Our "Relaxing" Weekends post Christmas

After an adventure-filled holiday, we wanted to take it easy in January.  So we did a waterfall hike, two peninsula hikes, and HOBBITON.  Yeah, easy.

The first was a trip back to Piha Beach on January 10th because we love that area so much.  Previous post about it here to remind yourself.  But we did the Kitekite Falls hike this time around.  It was a pretty busy trail and there were a lot of people at the falls swimming.  I think we've been spoiled by having so much NZ beauty to ourselves that we are surprised when there are other people around too.  We've become snobs about it.  "Oh, there are other people at this waterfall.  Too many tourists, let's go."  Because we're not tourists ourselves or anything...

It was a lovely waterfall, and it looked like there was some way to get above the falls and swim in the pools above, but since we were too cool for school we decided against it.  We had forgotten to charge the camera so we discovered it was dead once we arrived.  Pictures from a website here.

The next day we headed back to Shakespear Regional Park since last time we were there it was too cold to swim. This time around the weather was absolutely gorgeous.  We took the Tiri Tiri Track, a long hike around the entire peninsula, which is mostly farmland with, you guessed it, sheep and cows.  Amazing views of the surrounding bay and islands (see previous post).  We ended the hike at the beach where we enjoyed the sandy-bottomed shallow water for an hour or so before heading home.

Feel free to tease Lance about his "let's hit it" line at the end of that.  The GoPro has really brought out his inner TV show host.

The following weekend we had our newlywed friends, Kelly and Ryan, in town for the last day of their honeymoon.  Those crazy kids did the Kepler Track (37 miles), Milford Track (33 miles), and Tongariro Alpine Crossing (12 miles) all during their honeymoon.  That's no mean feat.  I told Lance there was no way he would have gotten me to sleep in a sleeping bag that many nights of our honeymoon.  Those are considered 3 of the 9 Great Walks of New Zealand.  And after all that they still had time to fit in an afternoon of Hobbit-filled fun with us!  It helps that Ryan is a Lord of the Rings fan like me.  But Hobbiton deserves it own post all by itself, so I will save the details for the next post.  We will skip for now.

The fourth weekend of January we hiked the peninsula in Duder Regional Park with our friend Kevin.  His wife, Katie, was pregnant near bursting at the time and she told me that her men (Kevin and their son, Elliot) needed to get out of the house for a bit before the baby came.  We were more than happy to oblige.

We had passed Duder on a previous hike down south and, as it looked lovely, we made a mental note to check it out at some point.  This seemed like an opportune weekend so we carpooled up and did the 1.5 hr hike to the tip of the peninsula and back.

Shout out to my brothers, Luke, Nathan, and Ian, just to make sure they're reading the blog.  The secret word is "butterbeer".  I've been reading Harry Potter.

End of the Road

This is it!  The end of the line!  We can finally be done writing about this one trip, 2 months later.

We had a 5:45 a.m. flight out of Christchurch, and since we had to drop off the Spaceship before we left anyway, we decided to just sleep on the side of the road outside of the Spaceship depot.  No one was there because of the holidays, but since it is illegal to sleep in a campervan on the side of the road, I was paranoid the whole night that I would wake up to a police officer shining a light into the cab.  We got lucky, however, and were still handcuff free at 4 a.m. when our cab showed up.  I wasn't sorry to say good-bye to trusty Maxima.  We had to wash and vacuum her before returning, which I was so surprised by.  But cleaning up what you rent is standard here, even renting a bach.  Lance and I were talking wistfully about what we would do first upon arriving home.  I decided upon throwing myself spread-eagle on the bed and then standing up next to it.  I was sick of having to share a bed with two people and crawling around in a trunk hunched over to get in and out of bed.  Lance wanted to sit in his recliner and watch football all day long. James wanted to crawl around.

