Maritime wildlife, Westerlies and hobbly boat rides

Where did I stop talking?
Oh yeah. We were in Oamaru. Well, we walked a bit around the (rather beautiful) city, and even went to the movies - for those of you who haven't seen it yet: Despicable Me is a real laugh! :-). We were also waiting for dusk to go to the Blue Penguin Colony. There we saw an amazing number of about 100 penguins come ashore - quite the experience! Those little bastards are again too cute for words, we can line them up next to Kiwi's :-).
After Oamaru, down we went to Moeraki to see the boulders. They're quite impressive; big spherical rocks embedded in the sand and cliffs. Fun to see, and fun to take pictures!
From Moeraki we went straight down to Dunedin. This city is quite nice, but after visiting the obligatory Art Gallery and the few churches, we'd quite had it and made a useful day out of it, reading and sending emails to all you homies and uploading photos in the public library ;-). A day well spent, let's say! The day after we went to see Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world. Now, we'd done a lot of steep streets in Dunedin so thought we'd covered them all. But this one, oh my. Luckily we didn't put Tony through the ordeal, the poor boy would've rolled right back down!
More interesting was a visit to the Otago Peninsula, quite close to Dunedin, where we headed straight up to Taiaroa Head. Our late hour of arrival was again rewarded by viewing a few penguins coming ashore - this time in the wild, which was even better than the colony! Good on you, mother nature!
We spent the evening in a great camper ground, where owner Elliott went out of his wits to make it possible for us to see The Lord Of the Rings 2 (which we already wanted to see since Twizel). Elliott also gave us the tip the day after to go and see Allan's Beach. This is a lovely bay on the peninsula where we spotted two real sea lions sleeping on the beach. Booyah, and up go our maritime wildlife grades again! Thanks Elliott, great place to see :-).
From Portobello on the peninsula, on we went down south on a "great endeavour" (so everyone said): a ride through the Catlins. Loads of people had already warned us about winds and snow, but we hadn't seen any of it so weren't really bothered. Indeed, the snow really wasn't a problem, we saw something white laying beside the roads but we as Belgians are used to more of course. The winds, that was something different. Dear god, poor Tony had real trouble to stay on the road, and two or three times the poor bastard almost didn't manage. But in the end he took us where we wanted to go without real trouble. Apart from that, the Catlins had really nice places. From viewing the Pacific at Nugget Point, over a strange blowhole (that unfortunately didn't blow) and some beautiful waterfalls, to a supposed shipwreck: mix it with the winds we had and you have an interesting combination! ;-).
We have now arrived on Stewart Island, after a hellish ferry ride from Invercargill. Honestly, this boat trip isn't for the weak-stomached! I'm still trembling on my legs :-).
The weather has turned really horrid on us (due to 'the Westerlies", as they call it so nicely here), so there's not much we can do except making short walks in the pouring rain (or hail, or snow, or whatever). Of course our hopes stay up and I still believe tomorrow the sun will shine brightly in the sky ;-).
Yours truly will keep you updated!

