New Zealand Day Two: The Best Day

Our second day in New Zealand started with a little confusion. It turned out it was Daylight Savings Time! We don't have it in Singapore, so we hadn't given it a second thought. So...oops, we checked out of our hotel a wee bit late. But that's OK! Because then we went back to Sophies and had an awesome breakfast. Vegetarian breakfast burrito?! YES PLEASE. Bryan was also happy with his big plate of eggs, bacon, and pancakes.

SO GOOD!!!!!

After breakfast we hit the road and started driving along the gorgeously scenic East Coast. It was nice to get out of the city and start experiencing the country side. A couple of things became apparent right away. One is that there are a lot of sheep in New Zealand. Like...seriously, a lot. The other was that there were a lot of confusing road signs. Even though things looked confusing, the driving wasn't so bad. As long as Bryan remembered to stay left, things were OK. Traffic circles were a little disorienting but other than that, we were all good.

At one of many, many sheep farms

Bryan the driving master

Ummm...what?!

You know what else they have in New Zealand that I missed from the US? Weird roadside stuff! Like this giant fish!

Big weird fish in Rakaia, NZ

Our destination for the day was Oamaru, only about 3 hours from Christchurch. Since we knew we had plenty of time, when in started to rain we made a pit stop in Timaru at a pub called the Jolly Potter. It was pretty deserted in the middle of the day, but it was a cool little place and I was glad we stopped.  They had some local brews on tap, including a tasty one called Tui, so we sipped on those while Bryan watched the Rugby World Cup and I flipped through a stack of NZ food magazines they had sitting around (I'm guessing they were there for when guys bring their girlfriends to sports bars, hahaha). There was also pottery lining the walls of all the bar, apparently all made by local artisans.

By the time we left the pub it had stopped raining, so we had a nice view of our surroundings as we drove along. In addition to sheep, the countryside is full of beautiful churches that I did my best to photograph as we whizzed by.

Pretty church #1

Pretty church #2, complete with windshield sticker

It wasn't long before we were pulling into Oamaru. It was SUCH a cute little town; I couldn't wait to explore it. But for now we drove right on through to the other side, following the signs for the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony. Bryan and I were both absolutely ecstatic about the possibility of seeing penguins in the wild. We'd never seen them in their natural habitat before, and we thought it would be pretty great. Plus, the little blue penguins are the smallest penguin species in the WORLD, making them extra adorable. They're called little blues!!! So cute!

We found the place easily, and bought tickets to get into a closed area at night to watch the little blues swim back ashore after feeding out in the sea. We also walked around their little conservation area with penguin nesting boxes. There was a barn where you could look down a bunch of pipes into some occupied nest boxes. A few of the boxes were full - some by lone penguins, others by penguin couples, and one by a mama penguin incubating some eggs. It was soooo cool to see them. They were SO LITTLE, they all looked like babies, even the adults! It was great.

Cozy penguin nesting box

There were chubby rabbits hopping all around the nesting boxes. One of the workers at the viewing area told us with an eye roll than the rabbits were not native and had been introduced to the South Island by British settlers. The rabbits, as rabbits are wont to do, bred like crazy and became considered a pest. Pesky they may be, but they sure are cute!

Bunny tail!

Itchy face

After spending an inordinate amount of time cooing over the penguins in the nesting boxes (no photos allowed, so a not to disturb the birds), Bryan and I walked over to the rocky beach. We were looking out into the water, hoping for a glimpse of a whale or dolphin, when Bryan spotted some movement up on the beach. A FUR SEAL! We hurried closer to admire him. He was huge and blubbery, and kept yawning and stretching his neck out. It was hilarious to watch him.

FUR SEAL! Is it just me, or does he look very suspicious?!

Flipper! With weird fingernails!

On my list of favorite things = ANIMALS YAWNING

As you can tell, we got pretty excited about the fur seal, and Bryan spent a long time photographing it while I stood by squealing "It's SO CUTE!" every time it moved. After a while, we took an interest in the blocked-off path behind us. We asked the guide why it was blocked, and he said we could go ahead and follow it awhile "at our own risk." So we did!

The path led right along the water, providing loads of jaw-dropping panoramic views. Seabirds were flying all around, some of them dropping down to the sea for fish, others perching along the rocky shores.

