Happy Easter

The last 10 days have flown by and Easter is upon us already.  We now have less than a week left in New Zealand before we head home.

New Zealand is in a transition to digital TV, and I helped Margaret get a new antenna installed to receive the digital chanels.  Choices for digital TV are - Sky TV or Freeview.  Sky is a satellite service offering many channels and you pay a monthly fee as we do in Canada.  Freeview is a free service offering about 10 TV channels plus some radio channels, and is provided via satellite and from ground-based transmitters, depending on your location - all you need to do is install a small antenna or dish.  I like the idea that you can get a reasonable selection of channels on Freeview without any monthly fees.

Last Saturday afternoon we picked Tricia up and the three of us had a great trip to Napier and Palmerston North, seeing several relatives and friends.  In Napier we stayed two nights with my cousin Denzil, visiting with her and Maureen, and also managed to spend an enjoyable afternoon with Glenys and her husband Alan.  Glenys and Marlene have kept in touch since Heather was a baby in Palmerston North.

In Palmerston North we visited Auntie Bridie and took her out for lunch to celebrate her 92nd birthday, which is coming up on the 5th of April, and also got together with Judy Eden, a neighbour from our time living in Palmerston North in the late '70s, and also with her extended family.  We also managed a few walks and a little shopping.

On the way back to Wellington we spent a night at Tricia's home outside of Featherston.  The main focus was the building of two raised garden beds so that Tricia can grow some vegetables in her retirement, which starts on August 1st.  It was 28 degrees in the shade that day, so even though I started early in the morning, it was a tiring job.

I find it interesting to see how various cities and towns market themselves, or what they are known for -

• Napier, in the heart of sunny Hawkes Bay, is the Art Deco capital of the world - the city was destroyed in an earthquake in 1931and was rebuilt largely in the then-current Art Deco style.
• Waipukurau, a farming town in central Hawkes Bay, having no other claim to fame, stresses its location on the 40th parallel - this sign is in the Latitude 40 Cafe.

• Woodville, the southern entrance to Hawkes Bay, seems to have an over abundance of antique stores, but at least one business is trying to portray the livelier image seen in the photo below.

• Palmerston North, capital of the Manawatu region, has a slogan of "Young Heart, Easy Living", capitalizing on the large numbers of young people attending the local university.  But it is much better known for its wind, hence the hundreds of power generation windmills on the hills above the city.

Tricia is joining us at Margaret's today and will stay for most of next week, so that we can all spend some time together before we head home.  It will be a crazy busy week, with lots of visiting and chores still scheduled to be completed.  But if we do not get them all done, there is always next year!

 

 

Goodbye Nelson....Hello Wellington

Pam and Brian drove us to the airport on Friday, as we departed Nelson and headed back to Wellington.  We had of course left enough time for a farewell coffee before our flight departed.

We really enjoyed our 6 weeks in Nelson, and look forward to another long-term visit in the coming years.  With 45,000 people Nelson is big enough to have all of the city-style amenities, yet small enough to not feel crowded.  There is good hiking in town and even better hiking in the surrounding area, and the people that we met were very welcoming.  Cafes abound, with a good variety of sweet and savoury snacks, and with 41 fine days out of 42, we certainly could not complain about the weather.  I would vote Nelson to be New Zealand's most livable city.

We decided early in our stay that when there was a rainy day we would go and sit in the public gallery at the local courthouse and watch a few court cases, but the rainy day did not come, so that will have to wait for another visit.

Since we arrived back in Wellington, the weather has certainly changed - not just in Wellington but all over New Zealand.  We have had two days of rain, and a cooler southerly wind.  The sun is now out again, and it is forecast to be fine for the next week or more, but temperatures will not get much above 20 celsius.

Wellington City was down to 12 days of water supply remaining on Saturday, so we hope that they were able to harness some of the recent rain to provide bit more of a buffer.  It would be a shame if there was no water for coffee, but I guess we could drink wine and beer.  The drought is estimated to cost New Zealand between 1 & 2 billion dollars, mainly due to the impacts on agriculture. 

