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We were so excited when Ali, Steve and baby Tyler, our roommates from Queenstown, decided to come visit us during our last week in Punakaiki. I can’t believe how much Tyler has grown in just two months. At four months old he is playful, giggly and smiles all the time, getting really embarrassed and blushing every time. It’s pretty cute and we couldn’t get enough of him. It was, of course, wonderful to see Ali and Steve as well!

Just as they left Punakaiki, BJ and I began cleaning the house and packing up. We enjoyed a final walk down to the beach before we left. The wind was howling and the waves were crashing further out than we had ever seen. We came to the conclusion that the Tasman Sea was just really upset that we were leaving.

Once we returned to the house, we picked up our backpacks, two carry-ons, and two bikes to head to the bus stop and it immediately started raining. We had already given the keys to the neighbor so we took cover on the porch as it poured down. As it started to let up we quickly made our way down the road. We were a pretty funny site . . . each carrying a full backpack, BJ with his computer bag and my rolly bag and I with both bikes. It was only a few kilometers but we got lots of stares from passing cars along the way. We stopped at the half way point at the local Tavern for a final Puni Burger, the most delicious burger in New Zealand, and a beer, and then continued on to the “town center” to catch a bus to Nelson.

After what seemed to be a very short 5 hour bus ride we arrived in Nelson for a week in the “big city.” We are staying in a family’s home about a 20 minute bike ride from downtown Nelson. Since their 21-year-old son is away at university, we get his room for the week. It’s decked out with old records nailed to the ceiling, a keyboard and amp in the corner, and a small shrine that his parents put together of his photos, but totally comfortable and perfect for what we need for a week. We spent all day yesterday in town, running a few big city errands and gearing up for Thailand and China with a few essentials . . . like climbing shoes, a bikini for me and some new surf shorts for BJ. Our method of transport has been our bikes and it has been so fun to cruise around and be so mobile in the middle of winter.

It was back to work today but we are venturing out for a movie tonight and hopefully a not-too-cold-or-wet bike ride home. For those of you I haven’t shared this with, I am going to start working full time for Vertical Media next month as their Content Manager. I am super excited about this opportunity and can’t wait to officially join the team.

Paparoa National Park, which basically surrounds us and the small small town of Punakaiki, is the youngest national park in the country and only has a handful of maintained tracks. One of them, its only multi-day track called the Inland Track, is actually doable in three shorter day trips. It links four rivers together which all dump into the sea including (from south to north) the Punakaiki River, the Porarari River, Bullock Creek and Fox Creek. We hiked the southern most segment yesterday, walking up the Punakaiki River, over a ridge to the Porarai River and back down through the high limestone cliff walls covered in rainforest along the Porarai to the ocean. Although lightly sprinkling for most of the day, we were fully protected by the high rainforest canopy. It wasn’t until we had to walk along the open highway back to our car that it started downpouring. We quickly busted out the newest addition to our New Zealand wardrobe . . . two dark green heavy duty ponchos that BJ’s mom thankfully bought for us a month ago. While they win no style points (we looked especially silly because we were wearing shorts which meant that the only things extending out from beneath the ponchos were our bare legs), they are completely waterproof and extremely breathable. Anni, before you come down here next year, forget the $100 rain jacket from REI and go for the $10 poncho from the gas station. You’ll stay dry and look really cool . . . take it from your super stylish big sister.

Enough about style, the highlight of our hike was the many feathered friends we made along the way. One thing I will miss about New Zealand is the number of bird species we have encountered throughout our tour. Read on for some very scientific field notes about the birds of New Zealand’s Paparoa National Park. We encountered many birds yesterday, only four of which we could identify. A pair of tui, a mostly black bird with two distinguishing white tufts of feathers on its chest which make it look like its wearing a very perky bra, visited us at our house yesterday morning. Then on the track we were followed by a fantail, a very small bird that likes to show off its very large fan-like tail. This particular bird followed us for about a kilometer, chirping occasionally, who was very serious about keeping track of us. We also watched a bell bird, a lime green colored bird, belt out its range of notes from a nearby tree. I’ll remember the noises this bird makes forever . . . a range of high pitched squeals to gurgles to squelches make this bird’s presence obvious. Finally we watched a number of pukeko couples scrounging for food in a wide river valley. The pukeko has a spectacular silvery blue chest with a distinguishable and kind of ugly red face which resembles the top of a pick ax. They don’t fly but can be seen wandering the wetlands on there long skinny legs looking for some good eats.

Enough about science, we also had a very exciting day at our post office box. Yes, I know, it’s the little things down here. We not only got our passports back from the Chinese embassy yesterday, who have decided they will let us in to their country in August to visit BJ’s brother and sister-in-law, but we received a package from my mom containing a game called Bananagrams, basically a fast paced version of Scrabble. We’ve already spent a couple hours splayed out on our living room floor playing this very addictive game. Thanks Mom . . . . you obviously knew how to liven up our quiet dark evenings on the beach!

