Bits and Pieces - Driving

Bits and Pieces - Driving

Kiwi's drive on the left side of the road which clearly, is not right. To be perfectly honest, it intimidated me more than just about anything I've faced on this adventure thus far. I didn't even test drive my car but rather asked the owner to drive us around. I didn't want to crash it until it was mine at least. For at least the first full week literally every moment I was moving, I was repeating the mantra "stay left, you (meaning the steering wheel) should be in the center of the road". It took a good month before I actually felt wrong being on the right side but turns still confuse me sometimes - "left turns are easy, right turns are hard" is the turn mantra. Meaning going left is as easy as going right in the states. I am beginning to believe that I will never stop turning on the windshield wipers every time I want to signal a right hand turn.

Roads here are not great, often rough, narrow and very rarely more than a bare minimum 2 lanes. At times there's only one lane with the expectation that drivers will yield for one another. This happens especially with bridges. I'd even go so far as to assert there are more one lane bridges than 2 lane ones but then I suppose I don't really notice a bridge when it just works so probably my count is skewed. In general I'd say there is a greater expectation of driving cooperatively and yielding to your fellow driver when needed. There are few stop signs, many yield (give way) ones with roundabouts at most intersections.

They call parking lots car parks here. It makes me smile every time I leave my car in one, thinking it's having a good time while I'm gone.

All in all I am SO grateful for my little car. There are so many wonderful places I never would have seen without it. A vehicle really is the only way to see this country.

Full circle

Nearly 5000 km around the south island and back to Nelson, where I bought my car. Been goofing around Marlborough sounds a bit but don't have much to report. Full up on gas and food and headed for Golden Bay before taking the ferry to the north island. 

Update 4/28:  Ferry booked for tomorrow from Picton to Wellington. 

On a side note - I am heartbroken about Nepal. It was the only place I was really feeling a draw to and was tentatively thinking it would be my destination after Australia. Now I'm not sure. I'd go now if I thought I could offer something more than an additional strain on scarce resources.

The seal pups of Ohau waterfall

Stopped at the Ohau stream and waterfall at the recommendation of an old guy I met at a campground on the way to Hanmer Springs and I'm really glad I did! It's a short walk up a stream to a waterfall and all along the way there are seal pups playing in the pools formed by the stream. I don't know if the adults are too big or too busy to get up the inland stream but all I saw were youngsters.  Stayed and watched them for a very long time it was just too much fun.

The drive up the coast from there was beautiful. The mountains come right down to the sea. Found a little campground overlooking the ocean with a long walk (4 hours round trip) along the beach to an old lighthouse. I started to go on Friday but was worried about getting trapped at high tide about half way there so I returned and went yesterday leaving earlier in the morning. The lighthouse itself was on private land and though I read that they don't mind visitors, I didn't feel comfortable going all the way up to it - still a cool walk.
Sunrise from my campsite this morning:

I'm really not feeling ready to leave the south island just yet. I think I'll head back to the Golden Bays area. I spent some time there as that is where the Abel Tasman great walk is but I think it merits some further exploration.

Bits and Pieces - Critters I've met

There's a spider living in my car. He's been there all along. I know he's there because he is relentless in rebuilding his ragged web on my mirrors. I move between letting him live in peace, what harm is he doing anyways, and what if he's a she and has hundreds of spider babies trying to make a living off my little Nissan? For now (s)he lives.

My first encounter with the wildlife in NZ was the Weka's wandering around at the beginning of the Queen Charlotte trail. They look like what I'd imagine a prairie chicken looks like though I've never seen a prairie chicken! Brown birds with chicken feet, somewhat smaller than a domesticated chicken. It wasn't until a couple of days later when some fellow trekers were talking about them, that I came to love them. A young guy was sitting in the shelter eating peanut butter with a spoon, when I commented on it, he told me a Weka had stolen his rolls. He had set them down for just a second and turned back just in time to see the bird dragging the whole bag into the bush! Apparently, they will steal anything and are particularly partial to shiny things. They also cannot fly but can run very fast.






I think I already mentioned the family of wild goats in a camping clearing on the QC trek. The father had long shaggy hair and was adorable. He kept head butting the 2 kids, each in turn, as if to say "we're in the open, let's go!"

The inland trek I took off of the Able Tasman main trail was perhaps the most difficult hike I've ever done, rewarding but difficult. Along the way, a little black and white bird accompanied me - flying from tree to tree looking expectantly at my struggle. I remember feeling so grateful for that little bird and thinking he was encouraging me. I learned later that they do that because they have found that hikers kick up food - bugs and such. I still prefer to think of him as channeling one of my ancestors saying, "go, go, go, you can do it!"
 
This duck.

I was lounging in the back of my car reading when this guy came up, pecked around and then jumped onto the roof of the car. I looked out the rear hatchback at him and he peered back down at me for a long bit so I thought maybe I'd get out and take his picture. When I did, he looked me straight in the eye and took a massive dump on my car! I guess we weren't friends after all...

The southern coast was full of wildlife, penguins (which I only saw from a distance), seals, sea lions. I was walking along a beach where several sea lions were resting when a couple of younger ones started wrestling with each other. I watched them for some time before a big bull stepped in and put a stop to it.

