March, 2009



MARCH , 2009

EXPLORING NEW ZEALAND

February 20, 2009

Our two-week land tour of South Island began at 0930h on Friday, February 20, when our rental car was delivered to the Nelson marina. Packing the car was a challenge because it was pouring rain. We brought everything to the car park at the marina and covered it with a plastic tarp while we awaited the delivery of the car. Then, as we had so much stuff in the small car and there was only room for two people, Mary waited at the boat while Paul went to the rental office with the owner of the company to complete the paperwork. This was the first time that Paul had ever driven on the opposite side of the road than Canada and he was quite proud of himself (although stressed) when he made it back safely to the marina.

Finally, at about 1130h, we were underway and still in pouring rain. It rained almost nonstop for the first three days of our trip. We didn’t let the weather dampen our spirits and we set off with a real sense of adventure.

The main roads on the South Island are called state highways and are all two-lane roads. The speed limit, unless otherwise posted, is 100 kilometres per hour. This limit amazed us, as a two-lane country road back home would have a speed limit of 80 kilometres per hour – and not travelling up and down and through mountains. Thankfully, there are many passing lanes when the slower traffic (that was us!) is instructed to stay to the left. There are also numerous pull-off spots so that we could enjoy the scenery. And enjoy them we did! We never failed to be in awe of the majestic mountains, the rushing mountain creeks and waterfalls, and the sight of hundreds of sheep on the mountainsides (How do they stay up there at that angle???).

Although these sheep were not on the mountainside they sure were plentiful.

The sheep with the horns are Merino sheep, famous for their Merino soft, comfortable wool. Both Paul and Mary purchased a Merino wool jersey while on tour.

Back to the first day - our travel route took us from Nelson towards the west coast of South Island. We had received a telephone call the night before from Jeremy and Jenn (off on their own three-week trip) who encouraged us to veer off of state highway 6 at St. Arnaud and go to Nelson Lakes National Park. We spent an hour at the nature centre at the park, looking at the displays and the trail maps and speaking with the Department of Conservation (D.O.C.) staff. We learned that there were numerous tramping (what we call backpacking and hiking in Canada) trails with huts that can be booked for overnight stays. We also learned that we could not drive any further into this range of mountains from where we were so we continued on our way to Punakaiki, our first night’s destination.

When planning this trip, we spent a lot of time considering our choices of vehicle and accommodations. We had originally thought that we would hire a caravan (camper van) and stay in holiday parks or camping spots along the highway. Then we changed our minds when we were talking to another yachty couple and they told us about the cabins that can be rented at holiday parks for a reasonable price. These holiday parks have shared kitchen facilities and shared toilet and shower facilities. We would just need to bring our own food and cooking and eating utensils. We joined the organization called Top 10 Holiday Parks, which gave us a 10% discount if we stayed at one of the Top 10 parks. So, that is what we did and we stayed at a Top 10 park for all but four of the nights. In the fourteen nights, we were disappointed with the accommodations only twice – one a Top 10 holiday park and one a YHA (Youth Hostel Association) hostel.

We spent our first night at Te Nikau Retreat near Punakaiki. This was not a Top 10 holiday park but a YHA facility and it was one of the prettiest accommodations that we had in the two weeks. Again, in the previous phone call from Jeremy, he had encouraged us to stay here for our first night. We were glad that we did as we had a bedroom (the smallest but still comfortable) in a beautiful three-bedroom log house in a forest. The kitchen was very well equipped and we met some very nice people from Hungary and Switzerland.

February 21, 2009

We set off early and our destination for that night was Franz Joseph. Along the way we planned a few stops. Our first stop was at Pancake Rocks and the Blowholes. Our travel guide encouraged a visit to the blowholes at high tide and we were in luck that day. We were also lucky in that, although the day was overcast, it was not yet raining.

This is at Pancake Rocks – “limestone rocks that have formed into what looks like stacks of pancakes, through a weathering process known as stylobedding. If there’s a good tide running here, the water surges into caverns below the rocks and squirts out in impressive geyser-like blowholes” (Lonely Planet). Although Paul took some good videos of the ‘blow hole’ action, he did not manage to catch a good still photo.

