Florida Fun

My daughter and I are in Florida. My husband and two of my sons are in England. It’s the next chapter in our online school experiment.

We wouldn’t be able to be here if the kids were in school, it is not their spring break, but it is my sister’s spring break and we are here spending time with her and her family.

The warm weather and sunshine are quite welcome, especially given that winter seems to be hanging on with a vengeance in the north. The best part of the trip, though, is the opportunity to spend time with family.

Yes, it feels decadent to be spending another week in the warm and on vacation.

When I told one of my friends that we were coming to do this, she said, “You know how to live!”

The reality is, we only get this one life. Why not take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves? What am I losing by being decadent? By spoiling myself? By allowing myself to have fun?

It feels a little bit like I’m running away from my “real” life, but what does that even mean? What is not “real” about this life I am living, right now? The sun is real, the water is real, the beach is real, the people are real. We are having real experiences and they are wonderful!

Christchurch

I told the kids that it was up to them to plan our visit to Christchurch. The only thing they came up with was a visit to the botanical gardens. We walked toward town and walked along the edge of the botanical gardens, but ended up heading in towards town to see the Cathedral, which had suffered extensive damage in the earthquakes.

It was sad to see it in it’s ruined state. It’s fate is currently in the air as the funds are not available to restore it.

We spent a little time people watching in the pedestrian square.

As we walked around downtown, we saw and heard construction going on everywhere. Even this many years after the earthquakes, the city is still rebuilding.

We had sushi for lunch. It was the first time the kids had ever tried it. They did not like the sushi rolls, however, they enjoyed the sashimi. So did I!

My son decided he was done, and headed back to the house in Addington where we were staying. My daughter and I had some snacks by the river Avon.

I wanted to go on the river, and if no one was going to go with me, I was going to go for a ride in a punt and let someone else do the work while I listened to their historic commentary. At the last minute, my daughter decided to come along, so we rented a two person kayak for an hour. It was quite scenic and peaceful kayaking through the botanic Gardens.

We walked through the gardens on our way home. It was a good day overall!

Down the west coast through Hasst Pass

We set off late, due to our late night. It was good to talk to other human beings though.

First stop, Knights Point Viewpoint.

Then we went to Ship Creek. We walked on the Dune walk to a viewpoint, then back along the beach.

We picked up some rocks, maybe jade.

We ate at the Hard Antler, Haast for lunch. They had this sign posted at the entry:

I’m regularly amazed by the one lane bridges on the main highways. This one has two passing bays.

Fantail Falls (poem)

Tiny towers of tossed stones, flattened

Stacked

On roots, beach and fallen timber

Mini-waterfall across

The clear mountain stream

Behind-

A beech forest.

Also visited:

Lake Wanaka Lookout

Lake Hawea lookout

Drove through the sleepy town of Lake Hawea (no grocery)

Got groceries in Lake Wanaka. Cute town. Lots of restaurants/bars. Downtown walking/shopping area. Would have been a fun place to stay or check out, but we wanted to get further down the road.

Hokitika

We decided to spend a second night in the same place so that my husband could do some work. One of the problems with taking a long vacation is that sometimes work needs to be done.

My husband wanted to go on a walk on the beach before he started work. Our daughter joined us. The beach has no shells, but lots of rocks, flat ones, all different sizes. They started a stone skipping contest. Tricky, with the waves.

After lunch, the kids and I walked into Hokitika to look at the Jade shops and get some groceries for dinner.

We were marveling at some of the higher-priced pieces of Jade, like this one.

Unfortunately, my son was in a bad mood, and not interested in doing shopping. We still manage to look at Jade and the glass shops and stop at a café to have a snack before going to the grocery store. Then we walked home on the beach. The sand is almost black, and there are large pieces of driftwood. Not like the beaches I’m used to at home.

The tide was high which made walking difficult.

We saw this carcass washed up on shore. It was kind of disgusting, I’ve never seen anything like it. I think it was maybe a dolphin.

We grilled for dinner again, pork chops this time. I thought lamb two nights in a row would be too much, but I was regretting it as I was eating my dinner, because the lamb was really good the night before.

