June 18

It must have space if Burke needs a stool!

Well. We survived the RV trip around the South Island with grand style! Our ‘luxury’ RV was a fine home for 8 days, but I think we’re all happy to be in one place for a few days. George is back at work in Christchurch and we are camped out in a lovely hotel with ample room.

The Natural Playground at Blenheim

After we left Blenheim and the gorgeous Malborough sounds and wine country, we headed south along the coast to the Kaikoura peninsula. This area is mostly known for its whale watching tours as there is a pod of sperm whales who live off the coast. Evidentially as we were enjoying atypical sunny weather on the west coast, they had a good amount rough weather on the east coast and the seas had been too rough to have any whale tours go out (all a’chunder as they might say here).

The churning water in the pool is
from baby seals swimming Below

On our way to Kaikoura, we stopped along the way at a baby seal colony. Basically, there is a seal colony on the coast, and the seal pups go up a short rocky stream to a large pool that is at the base of a beautiful waterfall. We followed a path alongside the stream to the waterfall. There in the pool were dozens of baby seals frolicking and swimming about. On the rocks next to the path we were on several had crawled up and were checking us out as well as letting us check them out. We could of touched them if we wanted, but they asked that you not and there is the possibility of one giving you a nip, which could be pretty severe. It was definitely a highlight for Laura- everyone enjoyed it.

Posing for the public

Afterwards, we camped out at the local Top Ten RV park, and got a free ½ hour in the Jacuzzi. That was a welcome soak! Then the next morning we headed out to the Kaikoura peninsula tip, which is all reserved with no buildings on it at all- it is a large grassy plateau with rocky coastlines. There were more seals waiting for us by the carpark (parking lot) and they were lounging and posing for us. The view across the bay to the snowcapped alps was really spectacular.






 We took a tramp (hike) up to the top of the plateau and over a cow pasture (against the boys protests) to look out across Whale Watcher Bay and another seal colony. We came back into town and all found a few souvenirs. We headed on down to Christchurch, turned in our RV, rented another car and then to the supermarket and back to our hotel.

A few things that are of interest: Because of the internet and world wide shrinkage, (it’s a small world after all) there is very little that is truly unique or different in a lot of the culture. Most of the things I have seen that aren’t American resound more of English culture than anything uniquely Kiwi.  There are still lots of funny words and phrases though and those have been fun to pick up on. The Kiwis have very high electric bills, as electricity is very expensive. Lack of national reserves of fossil fuels and unwillingness to dam up too many streams accounts for this. As a result, no one has central heat, despite the climate. They have a lot of portable heaters, electric blankets, hot water bottles  and woolens to stay warm. Every outlet has a switch on it, and you should turn it off when you aren’t using it. The electric budgeting also means our costs for lodging are usually per person rather than per space. A double room has different rates depending how many people are staying there (presumably because more people use more resources). Also, every bathroom has a window and it is supposed to stay open. A smelly loo is worse than a chilly bum! Most houses and hotels we’ve seen have been very compact, no sprawling McMansions like you see in the states. Despite the weather, you see a good number of men in shorts year round, and most people don’t seem to use heavy coats or lots of outerwear. These are some hearty folk! There is very little cable TV, but what there is has been heavily influenced by American sitcoms- Big Bang Theory and How I Met your Mother are both really big. The main cable franchise, Sky TV is owned by Fox’s Rupert Murdoch. The people here know much more about the States and our political leaders than we know about Kiwi affairs. Quick, who is the New Zealand Prime Minister? See?

I hope the boys will find some time between games to write some entries- especially about our foods and the things they find different.