Pictures from previous posting:   Bus: AKL -> Wgtn
  Te Papa
  Wellington City and Sea
  Ferry: Wgtn -> Picton
  Christchurch Bontanic Gardens

First, some little tastes of New Zealand. My favorite TV commercial is for an organic detergent to be used on the exterior surfaces of a house. Their tag line: “It may not work over night, but it DOES work!”. I’m getting more and more fond of traffic circles. They subjectively feel more efficient than traffic lights at intersections. I’d be curious to see some hard data comparing the different systems and how they scale to larger traffic loads. Something we don’t have back in America: three phase traffic lights. Here in NZ they put these in at a small number of super-busy urban intersections. Phase 1: motor traffic flows north/south. Phase 2: motor traffic flows east/west. Phase 3: foot traffic flows in ALL directions, including the two diagonals. Kinda weird, but kinda cool at the same time.

On Wednesday 4 Dec I had started the day early and purchased a “Best Attractions” bus pass, which would take me to several of the places I wanted to go. The folks at the Info office told me to go right out front and look for a black double decker bus. I dutifully did so, but said bus was not forthcoming. After waiting by the way-cool huge chess set and watching the bus stop for 15 minutes past the indicated time, I went back in and asked the Info people what the deal was. It turns out the company running the bus had taken the black double decker out of service and replaced it with a red single decker. There was a breakdown in communication somewhere and I never got told. Now the funny thing about this Best Attractions pass is that it is only valid on two consecutive days. That makes no sense to me. Why not let me use it on two non-consecutive days? Why not let it expire after a week? Sigh. So many more user-friendly ways to do things. Anyway, I had the Info desk cancel the ticket and issue me a new one, for the next day.

I went back out to the chess board and ran into Cem. Cem had been on the same bus from Picton to Christchurch with me, and I had seen him the day before also at the chess board, but we had never really talked. This time I figured it was fate and went over and introduced myself. We talked for a bit and then walked through the Arts Center, which used to house one of Christchurch’s two major universities. When the university outgrew the facilities they built a new campus on the outskirts of town and the city turned the old campus into the Arts Center. There is an artsy movie theater, two stages for plays and musicals (South Pacific was on) and lots of arts and crafts stores. Cem (he’s from Switzerland but his father was Turkish) and I spent a couple of hours wandering around there. Then we went to a sports bar called The Holy Grail where I bought us some beer and chips, thereby “paying it forward” from when I was in Auckland and another hostel guy bought me a beer. Over this beer and chips we both watched our first professional cricket game, a friendly international between the Max Blacks (of NZ) and the Indian side. Max Zone cricket is slightly different from regular cricket in that there are two parts of the pitch where if the ball goes in there the runs are doubled.

On Thursday I finally got to use my Best Attractions bus pass. I took the bus out to the Antarctic Center. This is a tourist attraction near where the US, Italy and New Zealand have their staging areas for their Antarctic programs. It is supposed to promote the science done there, but it really fell down on that score. For NZD $16 after the YHA discount I was deeply disappointed, though I was thinking a lot about a former co-worker from Brightmail (Mark) who did some research on Antarctica. When I got to town I was met by Mrs Tuffley, who took me back to Chez Tuffley for dinner. This was my chance to deliver the presents their son Chris had entrusted to me back in Berkeley. I got to meet both parents (Lesley and Peter) as well as sister Emily and her SO Michael. All extremely cool people. If anyone in NZ needs a Japanese translator/interpreter, let me know and I’ll connect you with Peter - he’s first rate. I must have impressed them, since Lesley and Peter asked me to stay with them instead of at the hostel for the rest of my time in Christchurch. I accepted. Peter drove me back to the YHA after dinner.

I checked out of the hostel first thing Friday morning and put my backpack in a locker. I had about an hour before I need to use the second half of my Best Attractions ticket, so I tried to find a cheap flight from Christchurch to Auckland, but I didn’t have any luck. I caught the bus to Willowbank. Willowbank is a privately owned and operated wildlife preserve. They have quite a few endangered species and associated breeding programs, and they have a kiwi sighting guarantee. As soon as you get inside you are immersed in a huge variety of bird calls and animal sounds. I took tons of pictures. And I did in fact see a live kiwi. When I first entered the kiwi house it took some time for my eyes to adjust to the dark. I heard some scratching in the first enclosure and thought how lucky I was to see a kiwi within the first minute! Peering in I saw a couple of small animals which didn’t resemble the pictures of kiwis I had seen, but since it was the kiwi house I figured they had to be kiwis. Another few minutes and my skepticism grew. These didn’t have the distinctive long beaks of kiwis and they weren’t waddling around on their hind legs. Waitaminit - these animals are on four legs. They were hedgehogs. I moved on to the next enclosure, Again, some movement and faint sounds in the dark. But this time I was more open minded about what I might see. This was ducks now. Hm. Where are the kiwis? The third enclosure turned out to be what I wanted. There, walking back and forth along the side wall was a kiwi, probing the ground repetitively with its long beak. I stood and watched for about 15 minutes. I was the only person in the kiwi house and it was a little magical. I had lunch there at Willowbank and took the next bus back to Christchurch. When I got there I watched the chess for another hour. Then I called the Tuffleys and waited for Peter to collect me and my backpack. I had another delightful dinner with Lesley and Peter.

