Christchurch

We arrived pretty early on June 15th, after sleeping in Springfield and spent the day visiting Christchurch a bit. We had previously booked another place to stay at in exchange for work, but we had to arrive around 6:00 p.m. The city is very pretty, with a lot of history about the birth of the region (Canterbury) around 1850 and the Maori people living there prior to the settlement. Many, many churches are visible on every main artery, most of them made of stone, and the most famous is the one in "cathedral square", as seen on the picture. At night, we met Patricia and David White around a nice dinner and started to work for them the next day. I helped him in the garage for about 2 hours, and I had never seen a filled garage liked that before in my life. They had moved back in the house a few weeks before our arrival, so that explains all the boxes and stuff David and I had to sort out or rearrange. We then went on the road to run other errands. Dana was assigned on the computer once again, doing data entry this time. On the other days, she cleaned up the bathroom, hung the clothes outside where it really started to be cold (3-4 oc in the morning, frost a few times), and we both cooked and did some gardening twice. I vaccumed the whole house, cleaned the floor in the kitchen, cleaned the greasey stove and hung some clothes as well.

We decided to do a recommended walk one afternoon downtown, and it was pretty nice to stop here and there and read about the history of the buidings or parks. We visited the Canterbury museum for about 2 hours, which was lovely. Lots of information about Maori people and the settling of the first Englishmen in town. Queen Victoria is mentionned a few times for sponsoring some of the operation, which surprised me a bit. She has an important part for Montreal's history as well....
Finally, we climbed the big hill that runs between Christchurch and the harbour (with the van), and took a nicve look at the whole plain where the city sits. A bit hazy, but some good footage nonetheless. We kept some stuff for later, as we will probably go through Christchurch on our way back from the "deep" south. As the second biggest city in New Zealand and its definite english style, Christchurch is a must for anybody visiting the country. Big but not overwhelming, it is hard not to like it and there are plenty of places to go out at night and during the day. Different from Wellington, the bus is also a good way of travelling, unless you want to try the tramway, only there to catch tourists though...

photo section:

the view when we woke up one morning

a familiar name...

an english phone booth

an old government building

from a park in Christchurch
a picture of Christ college

an overview of Christchurch

view of the port, Lyttleton

On the way to Christchurch

After finishing our stay with Rory, we had decided to take the road leading on the west coast, where the scenery was said to be very pretty. Two relatively big towns were on the way, Westport and Greymouth, and we chose the first one as the place to stay one night. On the way, we stopped for a quick hike. we paid 5$ to walk over the Buller river on a long swing bridge, which was 18 meters above the water. We learned some interesting facts about the region, and some major earthquakes that have happened there before. The water level went up so high after those events, it is almost unbelivable; more than 10 meters!!!
We then arrived in Westport where I must say, there wasn't much to see or do. Probably the biggest surprise so far, nothing to really write about. The next morning, we headed straight for Greymouth and the scenery was worth stopping for; the beautiful coastline and the blue sky made for nice pictures. Some areas were very humid and it flet like a tropical climate at times.
Definitely one of the prettiest roads so far, I stopped more than 5 times to look or film. It was nice to get some warm weather for a few minutes. We tried to go see the pancake rocks, famous for the way they look and the water erupting out when the tide is coming in.
We then stopped in Greymouth, and the city opening after the mountains was a particular site. We checked at the local city centre what were the activities in the area, but they all cost a lot of money (white water rafting, kayaking, caving, jumpimg from a plane) and the weather was cold, and it was a bit too late..... so we decided to start crossing the land again towards Christchurch, on the east coast.
We took a less crowded road to again enjoy the scenery and we were once again served with beauty. Mountains with snow on top, green plains, animals and really open spaces, you have to come to New Zealand to really get how pretty it is. Arthur's pass ended up being the most difficult part of that drive, as it is pretty high between the mountains, on a very steep road. I had the van struggling to go up at 20km/hour, I was going slower than 18 wheel trucks!!!
Finally we got through and slept in our van in a city called Springfield (about an hour away from Christchurch). We cooked a nice spaghetti and woke up the next morning with ice on the ground and fresh snow on the mountains...

