Slacker Blogger!

Yes, I have been a slacker blogger. But I've been on vacation doing a lot of fun things! I haven't had time to blog.... We've been in Queenstown for the last 2.5 weeks. We arrived from Dunedin, parked our caravan in the only caravan park that we have found that recycles almost everything AND has vermicomposting! Very exciting. As soon as we settled into our new home we started exploring. Queenstown in renowned for its mountain biking so Marc has been spending every second morning biking to the top of the mountain in town and hurtling himself and his bike off of it. I'm sure that he actually just rolls down very quickly with style and grace, banking curves and clearing jumps with speed and skill, but I don't know, I'm not that kinda gal so I've never seen him do it. I joke that he SAYS that he's going mountain biking but really just heads off to have a nap somewhere or attempts to pick up young tourist girls. Before Marc heads off to bike down mountains (or have a nap and eat ice cream), he drops me off in a nearby town named Arrowtown. The very clever local council here has realized that while there are plenty of high adrenaline tourists and locals who enjoy higher risk speedy sports, maybe their partners/parents/children do not. So they built over 150kms of wonderful biking and walking trails in the area. They built suspension bridges over the gorges to link the trails up, underpasses under the highways to that timid riders, tourists and kids alike can all cross without playing frogger. Since it opened up a year ago they estimate that 100 thousand people have used the trails. They weren't cheap to build, costing millions of dollars. 2 purpose build suspension bridges, 3 underpasses, 7 regular bridges, and lots of excellent trail that has to be maintained. But they realize the value of having a place for locals to stay fit, and having a dedicated trail system to keep cyclists safe and heading to local businesses to buy things. Most days when Marc heads out cycling so do I. I can cover about 35 k in 3 hours, this usually includes huffing and puffing up various steep hills, cruising down the other side, stopping to wash my face in the cold blue river, using one of the toilet facilities on route, and checking out the beautiful landscape. It's all really so much better on a bike than in a car. Marc came with me one day and we cycled from Arrowtown to the Gibston valley wineries for an afternoon of wine tasting and tours before heading back. This trail is one of the reasons that we've stayed here so long. I have something super fun to do while Marc is mountain biking. So other than cycling and getting sore bums, we've been fishing. We've driven the road up to Glanorchy a few times. A beautiful winding 45 kms along lake Wakatipu with mountain ranges in the back ground. We stop along scenic areas and pull out the rods and cast until we get sick of the views or the blackflies, then move on. We must have fished for a total of 20 continuous hours so far this trip. And not one fish. Last year we caught several fish in November and December in river runs. Apparently at this time of year, mid summer, the fish have all moved into the deeper lakes and so boatless people like ourselves have to take our rather poor chances casting from shore. But it's such a great excuse to make so many trips to strange places. We'll pick a lake in the middle of nowhere on a map, pack a picnic and head out to see if we can catch any fish. Along the way we see new scenery, stop in to new grocery stores etc, then we arrive in this spectacular location where we have the excuse to hang out for several hours as we are "fishing". The latest fabulous place we headed to was Mavora lakes where we also found "Fangorn forest" from the lord of the rings movies. A few days ago we took a trip out to near Clyde to cycle a section of the central Otago rail trail. We cycled for 35k, crossing several old bridges and passing through two loooong dark tunnels. Info panels and old ruins to get a history fix along the way. I love how small towns keep going here. Until the 1980's the government kept the rail lines going by putting limits on how far goods could travel on the roads. Once these restrictions came down, the rail line....and those towns whose life blood was the rail line, were defunct. So the rails were ripped up. And did you see these small towns, some as small as population 25 people, whine, moan and beg the government for a handout? Nope, they started the central Otago rail trail trust, fund raised millions of dollars, and partnered with the Department of Conservation to build a cycling experience from the old rail trail. Now, about 80thousand people cycle or walk on the trail every year. These small dwindling towns, they have had to convert their schools, old police stations, and empty homes into lodging, hotels, B+B's and cafe's to accommodate the cyclists who pass though spending money each year. Very cool On the way home from our cycling day, we stopped in at the old Hayes engineering work and got to check out the shop and homes of Mr Hayes who invented many agricultural tools that we still use today, like fence wire tensioners and the like. Marc spent at least an hour in the shop figuring out how the windmill would have powered all of the equipment there. The old building, over 100 years old and still sound, were build of sun baked clay bricks. All really neat. Then on to the tiny town of St. Bathans, an old gold mining town, for a pint and a snoop around the landscape, dramatically changed by sluicing during the gold rush. I also got bragging rites in St Bathans as I spotted a New Zealand Falcon in a tree. Being married to a birder, it gives me some pretty hefty street cred to have spotted a rare bird before Marc. We've been filling in the gaps with cherry picking (5kgs each time...the last place that we were at, the scottish owner asked us if we would like a roll of toilet paper with our cherries), wine tasting, a few music concerts, day hikes, and today we're going to snoop around some open houses to see if we can glean any ideas for our own construction at home. Big hugs to all, see you in late Feb Erin and Marc

