Little Fox and glacial hiking!

Tonight I'm in the town of Fox. It's tiny, but bigger than Warsaw. The Fox Glacier is nearby, but I can't see it yet. Tomorrow I'm getting up early and going on a guided hike for the day. I'm pretty excited! This is one of the activities I've looked forward to while planning my trip. I'll let you all know how it goes tomorrow.

And, check me out, way more than 30 posts this post-worthy November!

Grey Hoki.

I stopped in a little seaside town on the west coast for one night just to break up the 10 hour busride from Nelson to the glaciers. It was called Hokitika and it was grey. I actually really liked the beach and I had it mostly to myself. Around 6:00 pm the sun was out so I ate dinner down there and just sat and knit and listened to my ipod until I was too cold. Then I went back to my hostel, which was practically empty and more like a hotel. I had my own room with sink and huge window and everything.

Empty beach. Grey. Sand, not stone, nice change from the east. Much easier to walk on.

Me on the empty beach. A little more sun. Pretty blue skies.

Once back at the hostel, I sat in the lounge and watched TV for a bit. Meet the Robinsons was on, a computer animated film about an inventor kid. Cute, but nowhere near as good as Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Mara and Chris and I had went to see that on Friday night and I Really Loved It. I laughed throughout the entire thing. So good. Go see it. You'll love it too (probably).

And, while I was there I remembered to take a few pictures of my new wool purchases for you. This is a bubblegum pink merino with which I will be making myself mittens. Bright pink mittens to go with my dark blue winter jacket.

This is a bright blue merino with pink and peach silk slubs. Will be a headband (Calorimetry, for those in the know). I'm into the bright colours right now.

That being said, I also picked up awhole bunch of little naturals in all sorts of different shades and sheep species to make myself yet another pair of mittens and a stripey scarf. Should be cool. And mindless. I'll have it done in the next few weeks, I think.

I know, I know, this is a lot. AND there's even more, but it's all surprises so you can't see it yet ;)

Pancake rocks.

I took the bus from Nelson, bright and early on Sunday morning, at 7:30 am. The drive down along the west coast of the South Island to Hokitika was incredible. I had only gotten about 5 hours of sleep the night before, but I was wide awake for the entire journey. There was just so much to look at. The coast and the mountains and the hills and valleys and twisting-winding roads were just so interesting.

Buses in NZ make several stops throughout the day. Seriously. There's morning tea, noon break, afternoon tea, dinner tea, more tea. They always pick really interesting rest stops too. On this trip the bus stopped at a place called Pancake Rocks. There was a short walk along the coast to look out over the Tasman and see these interesting rock formations.

There were also two cafes at this little roadside stop and both of them had pancakes as the special for the day. Who wants to bet that the special each and every day is pancakes? I'd put money on it. And I only gamble in Brisbanee

Nelson.

I spent the last Saturday in Nelson at the Farmer's Market then hanging out with Chris and Mara. Chris found the last half of the last season of Battlestar Galactica at the second video store we visited. We watched two episodes. I love BSG so much that it deserves a mention here. Then we went for a bit of a drive up through a beautiful valley to the big water dam where the city stores the water for Nelson.

We came across the Manuka tree from which the Kiwi bees make delicious honey. The flowers and seed pods are quite beautiful and I realized I hadn't taken many flower pictures for awhile, so here they are.

That night Mara made us a big Swiss dinner. It was delicious. She made fresh cheese pasta, stuffed sparrows (which aren't actually birds! - they are schnitzel rolled and stuffed with crusty bread, onions, and bacon, then fried and cooked in gravy, and broccoli and peas from her garden. She also sent Chris and I downtown to buy a rigger (2L) of berry cider from one of the local brewery pubs called teh Spring and Fern. It was delicious as well. O, and we had strawberries from the market for dessert. Yum. Third strawberry season of my year. After dinner we watched a movie, which was good, I can't remember what it was called, but Gerard Butler was in it and he was Scottish. Then we watched another episode of BSG before bed.

Lady O'felia Smudge.

