Day 259: Jenna's Birthday!



Table for high tea



Jenna, Emma and Louisa all have birthdays in September and October.  And they are all turning 25.  So they decided to have high tea at The Sign of the Takahe to celebrate.  We got dressed up and munched delicious sandwiches whilst sipping tea and coffee and enjoying decadent desserts in a midaeval style castle.  The Sign of the Takahe used to be a road house for travelers coming from Lyttleton Harbour to Christchurch.  Now it's a restaurant.  There's also a Sign of the Kiwi (which is a cafe) and a Sign of the Bellbird (which is the remains of a stone house.)  They are all that's left of the road stops that used to serve travellers back in the day.



Example of the decor



Jenna, one of the birthday girls



Yum nibbles



Day 252:Dress Like a Pirate Day

My costume

Tomorrow is International Talk Like a Pirate Day and also locally it is Dress Like a Pirate Day at work.  Here is my costume.  Notice my knarly hook hand.  I also have some sweet hoop earrings (donated by Jenna) and some pirate-y scarves in my hair and around my waist (also donated by Jenna).  Arrrrr....

Day 250: Off trail hiking



Mel & Batman at falls



View of the tops

We had a closed day at work today, so I went for a wander in the woods with Mel and Hamish (although we all call him Batman.)  Batman is from the area so he knows the woods quite well, which means he doesn't have to stick to any sort of trail.  First we went down a trail that had been closed for slips (mud slides).  We just climbed over them and kept on going.  We found a lovely little waterfall, but I can't remember what it's called.  Then we headed cross country, forded a stream and did some scrambling through the bush, struggling to escape bush lawyer (a vineish plant with very strong stickers that wraps itself around you and makes it difficult to make any forward progress until you work hard to free yourself from its grasp) and bashing ourselves on rocks and things.  Eventually, after a lunch stop by a stream, we worked our way uphill for a while and came out onto the junction with the Mt. Somers trail.  In amongst the bush we found a deer skull and evidence of wild pigs rooting in the dirt.  We hiked up higher until we had a nice view of the mountain and the snow settled on its top, then turned around and headed down via the trail.  It was a pretty fun, hard core day. 



Mel & me & DeerFred 







Victory photo at the end of the day



Day 244: Snowboarding!!



View down the lift line to the obscured plains below



ridin' the lift

I decided to take advantage of my employee lift pass and use it on my day off to go snowboarding with my friend Mel.  We enjoyed super weather and good snow conditions and I improved enough to ride the lift all the way to the top of the mountain and snowboarded down without falling!!! Which is pretty exciting since falling is basically my signature move.  Check out the awesome view down the lift line.  In the background you can see the access road and all the low lying clouds in the distance are covering up the Canterbury plains that stretch away east to the sea, which means that down in Methven it's an overcast, grey day while up on the mountain the sun is shining away...



View from the summit









Day 239: Earthquake Aftermath

Due to a closed day today, I was able to come into Christchurch with my friend Mel to go to church.  Afterwards we went to lunch at one of the family's houses and then Mel and I went on a mission to the mall to try and find a wedding present for my Auckland flatmate Alex.  Unfortunately, when we arrived the mall was crawling with construction workers and not open to the public.  There was a guy sitting at a table blocking the entrance and only letting authorized people inside.  Some giant light ball things had crashed down from the ceiling and you could see inside that things had been a bit shaken up and needed to be put back to rights.  Across the street the sidewalk was cordoned off in front of some shops where the windows had been broken in the shaking.  And next to that a pile of rubble indicated where a building had once stood.  The earthquake seems to have hit somewhat haphazardly: some buildings are fine and others are destroyed.  Christchurch was really fortunate in that the earthquake happened so early in the morning: people were at home with their families and not out and about on the roads or in the shops. Casualties would have been much higher if they had been. Except for the missing pieces of buildings and the holes covered with blue tarps and the chimneys on the ground instead of on the houses or the brick fences crumbling here and there, it's hard to tell that a massive earthquake occurred yesterday.  People are getting on with life as much as they can and as quickly as they can.  There is still a restricted zone in the center of the city, and the army is out patrolling to prevent looting, and a curfew is in effect, but otherwise life goes on.  Some neighborhoods are without power and water and officials are beginning building inspections to determine which buildings are safe to be in.  It will be a massive effort to get the city up and running again.

*Note: the earthquake from yesterday has officially been downgraded to a 7.1 magnitude.  We are still feeling aftershocks in Christchurch and also in Methven.  But, as I said, life goes on...

Day 238: Earthquake!

This morning I was sleeping happily, when I was woken up at 4:35am with the thought, “wow, the wind is really strong,” because I could hear a roaring noise like the wind and it was shaking the house. My next thought was one of confusion, what is happening? Because instead of dying off the shaking and the roaring noise just got stronger and stronger. I was so confused and scared and not sure what was going on. I sat up in bed and then there was an enormous crash from the lounge and I thought maybe the wind had busted the window in. A second later Jenna opened my door and said, “we're leaving.”


Although I was doubting my hypothesis with every passing second, I asked, “Was that the wind?” And she said, “No, it was an earthquake.” (Afterwards she laughed at me for not being able to figure out what was going on.)

