Okarito, Greymouth and Punakaiki (The Pancake Rocks)

We drove back north from the glacier country, and stopped in Okarito, a small coastal town back from the main road, that we’d heard has a nice lagoon with kayaking options and much bird life.  Okarito also happens to be the home of the author Keri Hulme, whose novel “The Bone People” is a New Zealand classic that Paul was just reading.  Well, in winter Okarito apparently goes from quiet to dead – the kayak rental business was “closed until Thursday” (we were there on a Wednesday), there were no open shops or stores, and the only people we saw were two workers in a city park.  We walked around the edge of the lagoon, and while there were some birds, it wasn’t exactly a nature reserve.  We soon headed back to the highway.

Oystercatcher on shore of Okarito lagoon

Duck on an old pier post

Old boat house at Okarito

We stayed overnight in Greymouth.  This is the largest city on the west coast, but is mostly a coal town with a fair number of businesses closed in the downtown.  We found a wonderful backpackers hostel there called Global Village, which is decorated in African arts and crafts.  They did everything right, from providing free desserts and sandwiches in the evening to having sharp knives in their kitchen. 

Our room at the Global Village Backpackers in Greymouth

There is one attraction in the Greymouth area.  About 30 minutes north along the coast is Punakaiki, the pancake rocks and blowholes.  As our Lonely Plant tour book says, “through a layering – weathering process called stylobedding, the Dolomite Point limestone has formed into what looks like piles of thick pancakes.”  When the tide is in, and the ocean is stormy, the water roars through the blowholes in the rocks.  We checked it twice when we drove out, and then the bus out of town stopped there for half an hour the next day.   This third visit was the charm – given the rougher seas that day, we got to see the blowholes in fairly good action.

Pancake Rocks

Blowhole at Punakaiki

Kiwi crossing...

Followed by a penguin crossing not too far up the highway...

The Glacier Country on the West Coast

After getting off the TranzAlpine train in Greymouth, we picked up a rental car and started driving south toward the small town of Franz Josef.  The two glaciers we wanted to see, Franz Josef Glacier and Fox Glacier, are several hours south of Greymouth along the west coast of the south island.  This gave us several hours of beautiful scenery, much of it right on the coast.

This was Paul’s first venture driving on the left side of the road.  It was good to start on rural roads rather than in busy Christchurch.  We hadn’t realized how much of your brain needs rewiring to drive on the other side of the road.  Here’s a list of the other major issues:

* First, the driver’s side of the car is on the right, not the left.  We keep walking to the wrong side of the vehicle to get in.

* You pull the seatbelt in from the right when you’ve on the driver’s side.

* The turn signals and windshield wipers are on opposite sides.  We lost track of the number of times that Paul turned on the windshield wipers when he was meaning to signal a turn.

* You have to look over the other shoulder when passing.

* You go through roundabouts clockwise rather than counter-clockwise.

Coupled with this, New Zealand has a unique driving law that a car turning 90 degrees through a four-way intersection has the right of way over a car coming from the opposite side but turning in the same direction.  That is, if we’re turning right at an intersection (crossing oncoming traffic), we wait for the oncoming traffic going straight ahead (same as the US), but have precedence over the oncoming traffic making a left hand turn (the easy turn here) in front of us.  They are going to change this later this year to fit with the rest of the world, but for now it’s quite confusing.  Anyway, after a few days Paul is mostly comfortable with left-side driving, but still occasionally turns the windshield wipers on when making a turn.

We drove to Franz Josef by late afternoon, and since it wasn’t raining we drove up to see the glacier.  Both of us did the short hike, while Paul continued closer to the glacier terminus.  Back in the car park (US: parking lot), Cindy met three Kea birds – one of them very “cheeky”.  The Kea are noted for pecking at the rubber on cars, so Cindy chased him off the roof of our rental.

Franz Josef Glacier

A cheeky kea

Kea eyes the rubber on our rear windshield (NZ: wind screen)

The next day we drove to Lake Matheson, did a one and a half hour walk around the lake, and were able to see Mts. Tasman and Cook in the distance, both directly and reflected in the lake.  We also saw many different kinds of ferns.  Ferns are a national symbol in New Zealand, and are currently visible everywhere as the logo of the All Blacks, the New Zealand national rugby team.  Also, for those who might visit some day, the Matheson Café has excellent food as well as wonderful views of the two mountains.

Mt. Tasman and Mt. Cook, viewed across Lake Matheson

Ferns on Lake Matheson walk

Fern tree

We continued on to Fox Glacier, and hiked up to the glacial terminus.  The round trip walk took about an hour.   The walk was mostly up the glacial runoff, and had signs warning hikers not to stop in certain areas, as both rock falls and sudden water runoffs (when a glacial ice dam bursts) can be dangerous to visitors.

