Week 12 - 6th & 7th Dec

Dec 7 - Drove to Papamoa

The beach outside of our cabin is beautiful. It is so long stretching overt 10 km all the way to Mount Maunganui.

This Maori carving is outside one of the local schools. Many of the schools have beautiful carvings, mosaics or paintins.

Along the roads there are lots of Kiwis growing.

Taupo, Huku Falls, Crater of the Moon, Hydro Dam
Sunday Dec 6th, 2009
We are off to find the falls. It is a short drive out of town to the walking bridge over the river. The water flows down a deep gorge about 15 m wide and 10 m deep. From the bridge you can see up and down the Waikato River. The water is teal and very clear. It is hard to believe that kayakers ever used this river… in fact nine have successfully run the river and over the falls. The drop is not extreme; it is the volume of water channeling through this narrow canyon that makes it a beautiful falls. The trail continues down to the falls where we stop to watch this surging blue mass as it spills out into the lower river. What an amazing sight.

Further down the river is one of the control dams for the massive hydro electric, Wesystem. It is the largest in New Zealand, generating 65% of the north islands electricity. Further down river a hydroelectric generating station provides electricity to the people of NZ. We plan on arriving in time to see the flood gates open at 4 pm.

Next we stop at the upper lookout. The upper lookout is also very beautiful, giving you a bird’s eye view of the falls and the teal blue colour of the water. We chat with a couple from Israel as they too have stopped to see the falls. As we are talking, the Huka Falls jet boat speeds up the river and we get to see it going through the rapids at the bottom of the falls.

Another interesting stop is the Crater of the Moon. This is a volcanic valley that includes a walkway past gueisers and volcanic rock. The whole area looks like a crater. The walk is nice and level as the trail has been developed as a wooden path. It leads past many deep holes, craters, with specific viewing platforms into some of them. We take the upper trail to see the whole valley. It is a bit unsettling as you realize there is lava closer to the surface here.

We arrive at the flood gates on the Waikato River with plenty of time to hike down the trail and view the river from different vantage points. There is only a trickle of water in the river at the moment. When the gates opened it fills up quickly rising 3 meters. They give a few warning sirens to let people know, in case they are hiking on the river bed, to get out. The speed that the water flowed down the river would wash anything away.

Week 10 - 27th - 29th Nov

Christchurch, Market, Kaikoura
Sunday Nov 29th, 2009

This morning we are having our usual toast, fruit and coffee for breakfast, pack, and then we are off to Kaikoura. We make a couple of stops before we leave Christchurch. We plug into the GPS, Rotary Race track, and head off to the market to see what it is all about. This market is just like Peterborough’s market only three times the size. What fun we had. There are over 300 stalls selling new goods, used goods, food, vegetables and just about everything you could think of. We purchase a couple of little presents and a large bag of onions for $2.

We continue on again and stop along the way for coffee then continue our drive to Kairkoura. In town we found chili and pepper gluten free sausages for dinner

Tomorrow we are heading to Picton.

Christchurch, Papanui Coffee, Shopping
Saturday Nov 28th, 2009

Saturday morning and there is water on the ground so it looks like it is raining today. We get up and have breakfast, toast without any butter, and find out that there are others in the park with missing food. It now seems from our conversations with others that the park has not cleaned out the fridge as someone went yesterday to talk to them about their missing food. It seems that there is someone stealing food and unfortunately we do not know who.

We decide to drive to Papanui to have a look around the suburb and we find this nice little bike shop. I stop in at the sewing shop next door and find out that there is a quilter’s café around the corner.
It is a cute little shop with beautiful quilting and appliqué.

In Christchurch most roads have bike lanes. At the intersections they have used red stone in the pavement to keep drivers aware that they must leave room for the bikers.

Tomorrow we are heading to Kaikoura.

Christchurch, Crater Drive, Akaroa, RSA Dinner
Friday Nov 27th, 2009

Today we take a drive up to Summit Road, the rim of the crater. The drive is beautiful and at the top we stop at the Centennial Memorial to the Pioneer woman of Canterbury. Woman arriving by boat in the Port of Lyttelton had to endure a long and painful climb to the top of the crater rim to get to the other side and begin their new lives. It is at this point on the mountain that the monument was raised to celebrate their perseverance. We talk briefly with a couple of Christchurch ladies who have walked up the hill path. They do this for a bit of exercise, and as the hill is quite steep a bit of exercise is what they get. They say the downhill part is the best.

Further down the road we stop and climb to the rim of the volcano. Across the opposite side of the road, and up the hill is a beacon. We decide to climb to the top and take our lunch with us. The beacon is a geodetic position marker and we are able sit on the concrete base and have a picnic lunch. We can see the surrounding countryside. The wind picks up and we feel like we are going to be blown off the top!

We are travelling to the small town of Akaroa. The road is again very twisty and windy as it follows the Pacific shore. The wind is picking up and we are nearly blown off the road as we travel along then climb the hill once again towards the volcano’s rim. Akaroa is located inside the remnants of an old volcano and we have to climb to the top of the rim and down the other side to get into the town. At the top, the view is once again beautiful and we drink in the scenery. In the town, we park and do a walk about. It has a French flair as the early settlers arrived from France and brought their creative flair to the area.

There are lots of little boat houses in this area.

Opposite the car, is a nice little house with a beautiful rose garden. We admired this garden on the way into town, but now a lady has now come out of her house and is feeding a small dog an ice cream cone. We chat with her for a while and find out that she has a daughter in Canada. She is married and has lived in Edmonton for many years now. We tell her what beautiful roses she has then we hop in the car and head back to Christchurch for dinner.

This lovely horse came when I called it...makes me think of Dancer with those ears up!

Tonight we are not cooking! Dinner will be at the Papanui RSA (Returned Services Association). Alan had a lovely roast pork dinner and I had lamb shanks…Wow…just like Mum’s roasts!

Some of the birds we see are this little brown and grey one...it likes the peanuts and raisins we were having as a snack. Also, this black and white bird reminds us of the magpie in Alberta. It is about the same size, but it isn't noisy!