penguins and the award winning International Antarctic Centre

‘It’s like living in a soap opera’ says the woman feeding the penguins: she had just described how CC ‘doesn’t like water’ and had recently ‘left her old boyfriend for Elvis’, her new one.

CC had been found in Napier by Napier City Council workers (hence the CC) who were digging a storm water drain in West Quay when a digger hit the chicks’ obscured nest and that’s how she came to be rescued and end up living in Christchurch at the New Zealand Penguin Encounter in the International Antarctic Centre.

This is New Zealand’s first combined indoor and outdoor penguin viewing area and it can hold up to 26 Little Blue penguins in its Banks Peninsula natural-themed environment and 80,000 litre pool.  We visitors can see the ‘Little Blues’ above and below water.

All the penguins are birds that have been rescued and with physical disabilities that have left them defenceless, many would not have survived in the wild. Interestingly some of the bird have to wear little blue boots: living in captivity they spend more time on land and get sore feet!

After hand-feeding many of the disabled birds in the water a few who cannot feed in water yet are hand fed. A couple of them climb on Vicky’s lap.

“Climbing in my knee has nothing to do with being friendly or tame, it’s purely wanting the fish” she tells us – despite that, I would love to be so up close and personal with them. It seems that even wild penguins have food preferences, with one of them turning away whenever the ‘wrong variety’ of fish was offered!

It was the blue, painted, penguin footprints-trail that had led us to the centre from the airport. It seemed appropriate that our latest trip here started at the Christchurch airport, departure point for the USA, Italian, and NZ Antarctic flights.  For well over a hundred years, Christchurch has been the starting point for many of the greatest adventures to the ice, firstly from Lyttelton harbour just over the Port Hills and then from Wigram and this airport.

Even today some 70% of the visitors to the frozen continent leave from Christchurch, however, for most of us, this multi-award winning Antarctic Centre is as near to the real thing we’ll get. I have long dreamt of landing on the ice and when Marcus Lush told me he was going to Antarctica to record a TV series (Ice) I was green with envy. Unfortunately, I suspect this centre is as close as I’ll get to the big white continent. However I must confess, every time I enter the indoor polar room and the temperature drops to -18 degrees I revise my daydream – only to change it again once outside and warm.

During the Antarctic storm (every 30 mins) there is great excitement and the authentic blizzard (snow is made monthly) and the audio of a genuine 40 km/h Antarctic winds seems to make the room authentic. The room constantly chilled to -5 degrees and the wind chill machine it drops it further – an admission, I did not use the ice slide although many did.

Christchurch is home to the Antarctic research offices of New Zealand, United States and Italy’s Antarctic programmes, and artists, tourists and explorers have all prepared for their challenges in the city. This means the city’s rich heritage is reflected in museums, walkways, statues and even an Indian Totem Pole of friendship. (See more here)

The International Antarctic Centre is a rich introduction to the continent and acknowledgment of the explorers who, over three centuries, have been spellbound by the awe-inspiring, frozen land, starting with Abel Tasman and James Cook who both found New Zealand while looking for Terra Australis Incognita (Antarctica).

Adventurers associated with both Christchurch and Antarctica include Robert Falcon Scott who left from the port of Lyttelton to again try to reach the South Pole after his earlier attempt had failed. Terra Nova returned to the port in 1913 bringing news of the death of Scott and his four companions on their way back from the South Pole.

Norwegian explorer, Roald Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole in 1911 and later gave a popular public lecture in Christchurch. In gratitude to the Canterbury Museum for their help, he donated the penknife used to cut the flagstaff marking the South Pole; and Irishman Ernest Shackleton who first travelled to Antarctica with Scott but was invalided out and later tried again with his own expedition on Nimrod.

‘I chilled out at the Christchurch International Antarctic Centre’ says my bright green wrist band: so have a prince, heads of state, lots of children and other people from all over the world.  This wrist band not only allows me to stay all day reading, watching and learning in the centre, but also have a ride on the Hagglund – a 16-seater tracked, polar transport vehicle, the same as the Hagglund all terrain vehicles used in Antarctica by the US and New Zealand Antarctic programmes. We are bumped and spun around as it’s put through its paces, swimming and going up and down steep hills. The 15 minute ride departs every 20 minutes from the front of the Antarctic Centre – the males loved it – I wouldn’t do it again!