Fox Glacier

The glacier, up close...

Paul helps the ranger with crowd control

Crossing the Southern Alps on the TranzAlpine Train

On Monday morning we took the bus to the train station in Christchurch, and began a 10 day trip around the west coast and north end of the South Island.  The first step was taking the TranzAlpine train from Christchurch on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand over to Greymouth, the largest city on the west coast.  The train trip takes 4.5 hours, and goes out over the Canterbury plains, on to the foothills and up into the Southern Alps, then drops down to end up along the Grey River and coast in Greymouth. 

The train ride is beautiful - one of the most recommended train rides in the world according to several sources we've read.  The terrain is quite varied - we saw farms, hills, river gorges, mountains, and several river villages on the way down.  There are also many tunnels, with the longest being 8.5 km - we were in the dark for quite a while.  Given the recent snow in New Zealand, not only the mountain tops were white but much of the surrounding hillside and lower reaches of the mountains were also snow-covered. 

We sat across from and talked to two very nice folks from Christchurch.  We periodically walked up to the open-air observation car to take photos of the passing countryside.  Willie, our conductor, kept giving us all facts about the route, with some New Zealand humor thrown in (example: "this area is noted for the spotted kiwi, which is seldom spotted").

We'll let the photos do the rest of the talking.

Entering the Southern Alps

A river gorge in the mountains

Paul outside the train at the Springfield stop

Another gorgeous gorge...

Snow capped mountains in the Southern Alps

The train at Arthur's Pass, high point of the tracks

Top of the Southern Alps

Adventures in Akaroa

We'd been feeling a little city-bound, so decided to take a two-day trip to the small town of Akaroa, about 90 minutes southeast of Christchurch on the Banks Peninsula, even though the news outlets were forecasting a possible storm.  The Banks Peninsula consists of land around several extinct volcanoes, with an ocean bay coming back into the middle of one of the ancient cones.  You have to cross over the rim of the volcano to get down into the Akaroa valley and bay.  On Sunday morning we took a bus with Akaroa French Connection - highly recommended for service and friendliness.  Gary, our driver, told us much about the people and the land, and his wit kept us entertained too.  The fields on the hills have historically been used for sheep, but the market has dropped so the numbers are down.  It's actually lambing time right now, and we saw a lot of newborn lambs out in the fields.  Gary said some farmers are switching to dairy, but the market for sheep is increasing in Asia which may prove good for New Zealand.

The drive over was sunny and beautiful.  The bus stops at several scenic places, including a beach called Birdlings Flats, a small town called Little River, and at Hilltop, the summit of the old volcano rim.  We drove down into the Akaroa Bay, went through several smaller communities along the edge of the bay, and arrived in Akaroa.

Unfortunately, the good weather was not to hold.  We checked in at our backpackers hostel (Chez La Mer, also highly recommended), but the previously majestic clouds turned dark, the winds picked up and it let loose.  We started with rain, then got sleet, and then snow.  By later in the afternoon the surrounding hills were white.  It cleared for a while, so we walked out on the pier.  However, it started sleeting again, and overnight it snowed about 2 inches.  We heard that Christchurch got 8 inches of snow.  Unfortunately, the storm closed the Hilltop pass which is the only way into the peninsula.  So, we were stranded in Akaroa for two extra days.  While 4-wheel drive vehicles or vehicles with chains were being allowed through the pass the second morning, the cars owned by the hostel guests and the buses could not get through.  We made the best of it - enjoying new friends from France, Germany, Argentina, Hong Kong and China, as well as the owner (Sarah) and her dog Pongo.

After two days, we were able to move up the valley to the cabin of a colleague from the computer science department.  Brent and Suki own a cabin on the side of the mountain in an area called Robinson's Bay.  It's a beautiful place, with a wonderful wood structure and expansive vegetable and native plant gardens.  We ended up staying there for our third day on the peninsula.   It sleeted or rained about every 20 minutes, so we weren't able to get out hiking for any distance, but we certainly enjoyed the wonderful views.  On the fourth day, we walked down the valley to the main road, and finally caught the bus back to Christchurch.

It's somewhat amazing to us to be able to communicate with people around the world but not to be able to drive 50 miles...

Christchurch Earthquake

We haven't written much about the earthquakes in Christchurch.  A small aftershock which shook our bed yesterday at 5:13 a.m. reminded us we should let others know some about the events here.

