Birthdays and Geocaching.

June was the month of birthdays here.  Rick (mine host) had his first with mine, next followed by Sue's and finally, Lynn's.  Sue chose to spend the day by the ocean so we went to a couple of different beaches.    We started out in the morning at Spenserville Park.  Bo’sun, in particular had a great time, searching out and snuffling stuff delightful only to a dog’s nose.  We walked there for over an hour enjoying the dunes and the oceans.  We watched sulky horses getting their exercise up and down the surf. After a cup of tea from the ever-present thermos, we drove further north along the coast where there are a view wineries. The birthday lunch was at a winery called the Mud House which, apart from wine, specializes in game cuisine.  I don’t remember who had what any more but our meals were wild goat, boar and venison.  Only because of Sue’s birthday did we shared something delightfully rich and Chocolate.  After lunch we headed back towards Canterbury stopping at another beach at Waikuku to watch the sun going down and the surfers hanging out long enough to catch just one more wave.

I had been hearing from sister, Liz and friend, Wendy about geocaching also known as  ”Hide and Seek” with a GPS. One has to sign up first;  as Sue and I didn’t have a GPS, I simply downloaded the maps and locations.   Saturday morning on the way to market in Darfield, we visited a couple caches.  First one was an absolute bust, and I found the second cache we looked for. After we had finished our trip downtown, Sue found the second cache of the day. 

 

 Later on that day we went into Christchurch.  Both of us were guests at Lynn’s (my hostess) 60^th birthday party, and I was invited to dinner for a mid-winter feast.  It is becoming common practice here to have mid-winter parties or dinners to provide some entertainment in the darkest time of the year- a sort of Christmas party in June.  I am quite content to have Christmas in the winter in Canada.   For us, the darkest, dullest time of the year is broken up by both spiritual and secular celebrations, with lots of time available to reflect over the impact of both.  Summer is then given over to the pleasures and experiences of that season.  Although the thought of a walk on the warm sand followed by a barbeque on Christmas day is definitely appealing, I am content to have something that breaks up the monotony of winter, apart from earthquakes and aftershocks.

Geraldine

Somebody said I should go to Geraldine. I don't remember who said that, but there was a certain amount of emphasis on it.  So, June 17, early-ish.  Sue and I got into the Vitz and trundled off to Geraldine.  She drove this time, as I planned on rubbernecking. We went back to the Raikara river where Mike, Sue and I have visited last spring. Although it was officially winter in this place, the weather was a lot gentler than it was when we were here in the Spring of last year (October/November 2010).
En route to our destination we went past Mount Hutt.  The circle at the top of the mountain is the ski bowl.  Sadly the weather has been so moderate this year, there has not been enough snow yet to begin the skiing season which is, by now, several weeks behind. It seems to me that this ski hill is to Christchurch what Whistler is to Vancouver. 

Driving down the road, Sue pointed out that the little clod of dirt near the centre line was most likely a hedgehog.  Heaven.  I have looked frequently while travelling in the British Isles for even a glimpse of one.  There wasn't a lot of traffic, so Sue did one of her famous 'U-ies' while I was walking on the side of the road to get a close up view.  Thankfully only a couple of cars went by in the five minutes it took for the tourist to get her fill and photos of the imported wild life (New Zealand has only one mammal native to the islands, that being a bat).  A few days previously, I had mentioned to a New Zealander that I was hoping to finally see a hedgehog this trip--good thing I had, as the person told me not to touch one without gloves on as they had ringworm.   Although the traffic was quite slow that day, it seemed a good idea to get this little fellow off the highway, so we stamped our feet at it and he rolled into a ball.  The picture below is not Sue playing football with a hedgehog but trying, ever so gently, to roll our DLF (Prince Caspian in C.S. Lewis series) to the green verge.

I took one more picture of this little one after it had been moved to safety.  You can see its eyes and nose beginning to peek out, wondering if the monsters had departed yet.

  We did make it to Geraldine.  The sun that had been shining brightly in Darfield was not quite as evident in town.  It is an older town, and not particulary large.  Apparently there are a great many scenic walks in the area.  We did find one that was my speed along the riverside, and walked that for about 40 minutes after doing some theraputic browsing and having a bite of lunch.  I have permission from Sue to publish this, her official birthday picture for 2011.  She is beginning to hover on the edge of her second childhood, having just  recently completed the first.