Spotted shag. I think they look like they just woke up! Bedheads.

Admiring the seascape

We hiked a ways along the trail but decided to turn around before it got dark. As it turned out, we had no concept of when it gets dark in New Zealand so we ended up back where we started in plenty of time. The people at the Visitor Center said we still had plenty of time before the little blues started coming ashore, but that there was a place nearby where the larger yellow-eyed penguins might be coming in for the night. So we hopped in the car and drove to the Bushy Beach Scenic Area, about 5 minutes away.

We parked the car on a dirt road next to some sheep and started down a narrow path. The place was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. To the left of us were rolling green hills covered with grazing sheep and fluffy little lambs. To our right, the Pacific Ocean crashed ashore next to tall, rocky cliffs. Between us and the ocean was some low vegetation and a sandy beach, and, upon closer inspection, some yellow-eyed penguins!!

Sheep at twilight

The yellow-eyed penguin, the world's second rarest penguin

We followed the path along to a viewing hide and hunkered inside, away from the wind.

Bryan enthusiastically pointing out wildlife

We didn't linger in the hide long, since we couldn't see any penguins from that vantage point. As we were walking back along the path, I stopped at a particularly scenic lookout  spot. "This is such a great place," I said. I heard Bryan rummaging around behind me, but didn't pay much attention, figuring he was switching lenses on the camera. But when I turned around, he was holding a beautiful engagement ring and there were tears in his eyes. "Do you think it would be a good place to give you this?" he asked. I'm not quite clear on the next few minutes. I didn't put the ring on right away. I was too busy jumping up and down, then hugging Bryan and crying. Eventually he said "Is that a yes?" and I said "OF COURSE, YES, YES!!!!!!!" and finally remembered to put the ring on.

Engagement spot! Could we have asked for a more amazing view?!

Fiances!!!

Happy girl : )

MY RING! I love it!

I was so happy. Bryan said he'd had the ring since his last trip to the US in June (he got it at Lord's Jewelers in Montana) and it had been hiding in the TV stand ever since, with me walking past it EVERY DAY. He was just waiting for the right moment, and I'd say he picked the most perfect time. We were doing something we loved together - hiking outside in a foreign country, looking for wildlife. And there were PENGUINS! Who could ask for more?!

Needless to say, we were both flying high after our experience at Bushy Beach. We hurried back down the trail (I may have actually skipped at one point) and got back in the car to go see some more penguins. We arrived back at the Penguin Colony just in time to get some hot cocoa before the little blues (also adorably known as FAIRY PENGUINS) started coming ashore. Somehow I managed to refrain shouting "WE JUST GOT ENGAGED!" at everyone we saw, but I held it in, wanting to make sure that my mom was the first person that got to hear the news, not some random girl serving me hot chocolate. We curled up on the bleachers and watched the cutest penguins I've ever seen start surfing onto the beach, then waddling hurriedly to their nest boxes. There was a photography ban since the penguin colony has had problems in the past with people refusing to turn off the flash on the cameras.

We had a great time watching the penguins come in, group after group. Altogether there were about 70 penguins that came in that night, and more that were already up in the nest boxes and came out to greet their returning mates. Hilariously, the rabbits that we'd seen earlier didn't budge an inch, and the penguins and the rabbits often came within inches of each other without seeming to take notice of one another. About an hour later, after we'd watched all the penguins swim in, we got back in the car and drove about 10 yards before we noticed that there were penguins outside the penguin colony (and thus outside the photography ban). Taking special care to make sure our flash was turned off, we snapped a few shots.

Little blues, making a run for it

As we sat watching the little guys, one ran straight for our car...and then straight underneath it. Ummm...did we seriously have a penguin under our car? What do you even do about that? They totally don't put penguin extraction techniques in the Lonely Planet guidebook. We sat there awhile, while I kept watch on my side, waiting for him to pop out. And pop out he did! All of a sudden I saw a little penguin head poke out right under my door! Then he twisted his neck around, saw my face, and inched right back under the car. Oops. Eventually he wiggled out and waddled off on his own.

After the penguins had started to settle down for the night, we drove back into town and checked in at a nicer-than-usual hotel, the Kingsgate Brydone.

