Yosemite Trip

Yosemite, May 2010.  We managed to miss most of the snow!  Link to photos: flickr photos

You've read the blog, waded through way too many pictures...now see the videos

Also available (grab some coffee and snacks): little videos of our trip - feeding eels, Sirocco Kakapo, penguins, Kaka & Kea Parrots......click here to go to my channel at YouTube

Last of the pictures added

I undid all the individual links to the albums, so there is now just one link to the whole trip.  I added the last 4 NZ albums (an added bonus: our Napa Halloween).  It's a huge batch of pictures to slog through, but it's something to occupy your time in the middle of the night.
The highlight was our 6 day/5 night trip to Dusky Sound on the Breaksea Girl, I highly recommend the trip-good people.  Lance shares his passion for ridding the area of pests & predators and restoring Fiorland's flora and fauna.
I also updated the map so you can follow our route.
Go to New Zealand!  Now!

Saturday October, 24-Queenstown

Returned Friday afternoon from amazing 6 day journey to Dusky Sound on 64 foot boat Breaksea Girl (including two 3 hour gut wrenching sea passages-but totally worth it). Penguins, dolphins, albatross, seals, waterfalls, podocarps, NZ orchid-I took almost 1,000 pictures (95% of which will be deleted). 3 crew and 9 passengers-an entertaining bunch. Never again will I bemoan of the perils of ferry passages or muddy tracks (trails)-we pulled on our gumboots and trudged through mud, over stumps and tree roots to witness NZ conservation and ecology-see the damage done by the (introduced) stoats, possums & deer; Captain Cook encampments and remote island home of Richard Henry, the fellow who helped find and save the Kakapo. Also saw where the first beer was brewed in New Zealand by Cook and his crew. Truly magical and remote-we encountered only 2 other vessels in Dusky Sound and very few in Doubtful Sound.

Very limited internet so no photos until I get home (Monday!!!)

Stewart Island Photos

Just uploaded Stewart Island photos-sorry about the huge glut of photos but we're in-between 2 five day adventures. Interior of our cottage should be of interest to Andersons. Drove to Milfird Sound today into the rain: eerie. Had some fun with the Kea, mountain parrot another cheeky fellow.

Stewart Island Oct 10-15

Drive to Invercargill:The area between Clyde/Cromwell to Gore (Clutha River Valley?) was a maisma of fruit trees, patches of vegetable crops, fruit stands (mostly closed except for the occasional stand selling cold storage apples). I put it on the list of places to explore next time.

Invercargill to Stewart Island

Everywhere we stopped we traded tales of the ferry ride to Stewart Island across Foveaux Strait; we deduced that the likelihood of a rough ride was almost guaranteed (at least on the trip over, the trip back is generally a bit smoother) and the percentage of seasickness among the passengers ranged from 50-99% and swells up to 10 feet. Luckily it’s a quick hop from Bluff/Invercargill, only an hour, but it seems to take forever. We opted for the plane flight this time since we had the ferry experience in March 08 (seasickness=60%, swells=8 feet). And the plane takes just 20 minutes!

I have to say the plane option in exciting in its own way. The young fellow that checked us in (and was skeptical that our luggage would fit in the luggage/freight compartment), also called our flight, took the boarding passes, sardined us into the plane and then climbed into the cockpit and flew us to Stewart Island. He looked very much like our son-in-law Arthur. The plane had less room than a mini-van, so we were knee to head with our fellow 9 passengers (one passenger sat next to the pilot). The weather during our stay was generally wet (showers/rain) and two days it was quite windy prompting gale warnings in the forecast. I was somewhat comforted to see the Stewart Island Air planes soldiered on and braved all weathers.

That’s what makes Stewart Island so unique: everyone has to make a special effort to get here to explore wild the southern edge of civilization. The provisions in the store depend on what happens to make it over on the supply boat. The Kiwi birds here (Stewart Island Kiwi) are also seen in the daytime (so they say).

Oban, the one town on Stewart Island, reminds me of Inverness in West Marin. A one-store town, 3 or 4 restaurants, funky hotel/pub/restaurant overlooking Halfmoon Bay and other accommodations scattered about the hilly town. Our cottage is very much like a mini version of the Anderson Inverness cottage with a few exceptions: it is heated by a coal/wood burning stove (also used to heat the water, although when the stove is not in use the water is electrically heated),water is from a catchment system-totally dependent of rainfall (true for the whole island) and there are few roads. There are a surprising number of cars about considering that getting out of third gear would be something to celebrate. Only 20 km (13 miles) of paved roads.

