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.