Arthur's Pass

Two of our folk dance friends, Katy and Alastair, invited us to spend the weekend at Arthur's Pass (in the Southern Alps) in a cottage owned by Lincoln University.  As the weekend approached we were a bit hesitant as the forecast was for snow and rain storms, high winds, and low wind chills.  But, we threw caution to the wind, Katy and Alastair put extra food and tire chains in their car, and we headed up into the mountains for a three-day weekend.  We were glad we did – the snow storm never happened, and we had some clouds and chilly temps but overall fine hiking weather, while Christchurch had rain.

Our home for the weekend

After arriving at Cockie's Crib (the name of the bach, or cottage), we built a fire to warm the building and headed out for a hike.  The Arthur's Pass area is in a valley nestled in the mountains, and is named for Arthur Dobson, who took the first party of Europeans over Arthur's Pass to get to the west coast.  We walked on the Dobson Nature Walk, then drove a little further up the pass to see the view from the Otira Viaduct Lookout.  The main road across the Southern Alps here goes through the Otira Gorge, and for years the road clung precariously to the side of the mountains.  The viaduct makes driving through safer, though there was a major rockslide closing this road the week after we were there.

Tussock on the Dobson Nature Walk

Otira Gorge Viaduct - you can see the old road path on the upper right (and you can see why rockslides are a problem here)

A few cheeky kea were hanging around the car park at the Viaduct lookout

On Sunday we took several more walks, starting up to the Devil's Punchbowl Falls, where we saw a Rifleman (a somewhat uncommon bird endemic to New Zealand).  We spent most of the rest of the day walking along the edge of the valley through the rain forest on the Arthur's Pass Walking Track.  We finished with a walk to the Bealey Chasm through some old beech forest.

At Devil's Punchbowl Falls

A fantail

On the Arthur's Pass Walking Track

Beech forest along the track

Bealey Chasm

Katy sings to Alastair's tambura, while we listened and danced on the side

On Monday morning the sun came out, and we did a four hour hike up the Bealey Spur, which gave us wonderful 360 degree views of the mountains and high valleys.

View from the Bealey Spur

Ice crystals in the Bealey Spur track

Getting close to the high country

After packing up and heading out of Arthur's Pass, we stopped at Castle Hill - what looks from a distance like the ruins of an old castle are really limestone boulders.  These water-eroded remnants of limestone were formed 30-40 million years ago when present-day New Zealand was covered by the sea.  The front of the Christchurch Cathedral was made from Castle Hill limestone.

From a distance, Castle Hill looks like ruins

Nature's work at Castle Hill

Limestone labyrinth

The end of a fine weekend

Christchurch Updates

Spring is officially here with baby ducks, daffodils, garden plants for sale, cherry trees in blossom and spring daylight savings time starting tonight.

 

We continue going to local markets.  One is the Sunday Riccarton Raceway Market – more of a flea market/fair atmosphere, with food vendors, music, kids play areas and lots of families.  We saw potato swirls on a stick (we’re sure these are at the Minnesota State Fair).

 

Potato swirls on a stick

One of the activities at the University eco week was the ClimateKilometre Grand Parade.  Only in Christchurch would an inflatable penguin on a skateboard and a wizard be in the same parade.

Cindy continues to go on weekly ventures with the women’s tramping group.  This past week they went to Sumner, a coastal suburb of Christchurch, climbing up Flower Track to Taylor’s Mistake and on to Boulder Bay.  Several original baches are built into the cliffs here, but many are no longer usable.  A bach (pronounced "batch") is a small holiday or beach house.

At the end of the week we headed to Hagley Park to the daffodil gardens.

Nelson

After finishing our adventures in the Golden Bay area, we drove back to Nelson to spend a long weekend there.  Nelson is a fine and sunny city with about 45,000 people, and is known as an arts and culture center for New Zealand.  We started our city time by walking around to reestablish our bearings, ending the afternoon with a visit to the Free House, an unusual craft beer bar located in a deconsecrated church.  We finished the day with a concert, seeing Simon Thacker and his band Ritmata from Scotland.  Simon is a classical guitarist, but his band plays in a jazz-influenced style, performing musical arrangements with influences from medieval canons, Sephardic music, east Indian ragas, Native American music and more.

Inside the Free House

Simon Thacker and Ritmata

On Saturday we visited the Nelson Market.  There are a lot of vendors, with produce, other food products, food trucks, crafts, and antiques.  We could spend hours there - between the goods, the food and the people, it's a fun and interesting place.  We also found a bakery where we watched the baker make savoury pies, a staple at every bakery in New Zealand.

In the afternoon we visited Old St. John's Church to listen to the Chroma Chamber Choir's spring concert.

Old St. John's

On Sunday we checked out the city flea market, then walked to the edge of town and visited Founders Heritage Park, a collection of buildings and exhibits that tell Nelson's history.  On the way back we walked up a hill to visit the "Centre of New Zealand", allegedly the geographical center of New Zealand.  There are nice views from up there.  We finished the day with dinner at the East Street Vegetarian Cafe - wish they franchised to Eau Claire.

Sunday flea market

Magnolia tree in Founders Heritage Park

View of Nelson city from the "Centre of New Zealand"

Paul enjoys the pasta special at East Street Vegetarian Cafe

Monday was tour day.  We started out at Pic's Peanut Butter in the Nelson suburb of Stoke.  Pic Picot didn't like the peanut butter he bought in the stores after noticing the added sugar, so he started making his own natural peanut butter.  He began selling it at the Nelson Market, and then gradually worked it into local supermarkets and beyond.  It's now the number one brand in New Zealand, with sales still growing as they expand to Australia and beyond.  We shared the fun forty-five minute tour with a group of Japanese students visiting the Nelson-Marlborough Institute of Technology, got to taste four different nut butters, and even got to make our own peanut butter.

Pic's Peanut Butter factory

Answering questions during the peanut butter quiz with the visiting students from Japan

Paul got to be a tour helper by passing out the samples

Cindy grinds her own peanut butter

We also walked around town, seeing the impressive Nelson bikeway and finding another interesting road sign.

After spending a few hours in downtown Stoke, we visited the Stoke Brewery.  Connected to the larger McCashin's Brewery, the Stoke Brewery focuses on lower-production craft beers.  The differences compared to USA safety regulations were quickly apparent - we got to put our heads in the fermenting bins to smell the beer, walk around all parts of the brewery next to the workers, and dodge fork lift trucks as they whizzed by us in the building.  We ended the day by visiting the launch celebration for China Week, celebrating a sister city relationship between Nelson and Huangshi, China.

This was the second set of five tasting samples

Young girl at the China celebration

Alas, our two weeks traveling had to come to an end.  On Tuesday we flew out of Nelson, crossing the snowy Southern Alps on our way back to Christchurch.