Final days, New Zealand ;-((

After I sent the motorcycle to Australia in a ship (so sad!) from Christchurh New Zealand, I had plenty of time to waste over the next 3-4 weeks.  You can always count on the Gold's to pipe up and they invited me back down to their place!  The day I rode my motorcycle north from them a month ago was full of rain and I didn't get to see the spectacular views they insist I see now.

So I got a bus ticket, only $35 to Omarama from Christchurch.. cheap!  It was a 5:30 AM depart time, and with advise from Carole to sit on the right hand side, I enjoyed the most amazing views all the way there.  We arrived at Omarama about 15 minutes early, but not to worry!  The Gold's are there and already waiting!  Carole has picked up some groceries for her upcoming 8 course meal tonight!  But it's hard to walk past and give a hug when a huge FOOTLESS dear stealing the show!

They have really good friends coming over for dinner and for them it's a normal meal.  For us it would be Thanksgiving!  Carole made 2 meats, lamb and chicken.  And 11 vegetables.  Eleven!  And each of her friends brought beautiful deserts.. along with the wine.  I'm so full I could bust! I'm so happy to be back!

That was Saturday and on Sunday we pack up the car and head south back to good old Mosgiel.  Ross plans on driving me back the other scenic route that I missed last month.  Remember the Brass Monkey Rally I attended and the roads that were closed due to strong wind and snow?  Today's the day to see what I missed.

On the way out, we stop to visit family friends and their new baby.  What a gorgeous family and beautiful place to live!

This is the South Island New Zealand and very much winter.

Lindis Pass, New Zealand

Once through the pass, we come back down to a non-snowy elevation.

How pretty is this!?? I'm really glad to be here and see this.  Most riders experience New Zealand in the summer.  Pretty, yes, but this is more spectacular!

On Monday the Gold's go back to work and what am I to do???  I did a sneaky one.  I told them I'd have dinner waiting for them when they get home.  No problem.  Carole is humming along and says that she wants me to come back for Christmas.  She is thumbing through her wall calendar and marking down the days I will be leaving NZ and home to Australia.  And she says, I need to mark your birthday on my calendar too.  "When is your birthday Sherri Jo?"  I couldn't tell a lie, I said, "Today!"  What!???  I'm sorry for the blurry photo because the light was low, but I love her excitement!  It's nearly an exact match to the way my Mom used to smile and react.  Those two would have been best buddies, I can assure you!

Firefighter Dave came to dinner too, which was really nice.  He even brought me a cute birthday present!  How perfect is this?? Legos, one of my favorite childhood toys (along with Matchbox cars AND Barbie)  I probably shouldn't admit that, it's a strange indication to my adulthood. Anyway, this Lego set is a firefighter AND a motorcycle. Perfect!

Dave has just bought a motorcycle, so it was good for him to meet Carole and Ross as they are having a big Ulysses Moto party on the weekend.  I won't be there, but it will be fun for them!  But he did invite me out for a great morning hike near Dunedin at Tunnel Beach.

Last night Carole was explaining how she likes to liven up a party if it gets boring with planking.  I've never EVER heard of such a thing.  So Dave was happy to demonstrate for me here on the beach.  We all will just have to imagine Carole doing this on furniture at a party??!!  haha  It's really quite strange, but funny! Is this just a Kiwi thing?

We took turns taking photos of each other up on the cliff.  Cool!

So beautiful here, I think we might need to sit and ponder the world around us. I didn't get to sit down before the self timer sent off.. ha!

Afterwards we went back to the Port Chalmers Volunteer Fire Station for a proper firefighting experience?! Well nearly. 

I got to wear the gear and ride in the big truck!  Everyone should do this!

So if I want to make myself known, which siren sound should I pick??  I don't see myself as a wailing type of girl, definitely a yelper for sure.

Thanks again for showing me around Dave.  Gee whiz, since the time I met Dave when the firefighters invited me to lunch at the Dunedin Firehouse, he has been the most excellent local tour guide!

Back home to Mosgiel where I plan to pack up and head to Auckland for a few days before making my way to Australia.  Lovely Carole couldn't help herself and she gave me a heap of birthday presents to open.  Since I didn't give her advance warning, she came home with all of these wrapped the next day!  She knows I'm looking forward to being back in my own kitchen soon, so I got lots of fun kitchen gadgets AS WELL AS, the local favorite Kiwi cookbook, Edmonds.  These are perfect and awesome too.. Between them and Dave, hey all made this a great birthday to remember. Thank you!!