 Here are some examples of flora currently blooming in Christchurch during what would be the seasonal equivilant of mid -December. On the left is a bush called Wintersweet.  It generally blooms a little later in the winter, but I have heard that there is more than one variety or/and the winter has got them badly confused and this is far too early.  It is quite pretty; all the little balls will flower after it is picked and it has quite a lovely perfume. It is reminiscent (honestly, no pun intended) of a muskier hyathinth smell.  The odour  is very strong up close, but not particulary noticible from more than a couple feet away.


                                                                                         Meanwhile, at the church in Darfield there were some snow drops blooming like mad the day we went to Geraldine.  They were still there last week when we walked to market.

Finally, here are not slugs or some alien ova, but a vegetable called yams; not like any other that I have ever eaten. A vegetable similar to the North Americans yams, is what New Zealanders call kumaru; these veg to the right are what the natives call yams. According to directives from the folks here, I baked them. They don't take as long to bake as a potato the same size, but to my taste buds, they have a very similar texture, and just a slightly different taste.  They are beautiful to look at in the store but, sadly, as soon as they are cooked the colour fades away leaving them a washed out orange shade.  They are eaten with their skins on.

About Earthquakes

I am late blogging all sorts of cool stuff. It was the earthquake.  One is entitled to forget all sorts of things now 'because of the earthquake'.  I am not getting forgetful...it was the earthquake.  I have 'earthquake brain'.  Funnily enough the phenomenon is quite real.  One really gets 'earthquake brain' and also gets a little jumpy,and even feels slight rolls when none are happening or even recorded.
Although the worst earthquake I have experienced now is a 6.3 surrounded by several clusters of 5+ which are definitely worth discussing, I am grateful that I wasn't here for the 'big one' on February 22.  Listening to the folks that were actually downtown Christchurch is, in itself, hair raising.  I have heard several stories from that quake and the most recent cluster, that make me appreciate both the fraility and resiliousness of our species. I am also in awe of the folks here.
The most common word here in post earthquake lingo is now 'munted'.  It means at its most polite: Broken, stuffed, destroyed or ruined, as in 'you munted the cake,Susan'.  There are tee-shirts available with the dictionary definition using Cristchurch as one of the examples 'as in Christchurch after the earthquake.'
After the cluster of quakes last week, I made up or noted a few rules for myself to help me survive.
When entering a room, look around an the inside wall to throw yourself against when the house starts to shake.  If at all possible make sure there are no large pictures above your chosen site.
Make sure your cell phone battery is charged up at all times.
Wear pajamas or other nightclothes to bed.  I consider the last should be entered into the Canon of Earhquake.
Earthquakes bring people together.  After a good shake, all the members of our household gather together into the living room and, without putting money on the line, make bets on the size of the most recent aftershock.  None of us were right this past Tuesday night; we were all thinking about 5.6 to maybe even 6, but it came out at 5.3.  Apparently it was very shallow, creating more shake and making it feel worse.

Satisfaction Guaranteed.

A few weeks ago Sue asked me what I wanted to do for my significant birthday so far away from family and home.  No need to think.  Penguins Please.  Wild Ones. Deal.  Sue's Phil was away in Canada, so it was a girls day out.

First off the morning of the sixth, we were drinking a cup of tea standing in the kitchen  and discussing the game plan. A few minutes later we were crouched out side of her house jibbering -- what was that?  A 5.6 earthquake, just what a girl needs to start her birthday off with a bang. We eventually gather our wits and our stuff and left the house around nine thirty. First of all found a neat growing thing in the dirt of a cement block by Sue's driveway.  Fungus Foto Op.  This specimen is called a Basket fungus.  It starts off as a little puffball at ground level, and undfolds itself rapidly from there. Found in forests and places where wood chips have been used, it generally disintigrates in about 24 hours.  The Maori call it 'ghost droppings' as it appears so suddenly--almost overnight.