We’ve been looking forward to our weekend since we arrived last Monday night and we woke up to pink skies and what looked like would turn into a beautiful day. But by the time we had our first cup of coffee the rain started falling. Although I was a bit antsy to get outside and move around, I was quite easily persuaded to pick up my book, fill up another cup of coffee, look out over the ocean, and wait until it cleared. We were also able to talk to my little sister over Skype, who is currently studying for finals at UCSB . . . it wasn’t too hard to pull her away from her studies for an hour and always nice to hear her voice.

By lunchtime the rain let up enough for us to venture outside. Anticipating that the trails would be quite muddy we decided to walk down to the beach and head north until we could go no further. We made it through a series of beaches, each one connected to the next by a cave or a precarious pile of slippery limestone rocks, before we reached a cliff that would prevent us from going any further. I searched the bush line and found a “sort-of” trail that looked like it would give us access to the beach we were staring down at but could not access. I hollered to BJ to join me and as he started walking towards me I spotted a spray of water and a dark figure breach the surface of the ocean. I pointed and we both stared out to sea . . . waiting. Then again, the darkness breached and splashed. It was a whale . . . and a big one! Last time we were out here with BJ’s mom, we spotted two dolphins, obvious because of their fins. But this was no dolphin. It seemed to take forever for the entire length of its body to roll through the surface. We watched it until it seemed to get its fill and then ventured off to explore the trail we found, which didn’t end up to be much of a trail in the end. On our way back to the beach, we spotted the whale again, this time it lifted a fin in the air and slapped it on the water and then held its tail high in the air for a while, almost as if it were showing it off. It was just far enough away that BJ didn’t bother with the camera. We were so excited about our sighting and figured, like the dolphins, it was probably a regular occurrence along the west coast. We told Brendan, who owns the house where we are staying, and his eyes lit up . . . “a whale? . . . I haven’t seen one in the twelve years I’ve lived here!” He immediately ran out the door and headed to the beach to try to spot it. We definitely witnessed something spectacular in this little quiet part of the world. This place just gets better every day.

Not even three days into our stay in Punakaiki and we had to make a town run today. We have a pretty small fridge so we’ve been trying to strategically plan out our meals. But our run wasn’t for food . . . BJ needed a new battery for his computer and we both had to send in our documents to the Chinese Embassy to see if they will let us into their country. Now that I write them down they don’t seem that urgent of items but they were two things that needed to happen. Since we had been to Greymouth on the way into Punakaiki, we drove out the northern road into Westport. A very windy 45 minute drive away, Westport gave us the feeling of a classic New Zealand town. There isn’t much to it, only one strip of road lined with shops, banks, and a grocery store, but everyone we encountered was so friendly, which is quite opposite our experience in Queenstown where customer service just didn’t seem to exist. Two rainbows and distant storms over the ocean led us back to our current home.

Although we’ve been putting in long long days in front of our computers since we arrived, switching positions in the living room from the couch to the comfy chair to the countertop, we’ve been able to escape a few times for sunsets on the beach as well as a very short bike ride up Bullock Canyon. We are going to attempt to “get out” every day around lunch time as we can easily spend the early dark evenings finishing up work for the day. The sun sets at about 5pm every night and we’ve been sticking to our plan to go down to the beach and watch it. Every time we are on the beach we keep noticing the same type of birds fly by (we’ll just call them the long-neck-black-flapper species which has a sister species that BJ and I encountered in Alaska). They, of course, are flying north this time of year and they just keep on coming. Probably one of our favorite things about our new batch is that we can hear the ocean, especially when a big set comes in. It’s a constant reminder, in addition to our amazing view, that we live on the ocean. Neither one of us can wait until the weekend when we may have some more time to explore some of the nearby trails in Paparoa National Park, that is if this little rain storm that is pounding us right now lets up.

We spent our last morning in Queenstown packing a few final items into the wagon and saying goodbye to a few friends . . . our roommate Steve and Duncan, my “boss” at the winery, both of whom I hope we’ll see in Jackson someday. We were then off to Wanaka to have lunch with, and finally meet, Carol and Chris Peck, a couple Jacksonites who are down here for the winter on a ski partol exchange program. It was great to finally meet them and our conversation was non-stop from “hello, nice to meet you” to “see you back in Jackson.”

Then we truly hit the road, packed to the max, to our new home in Punakaiki. And it’s a good thing we bought chains because as soon as we hit Haast Pass, just as Duncan had predicted, our severe snow storm turned into blue skies and sunshine. We reached the west coast as the sun was setting and settled on spending the night in the town of Franz Josef, after a soak in their relatively new hot pools of course.

Today, we made a point to take our time driving up the west coast with an extended stop in a book shop in Hokitika (we scored a $4 puzzle and three new books for our upcoming quiet evenings) as well as lunch and a walk-around in Gremouth, the closest town for us if at any point we feel the urge for a bit of socializing. I think we already made a friend too . . .  a local photographer named Steward, who is really excited for us to come back to Greymouth and meet his younger more outdoorsy photographer friend.

And finally, the moment we had been waiting for . . . Punakaiki. Everything was just as we remembered it and we were instantly giddy. We quickly unpacked and headed to the beach, a full five minute walk, to watch the sunset. The waves along this section of coast are enormous and although not in the least bit inviting for a swim, they are spectacular as ever to watch. We’ve already made a pact to watch the sunset from the beach every night . . . that is unless it’s storming and we can’t see the sunset.