The Traveling Kiwi

With a couple of days of predicted rain and cooler temperatures for Christchurch we decided to head south and see if we could find some sunshine. A journey I had not taken for over 25 years, it bought back many memories and was surprisingly unchanged. We stopped for lunch in Oamaru, a place that in the past had only ever been a town we drove though on our way to Dunedin. This time we spotted a steam train and left the main road, we quickly found ourselves in a delightful Victorian town, almost a twilight zone moment as we wandered the streets seeing only people dressed in victorian costume. If is wasn’t for the cars we would have stepped back in time. The blond stone buildings showcased the local stone, as we walked into town the same stone was used for the banks and other imposing facades. Just out of town we saw a sign for a penguin colony but we were too early for a tour so we kept driving towards our next stop along the coast. The train sign is the one used for all the railway crossings, Joe decided that Thomas the Tank Engine must have come from New Zealand.

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I love Birdlings Flat, its a bleak stoney beach on the east coast of the South Island just below Banks Peninsula. The tide brings stones from all over the world and you can find agate, petrified wood, jasper, chalcedony, rhodantite, garnets and all sorts of serpentine and unidentified yet fascinating rocks that have been tumbled by the ocean into smooth shapes. I went to this beach many times as a child to hunt for agates at the tides edge and eat savaloys(weird red kiwi sausages) toasted on a bonfire in one of the caves when the weather got too wild. The continental shelf is very short here and the waves crash hard on the beach with a rip that can grab you by the ankles and  drag you out in minutes, or at least thats what we were told and we believed it. As each wave receedes you can hear the rumble and rattle of the stones grinding on each other and if you look closely you can see stones leaping about in the sea foam.

This trip was with two cars full of family and the nicest sunniest day of the year. We wandered the beach filling our pockets with special stones and then lay in the sun while the nieces and nephews built a driftwood and seaweed monument to the occasion. Absolutely delightful time and the only reason we left and continued on to Akaroa was lack of food and the siren call of Akaroa fish and chips.

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My brother Ian has started a truffle enterprise near Waipara in North Canterbury and we spent the day out checking on his progress. The soil is prepared and in the next few weeks the trees will go in. The location is just spectacular, tucked in a small valley with awesome views out to the coast. You can see in the photos he has installed the water tanks at the top of the field and the cultivated part of the valley is where he will plant the oak trees when he gets his vacation later in November. Joe and Ian spent the next day staking the field for the irrigation and putting in the warratas for the fence which needed upgrading to keep out the sheep and rabbits while the trees are young. Its a farsighted enterprise with the first crop of truffles not due for 5 – 8 years. We finished the day in a world class restaurant in Amberly. I was surprised to find such fine dining in what used to be just a small farming town. 5 stars for my pate and Ians steak sandwich was superb as was Joes pumpkin soup. The road sign did leave us all rather puzzled as it was located a good 1/2 mile from the point any merging was going to take place.

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I know I know, I haven’t posted for ages – I have been internet challenged. They have a strange system of allocating only so many GB of capacity per month and we arrived in NZ just as they had run out for the month. We are now free to surf and upload to our hearts content – well for another 5 GB anyway so you will get all my last two weeks worth in one lot.

Flying in to Christchurch from Melbourne we crossed over the West Coast and the Southern Alps on a brilliantly sunny day. Its wonderful watching the mountain change to rolling hills and on to the tidy patchwork of the Canterbury  plains.

Its spring time in Christchurch and the weather is typical spring weather, cool, cloudy, suddenly hot and then wet and cold. The blossom is out and the azalea’s and rhododendrons have put  on a lovely display. We wandered the gardens at Ilam ( my old university) and although it was overcast and cool the colors were spectacular.

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We went to Geelong for the day with Mark and Jane and the girls, about 30 miles from Melbourne, Geelong is a beach community with a great view of Melbourne on a sunny day (this was not the day). Unfortunately it was still cool and overcast so there were few people on the beach and none in the water  In fact the few that were about looked pretty stiff to me. We walked the promenade and played Boules on the beach and managed to have a great day out regardless of the weather.

