Road Trip Round Up: The North of the South, Days 7-10

So for two reasons I'm going to finish up Kim and Kristen's road trip in one succinct post:

A) It's Christmas Eve. If I don't do it now, it's never going to happen. Too much other cool stuff is going on.

B) My photos are limited because the weather was limiting.

Without further ado, my final map.

If any of you actually take the time to look at my maps (Look at my map! So many minutes go into these maps!) you may notice the problematic text just north of Christchurch. Woodend, to be specific, is where I put a full tank of diesel fuel in my petrol run VW Golf. I have 28 reasons why it's not my fault that this happened, but the fact of the matter is that it happened.

Luck seemed to be on my side, after it wasn't on my side, and this incident happened at a garage (instead of just a fuel stop). So we pushed poor little Red into the garage, where the darling 75-year old mechanic judged me (silently, but harshly) then quickly got to work. He instructed Kim and I to "Go for a walk", which if you've ever been to Woodend, NZ (think Willows, California), you'll know is short and not exactly scenic.

Walk we did, and about an hour later little Red was back in action. Plus, the mechanic only charged me $70 to pump the tank, which in NZD, is practically free. We bought him a respectable bottle of Merlot Reserve, then got on the road before he could change his mind. 

The drive from Christchurch to Collingwood, with one lunch stop, one fuel stop, one pee break, and driving rain, is 8 hours. It's merciless. And it's my fault. I thought, Let's show Kim the far side of Golden Bay! I've heard it's amazing! I've never been! We only have 2 nights, and it's really far away! Perfect! In retrospect, totally would have just stayed in Nelson.

When we finally arrived, we scouted out our little piece of paradise, our bach:

Exciting, huh?

This leg of the road trip really made up for how amazingly everything worked out on the first leg. This time around, the weather was vapid. We were complete failures when it came to organizing our food situations. And it felt like we spent eternity in the car.

I had booked two really cute little baches, one for two nights (pictured above) near Collingwood, and the other for one night (not worth picturing) in the Marlborough Sounds. The thing about secluded baches deep in the natural Kiwi landscape is this: they are not near supermarkets and they are not near restaurants.

I mean, obviously. I knew this. But it wasn't convenient for me, so I kind of just ignored this fact until we were there, starving, isolated, exhausted, and still starving. So after our 8 hour drive, we got back in the car and drove 20 minutes to the nearest food. Battered and fried food. Didn't even care.

The day after The Drive, we headed over to the north side of Abel Tasman National Park and yet again used the trusty guidebook to find three cool things.

Cool Thing 1: Wainui Falls and Swing Bridge, Golden Bay, NZ

Just what it sounds like, a 20-30 minute hike through beautiful rainforest, across a spectacularly Kiwi swing bridge, to a stunning waterfall. Exactly what we drove all that way to see!

So much higher than it looks... 

Back on the road, looking out over Golden Bay:

Cool Thing 2: Limestone outcroppings, called "The Grove", Takaka, NZ

We stopped in the grove for a picnic, then took our wine hiking with us. Conventional? No. Perfect? Yes.

The limestone features here and in this area are pretty impressive, worn into bizarre shapes and groups by wind and acidic water. These plus the ferns make for some dramatic Jurassic Park looking scenery.

Wine hikes are the best hikes.

Cool Thing 3: Rawhiti Cave, Takaka, NZ

This was a 45+ minute hike straight up the side of a hill, ending at the most impressive showing of stalactites that I've ever seen. Allegedly there are more than 1 million stalactites in this cave!

Following the cave adventure, we searched for edible food and wi-fi (both rare yet possible) and then took a takeaway pizza with us to what is supposed to be one of the most amazing beaches in New Zealand.

Wharariki Beach. This beach is really decorated. The guidebook said something about this beach "being an orgy of amazingness", or something like that. It gets 5/5 stars on Trip Advisor. It's Google image search looks like this:

source

source

 So imagine our surprise, when we roll up to this beach with our pizza and wine, and we are greeted with 100km winds, a bajillion seagulls, and this:

Cool beach guys. Looks exactly like the photos.

We ate our sandy pizza as fast as humanly possible, while being dive-bombed by seagulls and blinded by razor sharp sand wind. Good times.

After our relaxing time at the best beach in the world, we treated ourselves to a pint of beer at the ONLY bar for a 50km radius, then I'm pretty sure we went to bed while it was still light out.

The following morning we got the hell out of cold and rainy Golden Bay got a refreshingly early start on another day of driving. To break it up, we stopped for a little lunch and wine tasting in Montueka and Nelson.

Cool clouds, no?

 Unfortunately, the following photo is the only one I have from the next 24 hours. It is the view from our 2nd bach.

