The Cardboard Cathedral

We arrived in Christchurch, NZ today. It's Christmas eve. and Gail was interested in doing "something Christmasy". So we decided to attend the Carol Sing at the Christchurch Transitional Cathedral, aka the Cardboard Cathedral, as that's what it's partly made from.

It's a modern, airy space with cardboard tubes soaring up to a central peak. It wasn't particularly well-suited to acoustics but the church choir did a fine job of singing carols.

The original Anglican Cathedral was severely damaged during 2011 Christchurch earthquake as was much of the city. Today there is an ongoing debate about whether to restore the old structure or build a new permanent cathedral.

Tomorrow we'll wander the streets of Christchurch and see how the city is pulling itself together after the recent devastation.

NZ's South West Coast

The rugged west coast

The west coast of New Zealand's South Island is wild and remote but quite accessible today on the country's great road network.

First stop was Pancake Rocks, a bizarre amalgam of limestone and mudstone eroded by the furious Tasman Sea. They are fascinating to behold and still not fully explained by geologists.

The Southern Alps contain hundreds of glaciers and two of them, Franz Joseph and Fox, descend into the temperate rainforest and are quite accessible by helicopter or on foot. They attract a lot of tourism but like glaciers all over the world they are rapidly receding now.

The little town of Hokitika, established during the 19th century gold mining boom, is the setting of the excellent book I'm currently reading: Eleanor Canton's The Luminaries, winner of the 2013 Man Booker prize.

Today Hokitika is the centre for New Zealand Pounamu (greenstone) and is also a very wet place: almost 3 meters of rain annually!


I spent a little time walking the beach looking for the famed greenstone: though not gem quality, I did find some.

Our final stop on the west coast was Ship Creek where a boardwalk takes you through one of the last stands of Kahikatea trees, NZ's tallest. Once abundant and valued by Maori for their fruit, they were felled to make butter boxes for NZ's dairy export industry until they had virtually disappeared from the landscape.

The west coast is also famous for their stunning sunsets!

New Zealand Fur Seals

We had our first encounter with fur seals just north of Kaikoura at Paparoa Point, where we camped by the ocean for the night. The fur seals there are quite used to humans scrambling around their rocks trying to get a good shot!

A male fur seal strikes a pose

Valued for the pelts, these creatures were hunted to near extinction in the 19th century. But now they are protected and starting to make a comeback. Their current population is estimated to be 10 to 20% of its original size.

One of the unique charms of this location are the seal pups in the Ohau pool. Beneath a very high waterfall is a clear pool filled with frolicking baby seals! To sit by the pool and watch their antics was one of the highlights of my time so far in NZ.

Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre

The first warplanes had no guns: pilots used rifles!

While wine tasting is one of the tourism highlights around Blenheim, there's another not-to-be-missed attraction in the area: the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre.

The earliest work for aviators was reconnaissance behind enemy lines

early French pilot's helmet

This World War One air museum was built to hold many of Sir Peter Jackson's personal collection of WWI biplanes (yes, the same Peter Jackson who created the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies).

He also had his special effects team at the Weta Cave create the dioramas. It's one thing to look at some old airplanes; it's quite another to see them in action!

The Red Baron was downed by a Canadian sharp-shooter on the ground

Marlborough, NZ

Brooding weather as our inter-island ferry navigates the waters of Marlborough Sounds

The top of the South Island is know as the Marlborough Region. The protective waters of Marlborough Sounds was where where Capt. Cook spent much of his time in New Zealand.

The weather soon cleared up as we drove through the area

Turquoise waters, dramatic coastlines and the best soils on the planet for making white wine, are just a some of the features that Marlborough is know for.  These are a few of my favourite images from our time there.

A view of the waters on my hike along the Queen Charlotte Track

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wither Hills Winery near Blenheim

Gannets

Ever seen a gannet before? Thousands of them are nesting in a colony at Cape Kidnappers on New Zealand's east coast. So I took a tractor ride along the beach and a short hike up the hill to see them for myself.

These large seabirds are master divers, capable of plunging 60 feet into the ocean, at 120 km/hr, to catch their prey. They live out at sea most of their lives, only coming back to their colonies to mate and raise their young.









  

It was a privilege to spend a morning with these marvelous birds as they greeted their returning mates and fed their chicks a fresh caught fish or two. 

