Lakes Wanaka, Pukaki, and Tekapo

On the drive from Queenstown to Tekapo, we stopped for lunch in Wanaka, partly so I could snap a photo of the famous tree there. It's pretty cool -- a tree out a ways into the lake -- and the surrounding scenery is sweet too. There were several other people also snapping photos (some with really big, expensive-looking cameras on tripods) and the weather was sunny and clear. It's hard to go wrong for photos in this middle section of the South Island.

standup paddleboarders enjoying the lake

some ducks along the shore

Then it was on to my favorite rest stop by Lake Pukaki. The blues were gorgeous as usual! We also picked up some Mount Cook Alpine Salmon at the little shop there for later.

And the last stop of the journey was Tekapo, which has a lake of the same name. It stayed light quite late, so we were able to take a nighttime scroll and check out the famous Church of the Good Shepherd in the dark. We tried out my camera's manual settings and got some nice photos with the stars.

Guy Fawkes, Dunedin, and Moeraki Boulders

A lot of the past month has been spent on two journal articles and conferences. These activities have taken more time than I anticipated, although they have been really good learning experiences. With everything now done and "summer break" beginning, I am hoping to recommit to my thesis and get a lot written, since there won't be many distracting seminars or things going on at the university.

Guy Fawkes Day (November 5th) was fun as usual. We took two friends out to New Brighton, a suburb on the coast, to watch the official fireworks display, then came home and lit off some of our own fireworks. We bought extra to keep us going throughout the year and for New Year's. :)

I picked up a sweet find of science fiction and feminism books at a garage sale for $5.

The weather has been off and on hot and cold. They're predicting it to be a really hot summer, so we'll see.

We hosted a PhD student from Australia and requested he bring some Kraft Mac 'N Cheese for D to enjoy, and he brought three boxes as well as a bottle of wine! Very nice. We bought a Christmas tree and put it up along with some outdoor lights. I think we're the only house in the whole neighborhood to have any lights up, and they are solar-powered so don't last very long if it's a cloudy day. It still doesn't feel like a holiday season with the hot weather and lack of spirit. It is strange to not be bombarded by all of the Christmas atmosphere like in the U.S.

One of my conferences was in Dunedin (about 5-hour drive south of Christchurch) and the weather was unusually hot and sunny, so I went on several walks around the city in the evening because it stays light until like 8:30pm now. The architecture there is nice and there was some cool street art. Other cities are so much more alive than Christchurch -- it's disappointing not to have a functioning city center here.

On the drive back to Christchurch, we stopped at the Moeraki Boulders which were beautiful and mysterious. There's a good description of them at NewZealand.com -- here's my paraphrase: boulders weigh several tons and are calcite concretions from about 65 millions years ago. They are gradually being revealed as the soft mudstone washes away. In Maori legend, the boulders are gourds that have come ashore from the voyaging canoe Araiteuru when it wrecked on land.

Bought this in Dunedin. Really makes you rethink how we see the world!

Coromandel Peninsula

Since we were so close to the Coromandel Peninsula and I wasn't sure when we would next be near there with a car, we drove up it a fair distance to go to the Driving Creek Railway, a miniature railroad that was highly praised online and mentioned in Lonely Planet. The background is pretty neat. The owner, Barry Brickell, bought some land for a pottery studio in the 1970s and started building a narrow-gauge (15-inch) railroad to help haul the high-quality clay in the hills down to the studio. He engineered and built the whole thing himself and eventually decided to make it legal for passengers to bring in some more income. Our guide said that it has been very popular and successful (running several times a day) and that most of the ticket money goes to fund conservation. Barry is a firm believer in conservation and has overseen the planting of over 9,000 kauri trees, the very slow-growing native forest trees that the British settlers bladed to turn New Zealand into farmland. He also donated a part of the adjacent land to turn into a wildlife sanctuary with a predator-proof fence so native birds and creatures can flourish. This project shows me that engineering, art, and conservation do not have to be at odds with each other.

Next we drove to Cathedral Cove, one of the most popular natural attractions in New Zealand. It was full of tourists and the weather was cloudy, so the pictures don't come anywhere near the postcards. And the hike to get from the carpark in the cliffs to the beach is steep. But it was still a beautiful spot. We treated ourselves to ice cream in the shop in town, and they offered surprisingly huge portions at a very reasonable price. I got hokey pokey and caramel Oreo flavors, and D got an orange chocolate chip thickshake.

Overall, the drive on the Coromandel Peninsula is through a lot of windy, steep roads with tight curves. We were fortunate to have a day without rain to enjoy the scenery which reminded us of California.