Picton, Anakiwa and the Marlborough Sounds

We continued on the Intercity Bus from Kaikoura up to Picton.  Picton is the gateway to the Marlborough Sounds.  We rented a car in Picton, stocked up on food and bakery, and drove along the twisty Queen Charlotte Drive until we reached the little village of Anakiwa, where we spent the next four nights at the very nice Anakiwa 401 backpackers lodge.

Dutch Bakerii in Picton

Kiwi children like this little girl in Anakiwa learn to ride a bike by practicing on wooden push bikes

The first day in the Sounds we hiked out onto the Queen Charlotte Track.  New Zealand has six "great" tracks, and a number of secondary tracks, all of which are multi-day hiking trails.  Queen Charlotte Track is in the second tier.  We day-hiked out for two hours, ate lunch at a nice overlook, and hiked back.  That night at the backpackers lodge, we met Conor from Montana, who had just completed the full track in three days.  We also got to know the lodge pets, including Scruff the dog and Kiwa the cat.

Dead fern tree trunk

A beach-side section of the Queen Charlotte Track

A Bellbird - we saw many of these along the track, and we woke up to their crystal-clear song each morning

Coming off the Queen Charlotte Track near Anakiwa

Scruff

Kiwa - reminded us of our Fred

On our second day in the Sounds we dropped off our new friend Conor in Havelock, leaving him on the road to hitchhike to Nelson and beyond to the Abel Tasman track.  We then went down to the wharf in Havelock to start a daylong trip on a mail boat run to the outer Marlborough Sounds.

The Marlborough Sounds have four major fjord-like bays that have hundreds of miles of coastline, and many settlements still don't have road access.  For over one hundred years, a boat has brought mail to many of these remote residences and businesses, and the mail boat also takes along paying passengers like us so that people can see the Sounds, see some of the residents and their pets (we saw pet dogs and pet pigs, including a kunekune pig), and hear about the history of the people and places.  One fellow we saw is eighty-eight years old, living on his own, and is a fifth-generation owner of his remote house and land.  One remote resort has backpacker rooms for $100/night and an even more remote lodge that rents for $1000/night (and has been visited by the owners of Google.)  We were also fortunate to see a pod of about fifty common dolphins - a number of them came up to the mail boat and swam alongside us. We found this trip fascinating - highly recommended to anyone who visits the Marlborough region.



On the third day, it was threatening rain, so we did a few short hikes, and then drove down to the Marlborough wine region, about 30 km away.  As we dropped out of the hills near the coast, the sun came back out, which made for a nice afternoon for wine tasting at the Framingham winery.

St. Luke's church, along the Queen Charlotte Drive

Fern leaves on the Peninsula Loop Walk

The Framingham Winery tasting room

Grape vines in the Framingham vineyards

We were sorry to leave the Marlborough Sounds area - it's a beautiful area, and we certainly want to come back to explore more in the future.

Kaikoura

We took the Intercity Bus from Christchurch to Kaikoura, which let us off at a stop one block from the YHA hostel/backpackers where we stayed for two nights.  YHA-Kaikoura is a fairly small hostel, beautifully situated on the edge of Kaikoura bay with a great view across to the mountains, which had recently been covered with a coat of snow.  Kaikoura is known as a scenic destination, as the mountain range and the sea coast are very close together.

We’d heard the weather was going to change, so we dropped off our bags, packed a lunch, and starting walking on the Kaikoura Peninsula trail.  It starts along the bay on a path lined with large Norfolk pine trees, goes by a seal colony (with seals lying in the sun right on the side of the trail), heads up into the hills with great views back to the bays and the snow-covered mountains, and then crosses the peninsula hills to return to Kaikoura.  There were several interesting birds and plants along the way.

A rather cocky baby seal

The mountains are so close you could touch them...

Maori archway

As predicted, the rain started up the next day.  We were able to walk some around town, and talked to a very nice couple from Christchurch who were caretaking their daughter’s book store.  We caught up on our reading, cooked a good meal, and prepared for the next day’s bus trip up to Picton, where we rented a car and drove out to Anakiwa, a small town in the Marlborough Sounds.  Before we left, we took a final walk down the Kaikoura bay beach.

 

Red-billed gull on a bus stop

A Little More Around Christchurch

We're getting ready to travel up to the Marlborough Sounds, Nelson and Golden Bay areas, but have been enjoying our time in Christchurch as Paul's first six-week term at University of Canterbury ends.  The mornings have been warmer overall and spring is coming, with the first daffs (daffodils, to those in the USA) now seen in the parks and the farmers' markets.

