franz joseph

all around the glacial canyon, there were waterfalls. to get up close to the glacier, we had to cross a riverbed, & its tiny offshoots. all around the glacier are mountain peaks, but it was a cloudy rainy day, so not many were visible.

franz joseph glacier

on our fourth morning in takaka, we got up early to begin the 8 hour drive to franz joseph. here are pictures of the glacier, & cool rock formations.

takaka

the owners of the b&b where we were staying had a colony of blue eyed penguins living on their property. at first they tried living under the house, but that got smelly & noisy, so the owners somehow relocated them to this area on their property. this wooden door keeps out dogs & other predators. there's another entrance below for the penguins to come & go. these were babies.
there were two resident cats at the b&b. here's a pic of j with one of them.

takaka

here are some pictures of where the land meets the dunes on the walk to wharariki beach, and of the beach itself, with the offshore towering arches. in the bottom picture, if you expand it and look closely, you'll see a sea lion on top of the rock. it was really far from the water, and we were trying to figure out how in the world it got up there. must've been a really really high tide, and now it has to wait for another high tide to get down!

takaka

after the tour, we drove out to wharariki beach... well, drove to the trail head. it was a bit of a short hike through farmland/hills, through dunes, to the ocean.

takaka

this is cape farewell, the northernmost point of the south island.

takaka

here's a picture of baby mussels, growing on the rock, and one of fossil point on the farewell spit.

takaka

here are some cool pics of the sand dunes on the spit. they look more interesting if you click on the pictures to expand them.

takaka

on our third morning, we got up at 5am and took an eco tour of the farewell spit. it's all sand, and the tour times vary according to the tide (hence on our particular day, the awful start time of 6am). this was our tour mobile.

takaka

this is the view from the top of takaka hill.

takaka

here is a beautiful water lily-type flower, that seemed to flourish right around the pit stop. ?

takaka

our second day in golden bay, i got up the nerve to tackle takaka hill again. we passed to the other side, and set out for a tramp on the coastal abel tasman track. you can do the whole tramp in 3-4 days, camping out at the rest spots in between. we chose to just hike in 1.5 hours, & hike back. here are pictures of the beginning, & then two of our rest stop/turn around place. in the summer months, the abel tasman bay is a popular place to kayak. there are water taxis around to pick you up if you get tired. the water was pretty choppy, and it was cold out, but there were still a few troopers kayaking their little hearts out, fighting their way among the waves. i was incredibly happy to NOT be one of them.

takaka

after the kayaking, j spent a bit of time bumming some climbs off people at payne's ford. it's supposed to be the best place for sport rock climbing in new zealand, but it wasn't very impressive, at least compared to what i'm used to here in oregon. the people we met were ONLY rock climbing in new zealand, and were there from italy, australia, & other countries. what a waste of a plane ticket, in my opinion.
we also checked out te waikoropupu springs, which are the largest in new zealand. there are at least 16 springs emptying into the area. it used to be a popular place to scuba dive, due to the crystal clear waters, but they're currently closed to any activity due to the infection by didymo, an foreign pest, that's slowly infecting all fresh water streams & lakes. we saw warning signs everywhere, telling people to disinfect all their water gear in infected areas.

takaka

we spent our first morning kayaking. we were only on the water for a little over an hour, because the winds were coming, and it would be too choppy to ride. here are some pics...

takaka

after all the wine tasting, we drove over to golden bay, for a four night stay in takaka. this was our nicest accomodation, a bed & breakfast right on the coast. this is our view from our room. the drive to takaka involved passing over takaka hill, 24 kilometers of windy roads. i was so carsick, and i was the one driving! i was often going 20k, and all the natives were handling curves at breakneck speeds.

blenheim

here's a picture of the highfield estate winery, built in the tuscan style. the wines weren't particularly outstanding, but they had a cool viewing tower to climb, for a great view of the marlborough wine region. we also visited wairau river, nautius estate, framingham, mahi, allan scott, hunter's, saint clair, cloudy bay, te whare ra, kathy lynskey, and fromm wineries. i think our favorites from this region were herzog and allan scott.

blenheim

after the awful ferry crossing, we headed to our hostel in blenheim. we checked in, and then headed out for some wine tasting and lunch. blenheim is in the marlborough region of wineries, the leading producer of wine for new zealand. new zealand's reputation for sauvignon blancs was begun here. our first winery to visit was herzog winery, located off jeffries rd (hence the picture). it was a fantastic lunch we had there, and one of the few makers of great (but pricey) red wine - a great reward for our awful morning!

ferry crossing

after we made it into the marlborough sound, the waters calmed down, and the ship crew opened up the top deck. it felt so good to no longer be rocking all about, and to have fresh air on the face. the sound was spectacularly beautiful.

ferry crossing

here are is a picture of the water with cloudy skies, and one of our interislander ferry on which we would be traveling. the choppy water was an ominous sign of our ferry crossing to come, that it would be a crossing in "unfavorable" conditions. j & i were pretty sick throughout the crossing of the cook straight (lasted 1.5 hours). luckily i didn't eat breakfast beforehand; j wasn't so lucky. (oh dear...) we had purchased tickets to watch a movie during the trip, but 10 min into the movie, the boat started rocking a lot, so we headed upstairs to calmer quarters. the crew was prepared - lots of them were handing out cups of ice & barf bags & checking on everyone. very classy.

wellington

this was one of the coolest plants i saw in the gardens, and i saw them in other gardens we visited too. it's kind of an ugly aloe type plant on the outside, but in the center of each plant is a puddle of water in which these tiny beautiful blossoms grow. i had never seen anything like this.

wellington

we thought this was amusing - the Super Bum plant.

wellington

here are a bunch of picture from the botanic gardens. one is a sideways picture (can't figure out how to rotate them!)of me with the little cute pink & orange painted flowers that we were following all around the park. another is a big picture of the park. the bottom two are of the area near the cable car at the top of the gardens. unfortunately the cable car was out of service at the time, so we didn't get to ride it.

wellington

here's a picture of j & a sculpture near the top of victoria peak.

wellington

it was spring time in new zealand during our visit in oct-nov, and we saw lots of mommy ducks with baby ducklings. these were living outside te papa, a fabulous new museum in wellington.

wellington

our first night in wellington, we were invited for dinner to my friend l.s.'s house. he is a classmate of mine from the cleveland institute of music. he's the principal percussionist in the new zealand symphony orchestra. here's a picture of him with his family- m, t, & d. they cooked us a fantastic typical kiwi dinner - roast chicken & potatoes & gravy, with a pavlova decorated with kiwifruit for dessert. it was one of the best meals we had in new zealand! thanks so much l! i can't tell you how great it was to see him, and meet his wife & kids. little d was only about 4 months old - i have no idea how they managed to get the cooking done! l & m, if you ever come to oregon, we look forward to cooking for you!

wellington

on our drive from hastings to wellington, we stopped at a rest stop to eat lunch, and found these roosters waiting to greet (pester) us. they were just wandering around, not shy, looking for food. we have no idea where they came from...

hastings

the night before we left hastings, we took a break from our microwaved frozen dinners, and enjoyed a proper dinner at the vidal winery. it was slightly overpriced, but delicious!