Christchurch. This is a real city...big and sprawling, but also with density in the center. I went up to Mt. Pleasant at sunset yesterday and it looked almost EXACTLY like looking out on LA from the Santa Monica hills. I mean, you could show the picture to an Angeleno and they might not know it was somewhere else. I will post the photos later.
I'm getting the alternator in my chariot replaced, then I am heading up to Kaikoura. I'm sure the art galleries, restaurants, parks, etc. in "ChCh" are wonderful, but that's not what I'm here for. I've gotten accustomed to the easy pace of the countryside, and will be moving on asap.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Jan. 14 -- Timaru
Had a shocking experience -- I accidentally touched an electric fence! (ba-dump...tish)
No, seriously that shit was unpleasant. Once bitten, twice shy.
Am now getting close to Christchurch (the town with the severe name) as I move north up the East Coast. The weather is phenomenal, brilliant. Loving it. May head to the interior for a day to catch a glimpse of Mt. Cook and Hooker Glacier.
Kiwi:
text="tixt"
herb= "herb" (prounounce the h)
tennis=tinnis
supermarket=soopah-MAH-kit
and the real killer:
debut="de-boo"(!)
No, seriously that shit was unpleasant. Once bitten, twice shy.
Am now getting close to Christchurch (the town with the severe name) as I move north up the East Coast. The weather is phenomenal, brilliant. Loving it. May head to the interior for a day to catch a glimpse of Mt. Cook and Hooker Glacier.
Kiwi:
text="tixt"
herb= "herb" (prounounce the h)
tennis=tinnis
supermarket=soopah-MAH-kit
and the real killer:
debut="de-boo"(!)
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Jan. 10 - Milford Sound
After 20 days of waiting for a clear forecast for Milford Sound, on Jan. 10 I made a surgical strike and lucked out on a perfect day. The folks in Milford said they hadn't even seen the sun at all in 14 days!
Big NE swell comes in tomorrow. I'm hoping to catch it at Murdering Bay, a perfect but fickle right-hand point on the north side of the Otago Peninsula. If the waves are good, I may be offline for several days.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Jan. 9 -- Bring it ON! (Milford Sound or bust)
The last clear day on the west side was the day I hiked out from my Rees Valley tramp....that was like, before Xmas! Since then, 3 people have been killed by weather in my old haunts of Rees Valley and Fox Glacier. I have been waiting for a shift in the weather pattern and clearing is forecast for sat. thru mon. So it is officially go time, and I'm off to Te Anau today.
Goodbye Dunedin. Goodbye to Brighton meat pies, double-scoop cookies n cream at the Rialto cinema, the waves at Blackhead, the salt-water pool in St. Clair, bodysurfing in St. Kilda, the unruly waves at Allan's Beach, my perfect little cove campsite on the Brighton Rd, the Octagon, and the taqueria. Thanks for the good times -- I'll definitely be back someday.
Goodbye Dunedin. Goodbye to Brighton meat pies, double-scoop cookies n cream at the Rialto cinema, the waves at Blackhead, the salt-water pool in St. Clair, bodysurfing in St. Kilda, the unruly waves at Allan's Beach, my perfect little cove campsite on the Brighton Rd, the Octagon, and the taqueria. Thanks for the good times -- I'll definitely be back someday.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Jan. 7 -- Brighton
BIG NEWS!: my application for Irish citizenship was approved, so I am now officially a dual-citizen of the EU!!!
Jan. 7, '09
Brighton
I found the money camping spot west of Brighton...the sand is like ashtray sand, and doesn't stick to your feet. It's amazing. Had a nice little protected cove; very pleasant.
You know, it's not Dunedin that I like all that much, it's the nearby beachtown Brighton that I am smitten with. The whole community orients around the beach, where there is a pointbreak and you can drive onto the beach. There are miles of beautiful beach in either direction. It has the vibe of an old school 60s surf town, with the balding, super fit dads pushing all their little water kids into the waves. Nice houses on the hill and along the dunes -- probably considered ritzy by Dunedin standards, but not at all showy. There's one little store there with leathery-tan 70 year-old beach bums, skate rats, and surf-moms. I love it here.
Still waiting on my Queenstown package, and for the swell to pick up. Today I swam in the St. Clair heated salt water pool, which is located right on the main pointbreak that town orients around. Salt water pools rule! I hate chlorine, and you float better in saltwater anyway.
Was glad today when I was terrorized by a group of 3 kids with those pump waterguns on the side of the road...Because I always have multiple plastic Diet Coke bottles full of water in my car! I flipped a bitch, and came up on them like the angry adult, reprimanding them for squirting stuff at my car. And then I NAILED them. it was most satisfying.
Brighton
I found the money camping spot west of Brighton...the sand is like ashtray sand, and doesn't stick to your feet. It's amazing. Had a nice little protected cove; very pleasant.
