How's that for a blog title. And it was amazing. But you have to keep reading to find out what it was. Woke to an unbelievably warm, blue sky day in Hanmer Springs and were truly sad to leave. The couple that runs our small hotel said they came here for holidays for 12 years and finally decided to run a small hotel. They said they have tourists in the summer and New Zealanders who come to soak and ski in the winter.
The drive from Hanmer Springs to Kaikura was incredible. Those lush green fields filled with sheep, then rolling hills, then steep, craggy mountains with snow. Kaikuri is a coastal town with whale watching, seal snorkeling, albatross sighting, you name it. And it's all expensive. So what we do is what we do in every town. We go directly to the information/tourist center and ask about their local walks. We were directed to a three hour hike up Mt. Fyffe but after a 30 minute drive into the country, we came to another huge stream to ford and it was too deep. Couldn't park and walk across either. So we headed back to town, had lunch, and went to a sheep shearing show.
The Toffee Ta Ta's were so so. Not near as good as the Mint Treats. We are nearing the end of our picnic supplies and don't want to buy more so the lunches are sort of gross. Bits of bread, a tiny bit of mustard, we shared an orange, that damn shaved chicken, and the cookies. We ate right on the beach so the seagulls were voracious.
The sheep shearing show turned out to be fantastic and only cost $10. Kaikura has a huge peninsula that juts out into the ocean. The rancher's wife grew up in this pink house on the land that faces the beach and her parents owned the entire 600 acres of the peninsula to run sheep. 11 years ago they sold all but 100 acres and the daughter's family is there now. He had a brand new six week old sheepherding puppy that I held and pet almost the entire time.
we got to bottle feed three lambs. We fed a huge ram. Watched him shear a sheep. Got to hold a five week old sheep (which is quite large). And learned a lot about sheep so we could ask all our questions.
What happens to the black sheep? They slaughter them for meat because it's too hard to dye the black wool and they don't want the black in the gene pool.
Only 10% of the ewes are kept after lambing. The rest are sent for slaughter between ages 3 months and 9 months.
After 8 years, the ewes are sent for slaughter for mutton. He said their teeth wear down and the don't lamb as well.
He explained all the different kinds of sheep, what their wool is used for, let us feel the shaved sheep and told us where lanolin comes from. He even showed us how his dog helps him herd. They don't use border collies here they use a breed called Huntaways.
So it was incredibly interesting! Right up the peninsula from his ranch are the seal colonies. Big, blubbery seals that just lay right on the rocks and the sidewalks. From here we did a 2 hour walk along the cliff. You can see across the peninsula and watch both sides of the ocean from cliffs about 300 feet up. The ocean water is turquouise colored and just beautiful.
On the way back, I decided to leave my walking stick I found for the next hiker. I found this great stick in Queenstown and it took me up the Queenstown Hill, around lake Wanaka, up Diamond Peak, to Fox Glacier and Franz Josef Glacier, around Lake Matheson and it did the hill hike in Hamner Springs. It was a good walking stick. I didn't want to leave it for just anybody to I left it on a high part of the Cliff Walk, leaning against one of the Maori markers. So now someone worthy can take it on further adventures.
Ok, now the incredible part. Larry struck up a conversation with a guy driving a very popular camper van we see all over here. Asked him how it drove, was it comfortable and then where had he been. He told us he had just come from this amazing waterfall hike about 20 minutes out of town and they could watch seal pups just frolic like mad! So before we checked into our hotel we decided to check it out.
His directions were vague. Drive about 20 miles north, out of town, look for a small sign that said Waterfall. So we headed out, looking at all the signs, went about 25 minutes and saw two cars, parked right in front of a sign, right next to the coast highway. So we pulled in and sure enough, it said Ohau Stream Walk and very tiny next to that, waterfall.
So we start up this hike in the woods, that runs along a stream that is covered with rocks. In ten minutes we come to this pool that is about 15 by 30 feet at the bottom of a 100 foot waterfall. And inside the pool, are about 40 seal pups!!! You can stand right there, at the foot of the pool, and just watch them. they are jumping and rolling and diving and sliding down the rocks. when we looked closer, there were seal pups just across the pond in the woods! Laying on trees, on rocks...we couldnt' figure out why there were there or how they got there!! They must come up the steep, rocky stream but we didn't see any do that. We stood there for about an hour just amazed. They weren't afraid but they didn't come right up to us either. It was like a young seal convention. I need to do some research and figure out what the attraction is. and the other people there just came for the walk, they didn't even know there were seals up there. This Japanese couple kept laughing and pointing, it was like something out of disneyland! We guessed all in all there were about50-75 seals in all. All young.
When we finally tore ourselves away to hike back down, the Japanese fellow had crossed the highway and said he saw one of the seals shoot out of the culvert that brought the stream to the ocean. so they must go up that way as well. No one in town mentions this, it's not in any brochures, the locals must keep it quiet. I'm so glad that man in the camper told us about it. So remember, if you ever come to the South Island of New Zealand, 20 minutes north of Kaikuri, right off Highway 1 to Blenheim, stop at the sign on the left that says Ohau Stream Walk. It is one of the neatest things I have ever seen!!!
Tonight's hotel has a very interesting shower. It's one of those Japanese self enclosed showers with about 10 shower heads, it has a sauna in it, a cd and radio, fans, steam, you name it. I was afraid to touch any of the bottoms, including the one labeled "Fun". That is not a joke, there is a button in the shower that says fun. I want Larry to try it first.
We found the best New Market grocery store ever in this town so we bought two packages of Mint Treats that I am going to try to get home and one tube of coffee just so I can show people instant coffee and milk in a tube. We should have brought the camera to take pictures of the cookies, the pet food, and all the other neat stuff.
Wish we had one more week here to explore the top of the south island. Guess we'll just have to come back. Tomorrow we head for Christchurch and then to Sydney for a few days.
good bye shaved chicken!!
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