Back on dry land but may well be offline the next few days too.
Yesterday’s late afternoon view.
This sunrise at Ulva Island is a lie, sadly. The long exposure has really saturated the colours.
Typical bush clad hillside
The day we were anchored near Disappointment Cove I took these shots from the boat. These were my second attempt — I learned from the first attempt to increase shutter speed, because the boat is always moving, making shots a bit soft.
Sea lions, get yer sea lions here!
Rakiura Cruise, Day Three, morning
Wow, I slept well! I woke feeling quite stiff and achey though and decided to spend the morning on the Milford Wanderer. Quite a few opted to go on the morning’s walk: a less difficult walk than yesterday’s but still demanding, apparently, to see a sealion colony. The rest chose to spend the morning on the tender, touring nearby scenic spots.
There is blue sky and sunshine, with clouds about and the outside temperature, the captain tells me, is 10C. There’s a bite to the wind though.
We’re anchored in an unnamed spot near Disappointment Cove.
Later, after lunch, is a ride on the tender to a simple and undemanding afternoon walk.
Friday 23 July 2021
Rakiura Cruise Day Two
Whew, what a day! After breakfast of boiled egg, hash brown, tomato, sausage, plus as much toast, cereal and fruit as we wanted, the anchor came up and we motored off to Pegasus Bay — a 3 hour trip through open sea. It was rough!
I had taken Sealegs pills about 0815 but not long after we hit the open water I was outside, briefly throwing up over the rail — the officially sanctioned place for it. My neighbour Chris rubbed my back and told me to look at a distant point, not the water.
Chelsea, a crew member soon appeared with a stool for me to sit on, a drink of water and the advice to keep my eyes on the horizon, so that’s exactly what I did until about 1130 when we entered the calm waters of Pegasus Bay.
After lunch, where I elected to eat a single chicken nibble and a couple of slices of very delicious bread and butter, we were offered a chance to walk up to Bald Cone.
I thought I’d give it a go, along with about 20 others from the cruise. We were warned to wear gumboots with waterproof overtrousers outside the boots — we were to be hosed off when we returned!
Well, I’ve never been tramping. My milieu is walks that take up to a couple of hours, on formed tracks. I regard myself as somewhat fit — probably a 4 or 5 on a ten point scale.
I really struggled on this walk which was, of course, uphill, largely through deep watery sucky mud. (No photos of the mud because the going was too difficult to stop for such frivolities.) This part of Rakiura gets about 5 metres of rain per year and never dries out.
We had to climb for about 10 minutes before we could even stop on a flat open area to take off our life jackets and leave them on bushes.
Apart from the mud, and later the views, the most notable thing was the absolute excellence of the 3 crew members who came with the group and the helpfulness of all members of the party. We could go at our own pace and someone was always ready to help with a hand up or advise about where and how to place one’s feet.
The going was mud: deep mud, slippery mud, almost knee deep mud, puddles of mud, bogs, steep steps of mud, grooves of mud, mud that threatened to hold the gumboot fast while the foot moved on.
It was a matter of using the walking pole for balance, and holding on to any available vegetation for support.
After our first major stop, about a third of the way up, I was feeling very tired and suggested I wait there for everyone else to complete the climb. While the crew made clear it was my choice they also expressed concern that I’d have a long wait and it would be very cold. They offered me a cup of tea, and I accepted a hot water.
Since they’re the experts on the environment and safety and such things I agreed to continue, but after even more slogging through mud and bogs I decided to stop at the next rest point, about 2/3 of the way up. I would have a roughly one hour wait. Again the crew supplied me with hot water, this time with a chocolate biscuit, and they made sure I had a sheltered spot to wait.
So, I had an hour to rest, enjoy the scenery and take a load of photos.
Once back on the Milford Wanderer I gratefully grabbed a brief shower, enjoyed pork loin and vegetables for dinner then fell into bed at around 6.30 pm.
Thursday 22 July 2021
Rakiura Cruise, Day Zero
To start with we needed to travel from home to Invercargill. That meant setting off with our neighbours in the car at about 0915. We drove ~100 Km to Wellington Airport, parked in the long-term carpark, caught the free shuttle to the terminal and hung around until the flight left around 1230. Because it was a local flight on a small plane we didn’t have to go through security.
After a 1 hour flight to Christchurch, enjoying views of the snow-capped Kaikouras, we had a quick lunch and boarded the local flight to Invercargill, so again, no security rigmarole to worry about.
This time it was about an hour and a half, with views of snow capped Alps, but not on my side of the plane.
Finally we saw the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter and a small nearby wind farm, banked to the east and landed at Invercargill, Waihōpai.
Our tour leader, Alison, met us and kindly drove us to the Quest Hotel in the middle of Waihōpai, where we shared a comfortable 2 room apartment with our neighbours Chris & Jan from Waikawa Beach.
Alison had organised a meal for most of the tour group at The Rocks, a few minutes walk away.
With a group of 20 to feed, along with other customers, our meal was a long time coming, but it was worth the wait.
The restaurant was pretty noisy so conversation was a bit tricky, but it was a good chance to introduce ourselves to a couple of our fellow travellers. My neighbour had travelled from Palmerston North, while the person across the table from me came from north of Whangārei.
It was early to bed for me, though Deb joined the end of a Zoom call for the training she’s completing this year.
Tuesday 20 July 2021.
Rakiura Cruise, Day One highlight
Rakiura Cruise, Day One: one highlight was the teenage male sealion that came up on the beach at Port Adventure, where oysters were first harvested commercially in the 1800s.
Wednesday 21 July 2021
No connection in this mud!
46 degrees 36 minutes 54 seconds south.
I really enjoyed this Canadian story: Goodbye Port Alma (A DC Holly Towns Murder Mystery) by Anne Shillolo. 📚
DC Holly Towns is on the team that has to untangle a far-reaching web of sex, drugs, and money, and solve a crime that threatens to tear the city apart.
The Kaikoura Ranges were looking snowy today.
Wellington airport features these birds from Lord of the Rings.
Photo by Willow’s mum — with the whole back seat to spread out on, three dogs decided to create a tight little dog puddle. Willow at front, Sasha to the left and Oshi in behind. 🐶
Hmmm:
Around 95% of NZ’s sheep meat and 87% of beef is exported, and what’s left for locals is sold at a premium.
If a housewife in the middle of Oxford in the UK is prepared to pay a certain price for a cut of meat, we have to match it
Happened upon a cassette tape recording I made in 1976 of my mother’s parents. Fascinating to hear how they speak. Grandad, born in Islington, London, was a London bus driver in his youth. My grandma was born in Stoke Newington (also London). Only a few seconds of my grandma. 😒
Yesterday’s storm (for us, at least) was nowhere near what we expected. Some strongish winds, about 17 mm rain (not the 60-90 mm forecast). The sea must have been rough though — the high tide took driftwood right into the dunes. We were lucky: other areas had floods.
Heard something today that jogged my memory about NZ’s infamous Six o’clock Swill. From December 1917 to October 1967 pubs closed at 6 pm: 🍻
resulted in a mad rush to drink as much alcohol as possible in [1 hour], leading to unruly behaviour and unpleasant drinking conditions.
We tried a new restaurant last night: Ōtaki Kitchen at 30 Main Street, Ōtaki. Service was great and food excellent. I had the Roast fish (Blue Whiting) with brown butter and nut crust, pea puree, charred carrots, tomato tapenade and lemon beurre blanc, broccoli and potatoes. 🍽
