Gramma Barb's Visit 2010, Part VI

We all wanted to see penguins before leaving New Zealand, so Brad booked a tour with the eco-tourist company "Pohatu Penguins". The tour started in Akaroa, another top choice for a place to live here, which is about 1 1/2 hours outside of Christchurch. The owner picked us up in her 4WD and we headed out onto the Banks Peninsula. I have become accustomed to pretty sketchy roads living here, and these were some of the sketchiest. The one lane road barely hugged the side of the peninsula, which plunged into the sea far below us. At the top it was so foggy we couldn't see 20 feet in front of us, either. During the winter the roads can be impassable and the owner told us they sometimes have to wait for several weeks before they can go into town. Years ago they built a house in town where the woman stayed with their kids, so they could attend school, and they would spend weekends on the peninsula. Anyhow, the kids thought it was great fun, all the better because they weren't riding in their car seats.

Out first stop was to see her weta monitoring project. She pulled over and we could barely keep up with this 60-something year old woman hiking up a steep hill. Wetas are indigenous insects, sort of like flightless grasshoppers, and it was pretty neat to see big ones close up. Next she drove right past an official Department of Conservation sign that said "Dangerous Cliffs, No Entrance" and we got to see some great views. Actually, that part was only fun for Brad because my mom and I were holding the scruffs of Lazlo and Liska's necks the entire time.



She offered us the option of tramping a couple hours to our cabins through private bush with waterfalls, or driving us. It was rainy and cold but we wanted to tramp. She walked us part way because there were some tricky parts with the kids she wanted to help us get through. Here is a photo of one of the tricky parts, she is at the front with Lazlo. You can't tell from the photo, but the drop off was impressive.





The walk was beautiful and we ended up in Flea Bay, at our cabins. One had heat. Neither had toilets. Sheep were running around everywhere, seals were on the beach and the bay was perfectly peaceful. We all agreed we could have happily stayed there a long time.







The next night we walked over to the neighboring bay to see the penguins. Everyone had to wear camouflage ponchos so the penguins wouldn't get scared. Liska is the little person with the yellow rain gear under hers. The tour operators raise orphan Little Blue Penguins and take them to the ocean each night, once they reach a certain age, to see if the penguins are ready to go to sea. One was ready the night we went, he waddled across the sand and swam away. The neatest part to me was watching them swim close-up. They look like they are flying in the water, which was surprising since they are so awkward on land. We also saw penguins in the wild from a viewing place on their property.






The tour operators seem to own much of the Banks Peninsula, apparently the land has been in their family for many years. We figured they must be worth an incredible amount of money, yet they choose to live in a tiny, charming but rickety old cottage in complete isolation. When I asked the woman if they went to warmer, more populous places for vacation (lots of people in NZ holiday in the Pacific Islands) she laughed and said they went to their rat-infested cabin in the mountains instead.

Gramma Barb's Visit 2010, Part V

Another favorite spot of mine is Lake Tekapo, population 303. The lake is fed by water from nearby(ish) glaciers. Apparently when gravity pulls ice from the glaciers into valleys, the ice scrapes the mountainside rocks and creates what is called glacier flour. The glacier flour-containing ice melts once it reaches lower valley altitudes. Glacier-fed lakes are a brilliant turquoise blue. And they are darned cold. Lake Tekapo also is great for star gazing and is home to St. Johns Observatory. Unfortunately we didn't check it out at night but last year we had lunch at the top and were stunned by the beauty.

We camped at Lake Tekapo for one night. Liska had fallen asleep and Lazlo was on his way when I noticed a full rainbow, part of it double, stretching across the lake. Brad and my mom took him down to the lake to see and he took this picture:






As glad as I was that Laz got to see the rainbow, I felt badly that Liska missed it. So, for the first time ever, I was happy when she woke me in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I had never seen so many stars and she was awestruck, having rarely seen any at all since she is usually asleep by 7pm. I didn't take a picture, but the moving photo at the top of this link (I think you have to copy and paste it) shows what it looked like:

http://www.tekapotourism.co.nz/activities/earth_and_sky.html

Gramma Barb's Visit 2010, Part IV

If we could live in New Zealand forever, Wanaka would be one of our first choices. Like many towns here, it's tiny, but it is built on a beautiful lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains.

