Liz and Eli on the Move

Though the dolphins were a real highlight, we have seen a lot more wildlife
on our trip – especially on the Otago peninsula, on the southeast shore of
the southern island. This penguin is a chick waiting for its mum to return
from the sea and regurgitate some tasty fishy dinner into its beak. Our
guide informed us that most breeds of penguins do not live on big ice floes
and actually depend on forested coastal areas to successfully hatch and
raise chicks. The sheltered grassy and forested areas near beaches provide
cover from sea lions and other predators who could feed on chicks while
parents are away feeding. The deforestation in NZ for sheep raising has put
a stress on penguin populations but efforts have begun to reforest some
areas.

We spent a relaxing two days on Barry’s Bay near Akaroa on Banks Peninsula south of Christchurch. A real highlight was spending the morning kayaking and being greeted by numerous local dolphins, known as “Hector’s Dolphins”, which are one of the world’s smallest dolphins at about 1.4 meters long and were unimaginatively named after a 19th century Natural History museum curator in Wellington. It is a real thrill to be so close to the water and have dolphins swim and jump around you. I felt bad for having secretly laughed at all those ladies out there with dolphin tattoos. Eli claims one turned sideways and looked him deep in the eye. They were very playful and stuck around for an hour or so.

Site’s a little funky right now. Server migration, permission troubles… I’m trying to sort it out. Bear with me! Hopefully we will return to normal Liz and Eli blogging shortly. Well, Liz blogging anyway.

Thanks,

Anthony

… because it’s so dramatically lovely.

After our ferry crossing, we took off down the east coast of the island, stopping in the dramatically lovely Kaikoura area. Huge mountains drop dramatically to the sea. The town is popular with surfers and people who like to go on whale watching cruises.

As you can see, the ride from the north island to the south island of New Zealand is very photogenic! Despite our worries based on warnings we heard about rough crossings, we had no puking (that I witnessed) on our voyage!

We spent three days exploring the Hawke’s Bay region on the North island’s Pacific coast. We stayed in Napier, a city that had been mainly destroyed in a terrible earthquake in 1931 but rebounded nicely and was tremor-free during our stay. The region around is full of vineyards, orchards and uncrowded beaches. Pictured below is our favorite, Waimarama. The locals use old tractors to tow their boats to the beach.

(aka Mt. Doom)

eli and I are still extremely sore from the 24k Tongario trek we did on Sunday! We went to the summit of Mt. Tongariro (1976m) and enjoyed great views of Mt. Ngaurohoe (familiar to some as Mt. Doom). We are hoping to recover normal functioning in our calves soon.