Saturday was a busy day. Up early and Peter took me on a drive through the Port Hills south of Christchurch. Got a good view of Lyttleton harbor and the monument where the first batch of women and children settlers stopped after hiking up a steep hill from Lyttleton and rested before going down the other side to Christchurch. Peter had a delivery to make in Sumner and the Port Hills weren’t far out of the way. He took me back to town and dropped me off in Cathedral Square at the chess set. I watched for a little while and then caught the Akaroa Shuttle to, of all places, Akaroa. Akaroa was originally a French settlement but they were a little too slow and very early on the French settlers agreed to live under British rule, since the Maori had recently signed the Treaty of Waitangi, essentially giving New Zealand to the British crown. On the way there we stopped at Barry’s Bay Cheese Store where I tasted three very good cheeses and bought one of them (Maarsden, a Swiss-like cheese, not as hard but very flavorful). Akaroa was a cute little town with a French flavor. I bought a small jar of strawberry rhubarb (one of my favorites) to say “Thanks” to the Tuffleys. Akaroa has, like most towns in NZ, a monument to commemorate their war dead. This was was set in a beautiful rose garden and the gardener was at work. Since I’m trying to become a better photographer, part of that is getting less shy about asking people to pose. So I chatted up the gardener with the plan of finding out which were his favorite roses and then I’d pose him in front of them. His name was Terrance. He had been tending the garden for seven years and when he first got into it, it had been neglected for a long time and was in bad shape. This was how he kept busy during his retirement. And what was his old job? He was the mayor of Akaroa and the Banks Peninsula! I took the Akaroa Shuttle back to Christchurch. Spent a couple of hours on the net paying some bills and catching up on email. Had dinner in town. Then I went to Christchurch’s super-modern, computerized, GPS-updated bus station. I took the local bus back to the Tuffleys house and let myself in. They came home from a Christmas function they had been at a short while after I got back.

Sunday was another early day. The InterCity bus left Christchurch at 7:15am. Peter very kindly drove me in to town. I bought my ticket and got on the bus. At the first stop (Kaikoura) I phoned InterIslander, the ferry company. I asked about the 1:30pm sailing and the person told me that they don’t sell tickets the same day as a sailing, but that the computer said it was only half booked and I’d have no trouble getting a ticket. Can you see the foreshadowing here? Got to Picton on time, strolled into the ferry building and up to the ticket desk. Asked for a ticket on the 1:30 boat. It was sold out. Not only that - it was sold out a week ago! Oy. So I asked for a ticket on the next ferry. Which was at 7pm. Double oy. Ok, I took the ticket, which was on the Lynx, or “fast” ferry. The Lynx only takes 1.5 hours instead of 3.25 hours to make the crossing. I thought to myself that that was actually kind of cool. I’d be able to say I’d been on both kinds of boats. Plus, I now had 5 hours to explore Picton that I didn’t expect to have.

So, I walked up and down Picton’s main street. On the way back I noticed a small museum and a large boat in a drydock. This was the Edwin Fox. It claimed to be the ninth oldest ship in the world. I went in and struck up a conversation with the man behind the desk. My first question: “Which are the 8 older ships?” He gave me the list and I was impressed. I pitched a dollar in the donation box and started walking through the museum. I very quickly became deeply impressed. The Edwin Fox was built mostly of teak in 1853 in Calcutta, India. She served about 30 years carrying every kind of cargo, including English prisoners bound for Botany Bay, Australia. She was laid up in 1883 and turned into a freezer hulk in Picton Harbor. Then when they built a cold house on land she was used to store coal to power the cold house. Eventually they phased out the coal and she was abandoned. The museum had pictures of her at each stage and watching this proud old vessel slowly get torn apart to make room for the compressors and other equipment really pulled at my heartstrings. Finally the Edwin Fox Preservation Society was formed and she was purchased as-in and in-place for 1 shilling. The society had no money, so she was towed around the corner and beached until funds could be found to restore her. Eventually money was found, but it was decided that she had more value preserved than restored. A drydock was built in Picton and she was refloated and moved there. The boat is open to the public and I went on board. The pictures speak for themselves. Afterward I went back to the front desk and I was so moved that I donated NZD $20 right then and there. The man at the desk (John Sullivan) said that for that money I could join the society, so I did. There was something about this boat that really touched me. I was extremely happy I’d been bumped off the 1:30 ferry. As I left the museum I saw a woman admiring the boat. I started talking with her, and it turns out she’s from Maryland and was involved with Living Classrooms in the Inner Harbor. We talked about the Chesapeake a bit, and I offered to show her around Auckland and to explore the Auckland Maritime Museum with her when she gets up that way. Oh, and Mr Sullivan says there are sea chanties to be sung in association with the AMM, so I’ll have to check that out.

