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.

 

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!

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.  

Merry Christmas

 

And a Happy New Year!

Fall at Scout Island

 

Been going for some low key walks on Scout Island as Leo recuperates from his recent pacemaker replacement.

Bird of the day is the great egret that's been hanging around for a few weeks now.  It's a long way from home so who knows if it knows how to head south.

Spot the egret! Extra points for the great blue heron it's been hanging around with.

Not a ripple in the water today.

Another day, another view:

One Last Camping Trip

In early October Leo had a doctor's appointment in Kamloops so we thought we'd combine it with one last camping trip before we put the trailer to bed for the winter.

We stayed at one of our favorite campsites, Steelhead Provincial Park, in Savona, about half an hour out of Kamloops at the outlet of Kamloops Lake.  The weather was cloudy and very blustery, definitely not sitting outside weather.

In the evening we crossed the highway and followed a trail to the railway tracks. We got back to the campsite just before darkness fell.

Rock outcrop on the left is where we hiked to on another day

The next morning before Leo's appointment, we drove towards Kamloops and hiked in Kenna Cartwright Park but we took a wrong turn and headed down to the bottom of the hill before realizing we had to climb back up again to get back to our truck.  

Sunny day in Kenna Cartwright Park

Turned out to be a much longer hike than we'd planned.

We'd planned to head to Merritt the next day and camp at Monck Provincial Park on Nicola Lake.  However, the engine warning light came on in the truck and we decided it was best to travel no further from home.  So we stayed in Savona an extra day.

We hiked back to the railway tracks again, crossed them and climbed up the hill that looks over Kamloops Lake.

 

We ran across a herd of Bighorn sheep:

Cellphone closeup:

Eventually we reached a rock outcrop with a great view of the lake

And the town of Savona below.

Campground is the small patch of trees at the outlet of the lake.

The next morning we headed back to Williams Lake.  We made it home with no car trouble.

Panoramic view