A vast majority of the island is a National National Park: Rakiura National Park , famously known for the challenging multi-day hikes offered. Our 7 hour hike yesterday was rewarding in it’s beauty & isolation (we saw only 3 other people slogging along), we sighted a green New Zealand parakeet and stumbled upon a seal sleeping in some bush near Kaipipi Bay. About half-way though our hike I noticed the asterisk next to the description of our hike in my DOC “Day Walks” pamphlet, the asterisk designated the possibility of a particularly muddy hike. And it was. It seems most hikers just trudged (or mucked) straight thorough the muddy patches. Once again our trekking poles were mighty handy.

Kakapo Encounter: Ever since our last visit to Stewart Island I’ve been intrigued by the Kakapo: a very large endangered, flightless parrot. A few weeks each year one is brought to Ulva island bird sanctuary for the public to view. The rest of the Kakapo population lives on Codfish island, off Stewart Island (public not allowed). They take extra care that the new chicks imprint on Kakapo but Sirocco imprinted on humans (he likes to hump legs and heads). Very friendly and intelligent. So we boarded our boat at about 7:30 pm for a 30 ride out to Ulva Island-fortunately it was rather calm. Our group was smallish, only about 12 people, and we hiked about 20 minutes on paths and then through the bush to the secret Kakapo enclosure (he’s behind plexiglass). We had about 45 mintues with him and Karen, his cheerful handler who filled us in on all things Kakapo. An extra bonus: little blue penguin by the dock on our return trip.

October 9th ?

What day is this? Last heard from leaving Golden Bay... on Monday, October 5 and it was probably raining.

Another mad dash ‘over the hill’ back to Picton to catch the train to Christchurch. Just as we were leaving Takaka at about 8:17 a.m. we spied a hitchhiker on the side of the road in full bagpiper regalia: bagpipe, kilt, jacket, knee socks, long hair. First hitchhiker we’ve seen this trip, but we were in some kind of frenzy to reach Picton and not certain of road conditions (there was frost on the ground and fresh snow on the mountain peaks) and how long the drive would take in Kathi & Bill time, so we didn’t stop. We keep looking for him. We took the scenic route that skirted Queen Charlotte Sound: very, very windy (like a snake) but great views of the sound. Arrived with about 1/2 hour to spare.

We could see fresh snow on the mountain tops in Golden Bay and all the way to Kaikoura on our train trip. The train runs parallel to the shore for a long stretch, the rocks were dotted with seals.

Christchurch was a shock to the senses, big city traffic and busyness. The next morning we managed to navigate out of that maze (got turned around in the same spot as our last attempt to flee the city). Like so many cities it takes forever to leave, the little towns runtogether into one long block of stores, dairys (7-11 mini-marts), petrol stations and stop lights and round abouts. Back to the land of braided rivers, sheep, deer (raised for food), cattle, tiny towns with toilets. Stopped in Geraldine in search of real bread (no luck) but an older gentleman was sitting in a chair on the sidewalk playing an accordion for general ambiance.

Lake Tekapo: when the sun in shining the lake is an otherworldy blue due to suspended stone flour (sediment) in the water. I tried to capture the color in my photos on the 1.5 sunny days were had (out of 3).The night sky is exceptionally clear (when there are no clouds or storms), it is so unusual that there is a movement afoot to have the sky above Lake Takapo declared a national park. The town takes pains to limit their ambient light for the Mt. John Observatory which is just minutes from town. Our accommodation was on a slight hill overlooking the town and lake, even with evening neighborhood lights were were awed by the sky, I just wanted to lie down on the cold, cold ground and stare up into the eye of the universe.

We explored Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park, down around and up the highway a bit. We only had time for a short hike to Kea Point, trudging in fresh air, sun, snowy peaks ahead and bonus of hearing mini- avalanches and small chunks of the glacier breaking away. A few times we were lucky enough to see the event. We met a jolly fellow from London, Luke, who is traveling around the world and whipping out a chicken hat at every photo op.

Woke up this morning to SNOW, big flakes floating down and melting on the ground, I was a little concerned because we had a long, long drive ahead of us, through a pass or two. We did see freshly dusted mountains and well covered peaks but aside from occasional downpours we had a pleasant drive to Invercargill. Tomorrow off the Stewart Island for 5 days and an encounter with the majestic Kakapo.