The morepork family

Hello! Sorry that we have not updated this in the past week or so...we have been busy having fun. We have so many great stories to tell! You will have to keep reading on to find out what the title of this post is all about! And first of all – happy 2008! You can see in this photo what Jay and I did to bring in the new year. We parked Tinkerbell, the van, next to a beach in Golden Bay, had some bubbly, and went to bed at 10pm. What a blast! =) It was actually a gorgeous spot – with the “Christmas tree” in bloom right next to the van (see the updated pics to look at this tree and more. The tree is obvious). Nice sunset, tons of oystercatchers to remind us when it was light outside, and a picnic table just made for us. Happy. Where to start with our other stories? We spent the first full day in the northwest corner of Abel Tasman National Park. This is a super famous park in NZ, and now we know why. Although with fame comes people, yikes! This corner of the park was supposed to be a bit less busy than other spots – and it was! Anyway, we wanted to hike along some of the “great walk”trail – and we spent about 6 ½ hours doing so. What an astounding place. Rolling hills and cliffs coming right down to Golden Bay, white sandy beaches, beautiful forests (only rebounding from farming since the 70s and already quite wild). Lush, green manuka (tea tree) trees and turquiose waters. Needless to say, we were in a little paradise. We had lunch on a rocky ledge, fell asleep on the rocks, watched a NZ fur seal for a bit, laughed at the shags (cormorants) on the rocks, and lazed about some more before continuing on the hike. That night was new years eve and you arleady read about that wild party we had. The next day we headed a bit inland from Collingwood to walk on the Kaituna track, a gorgeous trail that follows the Kaituna River through a steep gorge with lush forests surrounding all sides. It was here that we lucked out and passed a Kiwi father and son who had discovered three owls right next to the trail. These owls are known as Morepork because apparently that is what their call sounds like...didn't get to hear that but we did get a fantastic view of the mom (or dad?) and two big fluffy chicks from only about 5-10 feet away. They were chillin in a tree fern and the adult didn't seem too concerned about us but the chicks were a riot as they opened their wide eyes and twisted their necks in every possible angle to try to figure out who the heck we were. Just had a photo in here of the chicks but deleted it by mistake...too hard to get it back in there, so you must see it in our photo site (Julie's)! Anyway - I've always wanted to see owls in the wild, and this was a true highlight of our entire trip so far. Check out the video of the family in my album.

The following day we went up to the Farewell Spit and walked on the beach a bit, almost walked right up to a few fur seals that we thought were logs! Then we headed back down south towards Nelson, and on the way we picked some boysenberries and had some boysenberry ice cream. The day ended with a much needed swim in the Pelorus River...crystal clear and perfect temperature.

Then, after only two days of work, it was the weekend again! So we rented kayaks and did an overnight trip paddling around Queen Charlotte Sound. This is a busy sound, where the inter-island ferries come and go, but there are very few houses on the steep hillsides that surround the sounds and there are lots of coves and bay where you can escape. The water is really clear and as we paddled we could see tons of moon jellies and even a few fish hanging out below. Jay brought a mask and snorkel but could not bring himself to get in the water once the wind picked up and it felt a little chilly.

What next? Not sure. But we only have three more weeks of work on the vineyard after this one, and there's lots more we want to do in the area before we go....