Hello friends and family!
Happy Easter everyone, hope you're having a great long weekend. I am in beautiful Queenstown, where it is busy and bustling and crazy. It is quite a different way to spend easter.
Anyway this post is dedicated to Kyle, who probably uses the post quote most often.
I have been buying kiwis like a fiend. When I visited Libby (Thank you again Libby!!!) she picked up a basket of Golden Kiwi fruit and with it came the Kiwi Spoon. The kiwi spoon is a hybrid between a knife and a spoon, hence knifey-spooney. One end you use to cut the kiwi, and the other end you use to eat the kiwi. I am now collecting the spife or kiwi spoon to bring home several. I don't know why, but they never fail to make me smile. So, if you too would like a spife please let me know. Firstly because it justifies my bulk purchases of kiwis, and second because I will horde them all if you don't tell me!
So what do I have planned for Queenstown you may ask (now that my kiwi fruit rant is over), I don't know. I went to visitor information today and was overwhelmed with the wide variety of possibilities. I'm thinking of white water rafting, jet boating, going to Milford Sound and maybe even bungie. Tomorrow I will decide, but you wont know what I chose until Sunday when I post about my adventures!
Hope you all have a great Easter!
Heather!
Friday, April 22, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Flat is a relative term
Well I've been keeping myself not too busy. Every so often you just need to take it slow, and I am.
I spent a couple of days in Invercargill. It rained the first day and was freezing, but the second day it was just freezing so I checked out the garden and a bit of the museum where they have replicas of the motorcycle the Indian that holds the land speed record. Some of you may know it from the Anthony Hopkins movie Worlds Fastest Indian. As I travelled through both I dodged parents with young screaming kids who haven't even had their easter sugar yet.
Right now I'm on Stewart Island, and while my first impressions of it are that its beautiful, there is also a lot of rain. Hopefully it will clear up a bit tomorrow but I think I'll survive if it doesn't. I did a bit of a soaking wet hike today which was pretty but I didn't see many birds and just about fell off the trail. Oh rain, how you make trail conditions terrible.
The trail brings me to my title. When I arrived in Stewart Island I asked at the visitor centre about hikes. The lady pointed out a couple she thought I might like and suggested that I went on this one to start because "it was the flat part of the island". Amie I know has a different definition of flat than I do, probably because coming from Manitoba she knows what is to live somewhere very flat. Kiwi's have a real weird definition of flat. If you are on a trail, and at several points you require STAIRS to get up the hill, this is not flat. This is not even close to flat. Dear New Zealand, I love it here, but please stop getting my foolish Ontario hopes up when you describe trails to me.
Those are my adventures for today. I will take some time to back fill if it is raining tomorrow, but for now I need to investigate this whole dinner angle.
Lots of love from Down Under!
I spent a couple of days in Invercargill. It rained the first day and was freezing, but the second day it was just freezing so I checked out the garden and a bit of the museum where they have replicas of the motorcycle the Indian that holds the land speed record. Some of you may know it from the Anthony Hopkins movie Worlds Fastest Indian. As I travelled through both I dodged parents with young screaming kids who haven't even had their easter sugar yet.
Right now I'm on Stewart Island, and while my first impressions of it are that its beautiful, there is also a lot of rain. Hopefully it will clear up a bit tomorrow but I think I'll survive if it doesn't. I did a bit of a soaking wet hike today which was pretty but I didn't see many birds and just about fell off the trail. Oh rain, how you make trail conditions terrible.
The trail brings me to my title. When I arrived in Stewart Island I asked at the visitor centre about hikes. The lady pointed out a couple she thought I might like and suggested that I went on this one to start because "it was the flat part of the island". Amie I know has a different definition of flat than I do, probably because coming from Manitoba she knows what is to live somewhere very flat. Kiwi's have a real weird definition of flat. If you are on a trail, and at several points you require STAIRS to get up the hill, this is not flat. This is not even close to flat. Dear New Zealand, I love it here, but please stop getting my foolish Ontario hopes up when you describe trails to me.
Those are my adventures for today. I will take some time to back fill if it is raining tomorrow, but for now I need to investigate this whole dinner angle.
Lots of love from Down Under!