We will have a few quiet days with Margaret this week, and then on Saturday we are heading up to Napier and Palmerston North with Tricia for a few days.  Our trip is rapidly coming to an end.

Cable Bay Walkway

Our last hike in the Nelson area was the Cable Bay Walkway, which we walked with Pam and Brian.

The walk itself is about 3 1/2 hours each way, and thanks to Alison, a friend of Pam and Brian who drove us to the start of the walk, we were able to walk it one way and avoid a round trip.

Cable Bay is so named as it was the point of landfall in New Zealand for the first international telegraph cable, when it was installed in 1876.  The rate for the first 10 words to Sydney was 80 cents (8 shillings back then), so not much different to a 10 word text message to Australia today.  Maybe our cellphone rates aren't all that bad, considering inflation?

The beginning of the walk was a very steep climb from sea level, through farm fields with sheep and cattle, but there were some great views from the top. In the first photo you can see the north end of the boulder bank that extends all the way from Nelson.  The estuary on the right is actually filling from the right, around the back of the "island" in the foreground of the photo.




We paused along the way to watch the local farmer moving a flock of sheep using two sheep dogs.  The farmer stood at the top of the hill and called and whistled to each dog in turn, and in no time the dogs had the sheep where they were supposed to be.  It was amazing to watch how effortless it was (for the farmer).

The second photo shows Marlene almost at the top.  If I had pushed the shutter release a little faster, or a little slower, the photo would have been of Marlene and Pam, but I managed to hide Pam almost completely behind Marlene.



After the first peak, the trail undulated through native bush, until we reached the second peak, where we had planned to stop for lunch. 

It seemed that we would be sharing our lunch spot with 90 intermediate school children who were headed in the opposite direction, but thankfully they were almost finished lunch and moved on about 5 minutes after we arrived, leaving us to the views and peace and quiet.

 

The last photo shows the view looking south towards Nelson.  The curved white line in the water is the boulder bank.  You will notice how short and how dry the grass is.  After 5 weeks with no rain, this area, like the rest of the country is hurting, and the entire North Island has been declared a drought area.  My cousins in Napier have taken weeds, hedge clippings and vegetable toppings to feed their nephew's lambs, as there is absolutely no feed on their farm.

The balance of the walk was entirely downhill, following a farm track that wound around the hillsides, almost back to sea level, and then we headed back into town for the now customary coffee.

 

 

Abel Tasman Adventures

On Sunday we were out the door at 7 AM and drove to Marahau for a day's adventure in Abel Tasman National Park.  Margaret, Marlene and I had spent several days in Abel Tasman back in 2001, hiking various sections of the coastal walk, and so with only one day available we wanted to hike the best section on our reunion trip.

We boarded our water taxi on a trailer towed behind a tractor at the Aqua Taxi office, and we must have looked a little weird wearing our life jackets as we cruised down the main road of Marahau towards the boat launch ramp.  After years of providing this service the company has obviously figured out the most efficient way to get 5 or 6 boat loads of people, many with kayaks, from the office and into the water within a few minutes of the scheduled 9 AM departure time.



We had opted for the Seals and Sand trip as it was cheaper than the two one way rides that we needed, and so the first stop was to visit the much photographed granite boulder in the next bay, known as Split Apple Rock, for obvious reasons.



The water taxi was powered by a single 225 HP Honda engine and we were soon skimming across the waves towards our first stop at Anchorage, where most of the passengers disembarked, either to start the 11 Km walk south back to Marahau, or to begin a kayak trip.  We stayed on board until the next stop at Torrent Bay.

From Torrent Bay we hiked north along the well-maintained trail through beautiful bush toward Bark Bay, 7.7 Km away.




About halfway to Bark Bay the trail crosses the Falls River on a suspension bridge.  From the centre of the bridge I chatted with a lone kayaker who had paddled in from the river mouth at Sandfly Bay.

 

Bark Bay had a beautiful sandy beach so we had lunch and a wade in the shallows.  As we ate our lunch we watched a seagull remove a brown paper bag from someone's backpack and start to make off down the beach with it.  I managed to recover the bag and put it back in the backpack before the owner returned, but the seagull tried a couple more times before finally giving up.