The rugged west coast.

We stopped at Hokitika for lunch and a walk through the downtown area to look at the jade/greenstone craftsmanship. The jade comes from the nearby mountains and we enjoyed the pictorial display of the early jade mining years.

We stopped along the highway at anything that looked interesting and this log-sawing contest was no exception. In the previous heat, we watched the reigning World Champion and his partner cut through a log like this in less than 12 seconds.

February 22, 2009

There were two glaciers in the area – Franz Joseph and Fox. Unfortunately it was still raining and we knew that visibility in the mountains would be poor but we wanted to try and get a glimpse of a glacier. We knew from our travel guide that we could get the closest view, without paying for an expensive glacier tour, from Fox Glacier. Thirty minutes down the road we came to the access road for Fox Glacier and were very disappointed to see a “CLOSED” sign across the road, due to the weather. We continued a bit further and came to a road that would allow for a view-from-a-distance of the glacier and was not closed. So we set off up this narrow track and only once had to negotiate a passing of a car coming out. We found a turnaround spot and caught a very tiny glimpse of Fox Glacier through the misty rain.

If we had been as adventurous as the kids, this is what the glaciers would have looked like. Jenn Sabean took these shots while she and Jeremy completed a rugged trek into the mountains. Here is Jenn’s comment about the day, “This is the Dart Glacier in Mt. Aspiring National Park, South Island. This was day 2 of a 4 day hike connecting the Cascade Saddle with the Dart River. That morning, we had climbed 4 hard hours up a route out of one valley to reach 'the Pylon' at 1835m, then traversed down to cross the Cascade Saddle, which then drops you down into the Dart River Valley.

At the Saddle we were greeted by the world's only mountain parrot: a kea, as well as the first break in clouds of the day. Though we didn't get to see Mt. Aspiring and other high peaks around us, we were rewarded with clear skies in time for this shot; the Dart Glacier. We then hiked another 3 hours or so down through the glacially scarred valley where the glacier once extended, and took shelter in one of New Zealand's many excellent back country huts, with several other hikers (or 'trampers' as they like to say) in the area.”

The remainder of our day’s drive took us through Haast Pass and across the Southern Alps

Although the almost continuous rainfall made driving a greater challenge on the mountain roads and the scenic views of the mountains non-existent, we stopped at least a dozen times to enjoy waterfalls that were numerous and more spectacular due to the heavy rain. This waterfall is called ‘Roaring Billy’. We are glad that we were able to experience Haast Pass in the rain.

We were amazed at the number of one-lane bridges on South Island. The white sign on the left in the picture shows that we had to give way to oncoming traffic on this bridge. Most of the bridges crossed over creeks and were worth a look to the right or left as we crossed. We usually stopped mid-way to enjoy the view. Mary teased Paul that she was going to have a t-shirt made for him that says, “I stopped at every mountain creek!”.

Here is Jeremy the morning that they left Wanaka for a three-day tramp. He is packing up their freeze-dried food for the trip.

February 23, 2009

We said good-bye to Jeremy and Jenn and headed to Te Anau for two nights, but not without making several stops along the way. And guess what - the rain had stopped! First, we drove into Queenstown (the Banff of New Zealand’s Southern Alps) on the recommendation of Jeremy and Jenn. We wanted to look for Icebreaker brand merino clothing, which is good for cold weather. Jeremy and Jenn had found some good bargains in Queenstown, as did we.

Our day’s drive took us by The Remarkables, a mountain range that is New Zealand’s most popular ski destination. We also stopped for coffee and tea at a small café/gift shop near Mossburn and had an enjoyable hour talking with the owner about freshwater fishing in the area. She was so encouraging about the availability of trout in the creeks that Paul decided to get a one-day fishing license in a few days time and try his luck.