photo section:

new zealand's longest swing bridge

watch out for the penguins' crossing
the beach on the way to Greymouth

close-up of the west coast

Greymouth's history (mural)

approaching Arthur's pass
Arthur's pass

Nelson region

Rory is a nice man we stayed with for 5 days. After our brief stay in Blenheim, we decided to do the HelpX experience another time to save up a bit of money and try to do some kayaking in the area. Rory was a good fit for us, having hosted a few people before us and knowing the drill. The only down point was that we had to sleep outside again and not in a comfortable bed as is usually the custom. He had his own van to offer as a shelter and we experienced the arrival of winter big time!! The temperature went pretty close to 0 oc a couple of nights but we sucked it up with lots of blankets and got a nice preview of what it will be further south. Good sign though, we realized our van is better insulated than we thought at first with all the carpet on the inside walls.

We had some nice conversations with Rory, who was born in Sri Lanka from English parents. His family had gone there during the colonial period and his dad owned a tea plantation. They had to move when times changed over there and British settlers were not welcome anymore. He then travelled a lot, going to over 30 countries in a span of a few years. He now runs a transport business, driving hikers to the foot of mountains and trails and picking them up at the end of their journey. He was laid back with us and made us do all sorts of chores during our stay. Dana sat in front of the computer most of the time, helping him update his website with abundant information on each trail. She did have time to help me with reorganizing the compost section the first day and move some stuff from behind the house to the new shed Rory put up. I dug a ditch (a meter or two every day) so he can bury some electrical wires, washed his little boat and a big work table in the shed, screwed a long shelf to a wall and helped him move around a wrecked van. I did manage to put that damn van right in the ditch I had just dug up a bit, but more scare than harm. We laughed about it later, especially after Rory got out of his van a bit confused about what I had just done and then had to run to stop his vehicule slowly going down the hill…
That Saturday night, we all went to the local pub to watch the “rematch” of the All Blacks vs France rugby match. Of course, as a french speaker, they all associated me to the French squad, but nobody gave me a hard time inside the place. Luckily for me because Les Bleus managed to do worst than the previous week and got a severe beating, 61-11 the final score…… The worse loss in France’s history, I was very quiet for a while… Doesn’t matter, All Blacks against CANADA next week!!! I couldn’t believe it.In our spare time, Dana and I went to the beach one morning to grab some mussels we could eat that evening. We checked out the best time to go, and the low tide was right around 10:30 a.m. We parked where Rory had told us and wandered a bit on the beach before finding the perfect spot. We found so many big mussels, I was so happy; we ended up with 99 in the bucket, not even knowing that the limit is 50 per person!!!. We looked up on the internet for a mussel chowder recipe and Dana cooked the best Boston style chowder (tomato creamy sauce instead of white creamy). I thoroughly enjoyed that meal and we popped up the bottle of Chardonnay we had bought in Renwick. Delicioussss, we watched movies with Rory that night, and almost every night we spent there as a matter of fact. The weather ended up being a bit too cold for kayaking, but we still had a good time in the Nelson area. The last day before we left, we visited the city in the afternoon and parked the van in front of the park where the first Rugby match was ever played in New Zealand, in 1870. We walked a little bit through some streets and stopped in a few stores in town. The sunset was pinkish on the horizon, and we drove back along the coastal town.

photo section:

behind Rory's house

on the beach

me looking for mussels

me finding some big ones!!
view from the mountains
nearby a Lord of the Rings location
at the park where the first rugby match was played