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Penguins and other realised dreams
You all knew it was coming up eventually. The time when I travelled far enough into the south to encounter my all time favourite flightless friends! Also before I rant too much more I'd like to say, I'm not alone!! I have spent the past two days in a little town called Oamaru (pronouce it like its french and you're getting close!). It is also know as the the Whitestone town as it has many buildings that are about 150 years old made from beautiful white limestone. It has a beautiful historic victorian type feel which it takes great pride in and every summer is host to a Steam Punk Fashion Show. More importantly in my opinion is the towns other main tourist attraction. Penguins. There is a colony of Hoiho or yellow eyed penguins not too far from the main city on Bushy Beach and if you're lucky in the evenings you can see them make their way into shore anytime after 4pm. They climb up the steep banks beside the ocean and roost for the evening in the native bush. Oamaru is the furthest north these shy birds will nest, and the colony has faced many hardships from loss of native coastal bush and (like every other flightless bird) invasive predators. Closer to town and the heart are the Blue Penguins. The smallest penguin species in the world they only stand about 25cm tall. Cute and cuddly though they appear they have a fierce attack when threatened and will use beak, wing and claw to fight off anything from feral cats to people. Sadly you are not permitted to take photos of these little ones coming in but they're beauty and grace (yes grace) can't really be captured by the likes of me with a point and shoot anyway. Last night I got to watch as almost 40 penguins came in from their day at sea. They ride the waves like pro body surfers and as it crashes onto shore they jump upright and waddle their way up to the rocky beach. Once out of the reach of the waves they sit preening and cooling off. They travel between 50 and 60km a day to hunt and right now are busy getting fat for their winter moult. When they feel cool enough, they jump and waddle along the rocks to their nesting sites. There is a ramp in place for them, but some like a challenge and would jump from boulder to boulder. Sometimes it looked like they reached above their heads to hook their flippers on the rock and pull themselves up. I could actually go on and on with Penguin facts but I'll try to save those for when your in person and I can watch you edge away. The town is Penguin crazy, every shop has stuffed penguins, and penguin art/shirts/art/tea bag trays/hats I could easily decorate my entire home with penguin art from this town. While I don't have any pictures of the little birds themselves, I'll post pictures later from my hostel (the Red Kettle) which has penguin themed decor. I am quite at home here and happy to have spent a few days recovering from my other adventures in penguin paradise. As to my other realised dreams, on April 11 2011 I became the pround owner of my own Ashford Spinning wheel and all necessary accessories and supplies. I was (unsuprisingly) the youngest lady in the store by a score of years and got great service from the helpful staff at the Ashford Village. There is a lot of support for a young person getting into handicrafts here, not just because they are trying to part you from your money, but because they believe in tradition and like to see them carried on. The hardest part in my opinion will be leaving the wheel at home when I return to school in the fall. I purchased a double treadle wheel called The Traveller. It was recomended over the single treadle because you can use it easily with either foot and if you're really getting into it, it is easier on the hips. I also picked up some sliver (or Roving) of New Zealand Merino and a Merino Silk blend. While many people recomend the coriedale for beginners, the merino drafts more easily and makes a beautiful soft wool you can wear next to the skin. Watch for hand spun and knit projects coming at you in the following year! Tomorrow I make my way from Oamaru to Dunedin and perhaps later today I will do a fill in post about what happened between March 24th and April 13th. I didn't realise it has been so long since I had made a post on here! Hope everyone is enjoying Spring at home. Fall here has been wonderful!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Dedicated to all those people who keep emailing
Hello hello hello!!!!
For those of you in Canada it is currently 5am your time, or 10pm here. I'm settled on the couch, my laptop on (of all things!) my lap and a really really long cable connecting me to the internet. It has been almost two weeks since I updated this last to which I say I'm sorry! I'm having a hard time getting myself to update. It is so easy to just wait until I have something to write about and today I do.
Since I updated last I have sat under trees and counted fruit (it was to see if the rats were eating them); helped build a new enclosure for Kiwi birds (this translates to moving many many many wheelbarrows of dirt); ripped english ivy off a hillside (invasive species); helped to replant a wetland; and today we checked traps at Rimutaka Forest Park. When I feel slightly more motivated I will post a movie of changing the trap and some photos of the park. Lucky viewers, my camera-lady Mellissa didn't like seeing/touching or otherwise considering the animals in the traps so the trap we recorded was empty and I was just changing the bait.
So Rimutaka, the beast of a hike. Mom I think you would love the scenery here, the thing is almost every single track I've been on has sections that are either immediately beside a cliff or with a drop off just beside your foot. It reminds me of doing the trek up the mountain when we took our family trip out west.
How it works: we did about 14km of trail and checked 50 traps. The first 13 traps were on a switchbacking section of trail that went up about 6ft at a time over 500 or so metres and doubled back increasing your altitude another 5-6ft higher over another 500 or so metres. It was sooooooo bloody steep! It might have been at most about 3 or 4 km and it took us about 2.5 hours to do those 13 traps. The rest were done in 2 hours. I hurt in muscles that I had forgotten even existed but may (at the very least) have some sweet leg muscles when I get home.
