46) Christchurch to Akaroa

Nancy had the opportunity to visit Willowbank Sanctuary to glimpse the native (of course, endangered) Kiwi bird. They are nocturnal, and so are housed in a special Kiwi habitat enclosure where they think night is day and day is night so we can see them (after our eyes are adjusted to the dark). No flashes were allowed (of course), so instead a curious ostrich (a non-native) stood in for the photo op.





In Christchurch, we were booked at the Windsor Hotel - a fabulous B&B rather than the conference hotel. This was older, full of charm, wonderfully friendly and information-filled owners and tremendous breakie!












Every room even came with hot water bottles!
They must think it gets cold here!















NZ sheep - these guys are EVERYWHERE!









Fabulous gardens and old buildings -this is some official city building...














Once I was done with conferencing, we headed
out to the Banks Peninsula. Once again we are perched on the rim of an old volcano, this one submerged! We keep c close eye out for steam plumes, ash bombs, debris flows and other indications of impending doom. But this is NZ and things are pretty darn peaceful."Volcanic activity between 11 and 6 million years ago led to the formation of two overlapping volcanic cones. After this activity ceased, the volcanic complex became eroded to half its original height, and deep valleys formed. The present harbours at Akaroa and Lyttelton were formed when the valleys were flooded as the sea level rose to its present height about 6,000 years ago. (http://www.teara.govt.nz/EarthSeaAndSky/Geology/GeologyOverview/7/ENZ-Resources/Standard/4/en)







An amazing pebble beach on the Kaitorete Spit. Steep beach face, cold water!! Hey, is that "the Ice" (Antarctica) over there on the horizon?)










Nancy found another wonderful backpacker accommodation in Barry's Bay. The Halfmoon Cottage is not like any backpacking facility I have ever seen! It too comes with.......



































It is really amazing to realize how much noise we live with until you go somewhere where there are so few cars. You can hear the wind, and the birds singing, and the bugs buzzing (maybe even the bees...).

This place is somehow grounded in normal things, somehow real. Very different than the GC.

(Nancy on her morning run out onto the Onawe Island (Peninsula .. you better be done before high tide or it IS an island!)

45) Even farther Down Under

Nancy had an 'aha' moment as we stepped off the plane. She realized that my working evenings and weekends last June was directly related to our arrival in Christchurch for the Australasian Information Systems Conference (ACIS). Sometime there ARE benefits to submitting conference papers!






Of course as I was locked in a darkened room discussing arcane academic matters of great import, depth, and significance she was free to explore the botanic gardens of Christchurch.....







Gallivant about in Cathedral Square......
















Nancy - phone home!
























Visit the alpine Kea Parrot













and generally play tourist in a spectacular city....
How nice to be taken on a holiday!




But the conference ended (we all decided we should just wait and see if Obama can fix the worlds ills!) and so under cloudless skies (Yes, that's right! NZ and not a cloud in sight!) we packed up and headed SE out onto the Akaroa Peninsula for some touring, dolphining and general downtime.

Stay tuned - much more to follow!!!!

43) Down under.... tomatoes = Parrots!

Julie, the partner of a colleague here, mentioned the affinity parrots have for garden tomatoes. In our pot plants (ha! got you! Ozzie for container gardening!) on the deck, we have 3 nice cherry tomatoes plants amongst the herbs and yesterday we picked our first four little ripe tomatoes (and I ate one).

Well, this morning, bright an early a pair of King Parrots were raiding the plants! Now we have seen a King here once - about 2 months ago. But these 2 were able to locate our little garden and chow through a half dozen or so green tomatoes--ripeness was not a factor for them!
So the question is - do we want tomatoes?
Or parrots!








Come and get 'em, boys and girls!



We also have a plethora of fine weeds in the yard. This have proven quite popular with the Pale Headed Rosellas and the Eastern Rosellas. Both have been highly entertaining stalking through our un-mowed flowery yard (the neighbors with their well-groomed suburban lawns love us!), selecting a particularly juicy one (or whatever they want in a weed!) and tramping it flat so they can get to the seed heads. So what do we want, a manicured lawn? Or Rosellas!



















The pied butcherbirds have been bringing their youngsters to the bird baths we have strapped to the railings; it's fun to see the moms splash about and show the babies how it's done. They also like to take a drink and then strop their beaks on the railings--it looks like they're sharpening them for the next kill. And it seems to coincide with their taking a look at Molly helplessly scoping them out from behind the sliding glass doors. They're almost bigger than Molly, and it seems they like to tease her.

The noisy miners also often come in for a drink. Apparently urban birdbaths (http://www.wildlife.org.au/wam-birdbathstudy.pdf) have been quite helpful in maintaining bird populations in this drought. Though at least here on the GC, it sure doesn't feel much like a drought with a record amount of rainfall for Nov!