Our little home in the country.....of New Zealand

I just received an email from my friend Jill asking to remind her of this blog address so that she can follow along in our travels this year. Oops, I guess that I had better get writing if I want to share the blogspot! Unlike last year where Marc and I spent the first 2 weeks of our trip shopping for and looking at, then buying and kitting out a caravan (camper in Canadian English) and truck (truck in Canadian English), this year we just showed up, picked up our truck and caravan, and moved back into our little country house. I love Chunk and Mani (yes I named our truck and caravan). I love the freedom that they give us to move where our home is whenever we want, I love how they solidify the fact the notion that less is more. Only 125 square feet of living space, and Marc and I never feel that we are wanting for anything while on vacation in Mani. So this year, we parked in the Christchurch caravan park for 5 days while we sorted our insurance, got some groceries, and hung out with Eric and Sue and my niece and nephew. It's amazing the difference that a year makes. Last year my nephew was having a terrible toddler year, this year, he's all grown out of being a jerky toddler, and is all grown into being a brutally honest 5 year old. Seems like semantics I'm sure, but a brutally honest 5 year old is funny and fun to be around, a jerky toddler is, well, neither of the aforementioned. We went cherry picking with the kids and my folks, an incredible amount of fun, especially being able to pick with Eleanor who is just as crazy about cherries as I am, but much messier and therefore worse at hiding the evidence of the unpaid for cherries that went down the hatch before we hit the scale in the sales area.... The 6 of us headed to Orana wildlife park, a beautiful huge zoo where Marc and I opted to pay extra to go into the lion feeding cage at meal time. We stepped into the back of a truck that is caged off. The truck drives through the lion acreage and keepers push pieces of meat through the grid in the cage. This means that the 6 lions stalk the cage, jumping and snarling their big lion sounds. They jump on the cage and pace just 18 inches above our heads, growling, demanding more food....and letting us know just how much we look like food. I've done this 'ride' before but it was Marc's first. I loved how his eyes got soooo big. They are amazing animals to be that close to. We hit the farmers market at the port and headed off to an Agricultural and Pastoral show in a little town nearby. We got our fill of horse jumping etc. Then, off to Oamaru! An old victorian town build of the local lime stone. The town has plenty of history to explore, as well as colonies of little blue and yellow eyed penguins. We spent some time tracking them down and one very early morning got to a private sanctuary in time to watch 11 rare yellow eyed penguins wake up, sing their crazy songs, then waddle down hill and over a rock beach to the ocean to head off for the day's fishing. Very cool. We explored geological formations in the area, went to fossil museums, explored the art galleries (steam punk is very big in Oamaru) learned about the history of refrigerated meat in NZ and ate lots of good food. And we also saw cheese being made at a cheese shop. Every time that I travel here, I marvel at the HUNDREDS of little cheese shops, craft breweries, vineyards, locally produced cured sausages, clothing made with local wool, great restaurants, bakeries etc etc. Agriculture here is the antipodes of agriculture in Manitoba. The south island of New Zealand has the same land mass and the same population as Manitoba. Yet agriculture here in NZ is not based on commodity pricing. You don't see fields of wheat grown for a price per bushel. You see specialty bakeries selling bread for $6 a loaf. You don't see and smell massive hog barns that sell on a worldwide commodity hot hanging weight price that farmers go bankrupt on. You see sheds with freely run hogs and packages in EVERY store that say "New Zealand Free Farmed Pork" "100% New Zealand Pork" It's more expensive than the nondescript from who knows where pork of questionable quality and animal health standards that is sold right beside it in the same cooler. But the 2 products can coexist as farmers here are innovative enough to see a market need and work COOPERATIVELY to fill it! The same happens in almost every industry. You can buy regular milk and organic milk at all stores, and raw milk at designated areas. Near Christchurch there is Barry's Bay cheese, in Oamaru it's Whitestone cheese, in Dunedin it's evansdale cheese. And you can find all of these cheeses in large grocery stores! The ag industry here makes my heart light at the massive potential that Manitoba farmers have yet to tap. We just need a slight shift for it to happen. Ok, rant over. We're now in Dunedin, Edinburgh of New Zealand. We've been skunked at fishing, spent a rainy day in the very cool settlers museum, have wandered the beautiful old buildings and churches, have a jog every morning on the beautiful beach, and have taken a trip on the Taieri gorge train. I also spent 3 hours and WAY too much money at the Saturday farmers market. The Otago farmers market is one to behold. Food only, no t shirts or other nick nackery. It is a Farmers market, not a flea market or craft sale. Coffee is on hand, vendors can tell you long tales of all of their wares be they cheese, meat, sausage, specific varieties of plums, apricots, cherries, raspberries. There is a mobile kitchen where a top chef comes early, grabs from the wares, makes a menu from the items, prints of recipes and starts cooking so that everyone can see how to make it happen in your own kitchen. We bought a hot sauce that I will be trying to replicate at home. Pure bliss. We've also taken lots of drives out of town, chasing down fishing spots, finding a beautiful wetland sanctuary, and touring the resident Albatross colony (Marc was in bird photography heaven), as well as the Orokonui sanctuary. The sanctuary is acres and acres of fenced in native bush where all pest invaders like possums, rats, stoats, mice and weasels have been decimated. Then the rare native birds were re introduced. We saw 15 varieties of birds, photos will surely be on facebook and flickr in short order as Marc clicked away for hours. It was an amazing place. Tomorrow we head off for Queenstown. Land of hiking, biking, fishing, and crazy adventure sports. Wear good clothes and stay warm in Winnipeg! Erin