Merry Christmas Day from a tiny email station I just discovered inside the main building of the Furneaux Lodge. I am staying here at the end of the Queen Charlotte peninsula of the Marlborough Sounds — I arrived yesterday after a day of travel from Kaikoura winding along a narrow highway. We passed through wild territory along the sea, gorgeous coastline — it looks like South Dakota (if only there were a sea near the Black Hills?) with trembling hills of amber grass all tossed this way and that, moving like fine hair, shuddering under the strong coastal winds which ran over the hills in visible currents of grass.
I took an Atomic Shuttle (bus) which actually picked me up at my hostel door in Kaikoura (because the hostel owner is a booking agent), and dropped me at the ticket booth of the Town Wharf in Picton, where I caught the Endeavour Express water taxi. On the ferry, I met an American woman who is currently out on the Queen Charlotte track with her husband and their mountain bikes — she has been finishing up a PhD program in Australia and honing her idea for a proposal to the ANTARCTIC ARTISTS AND WRITERS program, impossible as that sounds! We had a great chat, obviously.
This area resembles paradise. I immediately extended my stay by a few days and I now plan to remain here through New Year’s — I can do a number of day-long hikes in several directions, including 2 mountain hikes, and made plans to rent a sea-kayak for some day-long paddles. Local destinations in this area include two memorials to Captain Cook, including a cairn on a small island out here, where he “planted the flag” back in the 1700’s, declaring British rule over the South Island of New Zealand. Since that’s all dominion seems to require (planting a flag?) I am thinking of cutting up a colorful handkerchief I brought along – maybe planting little flags everywhere I go, claiming terrain in the name of poetry.

Speaking of poetry: I am staying in the quaint old stone cottage that serves as a Hostel here at Furneaux. (Quaint from the exterior, although the interior suffers from some ’70s remodeling, and metal bunk beds that would look more at home in a room for 5-year-old boys).
Cultures collide, in some ways: backpackers hoofing it down the long trail sleep together in the cheap hostel, while yachting families moor in the harbor, and the boatless well-off folks opt for $200-a-night rooms in cute little bungalows arranged around the property. The bungalow rooms are quite chic and private – but the hostel is one large room, and one communal kitchen, perfectly designed for getting to know each other.
In the hostel, we met each other: three generations (grandparents, mom and dad, and one small boy and a toddler who walked several kilometers of the trail by himself!) of a family from Australia, and an older fellow hiking alone, from Northern Ireland. After some tentative attempts at chatting, we got along beautifully, and ended up singing old christmas carols together in six-part harmony, sharing our wine, and enjoying a lovely communal evening.
I woke early and walked up the shore at low tide, gathering fresh green-
lip and blue mussels for a Boxing Day (tomorrow) feast. Today we all dined with the well-heeled guests and the yachters, as the Furneaux Lodge put on a huge Christmas Day FEAST – lots appetizers, fresh mussels and salmon, carved meats, and traditional NZ (Brit-inspired)
Christmas pudding!
Now I think I will need to find a book to read from one of the swap-
shelves.

A couple images from my time in the Hanmer Springs area.

Images of the hillside landscapes above the harbor of Akaroa, including the old Lookout rock, and the brick cottage at Onuki Farm hostel where I stayed.

Proteus Flowers (King and Queen):

Dan and Annie:

Summit Road above Lyttleton (riding with Dan and Annie)

Pasture high above Akaroa:

Images from my time in Lyttleton, including hike to Sumner and out to Godley Head.

A few photos snapped during my serendipitous tour of the Palmer research vessel… including a diagram for use of rescue equipment, a view from the main bridge of the ship, a view from the ice tower (high above the ship), and a photograph by my friend Stuart Klipper — displayed in the stairs leading to the Captain’s quarters!

Next stop for the Palmer: ANTARCTICA.

Views of the research vessel as seen from downtown Lyttleton, firing up her engines, and later, from the overlook above Sumner Road, while driving towards the Summit Road — we see the Nathaniel B. Palmer below, heading for the open sea, and eventually Antarctica.

View the Flickr set: Leaving Port

http://www.flickr.com/photos/orebody/sets/72157594586672574/

After a gorgeous drive through a largely open series of Wyoming-esque valleys and winding hills (the “Scenic Route” still has a number of ONE-LANE BRIDGES crossing wide dry river beds, which must be shared with any drivers coming from the opposite direction), we arrived in the coastal town of Kaikoura. I bought Annalies and Edith coffee, then they dropped me off — and I was the first to check in to the hostel! 11 AM – Wow. Great to be on the road before most other tourists have rolled out of bed!

I dressed light, for the hike around the Kaikoura Peninsula, and duly set off — but at the far end of town, I spotted a sign advertising a half-day Sea(l) Kayaking trip around the peninsula, and I stopped into the visitor center for more info. Turns out the tour was just about to head out, and there were only 4 others signed up, so I joined.

