Melissa & Mark's New Zealand Extravaganza!

A visit from Melissa and Mark gave Kimball and I a great excuse to explore parts of New Zealand we still hadn't seen. It started in Kaikoura, the whale capital of New Zealand. Kimball and I got there a day earlier and had a successful day whale-spotting.

When Melissa & Mark arrived the next day, they joined in the fun.

The fabulous snowy mountain backdrop (and that's in summer!).

We swam with hundreds and hundreds of dolphins.

The most amazing thing was that they would circle you curiously and then leap right over the water next to you.

What fun-loving animals. We just couldn't get enough of them. What a treat!

Visit from Dave

We had a fantastic weekend with Dave Moller visiting us. With terrible weather forecasted we were blessed with sunny skies on our day trip to Dunedin to see the penguins. Now that we're VIPs at the Penguin Place we get in for free! I think we've been there a total of 6 times at least. We had a delicious lunch of chickpea burgers, salmon pizza and other yummy stuff at St. Clair's beach. Then a day at Riverton and some decent waves but not brave enough to test out the winter water temps of 40-something degrees, so we just enjoyed the view with our coffee at the Beach house Cafe.

Mount Cook in Winter

Just to catch you up to speed, 2 weekends ago we took a quick trip up to Mt. Cook about 6 hours from here. Kimball really wanted to get some great pictures of the Kea, our mountain parrot. Well, the snow was beautiful and we did a treacherous hike up a steep icy track to get some great views, but alas, no Keas. (See the pictures of our trip below)  So last weekend we went to the Fiordlands (about 3 hours away) and hiked up the famous Routeburn track for an overnighter at Mackenzie hut. We were the only ones on the trail and had the huge "hut" to ourselves. It was below freezing but we kept toasty in our sleeping bags and layers. Fortunately, early Sunday morning Kimball heard the "keee-ah" call of the Kea bird and bundled up in search of them. He got some great pictures, which I will post next time. He has started a photography business called "Kea Photography" doing nature photos etc and these will be a great addition to his website. He has already gotten requests from conservation agencies for his photos who are willing to pay. It's great to have a fun hobby that pays!

The Wildlife Continues

Last weekend with Monday being Queen's Birthday and all, we decided to go up to Dunedin again and explore some more. Our other excuse was a basketball tournament with the church youth which we had foolishly agreed to join. Well, we didn't win but we did a little better than last year, so maybe we should keep it up.

We stayed in the same German cottage as last time and enjoyed the hail pelting down while we were warm inside. Finally it cleared and we took a 6 hour excursion with a guide who took us to all the remote and restricted beaches where you can see penguins, NZ fur seals and sea lions up close. Over all, we saw 39 different birds in two days and got some great pictures. One of the penguins was so used to being watched, he walked within 10 feet of us and didn't seem bothered by our presence. 

The next day we ventured out to a new nature preserve in the hills that were just barely covered in snow. We saw a lot of birds and a few we haven't seen before. The dedicated people here plan to soon have kiwi and many other rare birds and animals on a huge plot of forest with ferret and pest proof fencing. Unfortunately all the great NZ animals are vulnerable to introduced mammal predators since the only mammal for hundreds of years was a tiny bat!

On the work front, my new(ish) job is going great and I still love it at Vercoe Brown and Associates (sounds like a law firm, I know). The Balance Wellness Centre is doing very well also. I'm seeing 6-7 counseling or health coaching clients a week for one hour appointments. 

Recently, we finished an evangelistic seminar with an Adventist motivational speaker (Leo Schreven) who incorporated health, spirituality, financial and emotional balance which led the way for our follow up. We've been having weekly seminars to follow up with about 20-30 people, most of whom have just recently been introduced to Adventism. It's a great group and we have lots of fun talking about goals, improving lifestyles and the psychology of change.

Next, in September and October we have the Coronary Health Improvement Project (CHIP) by Hans Diehl that we will do for the first time in Invercargill. We hope to do at least one a year after that. 

The Wild West

For the Easter long weekend we headed up the west coast of the south island, NZ. We always get an extra day for "Southland Day" (We live in Southland but who knows why there's a holiday to celebrate it, we don't ask, just enjoy the extra day!).

The west coast tends to be extremely windy and cold but we lucked out with some mild and calm days (although one day was wet enough to have our heli-hike cancelled). Instead we went out the the amazing "Pancake Rocks" and got to see blow holes and geysers and crazy rock formations the wind and sea have created.

Finally, we got to get up on the glacier via a helicopter ride. We spent 2 hours hiking around with a guide through the most incredible ice formations and caves. Without crampons, I think we'd have slid to the bottom of the mountain. It was slick!

