Beginning to say our goodbyes

This week has been very different from last week's sightseeing fest.  Not so much about seeing new sights as about beginning to say our goodbyes to familiar places and people we have come to know and care for here in Wellington.

John's last day at work was Thursday.  It's been a week of rain and wind (surprise!), so we've been cheering ourselves up by going to the movies.  We've been trying to eat all the food in the cupboards (the combinations are getting pretty interesting--hmm, what can I do with peanut butter and olives?) and planning how to divest ourselves of our temporary worldly goods (guitar, GPS, etc.) we'd acquired just to use while we've been here.  John has become very skilled at putting ads on Trade Me, the NZ version of Craigslist, so we'll see.

Friday was the last meeting of my writer's group.  We met at Tessa's for cake and our last face-to-face session of critique.   Friday night was John's farewell "do" at a Cambodian restaurant (kind of like Thai with different spices).  He received some lovely koru cufflinks, and we enjoyed our evening with the work mates, several of whom had become quite dear to us.

Afterwards, we stopped by a neighborhood get-together to say goodbye to Vanaja, the pathologist who lives next door and our landlady and her husband.  Tonight we'll cook dinner for our other next door neighbors, Jacqui and Tony, who were so helpful to look after Claire for a weekend when she was laid up here.   Tony is a sound engineer on "The Hobbit," and will quite likely be late as they work all hours.  Saturday night we went over to our Australian friends' to say goodbye to Hannah and Chris, their daughter and her partner who were visiting from "Palmie."  I made a pie out of our various fruit bits (see above).

Yesterday was likely our last time at Wellington Friends Meeting.  A beautiful sunny day, a long, deep silence, a message about a tuatara, a picture shared by 8 year old Stella in her feather headdress, a cup of tea among F(f)riends.  After, we went to the market for one last roti to eat by the water and afterwards had a last coffee at the Te Papa cafe and looked for one last souvenir.  In the evening we took our good friends from Australia out for fish 'n' chips.  They are off to Bangkok, then Kenya, for the Friends World Committee meeting, so they will be gone when we return from our trip to the South Island.  Ronis and I do plan to swim today and to take a splash in the whirlpool at the Freyburg and have one more cappuccino as a last celebration of our time together.

We're excited about the upcoming trip to the South Island.  We'll be covering lots of miles and plan to see some amazing places, so stay tuned.

A Trip to the Far North

There's so much to tell about our trip to Northland, I'm not sure I can do it justice, but I'll do my best to give you a taste.  John had planned this trip while I was away and did an excellent job, making for a variety of adventures.

 Mostly we went to Northland to see the giant kauri trees, which grow only in the rain forest above Auckland. They were the inspiration for the movie, Avatar, with its special effects from Weta here in Wellington and its strong message about environmental preservation.  It's hard to give you a sense of the scale of these incredible trees.  This one, on the left, is the McKinney Kauri, reportedly number 4 in size, so perhaps you can imagine the size of Tane Mahuta, the largest.  He was named after the god of the forest, represented here between his two siblings, god of the sea (Tangaroa) and god of the winds (represented here on the right).  We saw him too, but our pictures don't really tell the story.

These trees are tall and straight and were harvested to make the spars for ships and for Maori war canoes.  The wood was also used for fine furniture.  The trees produce gum, which was dug from the roots and used for various purposes, including jewelry, since when it hardens, it resembles amber.  The consequence of all of this harvesting, of course, is that most of the trees were cut down.  They are very slow-growing, so now they are endangered and protected.  Now the only carving is done using trees which have fallen into swamps.  The wood is so hard it will not rot, even when it has been underwater for thousands of years.

We stayed in the Puketi Forest in sort of a farm stay/B&B.  Ok, it was a cow shed.  But it was a very cute cow shed that had been made into a sort of apartment.  Our hosts, Ian and Barbara Candy, own a beautiful dairy farm and do eco-tours in the forest as part of their work with the Puketi Forest trust.

