OK, OK, I know - it's been more than a week! And who knows how much longer it might be
before I actually get to post this entry.
It is Tuesday, April 8th - we arrived in Melbourne today, will be here for 8 days, and
the place we're staying at has NO WiFi!
This is not good! My goal in the
next several days is to finish up the second week in New Zealand and see if I can't find
somewhere to send off the finished product.
(Actually, we will be visiting with our friends Sarah & Corey &
I have a feeling I might be able to use their internet to finally send this off
-:)
Sooo... I last
visited with you on March 27th - when we were off to the town of Franz Joseph Glacier
where we had a helihike tour booked for the next day. Well, up to that point, we had experienced
almost no rain or clouds, but that morning, the mountain was buried in cloud
cover. The helihike was cancelled
because the helicopter couldn't fly.
Disappointing, as we didn't get to hike on the glacier, but not the end
of the world. We used the extra time to
leisurely make our way to our next destination - a beautiful little resort
called Bird's Ferry Lodge. Bird's Ferry
is located on the western coast of New Zealand
in the northern part of the South Island. More on that a bit later...
There were many wonderful and lovely experiences along the
way...
Lake
Matheson provided us with
a very nice hike around the lake through rain forest and marshland. We even managed to get there early enough in
the day to see the mountains still reflected in the lake. This is, apparently, one of the iconic sights
in New Zealand. We weren't disappointed!
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| At Lake Matheson |
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Lake Matheson Reflections
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We had lunch by the sea where we were left breathless with
the views and the seagulls entertained us nonstop.
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| Now Listen Up! |
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| The Tasman Sea |
Someone along the way told us that we should stop at the
Bushman's Center. After stopping, we
weren't quite sure what the attraction was suppose to be. It was quite the eclectic setup, but also a
pretty scary looking place! The picture,
in no way, does it justice -:)
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| The Bushman's Center |
Than there was the little historic ghost town - Ross. Australia
and New Zealand
had a "gold rush" just like we did in the U. S. Took a few minutes to look around, have some
fun and eat our lunch.
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| Panning For Gold |
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| Saloon Dancer |
We arrived at Bird's Ferry Lodge in the afternoon - this was
my absolute favorite place in all of New Zealand!
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| Birds Ferry Lodge |
It will be very difficult to describe Bird's Ferry. Andre and Alison built their home/lodge on 40
acres way off the beaten path. There is
open country with ponds as well as rain forest on the property. Andre has
created a network of hiking trails around the area, as well as several gardens
and greenhouses. He collects old
"stuff" and it was artistically displayed everywhere we walked. It was like living in a fairy land for a day
and a half. They grow most of their own
vegetables and fruits (and than serve the yummy stuff at Alison's home cooked
meals). Greenhouses are called
"tunnels", and they had 4 of them!
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| The Tunnels |
There were fruit trees - all kinds of them - lemon, orange,
grapefruit, peach, apple, as well as raspberries. Alison made all of her own jams and jellies
AND home baked bread that she served for breakfast and dinner. (I have no idea how she had the time to
actually run the lodge!)
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| Bridge Over The Pond |
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| Creativity |
Andrea gave us a 2 hour guided tour through the rain forest
and around the property. It was
fantastic and we learned all kinds of facts about New Zealand and it's flora and
fauna.
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| Let's Row |
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| Creative Arch |
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| Enter The Garden |
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| Floats At The Pond |
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| Rain Forest At Bird's Ferry |
All this, AND they also had numerous birds in several places
on the property. The parakeets were
actually in an aviary that Andre had created, but the ducks and other birds
hung around because they made a point of feeding the ducks. I'm working on my "moving object"
photo skills. So these birds gave me
plenty of practice!
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| Bird's Ferry Duck |
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| Weka |
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| New Zealand Parakeet |
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| The Resident Rooster |
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| Momma Duck |
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| Guinea Fowl |
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| Pukeko Bird |
Sunday rolled around and we hated to leave, but the next
adventure needed our participation, so after another of Alison's home cooked,
fantastic breakfasts, we were off to The Wilderness Lodge at Arthur's
Pass. But first, along the way...
We hiked out to the Pancake Rocks which hug the edge of the
ocean. No one seems to know exactly how
these rocks were formed, but the result is a layered effect that looks like
stacked up pancakes.
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| Pancake Rocks Detail |
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| Pancake Rocks Sculpture |
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| Pancake Rocks & The Sea |
Than we couldn't resist one more hike through the rain
forest and out to the ocean. The rain
forest can look somewhat different in different areas. Sometimes it's an old growth forest with huge
trees and other times, the trees and other vegetation are much smaller. But one thing is always the same - it is very
lush, very dense, and very beautiful!
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| Rain Forest Trail |
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| Rain Forest Bridge |
At the end of the forest trail, right before arriving at the
Ocean, we were able to get up close and personal with a New Zealand
Fantail. It's a cute little bird that
flits around catching bugs in the air.
(A really good thing!)