The wine trail

We left Wellington before 8:00 a.m., sailing for three hours towards Picton, first town in the south island. We had a good last look of the city aboard the ferry, and enjoyed some free toast along the way. Jumped back in the van a few hours later and started the new adventure by trying to find a place to stay and maybe work (pruning some trees). It was a bit difficult to find the good combination, so in the end we skipped Picton and headed down directly to Blenheim. After a few tries and many inquiries about the work available in the area, Dana and I decided we wouldn’t work more because you need about a week of training to learn how to prune correctly and all the places weren’t very keen to hire us for only a week. Instead, we decided to stay one night at a Backpacker’s guesthouse (still sleeping in the van though), and do the famous wine trail the next day. Renwick, a small town about 15 minutes away from Blenheim, is the host of more than 25 wineries, 20 of them are in a 5 km range. The idea was to rent a bicycle for the day at the guesthouse, and hopefully enjoy a nice day to pedal around from one to the other. We were lucky and it turned out to be a splendid sunny day, a bit windy but nice anyways. We managed to stop at only five wineries, but there were at least seven different types of wine to try at each place, sometimes even more. I must say I had no expectations at all, but some of the wines (90% white wine) were surprisingly good and tastier than one could think. The wineries were pretty small, but most of them sell their wine commercially abroad, sometimes not to the local market at all. The wind really slowed us down in our attempt to visit as many wineries as possible, but it still was a nice experience and good day. We bought one bottle of Chardonnay at the end of the trip, in a really good place called Huia. All their wines were excellent, and by far the best quality in taste. Lots of flavour, even a little touch of vanilla for one wine in particular, truly amazing.
We slept in a parking lot that night and didn’t visit much of Blenheim, which looks like a nice place to live but not too different from any other “large” town visited previously. We called another guy we could go stay with for a few days in exchange of 4 hours a day of work and drove to his place the next day.

photo section:

the mountains and the grapevines in Renwick

Dana ready to cycle

Me on my bike looking really confident

Wellington

C'est avec un pincement au coeur que nous avons quitte Bryan et sa famille le samedi 2 juin pour nous rendre a notre derniere destination avant le South island, Wellington. Le trajet, d'une duree d'environ 4 heures, s'est bien deroule, avec moins de montees et de collines. Nous avons pris notre temps pour arriver en fin d'apres-midi dans la capitale neo-zelandaise. A premiere vue, les flancs de montagnes en arriere-plan donnent un look particulier a la ville, specialement avec toutes les maisons de style victorien. Elles sont bien entretenues et la majorite ont du etre construites a la fin du 19e siecle ou au debut du 20e. Tout a fait de mon gout, certaines sont plus colorees que d'autres et ce doit etre encore plus beau en ete. Le centre-ville est joli, moderne, vivant et pas trop gros. Un peu comme Montreal, il y a plein de restaurants de plusieurs pays differents, plein de bars ou clubs pour passer de bons moments en soiree, et des endroits ou amener sa famille. Par chance, nous sommes arrives en soiree samedi et avons pu stationner notre van gratuitement en toute quietude pour la nuit. Le lendemain etant dimanche, meme chose, gratuit pour la journee et la nuit. Et le Lundi, fete de la reine d'Angleterre, et oui vous l'avez devine, gratos. Donc on a pu dormir dans notre van au centre-ville gratuitement pour les 3 soirees ou nous y etions. Le premier soir, nous avons mange dans une pizzeria et sommes restes pour voir le match de Rugby entre les celebres All Blacks et la France. C'etait d'ailleurs mon but d'arriver cette soiree-la, je tenais a vivre l'excitation d'un match des All Blacks entoures de fervents supporters "kiwis". Malchance pour moi, comme prevu par 95% de la population ici, les All Blacks ont ecrase les Bleus quelque chose comme 47-11... Revanche la semaine prochaine, a Wellington de surcroit.

Le jour suivant, nous sommes alles visiter le musee national Te Papa, s'etalant sur six etages et impossible a tout voir en une visite. Nous avons jete un coup d'oeil a l'etage "sciences et evenements naturels" ayant touche la Nouvelle-Zelande au fil de l'histoire (volcans, tremblements de terre, evolution d'especes, formation des iles, etc.), ce qui fut bien interessant, puis nous avons ensuite ete observe les evenements culturels qui ont caracterise l'histoire du pays. En soiree, bon repas dans un resto coreen et petite marche de retour a la van. Pas tres vivant un dimanche soir, on a du se coucher assez tot.
Le lendemain, nous avons pris le cable car menant au haut d'une colline surplombant la ville. C'est la qu'a ete prise la photo au haut de l'article. Belle vue sur la mer, le port et les montagnes environnantes, il faisait assez froid malgre le soleil. Nous avons parcouru les sentiers et un joli jardin rempli de differentes sortes de roses, tout en redescendant vers le centre-ville. Le reste de la journee, nous nous sommes promenes dans la ville et sommes arretes ecrire sur nos blogs respectifs pendant quelques heures. Rien de special en soiree, mais bien content d'avoir pu passer deux jours dans la capitale. Nous aurons probablement l'occasion d'y revenir apres notre sejour dans le sud.
Le matin suivant, reveil a 6:00 pour prendre le traversier......