Our first day we took an all-day cruise around the Bay of Islands.  It is called the Cream Trip, because in earlier times the boat collected the cream from the dairy farms on the islands.  Now the boat just picks up and delivers mail and dog biscuits to residents and their dogs who come down to meet the boats.  It was a gorgeous day, cloudy in the morning but sunny in the afternoon by the time we reached the climactic destination of the trip, the Hole in the Rock, pictured above.  From the boat (the Tangaroa), we saw dolphins and blue mau-mau, along with other smaller fish, and a number of sea birds. The young and thrill-seeking (not us!) took a turn being dragged through the cold waters in a net attached to the boat, but we were content to drink it all in, along with the sun, and listen to the educational commentary provided by our skipper, Tammy, whose mother was the first female skipper in the Bay of Islands.

At the end of the cruise, we hopped off in Russell, once known as "the hellhole of the Pacific" but now a charming little seaside village with a Swordfish Club, displaying trophy fish and the stats on this year's fishing contests.  It is also home to some interesting history.  I especially enjoyed seeing Christ Church, the oldest church in NZ, where Charles Darwin attended when he stopped by NZ on the Beagle, and which had a lovely little cemetery and an amazing array of tapestry cushions with seaside themes, which have been made by members of the congregation.  That night we had dinner at the Pear Tree in KeriKeri, near a mission house with a lovely little garden with a stone store and Maori village nearby.

The second day we took an all-day forest walk, 9km in and 9km out, with Ian as our guide as we looked at trees and flowers and listened to the birds and stories of him hunting wild boar and weta in the woods with his brothers.  Here's a picture of John hugging the kauri where we stopped for lunch.  At the end of our trip, Ian took us to a gorgeous waterfall on the property where at least one adventurous Kiwi bride and groom climbed down by rope in their fancy clothes for wedding portraits.

Day #3 found us searching in vain for NZ Scopes, where they make kaleidoscopes out of ancient kauri, bits of paua, and fishing tackle.  Frustrated, we took consolation in a winery tour at Ake-Ake vineyard and brought back a bottle of their red, called Chamboursin, for our hosts.  The next stop was the Parrot Place, which had a variety of brightly-colored parrots from NZ, Australia, Africa and South America, including the Quaker grey and my favorite, a young African grey (like Felicity, for those of you who've read Julia Glass)  We even got to hold a few parrots and fed them some peanuts. I was "honored" to receive "the mark" on my shoulder and had to be sanitized; apparently, being pooped on is a common occurrence.  John noted that this is a common occurrence in any true relationship.

Afterwards, we decided it was time for a little history and drove to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds.  We lunched in the cafe and marveled at a giant kauri canoe, which held up to 80 warriors.  We saw a film about the treaty between Britain and the Maori chiefs, signed in 1840.  British Resident James Busby had been appointed to guard the interests of British citizens and to also protect the interests of the Maori.  He moved his family to Waitangi, and they lived in a small, unassuming white frame house which had been preconstructed in Australia and which was used for negotiations and to provide hospitality.  Busby had no real authority, and he and his family had the challenge of living in the midst of wars among the Maori tribes of the area.  The display includes a tableau of a famous occasion when one of the Maori chiefs sheltered the Busbys' 9-yr.-old daughter in his feather cloak.  Finally, Captain Wm. Hobson was sent as an official representative of the British Crown to negotiate a treaty with the Maori, and after much deliberation, it was signed in Feb. of 1840.  Since the Maori, like many native peoples, had no concept of ownership of the land and since the translations of the Treaty were imperfect at best, its implications are still much discussed and debated in NZ today, but it was the beginning of a conversation among NZ's people that is alive and ongoing.

Today the Treaty House still stands on a majestic overlook next to a reconstructed Maori fishing village.  In 1940, Lord Bledisloe bought the property and gifted it to the people of NZ.  At that time, to celebrate the centennial of the Treaty, the Maori built a beautiful meetinghouse that stands nearby.

We had just a little time before the shops closed, and we stopped in Pahia for a kaleidoscope we had seen there and some cheese and crackers before heading back to Puketi for a night walk.  We joined Helen, our guide, and a couple from S. Africa for the walk through cow pastures, then into the forest as night fell.  In the woods we saw weta and a number of spiders and heard kiwi and moreporks, the tiny native NZ owls.  We climbed down into a creek where we saw eels and the red eyes of crayfish reflecting the light from our headlamps.  We turned off our lights and saw glow-worms on the banks in the darkness.  On our way home, there was a hedgehog by the roadside, and we looked up at the night sky and the bright stars of the Southern Cross before falling into our beds exhausted.