42) The End of the Semester

...and this is how the last week feels......





(an irritated nesting Masked lapwing next to the parking lot)

41) Tonight's storm brought to you by.....

Quick update: The exciting video of the Brisbane alien spacecraft-portal is now up. See "The Big City" Post!



It seesm to be the start of storm season - we are told its a bit early this year. This one was very fast moving. Less rain but threat of hail so we bolted from the train station to try and get the car under cover and the plants off the deck. Lots of wind, much electricity in the air.

Photos from yesterdays storm. 250,000 homes without power, only one death, many trees down all over town west of Brisbane. I guess this was a bad one.

Photos courtesy of Antonja Corovic of the EPA in Brisbane

40) Wild weather

A storm - a REAL storm passed through the area last night- I guess these are not that unusual but this was a damaging one. The center was NW of Brisbane so we only caught the edge of it. We got about 3" rain in 17 hrs, but 50 km up N there were tornado-like winds, flooding, roofs ripped off. Its been raining for 3 days.

The damage claims are at $75 Mill so far, power is out for a few thousand people.

Up at the Hinze Dam (our water supply) they have had 600 mm (about 2 feet) more rain this year to date than last year.

Here comes the lightning - again. I have never heard anything like this - it's overhead cloud-to- cloud but it is really concussive - just one enormous BOOM that reverberates, and reverberates, and reverberates, and reverberates just like you hear in the mountains and canyons of the SW. But there are no hills around for the sound to reflect back from. This thunder sounds just like those 4th of July aerial bombs at Folsom field? The ones that rattle your innards? Except, much, much louder.

Molly is not twigged at all. Nancy and I on the other hand... have unplugged everything and are going to go hide in bed - maybe under it.

Fairly intense rain on the way:
"Rainfalls of 80 to 100mm per hour have recently occurred in the Gatton and Rosewood areas." (that is 3-4 inches/hr)

There are locusts swarming in New South Wales.
Flooding in Queensland
Drought in Western Australia

Maybe Tina 'Palin' Fey is right:
"we don’t know if this climate change hoozie-what's-it is man made or if it’s just a natural part of the ‘End of Days."

The Bureau of meteorology warnings map is at the top of the page. The red thing is bad ju-ju - and its coming our way.....

39) Redemption of a sort

(Solo kiter off Miami Beach as the sun sets on the towers of Surfer's Paradise)

After my less-than-stellar kiting performance up on the Broadwater, I needed to have another go at the kiting effort down at Currumbin. At the mouth of Currumbin Creek (http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&tab=wl&q=currumbin) is a sheltered area protected from big waves by a sand bar. The major down-side is a rock weir protecting the N side of the entrance from errosion -- not a good place to get dragged by an out-of-control kite! Currently there is also a sand dredge - a nasty piece of work parked in the widest part of the creek to pump river sand onto the next beach N and keep the longshore current from eroding the beach away.

But there was some wind and Nancy was willing to be my launcher so I headed up there. There was a horde (well, maybe 10) of kiters at work. Throwing big jumps, flips, leaping up over the rocks, flying over the sand bar. Very talented, very intense.... very ... tribal.

Many tattoos in evidence, piercings, pony tails, serious tans, ripped physiques, and piritanical queues. A parrot...

And then... there was me.

I wondered how I was going to go practice in such a small crowded area. I couldn't stray downwind - the damn dredge was there. Can't go upwind - the channel narrows and the rocks are up there. I needed to go in the broadest, safest part - right where every one else was throwing tricks, carving toeside, making it look really easy!

Not to worry! Nancy helped me get the kite up, I dawdled about recalling last weeks ignominious dragging across the Broadwater behind a hopelessly fouled kite. Here at least I would only get my kite wrapped up in the nasty machinery or accidentally take out some semi-pro kiter and have my flight license revoked. I sat, placed board on feet and took by first hesitant, wobbling run out into the water - lo and behold, the way was clear! The proverbial seas of kites had parted and there was not a kiting-soul in sight! They had taken one look at my prowess....and... all....moved....away!

So I had fun, bumbling back and forth, getting in short runs, only losing my board once -- get dragged back to shore, land the kite, walk windward, dive in and swim out to retrieve it.) I only crashed the kite into one windsurfer (he was a beginner too but I knocked him down anyway - he moved away to a safe upwind spot.)

I continued to putter about with abandon and get in some good practice. I have to get at this because once Nancy gets on a board I will be playing catch-up. As everyone knows, she is much better balanced than I am.....

Unfortunately - rain forecast all week! No after work practice. Nuts....