I had to upload a couple pictures of Mara's cat. I was incredibly allergic to her (the cat, not Mara), but she was a sweet little thing and she really just loves people. The cat is deaf, so she has a funny little meow and, obviously, has no idea what's going on around her unless it's in front of her. One night she managed to open and climb in my window by herself. I wasn't letting her in my room (due to the allergies) and I guess she wanted to hang out.


She liked my knitting a lot and I really like the way our colours matched.

Big things on the South Island.

A giant chessboard in the main square of Christchurch.

And a huge rose marking the entrance to the rose gardens at the Christchurch Botanical Gardens. Feels like Alice in Wonderland there.

Centre of New Zealand!

Right up the hill behind Chris and Mara's house is the geographical centre of New Zealand. We hiked up there. The views out over Nelson were very nice. This is me balanced on the Centre of NZ.


This is what the Centre of NZ looks like from the trail. On May 14 1870, NZ's first-ever rugby match was played at the foot of this hill. Nelson Rugby Club beat Nelson College 2-0 and nobody ever looked back.
The hills over Nelson and the ocean. There are some sheep in this picture, of course.


Nelson's harbour.


I've got SO much more for you, but no time. Stay-tuned though because I'm going to crush 30 posts in November.

Roadtrip!

I've been staying with my friends, Chris and Mara, in Nelson for the past couple nights. I met Chris at the first research station I volunteered at. He's a Brit, but he's lived and worked and volunteered in New Zealand for the past couple years or so. Mara is his girlfriend. She lives and works in Nelson. Chris just came back to the country from Australia the other day. I met Mara in Christchurch and then we picked Chris up at the airport. We spent the next two days driving back up to Nelson.

We made several stops along the way. This is me infront of a braided river wearing a merino wool sweater and eating a toffee pop. Kiwi as. The weather was perfect.

This is actually a rushing river with snow-capped mountains in the background and huge hills on either side with a natural hotspring pool right at the edge of the river. This place was so incredible. It was warm enough out to splash around in the cold river then hop into the hot pools, but cool enough to enjoy the heat of the water. There were two big pools, one warm, one warmer. You could dig your hands and feet into the hot sand at the bottom. We spent time in both of them. What a cool place to stop. I love hanging out with the locals who know all the interesting places!

Mara and I in the big hotpool. The river is actually at the same water level of the pool, but the pool is deeper for some reason.

Driving over the mountains from the east side of the South Island where Christchurch is located, to the northwest side where Nelson is located is just incredible. The views are amazing and there are so many places to stop and see interesting things. This is one waterfall we hiked up to. It's very tall, hard to tell from this picture, unfortunately.

Chris and Mara on the bridge over the sluice near Springs Falls. We stopped and stayed at the Department of Conservation house for the night.

Another waterfall we stopped at the next day. I think this one is called Mariua Falls, something like that.

This morning I left Nelson bright and early at 7:30 am. I'm in Hokitika now. It's a cool little town on the Tasman Sea. The hostel I'm staying in is very nice. More of a hotel than a hostel. I'll write more later!

Fibre Spectrum.

Nelson is known for being an artsy little city. Long before I visited I had a feeling I would find good wools and things there. And, well, I was right. I made a list of all the local yarn stores I had heard about and then set off to find them. When I came across Fibre Spectrum I knew my search was complete. This little storefront was pretty nondescript, but it houses the products of a local cooperative. They handspin and handdye and handweave and knit every item in the store from fibre to finished product. The store is long and narrow and is completely lit by skylights. The natural light makes everything even more beautiful. I spent a long time chatting with the woman running the store the first day. Then I bought a lot of things from her. Then I met a girl who graduated from the University of Guelph the same year I finished my undergrad. She recognized me and we talked for a few minutes. She wasn't a knitter though, and I has some serious shopping to do. I had to limit my purchases for financial and backpack space reasons. Mara and Chris think I am crazy. Then, I spent the entire night thinking about one skein I had really liked, but didn't buy, and had to go back the next day to pick it up and take pictures of the place so I will never forget it. O, and then I visited several of the women in the co-op at the Nelson Farmer's Market on the weekend. Yep.