Basically, we ate, then we drove, then we ate, then we drove. We slept, then we drove, then we ate, then we drove. We did stop for some wine tasting (again) in Blenheim, but no photos happened, and they're all about the Sauvignon Blanc, so I don't have that much to say about that. 

What was completely unexpected, however, was that we left Picton in the rain, and as we drove south it got hotter and sunnier, and hotter, and sunnier. By the time we got to Kaikoura it was 30 degrees (86 F) and just stunning. I've never actually seen Kaikoura in the summer or sun, so it was a great treat.

Another treat was that there were still just a few baby seals playing in the waterfall pool. What? Does that sound completely cute yet totally made up?! It's not. Every winter, dozens of baby seals are left, basically at baby seal daycare, in a pool at the base of a waterfall. Scenic and adorable! Sound familiar? I posted about it here last winter.

Anyways, no photos of that (shocking!), but I'll leave you with a few of the beautiful, dramatic ocean scenery of Kaikoura:

And with that, it was finished. We drove the final 2 hours to Christchurch, and the weather turned back to pelting rain and 10 degrees (50 F). We'd come to expect as much from the weather, and decided just to be grateful for the gem of an afternoon we were handed in Kaikoura.

I had booked both baches based on the fact that they had kayaks, but it was never warm enough, or still enough to be safe to go out for a paddle. I had hoped to show Kim the jewel colored water from the tree fern paths in Abel Tasman, but it was gray and misty every day we were there. I had hoped for Tui birds, fantails, and maybe even a little blue penguin, but they were all too smart to come out in the weather we were having!

But with wine and pizza we persevered, enjoyed lots of beautiful scenery anyways, and lingered in Kaikoura, since the sun and ocean felt like a gift to us after all the rain. It was a great way to end our travels, and hopefully a sweet last memory for Kim to tuck away before hopping back on a plane to California!

Gray Skies and Whale Tales

Sometimes I have an idea for a blog post that I think about for so long, that when it comes to writing it I am at a loss. Its like, all the thoughts I was going to have on the topic got thought, and my brain is done with them. This is unfortunate because you, my lovely readers, obviously miss out on something I once thought was fantastic, but didn't have the followthrough to get online before my ADD brain could type it... what? One such case is the story of the awesome boat trip we went on in Kaikoura with Scott's parents. Regardless, it's an experience worth writing about. So here goes...

The weather wasn't cooperating when we drove up to Kaikoura. Then again, it was the middle of August (Northern Hemisphere Equivalent: February) so why would it? When we got into town we were greeted by a cold southerly wind and gray skies. The rain was holding off though, so we checked in to our whale watching tour, which we had signed up for the night before.

Although the front desk staff were unfriendly and the safety video a bit excruciating, the tour was amazing. The guys who ran the boat tour were enthusiastic and knowledgable. For a whale-idiot like myself, I learned a lot before we even spotted one, making the whole experience that much more fantastic. Anyways, what you all care about: pictures.

No wait. First of all, a brief and incomplete lesson for those of you unfamiliar with the Sperm Whale (mom). Male sperm whales are far larger than females, and average 50ft in length, and weigh 45 tons. Newborns are a mere 1 ton. Sperm whales have teeth instead of baleen. They are the largest of the toothed whales. That being said, these teeth are for fighting, not chewing. For digestion, they have two stomachs: the first uses muscles to crush food, and the second has gastric juices which break it down. They are found in the open ocean, and are the deepest diving mammal. They can dive up to 10,000 feet, and feed on all kinds of marine life, especially giant squid (aka: the source of all my nightmares since I saw that one at Te Papa. Gross). They have the largest brain of any animal on earth- 5x the size of a human brain! source 

The sperm whale is known for the distinctive shape of it's big blocky head and very small lower jaw. (They make very cute cartoons.) The head makes up approximately one third of the body. Besides a massive brain, the whale's head is filled with a waxy-liquidy oil which was originally mistaken for sperm. Hence, the name (poor guys). The oil reserve is thought to help with buoyancy and diving, as well as communication- although it is not completely understood. Sperm whales have been widely hunted because of this oil.

Billy Blockhead

When sperm whales come up for air, they stay on the surface of the water for about 15 minutes. They can dive for up to a couple of hours! But if one doesn't know what they're looking at, they may mistake this great mammal for a bit if driftwood. Only about 1/10th of the whale is visible from the surface.

Sperm whale from below, you can see what part is above waterer. -Thanks Google image search

To identify the whales (and not the driftwood), we were instructed to keep an eye out for their blows. The blowhole on the sperm whale is located on the left side of their head and is shaped like an "S", giving them an odd, angled and "bushy" spray-like blow. This is also helpful in distinguishing a sperm whale from it's cousins if you're lucky to be out searching amongst different species. Anyhow, our search went really well, and we got to see 2 males side-by-side right off the bat.