So we left the house, which is right on the beach, and drove to higher ground in case of tsunamis. We drove a wee way up the Amberley Beach road and pulled over on the side of the road. It was a really clear night, the stars were amazing. Several other cars from the neighbors pulled off alongside ours and we sat in the dark listening to the soothing voice of the TalkBalk radio DJ telling us not to panic and reading out people's texts that they were sending in to the station. Eventually the news came through that the earthquake was a 7.4 magnitude, 33km below ground (pretty shallow) and 30km west of Christchurch. Every once in a while we could feel the ground shaking again as aftershocks came through. After about an hour there was also a notice from the Pacific Tsunami Warning System saying that although there might be local tsunamis there was no overall tsunami danger, so we returned home. Since then we've been feeling several more aftershocks (up to a 4.9 magnitude) and listening to the radio and TV to get some news. Since the quake was quite close to Christchurch, there is extensive damage in the city, and they have no power there or water as well as no septic systems. Breaks in the water lines and sewer systems and a good shake up of the substations means that it's not likely they will get those back in the immediate future, and they are talking about setting up water stations and water rations for people in the city. Water pipes have burst and there are cracks in the roads. Cars have been crushed by falling debris, the fronts of buildings have tumbled into the road, and chimneys have fallen off houses. Apparently there have been injuries, but not many major ones, and no deaths have been reported. There have also been some reports of looting from downtown Christchurch, and they are asking people to stay at home, not use the phone (to keep the networks clear), conserve water and stay calm. They are saying it is one of the largest earthquake in New Zealand in the last century.

Luckily Jenna & Rob's house has had relatively little damage, being farther north of the city. The massive crash was a potted plant falling off a bookshelf and almost onto Rob's head. It crushed a guitar and also dumped a whole bunch of dirt inside the instrument. Also a smoothie maker fell off the top of the fridge, and a mirror fell over but didn't break, but otherwise, everything else seems okay.

For more info try: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4096327/Rocked-in-home-at-the-heart-of-the-quake

Days 228 - 230: Tramp to Welcome Flat

I got three days off work for a tramping trip this week. I've pretty much been looking forward to this trip since deciding to head to the South Island and my friend Holly said we should do something fun when she came down for her annual leave. So the plan was a three day tramp to Welcome Flat, which is over on the west coast, near the town of Franz Josef.

My day at work on Tuesday passed pretty quickly, despite my excitement for the day to end, and then directly after work I headed straight to Christchurch and met Jenna at my friend Emma's flat. I had a quick shower and put my pajamas on (since it was already after 7 pm and we had a three hour drive ahead of us.) But first we had to wait for Rob and Holly to come in. They didn't arrive until 9pm, and we weren't on the road until about 10 or even afterwards. Then we drove west into the mountains and up and over Arthur's Pass. We got treated to a moonlit view of some beautiful snow-covered mountains and had a good drive overall, catching up with each other and enjoying each other's company. We arrived in the west coast town of Hokitika about 2am and moved all of our stuff inside, then went directly to bed, since we had to be up at 6 the next morning.

After some porridge and final packing we loaded back in the car and headed farther south. It was a clear morning and we could see Mt. Cook (also called Mt. Aoraki), NZ's highest peak, straight ahead in the distance. We had a yum stop for some pies and sausage rolls, and arrived at the trailhead by about 10:30. The tramp in was lovely, beautiful weather and wandered its way through some beautiful New Zealand native bush, with the Copeland River and the lovely glacial Karangarua River flowing below us. We had lots of swing bridges to cross and some avalanche danger areas to get past (the signs said, “No stopping next 300 meters.”) We made it to the hut (which was lovely) by about 5, just before it started to get dark, which gave me and Jenna and Holly just enough time to put our togs on and jump in the hot springs which are a short way from the hut. They were so nice. Everybody was pretty tired though, so after some tea and meeting the two guys who arrived after dark and Rob and Holly kicking my butt at cards, we retired upstairs for a well earned sleep.

The next day was pouring with rain, but Rob and Holly and I ventured out to “take the rifle for a walk.” We continued farther down the track and turned up Scott's Creek for a while. Rob continued on up to the next hut but Holly and I walked back to Jenna and the hot springs at Welcome Flat. We spend a good two hours sitting in the pools, getting rained on. It was great! That night two different trampers showed up to replace the two guys from the night before, but we built the fire up and dried everyone's clothes and it got rather cozy and warm in the hut.

The next day we retraced our steps to hike back to the car. It had been predicted to rain but the skies didn't open up until after we'd gotten back in the car, and then it started to pour! So the weather cooperated with us fairly nicely. On the way home we swung into the Franz Josef glacier to have a squiz at that and since it was tea time when we pulled back into Hokitika, we found a fish and chip shop and feasted on fish, hot chips, NZ style hot dogs (battered and deep fried on a stick), tomato sauce, vinegar and Lemon & Paeroa to drink. Mmmm. It was delish. After our tea stop we hit up the grocery store for some lollies and the headed out of town. About 10 minutes outside of Hoki, Holly realized that we'd forgotten to fill the tank, but Rob reckoned it would be okay for us to get to the next petrol station. So off we went. On the drive back over the pass there was lots of singing, and also a fun game invented by me which we played after dark where you put a giant jellybean in your mouth and try to guess what color you are chewing on, then shine a headtorch at your mouth so someone can check if you were right. But unfortunately the petrol light came on before we were even over the pass and we were beginning to worry that we might not make it when we kept passing petrol stations and they were already closed for the night. So we pressed on. I'd had a text from my boss saying I was on early so I needed to be at work the next day at 5:45. I was kind of wondering if we'd get stranded along the side of the road, but we made it into the city without running out of petrol. Back at Emma's I grabbed my stuff and had a quick shower, then jumped in my car and drove home, getting into bed at midnight to be ready for work early the next day.

The tramp was so fun, and beautiful country, but the best part was spending time with Rob and Holly and Jenna. We had lots of laughs and the only downside was that the trip was over too soon.