Willowbank Wildlife Reserve

On Wednesday, I went to the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve in the northern suburbs of Christchurch. The place is ideal for children, and it functions both as a wildlife preserve and a zoo. It features both wild animals and familiar barnyard animals (albeit from rare breeds). Very nice place - not much land, though, so they have to find clever ways of using all the land to wedge as many animals as possible into the space.

Lots of ducks, geese, and water birds. Various birds too, including doves and parrots. A few Asian monkeys and apes too.

When I arrived, it was eel feeding time. I asked the man scooping food from a can, "Is that dog food, or is that eel food?" He replied, "Oh, it's dog food. These customers aren't so particular."

At one point, I saw two pretty women gingerly feeding pellets to two of the loudest, and by far the ugliest, pigs that I had ever seen. (Somehow the world works like this, doesn't it?) I told one woman, "You've made a friend!"

Senseless Kiwi Tragedy

This sad news was in the TV news here. Maybe just one stupid loose dog, and years of strenuous efforts thrown away:

As many as 70 kiwi could be dead due to dog attacks at Purua Scenic Reserve just north of Whangarei.

DOC workers have found seven of the birds fatally wounded.

Those found have transmitters fitted. DOC estimates the numbers could be far higher as only 10% of kiwi in the reserve are tagged.

Many of the dead birds are part of a breeding programme designed to increase kiwi numbers in the wild.

Another Tourist Day

Day's just starting.....

Caught The Ferry To Lyttelton

Historic harbor with colourful ships.

Touristy Day

Spent the day walking around central Christchurch.

Caught a ride with Andrew from Diamond Harbour to Lincoln University. Caught the 81 bus into town.

The place is a bit bewildering to the newbie at first - lots of commercial buildings with few landmarks. But then I realized that everything here was organized around Cathedral Square, and keeping that in mind, everything else seemed to fall into place.

Changed some money (USA into NZ, at ripoff bank rates). Currently, given the collapse of the NZ dollar against the USA dollar, it's an American shopping paradise. The American dollar buys 75% more than it did just five months ago. Who knows where it will be five months from now, but it looks like I timed my visit perfectly!

Ventured into the Cathedral. Blogged. Shopped. Strolled the botanical gardens.

I caught the tail end of a speech regarding women's liberation by a silly man in a witch's hat (a southern hemisphere version of Albus Dumbledore). He was selling a favorite tourist item (a map of the world, upside down, giving place of prominence to New Zealand). I didn't pay $5 to him, or to the Caribbean musician singing about buffalo soldiers, but I did to the earnest teenage girl playing the bagpipes.

I stopped to eat the luncheon special at 'The Carvery' and got crushed with food (I liked the generosity, but please!) Noticing the gulls and ducks outside, waddling along the nearby slow-moving Avon River and coming up to the restaurant for scraps, I absconded with some chicken leftovers and found a quiet place to feed them, where few passersby would complain. At first, just one attentive duck followed me, tyring to guess my intentions, but once I whipped out the chicken, in an instant, I had more than a dozen birds trying to be my very best friend, including two ducklings. Needless to say, the chicken didn't last long.

At one point, I saw a two-man TV One news crew waylaying passersby in Cathedral Square. I asked them what they were doing:

TV 1: You're not local are you?
MPV: No, but what are you asking people?
TV 1: "Given the pressure of the world's economic collapse, are you changing your Christmas shopping plans?"
MPV: Well, I flew to New Zealand.
TV 1: (Laughter).

And most importantly, the Court Theater, apparently the only fully professional theater in the area, is doing "La Cage aux Folles". I hope to catch that show Thursday night!

NZ Signs

Here are photos of eye-catching signs at just one Westfield Mall in Auckland (near the ferry building).

There have been lots of other signs that catch the eye - can't remember them all.

In the town of Camerons on the west coast, I passed a community hall of some sort called Bill Maher Hall.

Here in Christchurch, I liked seeing a store called "Reptiles - Tons Of Tiles". I also liked seeing the "Sinister Boutique".

Christ Church Cathedral

Diamond Harbour

The view from Andrew's living room.

Madcap Hike To Camp Bay

After work, we piled into Andrew's convertible and headed off to home at Diamond Harbour. The sudden sunshine allowed us to put the top down, and we raced off through the windy, hedge-bound country lanes towards the hills of the harbour.

Diamond Harbour sits on the flank of the Banks Peninsula, an eroded, extinct volcano on the coastline bearing many steep and dramatic inlets and bays. Diamond Harbour is gorgeous, kind of reminding me of the Marin coastline. Across the Harbour is Lyttelton, where Scott and Shackleton were both based for their Antarctic adventures.