Repent!

Returned to Christchurch this morning and walked around some of the area most affected by the 2011 earthquake and visited the Canterbury Museum.

Quake damage is still quite visible as is a great deal of evidence of reconstruction. Many affected buildings have simply been abandoned behind chain link fences looking much as they did the day of the disaster minus contents. There are a lot of crudely cleared lots and buildings with scaffolding and bracing - especially older ones in the process of or awaiting funds/plans for restoration. This is the cathedral at the center of Cathedral Square:

There was a list of arguments on both sides that left me thinking there is a plan to restore the cathedral using tax payer funds. It clearly was still an important public space with the Tram starting there, an open air market and people playing chess. Even the local character yelling repent, charging that the disaster was a warning from God.

I feel like I've had enough of Christchurch and will continue my quest north tomorrow probably on to Hanmer Springs.

They had created an outdoor mall area out of storage containers called ReStore where I had a great falafel for lunch.

Akaroa

You'd think by now I'd know better than to plan to stay in a city! The motor park in Christchurch I'd targeted for a couple day stay was so awful I fled the city to a freebie about 30 mins drive south. Now I find myself at the end of the road (well the decent road anyways) on the peninsula southeast of Christchurch. Akaroa is a small tourist town at the head of the bay, with free wifi at the library :).  Nice since it's a rainy Friday afternoon.

I find my priorities in life have totally changed. A good place to camp, free wifi and clean drinking water being top of the list. It's kind of hard to believe that in a country with so much rainfall, it can be difficult to come by potable water. The vast majority of the (non-commercial) campgrounds, if they have water at all, suggest it be boiled or simply declare it non-potable. 

I do want to return to Christchurch and tour the city a bit more. I've heard tales of the earthquake damage that is still visible there but really only saw a little bit. The plan is to take my time in returning perhaps on Sunday or Monday this time with a little better preparation to find a decent holiday park to stay in and sights to see.

Hope you all are well! Love you all!

Once in a red moon

Still in Aoraki/Mt Cook park.  I've really enjoyed my time here and have been reluctant to leave. 

Day before yesterday I took a hike to Kea point.  At the end is a massive moraine valley and an excellent view of the glaciers there. 

 I walked out to the very end but retreated rather quickly because the sounds coming from the space in front of me were somewhat unsettling.  A few hundred yards back I fell into conversation with a young woman from Connecticut (Laura) while her friends explored where I had just come from.  When they returned I was taking their picture when the sound of thunder started coming from the glacier.  We turned to look and witnessed a large avalanche - a huge chunk of ice had calved off the glacier! It was thrilling! I was holding her phone so snapped several pictures of the process.  She has promised to send them to me but we'll see - could take a year to download them given my slow phone connections.  

Laura had told me there would be a lunar eclipse that very night from 11-3. They call it a red moon. The moon was full and had been very bright somewhat to my dismay. The valley here is an international dark sky reserve - all artificial light must be filtered and nonessential lights out after 11pm. The result is spectacular night skies. I managed to stay up until 1 am and witness the red moon and amazing star filled sky. What a day. I must be the luckiest person in the world!

Hello Summer!

Trying once again to post from my phone via email think I got the settings right so we'll see...

I wrote most of the following yesterday so it's a bit jumbled but you'll get the idea.

I absolutely loved Oamaru!  It's a small and unique little place full of ornate white stone Victorian buildings.  Some small shops, some warehouses straight out of the 1800s.  It had a huge steam punk museum that I couldn't bring myself to spend the $20 to go into but it seemed to set the tone for the town.  Very artistic and cool.  There was one art gallery in particular that I could've spent all day in.  It wasn't huge but it was fascinating and full of detail.  One of my favorite pieces was a head of the queen nearly as tall as me and twice my girth.  The town playground was the best ever with a zip line and a super tall structure supporting a very fast slide complete with warning signs about how fast it is!

Inland from the coast is hot and brown.  I had expected it to get greener and cooler as mount cook neared and it did somewhat but only right up next to it and even then,  not much. 

Hiked the Hooker valley track yesterday afternoon (4/2/15) after arriving. Very windy (like carry away a small child wind) but beautiful.  Today was a series of shorter treks to a view of the Tasman glacier,  Tasman lake and down to the lake outlet.  There were several huge chunks of ice that had calved off the glacier and drifted to the outlet end of the lake.  Also took a hike to Blue Lakes - after coming out on a 4 wheel drive road,  I realized I'd been hiking by the "lakes" - they really were just small ponds and not blue at all but rather an icky brownish green. Joke's on me!

4/4/15
Woke to hard driving rain and stayed cozy and warm in my little vehicle listening to it and dozing for a couple hours a least. The campground is pretty close to the mountains so simply getting up and driving out of the campground meant the rain lessened to a mere drizzle,  showing just how localized the weather is here and why the valley to the east is so dry.

All for now.  I will try to add some pics to this post at some point when I have some real Internet.  At least one more night here then back out to the coast and on to Christchurch.  Love you all.  Welcome Babette!