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From Sandra Molyneaux ~ January 27, 2020
Our ride up Mt. John at Lake Tekapu was a big success. Other than the vivid clarity of the stars, I am not sure I could tell we were in the Southern Hemisphere, but we saw some sparkling stuff - the Southern Cross which, with four stars requires one to link opposite stars rather than creating a box; Jewel Box Cluster, which does not look like a box; Orion up-side down; and the pair Alpha and Beta Centauri. We look through four great telescopes and listened to some Maori sky stories that determined agriculture practices by star's positions. All quite lovely. As we were leaving at 03:00, the moon and the next group arrived so our timing was perfect for a dark sky.
Encouraged by the star's success, last Monday found us on Banks Peninsula, east of Christchurch, and named for Cook's botanist. On the map it looks like a giant turtle head with his mouth wide open. The mouth is Akaroa Bay, the largest of many that fringe what looks more like an island than a peninsula. In fact, Cook's map of the region identifies the peninsula as an island which it had originally been. The fjord-like bays are the same turquoise we saw over the past two days caused by silt from the Southern Alps that run down the western side of the South Island. By now, what was once a torrent is a trickle. Interestingly, the Pacific Ocean looks turquoise around the shallow shore line. Quite beautiful to see the colors deepen gradually as the depth increases. Banks Peninsula was originally a cluster of three volcanos that sequentially blew. What's last reminds me of Marin County - a few vineyards, green clumps of deep forest, and golden fields plunging down to the sea. This is really sheep country. On our excursion across the peninsula, Larry got dropped off to complete the downward trek to Pohatu Preserve. I got to continue in the 4X4 a d stake out the cabin closest to the bath with the least chance of nocturnal sheep poop encounters.
The reason we are here is penguins. A sort-of Thai Elephant Nature Park that has created safe habitat for the tiny white-winged, blue penguin, the smallest penguin of them all. Shireen and Francis have made it their life mission to rescue abandoned blues and nourish them back to the point where they can be released back into the wild. When not shepherding penguins, they shepherd sheep, and 800 of them are being shorn during our stay. Interesting to see a farm slope right down to one of the little, rocky beaches at the head of the bays, this one named for a flea.
Literally, nourish. We all had to maintain absolute silence while Shireen and helper Mark hand-fed the little darlings in such a way that mimicked their natural feeding patterns, short of regurgitating the fish directly into the youngsters' mouths.
After this little demonstration, we clambered up the hill to visit, ever so respectfully, the wooden "nests" of the penguins. Shireen et al. help the penguins along in this regard as it would take the penguins roughly three years of their expected 15 year lifespan to build their own dreamhouses. This is true for all of them, including the one they have named, you guessed it, Sandra. Once the penguins are healthy again and reach a respectable one kilo, they are released back into the wild where they meet the 1.5 kg adults, the staff having avoided all traces of human bonding and dependency.
As Bush once said, I greatly miss under-estimated how penguins gained land. National Geographic lie? Silly me. Properly attired in our camaflauge parkas we treked over dale and stream, through woods, up hills, down gullies, and up again to search for the charming cliff from which we were to observe the darlings. And, it is now dark. I say "charming " with a bit of trust as I had long since peeled off from the group to plop on a log at water's edge. Larry reported negative findings even with binoculars in hand. Alas.
Undaunted, and back to civilization, so to speak, we embarked upon a yet another nature encounter - whale watching out of Kaikoura. Success this time. We saw three huge sperm whales, all males as females and youngsters seek warmer waters nearer the Equator. Again, on the way to the whale grounds, we were treated to Maori stories as the first ruler of ------- (NZ), arrived riding the back of a whale. The tradition is still commemorated. Before We departed for the trip, we saw a lovely little film called The Whale Rider in which a young girl feels the call to become a future leader and is denied access to the rituals because she is not a male. How does she overcome the obstacles? Watch the film.
Unlike whale whate watches we have encountered off the U.S. East Coast and Alaska, where we struggled to see the animals fluke, here we were treated to full horizontal body views and two dives. One whale,however, decided to take a nap. Only his huge head surfaced as whales sleep vertically. Enentually, he sank below the surface where he would remain for about 90 minutes. Quite the show-offs. Plus, a whole bunch of fur seals and various types of dolphins.
Back to Keikoura in time for a nap so that we could attack the town's renowned crayfish. We expected Louisiana-Texas style mud bugs but were surprised to find near lobster size tails, grilled to order at a dumpy fish shack run by a native Michigander, by way of Reading, Calfornia, along with her Kiwi husband and their multi-national son. We enjoyed our meal at an outdoor picnic table, supplemented by a mess of green-lipped mussels and white wine Larry brought onto the premises and poured surreptitiously under the table. Approved ahead of time as Mrs. Michigander said she was fine with this as long as we were discreet. Our most expensive meal so far, and we even had to carry out own paper plates and pitch the garbage which we would have made luscious seafood soup from. At least we felt we were dining alfresco authentic.
In Kaikura we stayed at a North America-style KOA campgrounds -- we sprung for a little cabin on whose porch we shared beers with a couple visiting from Sydney. We hope to meet up with Jo & Rob when we are in Sydney a little over a month from now. Kailua is another one-road resort town, but this stretches for about 7 km. around a lovely bay encircled by mountains. It is quite beautiful. I have never seen Hawaii's black sand beaches, but I was not impressed by Kaikoura's. The "beach" is black stones and pebbles where no one swims. But the walkway is pleasant - with lots of little gardens and benches.
The relationship between mountain and sea is precarious. The train We took from Christchurch often runs right along the water and, in some places, over the water but, more often, through tunnels. It was most dramatic to stand in the on-air carriage at the end of the train. Dangerous, too. In November 2016, Akaiora was the center of a 7.8 earthquake that destroyed over 200 miles of track and Hwy. #1. The 9-month detour must have been a doozy.
We left Kaikoura the next morning via train again and caught the ferry connection at Picton for Wellington.
And, so, on to New Zealand's North Island in search of new adventures.
All for now. SLM