You know, it's not Dunedin that I like all that much, it's the nearby beachtown Brighton that I am smitten with. The whole community orients around the beach, where there is a pointbreak and you can drive onto the beach. There are miles of beautiful beach in either direction. It has the vibe of an old school 60s surf town, with the balding, super fit dads pushing all their little water kids into the waves. Nice houses on the hill and along the dunes -- probably considered ritzy by Dunedin standards, but not at all showy. There's one little store there with leathery-tan 70 year-old beach bums, skate rats, and surf-moms. I love it here.
Still waiting on my Queenstown package, and for the swell to pick up. Today I swam in the St. Clair heated salt water pool, which is located right on the main pointbreak that town orients around. Salt water pools rule! I hate chlorine, and you float better in saltwater anyway.
Was glad today when I was terrorized by a group of 3 kids with those pump waterguns on the side of the road...Because I always have multiple plastic Diet Coke bottles full of water in my car! I flipped a bitch, and came up on them like the angry adult, reprimanding them for squirting stuff at my car. And then I NAILED them. it was most satisfying.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Jan. 5 -- Dunedin, part deux
Dunedin
Jan. 5, 2009
CRISIS! last night. I was getting out of my car to go to a movie, and I dropped my keys outside my car -- and with a clink-clink and a sickening splashing sound, they slid through a drainage cover and into the sewer.
Well, this was one time I was thankful for all the rain that comes through here, b/c the water in the storm drain was not too nasty. I used my tent poles to scour the bottom, which was about 4 feet down through water, with a layer of soft muck. By putting my ear against the tent pole, I could actually hear the clink of metal when the rod touched the keys.
The keys were attached to a swiss army knife with a sizeable carabiner, so I figured my odds of fishing it out were fair. I constructed a "hook" of sorts by attaching vise grips to my tent poles. not a great system.
After about 10 min. of trying this, the theater nearby emptied out and three super-nice kiwis saw my plight and, without any hesitation, jumped into the challenge. Such nice people. Anyway, they found a bungee cord in the back of their car, and we improved the hook system to be a multi-pronged keychain nabber.
The kiwis were also calling the police department, city council and the fire department, and a crowd was gathering. I'm telling you: this was a CRISIS~!
At some point, one of the kiwis was talking to the guys in the Chinese restaurant there, and within a few minutes, the Chinese guys came out with the crux piece of equipment: a straight metal rod with a tiny nubby at 90 degrees at the bottom.
One of the kiwis -- this stolid, sunburnt fisherman -- had basically taken over the process from me, carefully sweeping the hook and lifting it to see what prizes from the deep he would come up with. The guy was determined and, once armed with the new hook, he made one connection where he pulled up a plastic bag and the Chinese guy said he saw the keys and knife ! -- but they dropped off the hook! at that point, tho, knowing roughly where they were, it was only 3 or 4 attempts before the keys came up -- to wild applause from the big crowd that had gathered to watch the whole operation.
Anyway, it was a near-miss for sure. A near miss with a happy ending.
Add sewer grates to my NZ shit-list (keas, sandflies, rain and sometimes food).
Been surfing in Dunedin and exploring the Otago Peninsula. It's a truly beautiful, Pt. Reyes-esque setting (more fields than forests, drier, no sandflies) and the only "problem" is that Dunedin central is pretty dreary visually. It does, however, have some interesting pockets, some punk rockers, and a great taqueria with Cholula hot sauce. (That makes FIVE different Mexican restaurants I've been to here that were all good. Amazing.)
Had a 5-foot swell yesterday, and the sun was out: the perfect storm, as it were. Surfed great waves at Blackhead, aka Quarries. The water was 58 degrees and so beautifully clear that you could see the sandy bottom, and the kelp-covered rocks that I got a little too up close and personal with on one wave that pitched me into the rock garden.
Jan. 5, 2009
CRISIS! last night. I was getting out of my car to go to a movie, and I dropped my keys outside my car -- and with a clink-clink and a sickening splashing sound, they slid through a drainage cover and into the sewer.
Well, this was one time I was thankful for all the rain that comes through here, b/c the water in the storm drain was not too nasty. I used my tent poles to scour the bottom, which was about 4 feet down through water, with a layer of soft muck. By putting my ear against the tent pole, I could actually hear the clink of metal when the rod touched the keys.
The keys were attached to a swiss army knife with a sizeable carabiner, so I figured my odds of fishing it out were fair. I constructed a "hook" of sorts by attaching vise grips to my tent poles. not a great system.
After about 10 min. of trying this, the theater nearby emptied out and three super-nice kiwis saw my plight and, without any hesitation, jumped into the challenge. Such nice people. Anyway, they found a bungee cord in the back of their car, and we improved the hook system to be a multi-pronged keychain nabber.
The kiwis were also calling the police department, city council and the fire department, and a crowd was gathering. I'm telling you: this was a CRISIS~!
At some point, one of the kiwis was talking to the guys in the Chinese restaurant there, and within a few minutes, the Chinese guys came out with the crux piece of equipment: a straight metal rod with a tiny nubby at 90 degrees at the bottom.
