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Published: December 17th 2010
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Saskia and Eli Ready to go
Dropping them off for there hike in Able Tasman Park The Great South Island Adventure continues -
We left Picton on December 6th and headed for our next destination. Just a word to all the Kiwi’s who asked “Why are you going to Picton?”. It was really a cool little town. The whole downtown and waterfront has been redone and is very nice. We had fun and would recommend people stay and check it out, at least for a night or two.
On to
Pohara To get to Pohara, we had to drive about 3 hours. We passed through Havelock (muscle capital of NZ), Nelson, Motueka, Takaka and then the beautiful little beach town of Pohara.
From Nelson up to Farewell Spit, this area is called the Golden Bay. Full of beautiful beaches, orchards, vineyards, and vegetable farms. It is the sunniest place in all of NZ and Nelson with about 60,000 people is the biggest town by far. I had read on a lot of Expat sites that it was a highly recommend place to move to, and I could see why.
We dropped Saskia and Eli off at the Able Tasman National Park entrance. They were going to hike 51 km along the coast on
the Able Tasman trail and we would pick them up in 3 days on the Pohara side. Fortunately, they had a cell phone with them. We got a call the next day. Saskia’s feet hurt her with new blisters and they were wet and cold. Poor things. How lucky they were to have mom and dad come to the rescue. The tent they bought was $20 from the Warehouse (The Wal Mart of NZ). It kept them dry as good as a $20 tent is supposed too, which is not at all. They still managed to hike about 25 miles along some beautiful coast and met some great people.
The house we rented in Pohara was really great. It was two units right on the beach. We are renting houses everywhere we go since it works out way cheaper than anything else for the number of people we have. It also beats a hotel or campervan hands down.
Nicole and I went out walking on the beach first thing. We came upon a young Blue Penguin floating in the surf that looked sick. Nicole proceeded to try to nurse it back to health (anyone who knows Nicole understands
how much she loves animals. I think she is missing her calling sometimes). She called the ASPCA, a local vet and finally found the name of a women who advised her what to try.
We headed to the grocery store and came home with a Flounder to try food on the penguin. It managed to eat a few pieces, but she was unable to save it. Later that day we also saw some people way out in the surf trying to move something into the water. It turned out to be a 5 foot Thresher Shark that was also not doing well. I do not think all this was due to disease or anything, just the natural order of life at work.
Over the next few days we hiked, saw a huge cave and the biggest freshwater spring in NZ, swam and generally hung out. It was a great place to relax and hang out with family.
Hanmer and
Mariua Springs We love hot springs and wanted to hit both of these on the way to Christchurch. Mariua Springs was on the way so we stopped there first.
Mariua Springs had been recommended by some
people we knew and some of the Blogs we have read. It is a Japanese style spring with separate baths for men and women. It is in a beautiful mountain setting, but we found it run down, not very hot and expensive. I would rate it a miss for anyone in the future.
Hanmer Springs on the other hand is great. It is a large complex going through a 7.5 million renovation. It had a heap of pools of all styles and temperatures. Places to cool off in the shade on a lounge chair and even a nice cafe (although we did not try it). The town is surrounded by mountains and looks to have great outdoor activities for summer and winter.
On a side note, I find hot springs a great place to meet and talk with people. We met a German women in Hanmer who had a degree in Agriculture and was working on farms for 6 months. She was by herself and told us she spent 5 months each summer working in the Swiss Alps milking cows and making cheese for a group of farmers. She lived at about 7,000 feet with no electricity about
Jacque Costeaus old boat
Supposedly this was his first boat and it is a floating cafe now 40 minutes from anyone else and loved it. Interesting stuff. People are very relaxed at a hot spring and it makes for interesting conversations.
Christchurch We landed in Christchurch on December 15. This is the city that got hit by a 7.1 earthquake a few months back (and 3,000 aftershocks since then). I was not sure what to expect.
It is really hard to see damage unless you are looking for it. The main problem is something called liquification. From what I can figure out, it was the amount of time it happened (it lasted about 45 seconds) that caused the most damage. The shaking turned the ground into quicksand in a lot of places. This caused houses to sink or foundations to collapse. So a lot of homes are condemned even though from the outside they look fine.
A person we met said the damage was the seventh most expensive earthquake in the world. Still hard to see it when we are driving around. It is amazing that no one died when the Haiti earthquake of the same size killed over 200,000.
Christchurch has a nice compact city center with museums and a really
PUPU Springs
Biggest and cleanest spring in NZ nice Botanical Garden. It is very walkable and so we are off to explore. We will update you on what we find.
I wanted to just take a minute to give some comparisons to NZ and the US on two specific items. The run up to Christmas and responsibility. Sorry if I go off on a tangent here, but these are two things that have really hit me as I travel.
Just let me preface it with the statement that I am proud to be from the US. In light of our current economy and political turmoil, it is really easy to be critical. I get tired of all the whining since it is not very constructive (I am as guilty as the next person).
It is a welcome relief not to get bombarded by Christmas sales and music from about halloween on. NZ is much more relaxed and does not seem to celebrate the commercialism of Christmas to the excess of the US. You see decorations here and there and some hints of Santa, but that is about it. I think it would be nice if we stopped letting advertising dictate our holidays.
In regards
River from PUPU Spring
This river started here in the ground. It flowed 457,000,000 gallons per day to responsibility, it strikes me how is getting hard in the US to accept responsibility for anything. We have way to many laws and restrictions on us and it seems to be getting worse not better. Eli and I went hiking and had to travel on a gravel road through private property. The only reason we knew it was private was because the farmer had a little sign up asking people to close the gates behind them and not park in the pasture if it was wet. If it were the US, we would probably not even be allowed on the property for insurance and liability reasons.
In NZ it seems they feel that you are welcome to do all kinds of crazy things but you are on your own. No guardrails, drive on the beaches, hike on private property, etc. It is not a perfect system by any means, but I feel like I am being treated like an adult and can take responsibility for my own actions. I like it and feel like it is how the US was 30 years ago before we became afraid of everything. So that is my rant for this chapter of
the blog and I hope I did not put you to sleep.
We hope everyone is well and enjoying life and we miss you all a great deal.
Bruce, Dianne, Saskia, Nicole, Eli and soon Chris.
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larry winderbaum
non-member comment
picton to christchurch
as usual enjoyed your blog bruce...thanks for sending stories & photos very interested in your cross cultural observations. makes NZ a very inviting place for me, in addition to the beauty of the place, and behavior of the kiwis hope all of you continue to have such wonderful experiences