Sunday, November 07, 2004
Continuing on...
Wow! I can't believe that a week ago we didn't have a car! Now we are (momentarily, and soon to leave again, in Ashburton). Not that Ashburton isn't lovely, and home to around 15,000 kiwis, whom I assume love it, but there really isn't anything we want to see here except the inside of this internet cafe. (it was the biggest town nearby and our camera brain was full and needed emptying once again onto cd #7!!! Wow will this be a big year for the photo album.
SO, what have we been doing that resulted in all those photos? Well, where did I leave off. Ah yes, we were in Kaikoura enjoying a day of leisure by the sea. A very slight cover of clouds rolled in early afternoon on Thursday so we took the opportunity to head up to Mt Fyfe for a hike. We just did a jaunt up to the lookout, which was a hike of about an hour...UP. We climbed about 1800 ft straight up a dirt bike road. Not the most scenic hike I've ever been on but the view was worth it. (as usual)
We treated ourselves to a bit of seafood (well, I did--Mike had lamb) for dinner since this is, apparently, the place for seafood and we haven't really had too much since we've been here, even though this here is an ISLAND, in the middle of the Pacific. So that was lovely and then we camped again that night before getting up early and heading to our snorkelling tour.
We met Calvin, of Kaimoana Snorkelling Tours at the information center at the scheduled time and also met Simon and Clare from London, another couple going as well. We headed out to the seal colony where Calvin opened up his trailer of goodies and suited us all up in full wetsuits, masks, and snorkels (grr we hauled ours all the way here but left them in Nelson for this leg of the trip not foreseeing our wonderful fortune with the weather/sea combo, ah well).
We also all had a quick lesson with a spear gun, on how to detach Paua from the rocks, and how to sneak up on the lobster. Once we had all our gear, we hoofed it over land for about 10 minutes to get around the point where the high tide had yet to cloudy the water, working up a serious sweat along the way. --Boy that cold sea wasn't looking too bad at all! We had a quick chat about how to act around the seals ( being that the company we were with didn't have a seal swimming permit, we had to act like we weren't watching them should they come to investigate us =+) and then headed into the water. As cold as the sea was, we were both quite comfy in our wetsuits. Out in the deeper water, Mike and Simon took the first turns with the spear and were out to spear us some butterfish for lunch. ( oh yes, the whole point of this trip was to bring in a good lunch for us all! Kai=sea and Moana=food in Maori, hence the name Kaimoana snorkelling tours...) Clare and I attempted plucking some paua from the rocks far below but lost them in the waving seaweed that was as thick and diverse as any land forest. It was beautiful and I must admit to mostly just looking around and enjoying the scenery. I let the others hunt for my food.
Around the point we entered a much shallower area, where the butterfish were plentiful and the boys caught 3 within about as many minutes. Then we had enough to feed us all, so we let the rest of them live and Clare and I were content not to have a go. We did do the Paua hunting though and brought in a nice one for lunch. (we never did see any of those wiley lobsters, but we saw a big red octopus, which was sooo cool!)
At that point, we'd been in the water for a little over than an hour and we had a tasty lunch in the bag. Once on land again, Calvin split open a huge sea urchin he'd scored and we all tasted it raw on the beach. Glad to say we'll try anything once...Bleh tasted like runny egg, but it was an experience. =+)
"This looked a lot bigger underwater"
After hiking back to the trailer, we stripped off the wetsuits, dunked them in de-saltifying soapy water and handed them to Calvin to be restored in their proper places. We then drove a short way down the road to a beach, where Calvin produced a BBQ from the trailer and fried us up a fantastic lunch of butterfish and Paua, about as fresh as it comes.
(one fun and interesting fact, is that paua meat runs around $200/kg in the stores, wow! It was delicious and each of us girls got to take home a paua shell, thanks to Calvin pulling one out of the trailer (we only caught one cuz it was all we needed). An amazing time, well worth the money and the wait of an extra day!!! We immediately took our Paua shell to a shop to have it polished on our way out of town.
From Kaikoura, we headed to Hanmer Springs where they are famous for their thermal springs resort. We arrived, set up the tent in a Top 10 Holiday Park and made dinner. After dinner we had to soak in the springs, nothing natural, but still lovely and warm on a cool evening. After we soaked as long as we could, we wandered to a school fundraiser going on in town, just in time to see a magnificent fireworks display (mind you, it was officially Guy Fawkes Day this time). For such a small town, we were duly impressed, sadly Moscow pales in comparison, oh wait, they don't even have a fireworks display for July 4th anymore, tsk. Anyway, we were fairly proud of ourselves for filling the day as fully as we could and so headed to bed.