The chicks will stay in the nest until they grow larger than the adult birds. Then one day they take off and fly straight to the waters around Australia where they feed for a couple of years before returning to their home colony.

Gannet over Cape Kidnappers

Glowworms

Fairy lights in the forest

They aren't really worms but they do glow in the dark caves and forests of New Zealand. They are actually the larvae of a gnat with an interesting life cycle.

An inch-long larvae above its trap

A clutch of 30 or 40 eggs are laid and the first to hatch eats its siblings. It then hangs some sticky strings below its resting place, turns on its blue glowing light and waits. When an flying insect sees the light and flies toward it, it becomes entangled in the sticky threads and is reeled in by the hungry glowworm.

A sea of lights on a cave ceiling

After a few meals, the glowworm larvae forms a cocoon to metamorphose into an adult gnat, Arachnocampa luminosa. The adults have no mouth parts and so simply mate and die a few days later, often in the sticky threads of another glowworm's trap. What a life!

I took the liberty of creating some abstract images of the glowworms world. Click to enlarge them. 

Rotorua

The central part of NZ's North Island is still volcanically active with geothermal hot springs and geysers dotting the landscape. Lake Rotorua and nearby Lake Taupo are themselves old calderas. And the world's second geothermal power station, Wairākei, still operates in the area.

Maori women cooking sacks of veggies

Both Maori and Pakeha (European) cultures have adapted to the presence of the readily available hot waters in different ways.


For instance Maori like to use the hot pools to cook their food in.

Playing croquet in front of the old Victorian Bathhouse, which is now a museum

 Ever since a French priest cured his arthritis in the thermal waters, a spa has been been located on the shores of Lake Rotorua.

The steaming pools around the town of Rotorua were mesmerizing. I was entranced by the way the vapors danced across the surface of one pool, the vivid colours of the thermophilic bacteria and algae in others, and the popping sounds of bubbles emerging from a mud pool.










Some waters of Rotorua are dangerous and some are healing. I found a pool where the temperature was just right and had a soak myself!

Goat Island

I'd read that this was the place in NZ to snorkel with schools of fish. The Goat Island Marine Reserve is the original marine reserve in NZ. Established 30 years ago, it proved that making certain areas off-limits to fishing would make the fisheries more sustainable. It was so successful that now there are many marine reserves dotted around NZ's coasts.

My misfortune was to come on a day of high sea swells. I donned a wetsuit and jumped in but I couldn't see a thing. The waters were cloudy with silt. I swam the short distance to Goat Island and back to no avail. There was nothing to see.

So later Gail & I headed over to the Goat Island Discovery Centre, a research and interpretive centre run by the University of Auckland. We were the only visitors and the staff took their time showing us some of the amazing sea creatures I'd missed in the reserve but were available in their touch tank.

Macro shot of the complex underside of an eleven-armed sea star

A particularly lovely sea anenome

A hermit crab shows his face

 

 

 

 

Apparently Green-lipped mussels are good to eat!

Tutukaka Coast

A view of the Tutukaka Coast on our hike to Whale Bay

Friendly Kiwis (aka New Zealanders) can be very helpful with suggestions on where to go and what not to miss. And so we learned about "the most beautiful beach in New Zealand" called Whale Bay on the Tutukaka Coast.

Looking down on Whale Bay

We weren't disappointed! Even the weather cooperated and gave us a sunny morning to spend on this secluded beach. We got there early and for a while we had this gem of a beach all to ourselves.

a shrimp came to feed off my skin

a common triplefin

Something I've enjoyed  ever since I was a kid was exploring rock pools. Now I use my underwater camera to get a closer look at the life I find there. Click on the pictures to enlarge.

Sunrise over Matapouri Beach where we freedom camped for the night

Kauri (Agathis australis)

Tane Mahuta: the greatest kauri of them all

On the west coast of New Zealand's North Island dedicated conservationists saved the last of the mighty kauri trees, giants of the native forests.

Like the white pines of Ontario and the redwoods of California these highly prized conifers were cut down until too few remained in their natural domains.

Today they are protected and respected as the Lords of the Forest. Shoes must be disinfected before walking near them. Boardwalks have been built around them to protect their fragile feeder roots.

Can you see those two tiny people beneath Tane Mahuta, the tallest kauri? That's us! (Close up view below)

a close up from the photo above

kauri kept the NZ economy rolling along

a giant in the subtropical forest

close up of kauri bark

a tranquil moment by a stream