Leaving our mark (final post)

As we're getting ready to head home (for me tomorrow, Marshall in 2 weeks) we're reflecting on our time here.  Marshall is wrapping up some projects and passing others along to newcomers.  When asked what he'll miss, he said coffee from a plunger (see 1st post!)  I'm saying goodbye to friends and having lots of "lasts":  last dance class at my gym, last Saturday in NZ, last volunteer shift, last meat pie.  

Anniversary appetizer in Wellington

We celebrated our year anniversary a couple weekends ago in Wellington.  We went to dinner on Cuba Street and shared a bottle of wine from the wedding reception that someone left outside of our hotel door on our wedding night (was it you?)  Instead of cake, we ate year-old salted caramels that Marshall's mom made as wedding favors (thanks, Erica!) It's fun to think that half of our first year of marriage was spent together in New Zealand.

Stop in Arthur's Pass on the TranzAlpine train ride

My last weekend here we stayed in ChCh apart from a TranzAlpine train ride across the the country.  It was 4 hours each way and took us through the plains, the majestic alps, and over to the wet west coast.  Winter snow in the mountains made for beautiful scenery.  Check out how they clear the tracks: Snowplough train

 Once in Greymouth we had just enough time for lunch at the Monteith's brewery then hopped back on the train for the return journey.  The tracks took us right on top of a deep river gorge - stunning.  We had assigned seats, but could roam all about the train including the open-air viewing car.  And, man, the open air was pretty cold that day!  

Half Christmas at the Llama Lookout

 Our friends Rachael and Erik also hosted a "half Christmas" party with the TT gang at their house, the Llama Lookout.  It was a great party complete with a white elephant gift exchange.  Even the llamas got dressed up.    

It has been a fabulous 6 months; I can't believe it went by so quickly.  Yet, so much has changed in ChCh in that time.  Just a couple days ago the 'red zone' was re-opened and I got to walk freely through all the city streets. The Pallet Pavilion, a temporary outdoor events space by our house, got enough funding to stay open for another year.  Marshall and I contributed and I got to paint our name on a pallet (one of my volunteer duties with Gap Filler). I like to think we left our small mark on Christchurch.  It will certainly leave a life-long impression on us.  

Fancy name to tell us apart from the other Roberts who donated (thank you!)

Little Windows Part Deux

Here are some things we've been up to the last few weeks...

KAIKOURA

Winner of the "King of the Mountain" game

We spent a weekend in Kaikoura with friends.  It's on the east coast and known for its marine life.  The best part: it was baby seal season!  From the ocean the pups travel up a stream to a pool at the base of a waterfall.  There they play like little doggies and learn how to socialize.  

Also on that trip we tramped to the top of Mt Fyffe for a total elevation gain of about 5000 ft!

Our Mt. Fyffe hiking crew at the summit

Kaikoura Peninsula

It was hard work going up/back in one day, but the views from the top were fabulous... as was our seafood dinner and night out on the town.

CHRISTCHURCH

Bone carving

Snow in May

The following weekend Noel arrived.  We greeted her with a "Half Thanksgiving" celebration at our house since it's halfway to turkey day and it's fall here.  It even hailed/snowed that week in ChCh - in May!  During our week tootling around Christchurch Noel and I saw some real live kiwis (of the feathery kind) and made our own Maori-inspired bone sculptures with the "Bone Dude."

The Shire

Noel and breidi in a hobbit house

HOBBITON
Next we flew up to the north island for a holiday weekend adventure.  We had a brief visit in Auckland then drove to the home of the hobbits.  Oddly enough the "oak tree" above Bilbo/Frodo's house is actually a life size metal reproduction with thousands of fake leaves attached by hand.  My favorite part was watching the stunning sunset over the Shire.  

Sunset over Bag End with a silhouette of the fake oak tree

ROTORUA

Noel and Marshall amidst sulferic clouds

 The north island has a greater concentration of Maori people, especially around Rotorua. Noel and I went on a cultural tour where we learned about Maori music, dance, facial tattoos, combat games, and enjoyed a 'hangi,' with food cooked on hot stones underground. 






We also investigated the geothermal wonderland.  In the bed of an old volcano now lie dozens of bubbling pools, colored by varying chemicals/metals.  Some of them are just grey, steaming, smelly hot mud pools as shown in the video (with expert commentary by Mr. Roberts)

To round out our tiki tour of the north we strolled through a grove of CA redwoods that had been planted here 100 yrs ago.  

CA redwoods with a NZ tree ferns

It was odd to see them coupled with NZ Tree ferns, yet these redwoods ignited sparks of enthusiasm to return home to our native CA.  I feel that we'll be like this grove - surrounded by our native community, but with a hint of NZ peeking through.  

Thanks to Noel for visiting! 

breidi in the Rotorua redwoods

Aoraki/ Mt. Cook up Close

Aoraki is the Maori name for the mountain that was later named Mount Cook.  It is the highest peak in New Zealand at 12,316 ft.  Nope, we didn't climb it.  BUT we did go on an extremely memorable tramp last weekend up a mountain that looks straight across at Aoraki.

It was a difficult hike that started with 1810 stairs as the warm up.  That took the 6 of us about two hours to get us to the midway point: a few alpine lakes ("tarns") and a picnic table with a fantastic view of the valley below.

The trek was made more difficult by the presence of snow; a good sprinkling had powder sugared the area on Friday night.  So the second half of the tramp was more difficult as we got higher in elevation (more snow).  Without stairs we were now just scrambling up a cliff.  

See the little colorful figures among the snow/boulders?  That's us!