When I wrote out the list of pictures for this post I had about 40, but I narrowed them down to just these few.



Baby Surprise Jackets!

Wall of handspun, handdyed merinos and corrydales and silks and everything you can think of. I pulled out every single one of them and inspected them all.

Did I mention all of the handmade felt in this place? So cool. I bought a little heart christmas ornament (well, it's bright blue and beaded) for Mara and Chris to thank them for their hospitality.

Handknit sweaters.

The weaving was pretty incredible too.

Yeah. Good day for wool shopping.

"We tend to get addicted to our activities so you better make sure you love what you do." Wilt Chamberlin.

.

And I can't forget...

The All Whites are going to the World Cup! I WISH I had been at this game. Why do I miss so much by one day? The entire city was plastered with these signs, so I couldn't forget about it either. Thanks, Nike.


There, I think I'm pretty much caught up! I added words to the Taupo post, so check that out. Coming soon: more big things in NZ, Christchurch, and roadtrip with Chris and Mara! yay!

Cass St.

So, I wasn't able to post every day in November. That was pretty unreasonable, anyway. I should pass 30 posts in one month though, and that's a record for me. Just to get my post count up, I'm adding this.

I saw this street name on the map and thought I'd have to go way out of my way to take a picture. And into a not-so-scenic part of town. Luckily, it turns out the Knitter's Warehouse, a not-so-scenic woolshop is just past this street, so I was actually heading in that direction.


Let's just say it took a few tries to line this up. And I did it just for you. This is a blog special edition photo. And you don't just come across one of these every day. I might not post as often as the challenge said I should, but I have great content.

Picton Village.

Picton was a nice little town on the north coast of the South Island. The entire place is pretty much under construction right now. I think it's the place to buy realestate and a lot of beautiful houses are being built on the surrounding hills. I stayed at a little hostel called the Villa and it was really nice. I had Canadian roommates both nights. Most people only come for one night after arriving on the ferry, but I wanted to stay and hike out to the point.

I went to visit the Edwin Fox Museum. It houses the world's 9th oldest wooden ship, the Edwin Fox. I'm not sure if that means the 9th ship ever built out of wood, or the 9th oldest existing. It is the only surviving ship that took convicts to Australia, the only ship that took troops to the Crimean War, and the oldest merchant ship still afloat. Though it is barely floatable. At the museum they are attempting to preserve the ship, not restore it. That would cost too much money and not be as effective and eerie.

It was neat because you could go down in the ship and walk around. The sunshine looked much more beautiful and creepy in reallife.


I took a lot of pictures of the crafty things, like knotwork, as is to be expected.





The next day I hiked out to the Snout, or the point of this part of the Marlborough Sound.


On the way back, I walked along the beach because the tide was low and took pictures of all sorts of interesting things.



O, and next door to the hostel there was a Fabulous Dutch Bakery. The slice on the right is a Ginger Crunch. It was candied ginger baked into shortbread with ginger cream icing. Seriously, I think it was one of the best things I have ever bought from a bakery. Seriously. And that's saying a lot.

Christchurch.

I spent a couple days looking around Christchurch where I was meeting Chris and Mara.

There are a lot of churches there, as the name would suggest. A lot of the buildings are made of this beautiful dark stone in this gothic style. I really loved just wandering through the streets. I stayed at a good hostel in an old building called Rolleston House. I think that was where one of the old mayors of the town lived. It was right in between the museum, art gallery, art centre, and botanic gardens. Very nice part of town.

The front entrance of the museum. It says: Lo, these are parts of His ways but how little a portion is heard of Him. Because, of course, it used to be a church.

The fountain and one of the houses in the gardens.

From the front porch of the hostel I stayed at where the street cars ran. The art centre is in the background.

More gothic architecture.

O, and this town is Rugby World Cup crazy. I thought it was next year, but it isn't even until 2011. They have a huge, beautiful new stadium though. This countdown clock was in the centre of town.

And, Christchurch must have a long history of wool production too because so many of the buildings have there old woolstores signs on them. I saw one called the Kashmir Building too. Too bad it isn't full of cashmere anymore? How it's an electronics superstore.