Back in New Zealand

We have been back in New Zealand now for 2 months and I have been somewhat remiss at updating the blog.
After a fairly uneventful trip from Canada we arrived back in Wellington to find Cop Out was looking good. Both the boat and our station wagon had been looked after well in our absence with most of the boat repairs which we had arranged to be done while we were gone almost finished.
My family was happy to see us with my mother in her new place which is warmer and easier to look after than her old house. She is relying on her walker more than when we were here last but she is still able to do her shopping and is as bright as always.
Our first priority was to finish off the boat work and we were very glad when it was done.
Next Ken and Frank built Mum a new deck on the back of her new place so she can have a plant bench so can get out and putter with her beloved flowers. It took a weekend and looks great and she loves it—she is filling it up and pretty soon there will be no room for her!!!
We had planned on going to the South Island with the car for a few weeks when I started to experience discomfort and burning in my upper chest. Rather than go away with it unchecked I walked into the emergency ward of the hospital where after exhaustive tests showed a blockage in a blood vessel in my heart. They performed an angioplasty which surprised everyone—including the doctors--- as I have no risk factors. Apparently this had been developing over a long period of time as the other side of my heart had grown new vessels to compensate and no other vessels showed any signs of blockage so the likelihood of it ever recurring is minimal. To all of my friends please be warned that if ever you have the slightest questionable symptoms get it checked!! Anyway my dual citizenship was a bonus as I was able to be treated as a NZer with no bill at the end.
Our experiences with both the Canadian and NZ health care system has been wonderful with no tests or treatment spared and we really wonder where the American radicals are getting their scaremongering information from.
With the go ahead from the doctor who assured me life should be back to normal right away we caught the ferry with our car to the South Island.
We spent the first day in Blenheim touring the wineries. This is New Zealand’s prime sauvignon blanc wine growing region although the regions are getting more every time we come through and spreading wider and wider—we wonder if there going to be a huge glut in the future. Prices here are so low already with supermarkets having price wars and great specials we wonder why anyone would bother to start a winery anywhere any more.
We continued south visiting the lovely Art Centre in Christchurch and then headed down to Oamaru where we spent a night.
Oamaru is a small town which had been a very important port during NZ’s history. They shipped grain from here and it was the first place in the world to discover how to refrigerate meat for shipping and ship lamb to England. In time other southern ports surpassed it and the town is now just an agriculture centre. It does attract tourists as the town was originally built with grandiose plans and the buildings are beautiful white local stone. The community is trying to capitalise on this and we went to a performance where two young drama students put on a production where they re-enact some of the colourful characters of the past.
Penguins also use this area for breeding. There are two main varieties with the bigger one nesting on a beach. One of the parents goes out each day and swims back in the afternoon to bring food back for the partner and the young and we were able to watch several swim in and hear the noisy reunion as they got back.
The other smaller—little blue penguin—come in each night and they have set up a viewing area where we saw 150 of them come in. We were not allowed to photograph them as they will go back to sea if they are disturbed but it was amazing to see them all.
We continued down south to the Catlins area which is the far south east corner of the South Island. It is wild area sparsely inhabited and is very rugged with a beautiful coastline. There are some stunning beaches but the water is as you would expect so far south very cold. We went to the most southern point of NZ which is extremely windy and cold—definitely not where I would choose to live!!! We went on to Invercargill and Bluff which apart from the world famous oysters have little other redeeming features.
The two weeks was now up since my angioplasty which the doctor had said I should have before biking so we carried on to Clyde which is the trailhead to the Otago Rail Trail. This is 150km of an old rail line which has been torn up and gravelled to make a bike path which ends in Middlemarch. We had our bikes with us so we booked a couple of nights B&B en route and set off to do 50km each day. We had lovely biking weather and other than sore butt syndrome from the rough gravely path it was great. There are a lot of people doing it and it becomes a little like cruising with the camaraderie with the other cyclists. The smallest villages have become revitalised and great food and accommodation is available on the way. There is even a curling rink en route where a lot of people spend an evening as for NZers it is a great novelty. They have set up the old ganger huts with the history and the points of interest on the way which is very informative. It is a great trip where you can do as little or as much as you choose each day which allows families with trailers for their young children and children from about 9 years old to cycle it.
We caught the bus back to Clyde at the end to resume our drive north. Clyde is a very quaint historic town---there are so many roses grown here you would feel that if you were unable to make them grow you would have to move somewhere else.
It is also the gateway to the Otago wine growing area so we resumed our wine tasting, pinot noir region this time.
We continued north through the Otago region where the plains stretch to the mountains and lupins were seeded along the roadsides now displaying wonderful colour as you drive along. This is high country farming where the marino sheep which provide the fine washable wool clothing which has revitalised the NZ wool industry are farmed. It They also farm red deer, the stags have magnificent sets of antlers which made Ken drool!!!
Our destination this time was the Hamner Springs where we to restored our bodies in the hot pools after the cycling trip. This is set in the mountains and the village had a feeling of a small Banff of a number of years back.
Feeling refreshed we made our way back to catch the ferry to get to Wellington in time for Xmas.
Our family never does things by halves so we got to celebrate my sister Lynda’s birthday where we cooked for her on the boat, then Xmas which was a large family celebration which was at my brother Warren’s restaurant and then my birthday which Warren and his wife Frances put on a lovely dinner at their house.
New Years Eve was the next event but we had by now sailed the boat with our friends Harvey and Anne to the South Island and that will be the subject of the next blog as I feel this one has gone on long enough!!!