Tuesday, July 28, 2009
The wilderness of the Catlins
We left city life in Dunedin and swapped it for the wilderness of the Catlins Coast, the southeastern corner of the South Island thats still very remote and wildernessy, last last Saturday the 25th July. We found out how remote and wildernessy it actually was when we passed through villages of just a few houses and shops and when we realised our mobile phones were out of action for the entire 3 days it took us to travel though, though that wasn't really a big issue for me since I rarely get any text messages or phone calls these days *hint hint*!
Our 3 day tour of the Catlins Coast took us past some beautiful coastal scenery and we stopped along the way at many beaches and other places of interest. Tunnel Beach was one of our first stops and probably one of my favourites, a secluded beach that was accessed through a tunnel (a very apt, if not so imaginative name). We also stopped at Slope point, the most southerly point of the South Island and the Manuka Gorge Tunnel where we saw glow worms! Another one of my favourite stops was at the Petrified Forest by Curio Bay, where part of a forest was fossilised, certainly something you don't see everyday!
The Catlins Coast is known for its rare wildlife and we did get to see some more Yellow eyed Penguins (I'm beginning to think they're not as rare as people make out, we've now seen loads of them!) as well as a fair few Fur Seals. No Sea Lions though, much to our dismay, though we thought we saw one but it turned out to be a rather shapely rock. Maybe we'll get to see some on the North Island...
We made it to Invercargill last Monday and after 3 days of living in Charlie while we travelled through the Catlins, it was certainly good to get back to town life (can't quite call Invercargill a city), hot showers and warm beds!
Labels:
catlins coast,
fur seals,
slope point,
yellow eyed penguins
Friday, July 24, 2009
Penguins, penguins and more penguins!
We left Oamaru on Tuesday and headed down the coast towards Dunedin, stopping at Moeraki along the way to see the famous boulders in the sea (though I think it would have been more impressive at low tide...) and for a spot of lunch. We were soon discovering that shops and restaurants don't like to open on a Monday or a Tuesday... which meant that we didn't get to try out Fleur's place in Moeraki, a restaurant recommended in the guidebook that was good for fresh seafood. Ah well.
We reached Dunedin in the late afternoon of Tuesday and found ourselves a new home next to the waterfront (and public toilets), I'm getting quite used to the whole living in a campervan! Although dusk does pose a slight problem for us, a few hours every evening when we're at a loss for things to do. Most of the time we huddle together in the campervan cooking dinner and then maybe read, but our little lantern isn't so bright so that idea is usually our last resort. Lately we've taken to watching movies on my laptop while snuggled up in our sleeping bags, definately the way forward. As Holly put it, we need more options to 'kill dark time'.
Our first day in Dunedin was spent doing highly touristy things, such as visiting the Cadbury factory (chocolate galore, though I must say, NZ chocolate really doesn't taste as good as UK chocolate), walking up the world's steepest street - it really was quite steep and tasting our way through the Speight's brewery beer range.
Yesterday we took a little day trip out to the Otago Peninsular which is famous for its penguin and albatross sightings. Also found on the peninsular is NZ's only castle... if you can call it that! But it did have a turret, so I guess it qualifies. We didn't get to see any Royal Albatross when we went to the Royal Albatross Centre, but at Penguin place, we did get to see a few blue penguins in nesting boxes and were mega lucky enough to watch around 6-10 yellow eyed penguins come up from the sea, at one point we were only 3-4 meters away from one!
Labels:
cadburys chocolate,
dunedin,
moeraki,
penguin,
speights brewery
Monday, July 20, 2009
Back on the road...
After a day of searching around, we found our future campervan last Monday at the local car market in Christchurch, a 1985 converted Toyota HiAce van with an interesting if somewhat bright paintwork... suffice to say I don't think we'll ever lose our van in a carpark! It took a few days to get it ready for us to take - it needed a full service and a few other things doing to it, but by Wednesday of last week it was officially ours!
And we were good to go.
Our first port of call was Akaroa, a little French settlement, a 1.5 hours drive east of Christchurch. The windy mountain roads were a challenge for Charlie (we named our campervan...) but he managed it and got us there safely. We spent our first night in Charlie that night, parked up near some public toilets near the iSite - it was certainly cosy with the 3 of us in our campervan bed, but it meant we got to keep warm... perhaps sleeping in our van during the winter months wasn't the best of ideas!
After Akaroa we headed back to Christchurch for a few hours to sort out a few things and then it was off to Lake Tekapo, the drive was beautiful - snow capped mountains lead the way to the lake, which we arrived at just as the sun was setting. Our 3rd night in the van was absolutely freezing, so we decided that we'd opt for a hostel the next night on Mount Cook, a fantastic idea considering the fact that the 3 of us hadn't showered since we left Christchurch 3 days earlier and when we arrived at Mount Cook Village, there was a good foot of snow on the ground. Hot showers, a full kitchen to cook in, being able to spread out in bed... the luxuaries of hostel life were not lost on us.
