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.

A quick visit to Abel T

This past weekend we went to Abel Tasman National Park to do a short day hike. The park is a 2hr drive from here, and well-known for golden sandy bays. Even as we head into winter, there were quite a few other people on the trails. 

Day to Day

Our daily schedules have changed quite a bit this past week. I have been busy helping a refugee family from Bhutan get settled in Nelson, and almost every day there has been something to do with them. It has been so much fun to get to know them and learn more about their own culture. They were living in a refugee camp in Nepal for the past 16 years, and the three younger kids were born there. The kids learned some English in school, so they have been the main translators and organizers for family affairs. This past weekend, Juliet (one of the other volunteers), her friend Sara, and I took the family on a picnic near a river.

Krishna, Chhatra, and their second youngest daughter, Chandra.

Here is a picture of the whole family - mother, father, one son (age 14) and 4 girls (20, 17, 9, and 7 years old). Juliet (one of my fellow volunteers) and her friend Sara are on the far right.

This is the youngest girl, Lalita, with her brother Durga Lal and Sara's 13 year old Bernese Mountain Dog, Simba. Simba was a wonderfully relaxed and sweet old dog, and the kids had fun playing with her.

The other thing that has kept me busy this week was work. I finally started nursing at the Nelson Hospital, pictured above (look closely and you will see mini AK in blue scrubs). I will be a casual nurse for 4 different units (medical, orthopedic surgery, general surgery, and rehab) and tomorrow will be my last day of orientation. I have spent one orientation day on each unit, and so far, I have really enjoyed it! I am pleasantly surprised by how much I have enjoyed getting back into nursing at the hospital. The nurses I have met are very friendly and helpful, and the patients have so many wonderful stories, that as long as I have time to listen to them every now and then, I will be a happy nurse! It is really interesting to work in a different system and learn new (sometimes better, sometimes worse) ways of doing things. 

Steve continues to work from home for Ceravolo Optical Systems, based in Ottawa. As we enter the early wintery months here, we have started to need to turn on the electric oil heater. He huddles up close to it in his little work corner at the cozy cottage. It dropped to 2 Celsius last night and we woke up to one of the first frosts of the season. I have had many nurses assure me that it will get a lot colder! Thankfully, it usually gets sunny and warms up during the day.

Telescope-Making

Disclaimer: All of the following is written by a mere observer of telescope-making. In reality, it is all undoubtedly more complex than presented here. However, the telescope-maker himself was out until the wee hours of the night looking at the stars, so he is not awake to articulate all the complexities.

Ingredients: 

1 large flower pot

pieces of scrap lumber

1 second-hand jigsaw

1 clean yogurt container

2 pieces of glass

very special sand and grit

garbage bags

safety glasses

bug spray

Despite not having all his reference books and tools, Steve has decided to make another telescope. Essentially, this involves shaping a piece of glass to make the mirror, and then building the frame that will hold the mirror. For his first telescope, he used the shop at his workplace in Ottawa to make the mirror, and our living room to make the rest. This time, resources are slightly different and he is making the most of very little! He has met some wonderful and wise Kiwi telescope makers, who have helped with the nitty-gritty supplies (ie. the glass, the sand and grit).  This telescope will be much smaller, so hopefully not a huge production to pack for our return to Canada.

To make the mirror out of the glass, you have to have a very solid surface, like a large ceramic flower pot. Thankfully, there were two large flower pots here, so the flowers I had planted in one didn't have to sacrifice their new home.

We found an old headboard for a bed and used part of it to make a little desk for our cottage. The remaining bits were cut up on this makeshift workbench and used as a flat surface to attach to the flower pot. (Notice my flowering flower pot in the lower left!)

Here is the final set-up, with garbage bags covering the wood circles that are attached to the pot. The very special sand is mixed with water in the yogurt container and brushed onto the glass surface. Then he puts the second piece of glass on top, sandwiching the special sand in the middle, and moves them around in very scientific motions, theoretically making a curved surface. We shall see. 

We did not get to go hiking and exploring this past weekend since my new hiking boots are being exchanged for a slightly larger size. So, instead, Steve started making the telescope mirror. This will likely be a project of several months, so if he lets me, there will be many more pictures to come. 

The long-awaited phone call came this morning, and I start work next Monday, the 27th. As life would have it, this is the very same week that I happen to be unusually busy with the refugee family I am helping out. I have had a wonderful break though, and am quite ready to shift gears. 

Happy Easter!

After a lovely dinner with some friends on Thursday evening, we got up early on Friday and drove to ChCh (the kiwi abbreviation for Christchurch). On the drive down we followed the east coast and got our first glimpse of the Southern Alps. 

The Kaikoura Ranges were snowy and it was beautiful to see them set right next to the roaring ocean. We arrived in Chch before sunset and wandered around the Botanic Gardens and Arts Centre. 

The Arts Centre was the original University of Canterbury, and the buildings and courtyards were beautiful and reminded me of my visit to Oxford University in the UK. We did drive by the 'new' university site, which is a 10 min drive from downtown, and although it had many beautiful trees throughout the campus, the buildings were all the typical 70's style.  