Anyway, at about 5:30 I went back to the ferry building to check-in for the 7pm sailing. But the Lynx hadn’t left Wellington - the Cook Straight was too rough. At 6pm they formally canceled the ferry and asked for people to line up to get stand-by status on the 9:30pm ferry. I was third in line, and was assigned #141. Uh, ok. I guess there were 138 folks from the 1:30 who didn’t want to pay the extra money to go on the Lynx. Alas, InterIslander was very stingy with info. The woman at the ticket desk couldn’t tell me how many places were on the boat, nor how many tickets had been sold. I had no way to guess if I’d get on the late ferry, and I had not made a reservation for a bed in Picton. After trying to get info out of a few other InterIslander people who were uniformly not helpful, an older gentleman came out from the baggage area and told me what I needed to know: 350 seats on the boat, 260 sold. My odds looked bad. Then he told me about Sounds Air which operates from an office just down the street. I went down there and was able to get the last seat on their last flight. And for only $10 more than the Lynx. I will avoid InterIslander if at all possible in the future. I was deeply unimpressed with their ability to communicate timely info to their customers.

Sounds Air, on the other hand was fabulous. The driver of the shuttle from the office to the airport was David Woodley, I believe. He’s the owner of the airline and is also one of SAIL magazine’s NZ correspondents, focusing on megayachts visiting for the America’s Cup. He is also a sailing instructor, and knows Rich and Anthony back at OCSC! Anyway, there were six of us on the plane, including the pilot. The plane was a single-prop. When the pilot walked us over to the plane he asked who wanted to sit where. My hand shot up and I yelled out “shotgun!” Shortly after we cleared the ground and got over the first trees and hill, the guy in the middle seat (Boaz from Israel, he and I had gotten to know each other while waiting for the flight and he asked a lot of good questions about the America’s Cup) reached over and tapped me on the shoulder. He said (shouting over the engine): “Look at the fuel gage!” I did, and it was pretty much on empty. At this point, there was nothing I could do, so I took a few pictures and figured the pilot knew his business. We made it across to Wellington in 25 minutes and didn’t run out of gas, so I guess it turned out alright. I took a shuttle bus into the city center, got on the cable car and then walked down to Mark and Bria’s house. We chatted for about half an hour and then they showed me to my room and I fell right asleep.

The plan was for Bria to drive me down to the train station where I would catch the InterCity bus to Auckland, but something came up (I don’t know what) and Mark, Bria and Alex all ran out the door 5 minutes before I was packed. I wrote them a thank-you note and let myself out. I hiked up to the cable car, rode it down, and then walked over to the train station where I got the bus to Auckland. This time the eleven hours on the bus was less tolerable. I dozed and listened to music and read Thoreau, but by the end of the day I was pretty frazzled. Fortunately, I had arranged with Jackie to pick me up and drive me back to Orewa, meaning I had a friendly face waiting for me and I didn’t have to hassle with the local bus. I talked the whole way up telling Jackie about all of my adventures. When we got to the hostel, I saw another familiar face in the lounge. It was Patti from Waiheke! It was quite the homecoming. I checked-in with the office and dropped my stuff in the dorm. I chatted with Jackie for about an hour, and then with Patti for about two. Patti and I had to cover all the Louis Vuitton Cup happenings and she had some very cool Bay of Islands stories to encourage me to explore up that way.

I had botched my plans. Monday was supposed to be a race day and I had booked my bus trip for that day. I was going to miss the first day of racing during the LV Cup semi finals. However, the weather gods took pity on me, the dedicated fan and blew up a real howler, causing racing to be canceled. For those who are counting, that now makes four days of racing canceled, exactly overlapping with the four days I was not able to watch (the first three were while I was finding my vantage point). Kinda spooky, but there ya go. I seem to be getting quite lucky on this score. That said, I will be more careful about my plans in the future.

Which finally brings us up to today. Patti left for Auckland this morning and I went to watch the races from the vantage point. 16 knots of winds and a beautiful day. Alas, Oracle from San Francisco lost to Alinghi. Fortunately, the boat speed seemed comparable and Oracle didn’t lose by getting cleaned out during the start. There was a right-hand shift which favored Alinghi during the first beat and that was all she wrote. Coutts sailed a flawless race. The other race (Prada vs OneWorld) was a right mess, with broken gear and all kinds of lead changes.

Well, it’s 8:30pm and I need to get a bite to eat. Catch you all later!