Road trip!

Now that we know our time living on the South Island is limited, we decided it would be a good idea to do a road trip. We spent 7 days on the road and clocked over 2500km. On the first day we drove to Karamea, which is on the west coast but as far north as the roads will take you. The climate is more tropical and among all the dairy farms are hills covered in natural forests, long beaches, and rocky bluffs. This was our first night in our new, very water-proof tent (mailed to us by Mom and Dad in BC) and we were thankful for it as it poured rain all night.

The next day we continued driving down the west coast, which is well-known for spectacular shorelines. We had beautiful sunny weather and got to make the most of the beautiful views.

Further down the west coast are the glaciers that are just a few kilometers away from the tropical ocean and beaches. Both the villages around the glaciers are extremely touristy, so this was a good time of year to avoid crowds.

Each day we would get up with the sun around 7:30 and enjoy beautiful dawn light as we started the day. Similarly, we tried to get to a campsite by dusk so that we didn't miss any scenery. It also meant trying to read for as long as possible to avoid going to sleep at 6:30pm!

The farthest south we went was Invercargill, and a nearby town called Bluff. From there you can see Stewart Island, which is off the southern coast of NZ, and a place we hope to visit someday. After getting to the southern tip, we started our way back north along the eastern coast. We stopped in Dunedin to hunt down some used books and really enjoyed the classy architecture of the city.

It felt like a bit of a whirlwind tour of the South Island, but at least now we have identified some places we would like to visit in the future. We didn't go to Milford or Doubtful Sound, so that could be a trip in itself. We would also like to go to Stewart Island, and also spend more time exploring Dunedin. But, for now, we are back to work for the next 3 weeks to save up as much as we can before the move back to Wellington.

We've put more of the South Island pictures in this web album: 

South Island

In search of the Blue Whale... and other news

This past Sunday we drove north to see Golden Bay and the northern tip of the South Island. The drive takes you up over a famously long and steep hill, and this is the view from the top.

On the way, we picked up some decent-looking hitchhikers who turned out to be locals. They told us that there was a beached Blue Whale on one of the beaches outside Golden Bay. After dropping them off, I couldn't stop thinking about the Blue Whale, and so we decided to head in that direction. After 1h on a gravel road we saw a bunch of parked cars and asked if this was the starting point of the path to see the whale. It was, so we started walking through beautiful green hills of a sheep farm and after 45 min we arrived at the ocean.

With no whale in sight, we went left, and continued along the rocky grassy shore for another hour. Only after turning around and meeting more people on the road did we find out that we should have turned right. At that point, it was nearing dusk and we still had a long drive home. So we left, without having seen the big floating blubbery mess of a shark-eaten and rotting Blue Whale. Needless to say, I was extremely disappointed and if I have another free day, I may drive back up there. However, our time in sunny Nelson appears to be coming to a close...

Steve has stumbled into a scholarship to do a PhD in astronomical instrumentation, based at a lab in Wellington. He was helping out at a public viewing astronomy night here in Nelson a few weeks ago, and while showing little kids the moon and Saturn, he got to talking with a kiwi 30-something guy who had done his PhD in NZ, now works in Texas, and was visiting his Mom in Nelson. This guy heard about Steve's work and immediately said "want to do a phd?" After learning more about it, Steve is pretty excited about the project and we know it is a unique opportunity for him.   Ironically enough, it will mean we have to move back to windy Wellington in a month or so. The scholarship is for 3 years, and although it was not an easy decision to be away from family and friends for that long, we are excited for this new step. We'll still be back in Canada for a visit this December since our original tickets were non-refundable.

Last week Steve flew to Wellington to attend a workshop hosted by the lab where he will be working. I told him to take pictures of Wellington but apparently the weather was so rainy and windy that there were no good pictures to be taken. Instead, he took a picture of his soon-to-be office.