Home Again

Hi all!

Sorry we haven't posted in so long but things have been a bit hectic. We are back in Oregon and getting ready to move up to Portland.

We ended our tour of the South Island in New Zealand in Nelson, Abel Tasman and Golden Bay. And then we headed back to Wellington to sell the car, pack up and get ready to head home. I will try to post a few more entries with pictures from the end of our trip before we sign off of the blog.

We met Scott's parents in Kona, HI, on our way back to Portland to re-acclimatize ourselves to American living in the best setting possible. We got used to driving on the right side of the road again and ate some real tacos before heading back to Oregon. I included some photos below from our stop in Hawaii.

The last week has been spent catching up with friends and family and looking for an apartment in Portland (which we found and will move into tomorrow!) It's been really great to see everyone in Oregon and I look forward to catching up with everyone in Beaver very soon!

Mb

Warm and sunny West Coast!

We made it Punakaiki on the west coast of the South Island and the weather has finally gotten warm and sunny! The coastline is beautiful here, so we’ve spent a couple of days checking out the beaches and the Pancake Rocks (see photo below.) Scott finally got to surf today (good thing as he’d been getting a bit grumpy) and hopefully there will be more good surf to come in the next few days.

We stopped to see the glaciers on the way up the west coast, the Fox and Franz Josef. Neither of us were really excited to see them but we figured we ought to stop since they were on the way. Turns out we were quite impressed, it’s amazing to see a giant icefall in the middle of a rainforest. And we briefly caught a glimpse of Mt Cook and Mt Tasman through the clouds and got to see their reflections in Lake Matheson (a classic NZ postcard shot.)


Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki
















Reflections in Lake Matheson
















Franz Josef Glacier

South Island, Part 1

We are just over a week into our tour of the South Island. We decided to head down the east coast and back up the west coast, so our first stop was Kaikoura. The Kaikoura Peninsula has a walkway/trail that follows the coastline around the Peninsula so we spent a day doing that before heading down the coast a bit further. We made a brief stop in Christchurch for lunch (we found tacos that actually tasted like Mexican food!) and then headed down to Oamaru. We got there just in time to see the yellow-eyed penguins on the beach at dusk.

We had planned to spend a few days in the Dunedin area but the weather changed our schedule a bit. It was rainy, windy and very cold with no signs of letting up, so we gave up on Dunedin and made our way to the west coast where the sun was shining. We’ve been camping in the Fiordlands area for the last four days. We got to do a cruise in Milford Sound and did a little backpacking on the Greenstone Track. We ate sand flies for breakfast and dinner every day. Aside from that it was a great time, but we’re both ready for a shower. Scott says he isn’t going to shave again on this trip, so his beard is very long and scraggly. We’re homeless, I suppose we should look like it.

Today, we're off to Queenstown so hopefully we'll have more to post soon!


Milford Sound
















View of the Hollyford River valley
















Mb on the Greenstone




















Scott on the Greenstone

Goodbye to New Zealand!

Today is our last day in Wellington. We leave for Auckland at 1 pm and then board our flight to LA at 7 pm. This has been a wonderful vacation. Our trip to the South Island was incredible. We hiked part of the Coastal Trail in Abel Tasman National Park and saw beautiful golden beaches, crossed a swing bridge to a waterfall , then hiked and kayaked at the Lochmara Lodge, located in the Queen Charlotte sound. The view of the sound from the top of the hill on the Queen Charlotte Trail was spectacular. We will miss Maribeth and Scott very much and look forward to seeing their pictures as they travel south in the next month. We can agree with the statement in the travel guide that this country truly is magical!!! Thanks MB and Scott for a wonderful stay!! --Sue and Jim


View of Abel Tasman from the coast track
















View of the Queen Charlotte Sound after a tough walk
















Swing bridge





















Walking on the coast track in Abel Tasman

The Parents Arrive

From Sue:
Jim and I arrived on Tuesday morning in Wellington. After meeting Scott at the airport, we walked into town and met Maribeth for lunch...so good to see them both. The city is beautiful and the national museum, Te Papa, is incredible...we are learning so much about New Zealand.

















On Wednesday, we walked to the top of Mount Victoria and saw locations used in the filming of "Lord of the Rings." The views are breathtaking and the wine here is excellent!!! We are heading to the south island early Friday morning for more adventures!

Close to home

Well, lately we haven't taken any big trips, and we've been a little bit delinquent in keeping up our blog. So we thought we'd let you in on what we've been doing while sticking close to the Wellington area.

Bob Marley's birthday happens to coincide with the Waitangi Treaty celebrations on Feb 6th. In the morning we took in a bit of the Waitangi Celebrations and in the afternoon we went to check out the One Love music festival. The guys on stage are called the Blackseeds, a popular reggae band in NZ and internationally as well.
















Jason and Beth , enjoying the fantastic tunes.















Here is a picture from a hike we took at a place called Makara. It's about 25 minutes drive from Wellington. The walk made for a good day of exploring, and had some interesting historical items such as gun mounts from the world war two era.















This is one of a few world war 2 gun mounts on top of the tallest hill in the area. Just in case the Japanese decided to invade. Lots of sheep too (surprise, surprise!)

And.....More Beaches

I suppose for most of us, a dream day would be lounging around on a beautiful beach eating mangoes and having the occasional swim in pristine blue waters. This was definitely a dreamy day at the pristine Otama Beach. We didn't intend to stay as long as we did (nearly all day), but when you're in such a nice place with few people around we thought it would be wise to take advantage of our surroundings.
















