Feb 11 - Feb 13

Feb 11^th

The days go so quickly. Each night finds me tired and ready to read for a few minutes and go to sleep. So, once again, I’m a few days behind. I’m enjoying the blogging when I feel I have the time to write. However, this won’t be posted until I can somehow get to a wireless set up. (TODAY, FEB 18TH IS THE FIRST TIME I'VE HAD A WIRELESS CONNECTION.)

Tonight, the 13^th, we’re at an Energy Art’s friend of Art’s, who he met at a Tui Na workshop in Vancouver many years ago. Art emailed Stephen to reconnect, and we were invited to stay with him for a few days when we got to the Christchurch area. So, we’re back on the East Coast of  South Island after spending a couple of nights on the West Coast – I’ll be telling you about that next.

The morning of the 11^th found us in Motueka. We left Gail and Doug’s early so we could make the Abel Tasman cruise out of Karteriteri. It was really overcast and had rained heavily during the night. I dressed in jeans to keep warm, but once on board, sitting on the top deck, I went below to change into the shorts I’d brought with us, as the sun had come out and it was getting warm. Once back up top, the sun went behind a cloud and it got cool again. I didn’t change, but as it got cooler and windier, I went below into the area with tables and chairs. It was nice to be warm, out of the rain, and still be able to see out the large viewing windows. We traveled up the coast of the Abel Tasman National Park to the last stop and then turned around to head back to our starting point. At one island, we were able to see seals and their pups; it was wonderful. We got off the ship at Bark Bay, about half way back, to have a picnic lunch and then an hour’s walk to some water falls. We had about 2 ½ hours ashore, before the ship returned to pick us and some others up. It continued to be overcast but didn’t rain while we were ashore, which was perfect. The trip was a 6 ½ hour cruise. Glad we went.

Art decided he wanted to drive and see how far we could get, heading for the west coast in order to head south. We stopped in Murchinson for dinner, about an hour and a half drive, and I highly recommend the Rivers Café. They were really helpful with all my don’ts. I had delicious chicken and shrimp kabobs with a great salad for dinner and Art had fabulous pork chops; he said it was his best meal in NZ. It’s a neat place with great food and good service. A nice stopping place on the way, although I believe that it’s good skiing in season, and good kayaking and many trails if that’s what you want to do. The “tramping” around NZ is incredible – that’s what many people come for! We continued on to Westport, another 2 hours. It was close to 10pm when we got there and we stayed at a BBH, backpackers hostel. Many of them had shared baths, but it’s not bad. The rooms are usually very nice, and there’s a kitchen everyone uses; so, storing my food in a refrigerator is easy.

The 12^th

High Tide at Pancake Rocks was at 10:57am, so we were off early again, on our way to Punakaiki. The rocks are incredible, but the blowholes were disappointing, as it was really calm out and sunny, so the water didn’t forcefully hit the rocks. We decided that it was really the rocks we had gone to see anyway, as we’ve seen other blowholes, but there’s nothing like the Pancake Rocks anywhere else. It was a beautiful walk that they’ve set up to follow around the various areas showing the rocks.

After that, we went looking for a place for lunch. Around Punakaiki, there was nothing that would work for me, so we continued south to Greymouth to eat at 124 Café, which was lovely. I had a really nice salad with sun-dried tomatoes and olives, leaving the cheese off, and Art had the scallops wrapped in bacon salad. Both of us were happy campers. From there, we were looking for a jade pendant for me. It was recommended that we go to Hokitika, as the Maori are the ones who generally cut jade and they have several stores there. So, off to Hokitika. I guess it’s a good thing that we don’t have a set itinerary, otherwise, we’d have to keep changing our reservations. This was the first time we’d had a problem booking a place to stay, but we did find a place. We even had some time to check out a few of the jade stores before everything closed for the day. They all opened around 9am, so we knew we’d have time to have another look/see. I found a few pieces I liked, but nothing really hit me that night. Dinner was lovely at the Café de Paris, where Art had a rack of lamb and I had the vegetarian dinner of roasted eggplant stuffed with other roasted veggies over rice. I didn’t have the cheese it originally was served with, but I did have a bit of the Bernaise sauce on the side into which I dipped my fork from time to time. It was a lovely dish that I’ll be able to tweak at home.

The 13^th

There was suppose to be a Saturday market near the iSite (information center). When we got there, only one person had set up and another was starting to; the second one had some non-pesticide vegetables, so I was able to buy some peppers and cucumbers but that was all. It was really raw out with some rain, so we could understand why they were late starting or may not have shown up at all. Next, we were off jade shopping. After several stores, we went back to a place we’d been to the day before, and I found something that really resonated with me. A simple but beautifully made piece. I’m really happy with it. It’s a combination of the fishing hook (prosperity and good health, as well as other things) and the Koru       (a spiral and new beginning) . We stopped for brunch, as we hadn’t eaten breakfast; then, we left for the east coast, after deciding that we weren’t going to visit either glacier on the west coast, as neither of us were up to a half day tour only to see dirty ice, and we were not interested in a full day tour, good energy management. We’re looking into doing a tour of the Terminal Face of the Tasman Glacier near Mt Cook. I’m calling about it tomorrow, so we may see a glacier after all, or not. Either works, as there’s still so much we want to do and it’s feeling like six weeks isn’t enough time to do it all.

On our way across, we continued to see lots of cows and sheep of all color combinations. There was one herd that we knew were related. I couldn’t believe their gene pool. All of the cows were black in front and back with white bands reaching all around each from the back haunch all the way to the front legs; when I first saw them, I thought they were wearing blankets, but they weren’t. There was even a calf with the same markings. Unreal. However, there was one cow that had a big black drop from the top of her back ¾ of the way to her stomach – I hope she wasn’t ostracized by the others.

As we continued across the country, we went thought Arthur’s Pass. Around there, there were two waterfalls we had wanted to see. Going towards Arthur's Pass, we passed about a half dozen really beautiful waterfalls, which we stopped to photograph. However, after leaving Arthur’s Pass, we realized that we’d missed the turnoff to the two waterfalls we had planned on going to. Still not sure how that happened other than poor signage, which seems to be the norm in NZ. Again, it was really perfect, as it was pouring and I really didn’t want to walk for an hour in the rain in order to see those falls. Of course, it had been raining when we stopped to photograph the falls along the road, but we didn’t have to hike in order to see them.

At one stop along the road, we saw mountain parrots, which apparently are only found here in NZ. They were beautiful and we have photos. We really do. I’ll prove it one of these days. Art has downloaded over 400 photos to his computer, so I’m still waiting to get a few to mine so I can upload them for you to see. The parrots will be among them. Their feather colors were wonderful, and when they spread their wings, you could see the orange under them, they were incredible. Really unusual. The birds aren’t afraid of humans, and I understand that they will destroy your car tires given half a chance. So don't park where there are mountain parrots.

We arrived at Stephen’s home about 10 minutes before he had to leave for his night shift as a policeman. Unfortunately, he will be on in the afternoons until 11pm every day while we’re here, so we’ll only connect in the mornings to early afternoon. Some time is better than none. Stephen is also a healer, so he and Art will have lots to talk about. I’m looking forward to getting to know him too.

Unbelievable that this has taken over an hour and a half to write. I’m off to bed. Hopefully, I’ll find an internet café soon. Hope you are all well.