An hour and a half later we had summitted and treked across the ridge to find the hut - a very welcome sight indeed!  Well, minus the snowball wielding ogre (our friend James) guarding the passage.

New Zealand has a fabulous network of back country huts where, for a small fee, you can camp for the night.  This one was quite large with room for 28.  It was clean and really well-organized with a radio roll call from headquarters making sure each member of all parties had made it up.  Once at the alpine hut we relaxed on the deck to the sound of distant avalanches and waited for the sunset.  

Delicate shades of orange and pink made Mt. Cook look like a sunset sherbet ice cream cone.  We were lucky to have incredible weather all weekend.  The clear sky plus good timing - 2 days after a new moon - made for fabulous stargazing that night.  

We saw an incredible swath of the Milky Way as well as the Southern Cross that is only visible from the southern hemisphere.  Our friend Forrest was able to set up his fancy camera with a long exposure and actually capture our hut with the night sky in the background (photo credit: Forrest Lanning!)

The next morning we were also blessed with a sunrise over the snowy peaks.

 

The way down was no easier than the way up.  Some snow had melted from the day before which made for a very slushy, muddy and slippery clamber down.  That hill was STEEP!  See me in the foreground?  Sometimes I just had to sit on me bum and slide.  We also caught an up close view of the neighboring glacier.  Check out the fissures in the ice.  After another 3.5-4hours hiking it was definitely a challenging trip, but the views made it SO worth it.  Marshall and I couldn't have been happier with what was such an epic New Zealand adventure.

Little Windows

Instead of writing a whole post, here are some little windows into what we've been doing...

Paragliding in Queenstown for my birthday was totally awesome!!!  Marshall, the fab videographer, on Coronet Peak.

 A couple weekends later we left our dry side of the island and checked out the wet west coast.

Up a misty hill we went to catch a glimpse of a glacier peaking out from behind the clouds.

Next stop: "Pancake Rocks" - limestone formations that look like a stack of pancakes coming up out of the ocean.  The best part was feeling the waves thunder up through a hole in the rocks!  

Plus a super cool blow-hole... the water from a wave way down below shot up through a tiny chute in the rocks and sprayed out as if from the body of a whale.

Back at home we caught a stunning sunrise before Marshall left for work one morning.

And Princess Leia (at a May the 4th Be With You party) decapitated the 5 de Mayo pinata.  Too bad we didn't catch a photo of Marshall's Cinco de Moustache.  Maybe next time.  Oh wait, may there be no next time :)

A slice of real life

At a BBQ with TT friends and furry llama ones

Most of our postings thus far have been about our NZ traveling adventures.  However, really we just travel every other weekend and most of the time we're living in Christchurch so I ought to give you a window into our daily lives.

Feb. 22 Memorial Event

Marshall/ Bill geared up

February 22 marked the 2 year anniversary of the second and largest ChCh earthquake, the one that caused most of the damage (the whole reason we're here).  Marshall works as a structural engineer, "helping with the rebuild," as they say.  He's trying out a new side of the company and has been intrigued by doing something a little different than what he does at home.  Most interesting is going on site visits where he gets to observe what happened to buildings during the earthquakes.  Normally he is designing buildings to withstand these types of forces and here he can physically see what happens when they do/don't.  In the evenings he is working out in the park with Christchurch Get Fit, which he affectionately calls his "adult PE class."  And I enjoy seeing the great results, hee hee.

ChCh "munted" buildings

Cafe made of shipping containers

A mobile bank in Re:Start mall

We live in the CBD - Central Business District - and this area was severely damaged (click on caption above for album of wrecked bldgs).  All around we see orange cones, road closures, excavators chomping down building leftovers (nom nom), and bulldozers clearing lots. Shipping containers are used to hold building contents and brace heritage facades.  They caught on and are now used to house banks, cafes, food stalls...ChCh has a whole container mall; I think we're on the edge of an architectural trend.

"Colour Me Christchurch"

ChCh Pop up art (click caption to see more photos)

Seeing large expanses of gravel lots where buildings once stood can be a bit dismal, so various organizations like "Greening the Rubble," or Rotary's "Colour Me Christchurch" are planting greenery around the city.  Artists are using the vacant lots for outdoor "Pop up" art installations (click on caption).  

One organization, called Gap Filler, activates vacant sites with creative temporary projects aimed at community building: outdoor bicycle powered cinema, gap mini-golf, life-size chess, etc.  Inspired by their work I became a volunteer and even made the local news!  CTV News Clip featuring Gap Filler (from April 11th, fast forward to minute 5:55 to see breidi and friends).

breidi & Kathi building the dance floor of the Dance-O-Mat

Magic washing machine

My favorite Gap Filler project is the Dance-O-Mat where a few volunteer friends and I constructed an outdoor dance floor.  It's self-operating ... so there is this washing machine and it has a hose- that's where you connect your ipod- then insert a $2 coin like at the laundrymat and sh'BAM! you activate the speakers, lights, and disco ball for 30 minutes!  It's totally awesome.  And that's where Marshall threw me the best birthday dance party ever...

breidi's birthday bop on the outdoor dance floor

Weeding at the Botanic Garden

Amidst the rubble and art, the Botanic Gardens continues to be the emerald of the central city.  I also volunteer there helping to weed, trim, and plant.  So despite the continual construction noise and grit from the gravel, this city is slowly transitioning back into the beautiful "Garden City" that it once was.  Marshall and I are glad to be contributing in our own small ways.

Picking up my piece of chalk to write on this building wall I would add:  
"I hope Christchurch will...      thrive again"

Interactive mural in central Christchurch