The next day I flew up to my other home away from home, the Hubbard residence in Auckland!  But unfortunately they are not here. They are riding a motorcycle completely around Australia at the moment! But I'm grateful as always to have wonderful place to stay as I finalize my last bits of New Zealand. Here in the hot seat salivating over one of Diana's local New Zealand cookbooks...

What a difference in weather from the South Island to Auckland!  It was so hot I couldn't even wear socks and shoes whereas yesterday I was wearing 3 layers of socks on the South Island!  I love the Birds of Paradise they have on the veranda, and it was more spectacular with the sun shining through.

I took a little wander around the waterfront downtown.  I hadn't done this before and was really impressed by this modern city.  Amazingly, it's very overcrowded.  New Zealand is accepting huge amounts of immigrants and from their news reports, the people land in Auckland to set up a new life and tend not to venture any further.  Housing is nearly impossible to find and the prices for rent or ownership are beyond normal and through the roof.  I hope they get a grip on it soon.  It is a very good looking city though, with lots of good energy.  I like it!

I was lucky to meet another fantastic motorcycle rider. Shock1 He invited me for a day out to ride his KTM 990 while in Auckland!!!!  Would love to!!! But I had sent every bit of my riding gear in the crate along with my bike from Christchurch.  I have nothing!  Supersize bummer!! But he was kind enough to offer a tour on 4 wheels.  I can do that!  He came and picked me up for a drive to his part of the world near Hanua Falls.

These are cool.. what's next?  "Do you want to hike up and stand on top of the falls?"  Sure!  Nice little heart pounding hike, I needed that!  Water drops on the camera lens.. sorry!

I've been to a zillion waterfalls on this world tour, but I can say that I've never stood right on the top edge of one. Awesome!

Next a drive to the other side of the North Island.  It doesn't take long in New Zealand!  And we go to check out another beautiful view, the lighthouse at Manukau Heads.  It's easy to imagine what it would be like to be the lighthouse master guiding ships into the harbour.

I can't get over the colors here.  Just gorgeous!

Not a bad spot!  Thanks Jock!

This was so much prettier in person than through the camera.

Well, that was a wonderful and successful wrap up to New Zealand.  I was lucky enough to spend 3 1/2 months in this country, and it quickly felt like home to me. I'm still blown away by the wonderful new friends I have here.  Everyone treated me like family and I couldn't be happier.  I will greatly miss New Zealand.  But! The good news is that it's only a hop over to these islands by airplane from where I live in Australia, so watch out!! ;-)

One final bit of excitement.  I am about to board the famous A380 jet liner.  I couldn't get over it.  I bought the cheapest ticket available from Auckland to Melbourne and this is what they put me on!?  I feel like I won the lottery!

I've wanted to fly in one of these for years and it met my expectations.  It felt like flying in first class even though I was very much in economy.  Well done to the designers of this awesome flying machine.  My last country of Sherri Jo's Because I Can World Tour is now complete. See you in Australia! 

The Catlins, Mosgiel and Port Chalmers, New Zealand

After the presentation I did at the Ulysses Club last week, I got a call from Ross, Carole and Terry who wanted to know if I'd like to go for a ride down to the Catlins.. Of course!  The Catlins is an area in South New Zealand well-known for it's coastal ride between here and Invercargill.  I did not come up that way from Invercargill on my original ride, and with such nice weather today, it will be good to back track and see what I missed.

Good Morning Ross and Carole!

No matter where I go in New Zealand, it's beautiful in every direction.  How about this coastline?

At this one little stop we met this man from Te Anau, the place I stayed on the west coast.  He's not on a motorcycle today while on holiday with his wife in a campervan.  Otherwise he does ride and he offers motorcycle friendly accommodation in Te Anau (I've already been through, but I still wish I wrote down the name he told me.. ;-(.  A couple minutes later we met another man who just pulled in with a campervan as well, who is visiting from South Africa!  He's right into his motorcycle club in that part of the world.  I'm not joking, it's hard to meet anybody in New Zealand who is not passionate about riding!  I love it!

He was telling the truth!  Proudly sporting his Ulysses Club sticker, where the motto is "Growing Old Disgracefully"  Yes!

We pulled off for a coffee break at Kaka Point and they tell me that the "famous" Nuggets are something to see out the peninsula but it's a dirt/gravel track.  I say, "That's all right, I can do dirt!"  They laughed and said, "Yeah, but we can't." 