Knowing that I have a job at the hospital starting soon, we decided to splurge and stay at the YMCA hostel for both Saturday and Sunday nights. The hostel was across the street from the Botanic Gardens, which are huge and very beautiful.

Saturday was our designated shopping day since I still needed new hiking boots. The Nelson stores did not have many boots in my size, so we shopped and shopped and hours later I finally decided on some boots. That evening we drove to Sumner, a nearby seaside holiday town, and had fish n' chips for dinner. There are little fish n' chips shops everywhere in NZ, and we've started to figure out how to tell which ones are the good ones. It's a relatively cheap dinner, with the "fish of the day" usually around $4/fillet and a scoop of chips (plenty for two) for $3. 

On Sunday morning, we packed up and left the hostel early. First we drove to Victoria Park, on the hills outside of Chch, where we would have had a beautiful view of the city if it hadn't been covered in a blanket of fog and mist.  

After leaving the park, we came across this was a quiet spot,  just outside of Chch.

We continued on to Akaroa, a little town by the sea, reached by driving through idyllic rolling green pastures. There were quite a few groups of French settlers in Akaroa in the 1840's, and the town has embraced the French heritage. It felt like a taste of home to see signs in French, but it also seemed very out of place. 

The town is a very popular holiday spot and it was incredibly busy by the time we got there. On the drive out, we passed long lines of cars heading there, which made us very glad we were leaving.

We drove further south and inland to Lake Tekapo, about 3 hours away from Chch, home of the Mt John Observatory. That was also a beautiful drive and we arrived before sunset and had a few hours to take in the gorgeous views. 

This is Lake Tekapo, from the outskirts of the town.

We were meeting up with a professional astronomer, who Steve happened to meet last week in Nelson. He had invited us to visit the observatory and so we were able to see the inner workings of the research area, and stay the night in one of the guest rooms. Above, Steve is standing next to the 1-metre telescope adjacent to the research area.

The research centre (in the foreground) was originally a US spy satellite tracking station. On the higher peak in the background, there is the MOA ("Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics") telescope jointly run with a Japanese research group, a couple smaller professional telescopes, and a little cafe and seating area.

The 360 degree views from the observatory hilltop are amazing. Unlike the bright green farmland we often see, this land is covered in dry grasslands that stretch for miles over rolling hills and end in the majestic mountains of the Southern Alps. The observatory grounds still had some snow on the ground from a few weeks ago. 

Lake Tekapo is a small town, but has received a lot of press in recent years due to their efforts to create a 'dark sky preserve'. The town has a lot of new, modern-looking houses being built, and a lot of the motels were full for the long weekend. There is a beautiful little stone church on the edge of Lake Tekapo, built in 1935 as a place for people to worship in the midst of the peaceful beauty of the area. Unfortunately, this is now little more than a tourist stop, and on Easter Monday, there was little peace to be found here. 

We passed by so many beautiful green fields on the way home, I finally had to just pull over so I could take at least one non-blurry picture.  Driving here is always a bit of an adventure... Kiwis are so used to their twisty roads that we regularly find at least one or two cars queuing up behind us.  Tailgating doesn't seem to be considered an offence or sign of rage, it's just what everyone does, and in the best spirits too. Rarely do we see any signs of roadrage or anger, just a friendly honk-honk as we pull over to let cars zoom by us.  Anyway, we are back in sunny Nelson now, and hope to put my new boots to good use this coming weekend. Abel Tasman National Park is only an hour away from here and we are keen to explore it!

Random Pics

This little Praying Mantis is the second we've come across on our patio since we moved in. He was pretty cute, especially when he followed me with his head as I moved around him. 

We drove around some of the countryside within an hour or two of Nelson - beautiful hills and valleys with farms, vineyards, and orchards. In one small town, there was a sign for a "vintage farm machine museum" and we stopped to take a look. The owner had a huge barn full of refurbished farm machinery, mostly tractors. 

Steve had a great time inspecting all the old tractors.

After a long stretch of sun-filled days, we finally had a day of rain! It rained ALL morning and then even stayed cloudy for the next day.  It was a relief to have a rainy day and be able to stay inside and be cozy and not feel guilty!

We rented an old refurbished sewing machine a couple weeks ago, and I made this over-the-shoulder bag. For some reason, I didn't bring a small backpack with me and now that I have a commuter bike, I needed a bag that could go around my neck and over my shoulder while I'm riding. It was fun to make, and I did an okay job, but I won't show you any close-ups of the stitching!

 
Here are a few shots of downtown Nelson, with a few fall colours. It is a lot more like B.C. here, with more yellows and bright greens than reds and oranges. 

Despite the lack of colours, the air is crisp and fresh and we are both loving the fall here. We are wishing Kiwis liked the idea of insulating their walls though... the temperatures are dropping to near zero at night and the mornings are so chilly it's hard to get out of bed. Speaking of which, I will soon be forced to get out of bed a lot earlier!  I finally had an interview at the hospital here and was accepted for a nursing position. It will still be another couple weeks before their paperwork is done and I can start though. 

 
We are driving down to Christchurch this weekend, since we haven't been down there yet and it is the Easter long weekend. We might try to visit the Mt John Observatory at Lake Tekapo as well.  I'm sure we will have more pictures and stories from that trip.