That evening in Te Anau, we walked downtown to a movie theater to view a short movie called “Shadowland” – a cinematic experience of Fiordland. We were planning on going to Milford Sound the next day and this was a very good introduction to the beauties of Fiordland and the Sounds.

February 24, 2009

We had a boat trip in Milford Sound booked for 1030h and a drive of about one and a half hours. On the drive, we saw a few short walks that we decided we would do on our way back, time permitting.

We enjoyed the four-hour boat trip of Milford Sound, which is a misnomer, as it is really a fiord. Milford Sound is the northern-most of the 14 fiords that make up the spectacular coastline of Fiordland National Park. The fiord is quite breathtaking and it was a beautiful sunny day with calm water. The calm water mirrored the sheer peaks that rise all around.

This is Mitre Peak in Milford Sound with one of the more traditional tour boats in the foreground.

Milford Sound with Mitre Peak to the left.

These seals in Milford Sound are so used to tourists that they ignored our tour boat when it went quite close to the rocks. In fact, since they are nocturnal, they were trying to sleep despite all of the attention.

The tour boat went right up to the base of a waterfall and the passengers were warned about the spray. The roar of the waterfall was stupendous and Paul got some good video clips, as well as getting himself and the camera covered with cold water.

Another mountain view as we drove away from Milford Sound.

When we returned to Te Anau that afternoon, Paul bought a one-day fishing license.

February 25, 2009

We spent the entire day, on our drive to Invercargill, stopping at several creeks so that Paul could fish for trout. It was interesting that, at the first creek that we stopped at, a Fisheries officer who asked to see Paul’s license visited us. If Paul hadn’t had a license for freshwater fishing, the fine would have been quite hefty along with a loss of his fishing equipment.

Several creeks later and near the end of the day, Paul had caught only one trout and we enjoyed that with our dinner that evening.

We stayed in Invercargill for one evening. Invercargill is the home of the late Kiwi legend Burt Munro, who became more famous when a movie called “The World’s Fastest Indian” was made about his motorcycle racing career. It’s one of our favourite movies.

On our drive, we started to see rows and rows of giant hedges, hundreds of metres long, up to 6 metres tall and 2.5 metres wide. These hedges have been planted to offer shelter to the livestock and stop erosion from the strong winds that can blow in the southeastern area of South Island. These hedges were beautifully manicured.

There’s not much we can say about this historic, picturesque water tower. It’s described as “The Curious Water Tower” in the Lonely Planet.

February 26, 2009

We arrived in Dunedin, at the lower end of the east coast of the island, at mid-day and we decided to drive to the Otago Peninsula to visit the Royal Albatross Centre at Taiaroa Head.

The drive to the peninsula was scary and long. The two-hour drive wound around the coast at the base of a hillside and with no shoulder to a 10 metre drop to the sea. When we stopped for lunch part way up the peninsula, Paul mentioned to the waitress that the road was scary and she said, “Oh yeah, and it’s a lot worse in the winter”. To make matters worse, there was lots of roadwork going on and the plastic cones marking the narrower lanes didn’t help the situation.

We had enjoyed watching albatrosses up close during our ocean passage so we decided not to pay for the guided walk out to the nesting place of the royal albatrosses. Instead, we spent an enjoyable two hours in the nature centre, reading and watching videos on these magnificent birds.

February 27, 2009

This was our second day in Dunedin and we spent it sightseeing. We had booked into the Cadbury World factory tour for 1000h. Everyone we spoke to about our trip had encouraged us to do this tour, which shows how Cadbury chocolate is made and concludes with a free sample of the chocolate. We did not realize that the tour would concentrate on the making of “milk chocolate”. We are dark chocolate eaters and usually buy the Cadbury brand and were disappointed to learn about and sample only milk chocolate. We also felt that the tour was not worth the cost that we paid. Paul did manage though to fill his pants pockets with roasted cocoa beans.

This was the only time during our land tour that Mary was behind the wheel of a vehicle!

After that disappointing couple of hours we walked over to a historic train station to view the architecture.

This is the Dunedin Railway Station and it is a magnificent building built in the early 1900s with ornate fixtures, mosaic tile floors, and intricate stained glass windows.