We decided to spend our last day driving to the very northernmost tip of the North Island to Cape Reinga.  We enjoyed the views but decided to take the road instead of driving on the 90-mile stretch of beach, especially when we read that damages incurred would not be covered by our renter's insurance.  On the way, we stopped at the Ancient Kauri Kingdom to view the amazing carvings.  I took a picture of John climbing a staircase made of one kauri stump, which led to a gallery of amazing carvings and intricate inlaid bowls.  At Cape Reinga itself, the wind was gusty as we walked out towards the lighthouse.  This is the place where the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea crash together in turbulent beauty.  Maori legend says that souls go to the one lone pohutakawa tree on the rocky outcropping to jump from this world to the next.

It was a long day, but when we returned to Puketi, we were rewarded by a feast prepared by Barbara.  We had roast lamb and roasted vegetables from the garden and a topnotch apple crumble with honey almond ice cream.  A very interesting couple from South Africa joined us for dinner.  The man was from the UK and had worked as a general surgeon in Zimbabwe, where he met his wife.  They decided to buy a farm in NZ, and it sounded as if he was especially enjoying the big digger he had bought for his sideline as a gentleman farmer. John's wheels were turning as he considered all of the uses he might find for a digger at home.

After these four fine days, it was time to leave Northland, just as the rain and gusts were due to arrive.  So after a long drive and one last stop at the Kauri Museum, we flew back to Wellington.  We're planning to be here till the 27th, as John says his farewells to the CCDHB and to prepare for our final South Island trip before the passage home.

Return to Welly

Hello, blog readers!  As some of you know, I have returned to NZ, thanks to the fact that Claire is mending and good friends have helped to restore us both.  I am very happy to be back in Wellington, as I have missed John and am looking forward to saying my goodbyes to New Zealand a little more mindfully.

I left Greensboro on Monday, March 5 and arrived here on Wednesday, March 7 (whew!).  It was fun to be able to look out the window of the plane and see beautiful and familiar sights as I came into Wellington on a gorgeous sunny day.   I could see the Maranui Surf Club, brown rocks and blue, blue water.

Chilled a bit Wed. afternoon but the next morning headed out to a park near Petone with  the "tramping group" from Wellington Friends Meeting for a hike through some lovely bush.  It was lush, green and cool, and once again I wondered if I'd brought enough warm clothes.  After the hike, we went to Judith's house (the friend in the picture) for cheese and homemade crackers and a cup of tea.

That night John and I walked down to Cafe Istanbul for a yummy Turkish meal by a warm gas brazier.  Pictures of Turkish baths and one of Attaturk himself on the walls.  Then we headed out to the Hotel Bristol to hear John's work comrade, James, play drums with his blues band.

The following night we went to eat dinner with another work-mate of John's, Marianne, and her husband Karel and their three "full-on" children and listened as they described their most recent travel adventure, which included Bangkok, Morocco and Disney.

On Saturday, the weather was again too beautiful to stay indoors.  We had planned to go and hear some writers read who were part of an International Festival, but we chucked it in favor of outdoor activities, including a brick-laying project at Wellington Friends meeting and a trip to the Botanic Gardens, where there was a wedding in progress and where we had gone especially to see these lovely cork trees from Portugal, planted in 1868.  The cork is harvested from the trunk and branches every 10 years.  Amazing.  That night we ate dinner with our Aussie friends and heard about their impending visit to Kenya for the meeting of the Friends World Committee.  It does seem that people in New Zealand often expect to travel the world.

There was a surprise at the mailbox.  I had received a letter from Radio New Zealand with the news that they want to buy the broadcast rights for a story I'd sent.  Needless to say, I am thrilled and hope that this will work out if we can sort out the details of my tax code, etc.

Sunday there was singing at meeting for worship, and it was great to reconnect with a number of Friends, including two little girls who frequently wear fantastic feather headdresses into meeting and share their art work with us.  From there, we went to an Indian restaurant and then to see a movie made from Jo Nesbo's "Headhunters," a Norwegian crime story which has hilarious touches reminiscent of Carl Hiassen.