Spontaneously, Andrew suggested a hike, and we scrambled along a track on the steep coastline and alarming a few sheep. We paused at a commemorative grove of pines honoring the dead for those years when Camp Bay served as a quarantine camp for those entering New Zealand. We pressed on a bit further, and saw many dramatic landscapes.

On the way back, I slipped on the slippery grass, but instead of pitching off the cliff into the seaside rocks, I just fell on my face (could have been worse...)

Lincoln University, Christchurch

Reminds me of a lusher, windier version of NM Tech....

Coast-To-Coast

Coast-To-Coast: a lot easier to do in New Zealand than in the U.S.!

Today, I awoke in Greymouth on the west coast of the South Island, drove up to Arthur's Pass in the Southern Alps, picked up Andrew there, and currently I'm at Lincoln University in Christchurch, near the east coast. It's been raining on and off all day. The rain seems present mostly on the east side of the Southern Alps: the western side is overcast, but dry. They say NZ is like that: if you don't like the weather on one side of the mountains, just go to the other side.

Andrew's colleague Graeme R. suggested a southern loop that I might travel on a future trip. Pleasant for birdwatching (albatrosses; penguins), this loop sounds quite exciting (Otago Peninsula; Nugget Point in the Catlins; St. Bethens). Currently, Andrew and I will travel to those comely tourist destinations, Wanaka and Queenstown!

Another Slow Evening In Greymouth

Tick-tock, tick-tock....

Ate at a downtown Greymouth eatery.

The fellow at the convenience store helped me with another 2-for-1 1.5 L special regarding diet soda and water.

Lame TV on Channel 1.

Six Degrees Of Separation

Jacques The Penguin's bearer was Dr. Sally E. Walker, Professor of Geology and Marine Sciences at the University of Georgia. We began conversing at the Punakaiki's Pancake Rocks, in part because we both had American accents, and because I began getting interested in Jacques the Stuffed Penguin. Dr. Walker described herself as a geologist interested in Antarctica.

What are the chances? What are the chances? Women geologists interested in Antarctica....

So I said I knew another geologist interested in Antarctica: Rebekah Shepard. Dr. Walker's mouth dropped open in shocked surprise: we both knew Rebekah! "Why I just wrote a letter of recommendation for her to enter NASA's astronaut program," she said. She added: "Being an astronaut is Rebekah's lifelong dream!"

I know Rebekah, of course, through DMTC ("Grease", "Anything Goes", "Mame"). Rebekah had been working on her Ph.D. in Geology at UC Davis while doing DMTC shows.

Rebekah currently is in Canada learning how to pilot one-person submersibles, in order to do research in the pristine ice-covered lakes of Antarctica's Dry Valleys.

Of course, being an astronaut was always my dream when I was a kid, and the dream of my classmates, but Rebekah may be the only person ever in my acquaintance ever to have a real shot at threading that needle, and actually becoming one.

The best to Rebekah: one multi-talented woman!

Jacques The Penguin Visits The Westland Coast

Jacques the Stuffed Penguin is sent by a class of third graders in New York State to travel all over the globe, as part of their geographical education, and today he was at Punakaiki.

Paparoa National Park

Spent the day at Paparoa National Park, based at Punakaiki. Hiking on the trails, I saw the Pancake Rocks there, as well as venturing down the Truman Track, and taking a short jaunt into the Pororari Valley.

The blowholes at the Pancake Rocks weren't blowing today, even though I was there at high tide. The Tasman Sea was pretty placid today (despite the approaching storm) and so the two conditions of operation weren't met (high tide AND big waves).

I was down on the scenic, cliff-surrounded beach at the end of the Truman Track just after high tide, and I worried that all it would take would be one big wave and I'd be hustled off to the Kingdom of the Undertoad.

Wonderful bird life everywhere (saw white-fronted terns on the coastal rocks). There were New Zealand Pigeons (bigger than standard pigeons) clumsily flopping through the thick foliage. Ducks were present too.

Thick, thick forest included red & black pines, Nikau palms, cabbage trees, a variety of ferns, and other exotica. Supplejack vines gave a special Tarzan feel to the place.

In the Pororari Valley, I heard a sound that was much like a tea kettle bubbling, or perhaps a toilet tank filling, just uphill of the trail. A passing elderly German couple identified the birds who were responsible for the noise. It turned out to be two adult, and one baby, weka. The weka were rummaging around through the leaf litter as if they had lost a set of car keys. Cute!

