We came up the east coast from Dunedin to stop for lunch near the Moeraki Boulders.. a very odd geological phenomenon...round volcanic rocks like enormous bowling balls on the beach!! Very odd!
Then we had a compulsory stop at Omaru...compulsory if your nick name is “Penguin” that is!
Omaru is the home to the smallest of the NZ penguins – the BLUE penguin. They stand only about 30cms high and really are a beautiful indigo blue colour on their backs! They nest on the land in burrows, or taking the easier way out, in the wooden nest boxes provided for them! These give better protection from predators and protect the young chicks from injury or death if their normal tunnel nests collapse. Sadly they tend to be at sea during the day, and only come into land at night, However, because we’re in the breeding season, there were some chicks in the boxes, and some moulting adult birds where there too. We were able to walk around the colony very quietly and see some of them, as well as going into a specially constructed hide with viewing lenses into nesting boxes. Because the birds can’t see yellow light, the boxes could be illuminated for us to see them, without disturbing the penguins at all.
For the last three weeks we’ve been trying to make contact with some “friends of friends” in Timaru. These are Scouting folk, and they were expecting our call. For some reason I’ve not really been able to make calls out on my mobile from here, even though it’s set up for NZ. People can phone me, and texts work, but that’s about it...frustrating! We’d tried call boxes as well, but we must have had the code wrong..or so we thought!
It turns out that it wasn’t the code, just that we’d got an extra 3 in the number somewhere! After some very helpful advice from another of those guardian angels..this time in the Otago University information office (where we’d been to the museum) we managed to make contact with Ray and Cecelia in Timaru. As predicted by our friend who’d given us their number, but not expected by us, we were given a bed for the night! They were quite disappointed that we hadn’t been able to make contact earlier, as they have a holiday cottage in Mckenzie Country we could have used. Bless them, we have the offer of it if we ever come again!
Philias was very happy indeed last night. Not just because he was in a nice warm house, not the tent, but because Cecelia is the Arctophilist of Arctophilists!! For those of you with very puzzled expressions, as Arctophilist is a collector of Teddy Bears! She has them absolutely everywhere – even the loo roll holder is a bear with it’s paws out! There are bears up the stairs, bears on the fireplace, bears in the bedroom. I don’t think Philias got a wink of sleep, as he spent the whole night wandering around chatting!
We spent a long time doing the same thing – although not with the bears, of course! What is it about a group of Scouters? When they get together they seem to be able to talk for England (or New Zealand ) as appropriate!
Sadly they were busy, and we had other things we’d planned to do, so after a leisurely breakfast, and loaded up with Scout badges, scarves, guide books for the area we were going to, contact phone numbers for the NZ National Scout Museum, and a beautiful pictorial book about NZ as well as food for lunch!!!!....we were on our way north again. Hopefully it’s a friendship that will continue.
We’d planned to go to the Akaroa Penninsula, which sticks out into the Pacific from Christchurch, but at the moment it’s chucking it down..very misty and a little on the cold side. We’re not really complaining about the rain – the whole area is desperate for it. In the last month Christchurch should have had 18mm rain – it’s only had 1mm, and since the beginning of the year, only ½ the expected amount of rain’s fallen.
So, what did we do instead? Well, we’ve come to Hanmer Springs, which is a Thermal Resort Area north west of Christchurch. It’s just up into the mountains, but inland and therefore not so exposed. If it’s still raining tomorrow, I propose spending the day in the spa pools! I may even treat myself to a massage!
We decided against the tent tonight – we’re in another of those Family Park sites, and the kitchen cabin we’re in only cost us NZ$49.50! About £22.50! No contest really!
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