Photos: Yellow Eyed Penguin & Seals; Brill Fish Dinner at Fleurs Place; Mt. Cook (Aoraki); Moerki Boulders
Hello from Kiwi land,
Steve arrived in Waimate on 1/1/08, after stops in Dunedin and Christchurch to get his paperwork approved. He started work at the medical clinic on 1/3/08. The change of pace in this small community seems to be just what the doctor ordered. He works 4 days/week, with Mondays off. Call schedule is 1 night/week and one weekend/month. After clinic hours, on call means home visits or trips w/ the ambulance if needed, as there is no hospital here in Waimate. Nearest hospital is in Timaru, 30 minutes away. Besides Steve, there are two part time docs, a nurse and ambulance crew.
As planned, Sandi left Spokane for NZ on 1/10/08. It had snowed the night before, again, and there were about 12 in of snow on the ground. No problem with flight from Spokane to Salt Lake City. Had a 4 hr layover in SLC for flight to San Francisco. The flight into SF was delayed 2 hr. due to fog in SF. Long story short, the delay was even longer and I missed the 7:00pm departure flight out of SF to Auckland, NZ. After a weary night in SF making several frantic calls to reschedule without having to purchase another 1-way ticket to NZ for $1,700., a nice gentleman assisting thru Travelocity via India, got me another ticket at no cost. However, the new flight was for 7:00 pm on 1/12, arriving NZ on 1/14. The upside to this 48 hr delay was my dear friend, Mari. She drove up to SF from Monterey, on Sat. morning and we had a great drive back down the coast 2 hrs to Monterey. I had a wonderful 1 1/2 days spontaneous visit with her and Sierra. What a friend to drop everything and come rescue a friend in distress.
The 12.5 hour flight from SF to Auckland went fine, didn't seem as long as anticipated. A quick 2 hr flight from Auckland on the North island of NZ brought me into Christchurch on S. Island. Steve happily greeted me there, although his plans for stays at B &B on Banks Peninsula had been upset a bit.
In Christchurch the World Bowls Championships were being held, so we dropped in to watch for a while. Their bowls here are what we call Bocce Ball, only with larger "bowls". We drove on down the coast and stopped at Giesen winery for a taste. We were the only ones there until another American couple arrived. Got to talking, they were from Kentucky, and he has a sister that lives in Ellensburg, Wa. Turns out his sister is Jackie Leinbach, one of my good "Garden Club" buddies and friend of 20 some years. Yes folks, it is a small world after all.
Steve had to work the next day, 1/15, so left me to explore what will be our new home and town for the next 4 1/2 months. Waimate is a peaceful country town of 2800 people, with 7000 in the area. It is about 5 mi inland and is surrounded by hills, native bush and farmland. Waimate is a center for farming, forestry and berry fruits. The town has all the essentials, a grocery, pharmacy, hardware, needlework/quilt and stationery store, as well as good ice cream shop, and couple of tea rooms. The Saturday farmer's market is loaded with locally grown nectarines, black cherries, kiwi, strawberries, raspberries, veggies, etc. There are several second hand shops, which have been useful in filling in the gaps for the few household items. The house is a cute 1940's bungalow style with plenty of room. The neighbor tells me it was updated recently, with all new kitchen appliances. It has a roomy kitchen that is bright and sunny, and glassed in sun porch at the other end of the house. The laundry room has a new washing machine and there is a handy clothes line out the back door for drying. Essential furnishings include: kitchen table and chairs, comfortable bed and sofa and 2 chairs. The outside of the house is surrounded by wide variety of flowers, shrubs and trees. Waimate houses are tidy with flowers and shrubs in the front and veggie garden in the back. A large magnolia tree is blooming in our front yard and smells wonderful. Our garden patch has potatoes ready and we have added a courgette (zucchini) and some herbs. Summer started here in Dec. The locals tell us this is one of the best summers they have had in several years. The temps. have been in 70-80s.
I am enjoying time to take walks into the hills with sweeping views of the pastures, forests, town below and the Pacific in the distance. Lots of sheep, cows and birds to see along the way. This area is famous for the red necked wallaby, and Steve has seen one on one of his hikes in the hills. On the long weekends Steve and I have been exploring other areas on the South Island. The people are great - relaxed and friendly. The scenery beautiful at every turn. Our highlights so far have been in the Otago district, which is south of here on the South Pacific ocean side. We were fortunate to see the rare yellow-eyed penguins coming onto the shore and waddling up the cliffs to their nests. Lots of seals and sea lions too. Outside of Oamaru, the Moeraki Boulders sit on the beach like giant turtles-but they are million year old spherical rock formations up to 10 feet across.
This past weekend we visited the area known as the Southern Alps and Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park. Of NZ's 27 mts. that are over 10,000ft, 22 of them are in this area. The late, Sir Edmund Hillary practiced on Mt. Cook in preparation for becoming the first to reach the summit of Mt. Everest in 1953. All of NZ mourned his death that occurred 2 days prior to my arrival. We managed a 4 hr. hike to the base of Mt Cook at Hooker Glacier. The small town of Twizel was our base for the 3 day weekend at a very nice farmstay B & B. Farmstay means it is a working farm/ranch. And in this case, it meant the sheep were in the paddock just off the small deck of our room. There was a wood heated outdoor hot tub, but due to high fire danger, couldn't be fired up. We had clear views of Mt Cook from our room and a full moon to boot. Twizel was having their Salmon and Wine Festival, we were happy campers and hikers.
Note to self: Make future posts shorter!!