Today is Monday.  This morning  we worked a bit on the tax code thing, then drove around my favorite part of the coast, slowing down at the little blue penguin crossings and stopping for a cappuccino and a caramel slice at Scorcherama (in Scorching Bay).  This picture shows you what the day was like, and we think we have solved the mystery of the birds on the rocks (white-fronted terns).  From there, we drove into the Brooklyn neighborhood, near the wind turbine, for a very affecting film about a Kiwi searching for a brother lost to the Khmer Rouge 30 years ago called "Brother Number One."

Haven't taken many new pictures, but stay tuned faithful blog followers.  Tomorrow we are headed up to the Coromandel Peninsula, above Auckland, in search of the giant trees of the primeval NZ forest.  Most of New Zealand has been timbered, but Northland, above Auckland, includes a rain forest, where some of the original native trees can still be found.  I'll do my best to get a couple of good pictures.

A curve ball

Ok, blog followers.  It appears that fate has thrown us a bit of a curve. Returning to Wellington after Kaikoura, we shopped and worked hard on Wellington museums and attractions including a planetarium show on the southern skies in honor of astronomer son-in-law Paul (who recently was part of a Univ. of Texas team which discovered a new planet which may be conducive to life).

Then on Dec. 22, Claire stepped off the curb on our very steep hill and rolled her ankle.  It was very disturbing-looking, broken in multiple places and dislocated.  We spent hours in emergency, and she came out of surgery with a plate, screws and a giant cast at 2:30 a.m. Afterwards, there were a couple of days in hospital  and a veto on flying for a couple of weeks till the blood thinners kick in to reduce the risk of blood clots on the long flight home.  Kind of a nightmare.  So we must re-group. We tried not to let this incident completely ruin our merry-making. Claire would not let me post the picture of her with cast and the hat and other goodies from her Christmas cracker trying to make the best of it (prizes from the crackers included single applications of sunscreen and insect repellent btw).

Thought I'd include one of Paul and Emily and one of Anna on the rock wall though.  We skyped with some friends from home and sang carols with the Aussies, who had family visiting from across the trench and made approximations of some of our usual Christmas fare.

Paul and Emily left yesterday, and Anna headed home this morning.  Summer weather has finally settled in, warm and sunny (till next Thursday at least, when Paul and Ann are due to arrive).   The powhutakawa trees are coming into full bloom.  Here's a picture of a tree and a close-up of one of the blossoms, very pretty.

It appears that Claire and I will be returning home on January 6.  This may be the end of my New Zealand adventure, or maybe not, if all goes well with Claire's recovery.  Time will tell.  I will be sad if this abrupt goodbye is my last sight of Wellington.  But, just for fun, here's a shot of the beach on Christmas Day.  Ah, Christmas in the southern hemisphere!

Whale Tales

This is not a great picture, but I thought you might like to see the tail of Tiaki, the whale we saw on the whale-watch in Kaikoura.

The real news, as far as we are concerned, is that our kids--daughters Anna and Claire from NC and Emily and son-in-law Paul from Texas-- are visiting for Christmas. We've been having fun, in spite of the cold and windy weather.  Probably the highlight of the first few days came when we spotted a pod of orcas in the harbor.  I was too stunned to get out my camera in time for that event.  We saw tall black fins--probably six of them in all.  Enough to make you think twice about going for a swim out there.

After a few wet and windy days in Wellington, we were off to the South Island. Took the ferry to Picton, then drove our rented van to Kaikoura.  Koura are the giant crayfish, which are lobster-size.  Here's a picture of Emily eating one on the beach.  Stormy weather thwarted our whale-watching on Saturday, so we consoled ourselves with a visit to a beautiful lavender farm, a sheep shearing, and a visit to a Marlborough winery or two.