While we were admiring the train station, we watched a video about the Taieri Gorge Railway half-day train trip. The trip interested us greatly, especially as Mary has always loved train rides, and we booked ourselves into the afternoon tour. That gave us an opportunity to first go back to our cabin to have lunch and change for the evening concert that we would be attending.

Here is Mary about to board the Taieri Gorge Railway tour. The four-hour ride was such a relaxing way to enjoy the rugged mountain interior of Central Otago and travel through the gorge with its numerous viaducts and tunnels and historic points of interest. Paul especially enjoyed not having to be behind the wheel of the car for a few hours and he is now a fan of train rides!

This is the Wingatui viaduct. It is 197 metres long and 47 metres above a stream and is one of the largest wrought iron structures in the southern hemisphere.

After that enjoyable and relaxing afternoon, we just had time to get to a small theatre in Dunedin for an evening concert featuring a Kiwi violinist, Fiona Pears. Fiona is originally from Christchurch on the South Island and now lives part of the year in England. She and her band were doing a South Island tour and we were fortunate to see the concert advertised in the local paper. Fiona Pears is a very accomplished violinist and her repertoire was wide ranging, including jazz, celtic, classical, and gypsy music. A very enjoyable evening, especially as we sat next to a teenage student who is studying the violin and we were able to speak with her about her impressions of this talented Fiona Pears.

February 28, 2009

We continued our way along the east coast of South Island and drove north to Oamaru and then inland to Omarama. Omarama has a worldwide reputation for gliding. Sadly, the day before we arrived there was a crash, which left a pilot dead and a tourist severely injured. When we checked into the Top 10 park that night, we could see the white of the plane miles up on the mountainside.

We had time to do some sightseeing that afternoon and we went first off to visit the Clay Cliffs.

These Clay Cliffs were the most spectacular sight of all in the two weeks for Paul. When we first viewed them as we were driving, we said, “okay, those are nice”, but as we got closer, their majesty became very apparent and we were awestruck. We couldn’t help but wonder how old these are and how much longer these formations will be around because they are made of clay and each time it rains an observable amount of it washes away.

On the way back to our cabin we stopped in to an estate for wine sampling and stopped at a café/gift shop that was advertising sheep shearing demonstrations. Unfortunately, the sheep shearer was not available on weekends, but maybe that’s a good thing for us because there was a price just to watch!

March 1, 2009

This was a drizzly, cloudy morning and we decided to forego our drive to Mount Cook (the highest peak in New Zealand and Australia, with an elevation of 3755 metres) and continue our way northeast. It turned out to be a good day for sightseeing on our way to Glentunnel.

We stopped at Lake Tekapo to take a short walk and saw this beautiful little church built of stone and oak in 1935. It is still in use and is the place of worship for three different religious denominations.

The lakes in this area are connected by a series of canals with numerous power stations wherever the water took a significant drop. These power stations provide most of the electrical power used by New Zealand. The turquoise colour of water in the canals and lakes of the area is created by “rock flour”, which is finely ground particles of rock held in suspension in the glacial melt water (Lonely Planet). This was stunning!

March 2, 2009

We were on our way to Greymouth on the west coast for the night and our path took us through the Southern Alps again, only this time via Arthur’s Pass. It was rainy and cloudy in the mountains once again but we still enjoyed the scenery.

We stopped for lunch in Arthur’s Pass Village and completed a one-hour walk to Devils Punchbowl Falls before continuing on our drive.

The road leading out of Arthur’s Pass Village hugs the side of a cliff. We simply do not understand the physics of how the road is suspended from the cliff face as it is. Note the chute over the road for the waterfall and the slanted roof to allow rock falls to pass over top of the road. All engineering marvels.

March 3, 2009

We were now finished our tour of the west coast and headed back towards the east coast. And, you guessed it! – through the mountains again and this time via Lewis Pass. We finally had a sunny day in the mountains.