Bryan in our swanky hotel room

We didn't stick around long in our awesome hotel room. It was late, and we hadn't had dinner. We were hoping to have a nice meal as an engagement celebration. We asked at the front desk where we could get some food and the concierge looked doubtful. She said that given that was after 9 PM, we might not have much luck except at...McDonald's. As it turned out, we didn't have to stoop that low. A pub called Fat Sally's was still open, so instead of a fancy meal, I ate cajun potato wedges and Bryan ate nachos while we both sipped beers and watched rugby. And it didn't matter what we were eating. I think I was too excited to taste it anyway. I went to bed that night with a smile on my face, thinking

WE'RE ENGAGED!!!

New Zealand Day One: The Adventure Begins

Didn't I tell you we had something big planned? We went to New Zealand! For 10 days! It was awesome! I hope you're excited to hear all about it, because you're about to get 10 straight blog posts, all about New Zealand!

As usual, we headed straight out after work on a Friday. Bryan and I have grown used to flying budget airlines like Jetstar and Air Asia, but this time the cheapest tickets just so happened to be through the illustrious Singapore Airlines. First, a disclaimer: they're not paying me to say this. Now: Singapore Airlines is the most awesome airline of all time. They're SO NICE, they give you a silky pillow and a real, fluffy blanket, not one of those weird paper towel blankets you get on United Airlines. The food is legitimately good, and they feed you about 10 times. The seats are comfortable and more spacious than other airlines; the flight attendants are all beautiful; the movie selection is great; the magazine has a good crossword puzzle; the entertainment systems let you play old-school Nintendo (seriously); and best of all, they give you all the free Singapore Slings you want. And they do it all with a smile. So our flight their was great. We did the crossword, played Super Mario Brothers, watched movies, and sipped Singapore Slings in style.

The direct flight from Singapore to Christchurch was about 10 hours long, and with the 4 hour time difference, we arrived at about 9 AM local time. We picked up a rental car from Omega Rental Cars, and Bryan got behind the wheel for his first try at driving on the left side of the road, in the seat that we usually think of as the passenger seat. We'd been in the car for about 3 minutes when we started hearing horns blaring all around us. Oh no! We both looked around frantically. Had we forgotten to stay left?! Had we already broken some unknown traffic law?! We quickly realized the problem wasn't us. We were on the correct side of a one-way road. Across a big grassy median was another two lanes, going the opposite direction. In that lane, we spotted the culprit: an SUV full of young Asian women, driving the wrong direction!!! Cars on both sides were honking their horns, and we slowed down to allow them to cross the median at a turning area. They drove past it. Oh geez. I was watching them and they were...giving me the thumbs-up?!?! WHY?! This was not a thumbs-up situation! We slowed again to allow them over at the next turning spot, and this time they came over, laughing and giving thumbs-up and A-OK signs all the while. Crazy.

Stay LEFT (crazy wrong-way drivers not pictured)

After all that driving excitement, we were eager to pull into a hotel and get settled. We went for the Ashford Motor Lodge, largely because it was one of the first places we encountered. It was a little early, so we went to get some coffee while they prepared our room. We walked across the street to quirky Sophies Cafe, where we got coffee with unfamiliar names - a Flat White for me, and a Long Black for Bryan. Both were tasty, especially after a long night on an airplane.

We're wearing warm clothes! Yay!!

Funky Sophies

After coffee, we checked into our spacious room. Despite all the caffeine we'd just consumed, we ended up crashing for a few hours. When we got up, we were energized and ready to explore. We started out by walking down a few of the streets around the hotel. Christchurch was devastated by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake in February of this year. The quake killed over 180 people, and was responsible for billions of dollars of damage, much of which was concentrated in downtown Christchurch. The people of the city have obviously done a lot to rebuild, but seven months after the disaster, the city center remains off-limits behind barricades, as efforts continue to demolish unstable buildings and restore those that can still be fixed. Aftershocks (one occurring as recently as September 2) complicate rebuilding efforts. One local told us that 400 buildings have been demolished on the South Island since the quake, and as many still need to come down.

Knox Church, at the intersection near our hotel. Seriously damaged in the earthquake, but still standing.

Throughout the city, spray paint marked dangerous spots and indicated where buildings had been checked and cleared, to make sure there were no people still inside.

Broken window on an unstable building

Among the more official spray paint were some artistic interpretations.

