Jan 27/11 8:01pm
There was sunshine today! For the entire day! We lucked out with the weather and went out for a hike to the Rob Roy glacier. It was about a 3 hour return hike, something like 10km and around 330m elevation gain so it wasn't too strenuous - although a bit tough for me after weeks of relatively low-activity. The views were absolutely stunning though. At the end of the track there's just this massive wide view of glacier-topped mountains with waterfalls all over. The drive out there was an hour each way and most of it was on a gravel road. It was a very popular spot though and there were heaps of cars in the car park when we were leaving.
We have been in Wanaka for a night now. It's about 3.5 hours from Dunedin and we visited the town on our trip a couple years ago. We'll be coming into a stretch of cities we've been to before so it will be neat to see if there's been much change or to spend more time in them. From here we'll head towards the west coast and head north from there. But we plan to stick around here another couple nights before heading off. Unfortunately when we last checked, the weather forecast was for rain as far out as it went so we've made sure to enjoy today. Yesterday we got a pretty good soaking after arriving at the campground but by the evening it had tapered off.
So back to the farm down south. We were there for a week total and took a couple trips down to Curio Bay so Dustin could surf. On the last trip he was out there with some dolphins! There were a handful of them only a few metres away. I was reading up on the beach and got a chance to watch them from there and saw a few of them jump out of the water - which Dustin doesn't believe. As I had mentioned, I spent most of the time there organizing things - photos and then helping as Dot worked through their home office. Dustin did all sorts of fix-it things like making it so their doors don't make noise in the wind when they are shut, hanging some pictures and hooks, and working on the gates down in the shearing shed. He also got to help with drafting sheep - which is the process where they sort them so you run all the sheep through some gates and then they are put into separate spaces depdending what they are sorting for. We both got to go on hair-raising run-arounds with their 12 year old son behind the wheel of one of the farm vehicles. Apparently he's been driving on his dad's knee since he was 7 so he reckons he's a pretty experienced driver. Unforunately I made the comment to his mom that it was a bit sketchy driving with him and she just kind of said we had to take the wheel if we were scared - easier said than done. We got to eat the biggest hogget shanks we've ever seen and we made them enchiladas one night and pumpkin pie another night. Since pumpkin is usually a savoury dish here most of them haven't had it sweet. I think that a couple of them liked it but one of the kids was too picky to like it. Overall we enjoyed the stay but as usual were happy to keep moving along.
It was mid afternoon by the time we head out of there so even though we were driving through some lovely scenery neither of us were in the mood to stop and go because we wanted to get to Dunedin which was about a 3 hour drive. During our free time in Dunedin we didn't get up to a whole lot. Dustin surfed a couple times and we drove around this peninsula that's got a lot of nice scenery. There are penguins and albatross and seals that call it home but we did feel like spending $45 to go look at albatross. (We had seen some on the water up in Kaikoura and this was kind of a peek at their nesting colony but was a bit dear in our opinion.) So we had booked in for a wwoofing stop about 20 minutes out of Dunedin in an area called Port Chalmers. The reason we picked this place was that the guy does surf coaching.
So we spent 4 nights with him and his partner in this bay where it seemed to be grey and misty all the time. We got a lot of rain which meant that the work he had for us had to be put on hold a couple times. Dustin chopped firewood and we weedwhacked and pruned the area along the driveway and then he has a piece of land a few kms from the main house and we weedwhacked and cleaned up the driveway there too. The second place was literally just covered in knee-high grass and these terrible thistles and a plant called gorse that's prickly and hard to get rid of. So that was a quite a task. We ate vegetarian while we were there. The surf conditions were kind of poor so Dustin went out once with our host where they both got blown around by 30 km/hr winds for about 30 minutes before coming in. The next day, Dustin and I went into Dunedin to go to the museum and he went for a surf again. However, the wind was still around and there were lots of guys out so it makes it tough to get waves. Then he went one more time with the host but the spot was pretty busy and a bit intermediate so it was ok but he didn't have a blast. Dustin liked the stay overall quite a bit though as the host had lots of stories and lots to say about surfing too. It worked out well because Dustin was able to sell off the board he bought before leaving New Plymouth to the surf shop that the host's sons worked at (we think the host was still the owner but didn't work in the shop at all anymore) and he got a bit more than he paid so that was great. Also, one of the sons may buy our SUV off us in March so we have to keep in touch and hope he's still interested. We did eat lots of fresh garden veggies though like artichokes that were delicious! I made a quiche one night with broccolini from the garden too. It's so funny that of the 3 times I've baked at wwoofing houses, nobody has those glass pie plates that are 8-9" that every house at home has a few of so we've had to use bit 9x12 rectangles or with the quiche a tartshell tin with a removable bottom that apparently lets eggs through once the pastry is hot enough for it to leak through! No good!
