Golden Bay, final days in Christchurch

Paul gave his final exam at Uni and finished marking all 188 tests, so we were able to go on holiday for a few days.  We flew north to Nelson, rented a car and drove to the Golden Bay area on the top of the South Island. 

Our first destination was Te Hapu, a sheep and cattle ranch where we had reserved one of three cottages.  To get there we drove the last 35 km on gravel road and on several long causeways across sea inlets.  

We were rewarded with a quiet place, beautiful scenery and private beach.  

The Sheep Shearers' Retreat - our cottage at Te Hapu

We shared the 1000 acres with two other couples who we rarely saw, 10 sheep dogs, and lots of sheep and cows.  We saw more of the sheep and cows than the people.

Rock shelf near the beach - great exploring at low tide

Paua (abalone) shells from the top

and from the inside

The Maze at Te Hapu

We left Te Hapu and drove to our next two night stay at the Innlet, where we know the owners, Jonathan and Katie.  Jonathan described the area as being out in the “wop wops,” another great kiwi slang word for being out in the boonies.  We held onto our hats and visited wind swept Wharariki Beach. 

The next day we hiked on Farewell Spit for 4 hours.  One side is on the Tasman Sea, and the other is Golden Bay, and they are quite different from each other. 

The Golden Bay (calmer) side of Farewell Spit

Cindy on the sandy track crossing Farewell Spit

Tasman Sea side of Farewell Spit

Bar-tailed godwits on the outer side of Farewell Spit

Our final day was in Nelson, where we attended the opening night of a Steampunk Christmas Carol performed by the local repertory theatre group.  Great fun! 

The backdrop for A Christmas Carol - Steampunk Style

Audience members dressed up in steampunk style too

We also stopped at the Nelson Provincial Museum to see an exhibit titled "A Century Of Saying Cheese", about the history of portrait photography.

Negative image of Paul and Cindy

Earlier last week, many cities in New Zealand honored war dead with ceremonies and the placing of wooden crosses.  New Zealand lost over 18200 lives in World War I, which at the time was 10% of the population. 

We now are back in Christchurch.   We visited an exhibit at the Christchurch Art Gallery where anyone can paint the wall.  Each night the wall is painted white again during the two week exhibit. 

Last night we said goodbye to the Farandol Folk Dancers. It's been fun learning some new dances from them and teaching them some of the dances we do in Eau Claire.    

The Farandol Folk Dancing group

Today we stopped at Willowbank Nature Reserve where Cindy has been volunteering.  We got a behind the scene visit to see Fawkes, a kiwi chick born last week while we were gone.  We also saw a wood pigeon (keruru) sitting on its nest, and a white-faced heron. 

Fawkes, the newest Brown Kiwi chick at Willowbank

A kereru (New Zealand or wood pigeon)

White-faced heron

We leave warm Christchurch to fly home to wintry Wisconsin today.  Thank you for following our blog this year – it’s been fun sharing our adventures.

Dunedin and beyond

We drove back to Dunedin and saw several attractions including the Dunedin rail station and Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world.  

Train station in Dunedin

Baldwin St. in Dunedin, the world's steepest street - looking down from the top

Our favorite Dunedin visit was to the Royal Albatross Center where we went on a guided tour and saw about a dozen huge Northern royal albatross that are just starting to return to nest.  The afternoon was cold and windy and it turns out that is the best time to see albatross soaring.  

Several albatross starting their mating activity

Albatross soaring over the harbour

Albatross on the bluff

Courting behavior

Paul holding weighted model of a baby albatross - they're heavy!

We had to get back to Christchurch to be in the Thrill the World - Christchurch dance on the Sunday before Halloween, when all the zombies in the city dance to Michael Jackson’s Thriller.  We even won a prize as one of the best couples.  The scissors-in-the-eye office couple won first prize over the cooks.

Best zombie couple

Paul and Cindy zombies

Student zombies with the Wizard

We washed off our face paint so we could attend  the Vegan Expo that afternoon…couldn’t really have brain-sucking zombies at Vegan Expo. We volunteered by helping with the cooking demos, including a yummy raw food dessert made by the Two Raw Sisters.

Two Raw Sisters demonstrate how to prepare Banoffee Pie

Stewart Island and the Catlins

Our friend Wil traveled to New Zealand for a holiday and spent almost 2 weeks with us.  We saw the All Girl Big Band perform as part of the Christchurch Big Band Festival, and visited the Smash Palace, a pub set up in a bus. 

The All Girl Big Band

Wil and Paul at the Smash Palace

Saturday we started traveling south.  We flew to Dunedin, rented a car there and drove to Invercargill.  In Invercargill we visited parks and also saw a truck show.  

Truck show in Invercargill

Decal on potato truck

The next day we flew to Stewart Island, the third largest island of New Zealand with fewer than 450 full time residents.  Most of the island is a national park with lots of walks, beaches and birds. 

Sunday night we joined in on the quiz at the South Sea Hotel which has the only pub on the island.  Three young men from Denmark were looking for a place to sit, and they agreed to join our team.  All three are students in Denmark, but doing internships in Dunedin.  Between the six of us we managed to come in 4^th out of 18 teams. 

We took the local water taxi out to Ulva Island, a small predator free island off Stewart Island, and saw numerous birds and plants.  

A kaka (parrot)

Paul and his buddy, the weka

Tomtit

Stewart Island robin

Hen and chick ferns - the little sprouts are ready to fall off and become new plants

Umbrella moss

Crown fern

Back on the mainland of the South Island, we picked up the rental car again and drove north through the Catlins, an area of native forests and coastline on the southeastern side of the south island.  We stopped at Curio Bay to see the petrified forest (and a rare yellow-eyed penguin).   

Petrified forest at Curio Bay

It was too dark to get a photo of the yellow-eyed penguin - this is from the wall in the Dunedin airport

Flax flowers are just starting to bloom. 

We saw several waterfalls:  one was the tiny Niagara Falls and one was McLeans Falls, the tallest falls in the Catlins.  

Niagara Falls in the Catlins - not quite as big as the US/Canada version

McLean Falls

We went to Lost Gypsy Gallery to see the fun contraptions and art works created by Blair Sommerville.

Blair Sommerville's bus full of gadgets at the Lost Gypsy Gallery

Metal whale mailbox

Boots and shells water feature

Blair Sommerville, owner and gadget maker at Lost Gypsy Gallery

And of course there were lots of sheep and even road signs for sheep.

Our own sheep in the back yard of one of our overnight stays

We went to Cathedral Caves during low tide and got to walk inside the huge caves.  We’ve tried to go other years, but access to the caves has always been closed for the season.    

One of the entrances to Cathedral Cave

Looking out of the cave toward the sea

Tide patterns in the sand

A sea lion lumbered up onto the sand while we were there. 

Nugget Point with its lighthouse, rocks, seals and birds was a beautiful place to end our Catlins travels.  

View from the Nugget Point lighthouse