After lunch we continued north for another 6.1 Km to our scheduled pickup at Onetahuti, another beautiful sandy bay.

 

The trip home began with a visit to nearby Tonga Island, where we spied a few seal pups among the rocks at low tide, and then after a pick up at Bark Bay, and a drop-off at Kaiteriteri, we returned to Marahau.  As the tide was well out beyond the boat ramp, the trailer was waiting in the water and the skipper drove straight onto the trailer and we were immediately hauled up onto the beach for the return journey to the office.

It was a great day's hiking, and with none of us too tired, we stopped at Mapua on the way home and enjoyed fish and chips out of the paper on the dock.

 

 

 

Counting the Country, Company Coming & Carbon Conservation

Two years ago when we were in New Zealand there was a census scheduled but the census was cancelled due to the earthquake that had just occurred in Christchurch, the home of the department responsible for the census.  The census was taken on March 5th of this year and was made really easy as you could fill in the census forms online.

Wanting to do my bit for future genealogists, I ensured that we filled in the forms, but a part of me did it just to confuse those same people who will not find us in any other New Zealand census in the past 30 years.

Last Thursday my sister, Margaret, arrived for a visit and we did the airport perimeter walk while waiting for her flight to arrive.  We were surprised at the lack of security fencing around the airport and just how close we could get to the departing aircraft, something that we haven't seen in Canada in decades.

Those of you with shares in Bombardier, or who are proud Canadians, will be pleased to see that Air New Zealand is operating a fleet of Q300 aircraft on its regional routes. 

Nelson is the 9th largest city in New Zealand, with a population of 43,000 people, but has the 4th busiest airport in the country, so is well served with flights from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.



We went through the whole of February without using any form of motorised transport, not even a bus, so we have been doing our bit to reduce our carbon footprint, but we broke down this week and rented a car for 6 days so that we could do some out of town trips.

On Friday we went to Pelorus Bridge, a scenic reserve about an hour east of Nelson.  There are numerous trails of various lengths, and we opted to do the waterfall trail.  Unfortunately both waterfalls were very unimpressive due to the near-drought conditions.  But we walked through native bush and black (Honeydew) Beech forest which provided much appreciated shade and had some great views of the Pelorus River and surrounding area.  We enjoyed it so much that we did another shorter walk as well.

I never thought that I would be discussing erogenous zones with my sister, but truth is stranger than fiction.  On Friday night we went to the local Repertory Theatre's production of Erogenous Zones, which we thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend seeing it, even if you are with your sister. 

Saturday was market day and the now habitual coffee with Pam and Brian.  Over the past 6 weekends we have gotten to know several of the organic farmers and we will certainly miss our weekly trips to check out what is in season this week, and to chat with the vendors. 

 

 

 

A Wonderful Walk and Woollaston Winery

Yesterday we ventured out of town for a walk with Pam and Brian, southeast of Richmond. 

The walk up Hackett Creek took us to the "Whispering Falls", and with the lack of rain in the past month, the falls were barely whispering at all.  But it was a nice walk, primarily in native bush, with great views of the creek and surrounding hills.

The track began by crossing a suspension bridge (max 5 persons on bridge).




We then crossed another bridge (max 2 people on bridge) just before the falls.  We stood below the falls and watched a group of mountain bikers ride across the bridge and try to make it up the hill on the falls side....it was even scarier when they rode down again, towards the bridge.



We will probably visit this area again next week, as the trails were in good condition and there were lots of places to explore.  But today we did not have time, as we wanted to be at the Woollaston Winery at 1 PM.

Woollaston Winery is about a 20 minute drive west of Richmond, and they were hosting a Music on the Lawn event, featuring a Christchurch singer, Graham Wardrop.  The winery is located on a hill with commanding views of the surrounding area.

We arrived a little before 1 PM but all of the seating around the edge of the lawn was already taken, primarily as the trees and umbrellas provided some shade from the relentless sun.  We parked ourselves in front of the perimeter people, on folding chairs that Pam and Brian had borrowed from their landlord, where we were able to get some shade from the trees, and had a great position to see the entertainment. 