Here is a broader picture of the beach late in the day

Stony Bay

This is Stony Bay, definitely one of the highlights of our trip. The photos we have don't really do the place justice. It is a great place to spend a few days, if not because of the beauty, then because of the remoteness, which keeps the crowds to a minimum. We spent three days here and enjoyed hanging out, going for hikes and swimming/snorkeling in the warm water. We also spent a lot of time lying around under the giant pohutukawa trees in our campsite.

Here is the view from our tent. The
sound of waves lapping on the rocks
have a soothing effect and help you
get to sleep at night.




















Here is a picture along the Coromandel Walkway, which connects other bays and campgrounds along the tip of the peninsula.

The Coromandel is a popular destination this time of year and Cathedral Cove is probably the most crowded spot in the area. Fortunately we were there early in the morning so we avoided most of the crowds.

It was a really pleasant 45 minute walk down to the cove and there weren't many people on the beach when we got there. In a short while, though, more and more people were coming down the trail and tour boats were crowding the water. We knew it was time to leave when the banana boat showed up.





























There are actually three bays along the trail so we stopped to check out the others on the way back. The first is Gemstone Bay, where Scott went snorkeling. It has a snorkel trail of buoys with photos and information about the species that live in the marine reserve.

First stop... Rotorua

We've just returned from our tour of the Coromandel, at the north end of the North Island. It was a wonderful ten day vacation of warm weather, white sand beaches and turquoise water. But first, we stopped in Rotorua, a hot spot for geothermal activity, on the drive up.







The whole town smells of sulfur and every hotel and campground has it's own geothermal pool(s). We decided to skip the expensive goethermal areas and spas and checked out Kuirua Park instead, a city park with some bubbling mud and steaming pools.




















I'm not sure if it was quite as cool as Geyserland would have been but you can't beat the price (free!) They had a couple of built pools where you could soak your feet in the hot spring water and bridges across some of the steaming ponds (see Scott's photo.) Check the next post for photos of beautiful beaches!

Taranaki - Part Deux

This is a picture overlooking Back Beach right in New Plymouth. This is where Scott went surfing.




We did a short hike along the White Cliffs walkway near Urenui, just east of New Plymouth. The first part of the loop was over private farmland, which was really interesting because we had to walk through the field where the farmer was out baling hay. I had never seen the machine that makes those giant rolled bales of hay in action. The farmer would be driving his tractor, pulling a hay baler along, and when the baler was full he would stop and the machine would pop a hay bale out the back. This is the view from the top of the farm, looking back over the field we walked through.















Maribeth using one of the stiles along the White cliff walkway.




















This is Scott on a bridge halfway through the hike.




















The second half of the loop was along the beach. This is a picture of the high cliffs and black sand beach on the walk back.




















Overall it was a great trip, Scott is already planning our next visit. Hopefully we'll get better surf next time though. This weekend we're off to the Coromandel, at the north end of the North Island. We'll be on the road for about ten days, so look for some more photos in a couple of weeks!

Taranki, part 1

Rather than sit around windy Wellington on boxing day, we decided to make a run for the Taranaki area. It was a long 5 hour drive, but definitely worth it. The weather was so much warmer and the winds were far tamer. This spot is without a doubt a great place to pass a few days (or many days). This is the iconic Mt Taranaki, located smack in the middle of an oversized peninsula.

The waves in the area are legendary, and arguably the most consistent and best in all of NZ. Unfortunately, we were unlucky and the swell kind of died when we arrived. There was enough left over to catch a few small ripples. Here I am groveling in some Great Lakes sized surf.















Golf anybody? After you sink your triple bogey putt, you can chase the sheep to blow off a little steam. I think the Kiwis have things figured out.













Here is a picture representative of the rugged Taranaki coastline.















We're tired from all the driving so that's all for today. We'll try to post some more photos from the rest of the trip in the next day or two.

Christmas in NZ

It's Christmas day in NZ! We decided to get a tree the other day because we weren't feeling much holiday spirit. It's a bit of a Charlie Brown tree but it brightens up the living room. Radiata pine is the standard Christmas tree here, no firs.















We went to the beach this morning and took some photos of the pohutukawa trees. They're known as New Zealand Christmas trees because they always bloom this time of year. They are beautiful trees and the hillsides turn red when they're in bloom. Very festive!















Jason made us eggs Benedict for breakfast and we drank mimosas this morning. Scott got to surf this afternoon and now we're baking a ham for dinner. Overall it's been a very nice Christmas. We miss you all though!

Karori Wildlife Sanctuary

We visited the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary over the weekend. It's a preserve just outside the city of Wellington, mostly for birds but they also have habitat for tuatara (ancient lizards) and weta (giant bugs).




















Maribeth at the gate headed beyond the fence into the Karori bird sanctuary. The fenced boundary gave it a Jurassic Park feel.

The fence really isn't this tall throughout the park but it is effective at keeping certain predators out of the park. It is tall enough to keep the possum from leaping over and has an over hanging top hat to keep animals from climbing over. The fence is also tight meshed to keep smaller animals from squeezing through.

Here is the fence from afar.




















This is the Kaka. I believe this bird was virtually extinct from the main islands of NZ, but has made a small comeback due to the formation of this reserve.




















This is the Tui. This bird probably has the most interesting and varied bird song. It is known to mimic other birds and other animals as well. The populations of the Tui in the Wellington area have increased substantially since the completion of this sanctuary.