June 21-22

June 21-Burke

I’m not quite sure that I can full capture the actually coolness of skiing on Mt. Hutt, but I’ll do my best. The day began with a joyful hour and a half trip to the ski area on Mt. Hutt with the last half an hour of the drive up the mountain and some of the drive on snow chains.

When we arrived at the ski area, we purchased our passes and had some lunch. The cool thing about the passes is that you don’t have to pull them out every time; they had scanners that could read it through your clothing. We then were given rentals and we hit the slopes.  Josh and I didn’t have much of a difficult time starting on the kiddie hill. After several runs through it we thought we were ready for the beginner’s hill. Nope.  After several crashes and half an hour of speed then crash and speed then crash, we actually got done and went inside for some drinks. With 45min. left, Josh and I went on the kids slope again and Mom took one run down a real course. I would have liked to do better, but I haven’t skied since I was 10, and that was my first time so I was beginning then. I improved, but still have a ways to go. We had a fun time and another semi-adventure going back down. The day was a very beautiful and enjoyable experience.

June 22

Hey its Josh here, today we went on a small 2 hour cruise said to see about 2-4 Hector’s dolphin which is the smallest and rarest dolphin in the word and a couple of little blue Adelie penguins which are the smallest penguins in the world but we actually saw about 3 dozen dolphins about 3 penguins and 2 humpback whales which have only been seen in winter (we are in winter) rarely! It was really cool and I got to drive the boat for a while too! I loved it and the company loved Moms pictures so much they kept a lot of good shots. I had a very fun time! See you (theoretically).

 From Laura: Wow. What a couple of days. The skiing was beautiful. We had some great weather- the road to Mt Hutt was an alpine course all unpaved and the further up you got the more it was surrounded by banks of snow and the steeper it got. We had to stop 2/3 up and get chains put on for the last bit by a full team of mud covered women mechanics. What a job. The resort was great- nestled up in the top of the alps. Lots of snow and not a lot of people. There were Keas- large green alpine parrots, wild, in the parking lot. They are often found up in the Southern Alps and there are lots of signs to keep people from feeding them. We got set up with the skis and had some lunch then hit the kiddie hill.

It had a cool lift called the magic carpet that was just a large enclosed conveyor belt that took you to the top. Easy enough if you can stand up straight on skis. Josh only had a problem once. Both boys showed me they could do turns and then I challenged them on the ‘easy’ slope- a long S turn slope. I think they would have done better had the slope not had a steep drop off one side that felt like imminent doom to them- it kept them from doing big wide turns. That led to a lot of speed and mostly calculated falls, but a few spectacular ones that earned their badges for skiing. It was a tiring but beautiful day. My one trip to the mountain top was a beautiful view of snow capped mountains on one side and the Canterbury plains on the other.

We checked out of our Christchurch lodging on Friday morning, and headed out to Akaroa- a beautiful French village in an ancient volcanic crater that is now a sheltered harbor.

We went on a nature cruise that usually promises a few dolphins, a few seals and penguins, and some local history. We had just started our tour when the captain got news from another of their boats and put on the speed, because they had spotted three whales breaching and playing in the ocean outside the harbor entrance. This was really unusual- they were humpbacks migrating from Antarctica up towards the Equatorial waters for mating.

 

We caught one surfacing and heading north and followed it for a while. We then went to check in on some others and were able to catch them breaching- we spent probably an hour following them and clicking away at the pictures.

 Meanwhile, there were dozens of Hector’s dolphins, where the cruises usually see one or two on a winter cruise- they were all playing around the boat and very interested in the whales as well. The captain kept saying they never saw whales like that and he was ‘gobsmacked’ and he even pulled out his camera.

Zoom this one for great detail!

 We finally started back to do the rest of our cruise in short order, as we were already 10 minutes overdue. We did catch a royal albatross (the largest ones) and a few blue penguins as well. On the way back, the captain let Josh drive the boat for awhile and spoke of how amazed he was. He said he hadn’t gotten a great picture of the whale breach, so I offered to let him copy mine. They copied all 100 pictures we took- they can sort out the good ones from the bad! It was really special and I understand the meaning of gobsmacked fully now! Looks like we’ll pay for it all with some bad weather on our way north to (hopefully) Hanmer Springs and Picton. Fingers crossed for good weather for our ferry trip on Sunday.