For people bought up in Christchurch during the 50s and 60s – a period of intense activity in the Antarctic  –  ‘Operation Deep Freeze’ and the early morning sound of DC3s heading ‘to the ice’ are part of our imbedded personal history and its seems highly appropriate the International Antarctic Centre should be sited here.

It’s not often that a tourist facility covers science, technology, fun-rides, history, ecology, nature, conservation, and the rescue of penguins, but this one does. It is a modern shop window for Antarctica and a fun, exciting and hands-on experience for all: no wonder it has won so many awards and international acclaim.

For the three generations of our family, on our second visit as a family, watching the penguins was the high on our list of ‘the best parts’. “It’s pretty cool, even though they are smelly” says master-10-year-old.

Worlds first inner-city pest-free environment

Visit the worlds first inner city pest-free environment

In a hidden, almost secret valley, kiwis are breeding only 3 kilometres from parliament – in the heart of our Capital city, a slice of New Zealand is reverting to its former glory with the help of a predator-free-mainland-island.

When early settlers wrote about this area they reported rich and diverse forests filled with deafening bird-song. Here, in one of Wellingtons best kept stories, a group of people, with a five hundred year vision, are restoring the area to that same condition.

I have taken a ten minute bus ride, and now, after checking my bag for mice or other predators, step through a gate in the 2.3 metre predator-proof fence and into the 252-hectare valley.

Katie and Allison, two of the volunteers guides, are taking a small group on a nocturnal tour.

“This is a listening tour” they tell us. “You  can except to hear various night birds but not see them” and so begins our walk on what they have dscdribed  as ‘a work in progress.’

The night-sky is clear and we’ve been given a torch.

‘Only use it to see the path when you need to’ says Allison ‘and make sure you have your fingers over the light to make sure we don’t disturb anything’

Karori, Wellington, NZ

Our eyes grow accustomed to the dimming half light and off we go, Katie giving us information in response to our questions.

The two reservoirs originally supplied Wellingtons residents with water and were decommissioned in the mid-nineties. There are around 10 paid staff and some 400 volunteers and the only visitor entry to the sanctuary is via the visitor centre at the end of Waiapu  Road. (on the left as you come through the Karori Tunnel

We walk, dusk turns into night, a large group of black shag are roosting on a dead pine tree and when we stop at the upper dam we hear our first kiwi. The call carries across the valley and a shiver-thrill ripples through my body. How amazing that this wonderful bird is safe and breeding so close to human activity. Standing on the dam, built in1908, now a  tree-top canopy walk, more birds call, we hear about five different kiwi and a couple of weka. Kiwi were released, over two years, in the valley ( from Kapiti Island) and the numbers have increased naturally since then.

On our walk back down the other-side of the dam we see glow-worms. I feel quite disoriented by them. They are so bright in the dark night and look like the lights of a distant city. Passing back through the weka fence (weka sometimes eat kiwi eggs) we stop to listen as another kiwi calls. Most human kiwi never get to hear this sound and I feel lucky to be hearing so many here on this city ‘island’.

“That’s Jackson” said our guide.

NZs paradise shelduck was called the painted duck by Cook

I saw my first Paradise ducklings of the season over this past weekend … these birds are unusual in they sometimes nest in trees, some 10 – 15 metres above the ground.

They are also the only birds in New Zealand who have increased in numbers since Cook arrived in NZ: he named them the painted duck.

female on Avon river

male paradise -- they pair for life

See other blogs I have written about NZs flightless birds and this website http://www.nzbirds.com/index2.html for more information.

Farewell Spit – the north of the south

Farewell Spit Eco Tours: South Island, New Zealand

I join Farewell Spit Eco Tours on the last day before the time of the tides prevents vehicles travelling on the spit for a few days every so often. (Check http://www.farewellspit.com/ for dates and bookings – AND tell them I recommended them to you!) Above photo courtesy of Farewell Spit eco tours.

My driver-guide, Elaine, is in her fourth summer and says it’s the best job in the world and she is driving Lily. “In front of you are handles. These are for you to grab during the bumpy bits when we go off road” she tells us as we get our safety instructions, then off we go.

We have 24 kms to the start of the spit and 15 one-way bridges to cross.