section photo:

le musee Te Papa et quelques residences en arriere-plan
en face du musee, dans le port de Wellington
jolie vue du port
jardin visite au centre-ville
rose

vue du centre-ville de Wellington

Tongariro crossing

Suite a notre passage au Mont Taranaki, nous nous sommes diriges vers le milieu du North island, juste en dessous du grand lac Taupo. Nous avons contacte une autre personne afin d'etre heberge et nourri en echange de 4 heures de travail, et nous sommes tombes sur les meilleurs gens possibles. Bryan, sa copine Meriam, et les parents de Bryan, Morris et Mary. Tout a fait aimables, ce fut 4 jours fort agreables apres la semaine bizarre juste avant. Bryan est un gars dans la fin trentaine et il a achete un ski lodge il y a 3 ans. Beaucoup de renovations a faire sur le complexe, nous etions ses seuls invites (avec se parents) et il avait quelques besognes a nous assigner. Pas de stress, des pauses cafes a profusion, Dana et moi avons peint, sable, fait la vaisselle et aide a de multiples taches pendant 4 jours. On avait meme pas besoin de compter les heures ou se soucier de quoi que ce soit, les grands-parents nous jasait tout le temps, bref une belle atmosphere de famille. Bryan m'a meme fait faire un petit tour de go-kart (250cc), le vent bien dans le nez. Il y avait egalement une chevre, un mouton, deux chiens, un cochon et un cheval qui se promenaient sur les terrains en tout temps, et c'etait bien comique de voir les deux premiers courrir ensemble et se frotter amicalement. La chevre se croyait etre un chien, ce qui etait bien particulier. Le cochon se petait des sprints sans raison en grognant, desopilant...
La deuxieme journee, nous avons fait une grande randonnee connue a travers la Nouvelle-Zelande; le Tongariro crossing. 17 km de long, ca prend une journee pour la completer et c'est assez ardu par moments. Montees en flanc de montagnes, le long du volcan Ruapehu (qui a explose en 1995 la derniere fois), passages entre des lacs verts de sulfure et des lac bleus, descente en fin de parcours qui ont teste nos mollets endormis. Il faisait assez frais, manteau, tuque, gants requis en debut de parcours, puis le soleil s'est pointe pour nous offrir une journee splendide et des moments plus doux. Nous etions si haut en milieu de randonnee que nous pouvions clairement voir le Mont Taranaki, partiellement grimpe la semaine precedente. Un chalet est situe aux trois quarts du parcours, et c'est apres de longues marches que nous y sommes arrives. La derniere portion est pratiquement de la descente, et c'est plus difficile qu'escompte car les jambes sont un peu fatiguees suite a la montee.
Une fois termine, nous etions bien content et un brouillard tres epais est apparu au pied des montagnes, si bien que la van nous ramenant au ski lodge fut obligee de ralentir et faire attention aux automobilistes environnants. Je ne regrette pas une seconde etre alle faire un tour par la-bas, apres avoir ete un peu sceptique aux prealables....

Section photo:

vue de la region volcanique

le volcan Ngauruhoe
Dana et moi devant le volcan
Differentes couleurs
le lac bleu