On Sunday the weather was supposed to be better, but it was still raining.  We hiked up (!) a misty mountain, then took our dramamine, drank our ginger beer and committed ourselves to a rough ride in spite of the posted warning:  High swells, high risk for seasickness.  The powerful catamaran pushed through the waves.  It was a rocking ride.  We saw many sea birds, including a number of albatross and the western petrel.  Now and then we would stop, and the captain would put down a scope to listen for a whale.  Fortunately, there were also educational videos about the sea life and whales in particular, which distracted us from the sights and sounds of those who had apparently not heeded the memo and did not take their motion sickness meds.  We learned about the kinds of whales we might see and about their movements.  Apparently, whales are drawn to the coast around Kaikoura because of a deep sea trench, like a canyon, where all of the things they like to eat, including giant squid, hang out.  We learned about how their bodies are compressed in deep water so that they must return to the surface to re-oxygenate and digest their food.  We learned about theories as to how the oil in the sperm whale's head may amplify its echo-location.  Then finally, we saw him:  the sperm whale Tiaki, in the distance and sped that way.  The guide said the whales are recognizable by their tail flukes.  Tiaki is middle-aged, around 40, so he and the whale-watchers are pretty well acquainted.  Captain Rick and the guides still seemed enthusiastic though, and for us, it was thrilling.  We headed back past the seal colony and returned to Kaikoura a little before dark.

Then it was back to Picton for the night, with an early morning sail on the Aratere.  It was probably the first time our kids had seen the sun in Wellington.  It's sparkly and stunning.  The red pohutakawa blossoms are out in force.  Doesn't seem much like Christmas at all.  It seems like a long time since we've been at home.  We miss family and friends and the usual Christmas customs.  Anna and I went down to the waterfront celebration near the big Christmas tree in hopes of singing some carols in the rain.  They were singing about Snoopy and the Red Baron.  Grown men were dressed as sheep.  Doughnuts and snow cones on offer.  As a result, I have had to download the King James version of the Bible onto my Kindle so that we can read the Christmas story.  Still glad Jesus was born and happy to have family near.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Journey on the TranzAlpine

How many pictures of a mountain do you really need?  Apparently, the answer is always "one more."  At least this is what we found on our trip across the South Island on the TranzAlpine Railway.  Our friends Tom and Janine had come to visit, and the train trip was Tom's one request.  Earlier in the week, we had visited some of our Wellington haunts.  The weather was beastly:  cold, rainy, and windy.  So we were hoping things might go better on the South Island, sometimes called "the mainland" by the locals.

I'm not sure Tom realized what the journey would entail.  Early Thursday morning we headed out to the ferry and boarded the Kaitaki for the Interislander morning sail.  Though it's only eight miles to the South Island from Wellington as the crow flies, it takes 3 hours to make the journey, due to channels and currents and rough seas.  The first hour spent getting out of Wellington harbor was pretty rough; even the offer of movies and shopping couldn't quite dispel the rolling of the floor.  Surprisingly, the second hour on the open sea was smoother, and the trip into the harbor at Picton, past the salmon farm, was lovely, all green hills and calm waters.  Then we were in the car again.  We passed through hills and hills covered with grapevines and had lunch at the Brancott winery.  About midway into the 4 1/2 hour journey towards Christchurch, through numerous hairpin curves, we came to the town of Kaikoura (where we plan to return with the kids for whale-watching). The name of the town refers to koura, which are the giant crayfish that look like lobsters and are a freshwater delicacy.  Near there, we had heard, was a path into the woods where we might see a waterfall with the possible bonus of seal pups.  Sure enough, in a beautiful spot,  mother seals were lounging on the rocks where they had been fishing.  About ten minutes into the woods on the other side of the highway we walked under a railway bridge, and there it was:  the waterfall with several seal pups, some frolicking in the water, some just hanging out on the bank.  They didn't seem to mind photos, but it was pretty dark in there, so the pictures are hard to see.  Then it was on to Christchurch.

Christchurch is not quite itself these days, of course.  Two earthquakes in one year have taken a toll, and the city center is still closed.  Construction fences are everywhere; the cathedral is gone; and the red zone is still a couple of miles in the center of the city.  There are still aftershocks.  139 people died, and though the scale is not that of 9/11, people are still traumatized.  It was an unknown that Christchurch was even on a fault.  After driving around a little and indulging in some Indian food, we headed back to the motel to prepare for an early start.