The highlight for many was how I could handle picking up a dead rat and snipping a piece of the tail off but when I opened a trap and saw a skitter out of the corner of my eye I jumped back and screamed like one of my campers. Stupid big spider.
Tomorrow I go to some sand dunes and monday we get to help out at the zoo! Tuesday, because all these days are simply flying by, I go to the south island. There, Wednesday morning, I will set out to hike the Queen Charlotte track. For more info on the track you can click here. It will take me 3 days at 20km a day but thankfully I wont need to carry my own pack.
Update you all again later, cheers!
For those of you in Canada it is currently 5am your time, or 10pm here. I'm settled on the couch, my laptop on (of all things!) my lap and a really really long cable connecting me to the internet. It has been almost two weeks since I updated this last to which I say I'm sorry! I'm having a hard time getting myself to update. It is so easy to just wait until I have something to write about and today I do.
Since I updated last I have sat under trees and counted fruit (it was to see if the rats were eating them); helped build a new enclosure for Kiwi birds (this translates to moving many many many wheelbarrows of dirt); ripped english ivy off a hillside (invasive species); helped to replant a wetland; and today we checked traps at Rimutaka Forest Park. When I feel slightly more motivated I will post a movie of changing the trap and some photos of the park. Lucky viewers, my camera-lady Mellissa didn't like seeing/touching or otherwise considering the animals in the traps so the trap we recorded was empty and I was just changing the bait.
So Rimutaka, the beast of a hike. Mom I think you would love the scenery here, the thing is almost every single track I've been on has sections that are either immediately beside a cliff or with a drop off just beside your foot. It reminds me of doing the trek up the mountain when we took our family trip out west.
How it works: we did about 14km of trail and checked 50 traps. The first 13 traps were on a switchbacking section of trail that went up about 6ft at a time over 500 or so metres and doubled back increasing your altitude another 5-6ft higher over another 500 or so metres. It was sooooooo bloody steep! It might have been at most about 3 or 4 km and it took us about 2.5 hours to do those 13 traps. The rest were done in 2 hours. I hurt in muscles that I had forgotten even existed but may (at the very least) have some sweet leg muscles when I get home.
The highlight for many was how I could handle picking up a dead rat and snipping a piece of the tail off but when I opened a trap and saw a skitter out of the corner of my eye I jumped back and screamed like one of my campers. Stupid big spider.
Tomorrow I go to some sand dunes and monday we get to help out at the zoo! Tuesday, because all these days are simply flying by, I go to the south island. There, Wednesday morning, I will set out to hike the Queen Charlotte track. For more info on the track you can click here. It will take me 3 days at 20km a day but thankfully I wont need to carry my own pack.
Update you all again later, cheers!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Oops and Hello!
Kia Ora everyone! I have been in New Zealand for almost 3 weeks now and I love it. While I've had some bouts of homesickness I think I've settled in and am starting to plan my time outside of the volunteer house.
hmmm what have I done? We had some bad weather our first week at the volunteer house so several of our hikes or projects were cancelled or post-poned. A lot of what we do is help community partners with projects they've started. A lot of it (especially in the summer) was weeding or "tree releasing". What this means is that when a native tree is planted you go back every couple weeks or months and you pull up the weeds and grasses that would quickly choke out the slow growing native varieties. Several tree species live to be several hundred years old, there is a Rimu tree we saw at Otari Wilton that is 800 years old. Some of the time this is done on sand dunes, sometimes in river valleys. Some of what we do is helping with maintenance, at a place called Nga Manu we cleared overhanging branches from the trail and removed nails from used wooden boards. One task repeated on several tracks every couple of weeks is checking traps. For what? Australian brush tail possum and rats. All we've caught are rats, but thats a good thing because it means there aren't any possums to kill the birds.
In free time mostly we watch movies and just hang out around the house. Its not expensive and we're usually really tired if we've gone on a hike. On the weekends we've checked out museums, the botanic garden, and the beach!
Thats all for now. Hopefully you've had a chance to live vicariously through my photos here, and here.
Take care and enjoy spring in Canada, here it is fall, at 8pm it was alreayd dark.
hmmm what have I done? We had some bad weather our first week at the volunteer house so several of our hikes or projects were cancelled or post-poned. A lot of what we do is help community partners with projects they've started. A lot of it (especially in the summer) was weeding or "tree releasing". What this means is that when a native tree is planted you go back every couple weeks or months and you pull up the weeds and grasses that would quickly choke out the slow growing native varieties. Several tree species live to be several hundred years old, there is a Rimu tree we saw at Otari Wilton that is 800 years old. Some of the time this is done on sand dunes, sometimes in river valleys. Some of what we do is helping with maintenance, at a place called Nga Manu we cleared overhanging branches from the trail and removed nails from used wooden boards. One task repeated on several tracks every couple of weeks is checking traps. For what? Australian brush tail possum and rats. All we've caught are rats, but thats a good thing because it means there aren't any possums to kill the birds.