It's not far, so while they have a coffee, I take off to have a look.

Easy peasey!  I understand their concern on a big touring road bike riding on a gravel, but this one is quite safe.  Hard to know unless you're out there though.

More beautiful views! It turned out to have a look at the actual Nuggets (rock formations along the coastline) required a 900 meter walk.  I didn't want my friends to wait that long for me to hike that far and then to return, so I took a couple photos and headed back.

Tony loves the gravel.. it's so much more fun when I don't have to carry all my gear.

I made it back to the coffee stop and they're still here!  Thank goodness I didn't take that longer hike as it turned out poor Carole had the coffee from hell.  She found that they used old sour milk!  Sometimes you gotta take the good with the bad.  Not a "bad" view! ;-))

Now we travel south and I'm wondering if Lake Wilkie is a "sign"... ha!  I love this place and it really doe seem like home!

We stopped for a wonderful lunch at the Whistling Frog Cafe.  I had Blue Cod for the first time.  It's one of the most popular fish dishes on the South Island, but somehow I'm only now trying it.

After lunch, Ross and Carole needed to get home for other family plans, and Terry wanted to show me a different route home that included some spectacular falls.

The Purakaunui Falls are just gorgeous.  I've seen a lot of waterfalls on this trip and I think this one looks like a wedding cake!

Purakaunui Falls

Terry is great fun to travel with.  He's been all over the world and has lots of good stories!  What a perfect day.. thanks guys!

Now I need to get home in time to feed the chickens! I've never looked after chickens before.  I counted around 50 of them.  I always thought of them as being quite harmless, but not when it comes to the roosters!  They are down right evil!  The roosters would go around raping every hen and little chick as they are trying to get a feed.  They were so forceful, it would make me so mad. But I guess that's life and how it works in the chicken industry... I just had no idea they were so mean.

Here's a good example.  The hen and her chicks hiding out by me and the front door.  The rooster comes in to sight and you can see the fear in their eyes!!  Run Chicks Run!!! There are so many roosters here the poor things don't stand a chance..

From that newspaper article the other day, I got an email from Howard Weir.  He surprisingly recognized me and the bike from the time I rode through Siberia with Walter Colebatch by following his ADVrider posts!  That was way back in 2010, so he's got a heck of a good memory!  Anyway, he invited me around the fire station in Dunedin for lunch.  That was a no-brainer decision for me, how lucky can I be!??

They made a darn good meal, including desert!!  Great cooks they are. Yummm!

Howard and Dave showing me the "Jaws of Life".. Wow!!

I take guys like this for granted, unfortunately.  I don't think of it often but I know they are there. Super humans who dedicate their lives to saving people. What an honor it is for me to meet them and to get a real insight to what they do and how they do it.

I'm also lucky to be the proud new owner of this t-shirt. At the bottom it says Whakaratonga Iwi.  Maori words meaning "To serve the people".

Another day, another presentation in Dunedin!  This time it's the official Otago Motorcycle Club (the last one was the Ulysses Club). 

The wonderful people of the South Island are filling up my Ortilebe travel bag!  I've got a new long sleeve Ulysses Club shirt, my new Fire & Rescue Shirt and now a new Otago Motorcycle Club shirt made with the thick merino wool so famous for New Zealand.. I am one very lucky girl!  And with the winter coming, all 3 shirts will and have been put to very good use!  Thank you ALL so much!!!

Ross and Carole invited me over on a Saturday night dinner party. It turned out to be quite the seafood extravaganza!  First up was Whitebait.  I've seen it advertised everywhere, but I've never had it.   I think it's most commonly on the menu as a fried ball of fishes, but Carole makes them with an egg mixture. 

I have a look at them, and find that they're all looking right back at ME! I quite honestly had a "No way" attitude at first, but as soon as I tried it, the little fishes tasted fantastic!

A very light fish with a very light taste.  I never noticed the little eyeballs after that.. yum!

Carole even managed to get me to eat Bluff Oysters.  I hate oysters!  And I warned her to not even try.  The last one I tried years ago came right back up as fast as it went down.  She convinced me these little oysters in the deep fryer will be different.  Yep, they were good too and stayed down! Amazing!  Then she served up a crayfish mornay with rice.  Gee whiz, I'm getting full.  They laughed at me and said, but we haven't eaten yet!  What?  The main course is still on the way, grilled Blue Cod and salad!  Lord Have Mercy. Now that was a dinner party! Even better because I've now tried and like things I never did before.  Cheers!