Originally called Te Onetahua, meaning heaped up sand the long sandbar stretches out 35 km and Paddy Gillooly, manager of The Original Farewell Spit Safari, has a family history with it as old as Collingwood. He prides himself that his hand-picked guides know what they are talking about, that they give accurate information and can’t just be a bus driver. They also have to have great people skills and must constantly read the beach, watching for quicksand.

First called Murderers Bay by Abel Tasman in 1642, when James Cook came he called it Massacre Bay and the early settlers first called it Coal Bay. It was then re-named in 1850s when alluvial gold was discovered in the Aorere River, giving the area its current name  Golden Bay: much more melodious and welcoming.

Growing out of a service delivery, taking fuel, food and school lessons to the light housekeepers and their families, carrying passengers began so they too could enjoy the landscape and see the wading birds. It’s from those beginnings the trip I’m on began.

I had not expected the pools of water all over the bay which replace the long wide beach I had expected  - no wonder wading birds love it here, and the cockles grow so well, I’d had forgotten it’s a mudflat not a beach.

The tides rise and fall fast. “At about walking pace” I’m told: “not at the speed of a galloping horse” that the Nelson artist, Anna Leary, had been told as a young girl  - a dramatic picture that has always stayed with her.

Whale strandings happen in Golden Bay too. It is particularly notorious for pilot whale strandings and during the 1990s there was often one every summer and is why some whale experts call these months ‘the silly season.’
Over the years more than half were refloated, but several hundred have died and been buried on the beaches where they died. The most recent major standing was in December 2005 when 123 whales beached at Puponga and after a massive rescue operation, were refloated.

After visiting the northern-most point of the South Island, Cape Farewell, a bold cliff top which provides a spectacular view of the wild Tasman Sea, we head for the spit, passing “the oldest resident in Puponga” on the way: a face in the craggy rocks.

Through the locked gate we drive, from here, the public may only walk. Down the beach we drive, seeing a few spoonbills and black-billed gulls and many black swans feeding, reminding me I am too early for the godwits which arrive in the thousands from Alaska and resolve to return when I can join a bird watching tour with this company. Wading birds abound from September to April, with February and early March being the ultimate time. With so many seasonal feathered visitors, its no wonder this area has been named a sanctuary, a wetland of international importance.
Driving over the spit to the northern face of Farewell Spit I now see the huge sand beach I was expecting on the bay side. It’s impressive.

The spit could be likened to an iceberg “up to 250 metres deep” our guide tells us, “and growing in length at 4-metres annually. The sand dunes further along the spit are up to 25 metres high. This makes about 3.4 million cubic metres of sand.”  I later find it has been growing for some 6,500 years and settlers have visited the area since the 1870s.
At our first stop at Fossil Point I pick up 3 plastic bottles which have washed up on this pristine area and search for fossils: we find a few in the rocks and I watch some Caspian terns swooping and diving into the sea. There are also some black oystercatchers with their distinct red legs and bills and shrill calls warning me against coming too close! Despite the name, here they dine on tuatua (a shellfish which we Kiwi love to eat too).

Down the beach we drive and I gloat as we pass the post – 2 km down the beach and 4 km from the locked gate –  as this is as far as people can walk, while we continue for another 22 km to the lighthouse.

The wind is picking up the loose sand making the dunes look like the waves beside them: the Nor-wester is the prevailing wind and it is windy 70% of the time, an essential element in forming the spit and consequently Golden Bay.

“How good is this?” asks Elaine “No roads, no signage. So no advertising and no traffic so just sit back and take in the awesome picture of nature undisturbed.” And undisturbed it is.

She has already told me it’s been about 18 months since she got stuck in the sand although in her first year it happened regularly. Her male colleagues kept telling her they would paint her shovel pink.

They had also told her “You are only really stuck if you can’t dig yourself out. If you have dug yourself out you weren’t really stuck!”

“There are probably photos of me on the end of a shovel all over the world” she laughs.

We eventually arrive at the lighthouse which has its power line buried the length of the spit although I think the lighthouse itself is solar powered and the light rotates every 15 seconds.

As a result of many shipwrecks, the first lighthouse was commissioned in 1870, a wooden structure that had to be replaced in 1897 with a steel one. Automated in 1984, this lighthouse is also depicted in a 1969 stamp series of light houses: The Farewell Spit stamp was valued at 10 cents.