On our way we went through the Craigieburn Forest Park and stopped to walk a nature trail that began at an Environmental Education Centre. This centre was closed that day but we peeked through the windows and noticed that it was a perfect set-up for a class of students to learn about the environment in a beautiful setting.

We then took an even bigger side trip and drove an hour over a narrow rugged dirt road to a ghost town. Waiuta was once the focus of a rich gold mine but the mine was closed in 1951 after an explosion in the main shaft. Closure of the mine hit the Waiuta people like a bombshell. The mine was the only employer. Their town, their way of life, and their homes – they left it behind.

Within three months, only about twenty residents remained. Buildings were demolished or carted away to be reused in other towns. By 1952 little was left of the town. A few old miners stayed on, watching the town site slowly overgrow with blackberry and brush.

Here is Waiuta in its heyday – a thriving mining town.

Here is the exact same site today.

In 1931, the 25th anniversary of the gold mine’s discovery was celebrated with a series of “Queen Carnival” events. Sports clubs competed to raise the most money for improvements to local facilities. As the queen was crowned, her happy ‘subjects’ could never have guessed that by the time the 50th jubilee came around, Waiuta would have become a ghost town.

We weren’t quite finished with history yet as we stopped at a small schoolhouse on our way back out to the highway.

This is Blackwater School, 1913 – 1949, and we were delighted to find this historic building.

Our last walk of the day, the most rugged of all, was to the Lewis Pass Lookout at an elevation of about 1000 metres above sea level.

The rugged climb to the Lewis Pass Lookout took us to superb views of Cannibal Gorge, the Freyberg Range, and the Maruia River, and then dropped back in a loop through beautiful
beech forest.

We spent that night in Hanmer Springs, which is very popular for hot springs. We are not fans of hot springs but the general public sure must be considering the number of cars in the car park of the information/booking centre.

March 4 and 5, 2009

We headed for Blenheim, a large town near the top northeast part of South Island.

We were stunned when five cows leaped across a fallen fence onto the road as we were driving along. Paul slowed down and we hoped that they would go back into the field. They didn’t! Here is one of the cows up close as the group trotted down the road. It wasn’t until we slowly made our way closer that they moved off to the side of the road and we were able to pass them. We got a few good video clips of the cows as well.

We had booked a Top 10 holiday park cabin in Blenheim for a two-night stay. The scenery on this drive was definitely a lot different than in our previous travels. We were entering Marlborough wine country and we passed vineyards, olive groves, and cherry orchards. There were row upon row of vines as far as our eyes could see.

On our drive into Blenheim, we passed a lake that was so vibrantly pink in colour that we really believed that our eyes were deceiving us. We knew from our map that this was called Lake Grassmere. We also saw road signs that informed us that there was a salt works nearby. It wasn’t until we reached our Top 10 park that we learned that the two are connected. We still don’t understand why the water is pink.

We were looking forward to our half-day Marlborough Wine Tour, which we had booked for March 5. Marlborough wine country is known for its Sauvignon Blanc. The van with our tour guide arrived in late morning and we were pleasantly surprised to learn that it would be just the two of us in our van with our guide. There was another group of 8 women (travelling together) in another van and the organizers decided to give us our own van. That meant that we could ask as many questions as we wanted. We found our tour guide, Chris (female), to be very knowledgeable and very friendly. We visited six wineries and had a very nice lunch at one of the estates. Chris gave us a very valuable tip when touring wineries – savour the taste and aroma in your mouth (where your taste buds are) but don’t swallow the wine; spit it out into the spittoon instead. That way one can visit many different wineries and not fall off of the bus intoxicated at the end of the day!

March 6, 2009

This was our last morning on our tour. The car was due back at the rental office at 1100h and we had a drive of 90 minutes to Nelson. And guess what – it was pouring rain! We started off early in the morning and it wasn’t until we were in Nelson and unloading the car and putting our bags on Bella Via that we realized that we had mistakenly left a small backpack in Blenheim. Paul immediately called the Top 10 park office and the man on duty went and found the bag. He arranged for a courier to deliver the bag to Nelson marina that day. There was a bit of a mix-up with the courier company and when the manager finally brought the bag to us at 1900h that evening, he refused to take any money for the delivery.

