Annual haulout and weekend in NZ

---

Brisbane Shiplifts provided the venue for our 2010 haulout with 300 and 600 ton travel lifts to make even the largest vessel look like a dinky toy in the slings. Four days of beauty treatments at the spa for Marnie; buffing her topsides and antifouling from the waterline down. Hindered by continuous rain one day, dickies at the ready and full speed ahead applying three coats of Jotun C Victor 50 over three days, in the hope that she’ll sail like lightening across the waters to Indonesia without a hint of drag. The mechanical project for 2010 a new muffler riser installed by Mike.




INTERNATIONAL ALCAPA DAY
Despite several months in New Zealand in 2009, we didn’t manage to venture to south island, as hoped, as a result of contractors over-running on the refrigeration rebuild, and Walter needing to watch their every move after incompetence appeared the order of the day.


With our Australian visa’s due for renewal in May 2010 the options were to obtain a six month visa or visit south island of NZ for a weekend thereby exiting and re-entering as is part of the requirement of a 12 month multi-entry visa. A four day weekend, and an unusually sunny one at that, gave us the chance to see picturesque Akaroa on the coastline, Mt. Cook, Lake Takepo and Arthur’s Pass inland at their best. Christchurch provided our base from which to explore and was a pretty lively place with 300,000 residents and quite a few characters amongst them.


Akaroa, which means long harbour in Maori, was the first substantial settlement by Europeans and a safe haven for early whalers and sealers working in the wild southern ocean. Originally the caldera of an ancient volcano, as the oceans rose and the entrance sill eroded, it filled with sea water to become a beautiful harbour. The worlds smallest and rarest dolphins live here as well as fur seals and little blue penguins. There is a distinctly French feel to the place with good restaurants and an especially good breakfast spot on the waterfront - pain au chocolat to die for.


Mt Cook, at 3753m (it’s name translating to cloud piercer in Maori) is New Zealand’s highest mountain which sits within the national park, surrounded by hundreds of snow covered peaks of giant proportions. Our drive from Christchurch took us to Lake Tekapo where we watched the sun set across the water with the towering backdrop of Mt Cook and the adjacent mountains. Evenings were spent listening to live music and eating delicious seafood in a variety of venues including Lyttelton Harbour - a funky little place 20 minutes from the city.


Our trip to an alpaca farm, enroute to Arthur’s Pass, coincided with International Alpaca Day so a good day to pay them a visit and celebrate the good breeding program they’ve developed and are proud of. Of the herd of 200, two fields were full of alpaca's ready to be crated up and exported to Europe.


Arthur's Pass sits within a national park including many peaks over 2000 metres - the highest is Mount Murchison at 2,400 metres. All the main valleys of the park are deep and steep sided, with the U-shaped profile typical of glacial action. Above the sub-alpine shrublands, there are enchanting alpine fields with wild flowers.


Arriving in Arthur's Pass National Park by road is a spectacular piece of extreme civil engineering involving viaducts, bridges, rock shelters and waterfalls redirected into chutes. When Arthur Dobson first encountered the precipitous Otira Gorge, the pass was almost impassable - he had to leave his horse at the top and lower his dog on a rope.


Back to Brisbane to provision for the next passage and make our way north through the Gt Barrier Reef.

---

Photos

The topsiders
Walter in his dickies and Darren from Serica helping out

Sheep outnumber humans
More livestock than people abound south island, but not the huge forests we'd expected to see as it's all been harvested and exported to China as wood pulp, processed and imported by NZ in its new format.

International Alpaca Day
Both being animal lovers we thought we'd call into see this group of overgrown teddy bears only to find that a quarter of the herd was about to be exported. The baby is called a cria, they live to over 20 years old and they need shearing once a year. The meat is eaten in South America but not in NZ unlike deer which appears regularly on the menu's and is farmed in this area too.