We made it out to the beach in time for the sunset, which was pretty spectacular.

Tomorrow we head down to Franz Joseph for a trip on the glacier.

Arthur’s Pass to the west coast

This morning we got up to bright sunny skies. We could see the tops of the mountains that had been obscured by clouds the day before. The tallest one had big blocks of snow in the valleys.

After digging out my suitcase and putting on a few more layers I took my cup of tea and a granola bar and went outside to have breakfast.

After we had all eaten we walked down to the river together where the kids tried to find appropriate skipping stones. Patrick resorted to just picking up big rocks and plunking them into the middle of the river. I’m not sure he wasn’t trying to splash us.

Camper packed up, beds away, we headed up the road back to the visitor center to use the toilets, brush our teeth, and get some advice on the best hikes for today, given the visibility was very good. We also checked what kind of bird we’d seen. It was a Tomtit, like this:

We drove to Devil’s Punchbowl where we set off towards the waterfall. It wasn’t long before it came into view. The first part of the hike was rocky but flat, then we crossed the bridge, with a great view of the waterfall and the steep part began, with intermittent sets of steps. Before long, I was huffing and puffing. My husband was breathing normally. This frustrated me to no end. I work out on a regular basis. He never does, yet I’m the one that is tired. I hate it when my body doesn’t cooperate with what my mind wants it to do!

I made it to the viewing platform just below the base of the waterfall. It was gorgeous!

We stayed and took a few pictures and then the rest of the them decided to climb up the rocks to the base of the falls. I set off walking down the track by myself. It was nice to be able to set my own pace and to stop and look at anything that caught my fancy.

I found a spot dappled in sunshine where I could see the waterfall through the trees. I stopped and absorbed everything I could see and smell and hear.

It feels so decadent to indulge my sensuality like that, something I rarely do, but love. Why should it feel decadent to immerse myself in that moment, that experience, to put my whole self into what I am doing, feeling, touching, tasting? Isn’t that what it means to live life?

I took myself out of the moment to try and write about what was happening. While I did that, they caught up to me and we walked down the hill together.

We ate lunch at the Bottle Store Café sitting out on the patio in the sunshine. We had pies again. Something you don’t get in the US – savory pies, I had chicken and Brie, my daughter had vegetarian. While we were eating a Kia (rare native NZ bird) came and walked along the railing right next to us.

We drove over’s Arthur’s Pass through Otira valley. At the overlook we saw another Kia!

We came through the mountains and suddenly we could see the sea, the sunlight glinting off the surface of the water. It was gorgeous.

We had read in the guidebook that there was a holiday park right on the beach, but we didn’t want to say anything to the kids until we knew they had space. It was called Shining Star Holiday Park.

It was a little pricey, but we went ahead. We were not sorry when we walked from our campsite on to the beach. Gorgeous!

We went to the store to get supplies for dinner, given that we had access to a full kitchen and barbecue. We went with grilled lamb again, given that it was something we couldn’t get as easily or as cheaply in the states. Just salad, bread and grilled mushrooms to go with, and of course, a good bottle of New Zealand wine. The wine went straight to my head. The food was delicious. It was a pleasure to sit outside and prepare and cook our meal. When my son was checking the weather forecast for tomorrow and reading out the temperature at home (about 20F) we were reminded once again of how lucky we were. Where else in the world could you do a beautiful waterfall hike in the morning and walk along the beach in the afternoon, with only a couple hour drive?

After dinner we went for a walk on the beach, marveling at the brightness of the stars.

It was a bit of a struggle to find the path back because the beach was so dark, no houses!

Afterward we went to the glowworm dell. The walls were full of tiny specks of light.

Our first day on the South Island, picked up our camper.

Got up this morning. No leg swelling. Very relieved. At the airport they had some really cool props from Lord of the Rings. The first was a life-sized Smaug from The Hobbit. They also had two giant flying eagles. Gandalf was riding on the back of one of them.

Not what you expect to see at the airport, but then, this is New Zealand, made famous by Peter Jackson.

We picked up our camper and after a not so quick stop at the store to stock up, we headed west out of Christchurch toward Arthur’s Pass.