It was a very busy morning when we arrived in Nelson. Paul dropped Mary off at the grocery store and he made a few other stops and purchases while we still had the car for a couple more hours.

Here is a picture of our South Island map and our track. Our route begins in the north and proceeds counter-clockwise crossing the mountains three times. Driving in the mountains was the most challenging driving that Paul has ever done - let alone the towns and the roundabouts and intersections. We talked our way through every roundabout and Mary saved us from disaster a couple of times. The black dots on the map indicate our nightly stops and the solid black line demonstrates our crisscross path across the Southern Alps.

We thoroughly enjoyed our land tour but we were also very happy to be back aboard Bella Via. We settled up our marina fees with the manager in anticipation of leaving the marina the next morning and being back at anchor. We first needed to fill up our fuel tanks with diesel and discovered that the only option was to have it delivered by a mini-tanker to another dock near the marina and they don’t deliver on weekends. So, that meant that we had to take time out of that busy day to leave the marina berth for an hour or two while we filled up the tanks and then go back to the marina for one more night.

March 7 - 13, 2009

We left the marina and settled at anchor near the port entrance, in a place called Boulder Bank. This anchorage has good protection from swell due to the boulder bank but is quite shallow. We did manage to find reasonable depth in which to anchor. We mostly relaxed that day and enjoyed being out on the water again.

The next day the forecast was calling for stronger wind out of the west and we decided to move across the channel entrance to the lee of a small island, which was also marked as an anchorage. The water was much calmer over there and we had a pleasant day. Later that evening however, the water became quite choppy. We decided to haul anchor and go back to where we were anchored the day before – and as it was quite dark we would follow our electronic track on our plotter.

When we hauled up our anchor that night, Paul couldn’t believe what he was looking at. We had hauled up a huge fisherman’s anchor as well. We couldn’t do anything about it in the dark so we motored over to our original anchorage, lowered both anchors into the water and were quite confident that the weight of the two anchors would keep us in one place for the night. Here is the mess the next morning. It took about an hour to untangle everything. The joys of living on a boat!

We finally set off toward Marlborough Sounds and it was a beautiful day’s sail to Croiselles Harbour. Our friends from Nelson, Dick and Babbie, had encouraged us to use their mooring in the harbour. It was quite a ways into the large harbour to their mooring and we found a comfortable anchorage instead in Whangorae Bay. This would give us less distance to travel the next morning.

The next morning we headed for French Pass, a narrow entrance into Admiralty Bay and a shortcut into Marlborough Sounds. Our cruising guide warned about the dangers of travelling through this pass against the tidal stream and encouraged prudent mariners to plan their approach for slack water. The guide stated that even if travelling with the stream there could be a problem controlling a boat because of eddies.

We carefully studied our electronic tide charts and planned our passage for slack tide. Unfortunately, we should have had a paper copy of “Tide Tables for Picton, Havelock, and French Pass”, which published a slack tide 60 minutes earlier than we thought (we found that out later!). At least we had the current going with us.

Here is French Pass, one hour after slack tide, with its strong current and eddies. Paul hand-steered our way through the narrow pass with both engines running.

After French Pass, we made our way to Pelorus Sound, part of Marlborough Sounds. We quickly learned why the cruising guide, and everyone with whom we spoke, said that sailing would be difficult in the Sounds. There are so many mountains of different heights and the wind whips down out of the saddles. It is difficult to maintain sail trim and you can experience periods of absolute calm and then extreme gusts.

We picked up a mooring for the night in Port Ligar at the entrance of Pelorus Sound. We needed to move the next day as we were picking up Jeremy and Jenn at Havelock on Friday and we had a few days travel to get there. The winds were predicted to be quite strong so we left very early while things were still quite calm. We had a very enjoyable motor to Maori Bay where we spent the night. We then decided to stay there another night and travel the last two hours to Havelock on Friday morning.