The kids loved the playground downtown and watching the water skiers and kayakers on the lake.





























The weather wasn't great, so my mom took the kids to see The Frog Princess (Liska's first movie in a movie theater) at the local cinema, Cinema Paradiso. It was filled with comfortable chairs and couches and each movie has an intermission so you can have a treat, including freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. We also took the kids to an indoor climbing gym. They had never been to one and really enjoyed it.























My mom got caught in torrential rain and island winds walking into town one morning. On her way she saw an arts and craft market where everyone's wares were getting blown away. Even the tents-the kind with steel poles- were getting knocked down by the wind. Barb, who has one of the kindest hearts I know, spent over an hour chasing down hand-knitted tea cozies and the like for the artists who were trying to close up before their work was destroyed. Once she made it into town she ducked into a store to escape the rain and the shopkeeper asked her to mind her shop for awhile. She cheerfully obliged, not exactly sure what she was supposed to do and trying to imagine that ever happening in the US. Eventually I went to find her, concerned she might be soaking, exhausted and stranded in town. No, she had dried off and was happily shopping, excited to tell us about her adventures.

One of my favorite parts of the whole trip was when the five of us biked around part of the lake, away from town. It was gloriously beautiful and peaceful, a bike ride I will never forget.

Gramma Barb's Visit 2010, Part III

This year we stayed outside of Christchurch for a few days. Brad's reasoning was in case the weather was uncooperative there would be some indoor things to do, but I think it was really because of the nearby mountain biking.

We stayed in a house facing the estuary and the beach was a block behind us. It ended up being perfect because the estuary was only a couple feet deep for a long ways, so the kids could kayak.

















We also had a great afternoon in the Botanical Gardens. They were beautiful!



Brad got in a good amount of biking, my mom and I had a terrific time shopping in the Arts Centre, a beautiful old college whose gothic revival buildings have been converted into art studios and galleries. And my mom was kind enough to watch the kids so Brad and I could go out, once to the corner bar where an unassuming pregnant woman stunned us with her amazing renditions of Bonnie Raitt and Alannah Myles on karaoke.

Barb's Visit 2010, Part 2

For our first night on the South Island we stayed at a holiday park. Before we left the park we went on a hike. I felt like we were in a Dora the Explorer video: we had to walk through the sheep paddock, creep past the bulls, then hike through the bush to reach the waterfall. It was a great way to begin our trip.

Bold-Faced Lie

In general, Lazlo is a rule follower and, as far as I know, has only told the tiniest of harmless fibs in his life. But I caught him in a bold-faced lie this week. On Monday he asked to bring his allowance money to school "in case there is a PTA fundraiser". I was about to tell him he couldn't, but figured it was his allowance and if he lost it he might learn a lesson in money management. He did the same a couple of days later. On Friday, when I dropped him off at school, he ran out behind me and said he needed his allowance money. When I told him that I didn't have it and that my purse was in the car, he became agitated. "You HAVE to drive home and get my money and bring it back", he pleaded. Then he started to panic and said "Mrs. Schultz said we NEED money for a PTA fundraiser today!" At this point I became suspicious, because there wasn't a note sent home about a fundraiser. Lazlo continued "She said we'll go to the office if we don't have the money!". When I told Lazlo I would talk to Mrs. Schultz right then and there he finally came clean- "Mom, can't I PLEASE just have a mouse?!" I asked him what the heck he was talking about and he admitted that "some girl" at school was hawking mice for "a dollar or two" and he had planned to buy one from her. I was laughing too hard to get angry about the lie and promised him we would discuss it this weekend. But no way is he getting a mouse!

Gramma Barb's Visit 2010, Part I

We were so excited that my mom came for another visit this year! She is such a good sport. We picked her up from the airport and headed straight for the South Island, just like last year. And just like last year she was raring to go, without any sign of jet lag.

We took the ferry over to Picton and drove down to Christchurch, stopping at Kaikoura to look at tide pools and seals and to eat roadside seafood.