We got out of Dunedin in the late afternoon so didn't go all the way to Wanaka then. We stopped to camp at the Fraser River! haha. It was a really nice domain area between Alexandra and Clyde and the caretakers had friends in Surrey! Too funny. She showed me their address and they are just in Cloverdale so I was telling her they live near where we had our wedding reception. It's been such a small world at times. At the surf coach's house he also ran a homestay so he had guests from Australia and we got to chatting with them and her brother lives in Fairmont Hot Springs and he used to live in Cranbrook and ran the raquetball club! So she was convinced that my folks must know them because it was around the time we lived there. So random sometimes! Another good reason that we stopped at that campground is that it was very close to heaps of orchards so we got big boxes of nectarines and peaches for $5 each! They aren't quite ripe yet though so I'm still waiting and I've been eating the nectarines that the campground caretakers gave us - "You can't come here and not try the fruit!"
We've realized that in 3 months we're headed back home. It's amazing that time is moving more quickly now and we're realizing that we really don't know where we want to settle once this trip is over. So we've been talking around and around with that. Hopefully we get to an answer before 3 months is up! The summer holidays here are winding down with kids back in school this week and next week depending where they are. So it will be nice to have some emptier holiday parks. At the moment we have about 4 wwoofing stays line up for the next month but none more than about 4-5 nights. I found a week just a bit too long so unless we're somewhere that we like we won't book for more than the 4-5 days. A lot of places aren't really keen on short stays and sometimes want you for a minimum for 2-3 weeks but we just don't want to end up somewhere that we don't end up enjoying and feeling stuck or leaving early and making it all awkward. After this next month we might just pick a couple others that sound really quite cool and if they don't work out then just camp around on our own. We're hoping the weather will hold up more like summer once we get back to the North Island so that will make the camping much better. It's a La Nina year here so everywhere we go we seem to hear it's at least 10 degrees cooler than normal and there's rain where they normally get none or a few showers over the whole summer. Yay weather patterns!
We aren't sure how long we'll take to come up the west coast so it will be largely based on rainfall I think and finding decent accommodation to take cover in! Otherwise we'll head into Nelson and go to the Abel Tasman Park which is supposed to be just lovely with lots of hikes and kayaking and pretty beaches.
Anyways, another day tomorrow in Wanaka and we might walk around the lake and do some errand kind of stuff like laundry which isn't exciting but it's nice to feel organized and prepared. There's a local brewery here too that we think we'll check out. And a cool cinema where you can order proper food and they bake cookies and make ice cream and I think the seats are like couches and stuff so if anything good is playing we might do that if it's a bit rainy tomorrow. So, it's about 8:30pm now and Dustin's already ready for bed - too bad the sun has other plans to stay light until about 10pm still!
There was sunshine today! For the entire day! We lucked out with the weather and went out for a hike to the Rob Roy glacier. It was about a 3 hour return hike, something like 10km and around 330m elevation gain so it wasn't too strenuous - although a bit tough for me after weeks of relatively low-activity. The views were absolutely stunning though. At the end of the track there's just this massive wide view of glacier-topped mountains with waterfalls all over. The drive out there was an hour each way and most of it was on a gravel road. It was a very popular spot though and there were heaps of cars in the car park when we were leaving.
We have been in Wanaka for a night now. It's about 3.5 hours from Dunedin and we visited the town on our trip a couple years ago. We'll be coming into a stretch of cities we've been to before so it will be neat to see if there's been much change or to spend more time in them. From here we'll head towards the west coast and head north from there. But we plan to stick around here another couple nights before heading off. Unfortunately when we last checked, the weather forecast was for rain as far out as it went so we've made sure to enjoy today. Yesterday we got a pretty good soaking after arriving at the campground but by the evening it had tapered off.
So back to the farm down south. We were there for a week total and took a couple trips down to Curio Bay so Dustin could surf. On the last trip he was out there with some dolphins! There were a handful of them only a few metres away. I was reading up on the beach and got a chance to watch them from there and saw a few of them jump out of the water - which Dustin doesn't believe. As I had mentioned, I spent most of the time there organizing things - photos and then helping as Dot worked through their home office. Dustin did all sorts of fix-it things like making it so their doors don't make noise in the wind when they are shut, hanging some pictures and hooks, and working on the gates down in the shearing shed. He also got to help with drafting sheep - which is the process where they sort them so you run all the sheep through some gates and then they are put into separate spaces depdending what they are sorting for. We both got to go on hair-raising run-arounds with their 12 year old son behind the wheel of one of the farm vehicles. Apparently he's been driving on his dad's knee since he was 7 so he reckons he's a pretty experienced driver. Unforunately I made the comment to his mom that it was a bit sketchy driving with him and she just kind of said we had to take the wheel if we were scared - easier said than done. We got to eat the biggest hogget shanks we've ever seen and we made them enchiladas one night and pumpkin pie another night. Since pumpkin is usually a savoury dish here most of them haven't had it sweet. I think that a couple of them liked it but one of the kids was too picky to like it. Overall we enjoyed the stay but as usual were happy to keep moving along.