We also checked out the new glacier hot pools and the new glacier centre where they have heaps of info about the glacier and indoor ice climbing (why, I don't know, no one was actually trying it the day we were there).

Check out facebook for heaps more pictures!

A fabulous birthday weekend! Part II

That next day we headed out to The Chasm and Lover's Leap, which is where the sheer cliffs drop off into the sea. Lover's Leap is a eroded cliff where an arch has formed at the bottom of a deep chasm (unfortunately those pics didn't turn out). It's just a 5min walk through a pasture full of sheep (and sheep poo!). 

By then we were sweating on a hot NZ day (75 degrees!) so headed out to St.Clair beach, where Kimball got some awesome surfing pictures while I checked out the heated outdoor saltwater pool and coffee shop. 

On the way home we stopped by Nugget Point for the sunset. What a great way to spend the weekend!

A fabulous birthday weekend! Part I

Well, as some of you may know, last Sunday was my birthday. Just for fun, Kimball and I headed for Dunedin, a city 3 hours away. The first thing we did when we got into town was to check out the new Chinese garden. Dunedin's mayor is Chinese and the city's sister city is Shanghai. So this amazing garden, rock waterfalls, bridges, lanterns and all, was built in Shanghai, then disassembled and reassembled after being shipped to Dunedin. Incredible! It was definitely a place I could visit again and again.

Then we drove out of town, to the Otago Peninsula where we caught a boat that took us out to see the sea lions, albatrosses (with a wingspan of 10 feet!), baby seals play fighting, cormorant rookery (where they nest in the hundreds on a steep sloping cliff above the water, balancing their eggs precariously on shelves of straw) and one little blue penguin swimming in the water (who happened to be quite brave and allowed us to get very close to him). What amazing animals!

Next we headed for our favorite place, the Penguin Place, for some good photo-ops of the elusive yellow-eyed penguin. We saw one playing in a freshwater pond, which seemed strange since they usually head out to sea. The others were molting, so had to stay out of the water. They looked like fat down pillows with the stuffing coming out. =)

Finally, starving, we headed to the only place to eat on the peninsula, 1908. A classy little restaurant with local specialties like venison and blue cod. Kimball had the venison and said it was the best he ever had.

Exhausted, we drove about 5 minutes to our little cottage for the night. It was a fisherman's hut back in the 1800's that had recently been converted to an adorable cozy little cottage by a German/Maori couple. We slept so good in the down bed and woke late the next morning to a knock at the door and our hearty German breakfast being delivered in a large basket. 

(No luck getting the rest of the photos to load for this edition so check out facebook for the fun pictures of the cottage, penguins, etc).

Young Adult Beach Trip

This weekend Kimball and I joined the church's young adult group for a trip to Curio Bay, where one of the church members has a bach (pronounced "batch" what they call a beach house, also known as a "crib" here).  It was an amazing little place right over the beach where we could watch the dolphins play from the breakfast table. The little Hector's dolphins there are rare and only about 3-4 feet long. There is a group of about 40 of them that live in the bay and are there almost every time we visit. Today, they were surfing the waves with us and Kimball caught pictures of it. 

The youth pastor, Jonathas, has arrived recently from Brazil and got to try surfing for the first time and managed to catch some good waves. He's doing a great job with the youth to follow up on the work started by the last youth pastor.

While Kimball was out surfing a sea lion swam up to him and touched his board. Later while we were on shore a sea lion scuffled right up to us and lay his head down to sleep on the rock we were sitting on! We're not sure if it was the same one but he sure was friendly. Didn't see any penguins on this trip but heard they were around. It was so relaxing to spend time with God and nature and fun friends, we'll have to do it again!

Home in NZ!

It's sad to leave our family and friends in California once again but we had a great visit. The more we think about it, the farther away we feel from everyone. I don't know if it's a passing thought/feeling but maybe we would like to relocate someday in the good ol' USA. Let us know if you know of a spot that would fit woodsy, sea-loving types like ourselves. The only prerequisites are no bugs and not too cold (if that's possible). If we could get the rest of you to relocate with us it would be even better. Never fear, though, if you still are planning a visit to NZ, we will be here for the next year or two or more. After that...it all depends. 

On the other hand, it is great to get back to our cute little house and garden in NZ with our parrot and good friends and surfing nearby. If only there was a quicker way to get from A to Z. To help with that I downloaded Skype today at www.skype.com and tried it out talking to Jon and Brian. It is amazing that some things in life actually are free! How is that possibly? So it's up to the rest of you to sign up and give us a ring and show us your house, cats, children, scars, whatever...we would love to hear from you!