Day 25 - One of the coolest things geology has given us!

6am and I awoke to a nice warm morning under an overcast sky. I parked straight into our campsite the night before, so I tried to push the van around so I wouldn’t have to throw it in reverse and sound the beacon. I ended up pushing the van into a divot and had to throw it into reverse for 5 seconds and then off I was towards the Moerakai boulder car park. Tegan was asleep and I left her in the bed while I drove and parked, then got my camera gear ready and strolled down the beach to photograph the boulders with the sunrise. The sunrise never came, it only got brighter; but I got some sensational long exposure shots of the boulders and I had the entire beach to myself.

I went and got Tegan after an hour had passed and dragged her out to see the boulders. She was reluctant at first but after seeing them, she really warmed up to them. We photographed for another hour and then the winds shifted and it cooled dramatically. While I was photographing some last shots, I noticed a pair of dolphins swimming in the waves not 100 metres from us. I tried to photograph them as best I could, missing a couple of cool shots but the memory of seeing them gliding under the waves and then jumping high into the air is still quite vivid for me.

Tegan and I actually had the whole beach to ourselves again for an additional hour and then a group of about 20 showed up for their viewing of the incredible boulders. I wish I could wake up at dawn every morning as I had this one, even without the sun shining it was a very special day and I shared it with my daughter alone.

We were all done here and one the road at just after 8am and heading towards Dunedin. Dunedin was a short hour drive away and we grabbed breakfast from a little coffee shop in the heart of the city. I took Tegan to the Cadbury factory and we did the tour together. We enjoyed it a lot, but kept thinking that Mom and Elliot are the sweet crazy people in our family and they likely would have had an even better time than us. Not to worry, we bought lots of chocolate to bring home.

With the tour over it was time to head to Bluff, we had a ferry to catch to Stewart Island. It was now 1pm and Bluff was about 3 hours or more away… ferry leaves at 5pm, time to move it!

We did move it and made it to the terminal at 4:15pm. The ferry service is just for passengers and luggage. The cool weather had come all across the southland and the wind as well. The ferry crossing was quite fun for Tegan and I had to keep focus on the horizon just to feel ok with the trip. The boat was pitching and yawing all over the Favreaux Straight and slamming into every 5th wave it seemed. The crossing only takes an hour and I wouldn’t have wanted another 10 minutes of what we were served.

We went straight to the backpackers and got our room, socialized with a few of the patrons and then went to the tavern to have a meal. I had the blue cod and it was delicious, Tegan had the seafood chowder and we shared an order of what can only be called Poutine. Apparently they had a Canadian working in the kitchen and this was her contribution. Tegan got to play at the pool table for a couple of games and then we headed back to the backpackers. Allie is a girl from the UK and she and Tegan were playing cards together and enjoying each other’s company very much; along with the other guests watching their antics. Allie organized an outing to go find Kiwis and Tegan was pumped to go, so I joined them as well. We basically stumbled along in the dark going down paths that ended at private property signs or beaches. An hour spent out looking and no result so we headed back, watched one episode of Flight of the Conchords and then went to bed.

Day 24 – Christchurch deconstructing

Our first order of business after having breakfast was to search out the Spaceships HQ in Christchurch and exchange some DVDs for Tegan.  Following the GPS we arrived at what used to be their HQ, but now was a red flagged building after the earthquake.  Come one Spaceships, the earthquake happened 6 months ago and besides the address you had listed; the street name was incorrectly spelt!

We were approaching the CBD from the north and you noticed the destruction on smaller buildings in the outlying areas.  Cracks on walls, roofs half falling in or buildings being dismantled for a later rebuilding project were only a few of the very noticeable scenes around this part of Christchurch.

Learning the address to the new location we were off and off to an area well south of Christchurch and it took about 30 minutes just to drive there.   We eventually arrived and exchanged our movies and then went on to find a laundromat to wash some clothes.  It cost us $16 to do 2 loads of wash.  The typical holiday parks charge about $3 a load and usually that would mean $12 for the same amount. 

Getting to the laundromat was another ordeal.  The GPS had us cutting across town but the streets are all closed off due to the damage from the earthquake.  Streets would just end and we did a number of U-turns prior to bypassing the fenced off areas.  There was this one building in the CBD that much have been 20-30 storeys, the look of the building was that it had shifted and parts of it were out of alignment.  I can’t imagine there would be a fix for the building only an eventual demolish and rebuild. 

We had been killing time in Christchurch so that Tegan could have a go at Clip n’ Climb.  This is a climbing facility that houses a more amusement type take on rock climbing without the need for a person to belay the climber; instead relying on a device to belay the climber automatically.  I was really interested in this place and thought it would be fantastic, but it sort of let us down; not providing the thrill or enjoyment we thought it would.

Large fern on hillside made from white bails of hay

We headed south until we reached our campsite at Moeraki.  I made Tegan some rice while waiting for 100 photos to be uploaded to my gallery.  If the rice took 10 minutes to make, then I could have made 24 pouches of rice prior to all the photos reaching my gallery.  I figure there were 10 MBs maximum of photos and it took over 4 hours!  Ouch. 

Alarm's set for 6am.  Night.