Friday, March 13, 2009

We anchored in shallow water in a bay near Havelock and Paul went in the dinghy to pick up Jeremy and Jenn. They had taken a bus ride to Havelock from Nelson, after returning their rental car at the end of their three-week tour.

We were so excited to have them aboard again and even more so when they asked if they could stay aboard for another five days. That gave us a few days to explore different anchorages in Pelorus Sound. In the five days that they were aboard, we stayed in Nydia Bay, Dillon Bell Point, and Patanui Point and managed to take two of the walks.

First off though, we wanted to experience some mussels. Everywhere in Pelorus Sound, when we traveled, we had seen mussel farms along the shore. We asked a few locals about these farms and they told us that no one minds if a few are taken for personal consumption.

That first afternoon, Paul and Jeremy and Jenn went off in the dinghy to retrieve some mussels and go fishing. They were gone for quite a while and when they returned to the boat they stated that it was a lot of work to get the mussels from the lines that hang in the water from the floats.

We had no idea what to do with the mussels and Paul emailed a friend, Graziano, in Windsor and asked for some advice. That evening Jeremy, following Graziano’s instructions, cooked us up a batch of delicious mussels.

Here are Jenn and Paul with our feast of mussels. We couldn’t understand where the mussels got the name “green shell” as there was nothing green about these shells. It wasn’t until later when we were in Havelock that Paul asked a mussel fisherman and he told us that we had eaten “blue shell” and they were not the coveted mussels. The fellow said that lower down on the mussel farm lines we would find the larger green shell mussels, the real delicacy mussels. Since that time we have feasted on green shell mussels about every third day.

March 19, 2009

Sadly, our time with Jeremy and Jenn was at an end. They had a ferry booked that afternoon to Wellington on North Island and then they would be leaving New Zealand at the end of the month. We said good-bye to them and Paul dropped them into Havelock by dinghy.

We headed back to Patanui Point for another two nights on a mooring. While dropping the kids off in Havelock, Paul learned that the Havelock Mussel Festival would be on Saturday and he booked us into the marina for Saturday night so that we could attend the festival.

March 21, 2009

The Havelock Mussel Festival opened at 1100h and the day was bright and beautiful. There were many exhibits, contests, and opportunities to purchase food and drink, and clothing.

The opening ceremony at the Mussel Festival included this group of Maoris who performed three dances, one of which was the traditional Haka (the Maori war dance). Although Paul took a good video of the young men performing the Haka, he missed getting a photo.

Here are three members of a four-person team sorting their mussels just before the start of a team mussel opening contest. Each team member was given 110 mussels and they were allowed to inspect them and remove 10, leaving 100 mussels for each team member. The team that opened all of their mussels in the shortest time did not necessarily win the contest. Judges then examined the opened mussels and if some were disqualified due to knife tears, or other infractions, a penalty of seconds was added to the finish time. The two people that you see standing side by side are a brother and sister. The young man went on to win the individual competition. His sister won it the year before.

Here is the same young man trying to beat the current Guiness World Record for mussel opening, which is held by his sister. We loudly cheered him on but he did not beat his sister’s record.

The most popular venue at the festival was a 45-minute cooking show with a local chef that was repeated throughout the day. We tried three times to get a seat in the tent for the show and weren’t successful until the last show of the day. This was a very enjoyable time and we were able to sample the three dishes that were prepared – mussels, oysters, and salmon. You can see green shell mussels in the poster behind the chef. We were very glad that we were in the tent when a huge rainstorm caused the festival to close early at about 1600h.

March 22, 2009

We left the Havelock marina and went out into Kenepuru Sound. We intend on staying here for a few days.

It’s autumn in New Zealand and it’s getting chilly, especially in the morning and at night. Here is Mary bundled up in her new alpaca shawl (a find at the Havelock Mussel Festival) and her sheepskin slippers. We have a heater that we turn on when we’re cold and it does a good job of taking the chill out of the boat. We’ll stay in the South Island until we are too cold and then we’ll head to North Island. Life is good!

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