Photos

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2 skiwis on the move

After we grew a bit tired of Christchurch (seeing as everything was still closed), we decided to try and book the camper a bit earlier. This didn't seem to be a problem -wahoooo - so we hit the road immediately. We didn't leave Christchurch before seeing the Willowbank wildlife reserve though. This is a kind of small zoo, where we caught our first glimpse of Kiwi's :-). Such cute animals! They're like big balls of fluff with a large beak and they only come out at night. I had to restrain myself from taking one home, but that wouldn't be so nice seeing as they're almost extinct ... And there's still a long road ahead of me.
From Christchurch we drove in the direction of Methven, after first seeing a bit of the Banks Peninsula. The small village of Akaroa proved very charming but, like almost everywhere we've been yet, a bit dead because of the winter period and the quake. It's located at Akaroa Bay and the views are lovely though.
Going inward, we took the scenic route towards Methven, to find a camping site in order to go snowboarding the day after. The first night in our van (which, by the way, we baptised Tony) turned out to be a success and we love camping and driving around and being able to get out wherever we want!
Mount Hutt (the skifield we wanted to hit) appeared to be closed in the morning for at least a while. Bummer... But Tony took us further up the road and we headed South for Mount Dobson. Seeing as we wouldn't get there in time for lessons any more, we decided go straight for Lake Tekapo. Best decision ever! Sun came out as if it was meant to be, and the views are downright beautiful. Atmosphere is so peaceful and quiet. Everyone in the world should see this place.
Mount Dobson wasn't open as well the next day, due to winds (grrrr) so snowboarding was a no-go after all. We continued to Lake Pukaki and went to Mount Cook, after camping in the very sleepy town of Twizel. The walks in the Hooker Valley and Tasman Valley beneath Mount Cook were very beautiful with loads of glorious scenery.
We have now arrived in Oamaru, a 'big' city -to NZ standards, anyway- and plan to see the penguin colonies out here and the Moeraki Boulders. Fun!

New Zealand is a truly beautiful country, and doing it with the camper really seems to be the perfect way to do it. Temperatures sometimes get a bit low so it gets a bit hard at night, sometimes, but we that's part of the deal I guess. Kiwis are also a big help, anywhere, anytime, really. Just ask and you'll get an answer! That's the way we love it ;-).

Chaos in Christchurch

Here we are then. 37 hours, 7 airplane meals, 4 flights and a confusing airport shuttle ride later, we have safely arrived in Christchurch.
Again, saying goodbye in Zaventem didn't prove to be my favourite waste of time... But once we passed every security check and passport control, we quickly put the smiles back on our faces and started to enjoy the ride.
The trip went very smoothly; we had a tad of a delay when leaving for London, but that was only to our advantage: less waiting time in heathrow. All the connections (London, Bangkok, Sydney) passed without problems.
On arrival in Christchurch this noon, we learnt that there had been 3 more (quite severe) aftershocks to the earthquake of last week. Of course that was something we hadn't planned! It proved quite an ordeal to get to our hotel. We passed several road blocks, guarded by military men and police, and couldn't enter loads of places in the city centre. We ended up being guided by a man from the tourist info, who actually drove us as far as possible and persuaded the army men to let us pass. Thank you, unknown mister!
Now we are here in our room: very small, but cosy and packed with high tech appliances. Not that we need those, of course, but hey, what do you have to do if you cant go outside again for a whole afternoon and you shouldn't sleep yet?... That's right.
In a few days we had planned to go snowboarding around mount Hutt, not far from here, but that turns out to be a no-go: due to the earthquake there's a risk of avalanches... I'll keep you posted on that!

Preparations, preparations

I wonder how people sometimes get the idea 'ooh, let's go traveling!' and then just pack their bags and go. None of that for me. I'm happy I quit my job one week before take-off. I thought I'd have a bit of a relaxing week, slowly adapting to the idea of not having to go to work every day and step by step trying to get some sleep in order to be completely healthy when I leave. But to be honest, i don't see that happen anymore. My weekend started perfectly with a birthday present from my friends and in the evening a beautiful wedding of one of my colleagues (correction: ex-colleague by now). On Sunday I had (no secrets here) quite a heavy head and had to go to a family dinner. In the evening i was broken and almost dead and thought I'd be able to have a nice sleep-in, but ahhh what was i thinking? This whole week is packed with moving, visiting friends and family to say goodbye -apparently that's something I'm not very good at -, trying to at least get some sleep and not get ill, think about all the last-minute stuff,... To be honest I have to say that sometimes it gets a bit over my head and i wish i was already flying and needn't worry about the paperwork (or nothing, for that matter) anymore. But hey, who am I to complain: at least I am the one who's really saying 'ooh, let's go traveling' and packs their bags - even though it's not just in a finger snap :-). World, here I come!