One of the kiwis -- this stolid, sunburnt fisherman -- had basically taken over the process from me, carefully sweeping the hook and lifting it to see what prizes from the deep he would come up with. The guy was determined and, once armed with the new hook, he made one connection where he pulled up a plastic bag and the Chinese guy said he saw the keys and knife ! -- but they dropped off the hook! at that point, tho, knowing roughly where they were, it was only 3 or 4 attempts before the keys came up -- to wild applause from the big crowd that had gathered to watch the whole operation.
Anyway, it was a near-miss for sure. A near miss with a happy ending.
Add sewer grates to my NZ shit-list (keas, sandflies, rain and sometimes food).
Been surfing in Dunedin and exploring the Otago Peninsula. It's a truly beautiful, Pt. Reyes-esque setting (more fields than forests, drier, no sandflies) and the only "problem" is that Dunedin central is pretty dreary visually. It does, however, have some interesting pockets, some punk rockers, and a great taqueria with Cholula hot sauce. (That makes FIVE different Mexican restaurants I've been to here that were all good. Amazing.)
Had a 5-foot swell yesterday, and the sun was out: the perfect storm, as it were. Surfed great waves at Blackhead, aka Quarries. The water was 58 degrees and so beautifully clear that you could see the sandy bottom, and the kelp-covered rocks that I got a little too up close and personal with on one wave that pitched me into the rock garden.
Can't believe it's already Jan. 5...time is now officially out of control.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Jan. 3 -- Colac Bay
!Bonne Anne!, as the frogs were saying down here a couple days ago.
Thanks to those who've been reading. As for the rain, Xander said to butch it up and build a shelter, and I realized I haven't been emphatic about how *severe* the weather has been. It has been wild, unpredictable, and sometimes hostile.
From today's news:
Gales Wreak Havoc as Front Sweeps up Country (http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/5242292/gales-wreak-havoc-sweeps-country/)
120 mph gusts, combined with a deluge . I've never seen anything like this except maybe big electrical storms in the tropics. In one day, it can go from 45 degrees and raining sideways, to 85, still and sunny. Every day here the weather is adventure in and of itself. Truly.
Note that this not typical weather for here, and there's a great deal of speculation amongst the kiwis that systems are out of balance.
____
Despite my intent to have a "dry" New Year's Eve, Mother Nature had other plans.
In Invercargill, "the beach is a road" (the sign says this) and everyone drives all-around. It's really cool, actually: the city centre is 8 km inland, so the beach itself is completely undeveloped.
Anyway, I was lounging in the back of the Subaru with the hatchback open, enjoying a fantastic sunset and reading, and I dozed off. I was awakened at 4:30 by the most-uncool sound of water sloshing all around my vehicle -- sneaker wave!
I jumped out into the water and gunned my car to higher ground. I call it a "sneaker wave" because I was considerably higher than the high tide line; I've camped on enough beaches that I'm not *that* stupid.
This wave was one "push" of water -- it came way up the beach, and then receded 100 yards -- and that was it. It may have been a small tsunami of sorts.
In the morning and followed my tracks back to retrieve my camp chair and flip flops. The camp chair had all manner of sea detritus and sand in it...but it was still there. Flip flops, too.
Have been in Colac Bay, just about the last town in SW NZ, for the last couple of days, where there were nice, small waves. I am still holding out for a couple clear days when I can make a run for Milford Sound...but it is not forthcoming.
Thanks to those who've been reading. As for the rain, Xander said to butch it up and build a shelter, and I realized I haven't been emphatic about how *severe* the weather has been. It has been wild, unpredictable, and sometimes hostile.
From today's news:
Gales Wreak Havoc as Front Sweeps up Country (http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/5242292/gales-wreak-havoc-sweeps-country/)
120 mph gusts, combined with a deluge . I've never seen anything like this except maybe big electrical storms in the tropics. In one day, it can go from 45 degrees and raining sideways, to 85, still and sunny. Every day here the weather is adventure in and of itself. Truly.
Note that this not typical weather for here, and there's a great deal of speculation amongst the kiwis that systems are out of balance.
____
Despite my intent to have a "dry" New Year's Eve, Mother Nature had other plans.
In Invercargill, "the beach is a road" (the sign says this) and everyone drives all-around. It's really cool, actually: the city centre is 8 km inland, so the beach itself is completely undeveloped.
Anyway, I was lounging in the back of the Subaru with the hatchback open, enjoying a fantastic sunset and reading, and I dozed off. I was awakened at 4:30 by the most-uncool sound of water sloshing all around my vehicle -- sneaker wave!
I jumped out into the water and gunned my car to higher ground. I call it a "sneaker wave" because I was considerably higher than the high tide line; I've camped on enough beaches that I'm not *that* stupid.
This wave was one "push" of water -- it came way up the beach, and then receded 100 yards -- and that was it. It may have been a small tsunami of sorts.
In the morning and followed my tracks back to retrieve my camp chair and flip flops. The camp chair had all manner of sea detritus and sand in it...but it was still there. Flip flops, too.
Have been in Colac Bay, just about the last town in SW NZ, for the last couple of days, where there were nice, small waves. I am still holding out for a couple clear days when I can make a run for Milford Sound...but it is not forthcoming.
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