Unusual street art

After winding our way through the damaged streets a while, we made it to our destination - the Christchurch Botanic Gardens. We came in sort of along the back way, off of a somewhat random path. Even so, it was lovely, with a calm stream full of ducks, big willow trees, and dainty cherry blossoms.

Botanic Garden stream

Grandmother Willow?! Man, I love these trees.

Pretty PINK cherry blossoms!

Bryan with the cheery cherry trees

There were regular mallard ducks in New Zealand, but also an unusual duck with an all-white head that I'd never seen before. Apparently it's called a paradise shelduck and it's endemic to New Zealand. I think they're very elegant!

Female paradise duck. Only the females have white heads.

Male paradise duck. Not quite as unique as their female counterparts.

New Zealand has a very uncommon ecology. They have hardly any native land mammals, but over time some mammals (such as rabbits and possums) have been introduced from places like Australia and the UK. Some introduced mammals have thrived in the absence of any serious predators, so now New Zealand does maintain some mammal populations. However, bird life is really where New Zealand thrives. In the absence of land mammals, birds evolved to fill all sorts of niches, and there are birds there that aren't seen anywhere else in the world. As with the mammals, there are also a lot of birds there that were introduced from elsewhere. The botanical garden was our first introduction to local birds, and it was fun seeing a lot of them for the first time.

The non-native chaffinch

Song thrush

Common blackbird

Silvereye (aka wax-eye) in a cherry tree

It was early spring in New Zealand, so a lot of the flowers were just beginning to bloom, and the trees were starting to fill out. We stopped by the rose garden, but it appeared to still be mostly hibernating. Even in its somewhat barren state, it was still lovely and peaceful.

The only ones in the rose garden

Dainty spring blossoms

So pretty

A perfect daffodil

After the rose garden, we headed over to the so-called New Zealand garden, which was full of local flora. Ironically, one of the first things we saw in the NZ garden was a mother mallard duck with her ducklings. Mallards are considered an invasive species in New Zealand.

Mama mallard and ducklings

IT'S SO FLUFFY!!!

There were some interesting flowers in the NZ garden, but I couldn't identify them.

Growing right out of a rock crevice

It was so nice to stroll around the gardens in mild, even chilly, weather. We're so used to stepping outside and being immediately drenched in sweat. It was like a dream to walk around comfortably in a hooded sweatshirt. People don't know how lucky they are to have 50 degree weather!! Eventually we left the garden and headed back through the city toward our hotel. On our way out we saw a neat photo exhibition along the street.

Extensive, nature-heavy photo exhibition on the street

It was strange walking through the city. Parts of it, like the area around the photo exhibition, are totally pristine, and then a block later the earthquake damage is evident.

Freshly reinforced historical building

Christ's College. The peak of the building is crumbled in front of the door.

Serious damage at the college, but on its way to repair.

Damage got more and more severe the closer you got to the city center, which is still completely inaccessible, and blocked by fences. Walking near there was eerie, kind of like stepping into an apocalypse movie.

Eerily still and quiet

The clock tower was still prominent and beautiful, even though it looked a little unstable.

Christchurch Clock Tower

All the walking through the city and gardens had worked up our appetites, so we weaved our way over to Spagalimi's (Spag's for short), a restaurant we'd passed a few times. As we got closer, we were lured in by the smell of garlic, and I was super glad we ended up stopping there for dinner. Our pizza was amazing, and we got to try a couple of local beers that they had on tap. We also got a taste of some quality service, which is always a nice change after Singapore's truly abysmal restaurant service. The restaurant started really clearing out around 7 and the waitress told us we'd better hurry if we were going to catch the All Blacks game!

When we were planning our trip to New Zealand, some friends of ours told us that our trip would overlap with the Rugby World Cup. Bryan and I aren't too interested in rugby and since our trip would be over before the semi-finals and finals started up, and most of the games would be on the North Island (which we were skipping), we figured it wouldn't really matter much. Anyway, after the waitress mentioned it, we figured we would grab some local beers from the store, then go back to our hotel room to watch the New Zealand rugby team (the All Blacks), just to see what the hype was all about.

It was awesome. Rugby is SO FUN to watch! Especially the All Blacks! They're amazing! We had a great time watching them and as soon as the game was over, we were wondering when we'd get to see them play again!

Go All Blacks!!!