After Mount Cook we headed back towards the coast, stopping at a few little villages along the way (little being an understatement, Twizel was a village that was meant for demolition in 1984 and Omarama has a population of 360) before arriving at our current location of Oamaru - a quaint little historical town with beautiful old buildings and is famous for its blue and yellow eyed penguin colonies. Earlier today we visited the Whitestone Cheese factory and of course had a sample of their produce. The Whisky factory was unfortunately closed today but we did get to see some penguins of the blue and yellow eye-ed variety, which more than made up for it.
Tomorrow we leave Oamaru and head further south in search of more penguins, chocolate and beer.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Back to being unemployed... and loving it!
So after much eating, drinking and being merry on Friday night, myself and Stacy left our home of the past month or two (just over 5 weeks for me, about 2 months for Stace) and all the friends we'd made while staying at Leeways Backpackers in Blenheim to head back down to Christchurch to meet up with Holly! It was sad leaving Leeways, we'd both had many a memorable moments there and we really didn't want to have to pack up all our stuff (and there was a lot of it!) but it was definitely good walking into our new dorm room to be greeted by a familiar smiling face!
This morning we began our hunt for a campervan, as yet we've not found anything but there is a potential in the pipeline... Fingers crossed!
Labels:
blenheim,
campervan,
leeways backpacker
Thursday, July 9, 2009
The end is in sight...
So tomorrow is my last day at work and I must admit, I'm a little bit sad that its all coming to an end, more so because it means we're leaving our hostel than finishing with work! This past week has probably been my best work wise, I'm a lot faster than I've ever been (I think that 3 day week I had last week did me wonders!), keeping up with most of the faster wrappers and I'm making pretty good money, probably averaging around NZ$150 a day this week, a far cry from my first week when I made just over $200! I did wonder whether I could make it to $200 a day if I continued, but I think my hands might give way before I got there, as it stands, I currently have no feeling in the tips of my fingers of my right hand... its probably a good thing we're not going to be working anymore and I'm certainly looking forward to not having to be around Mr. Supervisor everyday!
His most recent antics involved making me redo a row because I supposedly hadn't twisted the ties enough times, which came as a bit of a surprise to me since 1) he's never checked tie twist numbers before nor stressed the importance of twisting each tie 4 times and 2) the other supervisors had checked my work (inc tie twists) in the past and never had a problem with it, as well as cutting our working day short yesterday because he had a dentist appointment. Fair enough if it was work related, but going to the dentist it quite a personal issue and since we get paid per plant and not per hour, leaving early means less money can be made, suffice to say, we were not happy, especially since I could have made my $150 target if I'd had that extra hour. Anyhow... *breathe* One day left...
Tomorrow night the hostel will be having a mexican themed night as a joint leaving do for myself and Stacy and as a birthday dinner for one of the other guys in the hostel. The plan is lots of food and a drink.. or many! Then its time for myself and Stace to say our goodbyes and head to Christchurch to meet up with Holly (our friend who we used to work with back home, who'll hopefully have lots of chocolate goodies from England for us!) and buy ourselves a campervan. I think it might be too much to hope for that we'll be able to get a uber flash mobile home cheaply, but we're hoping to find something decent for a fair price. Fingers crossed!
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Another weekend over
How is it already the weekend again? Infact, a better question to ask would be how is this weekend already nearly over?! Time seems to be speeding up over here, probably because life has become quite routine with working every day and chilling out in the evenings. 4 weeks working in the vineyards have now passed and I'm really looking forward to moving on at the end of next week, my poor hands could certainly do with a break from all the vineyard work!
This past week was a pretty slack week for me work wise as Monday was written off due to the rain and on Friday I took a self proclaimed day off...! It was certainly nice having a 3 day week though, especially since it meant that I didn't have to put up with listening to the rubbish my supervisior comes up with. An excerpt of the conversation we had on my second day at work, when he was talking to me about the wine industry in New Zealand went a little something like this (please note, this was after he'd trained me up for an hour or so the day before and knew I was from England and obviously fluent in English) :
Mr Supervisor: "Oh, your English is quite good."
Me: "You'd hope so, I was brought up in England."
Mr Supervisor: " Ah yes, thats right. Did you finish high school then?"
Me: "Erm... Yes... I graduated from uni a few years ago..."
Mr Supervisor: "Ah, no wonder you could understand the words I was using like 'niche'.."
ARGH!!! A lot of what he says is pedantic and patronising and its all I can do to bite my tongue and ignore whatever comes out of his mouth. I just have to keep telling myself that I have just one more week left... then I'm back to being a jobless bum again!
Oh, the bread I baked came out really well, I was most surprised and impressed that I even made a sundried tomato and olive bread yesterday. I don't think its quite my calling in life, but its certainly something I'll be doing on a regular basis from now on.
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