After afternoon tea in one of the lighthouse keepers old houses, I climb to the second level until my fear of heights beats me and I retreat and go to look at the Pouwhenua which depicts my favourite, pacific-wide, mythical person: the mischievous Maui Tikitiki a Taranga who is credited with fishing up the North Island while standing in his canoe, the South Island.

According to the notice beside this carving by locals, “as Maui pulled on his line, his feet were dragged along the land, pushing sand in to the dune formations which form Farewell Spit.”

bells peel out in new zealand to welcome a bird back

The very first feathered signs of spring arriving in my city have landed.

The Anglican Cathedral bells ring to welcome the  Eastern bar-tailed godwits as they arrive back in Christchurch ( New Zealand) from Alaska.

This annual, non stop epic journey of some 80 thousand godwits migrating back to their breeding grounds here – from the Alaska Arctic Tundra – are warmly welcomed by the ringing of the bells ( hand bell ringers too). This journey of 11,500 kms is usually flown non-stop and usually takes about six days!

Every year we locals farewell them from our shores and when they return the catherdral bells peel out to welcome them back to their summer feeding grounds here on the Ihutai/Avon- Heathcote estuary such a short distance the centre of our city.

godwits coming in to roost beside the black and white oyster catchers

an afternoon of birds in the city

Yesterday afternoon (25 July 2009) I went for a walk with my camera in Travis Wetlands, Christchurch. This land was once used by my great grandfather to run a herd of cows, and sold the fresh milk around Christchurch from the back of a horse drawn cart –  my mother remembers this from when she was a young girl some 80 years ago.  Today, the last remnants of the ‘bog’  or ’swamp’ as it was once called has been saved from the encroaching houses is now a valued and award-winning ‘wetland’. Check out their website, and visit when you get to Christchurch – you can get there by public bus.

farewell spit eco tour: top of the south island, NZ

I join Farewell Spit Eco Tours on the last day before the time of the tides prevents vehicles travelling on the spit for a few days every so often. (Check www.farewellspit.com for dates and bookings)

My driver-guide, Elaine, is in her fourth summer and says “it’s the best job in the world” and she is driving Lily. “In front of you are handles. These are for you to grab during the bumpy bits when we go off road” she tells us as we get our safety instructions, then off we go – we have 24 kms to the start of the spit and 15 one-way bridges to cross.

Originally called Te Onetahua, meaning ‘heaped up sand’ – the long sandbar stretches out 35 km and Paddy Gillooly, manager of The Original Farewell Spit Safari, has a family history with it as old as Collingwood. He prides himself that his hand-picked guides ‘know what they are talking about – they give accurate information and can’t just be a bus driver. They also have to have great people skills and must constantly read the beach, watching for quicksand.’

end of the road - the top of the south island

First called Murderers Bay by Abel Tasman in 1642, when James Cook came he called it Massacre Bay and the early settlers first called it Coal Bay. It was then re-named in 1850s when alluvial gold was discovered in the Aorere River, giving the area its current name – Golden Bay, much more melodious and welcoming.

Growing out of a service delivery, taking fuel, food and school lessons to the light housekeepers and their families, carrying passengers began so they too could enjoy the landscape and see the wading birds. It’s from those beginnings the trip I’m on began.

I had not expected the pools of water all over the bay which replace the long wide beach I had expected – no wonder wading birds love it here – and the cockles grow so well –  I’d  had forgotten it’s a mudflat not a beach.

The tides rise and fall fast. ‘At about walking pace’ I’m told: not at ‘the speed of a galloping horse’ that the Nelson artist, Anna Leary, had been told as a young girl – a dramatic picture that has always stayed with her.

Whale strandings happen in Golden Bay too. It is particularly notorious for pilot whale strandings and during the 1990s there was often one every summer and is why some whale experts call these months ‘the silly season.’

Over the years more than half were refloated, but several hundred have died and been buried on the beaches where they died. The most recent major standing was in December 2005 when 123 whales beached at Puponga and after a massive rescue operation, were refloated.

After visiting the northern-most point of the South Island, Cape Farewell, a bold cliff top which provides a spectacular view of the wild Tasman Sea, we head for the spit, passing ‘the oldest resident in Puponga’ on the way: a face in the craggy rocks. Through the locked gate we drive, from here, the public may only walk.