It was mid afternoon by the time we head out of there so even though we were driving through some lovely scenery neither of us were in the mood to stop and go because we wanted to get to Dunedin which was about a 3 hour drive. During our free time in Dunedin we didn't get up to a whole lot. Dustin surfed a couple times and we drove around this peninsula that's got a lot of nice scenery. There are penguins and albatross and seals that call it home but we did feel like spending $45 to go look at albatross. (We had seen some on the water up in Kaikoura and this was kind of a peek at their nesting colony but was a bit dear in our opinion.) So we had booked in for a wwoofing stop about 20 minutes out of Dunedin in an area called Port Chalmers. The reason we picked this place was that the guy does surf coaching.
So we spent 4 nights with him and his partner in this bay where it seemed to be grey and misty all the time. We got a lot of rain which meant that the work he had for us had to be put on hold a couple times. Dustin chopped firewood and we weedwhacked and pruned the area along the driveway and then he has a piece of land a few kms from the main house and we weedwhacked and cleaned up the driveway there too. The second place was literally just covered in knee-high grass and these terrible thistles and a plant called gorse that's prickly and hard to get rid of. So that was a quite a task. We ate vegetarian while we were there. The surf conditions were kind of poor so Dustin went out once with our host where they both got blown around by 30 km/hr winds for about 30 minutes before coming in. The next day, Dustin and I went into Dunedin to go to the museum and he went for a surf again. However, the wind was still around and there were lots of guys out so it makes it tough to get waves. Then he went one more time with the host but the spot was pretty busy and a bit intermediate so it was ok but he didn't have a blast. Dustin liked the stay overall quite a bit though as the host had lots of stories and lots to say about surfing too. It worked out well because Dustin was able to sell off the board he bought before leaving New Plymouth to the surf shop that the host's sons worked at (we think the host was still the owner but didn't work in the shop at all anymore) and he got a bit more than he paid so that was great. Also, one of the sons may buy our SUV off us in March so we have to keep in touch and hope he's still interested. We did eat lots of fresh garden veggies though like artichokes that were delicious! I made a quiche one night with broccolini from the garden too. It's so funny that of the 3 times I've baked at wwoofing houses, nobody has those glass pie plates that are 8-9" that every house at home has a few of so we've had to use bit 9x12 rectangles or with the quiche a tartshell tin with a removable bottom that apparently lets eggs through once the pastry is hot enough for it to leak through! No good!
We got out of Dunedin in the late afternoon so didn't go all the way to Wanaka then. We stopped to camp at the Fraser River! haha. It was a really nice domain area between Alexandra and Clyde and the caretakers had friends in Surrey! Too funny. She showed me their address and they are just in Cloverdale so I was telling her they live near where we had our wedding reception. It's been such a small world at times. At the surf coach's house he also ran a homestay so he had guests from Australia and we got to chatting with them and her brother lives in Fairmont Hot Springs and he used to live in Cranbrook and ran the raquetball club! So she was convinced that my folks must know them because it was around the time we lived there. So random sometimes! Another good reason that we stopped at that campground is that it was very close to heaps of orchards so we got big boxes of nectarines and peaches for $5 each! They aren't quite ripe yet though so I'm still waiting and I've been eating the nectarines that the campground caretakers gave us - "You can't come here and not try the fruit!"
We've realized that in 3 months we're headed back home. It's amazing that time is moving more quickly now and we're realizing that we really don't know where we want to settle once this trip is over. So we've been talking around and around with that. Hopefully we get to an answer before 3 months is up! The summer holidays here are winding down with kids back in school this week and next week depending where they are. So it will be nice to have some emptier holiday parks. At the moment we have about 4 wwoofing stays line up for the next month but none more than about 4-5 nights. I found a week just a bit too long so unless we're somewhere that we like we won't book for more than the 4-5 days. A lot of places aren't really keen on short stays and sometimes want you for a minimum for 2-3 weeks but we just don't want to end up somewhere that we don't end up enjoying and feeling stuck or leaving early and making it all awkward. After this next month we might just pick a couple others that sound really quite cool and if they don't work out then just camp around on our own. We're hoping the weather will hold up more like summer once we get back to the North Island so that will make the camping much better. It's a La Nina year here so everywhere we go we seem to hear it's at least 10 degrees cooler than normal and there's rain where they normally get none or a few showers over the whole summer. Yay weather patterns!
We aren't sure how long we'll take to come up the west coast so it will be largely based on rainfall I think and finding decent accommodation to take cover in! Otherwise we'll head into Nelson and go to the Abel Tasman Park which is supposed to be just lovely with lots of hikes and kayaking and pretty beaches.
Anyways, another day tomorrow in Wanaka and we might walk around the lake and do some errand kind of stuff like laundry which isn't exciting but it's nice to feel organized and prepared. There's a local brewery here too that we think we'll check out. And a cool cinema where you can order proper food and they bake cookies and make ice cream and I think the seats are like couches and stuff so if anything good is playing we might do that if it's a bit rainy tomorrow. So, it's about 8:30pm now and Dustin's already ready for bed - too bad the sun has other plans to stay light until about 10pm still!
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