The next day, we hiked up to Mt Isobel waterfall a short way from town. It was a good uphill hike through beech forest, which was gorgeous and the waterfall was much higher than we expected! Wow.
After seeing the falls and freezing at the bottom of it as our sweat from the rest of the hike dried, we headed back down the mountain for an ice cream. =+) I love vacation.
That afternoon, we drove south a wee way and then inland to Arthur's Pass.
'Where we're going, we don't need roads...'
Here we camped for the night outside the Information Center, since it was closed by the time we got there, and fought off the Keas from our tent and car. Keas are alpine parrots native only to this part of New Zealand and are rated as intelligent as some primates! Unfortunately they are intensely curious and like to pick apart rubber fittings on cars, and tents and things. Pretty, but grr.
The next morning, Sunday we woke to the Airforce helicopter landing across the road from us! That was fun stuff, and it got us moving at a good hour. We wandered into the info centre and scoped out the area hikes (there are MANY) and settled on a tramp to Bealey Spur Hut. A leisurely walk to the Top Hut, used for sheep mustering the Powers Country for decades. We packed our backpacks and headed in getting to the hut around 2:00. After a brief rest (ok I conked out for a good 25 min) we decided to head up to the summit just behind the hut. We found snow, which is much fun in the summer time when you are all sweaty, and absolutely stunning views of the mountains beyond.
We reached the summit that was visible from the hut only to find that behind that were a few more 'bumps' to the real summit. Mike can never turn down the opportunity to hike up and up til he is the highest of all...hence my calling him Yertle the Turtle:
Yertle the Turtle surveying his kingdom
On the way back down we 'skiied' to hurry up our return to the hut and dinner, whch Mike cooked, bless him.
"weee"
the chef at work
We slept on matresses in the hut, ah the luxury and this morning awoke refreshed and ready to eat a wierd concoction of oatmeal stuff made from apricot muesli cereal and hot water-bleh. But it powered us enough to get to the bottom where the rest of our food stores were. =+) And on we went, where we'll end up this evening, we aren't sure of yet, but we'll let you know... =+)
SO, what have we been doing that resulted in all those photos? Well, where did I leave off. Ah yes, we were in Kaikoura enjoying a day of leisure by the sea. A very slight cover of clouds rolled in early afternoon on Thursday so we took the opportunity to head up to Mt Fyfe for a hike. We just did a jaunt up to the lookout, which was a hike of about an hour...UP. We climbed about 1800 ft straight up a dirt bike road. Not the most scenic hike I've ever been on but the view was worth it. (as usual)
We treated ourselves to a bit of seafood (well, I did--Mike had lamb) for dinner since this is, apparently, the place for seafood and we haven't really had too much since we've been here, even though this here is an ISLAND, in the middle of the Pacific. So that was lovely and then we camped again that night before getting up early and heading to our snorkelling tour.
We met Calvin, of Kaimoana Snorkelling Tours at the information center at the scheduled time and also met Simon and Clare from London, another couple going as well. We headed out to the seal colony where Calvin opened up his trailer of goodies and suited us all up in full wetsuits, masks, and snorkels (grr we hauled ours all the way here but left them in Nelson for this leg of the trip not foreseeing our wonderful fortune with the weather/sea combo, ah well).
We also all had a quick lesson with a spear gun, on how to detach Paua from the rocks, and how to sneak up on the lobster. Once we had all our gear, we hoofed it over land for about 10 minutes to get around the point where the high tide had yet to cloudy the water, working up a serious sweat along the way. --Boy that cold sea wasn't looking too bad at all! We had a quick chat about how to act around the seals ( being that the company we were with didn't have a seal swimming permit, we had to act like we weren't watching them should they come to investigate us =+) and then headed into the water. As cold as the sea was, we were both quite comfy in our wetsuits. Out in the deeper water, Mike and Simon took the first turns with the spear and were out to spear us some butterfish for lunch. ( oh yes, the whole point of this trip was to bring in a good lunch for us all! Kai=sea and Moana=food in Maori, hence the name Kaimoana snorkelling tours...) Clare and I attempted plucking some paua from the rocks far below but lost them in the waving seaweed that was as thick and diverse as any land forest. It was beautiful and I must admit to mostly just looking around and enjoying the scenery. I let the others hunt for my food.