en milieu de passage (crossing), l'horizon s'ouvre

New Plymouth et Mont Taranaki

C'est le temps d'ecrire en francais.
Apres une semaine tres fructueuse a Kerikeri, la deuxieme s'est termine sur une note bizarre. Le fermier pour lequel on travaillait a commence a nous trouver des bibittes, pretextant que l'on cueillait trop de fruits pas murs (verts). On sentait deja dans les jours precedent que quelque chose clochait puis apres de nouvelles reprimandes et des accusations de gaspillage, il nous a remercie sur le champs. Incroyable, premiere fois de ma vie que je me fais "congedier". Je crois qu'il ne m'aimait pas trop la face pour etre franc, il a dit au gars qui m'avait engage que je posais trop de questions, haha, beau pretexte....Bref, apres une nouvelle tentative de cueillir des kiwis dans des conditions peu optimales, Dana et moi nous sommes diriges vers New Plymouth, ville assez grande a l'ouest du North island. On a alors decide de faire le WOOF, un programme qui permet a des voyageurs de demeurer chez quelqu'un et travailler 4 heures par jour pour lui en echange de 3 repas et un bon lit. Nous sommes tombes sur Jenny et Jon, qui possedent quelques vaches, des potagers et des vergers. Jon, un homme de 54 ans, fut un plaisir a cotoyer. Crack d'ordinateurs, il a meme jette un coup d'oeil a mon laptop brise mais sans veine. Bon sens de l'humour, je crois qu'il se serait entendu a merveille avec mon parrain Jean-Edouard ;) Sa femme par-contre, ouh la, sale caractere et bossy quand venait le temps de travailler, j'ai eu l'impression de marcher sur des oeufs pendant les six jours ou on est reste. Elle a fait preuve de beaucoup d'arrogance par moments, ce qui nous a fait reflechir serieusement a quitter les lieux plus d'une fois. Mais elle a fini par se calmer un peu et on a termine notre sejour sur une bonne note. Elle nous a meme emmene faire un tour dans son patelin, la ou elle a grandi, a environ une quarantaine de minutes de sa maison actuelle. Le trajet fut juste trop beau, bleu, vert, bleu, vert, moutons, vaches, collines par ici, par la, memorable. On s'est arrete en chemin pour prendre quelques photos, on en revenait pas a quel point son caractere pouvait etre different par moments... Dans les taches que nous avons eu a faire, laver le plafond et les murs de la grande cuisine, ramasser des tomates, des branches d'arbres coupes sur plus de 100 metres, des fruits appelles feijoas, des fruits de la passion, laver avec un puissant jet d'eau les facades de deux maisons et passer l'aspirateur. Ce ne fut pas trop penible mais pas tres excitant non plus.
Dans nos temps libres, nous avons ete faire un tour en ville, le long de la cote, et aussi au Mont Taranaki, situe sur les terres d'ou a ete filme The Last Samurai. Tres joli paysage, Taranaki est un volcan endormi en fait et nous avons grimpe une partie de son pied. Le temps change rapidement par la-bas et nous avons choisi un chemin qui nous ramenerait a temps avant la nuit. La neige n'est pas tout a fait arrivee au sommet de la montagne, mais ca ne saurait tarder.
Pendant notre sejour la-bas, j'ai appris la triste nouvelle du deces de mon grand-pere maternel. Ce fut dur de devoir accepter ce fait a distance, mais impossible pour moi de revenir a temps pour les obseques. Mes pensees sont avec lui et je tiens a remercier tous les gens pour leur support envers moi et ma famille.
J'aurais aime dire au revoir a Pepe mais je sais qu'il est plus heureux la ou il est maintenant.


Section photo:

en train de ramasser des feijoas
la route menant au Mont Taranaki
Belle vue du Mont
comme une carte postale
en s'arretant sur le chemin avec Jenny
paysage typique en Nouvelle-Zelande
autre vue de la montagne
vieille baraque
Renault 5, version europeenne

Cape Reinga

While we were in Kerikeri trying to make some money, we decided to go to the most northern part of New Zealand, a place called Cape Reinga. We left a saturday morning and drove for about 4 hours. We could have driven on the beach for 80 km, but a BMW before us got caught in the sand, which made me backoff and take the safe highway. We arrived just before the sunset and took a look at the lighthouse on the tip of the cape. Right in front of us was the meeting of the Tasman sea and the Pacific ocean. We then decided to camp in our van somewhere safe, and found a secluded jeep track, hidden by bushes. No sound at all and pitch black, we slept farely well and went on a hike the next day. The landscapes were once again gorgeous and we walked all the way to another beach. On the way back, I met a beautiful green lizard. Then, we went on the other side of the cape to try to surf on the sand dunes. I had never seen that much sand in my life, it looked a lot like when Luke Skywalker saved the day for Han Solo and Princess Lea in the desert!!!
Dana and I reached some pretty high speeds and had a good time. Couldn't take any pictures though, a bit too dangerous for the camera.....


Photo section:

The Beemer stuck in the sand, on 90 mile beach
View from the Cape
Stopping to take pictures
Dana in front of the lighthouse
Some direction please...
Nice green lizard met on the way