Down the beach we drive, seeing a few spoonbills and black-billed gulls and many black swans feeding, reminding me I am too early for the godwits which arrive in the thousands from Alaska and resolve to return when I can join a bird watching tour with this company. Wading birds abound from September to April, with February and early March being the ultimate time.  With so many seasonal feathered visitors, its no wonder this area has been named a sanctuary, a wetland of international importance.

Driving over the spit to the northern face of Farewell Spit I now see the huge sand beach I was expecting on the bay side. It’s impressive.

‘The spit could be likened to an iceberg – up to 250 metres deep” our guide tells us, “and growing in length at 4-metres annually.  The sand dunes further along the spit are up to 25 metres high.  This makes about 3.4 million cubic metres of sand.” I later find it has been growing for some 6,500 years and settlers have visited the area since the 1870s.

At our first stop at Fossil Point I pick up 3 plastic bottles which have washed up on this pristine area and search for fossils: we find a few in the rocks and I watch some Caspian terns swooping and diving into the sea. There are also some black oystercatchers with their distinct red legs and bills and shrill calls warning me against coming too close! Despite the name, here they dine on tuatua.

Down the beach we drive and I gloat as we pass the post – 2 km down the beach and 4 km from the locked gate – as this is as far as people can walk, while we continue for another 22 km to the lighthouse.

The wind is picking up the loose sand making the dunes look like the waves beside them: the Nor-wester is the prevailing wind and it is windy 70% of the time, an essential element in forming the spit and consequently Golden Bay.

‘How good is this?’ asks Elaine ‘No roads, no signage. So no advertising and no traffic so just sit back and take in the awesome picture of nature undisturbed.’  And undisturbed it is.

as far as walkers can go

She has already told me it’s been about 18 months since she got stuck in the sand although in her first year it happened regularly. Her male colleagues kept telling her they would paint her shovel pink.

They had also told her “You are only really stuck if you can’t dig yourself out. If you have dug yourself out you weren’t really stuck!”

“There are probably photos of me on the end of a shovel all over the world” she laughs.

We eventually arrive at the lighthouse which has its power lines buried the length of the spit although I think the lighthouse itself is solar powered and the light rotates every 15 seconds.

As a result of many shipwrecks, the first lighthouse was commissioned in 1870, a wooden structure that had to be replaced in 1897 with a steel one. Automated in 1984, this lighthouse is also depicted in a 1969 stamp series of light houses: The Farewell Spit stamp was valued at 10 cents.

After afternoon tea in one of the lighthouse keepers old houses, I climb to the second level until my fear of heights beats me and I retreat and go to look at the Pouwhenua which depicts my favourite, pacific-wide, mythical person: the mischievous Maui Tikitiki a Taranga who is credited with fishing up the North Island while standing in his canoe, the South Island.

view of the carving at the spit

According to the notice beside this carving by locals, “as Maui pulled on his line, his feet were dragged along the land, pushing sand in to the dune formations which form Farewell Spit.”

A farmstay on the wonderful westcoast, NZ

We all know of the wildly popular Wild Foods festival in Hokitika – mountain oysters, possum kebabs, and huhu grubs tickling our tonsils – but how about Hokitika for some R&R during a quieter time?

kereru

Apart from walks in the bush or on the beach, watching the dramatic sunsets, or other such relaxing things, what else is available in Hokitika? There is plenty so check out the visitors centre when you arrive. For history buffs the 22 point heritage walk is a great way to get to know, and see, some of the early pakeha history. (described in a freely available brochure)

Hokitika was settled in the 1860’s following the discovery of gold. For Maori pounamu (greenstone) was the natural treasure here and today there are a number of places you can watch carvers as they transform the extremely hard rock into traditional or modern pieces.

Just north of the town boundary is the Glow Worm Dell - a free opportunity to see these magical tail-lights which are designed to attract food onto the sticky threads from which the worm hangs. Make sure noise is kept to a minimum as you gaze on the thousands of little lights.

Hokitika is also a good base from which to explore other West Coast delights such as Okarito to see the kotuku and of course the glaciers to name only two.

While on the Coast I stayed at  B&B Farm stay – Berwicks Hill  in Ruatapu, 14 ks south of Hokitika. Perched on a hill it provides wonderful views of both the Tasman Sea and Southern Alps. It lived up to its advertised “warm and friendly stay”.