Around the point we entered a much shallower area, where the butterfish were plentiful and the boys caught 3 within about as many minutes. Then we had enough to feed us all, so we let the rest of them live and Clare and I were content not to have a go. We did do the Paua hunting though and brought in a nice one for lunch. (we never did see any of those wiley lobsters, but we saw a big red octopus, which was sooo cool!)
At that point, we'd been in the water for a little over than an hour and we had a tasty lunch in the bag. Once on land again, Calvin split open a huge sea urchin he'd scored and we all tasted it raw on the beach. Glad to say we'll try anything once...Bleh tasted like runny egg, but it was an experience. =+)
"This looked a lot bigger underwater"
After hiking back to the trailer, we stripped off the wetsuits, dunked them in de-saltifying soapy water and handed them to Calvin to be restored in their proper places. We then drove a short way down the road to a beach, where Calvin produced a BBQ from the trailer and fried us up a fantastic lunch of butterfish and Paua, about as fresh as it comes.
(one fun and interesting fact, is that paua meat runs around $200/kg in the stores, wow! It was delicious and each of us girls got to take home a paua shell, thanks to Calvin pulling one out of the trailer (we only caught one cuz it was all we needed). An amazing time, well worth the money and the wait of an extra day!!! We immediately took our Paua shell to a shop to have it polished on our way out of town.
From Kaikoura, we headed to Hanmer Springs where they are famous for their thermal springs resort. We arrived, set up the tent in a Top 10 Holiday Park and made dinner. After dinner we had to soak in the springs, nothing natural, but still lovely and warm on a cool evening. After we soaked as long as we could, we wandered to a school fundraiser going on in town, just in time to see a magnificent fireworks display (mind you, it was officially Guy Fawkes Day this time). For such a small town, we were duly impressed, sadly Moscow pales in comparison, oh wait, they don't even have a fireworks display for July 4th anymore, tsk. Anyway, we were fairly proud of ourselves for filling the day as fully as we could and so headed to bed.
The next day, we hiked up to Mt Isobel waterfall a short way from town. It was a good uphill hike through beech forest, which was gorgeous and the waterfall was much higher than we expected! Wow.
After seeing the falls and freezing at the bottom of it as our sweat from the rest of the hike dried, we headed back down the mountain for an ice cream. =+) I love vacation.
That afternoon, we drove south a wee way and then inland to Arthur's Pass.
'Where we're going, we don't need roads...'
Here we camped for the night outside the Information Center, since it was closed by the time we got there, and fought off the Keas from our tent and car. Keas are alpine parrots native only to this part of New Zealand and are rated as intelligent as some primates! Unfortunately they are intensely curious and like to pick apart rubber fittings on cars, and tents and things. Pretty, but grr.
The next morning, Sunday we woke to the Airforce helicopter landing across the road from us! That was fun stuff, and it got us moving at a good hour. We wandered into the info centre and scoped out the area hikes (there are MANY) and settled on a tramp to Bealey Spur Hut. A leisurely walk to the Top Hut, used for sheep mustering the Powers Country for decades. We packed our backpacks and headed in getting to the hut around 2:00. After a brief rest (ok I conked out for a good 25 min) we decided to head up to the summit just behind the hut. We found snow, which is much fun in the summer time when you are all sweaty, and absolutely stunning views of the mountains beyond.
We reached the summit that was visible from the hut only to find that behind that were a few more 'bumps' to the real summit. Mike can never turn down the opportunity to hike up and up til he is the highest of all...hence my calling him Yertle the Turtle:
Yertle the Turtle surveying his kingdom
On the way back down we 'skiied' to hurry up our return to the hut and dinner, whch Mike cooked, bless him.
"weee"
the chef at work
We slept on matresses in the hut, ah the luxury and this morning awoke refreshed and ready to eat a wierd concoction of oatmeal stuff made from apricot muesli cereal and hot water-bleh. But it powered us enough to get to the bottom where the rest of our food stores were. =+) And on we went, where we'll end up this evening, we aren't sure of yet, but we'll let you know... =+)
Comments:
Post a Comment