We stopped at Castle Hill to view the strange limestone rock formations, some of which show evidence, such as rock drawings of Maori visitors from hundreds of years ago.

I walked over to the bottom of the hill, but decided not to do any climbing as my legs had swollen a little and were sore.

We stopped at the entrance to Arthur’s Pass National Park and got out to look at the Waimakariri, a braided river.

After checking out the visitors’ center

we drove back to Klondike Corner. The Ranger at the visitor center had told us that there was camping on both sides of the road, so we chose the small track across from the main bathroom area. We trundled down the pot hole Road, camper shaking, through a wooded “tunnel”. Around the bend there was a small pull off. We all agreed that was a good place to stop for the night and went about making dinner, as we were starving!

After eating we went on a walk. The river was nearby. The rocks on the way were really interesting, and that from a distance they looked Baron, but upon closer inspection you could see Moss and Lakens growing on top, creating a soft spongy walking surface.

The river it’s self was clear light blue water. It’s split in the several channels, some of which were higher than others. The one in front of us was a few feet deep, but too fast moving to imagine trying to Swimmin. Plus, it was really cold.

We got back to the camper, and after a few hiccups managed to get both of the beds set up. Kids in the upper bed, John and I down below. I went outside to brush my teeth.

It was just about dusk, looking in to the forest, a small bird was chirping from a distant branch, it flew closer and then closer. It was small and grey, possibly a grey warbler.

It was cold in the camper, I got under the covers with all of my clothes on, including my jacket. I slept that way all night. In the morning, I said that if it was going to be that cold we needed to buy some more covers for the beds. The kids were cold too!

Weta Workshop and Te Papa

We had another relaxing morning, eating breakfast and drinking tea looking out at the view over the Wellington Hills and the harbor.

We drove to the Mount Victoria look out for 360° views of the city and the surrounding hills.

The green belt around Wellington was particularly noticeable.

We continued a little ways up the road to a park so that my husband and son could visit the lord of the rings filming site “Hobbit Hollow”.

After our visit to mount Victoria we drove over to the Weta workshop where they fabricate props for movies and also museum exhibits. We went on a 45 minute tour of the studios where we learned how they make models, molds, and Cass in order to make, for example, 50 helmets, all exactly the same. We also saw examples of 3-D printing and how they added hair done models. Of course, there were plenty of examples of props that they had made. Our tour guide gave us lots of interesting insights on things they do to make the props function the way they need to with the actors in the movies, for example, some of the materials they use are very light, but sometimes the props need to be happy, so they add weights in to the prop so that it has the right weight when the actors pick it up.

After a quick lunch back at the apartment we went to Te Papa, the national Museum of New Zealand, where we visited exhibits on the Maori, the native wildlife, the cultural history, and the many invasive and non-native creatures they currently live in New Zealand. One of the coolest was the colossal squid, the only actual squid of it’s type on display in a museum in the world. It’s not the longest squid, but it is the heaviest. It was found 1.5 km below the sea, where few other things live. The exhibit pointed out that no other place on earth is as little explored as the deepest parts of the ocean.

We went out for dinner at a restaurant on Cuba street called for Fidel’s after Fidel Castro. It was eclectic.

On the way home I realized that my legs were swollen, particularly my calves, so currently, I am in bed with my feet propped up, hoping the swelling will go down soon. I also took some medicine. I have not had anything like this happen since my first pregnancy, so it’s a little scary. I’m guessing I have just been on my feet too much recently, or maybe have been using my muscles in new ways that irritated them and caused swelling.

Our plane to Christchurch is fairly early tomorrow morning, and I still need to pack my bags, so I’m hoping that either the resting or the medicine will help soon!

Visiting the volcano land of Tongariro

Stayed at a lovely little house in a tiny little town called Rangataua (don’t ask me how to pronounce that). It had nice big windows and a gorgeous kitchen with wood slab counters. We cooked dinner (lamb, potatoes and green beans), and planned for today.

Our first destination was Mangawhero Falls, where “Ithilien” was filmed in LOTR. It was a short walk from the road to the top of the falls, which were somewhat underwhelming. The pool at the bottom was what was used in the movie. It would have been more impressive had we been able to see the volcano, which was hidden by clouds.