The family at the other house I was looking after came home early at 3 weeks instead of 4.  My next housesitting assignment is up near Christchurch, so I have a free week.. What to do?  Ross and Carole said, "Well you coming back to stay at our house, end of story!"

So I said goodbye to all my new animal friends...

And found myself back at the Gold Residence, which I've renamed the Mosgiel Spa...

Ross wants to pick up some meat at his son's butchery shop in Outram, a small town about 10 km from Mosgiel.  I walked in the door and wasn't sure I'd get out alive! Just kidding. These guys were great.  I've never been behind the scenes at a butchery and they are masters of using a knife!

I've had a sore back for a few days, so I had a nice soak in their spa..  It's like being with family. Nice warm house, good meals, motorcycles and hot tubs! And not a mad rooster in sight! ;-))

Firefighter Dave sent a message inviting me to tour around his part of Dunedin, just up the Dunedin coast at Port Chalmers.  Somehow.. during lunch at the fire house, I probably carried on a bit about Sir Hubert Wilkins, the greatest polar explorer of all time.. in my humble opinion! ;-)  And Dave thought I'd like to see a bit of polar history around here.

He took me to the Scott Memorial.  I won't carry on too much, but a bit about Sir Hubert Wilkins.  Wilkins' goal was to be the first to fly an airplane to the South Pole where he would map thousands of kilometers of uncharted territory in Antarctica (amongst a zillion other 'firsts' he accomplished in his super full life).  He achieved this goal, and on any detailed Antarctic map you will see "Wilkes Land" as well as the Wilkins Sound, Wilkins Ice Shelf (which has recently broken up due to global warming) and Wilkins Peninsula!

I'm really bad.  I'm carrying on AGAIN about Wilkins, when this is supposed to be about Robert Scott. The prevailing history is of two other great explorers.  One being British explorer Robert Scott who was here, using Port Chalmers as the last base before sailing to Antarctica.  And the other was a Norwegian explorer, Roald Amundsen. They were both keen to be the first to make it to the South Pole and were in an unofficial race.

They would have to be the toughest guys on the planet.  There is no lightweight polar fleece, no Gore-Tex. I quite like those straps holding up the big furry gloves.  They look really convenient.

Captain Scott had no way of knowing it at the time, but the first expedition to reach the geographic South Pole was achieved by Amundsen. He and four others arrived at the pole on 14 December 1911, five weeks ahead of the British party led by Robert Falcon Scott as part of the Terra Nova Expedition. Amundsen and his team returned safely to their base, and later learned that Scott and his four companions had died on their return journey. Wikipedia.  The photo above is a memorial of Capt. Scott's last message, very thoughtful words.

From reaching the South Pole by foot for the first time in 1911, it was only a few years later in 1929 that Sir Hubert Wilkins flew there by airplane.  Check it out, I just found out there is also a Wilkins Aerodrome AND a Wilkins Runway!  Well deserved...!  Amazing photos of Wilkins Antarctica Aerodrome

Hardihood from all!! (We loved that word Capt. Scott used in his last message above.. ) I've always got to stick in a bit of Wilkins history, just because I love his name and still wonder if he is a long lost great Uncle of mine. If not, I claim him anyway! Great history!

 

Port Chalmers, New Zealand

I remember looking at this and wondering which way should we go?  To Church or to the South Pole?  What a unique option!! Dave's already been to the South Pole.  He has worked 3 seasons on the New Zealand and American bases in Antarctica as a carpenter.  But I wonder if he's ever gone to Church?? ;-)

Wandering about the port.  Firefighter Dave makes quite a good tour guide!  His family and history is here, so he had lots of great stories to tell.
 

Thanks so much for showing me around Dave.  Another way of getting to know this part of the world is fantastic! Normally I'd have a night or two in a city and move on with my journey.  Stopping here for a whole month has made a huge difference to me.

Back home again to the Mosgiel spa!

I've so much enjoyed my week here at Ross and Carole's house.  Kiwi hospitality is unreal and these two have really raised the bar!

However, the time has come to leave my Mosgiel temporary home and head to the Brass Monkey Rally in Central Otago.  It's a winter rally and it takes a true blue hard core Kiwi to attend this motorcycle event, most often in the snow!