge and visited by some friendly little birds. They were bribed a little by a bit of Sarah's trail mix to pose for photos. 

Happy Birthday Angelique

Have a great birthday and I hope you have lots of fun. Send Auntie Sarah and I a picture of you birthday adventures.
Lots of Love
Auntie Sarah and Uncle David
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Lakes and Mountains and Starry skies

Bumper mended and back on track to Geraldine. We spent three nights near Gerlsdine walking and waiting to get a clear night. Why a clear night? Well, Geraldine has an old gent from Accrington in Lancashire who has his own observatory in the back garden and he was going to treat us to an astronomy viewing night. The first night was way too windy as we knew, second night was think cloud so just like Goldilocks the third night was just right. He has two observatories with four telescopes Sarah and I looked at Saturn and its moons (see below for a picture of what we saw), a shooting star, comet, Milky Way, Southern Cross, a linear Galaxy, the Jewel box constellation and Scorpio constellation to name but a few. 

Included this photo of the sun taken by Peter. He does supernova searching and observing plus he gives anyone who asks a free guided nights viewing of the night sky. Very educational and an extraordinary experience from an educated gentleman. All donations he gets go to educate kids in astronomy. 

Onward into the south islands centre and the lakes around Mt. Cook. The first stunning azure lake is Lake Tekapo with this tiny church perched on the lake edge. The view past the altar is probably the best pew view in the world with the lake and snow capped mountains behind. I guess the congregation would never tire of long sermons here. They still hold weekly Sunday service at 4pm. No pictures in the church but if look through the door that's the view the congregation has. 

Lake Alexandrina next to Lake Tekapo and the southern mountain range stretching across the horizon

Following day we travelled the short distance to Mt. Cook village campground passing Lake Pukati which is around twice the size of Tekapo. Look in the centre below the cloud and the little peak is Mt. Cook, New Zealand's highest mountain at approx. 3775m. A mere drop in the ocean after the Throng La Pass in Nepal at 5455m 

The Tasman Glacier near Mt. Cook seen here in the distance from our vantage point was 25 years ago higher than where we stood to take this picture, it's shrinking on average by half a kilometre a year and by 2027 it will only be 20km long. It doesn't look much like the glaciers we've seen on our travels as is full of rocks and as you can see the wind here is fierce. 

It was so wildly at the foot of Mt. Cook that we were rocked to sleep praying the awing on the rear of the van remained attached. In the morning it was torrential rain and no visibility so scampered down the road until we found dry weather and returned the next day in bright sunshine to complete our planned walk and view another glacier with ice bergs at the base of Mt. Cook via the Hooker Valley Track. 

The summit of Mt. Cook from the back of the van 

Our bumper blow off

On the day we left Chrsitchurch it was a really windy day in fact we had gusts in excess of 150km/hr hands were a bit stiff from holding the steering wheel firmly. We had left Christchurch about 1hr earlier and about 15mins until we could have a rest (probably a McD's Diet Coke) in Ashburton when the rear bumper blew off the car. So had to drive back to Chrsitchurch and find the Spaceship depot and speak with them to see what could be done.

They took one off another vehicle and fixed it to ours with a few screws and some cable ties! The manager at Auckland where we had hired it from phoned me to say it was our fault and it would cost $500 NZ. As you would expect we were not happy so set an email to the MD and happily he was more amenable and apologised and refunded the charge. 

Still 90km/hr and the bumper blows off its not to reassuring. But all is OK and we can laugh about it now. Also, had a stove self igniting at the gas inlet valve as I was cooking but that was exchanged 4 days earlier. At the same time they used an angle grinder to fix the slider of the bed extension which had been welded incorrectly and wouldn't stay in place so got wet if it rained as the awning could touch the mattress. Just yesterday they sent us a survey requesting we recommend them as the best campe van company in NZ and Aussie, Sarah hasn't replied as yet..........

Adventurous times! Huh!!! 

Christchurch

For our anniversary we decided to spoil ourselves and book into a motel in Christchurch for 4 days. Due to a booking error in our favour (sounds like Monopoly doesn't it) we ended up with a one bed room suite instead of a studio at no extra cost. Last time we were here we only had 12 hours so we wanted to spend more time and appreciate this lovely but unlucky city. 

Spring has really sprung here the tulips, daffs, azalea, camellias, sweat williams etc etc were all in full bloom, see below. The botanical garden was beautiful. 

The city is still demolishing its earthquake damaged buildings and they reckon it will be up to 10 years before all the devastated buildings are replaced. They are trying to save many of the historic buildings and we have seen some renovation improvements since we were last here in February. After speaking with locals it seems that the insurance companies want to repair and not replace. However, they are active in their positive approach with many modern sculptures and art work filling empty sites. They had a event stadium made from shipping pallets, which is now used for such things as markets and picnics (see the arches images at the bottom of this post, it's now known as the Commons). 