 

Sue and I drove for quite a while.  The Little Blue Penguins, known as Fairy Penguins in Austrailia, (gotta love those Aussies) are found in Oamaru, a healthy hour away from Timaru which is a couple of hours away from Darfield.  We stopped off at a grocery store and purchased a picnic lunch.  Sue'd had the forsight to pack a thermos of coffee and one of tea.  We also purchased a sheep skin each.  Had we known they could have been bought for 39 NZ dollars, we may not have spent such a lot of money at Huron college--however I digress. We ended up eating our picnic in the sunshine at the Penguin colony in Oamaru.  The feast consisted of some delicious dip made with oil and tomatoes and basil, a good sized container of mussels, some crushkits (our token nod to low calorie) and oranges and a peanut chocolate bar for dessert.  We found that we had quite a bit of time before the penguin show at dusk, so we drove over to Bushy Beach about 2km away and walked there for a while.  We found quite a few Seal lions on the beach. Thankfully we had read the 

notice board where we had our lunch that said there were sea lions, and not to get within ten meters of them, or to get between them and the edge of the water.  Apparently they know how ambulate\ rather quickly.  We got to within 30 meters of this particular lion, and it was not happy with us.  He (I am saying he, because it seemed that the was watching over the other six sea lions.) had been at the edge of the beach near the water when we got on to the beach, but quickly made sure that he was between us and the other sea lions before we got to them.  I do not really know the differnce between a fur seal and a sea lion yet, but the folk at the Omaru Penguin Colony told us that the easiest way to tell was the Sea Lions pefer to lie on the beaches while the Fur Seals like the big stones.  Although this seemed to be a stony beach, it must have felt comfy for the sea lions. 

Here was an unexpected sighting.  There are several pairs of Yellow eyed Peguins (called so because of their bushy eyebrows).  The Blue penquins come in at but these perfer to come to land a little earlier.  They are more solitary that their littler cousins, and are quite a bit more leery of humans, so every human must be off the beach before three, or they won't come ashore.  We only saw two that day, but it was better than nothing. The birds sharing the beach with the penguin are oyster catchers. When we returned to the Oamaru site, there was a fur seal having a snooze on the dock.
It was quite noisy and spent a lot of time rolling about on the cement having a good old scratch.  Dusk finally came, and wouldn't you know it, one is not allowed to take photos of the little blue penguin when they come in.  The site is lit up with sodium lights so they are quite easy to see, but any flash will disorient them and they can fall down.  That, and too much noise, will also prevent them from landing. Here is a picture of them from that place taken from another web site.
http://www.penguins.co.nz/userfiles/image/image3.jpg
The penguins apparently spend most of their time at sea by themselves.  When they decide to come in aroung dusk, they swim to about 50 meters off shore and wait till there are several of them and come in together as a "raft".  They hop up to the rock and spend some time cooling off and grooming their feathers, sometimes this can take up to ten minutes, then they all scoot over to the nests in the colony at the bases of some rather large cliffs.  A of these nest are made up boxes, but a few are still natural.  There is room for about 700 penguins.  But, generally, there are a lot fewer than that. Most of the penguins we saw that night (135--not bad for winter) were banded but quite a few weren't.  Penguins who are not actively in charge of young don't mind doing 'sleep overs'--even wild, unbanded ones.  They are extremely sociable, unlike the yellow eyed penguins and sit up all night till just before dawn, chatting and cat napping.
Great birthday, and I had some wonderful cards from Mike and Yvan, my sisters and my friends.--thanks guys.

Wednesday this week, I got an opportunity to go to see the Dalai Lama at the Christchurch Arena.  Susan and  I met up at noon and got to our seats before the event started.  The Maori started off with a sung greeting and a welcome.  Bishop Victoria formally welcomed his holiness to Christchurch.  He talked for about 30 minutes.  It was frequently hard to hear him as his voice occasionally dropped, and he was not there to talk about Buddhism, but to encourage the folk of Christchurch.  I would definitely go to see him again.  I include this picture--from Sue's camera. The lone woman in purple sitting in centre stage is Bishop Victoria Matthews.

Something to blog about?'

So, I don't have the world's most exciting life.  Not even in New Zealand.  But I have been busy learning names, hearing stories and trying not to kill the natives when I am in the car.  Mind you, I am not alone in feeling that not all of them are the world's most careful driviers. I have been spending a fair amount of time getting lost, mostly because quite a few downtown streets no longer go through as they are in the red zone (no go).