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| Fantail |
The ocean didn't disappoint and provided us with
more stunning views of the Tasman Sea.
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| At The End Of The Rain Forest |
As we were driving through the mountains, we passed through
the small community of Moana and decided to take a closer look. It was Sunday afternoon and there were
several sailboats out on the lake - quite lovely with the mountains as a
background. We watched the boats while
standing on a bridge that went over the railroad tracks which passed by their
cute little train station.
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| Sailing On Lake Brunner |
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| Moana Train Station |
I had been looking forward to this last stop (before
Wilderness Lodge) for quite sometime.
Everyone had been telling us about the Kea Bird - a wild New Zealand
parrot - that by all accounts was quite cheeky.
Well they didn't disappoint! I
kept being disappointed that I hadn't seen one sooner, but everyone said not to
worry, we would FOR SURE see them at this pull out at the top of the mountain
pass. One can count on them being there
because they've been fed & associate food with the people. Nothing new about that huh? So here they are...
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| The Beautiful Kea Parrot |
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| Kea Portrait |
Soooo, they're really cute and quite willing to have their
picture taken, but they also like to chew on rubber - like the rubber around
car windows, etc. Tom said that we had
to leave when one of the birds started chewing on the windshield wiper! (Imagine that...)
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| The Destructive Kea |
For the life of me, I can't remember the name of this bridge
- but it was a really, really long bridge - quite famous in New Zealand -
and we passed over it as we finished our trip through the mountain pass.
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| A Long Bridge |
You heard about Wilderness Lodge at Lake Moeraki
in the first installment of this blog.
The Wilderness Lodge at Arthur's Pass is owned by the same people. Both lodges are located in a beautiful
setting with many things to do and lots of opportunities to learn something new
about New Zealand.
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| Wilderness Lodge |
The lodge at Arthur's Pass is a working Sheep Farm with
3,000 sheep. So not only is it located
in a beautiful mountain setting with hiking trails through the beech forest,
along the streams, and into the mountains, but there were plenty of
opportunities to learn about the sheep.
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| Arthur's Pass Wilderness Lodge |
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| View From The Lodge |
During our full day there, Michael (the owners son &
manager at Arthur's Pass), gave us a personal, guided hike through the beech
forest.
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| The Beech Forest |
Following the early morning forest hike, we had an awesome
Wilderness Lodge breakfast and than took a hike into the mountains. Tess, one of the resident sheep dogs joined
us on the hike, and it was really fun to hike with a doggie after being dogless
for 4 years.
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| Fields & Mountains |
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| Tess, The Tramper |
Probably the highlight of our stay at Arthur's Pass was the
"sheep demonstration" late that afternoon. The dogs job is to gather up the sheep and
bring them directly to her owner. Tess
did exactly that. She still had plenty
of energy after our 6 mile hike - unlike yours truly (and she's 13 years
old)!
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| Rounding Up The Sheep |
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| At The Pasture |
Finally, we watched Michael sheer a sheep - a BIG
sheep. Would you believe that sheep are
very docile animals? He grabbed the
sheep set him on his butt, and the sheep stayed right there!
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| Sit |
There were several reasons for this, but at Arthur's Pass
they sheer all their sheep manually - no electric sheers - unbelievable. I believe the main reason was because they
could more easily leave about an inch of wool on the sheep so they were kept
warmer through the winter months. The
photos below (I hope) depict, at least somewhat, the procedure of separating
the sheep from his fleece.
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| In Position |
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| Getting Started |
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| The Fleece Starts To Separate |
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| A Patient Sheep |
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| A Strong Hand |
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| Partially Undressed |
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| Only The Legs Left |
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| Nothing Like a Good Haircut |
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| The Completed Fleece |
BTW: These sheep are
Merino Sheep. They provide the finest,
most sought after wool - the kind of wool your Smart Wool socks are made from!
On Tuesday morning, before leaving beautiful Arthur's Pass,
we took one more early morning hike before breakfast and before heading off to Christchurch where we needed to catch a plane the next
morning for Melbourne. We had only driven a few miles before I
called out the all to familiar, STOP. It
was just a quick stop for a short photo opp of a pretty roadside lake. (How could I resist?) ***Tom has been very accommodating and
deserves a very large medal for his patience with my "camera
requests"!
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| Roadside Lake |
We made one other "tourist" stop before Christchurch to visit a
place called Castle Hill. Castle Hill is
a collection of quite fascinating rock formations.
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| Castle Hill |
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| Castle Hill Rock Formation |
Christchurch
was a quick visit. I think we were
actually there less than 12 hours as our plane on Tuesday morning left at
6:00am, and in order to get to the airport on time, we needed to get up at
2:45am! With all the flights from here
to there and the various time changes, we're never quite sure what day of the
week it is, much less what time of the day it is!
That does it for New Zealand. I can't image loving a country more than this
one. New Zealand had beautiful people,
beautiful scenery, fantastic food, and awesome adventures!
Hopefully, you'll hear something about Australia in
the very near future! Until than, thanks
for following along...
Melissa & Tom