The 150 year old cathedral was badly damaged in the 2010 earthquake and then suffered more damage in 2011 quake and has now lost the bell tower. The church and the heratige society are in heated debate as to repair or demolish and replace. The church want to replace and the heritage society want to repair. So no work has started yet, 4 years later! In the interim they have spent 7 million dollars on building the transitional cathedral better known as the Cardboard cathedral. $2.3 million just on making the foundations safe in case an earthquake of that magnitude happens again. Incidentally New Zealand has around 10,000 earthquakes a year only most are so deep down that they are barely felt. 

Original cathedral and sculpture in Cathedral square, city centre Christchurch. The multi storey buildings you can see in the background are all earmarked for demolition

Cardboard Cathdral

My tour guide (Sarah) organised a full day of sightseeing and historical facts starting at 10am, we finally made it back to the hotel at around 8pm. It was a lovely day with bright sunshine, people punting down the River Avon and picnicking in Hagley Park. We saw all there was to see from Restart the container mall to monuments for the NZ suffragettes and Antony Gormley's sculpture 'Stay' (he's the British artist that produced the Angel of the North and Liverpools Standing Men on the beachs around Crosby. 

The clock tower below has withstood all the earth could throw at it since 1860. However it has been relocated so that streets could be realigned following earthquakes in the previous century. The clock and bell were all built in England and shipped to NZ, the bell is currently being renovated. 

The arches at the Commons

Happy Birthday Sam

One more year older............ How does it feel? Just wait until you get to your mums age, sush don't tell her I said that. Have a great day and make sure you see Nana as she has you're card and Leanne's. We'll be thinking of you and if we are near a telephone well contact or if were in a wifi area we'll FaceTime with you. You've both probably taken the week off so if you go away have a great time.

Lots of Love

Mum & Dad

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Postcard from the edge

First time in a mouse wheel for Dave

He's finally lost the plot (and you all thought it would be me first) It must be all the cheese we have been eating and the tiny space we've been living in. Unfortunately he needs a lot more practice!!!

Happy Birthday Leanne

Happy birthday 'Oldie' 30 years old, gosh I bet that feels really old doesn't it? We both hope you have a wonderful day and feel free to have a grande (in a venti cup) hot chocolate with tons of whipped cream on us!

Lots of Love

Sarah & Dave

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PS we'll reimburse you when we get back..........

So long since we last made a post...... We forgot all about it!

OK so it's about 20 days since we last posted on the blog, no we haven't died or anything like that. As we left Wellington this time around I think we had seen more to appreciate in the city so on our way back we may spend another day there. We have however traveled across the water to the South Island on 23-9-15 it was uneventful, at least for anyone who doesn't get sea sick but for those that do like Sarah it was a bit bumpy. The Cook Strait was calmer than in the preceeding days but still had 4 metre high swells. 

 

The South Island had also been suffering from heavy rainfall just like Wellington but here the rivers had burst there banks and the area around Picton was in flood. Thankfully we were driving away from the area so it just made for interesting viewing as we passed through. Blenheim was our first stop with its vast wineries, museum and art gallery. We spent a couple of days in White Bay about 20km outside of Blenheim lulled to sleep each night by the sea and during the day traveling to and from Blenheim.

Next we headed south to Kaikoura on the islands east coast. Last time when we passed through this region on the bus it was so beautiful we knew we had to come back and see more of it. The beaches are naturally black due to volcanic stone being ground into black sand and there are large black shiny smooth pebbles all over the beach. There were some firsts for us in the area as well, we had one of those lovely fresh fruit ice creams, yes the weather had turned hot so ice cream was on the menu, then we spent time camping and hanging around with the grey fur seals who had a brood (not sure if that's the correct term) of cute pups, walked around the coast viewing exquisite deep blue Pacific Ocean surf on one side while on the other side our backdrop was the massive Kaikoura mountain range with its snow capped summits, on the last day in the area we camped at an Irish pub called Donegal House with the biggest log fire and our first roast dinner since November of last year (spuds, yorkshire's, gravy and even mint jelly) unfortunately everything closes so early here we were the last ones out at 8:30pm. Finally to top it off as we were leaving Kaikoura Sarah saw her first whale in fact within 90 mins we had seen four of them, happy, happy days. This was the one thing Sarah had been waiting to see for months.  

Grey fur seals taking there ease

Camping by sea and sky near Kaikoura

Then we headed inland to Hanmer Springs via Cheviot to spend a couple of days walking in the hills and mountains around Hanmer finishing off with a dip in the famous hot springs. Before heading back towards the coast and Christchurch.