High cirrostratus (from the warm front of the approaching storm) and maritime humidity meant a perfect day weatherwise for the hiker. This place ain't Arizona in the summer! It was like wandering through a surreal garden of utmost comfort. Just a few sand flies - no other pests. And no dangerous animals or plants.

With the temperate climate and the Dr.-Suess-style of jungle filled with fun birds, it's easy to see how people conceive of New Zealand as a version of Paradise!

Left: A weka.

Greymouth On A Saturday Night

Left: Downtown Greymouth on a Saturday night.


Pretty slow! (Population 13,500).

I took a 4.5 mile walk that took 4 hours to complete, circling the airport, getting lost downtown, doing a bit of blogging (at the Regent Theatre's I-office), and wandering along the motel strip along High Street.

Saturday night, and the louts are out. Walking along a very broad street, I swung into the street to give wide berth to a man and his dog (friendly), and a passing motorist in a van shouted "Get out of the road!" Even though the road was so wide it could hold four lanes of traffic!

Saw two dances in progress, one at the Anglican Church, and one at a private hall. Walked up to one dinner/dance and spied in: a big Pacific Islander was dancing with a woman in a blue evening dress - pretty scary!

The fellow at the convenience store said "There are four parties I know of tonight, but I'm going home before any of them show up here." I asked if the bank was open Sunday and he said "Should be, but people often just close up to do their own hobbies on the weekend. Not me. I have to make a living."

He helped to get a deal on the 1.5L diet soda: half-price with the 1.5L size mineral water.

Auto exhaust smells quite a bit different here than in the U.S.: a lot like burning rubber. At first I thought it might be because someone was burning rubber tires somewhere, but the burning tire smell can be found even in the country, as long as cars are present. I suppose the petroleum here comes from Indonesia, but likely it has to do with the method of refining (California with its restrictive regulations, and all that).

By the time I got back to the Alpine Rose, I was exhausted!

Greymouth, On The Sunny Tasman Sea

Arrived in Greymouth and checked into the Alpine Rose Motel on High Street (note the signature Alpine Rose in the photo, made of folded towels and washcloths).

The clouds that surrounded the mountain peaks weren't present near the coast. Instead, sun on the beach! At the coast, a pebbly-cobbly beach with a mud flat, with interesting wave action across the mud flat between surf zone and cobbly beach.

Pretty Tasman Sea sunset!

Journey From Arthur's Pass To The West Coast

Andrew lent me his car to explore Greymouth and the west coast of the South Island, while he entertains Canadian friends this weekend at the bach (aka crib; hut; shack; cabin) at Arthur's Pass. The descent down the Otira Gorge was lovely! The road parallels the railroad. The road often narrows to one lane at bridges, and there is one bridge where the railroad joins the pavement for a single lane across the water.

It's astonishing just how broad these valleys are, with their wide, wide gravelly beds with intertwined channels. These rivers can, and sometimes do, ferry vast volumes of water to the sea.

Still, the mountains are somewhat vague about their glacial past. The hanging valleys are small and obscure, and there are no U-shaped valleys, suggesting that even in Ice Age conditions, this location isn't heavily glaciated (unlike the conditions in the SW South Island of Zealand, in Fiordland).

Approaching the coast, the vegetation changed, from beeches and tussock, to cabbage trees, Nikau palms (the southernmost palms in the world), and a wide variety of ferns (sometimes alive and sometimes as vast beds of crumpled dead and dying ferns). More jungly. Epiphytic plants grow on all the trees.

The west coast is typically wetter than the east coast, but people are complaining all over the South Island about how dry things are now. Still, it's all relative - it's pretty wet by AZ/NM standards.

Kea Attack!

Left: The kea starts taking a chunk out of Andrew's car.


The Kea is a large, highly-intelligent, mischievous parrot. They love to explore new tactile sensation with their beaks. New Zealanders know them for their vigorous efforts to rip wiper blades off windshields. They perch on cars, looking lovingly at the upholstery inside. So, when I pulled up in a bright red open convertible, the keas were overjoyed!

Left: Let's make baby keas! No? Well, let's rip rubber trim off of the cars conveniently parked here!

Left: Unlike many kinds of parrots, this kea seems less interested in its own reflection and more interested in what's in the car.

Arthur's Pass National Park

Devil's Punchbowl and Bridal Veil Falls.

Arthur's Pass Monument at the divide between east and west watersheds.

No great spotted kiwis, but with a shy, nocturnal population of only 18 - 22 individuals living in the area, they will be hard to spot.