Last Friday I took mine hosts to the airport about 10 in the morning and then went on to Sherlin Alpaca farms.  Sheryl, who owns the business with her husband Lindsey, is making me a vest from Alpaca wool.  It looks like it is going to be rather smart-cap sleeves and a bit of a collar.

While I was there, I was taking a look at Sheryl's garden and found humungus carrots.  Sheryl swears it is the alpaca poo.

The first day I was in New Zealand, Sue and I stopped at a fruit and vegetable store, to pick up some fresh stuff.  There was a fruit there that I had never seen, so we picked up a couple. At first I didn't particularly care for them--too flowery for my taste.  However, when I moved into Papanui, I found that my hosts had a few feijoa trees/bushes.  They are named after a Portugese botanist born in Brazil.  I have since aquired a taste for them which is not a good thing as I doubt that I will be able to find them in a grocery store in Canada.  I copied a bit of information from Wikipedia.
 "The fruit matures in autumn and is green and is about the size of a chicken egg.  It has a sweet aromatic flavour.  The flesh is juicy and is divided into a clear gelatinous seed pulp and a firmer, slightly granular, opaque flesh nearer the skin.  The fruit drops when ripe and is at ist fullest flavor, but may be picked from the tree prior to the drop to prevent bruising. The fruit pulp resembles the closely related guava, having a gritty texture.  The feijoa pulp is used in some natural cosmetic products as an exfoliant."  I picked up some fruit from beneath the bushes  yesterday afternoon and cut a couple up.  The white fruit is the one I pared with a knife--then after photgraphing it popped it in my mouth.  Some people take a spoon and scoop the pulp out from the feijoa that have been cut in half.  I like the pared ones as the texture is much grittier-sort of like a greenish pear but fleshy.  Lynn, my hostess makes a wonderful cake from the feijoa, and one of the parishioners makes both jam and chutney.  I was thinking about an upside down cake with them --I should have enough.

At the end of last week, I went for a walk on a path that begins part way up our street.  It wanders along  behind a senior's villa/ home called Ngaio Marsh Retirement Village.  The walk goes for roughly two or three blocks and is bordered by native plants and grasses with a creek or culvert on one side.
 
I included the picture below especially for my friend, Gwen, as it appears to be a larger cousin of her favourite plant.

Tuesday of Week Three

Am finally recovered from cold.  Monday night last week, I had trouble getting to sleep.  After having finally drifted off, I was awakened by a rumbling noise and a shaking that lasted for about 20 seconds (you have NO idea how long 20 seconds can be).  It turned out to be a 5.3 earthquake, an apparently acceptable size to be able to talk about with real earthquake survivors.  Needless to say the trip to Wainui the following morning  where the Christchurch Clergy conference was held felt very long.  For the first time ever I experienced  a really serious car sickness feeling;  I think it was from the trip through the mountains--with my cold, my head would not clear properly--the way back was not bad at all.
This clergy conference was quite intense.  There was a speaker, a priest currently working in the field of social work who spoke about the difference required in pastoral care when dealing with survivors of natural disastors.  It made a lot of sense, I just hope I don't have to put it into practice.
This was nothing like a Huron experience.  For one thing, everbody brings a bottle or two of wine, and a couple volunteer clergy pour the wine.  The 'bar" is open just before dinner on the first night of the conference, but not during the evening.  Every one is gone to bed by about 10.  The next day it is open before dinner and after the last service.  Every one is gone to bed by about 10:30.
Like Huron, theere is a lot of time for worship as well as the speaker, but also a lot of small group discussions--this time focussing on how the church will be present during the rebuilding of the city, and how the churches will themselves will determine if they will re-build or if, indeed, they should.

The conference doesn't end until about 2:30 on the last of the three days.  The clergy, like every one else in the country all have morning  and  afternoon tea, consisting of something wet and something sweet.  Instead of including that in the price of the conference, the clergy all bring treats for the teas.  I brought date squares. 