It was a trip of perfect weather, gorgeous views, gross bugs, friendly people, lots of PB&Js, satisfying hikes, numbing waterfalls, and exotic sea life.  We were glad we went and glad to be home.  One more adventure under the Weber belt!

ODOMETER 2287 km

1421 miles (from Denver to Detroit and then some)

Days 13-14 - Akaroa

The last stop of our trip was Akaroa, a French colony on the end of the peninsula 75 km to the west of Christchurch.  

We stopped for breakfast in Christchurch, not thinking about the fact that it was New Years Eve and everything would be closed.  Everything except good ol' trusted Denny's.  I can't remember the last time I ate at a Denny's, but by golly I ate at a Denny's in New Zealand.

We took the scenic drive into Akaroa, an exceptionally windy road high above the bay that provided some fantastic views all the way into town.

We walked around downtown in the rain and just enjoyed doing a lot of nothing on our last day.  We were pretty tired of traveling at this point.  Being a French colony in the middle of a British-dominated country, Akaroa developed some pretty fierce French pride.  French flags, 'rues' instead of 'streets', French names for their stores, and even a Le Mini Golf.  There were quite a few cruise ships in the harbor when we arrived so it seems like the main stop in that region, with a lot of day excursions into Christchurch for passengers.  We walked the dock to look at the ships and were 'welcomed back' by cruise employees offering us punch.  Don't mind if I do.

We ran into the same problem here as we did in Queenstown- no room at the inn.  Not even in the stable.  There was only one holiday park in Akaroa and it was jam packed.  I made sure to bring James in when I went in to see if there was room.  There were other people waiting but I was the one with a cute baby on the hip.  Always a good idea to bring James with me when I want something.  The owner was exceptionally kind and offered us a parking spot in their personal driveway since they weren't driving anywhere this evening.  We were very grateful.  After a wholesome dinner of dehydrated meals and PB&Js, we hit up the holiday park pool and settled in for bed.

James's toys- grass and an empty medicine bottle.  We are great parents.

I can't say we had the most restful sleep of our lives.  We were in bed by 8:30 pm on NYE in a Holiday Park, surrounded by hundred of people living out of their vans.  There was music blaring and voices yelling and, mercifully, somehow James slept through it.  Lance and I watched Forest Gump.  I feel so Grumpy Gus saying this, but we were pretty happy when a storm rolled in and blew all the revelers indoors around 11:00.  Boy, are we fun times or what?

Next morning we did the Purple Peak Track up to the saddle in Hinewai Reserve.  It kind of reminded me of Weathertop in LOTR, so used that to motivate me when the path got rough.  It was a very tough hike.  The path was severely overgrown and steep, so we were having to concentrate on our foot placement so we didn't trip on the tall grasses and go tumbling down the hillside.  I'm allergic to grass so my exposed legs were covered in red itchy rashes by the end.  Between that and the sandfly bites, my legs have seen better days.  The view from the top was worth the effort.

Next 4 pics make up 360 view from the top.

Pacific Ocean in the background

Akaroa in the foreground to the right

Back to Christchurch for dinner and frozen yogurt, and early to bed for our 5:45 am flight home.  More on our unique sleeping location in the final post.

Day 12 - Kaikoura

Kia ora!

Kaikoura is a town located on a peninsula known for its wildlife viewings.  The tourism industry there revolves around dolphin, whale, seal, and albatross cruises.  I am scuba certified and I hadn't had a chance to do anything scuba/snorkeling related in a long time and this seemed like the perfect place to do it.  I was waffling between dolphin or seal swim and settled on a fur seal swim.  Lance can't do any diving with me since he has a ruptured ear drum, so he decided to take James for a hike around the peninsula while I was gone.

After waking up at the holiday park (rude woman at the front desk looked at me like I was an idiot when I asked where the drinking water spigot was- apparently they aren't called spigots here and I was somehow supposed to know that) we headed to the local iSite to get information on things to do before my seal swim.  I'm not sure if I've said this previously, but iSites are information centers in each town that are supported partially by the town and partly by the NZ's government.  They have lots of handy free maps, souveniers, and helpful people.  They can also book excursions for you if you'd like (for free)..

