#163 Nomad Diary. 2-8 December 2023. Christchurch. Tunnel Beach. Oamaru. The Catlins Waterfalls. Kaka Point.
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| Me, Darrell and Jan (Yon) from Prague, CR at Church in Christchurch |
Saturday. 2. I called my friend Laura in Tennessee today. We talked for 90 minutes. This is when talking on whatsapp with unlimited internet is so good! We enjoyed visiting by video call and planned to visit again in January. We went downtown today and got some good sourdough bread. I took a short walk up our neighborhood hill. We got ‘real fruit ice cream’. It’s an ice cream excruder machine that mixes in frozen fruit of your choice with vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt. Darrell’s favorite flavor for most of his ice creams here has been passion fruit. I really like that flavor too, but I’ve tried some other flavors that I have also liked: mango, fig and manuka honey, licorice, and ginger. The price of an ice cream cone seems to be about ½ the price we would pay in the US. The quality of ice creams here varies by brand and ingredients also affecting the price.
Sunday. 3. Darrell preached today for the third Sunday in a row. The regular preacher, Grant has appreciated the break for himself and the encouragement from Darrell’s lessons. A young man, Jan (Yon) came to church who has moved here from the Czech Republic. Turns out he is from near Prague and we have a friend who preaches there, and our friend Bill is a friend of Jan’s too! What a great surprise! I found out that Jan is 32 years old and has been here for 3 months on a 1 year work visa. He’s doing yard work, but is a French teacher, also English and Sports. He would like to get certified here and is working toward that. His favorite sport is surfing. He told me that yesterday he was surfing with seals! He didn’t know how to act around the seals, but his two surfing buddies explained it to him and he was good. His two friends are from Canada and France and they all speak in French together! Just amazing to me! Today we spent the whole day with Grant and his wife Chrissy. They took us out for lunch at Joe’s Garage. We all ate very well and then went on to their house for coffee and continued conversation. We enjoyed meandering conversation all afternoon and then a light evening dinner with them before saying our good-byes and heading back to our place. After spending two Sundays visiting in Chrissy and Grant’s home we feel like long time friends and it is a joy to know them so well, and a bit melancholy to bid them farewell. We have so enjoyed being together. We plan to be back for church here on December 17th on our way back north to Picton where we will get the ferry back to North Island just before Christmas. We stopped at the grocery and bought some eggs and a couple other key items for tomorrow.
Monday. 4. Today is a rainy and coolish day in Christchurch. We have stayed inside expect for a 15 minute walk after lunch up our neighborhood hill. It rained lightly on us before we got back to our house. We spent some time considering Christmas gifts for our kids and Darrell’s folks. Darrell got a couple gifts purchased and drop shipped. I selected a picture of us and put it on a postcard in an app that will print and mail this holiday greeting easily for me. Darrell cooked pancakes for breakfast and I made chicken vegetable soup for lunch. We looked at restaurant options for dinner, but staying in with a light dinner was our decision today. We have two nights left here Tonight we put out two trash bins: the household trash and the compostable trash. The recycling is on a different week.
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| Windy Up On The Mountain Above Lyttelton Behind Us and Christchurch in Front of Us Tuesday. 5. Today is our last full day at our house sit. We are doing our laundry, some house cleaning, and write a thank-you note. I’ll leave some zucchini bread that I made with a zucchini from the garden. We are very much enjoying being guests in this lovely home. We drove to Lyttleton today. Darrell found a new restaurant, “Dana” to eat lunch at. We enjoyed sharing the Dragon Roll and Burnt Cheesecake with some very good Americanos. Then we took the scenic drive around the bay to Lyttelton and up over the mountain back to Christchurch. It’s beautiful and windy up on top of the mountain. The sun came out and it’s warmed up a smidge. |
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| Oamaru |
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| Oamaru Airbnb View |
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| Oamaru Airbnb View Behind Wednesday. 6. Today we leave Christchurch and drive south along the coast to Oamaru and stay one night. We took a walk in Timaru at lunchtime. We ate at an average Thai place. There is a beautiful rose garden that carried heady fragrance with the thousands of blooms in Timaru. In Oamaru there are small blue penguins. We tried to see them also in Timaru. We saw their footprints in the sand. At Oamaru we walked the waterfront around to the protected area. We could look at the rocky coast and see some seals. We were there at about 4pm and the penguins come in at sunset to their nests. Sunset is 8:45-9:30pm. Later when we were at our airbnb I looked up the penguin area online. There is a 24 hour camera in a nest and also on their walking track to their nests. We saw the evening parade of penguins on the video cam. Our airbnb is on a farm with amazing views of mountain ranges. |
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| Tunnel Beach |
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| Tunnel Beach |
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| Kaka Point View Thursday. 7. Today’s drive is down the southeast coast to Kaka Point. On our way we stopped at Katiki Beach and took a walk. There were beautiful shells and some still had sea creatures in them! We also stopped at Tunnel Beach after having a quick lunch in Dunedin that we bought at a bakery along with some sourdough bread. Tunnel Beach was a straight down walk to a beach with huge rock features. There were workers on the trail improving it while we and others were hiking it. At the bottom of the trail there is a tunnel with stone stairs cut through a boulder. Once you descend through the tunnel you are on a secluded beach. There are signs to watch out for the tide. We stayed for a while taking pictures then took the half hour walk back straight up the mountain! We went to a small cheese company and purchased some brie, soft blue and a smoked cheese. It’s our third small cheese company and we have enough cheese to last us a long time! Our Kaka Point airbnb host visits with us and settles us into our very nice suite attached to her home. We are right on the street in front of the ocean. The ocean is calm for today and the two nights we stay here. We make reservations and eat at the only restaurant in town. We have a delicious seafood dinner. We also drive to a couple of the scenic lookout points just 10-20 minutes past this little town. |
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| Waterfall Woodsy Walk |
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| Mclean Falls |
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| Kaka Point Airbnb Feast with Soft Cheeses |
Friday. 8. Today we spend the day driving through the Catlins and looking at waterfalls mostly. We have 5 to visit where there are short forest walks to see them. We also visited a hand dug tunnel. I read a history book in our airbnb that told about the earliest outsiders were whalers who worked the waters and had an encampment here in the early 1800’s. Some were married to local Maori women. Somewhere by the late 1800’s there were a few hundred people living in the area. Whaling was ceased. One of the first major bridges connecting roads here was in the early 1900’s. Timber was a trade. There are still few people who live in this area. A few farmers along with wild life protection areas and some tourism is what we saw. We ate out at a hard to find restaurant in this rural area for lunch. We fixed our own dinner at our place.
Nomad Notes. The weather has been beautiful. The sea calm. The views and scenery amazing. The places we have stayed are quite remote, comfortable and quiet. I appreciate our phone calls with our kids and grandkids. We also have a weekly Bible study online with our friends from England and the US.
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