The picture above is taken from the porch of the YMCA camp where the conference is generally held.  The photo to the right is again taken from the porch, but is a picture of the Port Hills taken from the other side of where we generally view them in Christ Church.  The Y camp is in a place called Wainui, just across the harbour from Akaroa. 

There was not enough room at the clergy conference for all of us.   Sue, Phil and I and another member of the Christchurch clergy stayed at a cottage on the harbour.  It was about a three minute drive from the main site.  This photo was taken from the verandah of what is called the 'Beach House" (the originality of the name is stunning.)  At the left of the bottom picture there is a small bit of the promontory of land forming the Wainui bay and just behind it, across the water is Akaroa harbor, and that town itself.  I think somewhere Mike and I have a picture taken from the dock there of this same promontory and the town of Wainui.

It was a great experience, but I really like the Carmelite's cooking better.  On our way home over the mountains, we stopped to take this picture (above).  The azure colour of the shallow of the bay really was that shade--unbelievably beautiful view and really, really steep.

The picture  above is of Lake Ellesmere with the Banks Peninsula on the right. Ellesmere is the fourth or fifth largest body of water in New Zealand, depending on your source; it is not actually a lake, but a brackish lagoon.  The 'road' in front is the remains of an old railroad track built across the causeway.. The track goes on for miles, and I am not sure of  the location of its actual beginning and end..  The water in the lake is not for human consumption but the birds  don't seem to mind.  Most of the birds in this picture are terns and beautiful black swans.

 This last shot of the day is facing towards the Southern Alps.  What a great place this was to stop to stretch our legs this trip.

Tuesday of the Second Week

Things have been getting off to a slowish start.  The weather is hard to figure out, and Friday the sixth, I began to get a cold.  After getting some things done in the church, I took an opportunity to take some pictures of the garden  beside the church.

  It is a lovely tangled mix of things that apparently will continue to bloom for quite some time.
The residents of the Papanui area are planting herbs, brussel sprouts and chard now.  I may get some cilantro going so we can have fresh throughthe winter.



On Saturday Phil and Sue came by around ten o'clock to go out to Sumner to find the market stalls that used to cluster around the Museum and art gallery just a block or two away from Cathedral Square.  We drove to the place where it had been advertised as being, only to discover that on this partiular weekend it was closed.  Just as well since the weather, which was supposed to be fine, was anything but.  It moved from fine drizzle to downpour to drizzle again.  All of us were thoroughly wet, especially as we had to keep jumping out of the car in order to take pictures. 

Most of us have seen the place where the huge rock fell on to a (fortunately) empty Veterans Hall. There was a lot of damage right along that road.
Below is a beautiful church that was in wonderful condition; it did not sustain much, if any, damage during the recent quake, however the rock face behind it is so damaged now, the building is comdemned.  As you can see on the left, it has a lovely lych gate, something not uncommon to this area of New Zealand. " What is a lych gate?" I hear my North American friends ask.  To become informed on all things lych, follow this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lychgate

On the way to Sumner we saw a rather unique form of barrier lining the highway to help protect cars from the still-falling rock.

Sea shipping crates.  Phil, Sue and I all  supposed that they would have to be full in order to be useful.  However, the next question is "I wonder what's in them".

 Sight seeing in the drizzle is pretty hard work.  So we stopped off for a half pint and something to eat.

As you can see, we really were quite damp.  Thankfully there was a fire going just to the left of Sue.

 I got home in time a nap, followed by dinner, Kieran had made a stew with some of the beef that he had brought from home.  It was heavily spiced with rosemary, parsley and oregano. His dad does what is called home butchering.  I understand it is like a private business for his cusomers home consuption. 
The next day was Sunday, and I was at the church early to meet with my lay reader, Emma.  In New Zealand the terminology for the lay liturgical assistant is "precentor" coming from the word 'cantor' .  The precentor neither robes nor preaches, but assists in the service.
Everything seemed to go well, the people were very kind, and both eight and eleven o'clock services were well attended. 
Tomorrow is the clergy conference for the Diocese of Christchuch--it starts at noon Tuesday and ends after noon on Thursday.  I will be sharing a house there with Sue and Phil.
BTW, my cold is in full bloom now, and I feel rotten from the throat up--tomorrow it will be better.