Christchurch is approaching the 1 year anniversary since the first earthquake on September 4, 2010.  It's been almost 5 months since the devastating aftershock on February 22, 2011, when 181 people lost their lives.  Another severe aftershock on June 13 further damaged buildings.  We've seen some of the results of the quakes.  Much of the city has chain link fences surrounding buildings or areas, empty lots or piles of bricks are all that remain of some buildings, many houses are empty, brick walls are broken, and many roofs have metal or plastic covering the hole where a chimney should be.  Bus routes and maps are not accurate, the center of town is dark, streets are uneven, some sidewalks have holes in them, and port-a-loos remain on some streets.  TV commercials tell New Zelanders to check on neighbors or to call if they themselves need help coping.

Large parts of the city still show sand on the streets, sidewalks and green areas.  The sand is a a result of liquefaction.  Liquefaction occurs when a quake compacts loose soil and pressurizes the groundwater, which then causes a bubbling up of sand and water that bursts from the ground.

Businesses, museums, and churches were damaged and closed and many will never open.  Many historical buildings were damaged beyond repair.  Other buildings remain closed because of damage to neighboring buildings. Over 5100 houses are in the red zone which means they are in an area in which the ground has been deemed too unstable to live, and those people need to move if they haven't already.  Another 10,000 properties are in the orange zone - they are on hold until further assessment by geo-technical engineers.

After the February quake, water and sewer pipes were so badly damaged that over 30,000 people were required to use chemical toilets and 2900 portable toilets were distributed to city streets.  Now about 1200 portable toilets remain and a few thousand people still have chemical toilets in their houses. 

Despite all this, Christchurch remains a city of friendly and resilient people.  As of this point, the city has mainly been doing emergency response and repair work to water, waste water and storm water pipes, and to roads and bridges, but plans are starting for rebuilding.  Recently a Japanese architect unveiled a plan for building a temporary cathedral out of cardboard tubes - people aren't so sure about that plan though.  Other plans are being revealed for redesigning downtown.

Learning Balkan dances in New Zealand

Last weekend we attended an international dance workshop in Christchurch sponsored by the local Farandol International Folk Dancers.  We've been dancing with Farandol on Friday nights.  The workshop was led by Andre van de Plas, a Dutch man who teaches international dancing in Europe and Asia.  He has family in Australia, so every second year or so he makes the extra trip over to New Zealand.

From Friday night through Saturday afternoon, Andre taught 13 dances from 10 different countries, including Bulgaria, Macedonia, Croatia, Israel, Ireland, Greece and Romania.  Most were of the easier variety, though a few were more challenging (as the international folk dance community ages all over the world, there's no longer a lot of call for the fancy 12-part fast dances).  The Dutch have a strong dance education system, and it showed in Andre's teaching style - he was quite good at getting people to start moving generally in the right direction and then building up the precise steps with practiced repetition.  It was a rewarding but tiring weekend - we danced approximately 10 hours out of a 21 hour period.

We think that Americans have a harder time understanding a variety of accents, maybe because of the relative lack of exposure to many cultures.  At least Cindy and I seem to have this problem.  We still struggle sometimes with New Zealand accents, and moving to a Netherlands accent sometimes confused us more.  On one dance, Andre kept saying "lift your foot near your cuff".  I thought it sounded like "cough", which didn't make any sense.  Cindy thought it was "cuff", maybe like a cuffs on one leg of a pair of pants.  After putting our heads together, we think he really was saying "calf",  meaning tuck one foot near the calf on the other leg.  We understand more than when we were traveling in China last year, but we're certainly not understanding 100% of what we come across (which is part of what makes traveling so interesting...) 

Andre leads a line of local dancers

... and teaches us a circle dance

Farandol organizers Alistair and Katy, plus Andre

A faster Croatian dance circles to the left

13 dances in 10 hours

The group thanks Andre with a card

Sugra, a member of the Farandol dance group, demonstrated his juggling and unicycle skills (individually and simultaneously).  Paul gets his first unicycle lesson, is a little wobbly, regains control, and decided to leave moving away from the fence for lesson two...

New Brighton Beach and the Sand Dancer

On Sunday we took the bus to the beach in New Brighton.  This suburb of Christchurch is right on the South Pacific Ocean, and there are miles of sand in both directions.  It was a cold, clear day, but we enjoyed seeing not only the beach but the distant snow-covered mountains, which we plan to see more of in upcoming weeks.

The best part of our trip was getting to see the Sand Dancer.  Peter Donnelly has been making intricate sand drawings on the New Brighton beach for over ten years using only a stick and a rake. We didn't know in advance that he'd be out there (he apparently only draws on Sundays), so we felt fortunate to be able to see him and his art.  Working barefoot, he jumps, steps, and glides around the sand.  Each drawing takes him about 4 hours to complete in low tide, and then it gets washed away as the tide comes in.  Peter puts out a hat for donations (someone near us said that he was "sanding" instead of "busking"), and people throw coins from the pier high above the beach to try to drop a coin into his hat.  Peter looks like an interesting soul.  We liked his "chopped" bicycle as well.