April 11th. We have been quite the busy bees since our last update We
left Lake Taupo and flew to Christchurch, on the South Island, on the 4th.
The South Island is far less inhabited than the North Island, which isn't crowded
to begin with. There are less than 1 million people on the entire South
Island, and more than half of them live in the cities of Christchurch, Queenstown
and Dunedin. That makes for some pretty big uninhabited (and unspoiled)
areas. The coastline around the entire island is beautiful.
Our first stop was Christchurch, the largest city on the island. Christchurch
is a very British city, having been planned out in Britain. It
even has an Avon River, and most of the trees were imported from England when
the city was settled. Because of this, Christchurch is one of the few places
in the country where the trees change color in the fall -- most native trees
are evergreens. We spent a night hanging out with our travel agent, Mark,
and some of his mates. We spent a night in the casino, too (more Siegel
luck $$). Our next stop was Kaikoura. Kaikoura is well known for
its marine life, as the continental shelf is nearby and the water gets extraordinarily
deep right off the coast, up to 15,000 to 30,000 feet. At the same
time, the waters directly north and south of the town are relatively shallow,
so a good deal of deep water marine life comes into the area and does not leave.
Whales, dolphins and seals are abundant and it is one of the few places
where sperm whales can be found year round. The whales in the area are
between 45 and 60 feet long. We made good use of our two days in Kaikoura.
We played with seals both days, and also took a helicopter ride off the
coast to view the whales. We also saw a few dolphins from the air.
After Kaikoura, we headed further north to Blenheim, which is wine country.
New Zealand white wines are highly regarded, and we spent a day going from
vineyard to vineyard, just to make sure the reputation was deserved. The
night sky here is unbelievable -- more stars than you can imagine. Plus,
you can pretty much see the Milky Way with the naked eye if you get away from all
sources of light, which is not hard to do here. After Blenheim, we traveled
to Tasman and the Abel Tasman National Park, which is where we are updating
the site from. On the way to Tasman, we stopped in Picton and chartered
a boat to tour the Marlborough Sounds. A three hour tour, a three hour
tour. Lane reports I was a fine skipper. The Sounds contain dozens
of inlets and coves, as well as more seals and other wildlife. In Tasman,
we are staying in an amazing old schoolhouse that has been converted into a cottage
right in the middle of a vineyard. It overlooks the vines, the Tasman
Sea, and the surrounding mountains. Lane woke up early yesterday and helped
with the Chardonnay harvest. No shit. We plan on going on an
8 hour sea kayak tour of Abel Tasman tomorrow. If Siegels in helicopters,
boats and sea kayaks sounds weird to you, imagine how it feels to us...be
well! |
