Hinewai Reserve

 In the morning we drove up to the private Himewai Nature Reserve.

It was high up in the hills and you could see down to the ocean. If you had the time and energy you could hike all the way down and back up again.

We did a loop trail from the visitor centre down into the forest.  The woods were full with birdsong. We were greeted by the outgoing fantails and the songs of the bellbirds.

Connie stands on a nifty little bridge in among the tree ferns

Leo in among the giant ferns

Leo caught a photo of a chaffinch (European import).

And we saw our first tomtits, a New Zealand endemic and lifer for us,

Immature tomtit, best photo we got

The caretaker here is evidentally a bit of a character.  He made many informational signs with engraved lettering describing the native plants

But he also made similar signs scolding visitors for pulling up invasive foxgloves or 

breaking off fern fronds.

We made a short side excursion to see this small falls.

And eventually we reached the bottom of the loop where we crossed below this larger waterfall.

Then it was time for the long steep climb back up to the van.  Right after the falls we had to ascend a stairs which turned into a ladder.

Seriously, have these New Zealanders never heard of such a thing as a switchback?

Finally we got back to our van and headed south to the town of Timaru.

Akaroa and the Banks Peninsula

We headed south from Christchurch to Akeroa on the banks Peninsula.  We stopped at a reststop on Franklin Lake

 Where we saw black swans (introduced from Australia), great crested grebes and mallards.

We turned off the main highway onto narrow windy roads that looked down onto sheep pasture.  It was really beautiful and really stressful for our first day of driving on New Zealand roads.  The van is rather underpowered so we had a train of vehicles behind us.

Eventually we reached our destination, Akaroa harbour, and pulled into one of the last free parking spots where we would spend the night.  

We checked out the busy main street, walked the pier

And saw these birds:

White-faced heron

One of a number of Cormorant species

The very pretty silver gull with a very not-pretty hoarse seagull call

After supper we took the trail to Children's Bay (10 minutes, it said).

When we got there there was a loop trail up into the hills so we checked that out.  

We had great views back to the town from here

And the whole trail was very birdy.  We saw the New Zealand pigeon (lifer).

Bird of the Day!

We were commenting how noisy the cicadas were and Leo spotted one.

The fantails were very outgoing and flashed their tails at us.

We spotted this guy running around a field nowhere near a swamp.

Australasian swamphen

Eventually we got back down to Children's Bay only to find that the tide was in, cutting off our return. So we had to climb back up the hill and retrace our steps. Some 10 minute evening walk!

First Day in New Zealand

After a 17 hour day of flying we arrived in Christchurch at 9 am and picked up our Toyota Hiace van.  She's got a name, Caroline II, and she has 400,000 km on her.

We drove 3 minutes to the Woolworths for groceries and then another 5 to the Riverside Holiday Park where we set up.  We thought we'd fall asleep right away but we didn't sleep at all.  For one thing it's 28 degrees today, the NZers are surprised too, it was 13 degrees yesterday.  

Fantails and silvereyes were abundant among this road lined with what Leo thinks are Monterrey pines.

We went for a walk around the neighborhood and saw quite a few common New Zealand birds including a lifer for us:  New Zealand fantail.  We also refamiliarised ourselves with several Australian species:  Australian magpie, masked lapwing, silverwing.  And there's lots of introduced European birds:  song thrush, house sparrow, starling.

 

Chesterman Beach and Tofino

The following day we drove up to Chesterman Beach

Where we walked for awhile

then went for lunch at the very fancy Wickaninnish Inn.  

Entrance

With lots of local art.

The Driftwood Cafe in the lower level is casual and reasonably priced and has a view of the beach and ocean.

Afterwards we checked out the public areas in the upper floors.

Great views

Then we went down the beach

 to see the quirky architecturally designed vacation rental we stayed at on our previous trip seven years ago in January 2019.

2019

Alas it had been demolished and in its place was

A steel frame.

So we posed for a reunion shot.

RIP is for the house not us. We all survived the cold we all caught on our weekend.

Next we drove to Tofino.

The sun was out!  I realized it was the first time I'd ever seen the beautiful mountain scenery from Tofino harbour.  It had always been clouded in.

Posed for a parting shot.

The next morning we drove back to Victoria and stopped at Cathedral Grove for a walk around the giant trees.

They are even bigger than the last time we visited!

Christmas on Vancouver Island

Yum

We spent Christmas in Victoria with my sister Dorothea.  On our way Leo had an appointment with the pacemaker clinic in Kamloops.  We'd made a reservation for the 7 pm ferry sailing under the impression we could amend it if we couldn't make it in time.  However the day before all the sailings were cancelled due to weather so all the ferries were fully booked on our sailing day.  And they closed the Coquihalla highway as well due to snow.  Leo had a 1:30 appointment and the clinic told him to come in early as they might be able to slip him in early.  Fortunately they took him him as soon as we arrived at 11 am; we never would have made it on time on the Fraser Canyon route.  In the end the drive through the Canyon was uneventful eventful except for all the transport trucks rerouted from the Coq.  We made it to the ferry with a half hour to spare.

We had Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve at Dorothea's house (see above) and then present opening on Boxing Day at Stephen and Heidi's house in Nanaimo.

On December 27th we drove to Ucluelet for a 3 day getaway with Dorothea and our friends Janet and Rod, in town from Montreal.

We stopped at the Malahat for a view over the Saanich Inlet.

We stayed in the vacation rental Dorothea stays in every March with her hiking friends. 

We had the second floor and a young family were in the first floor apartment.

It's very nice inside.

On the first night Dorothea and I walked down to Terrace Beach (5 minutes away).  There was a group of people having a bonfire on the beach.

Then we checked out the Terrace Beach Resort, all lit up for Christmas. It's a warren of elevated walkways between the cabins.  Fun fact:  it used to be owned by Jason Priestly of Beverly Hills 9110 fame.  According to the resort website it was designed to give the "feel of a 1920s oceanfront fishing village nestled amidst the lush rainforest."

The next morning we walked the lighthouse loop starting at Terrace Beach.

It was quite drizzly so maybe that's why I didn't get a picture of the lighthouse.

In the afternoon we drove to the visitors' centre for Pacific Rim National Park.  We were shown the pelt of a sea otter.

Visitors' Centre in background

We walked a portion of Long Beach.  It was low tide and I was excited to find one sea star hiding in the crevice of a rock.  Starfish used to be abundant on the BC coast but 90% of the population has been lost to sea star wasting disease since 2013.