The southern alps are magnificent.  Maybe I should just let a few of the pictures speak.  Tall mountains, some with snow on top, turquoise river, pink, purple and yellow lupines, a lake.  At Arthur's Pass, we took pictures of a cheeky green kea who came to visit.  In addition, we shared our railroad car with what appeared to be a family reunion worthy of Bollywood (lots of laughter, dancing and singing) and a philosophical couple, consisting of a Welsh man and his South African wife, who were eager to exchange views on lifestyle and culture with good humor.  It was an enjoyable all-day journey from Christchurch to Greymouth and back.  Greymouth has had its own recent tragedy too.  Shortly after we arrived in New Zealand there was an explosion at the Pike River mine, which took the lives of 29 miners.  We only had an hour in Greymouth before the return to Christchurch began, but we did our best to stimulate the local economy in the gift shops there :-).

The next morning we visited the Christchurch Botanic Garden, outstanding for its roses and huge, beautiful trees.  We also visited the Canterbury Museum, where we particularly enjoyed the Antarctica exhibit and mind-boggling costumes from the World of Wearable Art.  Then it was back in the car and back to Picton, where we visited Eco-world, an aquarium and rehab center for orphaned or injured little blue penguins.  We saw two little female penguins from situations where parents had two eggs, then rejected the smaller baby.  They were adorable, swimming and diving and calling.  One was very "stroppy" and kept evading the net when it was time to be returned for her nap.  They were about two weeks old and will be returned to the wild at eight weeks.  We weren't allowed to take pictures for fear of stressing the fish (no eyelids).

A long ferry ride and a short sleep followed.  John took Tom and Janine to the airport at 5 a.m.  Anna and Claire are due to arrive tonight at midnight, then Emily and Paul on Tuesday.  It's a rich time with these visits from home.  We are loving sharing our life here with family and friends who are coming to visit.  And with you too.

Low-key Christmas prep

This is not a great picture, I know, but it gives you a little flavor of the Christmas preparations around here.  It's a big wire Christmas tree that lights up in various colors and swirly patterns at night.  At the bottom you can see the red letter boxes (like the old British ones) where little kids are lining up for a direct conversations with Santa, who must be somewhere remote, like at the North Pole or in the nearby Chaffer's Dock apt. lobby, eating one of Martin Bosley's famous bacon butties, served up at the Sunday morning market.  (They smell great, but we are stuck on the crepes, made by a guy with an authentic-sounding French accent.)  Anyway, parents are lounging around on these yellow, green and blue beanbag chairs while the kids are waiting to transmit their wish lists to the jolly old elf.  I could have used a beanbag back in the day when we were waiting on the girls, at least one of whom had such severe Santaclaustrophobia that she would never talk to him, even after all of that standing in line.

Christmas seems a little lower key around here in general, with tales of barbecues and the beach rather than baking turkeys and huddling around the fire.  I have a little bit of ambivalence about this.  I kind of like not having Christmas quite so "in your face" all the time.  But I am going to miss some things, I can tell:  like the meeting's Simple Christmas craft-making day, caroling, and the Christmas Eve night candlelight service especially.  I hear there will be some carol-singing on the waterfront though.

It's been quiet.  John's colleagues had their Christmas "do" at a restaurant Friday night, complete with Christmas crackers.  We all had paper crowns and little gifts from inside.  By far the favorite were the little men that looked kind of like Spiderman which stick to windows (or beer pitchers) then sort of climb down.

  On Sat. we bought a tiny Christmas tree and cooked burgers with a couple who will be leaving to go home to Virginia in January.  While we were sitting outside, we experienced a quite perceptible earthquake (5.7) which was felt from Picton (north tip of the South Island) and which broke some windows on the waterfront here.  It felt kind of like being on a train that was starting, then stopping.  The earth just kind of rolled.  It lasted about 20 seconds, just long enough to think, "What the...?"  Maybe the locals know what it is right away.  Anyway, that's quite enough for firsthand experience for me if anyone's listening to my druthers.

Tom and Janine are due in tonight at midnight.  After four (!) days of sun last week, it's supposed to rain pretty much the whole time they're here.  The fridge isn't working.  Some kind of Murphy's law thing....