We drove around the park, stopping to admire several views of the volcano, including this one of Mt. Ruepho.

After visiting the falls we drove up to Whakapapa ski field. It’s on the volcano, Mt. Ruepho. It felt like being on a foreign planet, all rocky and barren. Upon closer inspection I could see a variety of different plants growing.

We walked up to a viewpoint. Just next to it was a wall of stone. We could see people at the top, preparing to climb down.

From there we had plans to walk to a LOTR location a little ways up the Tongariro Crossing. When we arrived the car park was very full. It’s one of the most popular homes in the country. I struggled with the walk. It was either steep up hill with steps, or steep downhill with steps. After 45 minutes I was ready to go back, plus, I didn’t want to arrive at my cousin’s (3rd cousin actually) too late. The boys went a little further and my daughter and I headed back.

As we were leaving the park we got a really nice view of Mt. Ngaurohoe, perhaps better known as Mt. Doom (definitely easier to pronounce!)

Easy drive to Napier. My cousin’s wife greeted us warmly when we arrived, throwing open one of the windows and waving down to us. I last saw her 13 years ago on our previous visit to New Zealand.

When I’d last seen them, they had a baby. Now he was all grown up and introducing himself to me, offering to carry bags up to the house, which was built in to one of the hills that surround the downtown. We chatted while we waited for my cousin to return. He’d gone out to get some champagne to celebrate our visit. We opened it promptly, each drinking out of one of my cousin’s handmade ceramic cups. I think visiting the ceramics studio had been the highlight of our previous visit for my mom, who was a ceramic artist. I felt especially connected to my cousin because of the passion for creating out of clay that he and my mom shared.

His wife made an excellent stew and salad for dinner and my cousin grilled sausages. We also had two loaves of bread, one homemade and one a French loaf we’d brought. It was quite a spread! It was so good to eat some vegetables. (We kept forgetting to schedule in time to eat, which meant picking something up quick – take out Chinese or fish & chips.)

After dinner we walked down to the pier and along the walk at the edge of the water. According to my cousin it was all newly built. We especially enjoyed several fountains with colored lights that looked like small fireworks when the blasted out of the ground.

Te Puia Geothermal Park

Just finished our loop of the geothermal area Te Puia. In addition to the geysers, including Pohuta, the largest geyser in the southern hemisphere, spurting water up to 30m,

we also saw several bubbling mud pools, the largest had mud that was 6 to 10 m deep.

We also saw several deep holes with bubbling hot water at the bottom, one of which had pretty light blue water from the minerals present.

Over the course of the day, it got hotter and hotter, maybe from the weather, maybe from the geothermal activity heating the air in the valley. Made it a little miserable.

The reason for the geysers in this area is because of the river that runs through the valley, or at least that’s part of the reason, because there’s plenty of groundwater present to be heated by the hot magma 3 km deep.

The stream itself is actually cold, except along the edges where hot springs bubble up in a few places.

In addition to the Hot Springs Te Pioa also is a Maori cultural museum where you can watch Maori artist do traditional Maori carvings in both wood and stone. Only men are allowed to carve, because they believe that carving imparts your life force into the piece. Women need their life force to have babies. Women, however, weave. They use the native flax plant, removing the outside of the plant to create various effects. They also add bird feathers, such as kiwi Feathers, or peacocks which are not native, but can be found in the wild here.

Te Puia also has a Maori meeting house and storage house. We caught the very end of a traditional Maori dance.

What is a “Holiday Park”?

Our accommodations for the night we’re at a Holiday Park. Thermal Springs Holiday Park, Rotorua, to be specific. Unfortunately, we had waited until the last minute to book, and all that they had left was a small trailer with two sets of bunkbeds in it. No table. No chairs. No running water. Communal bathrooms. The kids were not impressed when we arrived. My husband wasn’t either. At least one of the bunk beds was a double/single, though that’s still the smallest bed we have shared in a long time.

In the morning we took advantage of the thermal hot springs baths and the heated swimming pool.

To be honest, the facilities were fine, totally adequate, just not the houses and apartments we’d been staying in, which had at least two bedrooms and full kitchens.