We enjoyed a picnic lunch, listening to a good mix of music, and watching the locals.  While the others sampled the local wine, I downed a bottle of Stoke Dark (beer).



All in all, a great day out.

 

Two Thirds and Half Way

We are now two thirds through our stay in Nelson, and half way through our time in New Zealand.  Oh how time flies when you are having fun.

Qualicum Beach friends, Pam and Brian, arrived last Friday, and so we met them for coffee after the Saturday market, and scheduled a walk for Sunday.  We took them on a walk up the Maitai River to the campground, then had lunch at the Suter Art Gallery cafe.  My motto is fast becoming "no lunch, no walk", but Marlene seems to view it more as "no walk, no lunch".  Oh well, as long as I get lunch I am happy.

On Thursday we rented bikes for a ride to Richmond, which is about 15 Km away.  We had seen bikes for rent beside the river for $60 per day, but decided to visit a local bike shop, which we found wanted $45 per day per bike.  The math really does not work - you can rent a $15,000 car for $42 per day, but you have to pay $45 per day to rent a $500 bicycle.  Who do you think is making more money?

Being unwilling to pay $45 per day, we decided to try the $25 per day deal at the local backpackers hostel.  The guy was very friendly and told us that as well as a trail to Richmond, there is now a trail from Richmond to Rabbit Island.  He provided us with a map, lock and helmets and off we went, thinking that we had got a much better deal.

Our first stop was at that bike shop that we had visited about half an hour earlier, to put air in the tyres (not to be confused with tires).  This should probably have been our first clue as to the condition of the bikes.

The trail from Nelson to Richmond is a paved shared use trail that primarily follows the route of the old railway reserve, so it was a safe and relatively easy ride - I will blog another day about Nelson and the railway, as it is an interesting story.

We both ran into problems as soon as we tried to change gears - either it would slip to a different gear or would not change at all.  I ended up manually putting the chain on the most appropriate front and back sprocket on both bikes and we rode without gears.  It reminded me of the bike I rode growing up, which by design had no gears.  We also found that the front brake worked really well, but the rear brake did very little - thankfully we not planning on doing any racing, or we might have been flying over the handlebars when trying to stop.  I guess you do get what you pay for!!

But it was a beautiful day, and the ride was otherwise uneventful.  We stopped for lunch in Richmond, and then decided to take the trail to Rabbit Island.  This trail was gravel and wound around the edge of the estuary with lots of bridges and sections of boardwalk.




Being marshy there were lots of wading birds, but the only creatures that would stay still long enough for a photo were these 3 steers, who didn't seem to care that we stopped to take their photo.

We found that the trail had not been completed all the way to Rabbit Island, so ended up riding on gravel beside the road which was not a lot of fun, so we turned around and headed back towards Richmond and home, and got some nice views of the hills along the way.




By now we were in the heat of the day and found ourselves facing a head wind as we biked north, so were both happy to stop for a drink in Stoke, which would not have otherwise justified a visit.

They say "if it doesn't kill you, it'll make you stronger", so we must now be a lot stronger as the ride up Beatson Road darn near killed us, with no gears.  We ended up walking part of it.  But then we were over the hump and could almost coast all the way back to Nelson.

When the guy at the hostel asked how the bikes were, I told him that we had a little trouble with the gears, but otherwise they were great....after all, I wanted my damage deposit back and did not want him to think that we had broken anything.  I wonder how many previous renters have done the same thing? 

After walking back up the hill to our apartment we were both happy to veg for the evening.  Needless to say we both slept very well....exhaustion will do that.

 

Last night we went to see an English movie, "The Sweeney", at the local movie theatre (mindless violence) and then to a Thai restaurant (the #2 rated restaurant in Nelson according to Trip Advisor)for dinner.  We agreed that we preferred Chokdee where we ate last week - food had more flavour and much better value for money.

Today being Saturday we are off to the market and then coffee with Pam and Brian.