In free time mostly we watch movies and just hang out around the house. Its not expensive and we're usually really tired if we've gone on a hike. On the weekends we've checked out museums, the botanic garden, and the beach!
Thats all for now. Hopefully you've had a chance to live vicariously through my photos here, and here.
Take care and enjoy spring in Canada, here it is fall, at 8pm it was alreayd dark.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Well I couldn't make the video work on my blog here, but it you would like to watch the Kaka Parrot at its feeder click here.
As for photos, those of you with facebook have seen a few. Those of you following along here, I finally had success! One is the view flying into Wellington, one is the fault lines of the techtonic plates, a colassal squid and the other 2 are from Zealandia where I'm returning tonight on a hike to look for kiwi and nocturnal parrots!
Weather is great, though today Windy Wellington is living up to its name adding a bit of a chill to the air. When you find a place sheltered from the wind though you'll find that temperatures are still in the high teens or low twenties.
This morning I went out before anything was open in search of a place that sells coffee and ended up hanging out on the warf watching the colleges having their dragon boat races. The spirit behind the groups was amazing and the power just impressive. I enjoyed my coffee and watched surrounded by a group of girls whose other team members were in a race. Impressive as it was I luckily can still hear out of both ears... I think. How fast? REAL FAST!
Next I found a market of new zealand artisans and while I wanted to buy everything I managed to resist. I did find some of the requested fabric for Mom to quilt with. It's awesome... I want the quilt that she makes with it :D
Thats all for now folks. I'll be on again later to let you know if I saw a kiwi. Tomorrow I move to the volunteer house and hopefully into a bed closer to the floor!
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Day 1 (or 3 depending how you see it)
I am seriously fighting jet lag so please forgive me if this post is a little garbled and lacking the oh so awaited pictures. At home in waterloo this post is being made at 2:40, here in Wellington it is only 8:40pm on Thursday so I'm trying to hold off a bit before I go to sleep.
The flights were long but good and after making friends with a 60-something-year-old business man I had companionship and good advice as I went through customs and layovers. I did not get his name but the casual conversation never seemed to require an introduction. I know he is a specialised optomotrist from Michigan and as such actually had heard of Waterloo without me also mentioning Kitchener. I spent roughly 19hrs on planes and about 26hrs inside. When I transfered flights in Auckland I took advantage and walked to the domestic terminal.
Arriving looked amazing, with the skies slightly overcast we had to cut through the ice cream scoop clouds to see the green of the island below. Pulling up to the airport however were fields of cows (much to my dissapointment) so I have yet to see a sheep. I promise I will post pictures soon!
To pass my day I wandered aimlessly around the city fighting exhaustion and was a little put out to come across a Burger King, a McDonalds and a Starbucks within mere blocks of each other and the hostel. I don't know why but I just didn't expect them here. I took a walk along the warf and marveled at how athletic Kiwi's are. Everyone seemed to be running, swimming or biking along.
I also started to check out the museum (Te Papa?) and will revisit tomorrow to get the floors I missed while it was closing. For anyone with a tendency to worry, I wont be heading near Christchurch anytime in the near future. Everything is closed down that way and I will be on the North Island until at least March 29th.
Hope everyone back home is well, more adventures later.
The flights were long but good and after making friends with a 60-something-year-old business man I had companionship and good advice as I went through customs and layovers. I did not get his name but the casual conversation never seemed to require an introduction. I know he is a specialised optomotrist from Michigan and as such actually had heard of Waterloo without me also mentioning Kitchener. I spent roughly 19hrs on planes and about 26hrs inside. When I transfered flights in Auckland I took advantage and walked to the domestic terminal.
Arriving looked amazing, with the skies slightly overcast we had to cut through the ice cream scoop clouds to see the green of the island below. Pulling up to the airport however were fields of cows (much to my dissapointment) so I have yet to see a sheep. I promise I will post pictures soon!
To pass my day I wandered aimlessly around the city fighting exhaustion and was a little put out to come across a Burger King, a McDonalds and a Starbucks within mere blocks of each other and the hostel. I don't know why but I just didn't expect them here. I took a walk along the warf and marveled at how athletic Kiwi's are. Everyone seemed to be running, swimming or biking along.
I also started to check out the museum (Te Papa?) and will revisit tomorrow to get the floors I missed while it was closing. For anyone with a tendency to worry, I wont be heading near Christchurch anytime in the near future. Everything is closed down that way and I will be on the North Island until at least March 29th.
Hope everyone back home is well, more adventures later.
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