A Hint of Spring

All has been busy in the Southern Hemisphere recently. Last weekend was a send off to our American compadres. Friday night was a work good bye party consisting of a happy hour, dinner, and after dinner gatherings. It has been a while since we started at happy hour and finished by closing the pub. It was a good time had by all, but Saturday was lounging and recovering. Sat night we hosted Dan and Emily as they had sold or otherwise disposed of all their belongings including their bed. It was a big American slumber party as our other Yank friend Lexie stayed over as well. We went out for some Japanese, watched the All Blacks spank the Aussies, and generally avoided drinking. Sunday AM we had a nice brunch outside on the esplanade along the beach as the sun was toasty and inviting. Breakfast was a nice treat with a good bacon sandwich for me, Katie had ordered a standard egg plate and confirmed for the umpteenth time that breakfast sausage is not worth eating in New Zealand. The crew took a nice stroll along the shore and took advantage of the sun and warmth. We headed home and just hung out in the underutilized backyard and had a BBQ with our favorite bratwurst until they had to head to a fun Aussie holiday and conference before returning home.


John Wilson Ocean Drive View


The Last Hurrah in NZ for Team America

Last week was pretty busy at work for both and we are now scrounging to find time for all the things we want to do before we head home in 3 months! Time has flown and it's crazy that we have been here almost a year and a half. Our time left will certainly be busy.

This past weekend we started our final rounds of the South Island by returning to Lake Tekapo and the Canterbury Lakes region. This was a delayed birthday present for Katie with hot pools, a massage at the spa in town, and a nice hotel. Lake Tekapo is one of several glacial lakes which makes them a bright teal blue when the sun is out and normal color when it's darker. Luckily Saturday we escaped a drizzle in Dunedin and found Tekapo sunny and cloud free. We enjoyed the spa and hot pools in the AM and followed that up with an afternoon bike ride on some trails near the lake. The "trail" rolled through some farm fields and wasn't obviously marked so we lost it and did some exploratory biking as we chased sheep until we regained the trail later. The views from the trail were impressive with snow capped mountains surrounding almost the whole horizon and the the blue sky and lake to fill in the gaps. After working up an appetite we hit one of the several Asian food joints in town.


Lake Tekapo (behind the models)


A Good Trail Ride


Katie Riding the "Trail"


Sunday we got up an hour early as it was time to spring ahead down here. We hit up the included breakfast buffet which wasn't bad. There was a nasty looking hot plate of potatoes and large mushrooms, another of hot tomatoes, but all else was good looking and tasting. After breakfast we again mounted the bikes to ride the lakeside only to be foiled by a private property sign. We reorganized and hit up some other trails for an hour or so. The trails weren't great but it was nice to be on the bikes and see the area from a new vantage point. Our original plan for Sunday was to stop by Aoraki/Mt. Cook, the tallest mountain in NZ. We awoke to a low cloud which doesn't bode well for viewing mountain tops so we decided to pass and take our time driving home checking out the smaller sights along the way. There is a salmon farm on the side of the road where you can buy fresh fillets so we took advantage and bought some dinner for tonight. We took a detour on the way home which took us past two of the dams which create some of the glacial lakes. These were huge earth dams and gave us a nice panoramic of the surrounding lake and hills. Further along our detour we did a short hike up Deep Stream. It was less of a stream than what appeared to be a narrow bay on the lake. There was a bayside trail high above the water where we took a couple pix and pressed on. The warm sun from Saturday was nowhere to be found and it was a dreary cool day.


Lakeside Trail


Benmore Dam and Power Station


Deep Stream Trail


Another hour on the road passed until we got to Oamaru, home of the little blue penguin colony. The little blues are the smallest penguins in the world, around a foot tall as adults, and nest along the coast where feeding is good. We had seen some little blues at the Antarctic Centre in Christchurch but none in the wild. The colony is an animal sanctuary where the little guys have protected breeding grounds and huts. We started with a short hike around the coast and saw a fur seal, lots of shags, and some monster waves crashing on the break walls. Most of the penguins were out to sea hunting but we saw a few that were home tending eggs or chicks. The little chick we saw was a ball of blue fuzz with a long beak hiding under mom for protection and warmth. We only got a sneak peak in a special viewing box. After checking out the huts for others we headed back home to drizzle. It was great to have daylight until 8pm.


Roadside Signs


Craig and the Kiwi Coast


Shag on the Cliff

Some more pix