So yeah, if you didn't know what you were looking at, this may not be super interesting. If the water was clear and tropical it would be neat to get some sort of underwater camera involved (like Ms. Basquez did in the photo above). But regardless, to know what is under the water is what it's all about. That, and the whale tail. These were the first whale tails I've ever seen in my life, and they were so close. It was spectacular. (Photos courtesy of my father-in-law.)

Our trusty captain found us 6 whales, which apparently is quite a good show. We had mercifully calm water, which helped with both binocular use and decent photography. Before taking us back to shore, he motored us over to the local dolphin hangout. We cruised into a pod of an estimated 600 dolphins, although I'd guess there were even more. At one point there were dolphins jumping and flipping as far out on the horizon as I could see. The dolphins around here are Dusky Dolphins, known for their arial acrobatics and playful nature (aren't all dolphins?). They can be found in many places in the southern waters of the southern hemisphere, but are particularly prolific in the waters around New Zealand. They are great for the tourist economy around here.

All the dolphin photo credits are (obviously): Me.

Besides doing front flips and aerials, these guys liked to "surf" the wake at the front of the boat. This was fun to watch because they were no more than 8 feet away.

While the sole mission of the sperm whale seems to be dive deep and eat giant squid (rendering them my oceanic heroes), the sole purpose of the dusky dolphin is clearly: have as much fun as possible at all times. 

So my first voyage out into the South Pacific was amazing, gray skies and all. I'd recommend Whale Watch Kaikoura to any one interested in whale watching and unenthusiastic desk help. There's much cheaper dolphin encounters out there, but the whale experience is phenomenal. I'm so glad we did it. A big thank you to my in-laws for making it happen for us. What a great adventure!

Yours truly searching for albatross.

Scott and Billy Blockhead 

Kodak Moments: Kaikoura, Picton, Marlborough Sounds

So I'm off to work in a few moments but I thought I'd share a few photos from our recent trip up north.

Last weekend Scott, his parents, and I went on a small road trip up the east coast of New Zealand's south island. We saw the baby seals in Kaikoura, which I'm sure you've all diligently read about in my last post. Actually, lets throw in a few more baby seal pictures courtesy of Scott's dad, because he's clearly the photographer in the family:

Awwww...... ok, now for a picture montage from the rest of the trip. We had pretty mild winter weather, but not the full sunshine we all hoped for- as you'll see. Regardless, we enjoyed doing a little walking and driving around the sounds. 

That lump of driftwood in the background is a seal...

Marlborough Sounds by Picton

Hills behind Picton doing fall color-y things at the end of winter.

Picton. The industrial looking building in the foreground is the ferry terminal for the Wellington ferry.

This is a pukeko! One of my favorite silly NZ birds. 

Watching pukekos is a lot like watching chickens, so I guess you have to be kind of a nerd like me to appreciate them.

Just a fraction of the shoreline in Marlborough

Just a fraction of the mailboxes in Marlborough! There must be an underground contest or something...

 We cant wait to go back in the summer and do some serious riding and hiking. Theres several long backpacking adventures to be had in this region as well.

When I have a bit more time I'll post about our whale watching adventures in Kaikoura- a very awesome experience indeed.

Baby Seals

When Scott returned from a mountain biking trip this fall and said, "Would you like to see a pool full of baby seals playing underneath a waterfall?" I figured he was asking an absurd hypothetical question. Then when I realized he was talking about a real place, only a few hours from our house, and I found out he had already gone without me, I was shocked. And slightly furious about getting left behind. I posted a video that he took, which really kind of sums up the experience.

Finally, I got to go see this magical baby seal retreat for myself and therefore am subjecting you to 389849342 pictures of baby seals.

The baby seals are born in the late spring- November/December. Once old enough to be left on their own (around 5-6 months), Mama Seal shows them the way to Club Med Magical Waterfall Retreat For Baby Seals. This clear pool of water with a waterfall feature, mossy rocks to climb on, and no predators is the perfect place for Baby Seal to hang out while Mama goes out hunting. Every 5 days or so, Baby will flop down to the ocean to meet Mom and get filled up on milk. Then back up the river to the waterfall Baby goes, free from harm, to play and flop and wrestle with about 100 other seal cubs. When they're weaned off Mom's milk, they'll descend down to the ocean one last time and learn how to hunt.

The seals we saw were more adolescent in age, and were more interested in wrestling and sparring than jumping and flopping (like in Scott's video). Even still, they're mighty cute and very silly.

I see you.

Waking up from a nap in the forest

Does this rock make me look fat?

What about now?

Road to the ocean 

Fact of the day: Blubbery baby seals can climb vertical rock faces better than you and your fancy shoes.

Will this face get me treats?

Pretty much all they were doing...

Ha! This is my rock, sucker!

My rock.

Nope, not cute. Not cute at all.