Birthday Girl and Pelores Sound

How to spend a birthday while on holiday is always a serious consideration.  Holidays are special but somehow you remember what you did on your birthday for a while.

I suggested a cruise on the mail boat around Pelores Sound.  After all our activities over the last couple of weeks, a day sitting on a boat, fresh air and idle chatter seemed a fitting way to end the holiday.

The cruise took about 7 hours with a short stop for lunch at Te Rawa.  We cruised in and out of little bays and covered quite a distance - the Mahia Sound, Keneperu Sound and Pelores.   Some memories include

1. understanding more about salmon fishing - how the farmers have had to build high walls to stop the seals from having an afternoon snack.
2. not alot of wild life in the sounds that day - very little bird life, no seals or dolphins.
3. staying in a house up the sounds would be great for a weekend - but not my thing for weeks on end - if you are into boating, fishing, jet ski then it would be just perfect.

Funniest thing we saw.  A couple were unloading their dinghy.  Women sat in dinghy handing stuff to the man on the jetty.  All went well, until they dropped the bucket with their catch.  They weren't impressed!!

We bought a book for Blake and Connie to read at our place - A Hippo came to Havelock.  

In the evening, we went for dinner at a local pub.

Next day - pack up, small walk around Waikawa Bay, calm trip home - all ready to start work on our section the next day.

Queen Charlotte Sound

The third to last day of our holiday dawned bright and sunny.  It was one of the hottest days yet and just perfect for wandering under the shade of native trees.

It was a reasonably early start as we walked onto the water taxi.  A pretty ordinary trip out to Ship Cove, stunning scenery, a few rocky moments under the wake of the ferry, and a short commentary on the history of the sounds together with a few tall stories.

Ship cove was a shelter for Captain Cook during his 4 voyages to New Zealand.  Shelter, scurvy grass, fresh water and friendly natives were a nice welcome for his crew after travelling from the UK.  There is a memorial to him and his crew at the Cove, which we briefly looked at - we were keen to be on our way.

The first part of the trail was steep and rocky - fun climbing up.  Harry and I soon realised that if we had bought our bikes we would have been out of our depth.  Getting ourselves to the top was enough without pushing the bikes.  Up and down went the trail with little appetising snippets of the rocky coastline below, deep blue water edged by native bush and the birdsong of tui, weka, korero and bell bird intermingled with the loud chirp of the cricket.

After a while we stopped for lunch and realised that it wasn't a good thing to leave Don and Judy behind at Ship Cove to look at the monuments - they had the bread for the sandwiches, we had the filling.  Good thing they walked a bit faster than us as we were just settling down to biscuits and orgages when they turned up.

Amused by the weka pecking around our feet while we ate we then packed up and continued on our way.  The trip took us about 4.5 hours (excluding lunch) and we thoroughly enjoyed it, as well as the relaxing on the verandah of Fernaux lodge. The water taxi was on time (to the second) and after a breezy start and a few drop offs for more mail we sat on the grass in Picton for a very lengthy wait for fish and chips.  It was such a glorious day we didn't mind sitting with a cool ginger beer.

One of our best days yet.  We are planning to do more.

Arthur's Pass

It is Queens birthday weekend and we are in Bealy, just a few k's east of Arthur's Pass. After one night in Christchurch where we caught up with Sharon we drove to Sheffield. The best pie shop probably in the world. People sat outside in the sun, 10 am with  beer in one hand and paper bag with pie in the other.  We stopped- opted to sit inside swapped the beer for a latte and devoured curry vege pie (me) and lambs fry and bacon (carnivore). We came across Castle Hill and wandered up and down the hills and around the limestone rocks.  We threw our bags in the little cabin and went  for a drive to Otira. The keas said hello in the car park, fought me for a plastic bag that had blown out of the car then lost interest as we looked at the viaduct.
Next morning we headed off to do the Arthurs Pass track. Lots of snow, icy and treacherous steps and lots of potential for slipping over. Great fun, if not a bit slow. We also wandered around the village which didn't take long and went back to the cabin to thaw out.  That night the rugby was on and I spent the 80 + minutes reading about Shrek the sheep living in the high country while the local crusader supporters drank happily and got louder and louder.

Next day we were off to Ashburton but spent the first few hours doing some more walking. First was Greyneys (beech forest and icicles), second Malley (along the Waimakariri river) and the last Bealey Spur (only half way -lots of icy mud and tree roots to climb over). The cloud came down and so the drive to Ashburton was as scenic as a soapy bath. There isn't a lot in this town to keep a tourist busy in the rain so in the morning we headed back to Christchurch and stayed indoors at the museum. Later managed a short walk in Riccarton bush before heading to the airport.