Here are some things we've been up to the last few weeks...
KAIKOURA
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| 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!
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| Our Mt. Fyffe hiking crew at the summit |
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| 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.
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| Bone carving |
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| 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."
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| The Shire |
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| 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.
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| Sunset over Bag End with a silhouette of the fake oak tree |
ROTORUA
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| breidi in the Rotorua redwoods |
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! 
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. 