We went to an exhibit at the Canterbury Museum on the Whole House Reuse project.  An entire house that was damaged in the 2010-2011 earthquakes was dismantled, all of the component parts were categorized, and then various pieces were chosen by artists and craftspeople, and transformed into artistic and functional artifacts.  This Monday many of the art works are being auctioned off to raise money for two local charitable projects.



Cindy is enjoying her weekly hiking trips with several Christchurch friends.

We continue to enjoy discovering edgy signs around town.

What better slogan for a temp work agency?

We went to a photo exhibition displaying photos for the New Zealand Geographic photographer of the year 2015 competition.  There's not a lot of gallery space in Christchurch right now, so the display is held outdoors during the day, in unused shipping containers and on display blocks.  Especially interesting was a newer category for videos, using recent camera tracking technology to allow slow panning across the sky, the forest, the sea, and human activity.  You can see the best photos and videos through the link above.

Reconstruction continues in Christchurch.  One of our friends commented that the orange cone people must be doing a huge business.  A recent newspaper article stated that there's $100 million NZD spent each week on reconstruction right now, with multiple buildings opening or reopening each day.  In addition to all of the building work, roads get fixed up and sometimes are torn up again for more improvements or changes, or for laying fiber optic communication cable.  We and many others were happy to see a new wing of the central bus transfer station opened up this week.

Cones are everywhere in Christchurch

New wing of the central bus station

One of the outdoor art pieces that somehow survived the earthquakes

On Friday night we went with two friends to a concert by Li'l Chuck, a local one-man skiffle machine band.  He plays resonator guitar, harmonica or kazoo, high-hat cymbal and bass drum at the same time, and sings if he doesn't have another instrument in his mouth.  Good local music is always fun, but seeing it in the Orange Studio production and performance space created by music and theater maestro Michael Bell, son of our computer science friend and host Tim Bell, was an extra treat.

On Saturday we traveled to Sydenham, an inner suburb of Christchurch.  We went looking for a bakery/cafe (found, quite good) and a garage sale (closed up by the time we got there), but the main attraction, at least for Paul, was The Beer Library - a craft beer shop recently opened by a couple from Canada and the USA.  They happened to be hosting a tasting session for Craftwork Brewery, an Oamaru based brewery specializing in Belgian-influenced ales.  Paul was happy...

Tasting session at the Beer Library

Craftwork Brewing owners and a friend

The couple who own The Beer Library

Enough cooler space for many interesting beers

There are always more murals to discover around Christchurch - including this one featuring a tui, a NZ bird with a wonderful varied and squawky metallic call.

Tramping and Movies and Kiwis, Oh My!

Since we last wrote, we’ve been to some films as part of the New Zealand International Film Festival, have been back to Lyttelton (a port suburb of Christchurch), have experienced rain, snow and hail (all in the same day), and visited Willowbank Nature Reserve.

The film festival presents 114 films, most with two to four showings each, in a two week period at two different venues.  We’ve seen the Best of New Zealand short films for 2015, "Amy" (a biographical film about singer Amy Winehouse), "How To Change The World" (a documentary on Greenpeace and its founding members), and "Umrika" (a story about a younger brother leaving his village in India to search for his older brother who has gone to America ("Umrika" as the people in the village say.)   Tomorrow we see "The Art of Recovery", a film about the artwork and murals in downtown Christchurch made as part of the earthquake recovery.  On Sunday we see "Awake", a documentary about Yogananda, one of first teachers of yoga.  Half of the films are showing at the Isaac Theatre Royal, a historic theater that has recently reopened after repairs from earthquake damage.

NZIFF brochure, with drawings of characters from some of festival films

Isaac Theatre Royal - recently restored and reopened

We’ve been to Lyttelton for their farmers market.  We like spending time in Lyttelton, as it's a small but tightly knit community with interesting people and a beautiful setting on a mountain-edged bay off the ocean.

Coffee shop with a bit more

Singing and playing piano in front of the Harbour Co-op

 The hills across from Lyttelton were covered in snow recently.

Cindy went hiking with a local tramping club at Diamond Harbour across from Lyttelton.

Just to remind everyone here that it is still winter, over the weekend the temperatures dropped, and we had snow and hail.

We visited Willowbank Nature Reserve and Cindy has started volunteering there every Monday.  She gets to help with feeding the kiwi birds.  One of the newest kiwi, Ngawari (nicknamed No Worry) is a bit ill, so is being given meds and special feedings.  Cindy was lucky to be able to see No Worry as most people in New Zealand have never seen a kiwi in the daylight (though Willowbank has a nocturnal house with six Kiwi in it that people can go through).  We’ve included photos of Ngawari and some of the other birds.

Ngawari being held by Jemma, one of the staff

Kea (mountain parrot)

White-faced heron

Bellbird