The tour uses double (tandem) sea kayaks, and the other 4 were tourists traveling together from Finland, so I got to paddle with the guide. We could have paddled together all day — so very comfortably we synched strokes, nosing this way and that between limpet-crusted rocks the size of semitrucks, small homes, riding out the great swells which raised and dropped our kayaks perhaps a dozen feet, crest to trough. I felt very comfortable. It is always a joy to paddle with someone who really knows what they are doing. For the guide’s part (he was in the back, which steers and is the seat for the most powerful paddler) he complimented me on the power of my paddling. I think the back-seat paddler sometimes gets stuck doing most of the work.

The seal colonies at Kaikoura, interestingly enough, are about 99.5% male. The males have a bad habit of brutalizing the young pups, so the mother fur seals have a colony south of here, towards Christchurch, where they gather to whelp and rear their young. The young males swim north to join the “big boys” in their 2nd year. We did see five or six second-yearlings, which were tiny compared to the great bulls. Out of water, they loll on the rocks, sunning themselves. In the water, they are graceful, lifting their thin flippers out of the water often, to warm them.

The seaweed beds out on Kaikoura head are impressive — the water is deep, but the great ochre-yellow leaves rise considerable height to float on the surface, fringing the rocks with great yellow strands. When we poked between a couple rock lines, I reached down and lifted one of the strands — it was heavy, thicker than a heavy rubber wetsuit, and filled with air, with the texture of wet leather.

It was quite a show. The sleek guys did a lot of showing off, rolling twists in the water around our kayaks, or swimming fast and propelling themselves entirely out of the water (!) as they leapt (this sometimes happens when they are chasing fish) – or just quietly raising their whiskered faces out of the water to grunt at us, quizzically. I can’t imagine what they think of such visitors. Sometimes they dove under the hulls, and I found myself holding my breath, wondering what they see beneath the surface.

POSTSCRIPT: I asked the young guys from Finland if they’d ever heard of “Popular Music from Vittula” and they were incredulous. Vittula? Vittula? they asked themselves. Vittula is a small town in the far north of the country, just about as well known as, say, Big Bay Michigan, until the book came along. Yes, I loved the book, I said. The book? You read the book? Apparently the book was turned into a MOVIE which is now quite popular in Finland, but they were rather amazed that I had read the book that it was based upon. I gave them my email address, as they brought out their digital camera (risky) in the kayak, and got a few good shots of the seals as we were kayaking. They promised to send something after they return to Finland in January.

The sacred healing waters of the Hanmer Springs have been funneled into fakey-perfect pools, complete with fiberglass rocks. Hmmm. I am sure the Sacred lies dormant somewhere around here, still — perhaps it is hiding in the pair of giant pines (at least 12 feet around!) which grow just outside the gate of the Springs.

Somewhere north of here, Kaikoura waits – a city by the sea, with a peninsula with seal colonies at the tip. Kaikoura is famous for “whale watching trips” but the boat trips are all full right now, due to the Christmas holidays. That’s okay – I think I will do my whale watching from shore, with the seals, or climb the local mountain (named for Fyffe, a famous local whaler).

It is early morning here in Hanmer and I am looking across the hostel room at a plain timbered table, with an unadorned pine tree behind it (it is growing in a pot, and it does my heart good to think it may be planted in the new year, somewhere in Hanmer). There is a candle on the mantle and one rather modernist-looking sheep, cast in plaster. My Christmas will have no ornaments this year, but that’s okay — the holly plant grows wild here in NZ, and I can make my own little wreath of it, if I choose.

Leaving shortly for Kaikoura with Edith and Annalies, two women about my age who are traveling around NZ as well (they are from near Lucerne, Switzerland). Lovely women – we shared a good chat at breakfast yesterday and I ran into Annalies again at the spring, and last night they offered me a ride to Kaikoura, as they have a car. So I’m off!

Here is the information for my next week, since it is nearing the Christmas holidays:
I am staying 2 nights at Dusky Lodge, a backpackers hostel located in Kaikoura.
http://www.duskylodge.com

Then I will catch a bus to Picton, and a water taxi out into the beautiful Marlborough Sounds, where I have booked 5 nights at the hostel (an old stone cottage we all share together) of a place called the Furneaux Lodge.
http://www.furneaux.co.nz

I do not expect to have internet access from Furneaux, but who knows. After that, I head to Nelson, I think, and on up towards the Abel Tasman coastline.

Hiking this morning in the foothills of the mountains, above Hamner Springs. Conical Hill path, Majuba Track, and a Woodlands path, looping back down to town. New Zealand’s native forests were mostly deforested in the 1800’s, with some notable exceptions and remote slopes. I hiked up through giant trees northwest of the town, but they are actually a “reserve” of timber – a hillside that was replanted at the turn of the century. It is always wonderful to hike beneath the great bones of hundred year old trees, including lots of great pines of various types — the slopes above Hamner were largely replanted, and have been “managed” — meaning one see’s a lot of clear cuts from the lookout vista at the top. The streams running down from the mountains are still clean, though, and instead of cat-tail reeds, a sort of agave-looking plant of great size grows in the low land where Dog Creek flows. I hiked along Dog Creek for a while — the flower stalks of the reeds are twice as tall as me, like yucca, and brilliant red.