At the iSite we found a short bushwalk to kill some time before the seal swim, but it was so stinking hot that we didn't get far.

I used up my third botanic gardens on a Lavender Farm outside of town.  I thought it was lovely.  Lance thought, well, that it was a lavender farm.  He's not really a 'stop and smell the roses after rolling around in a field of lavender' type of guy.  I spoke with the owner for a bit and his grandfather started the original farm in the Wanaka area (where we were 3 days prior) and he had opened the one in Kaikoura.  The gift shop had so much amazing lavender stuff, but as we were tight on suitcase space I didn't get anything.  But I will say it had the best smelling bathroom I've ever been in.

They also had a shaded area with some lambs, which fascinated James (because he hasn't seen enough sheep).

They also had a neat shaded area with some lawn games to play.  Lance refused to play tree stump tic-tac-toe with me, stating, "I refuse to play tic-tac-toe because there is no challenge to it."  Well then.

 

Not amused.

After a picnic lunch under a large tree among the lavender, we headed to the waterfront to do the seal swim.  Lance took James on a 2.5 hr hike around the peninsula while I did the swim.  He said it had spectacular views, but he wasn't able to take pictures because James fell asleep in the hiking backpack and he wasn't able to take it off to get the camera out.  Guess I'm useful to have around on hikes after all!  This is a picture I borrowed from online so you get the idea of where he hiked.  It's a beautiful grassy peninsula that sticks out in the middle of a large mountain range.

www.rankers.co.nz

I went on the seal swim with Seal Swim Kaikoura.  After getting all of our gear together, including very thick wetsuits for the chilly water (approx 60 degrees F), we went to meet the skippers who would take us to the seals.  The divers from earlier in the day didn't have very good luck finding seals.  The website makes it very clear that finding seals that want to swim with you is very hit or miss, since they are wild animals.  The skippers decided to take us to a location that was further away than usual but had a better chance of seeing the seals.  We passed by a pod of dolphins on the way there, so that was a bonus.

The New Zealand Fur Seal resides primarily in, um, New Zealand.  There used to be an estimated 2,000,000 fur seals but they were hunted almost to extinction (around 5,000).  They were then protected and their numbers are increasing again and are currently around 300,000.  When we arrived at the first location there were about two dozen seal pups that were ADORABLE.  The captains said they were about two weeks old and about a foot long.  They were just romping around all over the rocks, barking, probably driving their mothers crazy.

The seals at the first location were not really in the mood to swim with us, however, so after a numbing 15 minutes in the water we all got back on the boat and headed for a different place.  The seals at the second location were feeling more friendly after they warmed up to us.  I tried staying away from the rest of the group since the guide said the seals like it calm and quiet.  I was rewarded with a couple seals all to myself.  I didn't make any attempt to swim towards them, I just relaxed and let the current take me however close the seals allowed.  This turned out to be pretty close- I could have reached out and touched them!

I was wearing the GoPro, but I was a total dummy and apparently turned it off when I thought I was turning it on because all my videos are of empty water, and I know I got some right in front of the camera.  Ugh, I was very disappointed.  I was able to put a couple videos together into something semi-interesting.  But video or no, the experience was something I don't think I will have the chance to do again.

The boat ride home was beautiful!  The coast of mountains was glowing in the sun and the ocean was turquoise.  No complaints here.

I met up with Lance at the car and he took me to an easy overlook on the peninsula so we could get some pictures.

We left Kaikoura and headed south towards Christchurch for the last stop of our looong journey.  We didn't quite make it to Christchurch since James was sick of the car, so we stopped at a holiday park in Leithfield.  We had canned soup for dinner and a hedgehog trotted right through our campsite so I'm going to call that a win.

I hope that entry made your day, Garo.