Owned by the Berwick family for three generations, the farm is now run as a hobby farm. Close by is the beautiful Lake Mahinapua with its great bush walks, a golf course, and the beach. With only two rooms for guests booking ahead is recommended -arrive with an empty stomach as the food is superb too.

Visitor Centre

Cnr Tancred & Hamilton Streets

Phone 03 355 6166 hkkvin@xtra.co.nz

Berwicks Hill homestay:

berwicks@xtra.co.nz   Phone NZ 03 755 7876

Cooking class in NZs sunniest city

Cooking in the middle of New Zealand

leave your boots at the door

I’ve flown to Nelson, New Zealand, and have been given the use of a car by the Rent-a-Dent and, despite the lack of dents, the car is great and off I go – I’m following Highway 6 through to the end of Highway 60 in Collingwood.

But first, Nelson: as a tourist destination it has much to offer, with artists of all types, has a farmers market, a regular market, a thriving wine region, a great shoreline to explore, and a variety of accommodation on offer – but more of this in a future story, so watch this space.

As this is the biggest fishing port in Australasia [and for people who don’t live down under let me explain this word. it just means this part of the world – New Zealand is part of the area not part  of Australia which is hours away by plane!]

I also plan on eating fish and, as a bonus, attend a cooking class with Vivienne Fox, well-respected for her fabulous Saltwater Café which sits right on the wharf beside her fish supplier Guytons Fisheries, which is also next door to the only fish shop where, so popular are its fish and chips that customers need to order by an appointment time: a shock to new-comers to the area when they first ring with a phone order.

Emma, who has been in the region a couple of years, tells me about it: “I heard again and again that Havens Fish & Chips was the best place in NZ so thought we had better try them. I couldn’t believe that when I rang I was told – ‘Sorry, can’t do that in ten mins, 6:40 is the first space free’ – that’s when I knew they really must be great, fish and chips by time slot!”

Tom and Vivienne Fox, who successfully ran Mapua’s Smokehouse, purchased a café on Nelson’s waterfront, renamed it Saltwater Café and Bar, and have turned it into a specialist seafood restaurant using fish caught by the boats of neighbouring company, Guytons Fisheries: Wellington architect Ian Athfield (who they also used to update their home) helped with the redesign, while local artist Daryl Frost has impressive works in both their home and café.

I have been waiting for sometime to have a cooking class and, as Vivienne and Tom Fox had just returned from Japan, and with all the updates happening at the café, I was invited to join a small group at their home for the lesson which fortuitously included risotto – and long on my list of recipes and techniques to discover.

In the kitchen, with an oil picture of Hamish, a wild heron, (kotuku) hanging behind us and as Vivienne prepares for our class, she tells me she had fed him daily when they were in Mapua. (33 km west of Nelson) Hamish is a local attraction and even has an ice-cream shop named after him. As rolls and plaits fly from her hands and into the oven I learn of her passion for bread and fish, then it’s time to clean a fish for Thai fish cakes, make a risotto then poached fruit for dessert.

Vivienne loves to put honey in her bread, and to make it last, uses butter in the recipe too. She also says her ‘grandparents were green before there was such a thing as green’ as they grew their own wheat and other grains, milled it and made their bread.

She’s also not fussy about measurements. “Bread is forgiving – cakes are not!”

Usually the cooking classes are ‘hands on’ but as it’s in her home this time we, an eclectic group of women, mostly get to watch a professional  at work, although we all help with stirring the risotto.

As we eat the fabulous end result, I ask them about a local street I found – ‘Quiet Woman Way’ which they decide must have been named by a hopeful man. In return they tell me that the reputed geographic Centre of New Zealand, celebrated on a hill in the city centre, is actually in Golden Downs Forest some 30 kms away: just another of those interesting things we tourists find when we spend time with locals – no matter where in the world we  are travelling. TELL VIVIENNE Heather Hapeta reccommended her cafe and class.

new zealand birds

Black-backed gull on Matu Somes Island in Wellington Harbour

I have just posted  a blog about New Zealand birds .

Listen to them, just as I do every morning  on Radio New Zealnd National ( 7am & 9am)

You dont have to be a twitcher to enjoy the sounds of them .

watch out for our nocturnal, flightless kiwi