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The weather has been cool, overcast and windy most days and not the best light for photos, we have headed into the city a couple of times on the train and just wandered around. Since it is the school holidays its been crowded and busy, but maybe its like that all the time. We read in the paper Melbourne is adding 1700 people a week which translates into a huge population increase over time.

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Mark and Joe decided it would be fun to spend the two coldest windiest days of the year dropping in a new transmission, tourque converter, oh yes, and adding a couple of wheels to Marks old car. When they had finished, somehow a few nuts and bolts remained, they reassured me that it was to reduce weight and if the wheels didn’t fall off I would be fine. They then informed me that for insurance reasons I would be driving. It was with more than some trepidation I got behind the wheel and started to familiarize myself again with driving on the right side of the road in crazy traffic.

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So at last we are on the way to Australia and New Zealand to see my family, I know this is my last opportunity for a long time to see Mum and all my brothers, sisters and their families and its important for me to spend some time with them while I can.

We left Seattle Monday evening on Virgin America and had a lovely flight, just as we landed I started to chat to the guy in the seat between Joe and I. He turned out to be a manager with Virgin Australia so I was able to ask him if I would be able to power my computer on the flight. Apparently not as we were in cattle class. When we found the checkin desk he was there waiting for us and instructed the girl checking us in to find us a good seat. When we boarded our Virgin Australia flight we found ourselves in Premium economy – the equivalent to business class on United. Woo Hoo – I will keep chatting up strange men 🙂 It was sooo nice, great food, great service, nice big seats and hardly anyone in the section so I snagged two seats and had lots of extra room to sleep.  What a wonderful start to our journey.

We woke to breakfast and the brightening sky and a strange colored storm, white fluffy clouds floating on a sandy sea. The captain came on and told us we were heading into a sand storm and that they would only be able to land if they had more than 600 meters of visibility. We started heading into the storm, outside it became redder and redder, an eerie light in the cabin but you could see nothing. We started watching the map in front of our seats, counting down the altitude, we were at 400ft from landing, still unable to see anything, when the engine roared and we headed straight back up. They told us if we would try again and if we couldn’t land then we would be diverted to Brisbane – exactly the wrong direction from where we were headed. The second time was a winner and we landed to sighs of relief and clapping from all the passengers.  As we taxied in we couldn’t even see the terminal or the other side of the airport. Only an hour delay and we were on our way to Melbourne. We listened to the news later that evening and found out that we were one of the very few flights that landed in a sand storm that was the worst they have seen in 70 years.

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Well I finally hit the road to head back to Seattle, the plan was to take it slow and take lots of photos. Joe left 2 days earlier to head up to Alberta and see Pete, then take the scenic route back though British Columbia and down into Washington. I left with high hopes looking forward to some time on my own and just the open road. As I headed into the Rockies the sunshine quickly turned to showers and by the time I got to Loveland Pass it was lumpy rain just this side of snow. The cloud cover stayed low and the radio promised thunderstorms for the afternoon. My plan to visit Maroon Bells ( the whole reason to take this route) was sidelined when I realized that I wouldn’t be able to see them through the cloud cover, so I just decided to drive out of the bad weather. I hit Grand Junction on the other side of the Rockies and just kept going. The aspen trees were just turning gold and combined with the rust of the dead pines it looked like it was already fall. I slid into Salt Lake city and just kept going across the Bonneville salt flats to see if the scenery was any better. It wasn’t. Although the salt flats are pretty amazing just in sheer size, people had used rocks and empty beer bottles to spell out messages in the white crusty salt. The California wild fires had created a haze that dulled the charm of the bleak landscape. Once I hit Idaho the rain started and continued on through Oregon. No photo opportunities and not much reason to slow down. Battling fatigue and unending roadworks I finally arrived in Seattle tuesday morning to find Joe had perfect weather for his whole ride and had travelled through some of the most beautiful scenery – mutter mutter mutter – hmmmm maybe the road less travelled really is better.

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